It is also interesting that the written documents which are cited here as
appropriate models for the spoken language are British ones (in other
places, Prince Charles has been very critical of the damage that has been
done to English by its speakers on the North American continent). Most
important to the discussion immediately at hand is the way this picture of
language perfection takes as a departure point the idea that the various
mediums of language are one and the same. Here we see mention of
spoken language, speeches (which can be given as planned but
extemporaneous speech, or the reading out loud of written language), and
written language.
This proclamation by the future king of England builds on a tradition
which goes back to Socrates, who suggested that the gods took a direct
interest in language:
Hermogenes: And where does Homer say anything about names, and
what does he say?
Socrates: He often speaks of them – notably and nobly in the places
where he distinguishes the different names which gods and men
give the same things. Does he not in these passages make a
remarkable statement about the correctness of names? For the
gods must clearly be supposed to call things by their right and
natural names, do you not think so?
(Hamilton and Cairns 1961: 429–430)More recently, in an event which is almost certainly apocryphal,^16 Miriam
“Ma” Ferguson, the first female governor of the State of Texas, expressed
the decisive argument against bilingual education (and unwittingly, for
more and better history and geography instruction) by drawing on the (for
her) ultimate authority: “If English was good enough for Jesus Christ,” she
declared, “then it’s good enough for the schoolchildren of Texas”
(Handbook of Texas 2009).
It has been pointed out that “writing and speaking are not just
alternative ways of doing the same things; rather, they are ways of doing
different things” (Halliday 1989: xv). That is, we write things that tax our
ability to remember (genealogies, instruction manuals, legal documents),
or to project our thoughts through space and time. We speak everything
else. But aren’t they the same thing, just as water is water whether it