WHAT IS GOOD ENGLISH?

Appropriate English. What is good English — is a question to which a number of answers can be given. Some of them are: good English is correct English; it is economical, clear, interesting... In a word, it is effective English.

To be effective, and thus to achieve the writer's or speaker's purpose, the language he uses must be appropriate to the material he wants to communicate, to the time and place, to the audience aimed at, and to the impression of himself he wants to give. Thus, good English is correct English appropriate to a certain level of communication.

Levels of Usage. Different degrees of education and different social situations produce different levels of English usage — that is differences in constructions, pronunciation and vocabulary. One might even say that there is no difference in factual meaning between "He took his-sister to the pictures" and "He taken his sister to the piclures", but we recognize the first sentence as standard English, and the second as non-standard, incorrect English.

Non-standard English. Non-standard English is the English used by the people with little or no education, it is nearly always spoken, seldom written, except in fiction which reproduces this type of speech. It is characterized by the misuse of words, the use of non-standard words, and the corruption of what is now considered a correct or conventional grammatical form.

Another characteristic of non-standard English is its limited vocabulary. Slang is an important part of non-standard English and, indeed, of language in general. Most slang is, however, by its very nature, faddish and short-lived.

Standard English: Formal, Informal, Colloquial. Within the area of standard English three levels are generally recognized now: they are called formal English, informal English and colloquial English.

Formal English is the English, more often written than spoken, used by highly educated people in formal situations. One finds examples of formal English in scholarly articles and theses, in formal letters and public addresses, in some technical and scientific textbooks, essays, novels, and poetry. Contractions and colloquial expressions are avoided in formal style, grammar and usage are generally conservative. A wide and exact vocabulary, frequently specialised or technical, is an important characteristic of formal English.

Informal English is the English most commonly written or spoken by educated people. Lectures for unspecialised audiences, informal essays, business letters and most, current novels, short stories and plays are written in informal English. In vocabulary and sentence style informal English is less formal and elaborate than formal English; its sentences are likely to be shorter and simpler.

Colloquial English is defined in Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary as "used in or characteristic of familiar and informal conversation. Colloquial English is conversational English, more of ten spoken, than written, which has all short sentences and the casual constractions and vocabulary of the everyday relaxed speech of educated people – abundant use of contractions, incomplete sentences, the use of colloquial expressions. Colloquial English is personal and familiar in tone.

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