Реферат на тему British and Americans variants of English. Lexical differences.(Британские и американские варианты английского языка. Лексические различия.)

Содержание:

Introduction. 3

1. History
of the Formation of American English. 4

2. The
main types of lexical discrepancies. 6

Conclusion. 13

Bibliography. 15

Введение:

English is a multinational language: “the British version gave rise to
the American version, followed by the Australian and South African ones. And
now, in the 21st century, we are dealing with the Nigerian, Indian and
Singaporean variants … ”[1].

Currently, the American version of the English language is especially
widespread: “in a number of spheres of human life and activities in the field
of material culture, economics and finance, education and health care and many
other areas — the American version is increasingly spreading throughout the
world and tends to oust the British … ”[2].
However, despite this, teaching English in many countries, including Russia,
was focused on the British version of the language for many years, while the
American version had to be mastered in practice, and very few — those who, in
connection with their professional activities, need had to communicate with
native speakers of American English.

All of the above explains the relevance of this article.

The goal is to identify differences in the vocabulary of British and
American English; systematize the main differences between British and American
English. The main differences between the various variants of polynational
languages are phonetic, lexical and grammatical.

The subject of work is British and American
English. Subject of research: the last two types of differences, as the most
noticeable for learners of English.

The structure of the work: the work consists of a reference, two
chapters, a conclusion and a list of references. [1] Александрова О.В.
Современный английский язык для филологов: морфология и синтаксис: Учеб.
пособие. — М.: Дрофа, 1998. – C.
41 [2] БлохМ.Я. Теоретические
основы грамматики. — М.: Высш. шк., 2004. – C. 47

Заключение:

In this work,
the following was proved:

Don’t spelt
my name wrong.

1. American
English is a local language only, not a stand-alone language. As shown in the
work, the American version of the English language has neither its own special
vocabulary, nor its own special grammatical structure.

2. In
general, American English is characterized by a simplified spelling (for
example, eliminating redundant characters, an example of eliminating exceptions
to the rules, using less common graphic variants of words by more common ones).
But at the same time, all these processes are carried out on the material of
the English language.

3. The
statement about the mutual penetration and assimilation of the American and
British languages was proved, as well as the fact that, in general, the role of
semantic differences is small, since the version of the English language spoken
in the United States is understandable to the speakers of the British version
and vice versa.

The
difference between American and British English is quite noticeable. However,
the opinion that there are significant differences between American and British
English is just a myth. In fact, there are not so many of them. However, there
are more and more differences between these two variants of the language every
year. This raises the question of which language to learn — British or
American?

According to
many Russian linguists and teachers, the “correct” language is the British
version, more precisely, that part of it called the “accepted standard” (RP).

By the way,
correct basic English is also needed in order to understand other variants of
the language, dialects and peculiarities. I think that a person with good
classical English will not disappear anywhere and, if necessary, will be able
to readjust quite easily, get used to another modification of the language.

In my
opinion, it is necessary to start with the British version also because it is
the most complete and rich language. American grammar is noticeably simplified
compared to British grammar. American English can be called a
"sloppy" language. The British version is more particular, more
scrupulous. There is a huge variety of intonation patterns in it, in contrast
to the American one, where there is practically one: an even scale and a
descending tone. This intonation pattern also determines the entire sound
structure of the American version. In British English, there are many scales:
descending and ascending, stepped and sliding. The same applies to tones: if
you tighten (or understate) the sound a little, and you will be recognized as a
foreigner. The Americans themselves, by the way, treat British English with
reverence. Americans call British English refined — they never had this
language, just as, naturally, they did not have what is called "English
traditions and culture."

All of this,
naturally, speaks in favor of the British option for studying at school. But,
undoubtedly, schoolchildren studying English need to explain the basic lexical and
grammatical differences between the two variants of languages ​​- such work
should become one of the main ones in the study of linguistic and cultural
material. At the same time, the British version of English should be the main
one.

Фрагмент текста работы:

1. History of the Formation of American
English. In the early seventeenth century, colonists from England began to bring
their language to America. The first English settlement in North America was
founded in 1607 — it was the city of Jamestown in what is now Virginia. In
November 1620, the city of Plymouth was founded by Puritans on board the
Mayflower[1].

