1. Varieties of English
_____________________________
Lexical Analysis
- Diego Ulloa Iglesias -

2. Region
Attitude
Medium
Field of
Discourse
Social
Group
Related to the language user
Related to the language use

3. 1.- Regional Variation
Related to the concept “Dialect”, which is defined as a regional or social
variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary,
especially a variety of speech differing from the standard literary language or
speech pattern of the culture in which it exists.
↘ There are more dialects in long-settled Britain than in areas more
recently settled by English speakers (eg., North Americans/New York).

4. 2.- Social Variation
Refered to aspects such as: education, socioeconomic group and ethnic
group.
↘ It focuses more on educated and uneducated speech used by the
speaker/writer, eg., the prominent example of double negative:
“I don’t want nothing” // “I don’t want anything”

5. It refers to uniformity, what is common to all.
2.1.- Standard English
Degree of acceptance of the language.

6. 2.2.1.- National Standars of English: British (BrE) and American (AmE) English.
↘ Two over-whelmingly predominant national standards.
↘ Few grammatical differences.
* BrE : Biscuit
* AmE : Cookie
Any of various small flat
sweet cakes
↘ Lexical differences are more numerous.
* BrE : “The government (is OR are) in favour of economic sanctions.
* AmE : “The government IS in favour of economic sanctions.

7. 2.2.2.- National Standards of English: Other National Standards.
Hibero-English
Scots
Canadian English
South Africa New Zealand
Australia

8. 2.2.3.- Pronunciation and Standard English
RP Received Pronunciation
↘ Nonregional pronunciation which has prestige, associated
with older schools and universities of England.

9. 3.- Varieties according to field of discourse
A speaker has repertoire of varieties according to field and
switches to the appropate one as occasion demands.
law
footballcookery
meetinginterview

10. 4.- Varieties according to medium
Written Form V/S Spoken Form
Some recourses are often limited to demonstrate what we
really want to say or write.

11. 4.- Varieties according to attitude
Choice that depends on our attitude to the:
Hearer / Reader
Purpose of
Communication
Topic
Formal – Neutral – Informal