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Second post! This time I chose a relevant topic again. This article is definitely relevant to all of us. The article is title “Is the Queen’s dead?” The article was taken from the second issue of the magazine Lexean in 2007 and is written by Noelle De Jesus.
Once again I shall start by critiquing the title of the article. This is especially in magazine articles; the title has to be attractive and thought provoking so as to attract the attention of the readers who browse through the many articles in the magazine. For this title, I did not immediately understand it as it was not very clear. I first read it as “Is the Queen dead?” and thought it was an article on either the monarchy in England becoming obsolete, or that it was an article on England getting taken over completely as a world power by other countries. I decided to take a better look and realised it was nothing to do about the monarchy but the second idea I thought of was close. The article was lamenting the falling importance of English and the Queen’s English in the world. It examined the various causes for the diminishing significance of English in various case studies about a few countries. It then went on to talk about Queen’s English losing their place as well due to various other “Englishes”. The main English that is taking over it would be American English. That is why it could be used to display the taking over of America as the world’s power.
The top level structures used most extensively in the article are exemplification and cause and effect. The main top level structure being used is cause and effect, displaying the relationship between progress of other countries and the diminishing use of Queen’s English. The main threat to the Queen’s English is still American English. This is due to the influence of media from America. One example is Hollywood or MTV which both exert a worldwide influence promoting American English. Also, there are countries that are surviving without imposing English as the medium of instruction. In Singapore, the common view is that as long as it is pronounced correctly, it does not matter about whether it is Queen’s English or American English. This leads to the common types of English emerging in various countries. This is as it is easier to communicate in something that is easier to pronounce. For example, in Singapore, many Singaporeans use “Singlish” and in India they also use “Hinglish”. These examples show that common folk do not use Queen’s English anymore but adapt it to suit themselves.
In my opinion, it does not really matter whether we use Queen’s English or a variant of it. The most important part of it is using good English. What is good English then? Good English refers to English that is grammatically correct and the accent in which it is spoken in does not matter. As the article says “Ultimately language is a tool. As the Bard himself might have said, English is English, and with any accent, will sound as sweet” I agree fully with this statement as English is still English when spoken with whichever accent and it is useful as long as it fulfills its purpose as a communication tool.
Once again I shall start by critiquing the title of the article. This is especially in magazine articles; the title has to be attractive and thought provoking so as to attract the attention of the readers who browse through the many articles in the magazine. For this title, I did not immediately understand it as it was not very clear. I first read it as “Is the Queen dead?” and thought it was an article on either the monarchy in England becoming obsolete, or that it was an article on England getting taken over completely as a world power by other countries. I decided to take a better look and realised it was nothing to do about the monarchy but the second idea I thought of was close. The article was lamenting the falling importance of English and the Queen’s English in the world. It examined the various causes for the diminishing significance of English in various case studies about a few countries. It then went on to talk about Queen’s English losing their place as well due to various other “Englishes”. The main English that is taking over it would be American English. That is why it could be used to display the taking over of America as the world’s power.
The top level structures used most extensively in the article are exemplification and cause and effect. The main top level structure being used is cause and effect, displaying the relationship between progress of other countries and the diminishing use of Queen’s English. The main threat to the Queen’s English is still American English. This is due to the influence of media from America. One example is Hollywood or MTV which both exert a worldwide influence promoting American English. Also, there are countries that are surviving without imposing English as the medium of instruction. In Singapore, the common view is that as long as it is pronounced correctly, it does not matter about whether it is Queen’s English or American English. This leads to the common types of English emerging in various countries. This is as it is easier to communicate in something that is easier to pronounce. For example, in Singapore, many Singaporeans use “Singlish” and in India they also use “Hinglish”. These examples show that common folk do not use Queen’s English anymore but adapt it to suit themselves.
In my opinion, it does not really matter whether we use Queen’s English or a variant of it. The most important part of it is using good English. What is good English then? Good English refers to English that is grammatically correct and the accent in which it is spoken in does not matter. As the article says “Ultimately language is a tool. As the Bard himself might have said, English is English, and with any accent, will sound as sweet” I agree fully with this statement as English is still English when spoken with whichever accent and it is useful as long as it fulfills its purpose as a communication tool.
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