【论文】英式英語和美式英語在語言和文化上的差异.pdf

on linguistic and cultural differences between british and american english abstract english is one of the essential languages to the people. now it is mainly due to be divided into british english and american english. therefore, this language of two different types of contrast has been increasingly emphasized and it carved out more clearly compass. although britain is the birthplace of english, with the british occupation the united states, english has been bred in this land, and it also been evolved significantly. as a hundred years of evolution, american english has a full itinerary by its own national characteristics, and becomes an independent english model, it is completely different from british english. especially, in many important areas between two of them, they have significant differences, like in the part of language and culture, british english and american english has completely different characteristics. mark twain once said english and american are separate languages when i speak my native tongue in its utmost purity an englishman cant understand me at all.(twain 8). this paper analyzes british english and american english from the parts of linguistics and culture, in order to help learners to know more differences between this two native languages, and arouse their curiosity and creativity. therefore it will make more and more people enjoy the learning of english. keywords: linguistic differences, culture differences, british and american english i on linguistic and cultural differences between british and american english 摘要摘要 英语是人们工作,生活中必不可少的一门语言艺术。由于英语目前主要被区分 为英国英语和美国英语两种,因而这两种语言的在不同类型上的对比,也被人们越 来越强調和划分出更加清晰的界定。英国虽然是英语的发源地，但是随着英国对美 国的领土占领，英语也在美国這個美洲土地上被孕育，而且被演化，深入。因此， 随着著一百多年来的演变， 美国英语已经完全行程了具有自己本国特色的一种独立 的英语模式，与英国英语完全形成了差异。由于都是源于英语，因此英国英语和美 国英语还是存在很多基本的相似之处。但是，在很多主要的部分，两者之间都已经 有了明显的区别。尤其是在语言和文化上，英国英语和美国英语，已经完全呈现出 个字的特点和不同。马克 吐温就曾经这样说过英语和美语是两种被区分的语言, 当我说着自己的本土语言的时候英国人是不会明白我在讲什么的（吐温 8） 本文就从语言和文化两方面来逐一分析英国英语和美国英语之间的差异， 目的 在于帮助学习者了解更多有关英国英语和美国英语的差异所在， 从而激发学习者的 好奇心和创造力; 希望它能够培养学习者的探索创新精神，更加喜欢英语学习。 关键词关键词：语言差异,文化差异,英语和美语 ii on linguistic and cultural differences between british and american english contents chapter 1 introduction .1 chapter 2 review of historical english.2 2.1 the origin of english.2 2.1.1 old english.2 2.1.2 middle english .3 2.1.3 early modern english.4 chapter 3 on linguistic difference between british and american english.6 3. 1 the differences of pronunciation.6 3.1.1 vowels.7 3.1.2 consonants.7 3. 2 the differences of spelling.8 3.3 the differences of grammar.9 3.3.1 use of the present perfect.9 3.3.2 possession.10 3.3.3 present progressive (also known as present continuous).10 3.3.4 adverbs.10 3.3.5 plurals. 11 3.4 the differences of vocabulary.11 chapter 4 on cultural difference between british and american english .13 4.2 transport/transportation.15 4.3 greetings.16 chapter 5 conclusion.17 references.18 acknowledgements.19 iii on linguistic and cultural differences between british and american english chapter 1 introduction the english language was first introduced to the americas by british colonization, beginning in the late 16th century. similarly, the language spread to numerous other parts of the world as a result of british colonization elsewhere and the spread of the former british empire, which, by 1921, held sway over a population of about 470570 million people: approximately a quarter of the worlds population. over the past 400 years, the form of the language used in the americas especially in the united states and that used in the united kingdom and the rest of the british isles have diverged in many ways, leading to the dialects now commonly referred to as american english and british english. one particular contribution towards formalizing these differences came from noah webster, who wrote the first american dictionary (published 1828) with the intention of showing that the united states spoke a different dialect from britain. this divergence between american english and british english once caused george bernard shaw to say that the united states and united kingdom are two countries divided by a common language; similar comment is ascribed to winston churchill. likewise, oscar wilde wrote, we have really everything in common with america nowadays, except, of course, the language (wilde 25). henry sweet predicted in 1877 that within a century, american english, australian english and british english would be mutually unintelligible. it may be the case that increased world-wide communication through radio, television, the internet, and globalization has reduced the tendency to regional variation. this can result either in some variations becoming extinct (as, for instance, truck has been gradually replacing lorry in much of the world) or in the acceptance of wide variations as perfectly good english everywhere. often at the core of the dialect though, the idiosyncrasies remain. nevertheless, it remains the case that although spoken american and british english are generally mutually intelligible, there are enough differences to cause occasional misunderstandings or at times embarrassmentfor example, some words that are quite innocent in one dialect may be considered vulgar in the other. 