Types of speech

We know four main types of speech : standard, literary, provincial and coloquial.
Standard English:
Since the 1980s. The notion of „ standard“ has come to the fore in public debate about the English language./ At national level, in several countries,but especially in the UK/.
From the dozens of definitions available in the literature of English, we may extract five essential charakteristics. Standard speech is a variety of English- a distinctive combination of linguistics features with a particular role to play. Some people call it a „ dialect“ of English and so it is, but of a rathere special kind, for it had no local base. The linguistics features of Standard English are chiefly matters of grammar.vocabulary and ortography / spelling and punctuation/ It is important to note that SE is not a matter of pronounciation: SE is spoken in a wide variety of accents.
Standard speech is a variety of English which carries most prestige within a country: „ Prestige“ is a social concept, whereby some poeple have high standing in the eves of others, whether this derives from social class,material succes, political strength, popular acclaim or educational background.The Engish that these people choose to use will by this very fact become the standard within their community. In the word of one US Linguist SE is „ the English used by the powerfull“ / James Sledd/
Standard English is the variety shich is used as the norm of communication by the community´s leading institutions, such as its goverment law courts and media. Although SE is widely understood, it is not widely produced. Only a minority of people within a country/ e.g. radio newcasters/ actually use it when they talk.
Most people speak a variety of regional English, or an admixture of standard and regional Englishes and reserve such labels as „BBC English“ or „ the Queen´s English“ for what they perceive to be a „ pure“ SE.
On this basis we may define the SE of an English- speaking country as a minority variety which carries most prestige and is most widely understood.
A variety of Standard English/ British or American/ exists as an official means of formal international communication in the area, spoken by an educated minority with any one of a wide range of regional accents. Soe have learned this variety as a mother tongue: most have acquired it in school as a second language.

It is American English which has bacome the dominant voice of the mass media, and it is the USA which is increasing its role in relation to local economies, especially through tourism.
Each English speaking country in the tegion has to some extent developed its own variety of standard language, most noticeably through variations in accent and the nude of local vocabulary to reflect indigenous biogeography and cultural practises.
Literary speech:
The peak of personal variaton in the English language is to be found in the courpus of speech and writing that goes under the heading of English literature.
This is a corpus whose boundaries resist definition.Critics authors, cultural historians, syllabus designers and others have often discussed what counts as literature and as the language has spread around the world so the issue has broadened and become more complex.The notion of ,,an English literature“ is now much less easy to work with, because it must cope with the claims of a rapidly increasing range of linquistically divergent literatured, qualified by ethnic/ e.g. black,creole, Afrcian/ regional / e.g. Candian, Ausrtalian, Anglo- Irish/ and other labels.
A similar issue faces the linguis, grappling with the notion odf „ an English language and the claims of new Englishes“ from around the world.
For the linguist these problems of literary definition and edentity provide a clear signal about the uniquieness of this area of language use. The varietes are available to it as a resource. And because there is no theoreticall limit to the subject- matter of literature, so there is no theoretical limit to the language variations which authors may choose to employ.
This is not gainsay the fact that in the history of literature there have been periods of authorial practise and school of critical thought which could identify a genre of literary language in this way.At various times- illustrated in poetry diction or by 18th century Augustan notions of classical elegance- authors were prepared to write according to certain linguistic conventions and their attitudes defined a canon of contemporary literature.
The traditional concept of literary ? dictin“ is one such nition which arose from this outlook. But the present- day consensus is otherwise.Anything that occurs in language: it seems can now be put to work in the service of literature and the notion of a clear – cut obundary between literary and now – literary domains turns out to be chimerical- The answer to the question „ What is literature? Is not to be found in the study of its linguistic properties.
Refusing to recognize a variety of „ literary English“ need not in any way diminish the central role that literature plays in developing our experience of the language. On the contrary: it can reinforce it as long as we go on to show ho lieteray experience everywhere makes contact with everyday language. Although literature cannot be identifies by language it is wholly indetified with it for it has no other medium of expression.

Zdroje:

David Crystal : Encyclopedy of English -