Warto poczytac naukowe opracowania na ten temat. Oto jedno z nich autorstwa doctor Bente Rebecca Hannisdal. Cale opracowanie znajdziesz tutaj:
https://bora.uib.no/bitstream/1956/2335 ... nisdal.pdf3.2 The concept of ‘standard’
People who talk about standardising English, and especially those who accuse the
B.B.C. of aiming at a dead level of uniformity in the speech of their Announcers,
should think twice before they speak. … There will never be a standard “ae” or a
standard “t” or a standard “s” or a standard English.
A. Lloyd James (Broadcast English II, 1930)
This section discusses the concept of linguistic standard in relation to RP. It presents an
outline of various definitions of the term standard as used in the field of linguistics and with
reference to English in particular. ‘Standard’ is often linked to evaluative notions such as
correctness and prestige, but more formal definitions focus on invariance of form as the most
important characteristic of standard varieties. In light of the various criteria for defining a
standard, I will discuss to what extent there exists a spoken standard in Britain and whether
RP is such a standard.
3.2.3 Summary
The term standard, as we have seen, is used in two main senses: ‘uniformity’ and ‘level of
excellence’. The former refers to internal structure and is a purely linguistic criterion. The
latter is a social, speaker-based and evaluative category. A standard variety can refer to a
concrete linguistic variety characterised by a high degree of uniformity in structure, which has
undergone codification, and which normally enjoys high prestige. Alternatively, a standard
variety is seen as a fictional notion in the minds of speakers, a “social myth constructed for
ideological purposes” (Bex and Watts 1999b: 9). In the written mode, standard refers to the
fixity of spelling and grammar. With reference to the spoken mode, standard language is, in
the words of Smith (1996: 65) “an extremely complex and notoriously loaded term”.
It is problematic to talk of standard spoken English if by that we mean a set of highly
codified rules of pronunciation and a fixed, uniform mode of speech. Such a thing does not
exist. There exists, however, a partly standardised and codified accent, namely RP, which
serves as a reference accent in the phonological literature, and as a model for teaching English
pronunciation to foreigners. Although RP is partly standardised, it is not to be equated with
Standard English, which is a matter of spelling and grammar. To the extent that standard is
used synonymously with ‘overtly prestigious’, RP can arguably be characterised as a standard
variety. However, such an evaluative definition assumes that all the members of the speech
community agree in the social evaluation of speech forms, which is not necessarily the case.
The term standard further carries with it evaluative notions of correctness which are
reminiscent of the old days of linguistic hegemony, and should therefore be used with caution.
It is important to keep in mind, however, that while there may be no standard in linguistic
terms, ideologies of a standard can persist, and largely do in the case of RP.
Crystal (2003: 431) combines several of the elements discussed above in his definition
of standard as “a prestige variety of language used within a speech community, providing a
unified means of communication and thus an institutionalised norm”. Crystal links standard
with the concept of ‘norm’, a term which is highly relevant in an analysis of RP, and which
will be discussed in detail in section 3.3.