The inhabitants of these two settlements had different linguistic
traditions. The colonists of Jamestown “came mainly from the western part of England,
from counties such as Somerset and Gloucestershire, with a characteristic
pronunciation for these places (voicing of the sound [[2]s],
that is, the name of Somerset they pronounce as Somerset, and the booming
pronunciation of the sound [r] after vowels) ”. Plymouth colonists arrived from
the eastern counties of England (Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Essex, Kent)
and London, where the dialects were of a slightly different kind — so, the
sound [r] after the vowels was absent there. These sonic differences continued
to persist. The speakers of various dialects settled to the west and south. And
although the picture of the spread of dialects has never been clear due to the
constant migration of the population from north to south and in the opposite
direction and the influx of emigrants from various countries of the world,
differences at the level of dialects continue to persist in the United States
today.

In the XVII-XVIII centuries. flows of emigrants are constantly growing,
bringing with them a variety of languages and dialects. For example, the state
of Pennsylvania was populated mainly by Quakers, who usually came from the
middle and northern parts of England.

The formation of the language of the colonies was influenced not only by
England. Already in the 18th century. a wave of immigrants from Ireland poured
into North America. In the West and Southwest of the modern United States,
Spanish was the dominant language. Immigrants from France settled along the St.
Lawrence River. New York, originally called New Amsterdam, was dominated by the
Dutch language. The Germans settled in Pennsylvania. In addition, a large
number of blacks were imported into the southern regions, who became the object
of the slave trade. All these new inhabitants of North America (do not forget
also the indigenous people — Indians) contributed to the formation of the
dialect of the colonies.

Mass emigration to a new state — the United States of America —
continued in the 19th — 20th centuries. At the same time, despite the abundance
of languages and cultures of the new settlers, English remained the dominant
language. “Due to the natural process of assimilation, most immigrant families
began to speak English within one or two generations” [3].
But the multicultural nature of the United States is not hard to see. In the
United States, there are personal names that have retained their national
features: Spanish — Rodolfo, Dolores, etc., Italian — Antonio, Niccolo, Paolo,
etc., Portuguese — Mario, Manuel, Raul, etc., German — Rupert, Rudolf,
etc"[4].

However, the English language of the North American colonies was
significantly enriched through borrowings. The settlers borrowed words from
Indian languages to denote plants they were unfamiliar with (for example,
hickory — a genus of hazel, or persimmon — persimmon) and animals (raccoon —
raccoon, woodchuck — woodchuck). The words chowder are borrowed from the French
language — a kind of chowder, prairie — prairie; from Dutch — the words scow —
scow, skiff, sleigh — sleigh. Many new words have appeared by combining already
known ones, for example, backwoods — wilderness, backwoods, bullfrog — bullfrog
(a kind of frog). Many English words have received a new meaning, for example,
lumber in meaning. "Trash" (used in English in a narrower sense — rags,
rags); honeycomb meaning "corn" (in England this word previously meant
any grain, usually wheat).

Obviously, new words appeared to the extent that many new realities
appeared in the life of former Europeans, for which there were no words in
English and other languages.

It is often argued that if colonization had occurred two or three
centuries earlier, American English would be as different from British English
as modern French is from Italian, i.e. instead of different variants of the
same language, different languages would appear. However, colonization took
place after the invention of printing and continued into the Enlightenment with
its ideas of universal education. For a long time, most of the books read in
America were in English. Moreover, many colonists continued to maintain ties
with England, in which they differed from their Anglo-Saxon ancestors, as is
known, who broke all ties with the continent after moving to the British Isles.
Pro-English-minded Americans condemned all sorts of "Americanisms"
that emphasize the difference between them and the British.

At the present time, many "Americanisms" have become
widespread even in the British version of the English language. [1] Швейцер А.Д. Очерк
современного английского языка в США. — М.: Высш. шк., 1963. – C. 112 [2] Заботкина В.И. Новая
лексика современного английского языка: Учеб. пособие. — М.: Высш. шк., 1989. –
C. 94 [3] Антрушина Г.Б., Афанасьева
О.В., Морозова И.Н. Лексикология английского языка. -М.: Дрофа, 2000. [4] Аракин В.Д. История
английского языка. — М.: Просвещение, 1985.