is concur with Trudgill and Watts (Introduction, pp. 1-3) and Wales (Chapter 3) that we know very little about the way in which sensible comparisons between standard and nonstandard domains might be made. Even in standard English, the amount of descriptive work in some of these areas is limited and highly selective; for nonstandard English it is often no more than impressionistic and anecdotal. I believe that the harnessing of multimedia technology will soon begin to correct this imbalance. We shall not have to wait until 2525.
Notes
1
The book of the series was McCrum et al. (1986).
2
It is a welcome sign to see organisations (such as the English Speaking Union) in recent years engaging in debating competitions, public-speaking competitions, and the like; but the focus of these events is national or international, and is thus exclusively on standard English.
3
For a selection, see Crystal and Crystal (2000).
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