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第二章 英语词汇的发展

第三课时 

主要内容： 英式英语和美式英语异同

British & American English 

Contents:  The growth of American English and the characteristics of American English

Objectives: Ask students to consider and understand the differences between B.E and A. E.

Difficult points:  

Procedures: 

Step I  Brief review of the last lecture 

Step II  Presentation 

1.Discuss with students about the growth of American English

2.Consider  American English vocabulary

3.Do exercise  

Step III Answer students’ questions 

Step IV Homework

Ⅰ. The growth of American English

     Earlier in the seventeenth century, the language taken by Captain John Smith to Virginia and by the Pilgrims to Massachusetts was Elizabethan English. Ben Jonson, for example, was then at the height of his career and Shakespeare was still writing when Jamestown was settled. Plymouth Colony was founded before the publication of Shakespeare's First Folio and less than a decade after the completion of the Authorized Version of the Bible.

     Elizabethan English sounded somewhat different from its contemporary counterpart. For instance, in Shakespeare's time, both the /i:/ and the /ei/ sounds could be heard in such words as meat, teach, sea, tea, lean and beard. Shakespeare was capable of rhyming please with either knees or grace. The same fluctuation could be noticed in the words pronounced with the vowels of /e:/ and /a:/. Shakespeare rhymed convert with art, serve with carve, heard with regard. This shows that the pronunciation of many of these words had not yet become standardized in Elizabethan English.

Ⅱ. Characteristics of American English

     1. Conservativeness and creativeness in usage

     American English contains archaic features of the language which have disappeared in England itself. Some words now obsolete in England are familiar and in common use in America. The word loan, for example, when used as a transitive verb, is labelled an Americanism in most dictionaries. British usage prefers lend. Verbal loan originated in England, perhaps as early as 1200. There is no question about the authenticity of lonyng as it appears in the state papers of Henry Ⅷ, and two seventeenth-century citations recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary are equally unmistakable. Loan occurred in a verbal function in American writings as early as 1729. For the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, American writers continue to furnish the bulk of evidence for its use.

Ⅲ. Differences between British English and American English

    1. Differences in pronunciation

    The most marked difference between British English and American English lies in the pronunciation of the vowels of dance, fast, grass and half. Americans pronounce these words with a sound / ae /as in cat, whereas their British cousins pronounce them with a sound / a: / - a broad / a / . Another noticeable difference can be found in the pronunciation of words like for, door, farm and lord. In America these words are pronounced with r sounded as a fricative, whereas in England it is silent except in expressions like far away and the door opens where a linking r is naturally inserted. In addition, Americans pronounce words like dock, fog, hot and rod with a low back a sound /a/ like the vowel sound in car and father shortened. They pronounce words like dew, duke, new and steward with the /ju:/ sound reduced to /u:/ so that dew and duke sound like /du:/ and /du:k/.

     Further, it may be noted that both word-stress and sentence-stress are weaker in American than in British English, and intonation is more level. Consequently, American speech is more monotonous, but at the same time it is generally more distinct. Unstressed syllables are pronounced with more measured detachment and therefore with greater clarity. In words like temporary and extraordinary, for example, Americans invaribly give prominence to the unstressed syllables and consequently, great audibility. In words like dormitory and necessary, they habitually places a secondary stress upon the penult or last syllable but one. Some words Americans stress differently from the English. The former stress aristocrat and primarily on the second syllable whereas the latter stress them on the first. Conversely, Americans stress address and inquiry on the first syllable whereas the English stress them on the second. Other words, like advertisement and financier are stressed on the second syllable in England but on the third syllable in America.

     2. Differences in spelling

     In dealing with the spelling of the American vocabulary, people usually turn to Webster's New International Dictionary as an official guide. It sanctions such spellings as -or for -our in honor and favor for British English honour and favour; -er for -re in center and meter for British English centre and metre; one consonant for two in traveler and wagon for British English traveller and waggon; -s- for -c- in the substantives defense and offense for British English defence and offence; various simplifications such as ax, catalog, check, jail, mask and program for British English axe, catalogue, cheque, gaol, masque and programme. Hundreds of American spellings have won acceptance in English, not only public for publick, jail for gaol, cider for cyder, asphalt for asphalte, and the like, but also the -or spellings for all agent substantives - author, censor, donor, tailor, tutor and visitor - all, in fact, except paviour and saviour.

    3. Differences in vocabulary

     If an American junior executive goes to London, to work in the British branch of his firm, he finds that in a few respects business speaks a different language over there. He must learn to call bonds "debentures" and a payroll a "salary sheet". He doesn't get a raise in salary, but a "rise" - here the New York Times follows British usage. He finds that he has, not a white-collar job, but a "black-coat" position. A soft snap is a "cushy job". A sit-down strike becomes a "stay-in" strike. A realtor is a " house and estate agent". A check stub is dignified as a "cheque counterfoil". And in the advertising field, a billboard becomes "hoarding".

     There are novel words for items of ordinary living. The American must look not for an apartment but for a "service flat". He goes up not in an elevator, but in a "lift". If he looks around for a lunch counter, he'll find it under the sign of a "snack bar" (this term is now coming into use in America). If he forgets the key to his "flat", it would do no good to try to climb in through "transom", for in British nomenclature (terminology) that means the horizontal bars across a door-or window-top; what Americans call a transom is a "fanlight". An American porch-climber or second-story man is a "cat burglar". You ring not for the janitor, but for the "caretaker", to make repairs to the "tap" (American English water-faucet). Groceries come up in the "kitchen lift", not a dumbwaiter. For dinner, you have a "sweet" - the masquerade for dessert; the biscuits served at tea time are neither hot nor are they in the American sense; they are what we call cookies. You get a "cut from the joint" rather than a slice off the roast.

     The preceding two passages are taken from How to Double Your Vocabulary by S. Stephenson Smith. Now we will quote a passage from Our Language by Simeon Potter to show how an Englishman is made aware of differences in vocabulary when he arrives in the United States.

     ...he (an Englishman) decides to continue his journey by rail, that is, by railroad. He does not register his luggage but he checks his baggage, which is then placed, not in the luggage van, but in the baggage car, perhaps he must first rescue it from the left-luggage office, which, he discovers, is called the check-room. A goods train is referred to as a freight train and a brake-van becomes a caboose. He looks for the inquiry office in order to corroborate details and he finds that it is called the information bureau; or he may decide to consult a bulletin-board, in England a notice-board, or a schedule, in England a time-table, on his own account. He is surprised to learn that a season ticket is a commutation ticket and that a season-ticket holder is a plain commuter. The driver of his train is the engineer and the guard is the conductor. He hears someone refer to a switch, which turns out to be a point, and he soon discovers that a grade crossing is merely a level crossing. When he reaches his destination he finds an automobile waiting for him at the railroad depot. He cannot help noticing that the windscreen is called the windshield, the bonnet the hood, and that petrol is alluded to as gasoline or plain gas. That explains why the filling station is named the gas station and why accelerating is described as stepping on the gas...

     In spite of all the above differences between British English and American English it should be noted that unifying factors outweigh splitting factors and that there are potent forces at work bringing the two main streams of English closely together. American and British scholars are stepping up their cooperation in the writing of composite books addressed to the English-speaking countries and the councils of learned societies have taken steps to standardize technical terminology. The ubiquity of radio and television, the interchange of films, novels, journals, plays and the presence of communication satellites - all serve to make the divergence narrower and narrower.