Frequently, the label dialect, or dialectal, is attached to substandard speech, language usage that deviates from the accepted norm e.g., the speech of many of the heroes of Mark Twain's novels.
It's refreshing, then, that the new fourth edition of Tony Thorne's Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (Bloomsbury) takes a different approach: "Slang, considered objectively, is not a defective or substandard form of language, but one that creatively mobilises all the technical potential of the English language".
For example, failed ability to access clinical services was mainly due to language barriers and substandard interpretation services.
1. a regional dialect of a language (especially French); usually considered substandard 2. a characteristic language of a particular group The word patois has appeared in 29 New York Times articles in the past year, including on Oct. 11 in "Americans Are Barmy Over Britishisms" by Alex Williams: Some phrases that were rarely heard 5 or 10 years ago suddenly seem ubiquitous.
And yet there is something in the language: if she was such a substandard mother, how did her three daughters grow up to be so "caring", as stated in the summing up?
There were a significant number of submissions from China in 2010, but only minorities of the submitted manuscripts were accepted for publication due to either substandard scientific quality or poor writing due to language issues.
11 The eligibility criteria were any studies (irrespective of language) that evaluated the prevalence of substandard or counterfeit medicines within a defined area.
This narrative review was based on literature searches conducted using PubMed to identify English-language articles giving relevant examples of substandard drugs; identified articles were hand searched for further relevant examples.
Compliance problems included bilingual courses taught by teachers who lacked required language or subject-matter certification, classes with substandard content, and failure to make yearly assessments of how well students are learning English.
In another well-known riff on euphemisms, he listed every imaginable racist slur along with example after example of "soft language" (toilet paper becoming bathroom tissue, slums becoming substandard housing).
Mr. Scheffler, who teaches English as a second language, hopes to teach in Asbury Park in what many call a substandard school system that discourages families from living here.
