ABSTRACT
We are regularly confronted by the need to make choices in our use of language. 1 For most of the time, no doubt, coping with variance does not constitute anything of a problem and may indeed be unconscious: we are dealing with family and friends on everyday affairs; and what is more, we are usually talking to them, not writing. It is in ordinary talk to ordinary people on ordinary matters that we are most at home, linguistically and otherwise. And fortunately, this is the situation that accounts for the overwhelming majority of our needs in the use of English.
