Jack, I actually think Standard English is a better term than Received English. While Received in some ways is better at evoking both the historical nature and the artificiality of what I prefer to call Establishment English, Standard is better at evoking the continuing effort to maintain an agreed set of rules. Close to "flying the flag" in some ways. Once upon a time there were two Standard Englishes: London English and Edinburgh English. Both of them were actively employed in the defense of court prerogatives as well as the legitimacy of their legal systems. Contracts required language that was steady for more than the season or two that represented the lifespan of typical slang vocabulary. One of the few redeeming reasons to read Walter Scott these days is the way his novels reveal the tensions between these two Standard Englishes after the union of Scotland and England in 1700, as well as their relationship with other less orthodox dialects. Since those days other places like Boston and Melbourne have emerged as centers of their own Standard Englishes. The age of such authoritative centers seems to be passing quickly, but it's probably a tribute to the strength of English as a living language that few governments are as foolishly protective of it as the French still are towards their language.