ABSTRACT
This initial chapter sets the stage for the whole book by introducing the notions of standard and nonstandard English in order to permit the reader to understand the basis on which statements about language usage need to be understood. In doing this, it is necessary to recognize the nature of language norms and how they come about: Who sets them, on what authority, for what purposes? And how variable are standards? The approach taken here is that of linguistic description: What do people actually use? But this is not indiscriminate since the violation of speech norms, which vary from place to place, from social group to social group, and according to purposes of use, can have grave social consequences. Understanding the process of standardization, the goals of language planning and policy, the inevitability of dialectal and diatypical variation, and the trends which studies of the language use have revealed – all of this – can give the reader of this book a more solid basis on which to observe the English language in its context of use.
