| 词组 | standard, standard English |
| 释义 | standard, standard English Standard English is of necessity defined in somewhat general terms in dictionaries. We would like to point out three of its characteristics from the definition in Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. It is "substantially uniform," "well-established" in the "speech and writing of the educated," and "widely recognized as acceptable." There is room for a lot of variation within those limits, with the result that there can be substantial disagreement about the propriety of perfectly standard words and constructions. It is quite common for usage commentators to use standard English in a highly personal way to stand for the particular brand of English that they are expounding. We need only one example to make the point: • At about. This wordy phrase should be avoided in standard English —Shaw 1970 Now compare Shaw's opinion with this use of at about: • Two of your stories, "The Boarding-House" and "A Little Cloud" are in the May Smart Set; I am having two copies of the number sent to you by this post. We were unable to take more because the American publisher of "Dubliners", Mr. B. W. Huebsch, of 225 Fifth Avenue, New York, planned to bring out the book at about this time —H. L. Mencken, letter to James Joyce, 20 Apr. 1915 Mencken's letter is plainly written in standard English, so we conclude that Shaw's standard English has a very personal meaning. We can use Mencken's letter to make another point. Standard English is the language of business, literature, and journalism. It has evolved over the centuries as the means by which speakers of diverse dialects of English can communicate effectively with each other. It is an economic necessity in a world where English is the most widely recognized language and is not likely to disappear any time soon, whatever reports of its death may come your way. See also nonstandard; substandard. |
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英语用法大全包含2888条英语用法指南，基本涵盖了全部常用英文词汇及语法点的翻译及用法，是英语学习的有利工具。