8 Standard English

Практично-семінарське заняття
THEME: STANDARD ENGLISH
Recommended Reading
1. Соловйова Л. Ф. Сніховська, І. Е. Теорія сучасної англійської мови. Навчально-

методичний посібник. – Житомир: Вид-во ЖДУ ім. Івана Франка, 2014. – 232 с.
2. Бережняк В. М. Загальне мовознавство : хрестоматія; Ніжин. держ. ун-т ім. М.
Гоголя. - Ніжин : Вид-во НДУ ім. М. Гоголя, 2011. – 361 с.
3. Довідник словотвірних елементів англійської мови / уклад. О. В. Вознюк. –
Житомир : ЖВІРЕ, 2003. – 96 с.
4. Crystal D. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language. – Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2005. – 499 p.
5. Brinton, Laurel J. & Donna M. Brinton. 2010. The linguistic structure of Modern English,
2nd edn. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
6. Hopper, Paul J. 1999. A short course in grammar. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
7. Huddleston, Rodney. 1984. Introduction to the grammar of English. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
There are historical, social, cultural, and regional varieties of English.

Standard English is the official language of Great Britain used in its literary form. Regional
varieties possessing a literary form are called national variants. Local dialects are varieties of
English peculiar to some districts and having no normalized literary form. In Great Britain there
are two variants, Scottish English and Irish English, and five main groups of dialects: Northern,
Midland, Eastern, Western and Southern. Every group contains several (up to ten) dialects. The
local dialects are used mainly by the rural population and only for the purposes of oral
communication. Local distinctions are more marked in pronunciation, less conspicuous in
vocabulary and insignificant in grammar. The British local dialects are traced back to Old
English dialects. Numerous and distinct, they are characterized by phonemic and structural
peculiarities. One of the best known Southern dialects is Cockney, the regional dialect of
London. This dialect exists on two levels: as spoken by the educated lower middle classes and as
spoken by the uneducated. In the first case Cockney is a regional dialect marked by some
deviations in pronunciation but few in vocabulary and syntax. In the second case it differs from
Standard English not only in pronunciation but also in vocabulary, morphology and syntax. The
Scottish Tongue and the Irish English have a special linguistic status as compared with dialects
because of the literature composed in them. The name of Robert Burns, the great national poet of
Scotland, is known all over the world. The poetic features of Anglo-Irish may be seen in the
plays by J.M.Synge and Sean O'Casey.
English is the national language of England proper, the USA, Canada, Australia and New
Zealand. Hence, there exist five national variants: British English (BE), American English
(AE), Canadian English (CnE), Australian English (AuE), New Zealand English (NZE).
These five varieties of English are national variants of the same language, because their
structural peculiarities, especially their word-formation system, syntax and morphology, as well
as their word-stock and phonetic system are essentially the same. The main lexical differences of
these variants from Standard English (General English) are connected with the lack of
equivalent lexical units in one of them, divergences in the semantic structure of polysemantic
words and peculiarities of usage of some words on the British Isles and in the named countries.
The historic causes of the deviations in lexis are based on the fact of exporting the language of
the mother country on a certain date of colonization.
1
The existing cases of difference between regional lexis and General English are
classified into several groups:
1. cases when different words are used for the same denotatum,
2. cases when the semantic structure of a partially equivalent word is different,
3. cases when otherwise equivalent words are different in distribution,
4. it sometimes happens that the same word is used with some difference in emotional and
stylistic colouring,
5. there may be a marked difference in frequency characteristics.
Special words used in these variants are called: Briticism, Americanism, Canadism,
Australianism, Newzealandism. They have no equivalents in General English, and they mostly
belong to the following semantic groups: flora and fauna, trades and agriculture, names of the
inhabitants of the country and the geographical names, everyday life, customs and traditions,
historical events. Every national variant includes words from the language(s) of the native
population.
English is the national language of England proper, the USA, Canada, Australia and New
Zealand. Hence, there exist five national variants:
British English (BE),
American English (AE),
Canadian English (CnE),
Australian English (AuE),
New Zealand English (NZE).
Describe, please, the main characteristics of New Zealand English (NZE)

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Практично-семінарське заняття

THEME: STANDARD ENGLISH

1. Соловйова Л. Ф. Сніховська, І. Е. Теорія сучасної англійської мови. Навчально-

There are historical, social, cultural, and regional varieties of English.

Describe, please, the main characteristics of New Zealand English (NZE)

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