Modelling RP: a variationist case for variety
Clive Upton
University of Leeds
The concern of the language variationist is with the fact of existing variety, and with linguistic change. Variety in language may be seen as a present-day phenomenon and in a diachronic perspective. Concern is both with the mechanisms of change and with the directions that change is taking and might take.
The stance required of a variationist is simple and obvious, though it might be thought to have interesting implications for the discipline of English Language Teaching. It is necessary to accept that language is not uniform synchronically. It is equally important to accept that language changes over time. Perhaps harder to accept, though just as essential, is the fact that all varieties are credible and have purpose, and as such require to be described.
Diversity of form and of description is to be seen as a resource rather than as a problem, a liberating fact as valid in the area of standards and models as in that of the non-standard. It is both the responsibility and the pleasure of the teacher-linguist to understand matters of linguistic variation and, in their selection of materials, to fit variety to purpose.