Английский язык. Ч. 1. Гималетдинова Г.К - 14 стр.

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French’, and so forth; and the pronunciation characteristic of this type of English has
been called ‘Received Pronunciation’, or ‘R.P.’. The use and consequent spread of
‘standard languages’ outwards and downwards in the social scale, as it were, is often
encouraged in modern states by their employment in official broadcasts, as the ap-
proved types of speech for school instruction, and in other similar ways.
      The term standard language must not mislead. Such forms of speech are
descriptively dialects, just like any other dialect, to be described and delimited on
just the same criteria as the less socially and officially favoured ‘regional’ dialects.
It is a popular assumption on the part of those speaking standard dialects that
other dialects, especially those spoken by groups lacking any social prestige or
recognition, are both ‘incorrect’ and more or less formless, lacking a true grammar
or precise means of discourse. Epithets such as ‘ugly’ and the like are freely em-
ployed with reference to the pronunciation of such dialects. But needless to say,
the linguist faithful to the principles of objective scientific statement must abjure all
such modes of expression and value judgements, aesthetic and quasi-moralistic,
as outside his field. The statement that certain utterances are ‘incorrect’ (e.g. we
ain’t done nothing) is to the linguist equivalent to the statement that in a corre-
sponding situation the speaker of the standard dialect would say something else
(we haven’t done anything). Reactions to other people’s speech is valuable evi-
dence of part of the social function of language within a community. Any claims
for these dialects being better organized than others do not bear examination.
The linguist, whatever his private feelings on these may be, has a greater task.
His task is to describe and analyse the phenomena of languages (and of the dia-
lects within them) as he finds them, and his techniques and procedures are de-
vised for this purpose. He has no concern with preferring one class dialect over
another, or with prescribing how people should use their language. Description,
not prescription, is his work.
similar group of dialects     to encourage                   to lack
to enjoy prestige             official broadcasts            means of discourse
socially respected group      approved types of speech       objective scientific statement
to designate                  to mislead                     claim
standard English              descriptively                  to claim
Received Pronunciation        descriptive                    to concern with
consequent                    to describe                    prescription
spread of a language          description
social scale                  social prestige

     Задание 2. Сделайте письменный перевод текстов Б и В.
                                        Текст Б
                  General Linguistics as the Study of Language
      General linguistics may be defined as the science of language. As with other
branches of knowledge and scientific study, such a definition involves the subject
in certain relations with other disciplines and sciences outside itself, and in subdi-
vision into different branches of the subject comprised within it. A subject like
general linguistics, in common with most other subjects of systematic study, is not
static. Viewpoints, including some of quite fundamental importance, may change
or receive different degrees of emphasis in the course of years. No book can
honestly pretend to deal with the subject in a way that will both be accepted in all