Greenbaum 1990

Greenbaum, Sidney. 1990. "Whose English?" In Ricks and Michaels 1990.

Discusses the historical disparagement of non-English competitors of English, extending back to the emergence of standard English. Has some viewing divergences of American English from British English as intrusive of, if not threatening to, Britain's language and character.

The process of standardization has not been planned or controlled by any state or government agency in the United States or Britain. Has been determined by consensus of what educated speakers and writers consider correct. Consensus has been codified or written by them in dictionaries, grammars, and guides to usage, and has remained stable with relatively few differences.

Concludes it is difficult to justify England's distinctive claim to English, as there are four times the number of English speakers in the United States. There are "probably more English speakers in second-language countries than there are in mother tongue countries" (page 23).

• Bibliography module: Greenbaum 1990
• In overview module: Bibliography (Literacy): G
• In modular book: Bibliography (Literacy), by Doris Gallemore, Trudi C. Hunt, Jeanne Swanson, and Stephen L. Walter
• In document collection: Reference materials
• In bookshelf: Literacy

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