>Robin Chapman <rjc@ivorynospamtower.freeserve.co.uk> writes: > >> What is "British English"? Still means nowt to me. > > So look it up on the web.
He might equally well look it up in _A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language_, by Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik (Longman Group UK Limited, 1985; ISBN 0-582-51734-6). In particular, he might do well to read 1.23, "Standard English" and 1.24, "British and American English", and particularly I.74 (pp. 1580-1581), "Clippings".
>> Your persistent irrelevance is most baffling. I spoke of >> standard English, not "British English". > > There is nothing particularly standard about the variety of English >that you prefer, whatever you call it.
