Here’s why Jessica’s question is so important.
First, the facts.
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"It is important to realize that standard English is in no way intrinsically superior to any other variety of English: in particular, it is not
'more logical,' 'more grammatical,' or 'more expressive.' It is, at bottom, a convenience: the use of a single agreed standard form, learned by
speakers everywhere, minimizes uncertainty, confusion, misunderstanding and communicative difficulty generally."
(R.L. Trask, Dictionary of English Grammar. Penguin, 2000)
"[T]he conventions of linguistic usage are tacit. The rules of standard English are not legislated by a tribunal but emerge as an implicit
consensus within a virtual community of writers, readers, and editors. That consensus can change over time in a process as unplanned and
uncontrollable as the vagaries of fashion. No official ever decided that respectable men and women were permitted to doff their hats and gloves in
the 1960s or to get pierced and tattooed in the 1990s—nor could any authority with powers short of Mao Zedong have stopped these changes. In a
similar manner, centuries of respectable writers have shrugged off long-forgotten edicts by self-appointed guardians of the language, from
Jonathan Swift’s denunciation of banter, mob, and sham to Strunk and White’s disparaging of to personalize, to contact, and six people (as
opposed to six persons)."
(Steven Pinker, "False Fronts in the Language Wars." Slate, May 31, 2012)
The first quote points out no language or dialect is inherently better than another. To evaluate a grammar by the rules
of another grammar misses the point. What we know as Standard English is not better than another dialect, it is simply
the norm. There is a debate about whether what has become known as African American vernacular English is a
separate language or dialect. Regardless, it is a rule bound coherent language as are other languages and dialects. To
suggest that for instance the Creole dialect is inferior to Standard English is basically to say, “Given the rules of Standard
English, Creole is inferior.” However, it makes just as much sense to say, “Given the rules of Creole, Standard English is
inferior”.
RESEARCH AND PRESENT: BASIC RULES OF AAVE GRAMMAR
The norm for any language group is a matter of historical and social contingency rather than some inherent value of the
language itself. Contingent simply means it COULD have happened another way, but it didn’t. In other words, specific
influential social groups have used and established one of many versions of English as the norm: this is what we know as
Standard English. The contingent part is that if speakers of the Southern dialect had established more power and
influence, this dialect might be Standard English. The flip side is that any dialect that becomes the norm also carries the
values of the social group who speaks it. These values are present in the language itself. Now, as the second quotation
points out, however, this language is constantly subject to change and this change also reveals changes in those in
power and social norms. The increase in power of women is distinctly revealed in changes in the language, for instance.
RESEARCH AND PRESENT: HISTORY OF SEXIST LANGUAGE
RESEARCH AND PRESENT: THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN STANDARD ENGLISH
Just as there is nothing “wrong” with non-Standard English dialects, there is nothing “wrong” with Standard English.
Whatever its rules of usage, a common standard language is useful for several reasons:
 It allows for a bridge across what might otherwise be boundaries of dialect.
 It allows for a commonly accepted language for addressing a community with diverse backgrounds of dialect.
So, it’s important to realize that Standard English is not better than other languages or dialects, it is simply different in its
rules and different in its purpose and audience. It is the social norm, but there is nothing natural or correct about it that
makes it the form of English which serves as the common dialect. You have a Midwest dialect, and if you’re going to
school in the South or on a coast, you’re about to see that the language you speak will be effected by your new language
communities. You will also see that the way you speak identifies you as part of a group and perhaps that in some ways
the language you now know is part of your identity.
RESEARCH AND PRESENT: WHAT ARE THE COMMON AMERICAN DIALECTS?
So, Jessica’s question raises these issues:
One possible claim: The narrator (or Ellison consciously or unconsciously) suggests Standard English is superior.
If the narrator becomes more himself by using and mastering Standard English, what is this saying?
If Standard English is a by-product of white males does that mean the more the narrator speaks and writes like a white
man, the more he becomes himself? The more he becomes fully human? Does this not suggest that to be more himself
and more fully human is to more “white”?
If being educated is measured by the narrator’s mastery and adherence to Standard English does that mean the narrator
is suggesting that to be educated is to master Standard English?
You can see the Black Nationalist (and other) objections here that this would be to deny the roots of the culture one was
brought up in and the value of native dialects and languages. Instead of celebration a version of English rooted in white
culture, why aren’t our narrator and Ellison elevating the beauty and value of specifically African American dialects.
Language is part of what makes us who we are and what makes us part of a community. Also, adopting SE as the norm
might suggest an adoption of white supremacist (or at the most benign, ethnocentric) definitions of norms of
“educated”. If skin color is ultimately the indicator of one’s social identity, then mastering all the Standard English in
the world won’t overcome discrimination in a prejudiced society.
CLAIM 2: THE NARRATOR’S LANGUAGE CHANGES AS THE TEXT PROGRESSES FROM STANDARD ENGLISH TO
SOMETHING ELSE, SHOWING THE LIMITED ABILITY OF STANDARD ENGLISH TO ADEQUATELY CAPTURE HIS IDENTITY
OR REALITY.
RESEARCH AND REPORT: DOES THE NARRATOR’S LANGUAGE CHANGE THROUGHOUT THE BOOK TOWARD STANDARD
ENGLISH, AFRICAN AMERICAN VERNACULAR OR SOME OTHER DIALECT OR IS HE ABLE TO USE BOTH?
RESEARCH AND REPORT: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE NARRATOR’S USE OF LANGUAGE WITH A WHITE CHARACTER.
RESEARCH AND REPORT: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF LANGUAGE BY TWO DIFFERENT WHITE CHARACTERS.
RESEARCH AND REPORT: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE NARRATOR’S USE OF LANGUAGE WITH OTHER BLACK
CHARACTERS. TO WHOM IS HIS SPEECH MOST SIMILAR? MOST DIFFERENT?
RESEARCH AND REPORT: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE NARRATOR’S USE OF LANGUAGE IN HIS SPEECHES (BATTLE
ROYAL/EVICTION/BROTHERHOOD/CLIFTON) . IDENTIFY: 1. WHICH IS CLOSEST TO STANDARD ENGLISH 2. IN WHICH
SPEECH IS HE “MOST HIMSELF”?
RESEARCH AND REPORT: WHICH CHARACTERS’ DIALOGUE IS WRITTEN PHONETICALLY? WHY DO YOU THINK THIS
CHOICE IS MADE?
Does Ellison present Standard English as the norm?
CLAIM 3: BY SHOWING WHITE CHARACTERS’ VIEWS OF ENGLISH AS HOMOGENEOUS AND BLACK CHARACTERS’
VIEWS OF ENGLISH AS HETEROGENOUS, ELLISON PRESENTS THE CLAIM THAT AFRICAN AMERICANS USE OF
LANGUAGE IS MORE MULTI-FACETED AND SO SUPERIOR?
Does Ellison undercut the value of “white” English by playing the game so well he destroys the game?
Revisit the prologue. Is the narrator writing this story for us to read or is he telling us the story orally? Are we to read
what he says or hear what he says? Or is it ambiguous?