Language use patterns and applications

¶ … Standardization, Expectation, and Judgment in Language Use

We are often advised as college students to write our papers in "standard academic English." If we are putting together a resume or drafting a formal letter, we are expected to use "standard English" as well. In our daily speech patterns in formal situations, our parents or mentors have at some point encouraged us to use "proper" English in order to reflect well on ourselves and our education and background (and on them, of course). But what, exactly, is "standard" English? Who gets to decide? Must it be grammatically perfect? Are long, multi-syllabic words more effective than short, simple ones?

Is there a standardized language we are supposed to use for certain formal situations, and if so, what is it, and how do we learn it? For example, some English texts and teachers advise students to avoid ending a sentence in a preposition; doing so might indicate that you do not know how to write and speak in grammatically sound, acceptable, "standard" English. However, asking "With whom should I ride to the game?" sounds both stodgy and forced. Using a phrase like this would be likely to cause laughter, to make us stand out as "odd" or pedantic. To rephrase this as "Who am I riding with?" sounds much more acceptable, if slightly less formal. But is it wrong?

The scholar John G. Fought describes the process of deciding what is right and wrong with language as gatekeeping: "Gatekeepers want to keep insiders in and (perhaps even more important) outsiders out by opening and closing a real or imaginary gate" he writes. Who are these gatekeepers? They do not have official titles, and there do not seem to be any requirements, although they may have academic or professional credentials to give them a kind of authority. Fought goes on to discuss a specific kind of gatekeeper: the language gatekeeper, whose job, it seems, is to issue rules about what is "right" and what is "wrong" in our language. The more technical term for these rule-makers is "prescriptivist," according to Fought and others, such as David Crystal. Prescriptivists seem to be best at deciding what we shouldn't do, and for pointing out the terms and words we might use that they consider unacceptable or substandard. This is in contrast to descriptivists, who are at the other end of the spectrum. Fought discusses descriptivists as individuals who study and try to understand language in all its variety, to determine how and why we communicate and what the words we use say about us and about society in general.

This still leaves a good deal of confusion about the "rules" of language. We may know that there are occasions on which to avoid slang and profanity and try to use what we think of as proper, grammatically sound English. However, there are also times when this might be awkward. We are expected to dress differently for different occasions; it makes sense, then, that we might "dress up" our language, or conversely, "dress down." When we are in stiff, formal clothing, we might automatically be reminded of our discomfort by the kind of outfit we are wearing. On the other hand, when we are at home in the company of our family members and close friends, we do not have to meet such a rigid set of expectations. We dress comfortably and informally, and this is reflected in our language as well. We know that we will not be judged or any less loved because we speak in sentence fragments and run-ons.

Cecelia Cutler takes this idea further in her essay. We often speak in ways that reflect who we are: our social class, our education level, our ethnicity, our race, our neighborhood. We may not always be conscious of all the things we say and what they reveal about us, but reading this essay made it easy to recognize how frequently we do this. Cutler describes the process of "crossing over" from one language variety to another. This is a sociolinguistic process, according to Cutler, and it is one which "can evoke a distinct sense of movement across social or ethnic boundaries." This movement may be the result of a number of different motivations, she explains, some positive, some negative.

For example, she mentions a few specific groups of teenagers, such as white suburban teenagers, who "cross over" into African-American English because they strongly identify with hip hop music and culture. This kind of crossing over reflects admiration for the music; musicians who have been raised in completely different settings (white suburbia) use the words and accents of musicians who were raised in urban, African-American settings. The musician Marshal Mathers, popularly known as Eminem, was an early example of this kind of crossing over. An example of using a different language variety in a negative way is that of mimicking individuals who speak broken English, or who speak with a heavy foreign accent. This type of "crossing over," when it is occurs, is not to express an identification with a group, but to clearly express their separateness, and it can certainly foster a deep sense of animosity that may go beyond words.