The aim of this paper is to explore the features that combine to make up the distinctive accent of the actor Sir Sean Connery. This study outlines the subject’s basic vowel system and compares it to data collected on the vowel systems of Received Pronunciation (RP) and Scottish Standard English (SSE) from previous research (Stuart-Smith 1999, Hawkins & Midgely 2005, Fisk 2006). Furthermore, this essay examines the degree to which other elements associated with SSE are present in the subject’s accent. These features include the Scottish Vowel Lengthening Rule (SVLR), the presence of dark /l/, rhoticity and T-glottalling. It is hypothesised that the subject speaks a modified variety of SSE yet retains the aforementioned qualities typically associated with SSE. The speech analysis software programs Wavesurfer (version 1.4.7.) and Praat (version 4.4.33.) were used to analyse sections of sound taken from a speech given by the subject at an awards ceremony. Instrumental analysis of this nature was deemed appropriate in order to establish a high degree of objectivity in this study. Of the wide range of recorded material available the subject’s acceptance speech was judged most suitable for analysis. This is a passage of spontaneous speech as opposed to a movie script, where the subject talks of his background and career. Having analysed the subject’s accent in this way, certain sociolinguistic implications can be drawn. The results suggest that Sir Sean Connery does indeed speak a variety of SSE however rather surprisingly the subject’s accent appears quite typical of his Edinburgh origins. The vowel system not only identifies the subject as an SSE speaker but also indicates traces of his working-class background e.g., the frontal quality to Connery’s realisation of /u/ and his low /I/ are typical of a working-class SSE speaker. Moreover, the general low quality found in Connery’s basic vowel system can be interpreted as revealing a little of his working-class origins. Evidence of the other features associated with SSE was also found in the subject’s accent. Durational evidence indicates (albeit tentatively at this stage) that the SVLR operates within his accent while dark /l/ and t-glottalling were also observed. While it is also apparent that Connery speaks a rhotic variety of English it is the nature and variety of his /r/ production that is most interesting. The subject appears to produce a retroflex realisation of /r/ which affects other consonants in its environment. This /r/ may be indicative of an earlier Irish influence over Connery’s accent. It should be stated that due to the nature and the limited size of this study, all findings are preliminary and more research is needed into this area before any firm conclusions can be drawn.

"The emergence of English as an international language in a number of domains has implications which are becoming a matter of widespread discussion among both linguists and the general public. In the face of the increasing number of the functions for which English is regarded as more useful or convenient than any other language, and the growth in the numbers of its speakers and learners - it is only slowly that we are beginning to sort out the practical and theoretical implications for the early part of the new millennium of this unprecedented linguistic predominance" (Honey, 1996:99). Despite its high status, the standard of English teaching and learning, especially in severely underfunded black South African schools has suffered rapid deterioration. At the moment, there are no indications that the downward slide can be halted. The nonnative English language debate is compounded by arguments rejecting the pedagogic notion of "Standard English" and advocating a linguistic ethos which suggests that all forms of English are equal. This has resulted in the proliferation of terms such as "black English", "Ghanaian English", "Indian English" etc. which are claimed to be on an equal footing with "British" and "American" English or standard English (Ahulu, 1992). This thesis makes the important point that both "educated" black and white people in South Africa make use of standard English. But the concept of standard English must be properly understood. Quirk at the 1995 English Academy conference, was pushing the term "general English" as an alternative name for "standard English." A variety of English such as British or American English incorporates a standard variety that is encoded in grammars, dictionaries and guides of usage, taught in educational institutions, used to print and often found in the usage of those regarded as educated users. However, those who express "concern for the recognition and acceptance of the English language standard in the education system are sometimes accused of ignoring socio-linguistic realities" (Wright, 1996: 154). This thesis discusses several language features which are peculiar to English as a second language (ESL). These features have been claimed to yield the characteristics of a "South African black English." The analysis shows that these characteristic features are not consistently or reliably realised. In fact according to current research it would seem that most "features are actually teacher-influenced" (Buthelezi, 1989:40). Nonstandard ESL features indicate according to Wright (1995: 8) "a symptom of the sad failure of our education system rather than a sign of the creative evolution of a vigorous new national variety of English." Wright maintains that "to advocate the institutionalising of non-standard English-attributable in large measure to apartheid's legacy of low educational standards - would be neither radical nor progressive, but a profoundly conservative attitude, imposing and enshrining mediocrity." The debate about "black English" in South Africa has not yet gained momentum even though it is part of the common currency. There seems to be a powerful conventional opinion in influential circles that claims that there is a black English in South Africa. The possibility exists that a local variety of English in South Africa may ultimately emerge. But the internationally viable variety will still be needed, one hopes by an ever growing portion of the population as education and opportunity increase. Standard English is the form of English that is taught in South African schools and tertiary institutions. In other words, it includes all users of the "educated" form of English all over the world and it also fulfils more and broader language functions than the nonstandard form. The pedagogic notion of standard English, however, does not imply refusal to accept the existence of non-standard varieties of English or of features in colloquial use that are non-standard and geographically or culturally specific. It is all the more important according to Ahulu (1994: 26) for those concerned with education, especially "the curriculum designers, subject advisors and textbooks writers, to know the forms of English they should consider and emphasize as the educational target, which should subsequently guide teachers and examiners." The evidence we have in the field of "black English" according to Ahulu's (1992) findings in Ghana largely consists of coinages and other lexical modifications, and the listing of isolated examples of grammatical divergence. What is referred to as "educated black English" is nothing more that standard English with an injection of vocabulary items of South African origin. Such phenomena as coinage, lexical borrowing are processes by which standard English is expanding its lexicon as an international language. The inferior conditions of years of underfunding and relentless application of the underlying philosophy of apartheid education have had a critical and profound bearing on the state of ESL teaching. For professional careers, the country's economic development and membership of the international scene, to mention but a few requirements, standard English is essential. Teacher training institutions in South Africa are at the moment going through a rationalisation and restructuring process and they need to review their ESL curriculum and programmes. These teacher training colleges should produces well equipped ESL teachers who are capable of dealing with the language dynamics in the ESL classroom situation. / Thesis (DLitt)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / English / unrestricted

