ABSTRACT
In Chapters 1 and 2 we have been largely concerned with attitudes to language, especially with the effects of the standard ideology on publicly expressed attitudes. We have noted that the most fully described and codified forms of language are those appropriate to public, formal and, especially, written usage. One effect of this has been a neglect of the structure and social dynamics of spoken forms and hence a tendency (in the absence of adequate descriptions of speech) to evaluate spoken usage on the model of written usage. In this chapter we focus on the relation between speech and writing, and differences in the forms and functions of the two channels of language.
