“The term ‘standard grammar’ is most typically associated with written language, and is usually considered to be charact...

The term ‘standard grammar’ is most typically associated with written language, and is usually considered to be characteristic of the recurrent usage of adult, educated native speakers of a language. Standard grammar ideally reveals no particular regional bias. The typical sources of evidence for standard usage are literary texts, quality journalism, academic and professional writing, etc. Standard grammar is given the status of the official record of educated usage by being written down in grammar books and taught in schools and universities. Spoken transcripts often have frequent occurrences of items and structures considered incorrect according to the norms of standard written English. However, many such forms are frequently and routinely used by adult, educated native speakers. Standard spoken English grammar will therefore be different from standard written English grammar in many respects if we consider ‘standard’ to be a description of the recurrent spoken usage of adult native speakers. What may be considered ‘non-standard’ in writing may well be ‘standard’ in speech.