Many teachers, test designers, textbook writers, and instructional designers turn to books written by usage experts to determine what is correct standard written American English. Unfortunately, though, experts often disagree about what is correct and what is incorrect, and this disagreement can create problems with validity when people create and assess instruction about usage. One way to discover the rules of standard English usage is to describe what writers actually do in printed, edited English. Researchers can access large collections of standard English through digital text archives, which can be searched electronically. The text archives for this study were taken from EBSCO and ProQuest digital libraries and divided into three different registers: (a) newspapers, (b) magazines, and (c) scholarly journals. This study examines 30 representative items of controversial usage; such as "a lot" or "alot," "between you and I" or "between you and me," "had proved" or "had proven"; to determine the actual occurrence in these three registers of standard written American English. The results list the percentage of use in each register, as well as the total averaged percentage of use in all three registers. Items showing 90% to 100% usage in the total averaged percentages are considered standard English, but items showing 90% to 95% usage are borderline cases that should be monitored for future use. If a variant form is used more than 10% of the time, then it should be considered a possible alternative usage in dictionaries, in text books, and in tests. This study shows the results of using corpus linguistics to answer questions about usage in standard American English.

Writers, editors, and everyday language users look to dictionaries, style guides, usage guides, and other published works to help inform their language decisions. They want to know what is Standard English and what is not. Commentators have been prescribing and proscribing certain usages for centuries; however, their advice has traditionally been based on the subjective opinions of the authors. Recent works have analyzed usage by relying wholly or partly on statistical and descriptive data rather than traditional opinion alone; however, no work has presented statistical usage data in a user-friendly and consistent format. This study presents a statistically based methodology for analyzing the standardness of disputed English usage points that can be presented in a dictionary-like format useful to writers and editors. Using data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English, this study determined the percent of use of several disputed usage items. Percents of use were then applied to a statistically based "standardness" scale with several levels. The scale presented in this study is adapted from scales that have been used previously to study language change. In addition, returns from the Corpus of Historical American English were used to present historical trends, if any, for each usage item. It was found that traditional sentiments about certain prescribed and proscribed usage items differ markedly from actual observed usage. Corpus data make it clear that even usage guides that purport to rely at least partly on descriptive data are often wrong about the prevalence and acceptability of usage items. To produce truly objective and accurate analysis, usage advice must depend on corpus data and use a standard usage-trend scale that accounts for how language changes.

