ABSTRACT
During the last 600 years the standard variety of English has been established as the superordinate one. Today, at least within Britain, the process of standardisation is probably as complete as it ever will be. Here we shall trace this long and complex process. […] We shall see how standardisation proceeded in four interlinked and often overlapping stages. First, we see the selection of the east midland dialect as the dominant variety; then we discuss the conditions of its acceptance by the powerful and educated classes, and the implications this has for speakers of other dialects. Third, we chart the elaboration of the functions of the standard, as it developed in the domains previously associated with French and Latin. Fourth, we describe the stage of codification, the attempts to ‘fix’ the standard variety in dictionaries and grammars, a process most clearly associated with the eighteenth century. Finally, we shall see how codification can be regarded as the expression of class attitudes to language.
