同学们，本栏目是对你们学过的知识和生活中常见问题的归纳。其中，有一些共性问题，也许你会需要哦！

让我来帮你解决常见问题！

Question1: What is the standard variety?

Answer:

The standard variety is the form of a language used by the government and communication media, taught in schools and universities and is the main or only written form. The standard variety is the most widely used in a community. It is more fixed than other varieties, allowing less variation in pronunciation, spelling/writing and grammar. Mandarin Chinese and RP English are both standard varieties of the two languages.

Question2: What is the difference between dialect and accent?

Answer:

The term dialect denotes a wider notion than the term accent. A dialect is a variety of a language that is distinctive from varieties in vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. The term accent is used for less drastic differences which are restricted to variation in pronunciation.

Question3: How do you distinguish Pidgin from Creole?

Answer:

The term pidgin is the label for the code used by people who speak different languages. A pidgin is not the native language of any group. It is confined to very limited communicative purposes, such as trade. Pidgins are mixed languages that are simplified syntactically and lexically.

A creole is a mixed language which has become the mother tongue of a speech community. Creoles are not confined to certain functions of language nor reduced in syntax and lexis.