Dictionaries and, to a lesser extent, usage guides provide writers, editors, and users of American English information on how to use the language appropriately. Dictionaries, in particular, hold authority over correct usage of words. However, historically, usage guides and dictionaries were created using the knowledge of a small group of people. Lexicographers like Noah Webster set out to prescribe a proper way of using American English. To make these judgments, they often relied on a combination of study and idiosyncratic intuitions. A similar process took place in creating usage guides. Though these manuals profess to explain how the language is used by American English speakers-or rather by the selected group of speakers deemed "standard" by usage guide editors and lexicographers-ultimately the manuals can only express the perspectives of the editors and lexicographers on this language. Historically, the views of these editors and lexicographers were the best tools available to assess language, but now computer-based corpora allow for studying larger swaths of language usage. This study examines how much dictionaries and usage guides agree with real-world usage found in corpus data. Using the Corpus of Historical American English, a set of dictionaries and usage guides published throughout the last two hundred years were analyzed to see how much agreement they had with corpus data in noting the addition of denominal verbs (i.e., verbs formed by the conversion of nouns as in 'They taped together the box.') in American English usage. It was found that the majority of the time dictionaries noted new denominal verbs before corpus data reflected accepted usage of these verbs. However, about a quarter of the time dictionaries noted new denominal verbs concurrently with the corpus data. These results suggest that dictionaries-and the subjective opinions of the lexicographers that created them-are more aligned with real-world usage than would be expected. Because of sparse listings, results for usage guide agreement was inconclusive.

Throughout the 1900s, the English subject has gone through massive change in the Swedish school system. The main focus has always been on the British standard, with the United Kingdom as the model for all who study English or educate students. In the past decades, the American standard has been increasingly popular amongst the younger generations which leads to a mismatch between the experiences in school versus the ones outside of school. In light of Brexit and a shift away from Britain, there is cause to believe that this will also impact the educational system. With Euro-English being discussed amongst English scholars, there is reason to believe in a trickle-down effect on young students and teachers as well. This study consists of a survey as well as semi- structured interviews to see what attitude students and teachers have towards British English, American English as well as Euro-English. It will also investigate what impact that may have on the education system as of now as well as the future if nothing changes or if there is no change in the curriculum. The results show growing interest in American English or variations such as Euro-English that are the result of mixture. The results also show teachers being hesitant towards Euro-English, but with an interest due to the value of English varieties overall. Furthermore, the results may be an indicator of an upcoming gap in the education system if Euro-English remains ignored.

<p>English is the most expansionist language in the world today. Currently, native speakers are outnumbered by non-native speakers by a ratio of 3:1, a ratio that is set to grow to 10:1 within the next ten years. One of the consequences of a language growing so rapidly is that its new users tend to ignore already accepted standards. In what linguists refer to as the outer and expanding circles of English-speakers (mainly in Africa and Asia) new varieties and standards of English are now being invented.</p><p>In this study, the effects of the current expansion of English on the teaching of English in Swedish upper-secondary schools are explored. Questions raised include: Should teachers of English in Sweden reflect the changing nature of English in their teaching? Should they readily adopt the New Englishes that are emerging or should they teach with the standard they have always used? The national curriculum for the teaching of English in Sweden is discussed in some detail. The guidelines therein are evaluated in terms of their ability to capture the changing face of English as well as their ability to give solid guidance to teachers in a classroom situation.</p><p>Findings derive from linguistic literature and from interviews conducted with English teachers at upper-secondary level. One of the main conclusions of the study is that whilst the national curriculum recognises the global diversity of English, its goals are overambitious in what it tries to achieve and thus it fails to provide teachers with practical guidance in their day-to-day teaching. A recommendation, therefore, is that the curriculum should be clearer in spelling out the importance of adhering to native standard varieties of English. However this does not mean that teachers should ignore the cultural diversity of the English-speaking world.</p>

