[actionfromafar]

When C was conceived, it was made for a specific DEC CPU, for making an operating system. The idea of a C standard was in the future.

If you wanted to know what (for instance) memcpy actually did, you looked at the source code, or even more likely, the assembler or machine code output. That was "the standard".

[da_chicken]

I think it's reasonable to assume that GP clearly meant the C standard being conceived, as, obviously, K&R's C implementation of the language was ad hoc rather than exhibiting any prescribed specification.

[anticensor]

No, K&R's book was the standard.

[actionfromafar]

First came the language, then a few years later they described it in a book.