To Train Or to educate

1

• To Train? Or to educate?
• The relevance of language models to
• real life
• Clive Upton
• School of English, University of Leeds
• 17 January 2008

2

• 'As long as we recognise that there is not one
  single Standard English, as used by educated
  people in the south-east of England, but a number
  of overlapping standards, shifting, disputed and
  constantly changing, we shall not go far wrong in
  our retreat to basics, not create a linguistic
  underclass of 95 per cent of our nation.
• Philip Howard, The Times

3

• 'Pupils ... should consider the notion of
  appropriateness ... and the fact that
  inappropriate language use can be a source of
  humour (either intentional or unintentional) or
  may give the impression that the speaker or
  writer is pompous or inept or impertinent or
  rude.
• Cox 6.29

4

• 'The positive social significance of vernacular
  'homely' speech resides in the community and
  culture of its speakers. This will often diverge
  from superimposed norms. Although overtly
  'stigmatized', its actual 'social meaning' may be
  positive from the point of view of those to whom
  it is the vernacular, and deeply tied up with
  their identity.
• William Downes

5

• 'The violation of the norm of the standard, as
  systematic violation, is what makes possible the
  poetic utilization of language without this
  possibility there would be no poetry. The more
  the norm of the standard is stabilized in a given
  language, the more varied can be its violation,
  and therefore the more possibilities for poetry
  in that language.
• Mukarovsky(1932)

6

• Some major worldwide 'Vernacular Universals'
• Me instead of I in coordinate subjects
• Never as preverbal past tense negator
• Adverbs same form as adjectives
• Absence of plural marking after measure verbs
• Multiple negation
• Double comparatives and superlatives

7

• To enchain syllables, and to lash the wind, are
  equally the undertakings of pride.
• Dr Johnson (1755)

8

• To enchain syllables, and to lash the wind, are
  equally the undertakings of pride.
• Dr Johnson (1755)

9

• The RP TRAP vowel
• Conventionally /æ/
• Phonetically a

10

• The RP SQUARE vowel
• Conventionally /e?/
• Phonetically e

11

• The RP PRICE vowel
• Conventionaily /a?/
• Phonetically ?
• (try fan-fun-fine)