A Brief Analysis on Differences between American English and British English 淺析英式英語與美式英語的差異

1、淺析英式英語與美式英語的差異一、 課題(論文)提綱0.引言1.英式英語與美式英語的歷史與演變1.1英式英語的歷史1.2美式英語的歷史1.3美式英語對英式英語的影響2.剖析英式英語與美式英語的不同2.1發(fā)音差異2.2詞匯差異2.3拼寫差異2.4語法差異3.英式英語與美式英語在實際應用中的差異3.1信件習慣上的不同3.2在人家交流中產(chǎn)生的歧異3.3行話差異4.英語的現(xiàn)狀與未來5.結(jié)論二、內(nèi)容摘要全球一體化的今天，英語作為世界通用語言，在人們的日常生活中，不論是民間交往或官方交流中扮演著極其重要的角色。由于美國已經(jīng)處于國際上較高的地位，美式英語逐漸流行起來，美式英語與英式英語成為了英語語系中比較重要

2、的兩種。并且也已被一向高傲的英國人承認，而且英國人開始學習使用比較簡單化的美式英語。雖然美式英語同英式英語一樣都是英語，但是其不同之處甚多。英語在眾多的英語國家中都有各自的方言，俗語層出不窮，當然誤解意思的事情也經(jīng)常發(fā)生。同時在現(xiàn)代的生活中，時間是每個現(xiàn)代人寶貴的財富，傳統(tǒng)的英式英語相對復雜，而美式英語便捷實用，符合歷史的潮流。英國，美國，加拿大等英語大國的學者也已經(jīng)意識到這種趨勢，并且從語法，詞匯，使用等方面總結(jié)出兩種語言的差異。關鍵詞：英式英語；美式英語三、 參考文獻1albert c baugh and thomas cable, a history of the english lan

3、guage, routlege, 1993. 2崔更國，英國英語和美國英語語言用法上的不同，石家莊鐵路工程職業(yè)技術學院，2004.6，第3期。3david s. jackson, 流行美語，上海：上海世界圖書出版公司，2004.4侯寧海，美語、英語分類對照手冊，合肥：中國科學技術大學出版社，1997。5李賦寧，英語史，北京：商務印書館，2004。6林天送，21世紀英美文法，北京：中國國際廣播出版社；（臺灣）建宏出版社，1999。7劉榕，試論英國英語和美國英語的詞匯差異，寧德師專學報，2003，第2期。9俞杰，英語的變易，北京：外語教學與研究出版社，2005。a brief analysis o

4、n differences between american english and british english abstractin todays global integration, english, as the common language in the world, plays a quite important role both in civilian communication and official communication in our daily life. owing to the us is the overlord in this world, so a

5、merican english is getting more popular. american english and british english have become the two relative important languages in english phylum. and american english has already been accepted by british people who are toplofty all the time. at the same time, the british also begin to learn and use

6、this simplified language. although, american english is almost the same as british english, they still have some differences. there are many different localisms of their own among many english countries and such localisms are always emerging endlessly. sometimes, of course, misunderstanding between

7、them is unavoidable. meanwhile, the time is a treasure for people in the modern life. and the traditional british english is comparatively complicated while american english is convenient and practical, because american english seems more in accordance with the tide of history. the scholars of many

8、big english-speaking countries such as britain, america and canada have been on to the trend. they have also summed up the differences between the two languages from the grammar, vocabulary and using etc. key words: british english; american english 0. introduction for the 21st century today, the wo

9、rld is becoming smaller and smaller as to the development of high-tech. the world transformed countries one by one into a global village from the navigation century to the high speed conveyance at present. in this huge village, there are many people with different complexion; different agnate and di

10、fferent tongue lived. after lengthy years, english became the primary language in this big family. and the differentiation appeared in the evolvement of english itself, it divided into british english and american english. the following article will analyze the differences of the two english phyla.1

11、. the history and evolvements of british english and american englishits good to comprehend nowadays for study foretime, but the deeply knowledge of nowadays is also the precondition of compute foretime exactly. this article will try to cast back the context of british english and american english.