1 on linguistic and cultural differences between british and american english chapter 2 review of historical english the history of english begins a little after a.d. 600. the ancestors of the language were wandering in the forests of northern europe. their language was a part of germanic branch of indo-european family. the people talking this language spread to the northern coast of europe in the time of roman empire. among this people the tribes called angels, saxons, jutes which is called anglo-saxons come to england. the first latin effect was in that period. latin effected the language with the merchants traveling the tribes. some of the words taken from latin are; kettle, wine, cheese, butter, cheap. also in the 14th century rome empire weakened because goths attacked to mediterranean countries of roman empire and anglo-saxons attacked to empire. on the other hand the celtic tribes in scotland and wales developed. at the end in 410 the last roman emperor left the island to celtic and anglo-saxons. celtic and anglo-saxons fought for 100 years and anglo-saxons killed all the celtics. in 550 anglo saxons established england. during roma empire latin wasnt the native language of the kingdom because people in the country were talking celtic. when anglo-saxons became christian in 597 they learned latin. according to the effects to english, the history of the language divided in to three; old english(7th century-1100), middle english(1100-1450/1500), modern english (1500-now). in some books modern english is divided in to two early modern (1500-1700) ,late modern (1700-now).( baugh 129131) 2.1 the origin of english 2.1.1 old english when england was established there were several kingdoms and the most advanced one was nurthumbria. it was this period that the best of the old english literature was written , including the epic poem beowulf. in the 8th century nurthumbrian power declined,west saxons became the leading power. the most famous king of the west saxons was alfred the great. he founded and 2 on linguistic and cultural differences between british and american english established schools, translated or caused to be translated many books from latin in to english. after many years of hit-and-run raids between the european kingdoms, the norseman landed in the year of 866 and later the east coast of the island was norsemans. norse language effected the english considerably. norse wasnt so different from english and english people could understand norseman. also borrowed pronouns like they, their, them. it is supposed also that the norseman influenced the sound structure and the grammar of english. old english had some sound which we dont know have now. in grammar , old english was much more highly inflected that middle english because there were case endings for nouns, more person and number endings of words and a more complicated pronoun systems, various endings for adjectives. in vocabulary old english is quiet different from middle english. most of the old english words are native english which werent borrowed from other languages. on the other hand old english contains borrowed words coming from norse and latin. 2.1.2 middle english between 1100-1200 many important changes took place in the structure of english and old english became middle english. the political event which effected the administration system and language was the norman conquest. in 1066 they crossed the channel and they became the master of england. for the next several next years ,england was ruled by the kings whose native language was french. on the other hand french couldnt become the national language because it became the language of the court,nobility,polite society, literature. but it didnt replace as the language of the people. english continued to be the national language but it changed too much after the conquest. the sound system and grammar wasnt so effected but vocabulary was effected much. there were word related with goverment:parliment,tax,goverment,majesty; colors:blue, scarlet, vermilion; household words: curtain, chair,lamp,towel,blanket; play:dance,chess,music,leisure,conversation;literary:story,romance,poet,literary; learned:study,noun,surgeon,anatomy,stomach;ordinary:nice,second,very,age,bucket,final, 3 on linguistic and cultural differences between british and american english gentel,fault,flower,count,sure,move,surprise,plain. (clark 622 ) middle english was still a germanic language but it is different from old english in many ways. grammar and the sound system changed a good deal. people started to rely more on word order and structure words to express their meaning rather than the use of case system. this can be called as a simplification but it is not exactly. languages dont become simpler , they merely exchange one kind of complexity for another(clark 622 ) for us middle english is simpler that old english because it is closer to modern english. 