In Malaysia what was at first Standard English has over time changed and a variety called Malaysian English has arisen. This variety of English is full of colloquial expressions and the grammar also differs slightly from that of Standard English. This paper surveys Malaysian speakers’ attitudes towards Malaysian English and Standard English. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. The results show that the informants consider Malaysian English useful for informal and everyday communication whereas Standard English is more useful for international communication as well as more formal purposes. A good command of Standard English is still regarded as important. It became evident that while the informers were aware of Malaysian English and its linguistic characteristics, identifying them in written sentences was not easy. The informants’ attitudes towards Malaysian English and Standard English showed that one variety does not have to exclude the existence of the other. / Vad som först var standardengelska har i Malaysia över tid ändrats och en ny variant kallad malaysisk engelska har växt fram. Denna variant av engelska är full av lokala uttryck och grammatiken skiljer sig delvis från standardengelskans. Denna studie undersöker talares attityder till malaysisk engelska och standardengelska med hjälp av en enkät. Resultaten visar att malaysisk engelska är användbar för informell och vardaglig kommunikation medan standardengelska är mer användbar för internationell samt mer formell kommunikation. Att behärska standardengelska anses fortfarande vara viktigt. Det blev tydligt att även om informanterna var medvetna om malaysisk engelskas lingvistiska särdrag så var det inte helt enkelt att identifiera dem i skrivna meningar. Informanternas attityder till malaysisk engelska och standardengelska visade att en variant inte nödvändigtvis utesluter den andra.

Ce travail de recherche se donne pour but d’analyser la dynamique générale de la norme de l’anglais contemporain et son rapport avec la variation linguistique. Pour ce faire, nous abordons quelques subordonnants qui illustrent le déplacement du centre de gravité de la norme sur les axes spatial et social. À travers l’étude de la complémentation du verbe help, nous illustrons l’américanisation syntaxique de l’anglais britannique et nous montrons comment les contraintes d’emploi se sont assouplies, pour aboutir finalement, dans le cas de l’opposition help + to + infinitif et help + zéro + infinitif, à une disparition de la distinction sémantique entre les deux formes. Cette disparition est le résultat d’un recours sans cesse plus fréquent à l’infinitif nu pour des raisons stratégiques, surtout dans la publicité. Ensuite, nous nous intéressons au like conjonction et nous analysons son expansion dans la langue. Après avoir expliqué son apparition par des facteurs isomorphiques et sémantiques, auxquels s’ajoute probablement une réanalyse de l’adjectif like signifiant « vraisemblable », nous montrons comment ce subordonnant s’est répandu à travers les registres de langue et les types de texte, ainsi qu’à travers les constructions syntaxiques, jusqu’à devenir un élément non périphérique de la syntaxe anglaise. D’après nous, le succès de cette innovation reflète l’évolution des modes de communication, qui se fondent de plus en plus sur la proximité interpersonnelle à des fins stratégiques. D’une simple acceptation de la familiarité dans la norme, c’est donc de plus en plus vers une norme de familiarité que nous nous dirigeons actuellement. / This study aims at analysing the general dynamics of the norm of contemporary English, together with its relationship with linguistic variation. In order to do so, a few subordoners have been selected to illustrate how the centre of gravity of the norm moves along the spatial and social axes. The study of the opposition between zero and to after the verb help is used to document the syntactic americanization of British English and it is shown that the constraints limiting the use of zero have gradually slackened, which led to a complete disappearance of the semantic distinction between the two forms. The said disappearance results from an evergrowing use of the bare infinitive for strategic reasons, particularly in advertizing. The third part deals with conjunction like and analyzes its expansion in English. It is argued that the appearance of this subordoner can be attributed to isomorphic and semantic factors, and to a potential reanalysis of the adjective like meaning likely.. This section also traces how this subordoner has spread through registers and text-types, and through syntactic structures, before becoming a central part of the English syntax. It appears that the success of this innovation reflects the current trends in modes of communication, which tend to favour interpersonal proximity for strategic purposes. From a mere acceptance of informality within the norm, we are now heading towards a new norm of informality.

The first Speak Good English Movement, SGEM, took place in 2000, and has been organized annually ever since. Speaking a “standard” form of English is considered to bring increased personal power. However, the SGEM wants the Singaporeans to use “standard” English in their private life as well. A decade after the beginning of the campaign, a Speak Good Singlish Movement was started. Based on studies of language and identity, it is understandable why some Singaporeans might feel the SGEM threatens their identity. However, the reactions towards the campaign are mainly positive. For the purposes of this analysis, Twitter messages, Facebook pages, and newspaper articles from The Straits Times were collected. The SGEM has hailed both direct and indirect praise and criticism in both social and traditional media: Five newspaper articles praise the campaign while five criticize it; the results are nine and seven respectively for social media. This thesis looks at reactions towards the SGEM in both social and traditional media, analyzes how these reactions might relate to the ideas of the power of language, its variety and the relation of language and identity.