ABSTRACT
It is a sociolinguistic truism that people have strong opinions about language(s). Around the world, language is often a central motive for struggle. That language also matters to people in apparently more ‘trivial’ and less cruel everyday circumstances emerges from a quick review of articles in the daily press. For example, it is not uncommon to witness in British and American newspapers the bemoaning of allegedly incorrect language, which is seen as ultimately leading to the ‘degradation’ of Standard English (see e.g. Cameron 1995; Ensslin and Johnson 2007; Thurlow 2007). By the same token, the rather mundane – albeit no less heated – investment in language issues is evidenced by the 8,500 postings submitted to the different virtual discussion platforms on the BBC Voices website.
