昨日の記事「#3498. hybrid Englishes」 ([2018-11-24-1]) で触れたが,"Standard English" と "General English" という2つの用語を区別すると便利なケースがあるように思われる.両者は必ずしも明確に区別できるわけではないが,概念としては対立するものと理解しておきたい.Gramley (129) は,初期近代英語期のロンドンで展開した英語の標準化 (standardisation) や共通化 (koinéisation) の動きと関連して,この2つの用語に言及している.
Although the written standard differed from the spoken language of the capital, the two together provided two national models, a highly prescriptive one, Standard English (StE), for writing and a colloquial one, which may be called General English (GenE) (cf. Wells 1982: 2ff), which is considerably less rigid. The latter was not the overt, publicly recognized standard, but the covert norm of group solidarity. It was GenE which would evolve into a supra-regional, nationwide covert standard. Both it and StE would eventually also be valid for Scotland, then Ireland, and then the English-using world beyond the British Isles.
両者の対比を整理すると以下のようになるだろうか.
Standard English | General English | |
---|---|---|
Norms | overt | covert |
Media | writing | speech |
Prescription | more rigid | less rigid |
Fixing/focusing | fixed | focused |
Related process | standardisation | koinéisation |
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