LINGUIST List 7.1663

Sun Nov 24 1996

Sum: British vs. American English

Editor for this issue: Susan Robinson <robinsonemunix.emich.edu>

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  • John Hammink, Responses to BrE vs. AmE

    Message 1: Responses to BrE vs. AmE

     Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 21:55:40 +0200
    From: John Hammink <Hamjohnalfa.vte.fi>
    Subject: Responses to BrE vs. AmE


    I wanted to thank everyone who responded to my query regarding some of the general dissimilarities on all levels between British and American English. The responses were scattered far and wide across the linguistic spectrum, so here's a (very small) sample of the findings:

    There are so many overlaps and borrowings between the two that any of these findings may be, of course, questionable.

    The Corporal Department:

    American English uses the corporal singular (The government was...) British English uses the corporal plural (The parliament were...)

    The Restrictive-Relative Pronominal Department:

    British English prefers "which", while American English feels easier with "that".

    The Honorifics Department:

    In a conversation between people of the high professional, economic or academic stratum, American English tends to use the title and surname or firstname (Dr. Denning, Keith); British English tends often to use surnames alone (Seely).

    The Lexical and Morphological Item Department:

    AmE........................................BrE

    buy trade

    trade shop

    store shop

    warehouse store

    gotten *

    get get

    -ize -ise

    color colour

    (Of course, there's probably zillions more differences, and even the ones listed here are influenced by the same temporal forces which affect language divergence and convergence. If I've started a major academic controversy with this puny little list, well, too bad!!!!)

    Various Other Linguistic Phenomena

    It seems that Cambridge publishing house in New York as well as various publishers use the style manual of the American Psychological Association (why?). These folks tend to like things in the active as opposed to passive voice, as well as direct declarations to indirect past-perfect tense verb statements. Cathy Ball writes: 'As Chomsky has argued...' becomes 'Chomsky argued...' '...as we have seen...' becomes '...as I have shown...' Incidentally, many European academic writers (i.e. the folks at Kajaani and Jyvdskyld polytechnics seeking a more American model of academic writing) have objected to the preferred use of the active voice for various reasons. I have been able to overrule some of these objections myself. (More interested in this viewpoint? Try reading Writing with Precision by Jefferson Bates).

    The Selected Bibliography (Department)

    Below is a list of referred sources. For reasons of lack of time, I have left out the publishing house.

    Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language

    Quirk and Greenbaum A Concise Dictionary of Contemporary English

    Pyles and Algeo The Origins and Development of the English Language

    Bates, Jefferson Writing with Precision; How to Write so that You Cannot Possibly be Misunderstood. (A GREAT book, originally published in the '80's by Acropolis Books, now possibly out of print.)

    Carnegie, Dale How to Win Friends and Influence People (touches more on issues of cordiality and congeniality)

    Mencken, H.L. The American Language (Mencken, like many others in time began to minimize the difference between the two national standards)

    Robertson and Cassidy Development of Modern English

    Marckwardt American English

    Biber, Douglas (1987) 'A textual comparison of British and American Writing' American Speech vol.62

    Cectal English Dialogue Information Exchange. edie-cectalsheffield.ac.uk

    Nilsen, Thor Sigurd British and American English Pronunciation

    Gramley and Patzold A Survey of Modern English

    Bengt Altenberg's ICAME Bibliography (Just looking at the titles from this one opens up a universe of tiny differences and variations) I didn't have time to write this one down

    Quirk and Marckwardt's A Common Language for the Voice of America on BBC Radio, 1964 (I mean, really, I think these guys just couldn't think of anything at the time this one aired!)

    Strevens, Peter (1972) British and American English

    Hannah, Peter and Jean International English

    Anything by Ulla Connor, Eija Ventola, and Anna Mauranen.....

    Trudgill, Peter Dialects in Contact

    The Thank You Department.....

    Without these folks, this summary would never have been posible:

    Gillian Sankoff gilliancentral.cis.upenn.edu

    Rebecca Meyer meyerrmail.sdsu.edu

    Marie E. Heldt meh2dana.ucc.nau.edu

    Julie Reid J.Reidlatrobe.edu.au

    Christina Gitsaki cgitsakinucba.ac.jp

    Dr. Roly Sussex sussexcltr.uq.oz.au

    Monique Biemans M.Biemanslet.kun.nl

    Thor Sigurd Nilsen Thor.s.Nilsenhit.no

    Somebody DUBARTELLedinboro.edu

    Robert Sigley Robert.Sigleyvuw.ac.nz

    Catherine N. Ball cballguvax.acc.georgetown.edu

    J.A. Rea JAREAUKCC.uky.edu

    Laurie Bauer Laurie.Bauervuw.ac.nz

    M. Shuib M.Shuibsheffield.ac.uk

    Matti Koponen majukocc.jyu.fi (this person lives in my town and I STILL haven't met him!!)

    Jaroslav Mantour parasitefreenet.hut.fi

    Dr. Thomas Daniel Seely Seelyemunix.emich.edu

    Dr. Keith Denning Denningemunix.emich.edu

    Kiitos avusta!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!