Standard English is not a language at all but merely a much simpler communication object, i.e. a code.
Do you agree?
Do you agree?
Just a code
No. You don't make any sense to me, so I'm afraid I can't agree with you.
I really don't know what you mean. The Standard Englishes (General American, RP, General Canadian, General Australian, etc) are somewhat pliant standardized dialects; they're not codes. A code is a method of representing or obscuring a message for brevity or secrecy.
I think Maurice may be referring to something I said in the thread "default form?". I said that written language (and by implication standard languages in general) is a codification of spoken language. I didn't mean that it's a code, but that it is an artificial construct rather than the natural human behaviour that spoken language is.
<<The Standard Englishes (General American, RP, General Canadian, General Australian, etc) >>
RP is not a Standard English form, it's one way of pronouncing Standard English.
<Define "code". >
Have you heard of Morse code? Do you know what "a reduction of the language for certai purposes" is?
<<I think Maurice may be referring to something I said in the thread "default form?". >>
No, Maurice heard the word "code" and "codification" a long time before your post.
RP is not a Standard English form, it's one way of pronouncing Standard English.
<Define "code". >
Have you heard of Morse code? Do you know what "a reduction of the language for certai purposes" is?
<<I think Maurice may be referring to something I said in the thread "default form?". >>
No, Maurice heard the word "code" and "codification" a long time before your post.
I agree that is one way of looking at Standard English, Maurice. Quite a few linguist have said much the same.
The definition you are using would be the third below:
Quick definitions (code)
noun: a coding system used for transmitting messages requiring brevity or secrecy
noun: (computer science) the symbolic arrangement of data or instructions in a computer program or the set of such instructions
noun: a set of rules or principles or laws (especially written ones)
http://www.onelook.com/?w=code&ls=a
But you may find that such arguments fall on deaf ears on this forum. The majority of "expert" posters are prescriptivists and wholly worship the god named Standard English.
;-)
The definition you are using would be the third below:
Quick definitions (code)
noun: a coding system used for transmitting messages requiring brevity or secrecy
noun: (computer science) the symbolic arrangement of data or instructions in a computer program or the set of such instructions
noun: a set of rules or principles or laws (especially written ones)
http://www.onelook.com/?w=code&ls=a
But you may find that such arguments fall on deaf ears on this forum. The majority of "expert" posters are prescriptivists and wholly worship the god named Standard English.
;-)