Exercise 1.3
Common popular labels for what we call Standard American English (SAE) or
Mainstream American English (MAE) are “correct English,” “proper English,”
“good English,” and “grammatical English.” What do these labels tell us about the
public perception of standard dialects in terms of the
myths about dialects we
discussed above? What do they say about the ideology that informs the interpreta-
tion of dialects in our society? By
language
ideology
here, we mean ingrained,
unquestioned beliefs
about the way the world is, the way it should be, and the way
it has to be with respect to language. What implications
do these terms have for
those dialects that are considered “corrupt,” “bad,” or “ungrammatical” versions
of the standard?