12、and in nowadays, the american english is taking the leading place of british english.1.1. the history of british english english is a west germanic language that originated from the anglo-frisian dialects brought to britain by germanic invaders from various parts of what is now northwest germany and

13、 the netherlands. initially, old english was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the anglo-saxon kingdoms of england. one of these dialects, late west saxon, eventually came to be dominated. the original old english language was then influenced by two further waves of invas

14、ion: the first by speakers of the scandinavian branch of the germanic language family, who conquered and colonized parts of britain in the 8th and 9th centuries; the second by the normans in the 11th century, who spoke old norman and ultimately developed an english variety of this called anglo-norma

15、n. these two invasions caused english to become “mixed” to some degree.cohabitation with the scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical enrichment of the anglo-frisian core of english; the later norman occupation led to the grafting onto that germanic core of a mo

16、re elaborate layer of words from the romance languages. this norman influence entered english largely through the courts and government. thus, english developed into a “borrowing” language of great flexibility, resulting in an enormous and varied vocabulary.1.2. the history of american english ameri

17、can english is a set of dialects of the english language used mostly in the united states. approximately two thirds of native speakers of english live in the united states. english is the most common language in the united states. though the u.s. federal government has no official language, english

18、is considered the de facto, “in practice but not necessarily ordained by law”, language of the united states because of its widespread use. english has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments. the use of english in the united states was inherited from british colonization. the f

19、irst wave of english-speaking settlers arrived in north america in the 17th century. during that time, there were also speakers in north america of spanish, french, dutch, german, norwegian, swedish, scots, welsh, irish, scottish gaelic, finnish, russian (alaska) and numerous native american languag

20、es.1.3. the impact of american english on british englishwhile british english and american english belong to the same phylum, but during the three hundred years after the first group of europe immigrant, the two languages were going their own way. american english has developed a new method of talk

21、, partly is due to the differences of condition of living and the other part absorbed the language of other immigrant. the chief differences between british english and american english are the intonation of talk and rhythm. and there are also many differences in vocabulary. for example, politician

22、has a derogatory sense in american english but not in british english. in american english solicitor means salesman or beggar but it means lawyer in british english. near the few ten years, because the development of trade, military affairs and technology has made america become more and more strong

23、 and important in the world. as to the american film is very popular, the slang in america penetrate to the spoken english. nowadays, people who accept the american english most quickly are the younger in british, and the tendency is improving. obviously, the origin of american english development i

24、s the american film, tv program, media and music and so on. for example the rap music, many young people like that and it is very popular. american english has also influenced the hidebound british english in trope. american english is more acceptable by neoteric.2. the specific differences between

25、british english and american englishthe variety of english that was spoken in the usa is called american english. american english grew out of british english of the 17th century. with the further growth of the united states, american english has evolved from a “colonial branch” to a variant or nati

26、onal standard of english. the characteristics of american english are marked by apparent contradictions: creativeness in enriching the language versus conservativeness in preserving a number of archaic features; the use of short and poignant expressions, including slang, versus fondness of big words

27、; homogeneity manifested by heavy borrowings from other tongues versus relative uniformity which is, in a sense, close to homogeneity; and the use of verbose style in official papers versus plain language in popular writing. these properties combine to make american english a distinctive variety of

28、the english language.2.1. differences in pronunciationon a whole, the similarities between the two kinds of pronunciation are greater than the other differences. the nature of the differences in pronunciation between general american and standard british english has been discussed by many authoritie

29、s, there are many chief differences in vowel、diphthongs such as fast: |fa:st| (british english) |fest| (american english) ;want |wnt|(british english) |want| (american english) and so on. as to consonants, in british english the letter “r” is not pronounced before a consonant; at the end of a word,

30、r is pronounced if the next word begins with a vowel such as: farm |fa:m|, door |d :|. the digraph “wh” is pronounced |w| in british english, but |hw| in american english. for example, when which in british english, |wen|; american english, |hwen|. further, different phonemes may be used in the same

31、 word. this is found only with individual words. for examples: ate |et| (british english)-|eit| (american english).identical systems of stress and rhythm are used by british and american english. there are, however, a few words that have their stress on a different syllable. for some examples: addre

32、ss(british english-address(american english), advertisement (british english)-advertisement (american english).finally, intonation differences, as for the major differences in intonation between british english and american english, some observers report that, to their ears, englishmen cover a wider

33、 range of tone in speaking and carry it higher than americans, while americans pitch their voices within a very narrow range and they are in the habit of speaking drawlingly and clearly, that is, americans speak flatter, slower, and clearer than englishmen. statistics tell us that the rate of uttera

34、nce for average englishmen is 220 syllables per minute, while that for ordinary americans is 150-175 syllables. thats why, to most people, spoken american english seems easier to understand than spoken british english.2.2. differences in vocabularythe differences between british and american english

35、 in vocabulary can be grouped into the following three types:1). words without counterparts:when the english colonists settled in america, they made and borrowed a lot of words and expressions to name the plants, animals, features of landscape and life new to them. these words together with those co

36、ming into existence later, esp. since independence, constitute a part of the vocabulary of american english which has no counterpart in british english. some typical examples are: foothill, gap, bayou, canyon, hickory, logroll, electoral, college, lynch, new deal, wetback, drive-in, rock-and-roll, e

