1.1. English as it exists today

English is most certainly several things at once. To begin with it is an assortment of national and regional varieties. This includes not only Britain, Ireland and Australia, New Zealand and South Africa where there are millions of native speakers but also East and West Africa, South and Southeast Asia where there are relatively few native speakers but millions of users of English as a second language. Within all these areas there are also regional, social and ethnic varieties of the language. English is also the language used by all sorts of people in all kinds of situations. How people use the language depends on what purposes they are pursuing and whom they are communicating with. English is a network of phonological, grammatical, lexical, orthoepical and textual nature. What English should serve as the basis? The basis is standard English. Any standard language is a codified form a language accepted by and serving as a model to the larger speech community (P.L. Garvin). R. Quirk and G. Stein look at a standard language from the different viewpoint. Standard language is a kind of English that draws its attention to itself over the widest area and through the widest usage. It is most clearly associated with the written language, perhaps what is written and published is more permanent and is free of slips and is transmitted in spelling which is more standardized than pronunciation. American English and British English differences in orthography are really few but national and regional accent standards are rather numerous. J. Stalker in his work "A Reconsideration of Definition of Standard English" distinguishes three criteria of language use standard:

1) it is when speakers communicate in a socially appropriate manner;

2) when the language is suitable to the use to which it is being put;

3) when it is clear.

Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling Estes give the following definition of Standard American English: “Standard American is a widely socially accepted variety of English which is held to be the linguistic norm and which is relatively unmarked with respect to regional characteristics of English”. They speak about Network Standard that is variety of English relatively free of marked regional characteristics, the ideal norm aimed for by national radio and television network announcers.