ABSTRACT
Standard English may be spoken in an accent that does not reveal the speaker’s geographical origins — in England such an accent is called Received Pronunciation. Much more frequently it is spoken in a regional accent. The first point to make is that standard English does not necessarily mean good English. A label is utilized to identify a particular variety of English that has characteristic forms and functions. In comparison with non-standard varieties, standard English is relatively uniform but even so it varies along at least three dimensions — spatial, temporal and stylistic. Some children grow up amongst people who speak standard English and so that is the form of the language that they learn. An important characteristic of standard English is that its functions and forms have been elaborated over time. This is especially true of its vocabulary.
