Drawing Up Definitions of What’s Standard, Non-standard, or Dialectal – English with Jennifer

Not for the first time, I published a YouTube lesson that turned out to be longer than anticipated. The topic? Reflexive pronouns. (Click to view.) It’s true that I could have made a very basic presentation that addressed only the “reflexive” use (I see myself, I hurt myself, etc.), but I was targeting intermediate and advanced learners. As eager as I was to dive in, I failed to anticipate all the nuances that would arise as I prepared and produced the lesson. I mentioned in a previous post that I took interest in word order, an aspect I hadn’t considered in depth before. I’ve definitely gained confidence with the patterns we use for emphasis thanks to this latest lesson. (Yes, the teacher herself learned from her own lesson.) So what else demanded my attention? In addition to forms and uses of reflexive pronouns, I decided to present common idioms and expressions, one of which sounds completely non-standard. However, when it popped out of my mouth the other day, I just knew I had to include it in my lesson: myself included. It breaks the rule of having a reflexive pronoun refer back to the subject or a specific individual already mentioned. My example:Many people, myself included, think that Hollywood is producing too many remakes and not enough original films. No dictionary recognizes this expression, and yet it’s used frequently in spoken English. GetYarn and YouGlish provide numerous examples. Searching around, I discovered some sources called the phrase “myself included” completely wrong. Really? I thought. So why are educated speakers using “myself included” in TED Talks, interviews, and other formal speaking events? But there I trapped myself. Who are the so-called educated speakers? How much authority do they hold? This thought takes me into the realm rules, standards, and biases. Who gets to make the rules? We usually allow dictionaries, grammar books, and other published materials to tell us what patterns to follow. Is this in and of itself (an expression I’ll explain in a related YouTube short) a bad thing? No. If we don’t follow agreed-upon rules for spelling, syntax, and the like, our communication loses clarity. For this reason, I embrace prescriptive grammar, but I now keep the door open in order to receive heavy doses of descriptive grammar. How are people using the language in the settings my learners want to function in? What do my learners need to know? Heck, I don’t just open the door — I open the windows and the skylights and turn on the faucets, letting everyday usage pour in so that I can evaluate what old patterns are holding and which new ones are emerging in American English. In my video on reflexive pronouns, I chose to address forms on the fringes: myself (in place of a subject or object pronoun), themself, hisself, and theirselves. — And by the way, WordPress is highlighting the latter two in red as potential mistakes in my text. Which forms are wrong? Any of them? What or who does that depend on? Let’s tread carefully. In a post titled “Do You Speak American?” PBS.org acknowledges that a definition of Standard American English (SAE) is elusive, but nevertheless “school systems, professional communicators and businesses all have standards and, not surprisingly, the rules (at least for grammar) do not vary dramatically from place to place.” This observation supports my decision to promote standard grammar in my lessons. I explain that it’s useful be to familiar with non-standard grammar, but standard grammar will serve language learners best in the greatest number of situations. Standard grammar is the set of rules or patterns used most in academic and professional contexts. It’s the grammar shaped largely by dictionaries and grammar books. As learners become more proficient, they become attuned to variations and gain authentic language exposures that teach them how to modify their speech in order to make it appropriate for the audience and situation.For which audience and in what situation would we use the reflexive pronoun themself? It’s likely more acceptable in spoken English, and if one wishes to use it, it should be with the intention to make a gender-neutral, singular reference. It’s interesting to note that this pronoun is considered non-standard by some, including Merriam-Webster, but not dialectal. If a dialect is spoken within a specific region or a social group, that would mean more Americans are broadly creating a new pattern with themself as a gender-neutral, singular pronoun. In contrast, reflexive pronouns labeled as dialectal, such as hisself and theirselves, are perceived as standard within a more limited number of speakers, but to those outside that group, the forms go against SAE. It wouldn’t be fair to label them as incorrect, but they aren’t used as widely. Limited use, I feel, is a valid reason not to promote those forms. In my video lesson, I recommend using himself and themselves instead. These forms are considered standard by a larger group of people and will therefore be more easily understood, especially in academic or professional contexts. It’s quite problematic when we realize that what is standard or normal for one speaker isn’t standard for another. It’s all relative, as is the sense of what is polite and formal. To one person, tagging on a “please” is sufficiently polite. To another, that’s just one lexical item that should combine with others to achieve the “right” level of formality. Does “Standard English” imply formal English? Some may think so, but I don’t necessarily do. I feel that standard spelling and grammar apply just as much to statements like I can’t make head or tail of that as they do to declarations like I fail to comprehend the argument. However, Dictionary.com defines SAE as the language “used in the United States in formal and professional speech and writing, as taught in schools and heard on newscasts, adhering to fixed norms of spelling, grammar, and usage in written and spoken contexts, and neutralizing nonstandard dialectal variation.” What catches my attention the most in that definition is the idea of SAE “neutralizing” anything deemed non-standard. To neutralize means to stop something from being “effective or harmful,” according to The Britannica Dictionary. I think it would be wrong to perceive non-standard grammar as a threat of some kind, but I do steer learners away from forms and patterns that could lead to miscommunication. A key factor then is intelligibility. In a discussion about dialect vs. language, John McHorter in The Atlantic proposes, “If you can understand it without training, it’s a dialect of your own language; if you can’t, it’s a different language.” While our students may figure out the meanings of dialectal forms in English, the need to incorporate such words into their own speech isn’t strong enough compared to the need for them to master SAE forms. In my video, I stress that I want learners to be aware of the lesser used forms — they’ll encounter such language, but to a lesser degree. The conclusion is that this discussion needs to be open, respectful, and ongoing. For my part, I’m willing to modify, adapt, and erase old beliefs, but my goal remains to help learners be effective communicators. Featured image by Tumisu from PixabaySources:Do You Speak American? Standard American English. www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/standardamerican/ (12 January 2024).“hisself.” Merriam-Webster. 2024. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hisself (12 January 2024).McHorter, John. “What’s a Language Anyway?” The Atlantic, 16 Jan. 2016, https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/01/difference-between-language-dialect/424704/“neutralize.” The Britannica Dictionary. 2024. https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/neutralize (12 January 2024).“Standard American English.” Dictionary.com. 2023. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/standard-american-english (12 January 2024).“themself.” Merriam-Webster. 2024. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/themself (12 January 2024).“theirselves.” Merriam-Webster. 2024. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/theirselves (12 January 2024).Related posts:Reflecting on Reflexive Pronouns (2024)Learning to Mellow Out: Teaching what’s useful but maybe not “correct” (2023)The Importance of Prescriptive Grammar (2009)