37、tc.2). a same word has different meanings:for the sake of convenience of expressions, the early settlers in america often gave an existing word a new meaning. further, some meanings of words have become obsolete in britain, but survived in america. moreover, a group of words simply changed their mea

38、nings in the usa. all these combined to account for the fact that quite a number of same words have different meanings on both sides of the atlantic. the following examples may be used to illustrate the point: the word “l(fā)umber”, which originally meant “disused goods” in britain, was given the new se

39、nse of “timber”; the word “mad” was used in the sense of “angry” in shakespeare time, later this sense became obsolete and acquired the meaning of “insane” in britain, but americans continue to use the word in the old sense; the numeral “billion” means “a million millions” in british english, but am

40、ericans have changed it to mean “a thousand million” in the united states. the americans have also changed the meaning of “bill, enjoin, guy, pressman, veteran, table,” so these words have different meanings in the two countries.3).the same ideas or objects expressed by different words. the most not

41、iceable difference in vocabulary is that the british and americans use different words to express the same idea or object. this difference covers a very wide range of vocabulary. here are only some examples: the british english words, “trousers, biscuit, flat, cupboard” are respectively equal to the

42、 american english words: “pants, cracker, apartment, closet”.2.3. differences in spellinggenerally speaking, the differences in spelling between american and british english were brought about by two factors:1). the english which the colonists brought to the new continent allowed great variation in

43、spelling, sometimes the variant which became standardized in america was different from that used in england;2). noah webster and eminent persons like benjamin franklin proposed numerous reforms on spelling among which some were generally accepted and became the forms peculiar to american english. t

44、he american and british systems are essentially the same, except that, as the following differences show, the american variant is simpler than its english counterpart: our-or, colour-color; ou-o, mould-mold; re-er centre-center; gue-g, dialogue-dialog and so on. there are also some special cases suc

45、h as cheque-check, cigarette-cigarette and storey-story. all in all, the british and american spelling systems are essentially the same except that the american spelling has some simplified way. nowadays hundreds of american spellings have won acceptance in british english.2.4. differences in gramma

46、ron the whole, american and british english use the same grammar system. there are few differences in number and trifling in nature. the following are some main divergences: (1).on the verb phrase，american english prefers to “have got” for possession (do you have the time? vs have you got the time?)

47、; answers also tend to vary (i dont vs i havent); american english prefers such forms and there are some special past tense forms; american english also sometimes uses a simple past tense while british english use a present perfect (i just ate vs ive just eaten).(2) in the noun phrase there are some

48、 differences in word order (e.g. hudson river vs river thames, a half hour vs half an hour) and the use of article “the” (in the future vs in future, in the hospital vs in hospital); american english prefers collective nouns in the singular (the government is), whereas british english allows plural

49、also (the government are).(3).clausal patterns sometimes differ, as in american english (come take a look vs come and take); american english also makes more use of the subjective, as in (i asked that he go vs i asked him to go) and prefers were to was in such sentences as i wish she were here.(4).s

50、everal differences are existed in prepositions and adverbs for example, american english (its twenty of four vs its twenty to four).3. there are also some differences between american english and british english in practical application.3.1. differences in letterthere are some differences in letter

51、communication between the two languages. it is a comma after the form of address and underwrote yours faithfully in british english, but it is a semicolon and ended by truly yours in american english.3.2. divergence in intercommunionthe difference of intercommunion is usually found in the internatio

52、nal travel. the traveler and businessmen always make many mistakes and jokes because of the differences of vocabulary and usage. in addition, there is also little difference when people make phones. 3.3. differences in lingoevery vocation has a different universal term for communication such as the

53、type of equipment, and people must abide by the bylaw, method, terms. it will make lots of mistakes if people dont know about the differences.4. the status and future of the english languageenglish language is one of the most widespread languages in the world. the count of english speaker is just le

54、ss than the chinese mandarin speaker. in 1970s, there were 280,000,000 person used english as the native language. in addition, there were 120,000,000 person used english as the second language. nowadays the count is getting to exceed the actual count. the count of people use english as a foreign la

55、nguage is increasing day by day, so we still have no statistic. people regard english as a second language means english is an official language for the government deal with daily civil service. at the same time it is also a language for studying and teaching every day. people regard english as a fo

56、reign language in order to communicate well in politics interlocution, commerce, economic cooperation and culture communication people regard english as a foreign language. and regard english as foreign language to deal with scientific research, trade, tour, enjoy literature and invention and so on.

57、 at the same time, owing to the state of america is getting stronger and stronger than great britain in the world, and together with the american english use conveniently and the grammar is easy to understand. for the popular trend at the present, american english has the possibility to replace the british english. for example, germany, france, switzerland, japan and other countries use english as a foreign language. teaching in schools mainly use american english, but in china, in order t