ABSTRACT
Do you agree with Widdowson that standard English is a ction, or do you think it has a solid basis in fact?
❑ Mugglestone (2003: 42) argues that ‘Prescriptive ideology . . . in spite of its professed egalitarianism, instead merely reinforces notions of the cultural hegemony of one social group above others’. She describes as “ctions of ‘empowerment’” the attempts of eighteenth-century elocutionists such as omas Sheridan and John Walker to encourage the disadvantaged to “emulate their ‘betters’ ” on the grounds that use of the standard would be a social leveller. Do you agree with Mugglestone that the ‘language is power’ argument actually works against rather than for the disadvantaged in society, and that equality can only result from acknowledging all language varieties as equal (the descriptive position)? Do you think either the prescriptive or descriptive position is achievable in practice?
