Home> Archive> 2024> Volume 14, Number 2, 2024
IJSSH 2024 Vol.14(2): 79-85
doi: 10.18178/ijssh.2024.14.2.1197

Exploring Standard English: Its Superposed Variety, Historical Development, and Social Implications

Qianwen Yan* and Hongmei Ruan
School of Foreign Studies, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China
Email: yanqianwen@mail.nwpu.edu.cn (Q.Y.); ruanhm@nwpu.edu.cn (H.R.)

Manuscript received September 4, 2023; revised October 15, 2023; accepted November 2, 2023; published April 26, 2024.

Abstract—The English we learn in the classroom is called “Standard English”. In fact, Standard English is just one of the many dialectal variants of English. Although Standard English has a significant number of speakers in the UK, its relationship to other language variants of English is similar to that between Mandarin and the various dialects in China. Standard English is acknowledged as a superposed variant considering its development in the history and social context. This thesis will attempt to identify the historical and social factors that promote the continuous development and spread of Standard English through a comprehensive literature review and qualitative research, and explore the social and cultural implications of using Standard English as the normative standard. 

Keywords—language variants, standard English, superposed variant, social context 

Cite: Qianwen Yan and Hongmei Ruan, "Exploring Standard English: Its Superposed Variety, Historical Development, and Social Implications," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 79-85, 2024.

Copyright © 2024 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).

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