ON ANGLO-AMERICAN CULTIVATION OF STANDARD ENGLISH

Abstract

WHATEVER views one may hold as to the authority that any academy is likely to exercise over our people, the fact that a not undistinguished gathering of American and British writers and scholars has inaugurated * International Council of English with reference to the problems of the common language of the Englishspeaking countries can scarcely be treated with indifference. One understands that the purpose of this society is not only to further but to record t the development of our common language; and upon the quality and extent of its research-work its reputation and influence will doubtless largely depend. The chief fact, however, of interest at present is that an important step has been taken towards counteracting mutual intolerance and misunderstandings in linguistic matters east and west of the Atlantic. That the times demand a conscious cultivation of our mothertongue is obvious enough. The writing of English is no longer confined to persons who speak King's English or who come under the direct influence of great writers; the continuity of our literary and linguistic heritage is threatened by the wide-reaching influence of the half-educated. It would appear, therefore, that we must give up regarding good English as merely a social or literary accomplishment, and that we must endeavour by research and by exposition to equip the masses with the ability to exercise a reasoned choice in the employment of language; in other words, that we must regard the training of the linguistic consciousness as an essential part of primary and secondary as well as of University education. In these pursuits we can derive invaluable help from the United