Found in Translation: The Standard in Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies”

Abstract

As Tony Bex points out: "Since the seventeenth century the concept of Standard English has referred to a 'common core of language', an ideal or value to be met, the 'true' meanings behind words, the language of the literati, and those items of vocabulary listed in the Oxford English Dictionary. More often than not, however, linguists and educationalists attempt to unite all these senses, giving rise to paradoxical and confusing theses." (Bex & Watts 1999, 86) We will take as a starting point Trudgill's definition of what Standard English is not: