The Lexical Differences Between American English and British English 英语专业毕业论文.doc

The Lexical Differences Between American English and British EnglishAbstractWith the development of the two countriesAmerica and the U.K., the differences in some fields are clear and are also reflected in their languages. Even though there are many similarities in both variants, there are many differences in lexicology because of different regions, social backgrounds, the ways of peoples thinking, etc. This paper discusses the differences in lexicology between British English and American English and their tendency through the historical development of the two variants.Key WordsAmerican English; British English; the lexical difference 摘要美国是一个移民国家,美国英语主要是十七世纪英国英语在美国的进一步发展。美国英语和英国英语虽然有很多相同之处,但是由于历史文化和社会背景及人们的思维方式导致了很多的不同。随着社会的发展,美国英语与英国英语的差别越来越显著。本文通过回顾分析英国英语和美国英语的历史演变和发展过程,论述了美国英语和英国英语在词汇方面存在的主要差异，通过了解两种英语在词汇方面存在的差异,使英语学习者比较容易地掌握某一种英语以及正确地表达英语包含的丰富的知识。本文同时还指出了美国英语以其独有的特点和语言艺术魅力越来越受到人们的关注,从而探讨英语的发展趋势。关键词美国英语；英国英语；词汇差异 IntroductionAmong the thousands of different languages in the world there is only one that can claim to be a more or less universal languageEnglish. It is estimated that there are over 300 million native speakers, of whom some 200 million live in the United States and some 50 million in the United Kingdom. In addition to native speakers there are about 500 to 700 million people using English, which makes the total number of speakers nearly one-forth of the worlds population. Today, American English is particularly influential; there are many other varieties of English around the world, including, for example, Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English. Among the different variants of English the two best known are American English and British English. There do exist differences between the two, just as many differences in the varieties within themselves. To be consistent in the use of English, and more importantly, to be understood, the nonnative speaker needs to know which words have distinct meanings and pronunciations depending on whether they are used by an Englishman or an American. This is necessary not only for sake of communication, but also to avoid embarrassment. This paper will focus on how American English came to be different from British English in lexicology. . Historical Background of British and American EnglishA. The History of British EnglishThe history of the English language can be dated from the arrival of three Germanic tribes to the Britain during the 5th Century AD. Angles, Saxons and Jutes crossed the North Sea from what is the present day Denmark and northern Germany to Britain. The inhabitants of Britain previously spoke a Celtic language. However, it was quickly displaced by the language brought with the invaders. Most of the Celtic speakers were pushed into Wales, Cornwall and Scotland. One group migrated to the Brittany Coast of France where their descendants still speak the Celtic Language of Breton today. The Angles were named from Engle, their land of origin. After experiencing constant development, immigrates language had changed into the current English. Up to now, it has more than one thousand five hundred years, which some scholars divided into several stages in order to illustrate the history of English. However, they did not divide it in the same way. “Here quotes the way of American professor Kennedy who divided historical process of period into such three stages” (Guo Boyu 5).1. The Period of Old English The period from 450 to 1100 is known as the Old English. The earliest period begins with the immigration of certain Germanic tribes from the continent to Britain in the fifth century A. D., though no records of their language survive from before the seventh century, and it continues to the end of the eleventh century or maybe a bit later. As having been seen that English language did not simply spring into existence; it was brought from the Continent by Germanic tribes who had no form of writing and hence left no records. Philologists know that they must have spoken a dialect of a language that can be called West Germanic. By that time Latin, Old Norse (the language of the Viking invaders), and especially the Anglo-Norman French of the dominant class after the Norman Conquest in 1066 had begun to have a substantial impact on the lexicon. The following brief sample of Old English prose illustrates several of the significant ways in which English has transformed. A few of these words will be recognized as identical in spelling with their modern equivalents - he, of, him, for, and, on etc., and some of words are familiar to modern words, which can be easily guessed, such as wære to were, wæs to was, of which only these who have made special study of Old English can understand what their meanings are.Following American independence, famous persons like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Webster began to consider that the country should have a language of its own. English in America has developed a character of its own, reflecting the life and the physical and social environment of the American people. As time went on, the English language gradually changed on both sides of the Atlantic. The Americans adopted many words from foreign languages and invented large number of new words to meet their various needs. .Reasons for the Development of American EnglishA. Being in Different RegionsBritish English changed after the emigrants left their homeland while American English formed after the colonists settled on the continent. The Origin of American English was in the Colonial Period in the 17th century when the English language first came to America with the colonists. After arriving in the new continent-North America, the early settlers were not with just the only English language; there undoubtedly were several different dialects and they obviously had to cope with a general lack of uniformity of speech. It is also obvious that the changes producing the two variants of English happened on both sides of the ocean. In those days it was very difficult for an immigrant in America to be in contact with people left behind in the old country and therefore the changes in language on either side did not transfer to the other. Life in America, in a totally new environment, was different from the life of the settlers; therefore language had to evolve because of the necessity of talking about new things, qualities, operations, concepts and ideas. There were features of colonial and frontier life that did not have an expression in the British English language; they encountered new plants, domesticated fish and animals. Later they found themselves living among tribes of indigenous peoples who spoke strange languages, wore strange clothing, prepared strange foods and maintained tribal customs quite different from anything they had previously encountered. Even landscapes were different from the English countryside. All of these unfamiliar things needed to be named in order to lead their new life in the continent without obstacles. Therefore, they have created new words for new things they had seen.B. Borrowing Words from Other CountriesBorrowing words from the Indians, French, Spanish, Dutch, Germans and Africans is another way to make American English vocabulary different from those of British English. Actually, British English had also borrowed words from some of these countries, but compared with Britain, the words borrowed in American English were greatly and diversely different at such a certain time. One simple way of creating new names was borrowing them often from the native Indian languages. Many of the original Indian words contained sounds and had linguistic features that did not occur in English; therefore the words often changed considerably both in form and meaning in the borrowing process. “For instance, such words as hickory, pecan, chipmunk, squaw and raccoon are American Indian borrowings” (Guo Boyu 65).The spheres of life represented by these borrowings show that the largest number of Indian loan words is connected with the Indian institutions and civilization. In these cases, as for these strange things they had previously met, it was also obviously easier to borrow the Indian term than to create a new one out of English elements. It was equally obvious that these terms were not transferred to British English, since these vocabularies were not present in Britain.From the early days of colonization, America became the melting pot of different nationalities and cultures. As these cultures came in contact with one another, they also influenced the language. Besides the Indian language, sources for loaned words of American English were all the other languages that were present in the immigration. In the westward expansion of their territory, the English-speaking emigrants soon came into contact with the French words.American English also borrowed words from Spanish. In the period of moving south toward the Gulf of Mexico and moving west toward the Rockies, the Anglo-Saxon settlers encountered permanent and substantial Spanish colonies. It is obvious that the largest groups of borrowings from the Spanish reflects the hacienda culture, which typified the Spanish colonial occupation and the ranching and mining economy which developed out of it.Contacts with the Dutch colonialists were established in the 17th century. However, Dutch sailors had been in contact with the colonialists long before that. Some of the words borrowed from Dutch are wholly or in part translations rather than direct appropriations. The Germane migrations to America started also in the late 17th century. The contacts between the German and English-speaking immigrants have been to a large extent cultural, since a large portion of the borrowings from German concentrates on food terms and pleasant but commonplace social contact.One must not forget another big group of different kind of "immigrants" that influenced the American English the black people who were transported from Africa as slaves. Such words as gumbo, jazz, voodoo, okra and chigger are Africans. Therefore African words are also widely used in American English. These are just a few examples of loan words; there are also many more languages, representing smaller groups of immigrants, which have also made contributions to the American English vocabulary. All have done their part to make American English what it is today. C. Revolting Politics and Ideology in North AmericaNorthern American people fight against the autocratic rules of Britain in order to get their own freedom and rights. This kind of offensive attitude towards to Britain plays a very important role in the process of American English development. The people in North America dislike and hate British arts and literature that are related to British English. They want a language with American feature which is different from British English. More and more scholars and authors think that they should use their own language to write books and to create without depending on British English. Noah Webster was one of them who made a great contribution to developing American English vocabulary.Webster is a dictionary publisher. Thanks to him, the American and British versions of the English language became separate, unique languages. In 1807, he began to write an expanded dictionary, “An American Dictionary of the English Language,” which would reform the language again, drawing it closer to his New England roots and making it a unique American language. The dictionary was published in 1828, and was an instant best seller. The book was also unique in that it contained a large number of Biblical definitions, more than any previously published reference, because Webster believed that the Bible and Christianity should play an important role in the lives of a free people and its government. Webster changed the spelling of many words in his dictionaries in an attempt to make them easier to pronounce. Many of the differences between American English and other English variants originated this way. The modern convention of having only one acceptable and correct spelling for a word is due mostly to the efforts of Webster, in standardizing spelling. Prior to this, the popular sentiment toward spelling might have best been summed up by Benjamin Franklin. A second edition of the dictionary was published in 1840, and a few days after Webster had finished revising the appendix to the second edition. Websters influence in American English lexicology, through his dictionary, has continued to today. The Different Meanings in American English VocabularyACreation of American LexiconNorth America has given the English lexicon many thousands of words. Several thousands words are now used in English as spoken internationally; however, several words died within a few years of their creation. All of these vocabularies are not found in British English. The process of coining new lexical items started as soon as the colonists began borrowing names for unfamiliar flora, fauna, and topography from the Native American languages. Examples of such names are opossum, raccoon, squash, and moose. Other American Indian loanwords, such as wigwam or moccasin, describe artificial objects in common use among Native Americans. The languages of the other colonizing nations were also added to the American vocabulary; for instance, “cookie, cruller, and pit (of a fruit) from Dutch; levee, portage, and gopher from French; barbecue, stevedore from Spanish” (Li Xia 4).Among the earliest and most notable regular words additions to the American vocabulary, dating from the early days of colonization through the early 19th century, are terms describing the features of the North American landscape; “for instance, run, branch, fork, snag, bluff, gulch, neck (of the woods), barrens, bottomland, notch, knob, riffle, rapids, cutoff, trail, timberline, and divide etc, which have new meanings that were unknown in England” (Chen Yan 3). All of these words had changed their spelling to same degree. With the new continent developing new forms of dwelling, a large number of words designating real estate concepts are such as land office, lot, outlands, waterfront, the verbs locate and relocate, betterment, addition, subdivision, types of property such as log cabin, adobe in the 18th century; frame house, apartment, tenement house, shack, shanty in the 19th century; project, condominium, townhouse, mobile home, multi-family in the 20th century. B. Different Meanings between American and British English“The word corn, used in England to refer to wheat (or any cereal), came to denote the plant, the most important crop in the U.S., originally named “Indian corn” by the earliest settlers; wheat, rye, barley, oats, etc. came to be collectively referred to as grain or breadst