ABSTRACT
The popular view of the term 'dialect' often sees it contrasted with the standard language. Standard English is popularly perceived as 'the language', while dialects are characterised by their deviations from it in terms of grammar or vocabulary. This chapter looks at a selection of grammatical features in use across the vast range of English dialects spoken throughout the world today. It shows how a socially determined standard dialect can have regional (worldwide) variations in its grammatical patterns. Much of the early work on the influence on language variation of 'macro' social factors such as class, gender and age centred on pronunciation or accent studies. Ground-breaking work by pioneers such as Labov in the USA and Trudgill in the UK provided the principles and methodology for later work on grammatical variation which concerns us in this chapter.