2.1.3 early modern english between 14001600 english underwent a couple of sound changes. one change was the elimination of a vowel sound in certain unstressed positions at the end of the words. the change was important because it effected thousands of words and gave a different aspect to the whole language. the other change is what is called the great vowel shift. this was a systematic shifting of half a dozen vowels and diphthongs in stressed syllables. for example, the word name had in middle english a vowel something like that in the modern word father;.etc. the shift effected all the words in which these vowels sounds occurred. these two changes produced the basic differences between middle english and modern english. but there are several other developments that effected the language. one was the invention of printing. it was introduced to england by william caxton in 1475. after this books became cheaper and cheaper, more people learned to read and write and advanced in communication. the period of early modern english was also a period of english renaissance, which means the development of the people. new ideas increased. english language had grown as a result of borrowing words from french ,latin, greek. the greatest writer of the early modern english period is shakespeare and the best known book is the king jones version of the bible. 4 on linguistic and cultural differences between british and american english 2.1.4 recent developments the first english dictionary was published in 1603. another product of the 18th century was the invention of english grammar. as english is replaced with latin as the language of scholarship, it was felt to control the language. the period where english developed was most in the modern english. in that period the people speaking that language increased too much. now, english is the greatest language of the world spoken natively and as a second language. 5 on linguistic and cultural differences between british and american english chapter 3 on linguistic difference between british and american english english is spoken in many countries either as the mother tongue or as a second language. thats why instead of english there are many englishesvariations of the language. in this article ill focus on the two mostly commonly used versions of english british and american english. before we take a look at some of the differences between the two main types of english id like to stress that these differences are somewhat minor and with the ongoing internationalization of our modern world they could even said to be diminishing. when you go to the uk and switch on the tv you will see a lot of american shows, movies and films which, of course, are shown in the original, american version. thus, especially young people watching tv will learn a lot of american vocabulary and phrases which they easily internalize and use as their own. it follows, modern british english is much more likely to be influenced by american english than the other way round because when you live in the us and watch tv you rarely will see a british show or film. another area where us english dominates is international business. most globally operating companies are based in the us and hence the influence of american english terminology is very strong. (hemann 263264) 3. 1 the differences of pronunciation there are dozens if not hundreds of different ways to speak english. i cant cover all the varieties of accents, dialects and derivations of spoken english in this article. lets focus on the basics here. there are two major standards of spoken english british and american english. interestingly enough rp received pronunciation, which is also known as queens english or oxford english) is spoken only by about 5% of the uk population which means there are many different dialects to be found in the british isles. if you travel the 6 on linguistic and cultural differences between british and american english uk you will notice that the differences in pronunciation are stronger and wider than in the us although the latter clearer is the bigger country. i think this is due to the fact that statistically the average us american relocates more often within the us than his british counterpart. a dialect develops when people live closely together for a longer period of time and the community creates their own unique way of speaking. no doubt people in the southern us states have that distinctive rawl whereas people from boston sound pretty different. but lets focus on the major differences between rp and standard us american english. 3.1.1 vowels the most different of the vowel between british english and american english is the schwa. in british english, the pistachio vowel in a unit usually sounds in the non-repeaters short sound, like about and in the cochlear er, such as computer. in american english, er seldom to be used as muddy vowel, but sometimes, some short sounds, like i, u, even u are used as muddy vowel, such as sentimental, actuality, wuss and hooker, etc. the representative distinction between british english and american english is er. in british english, the short sound er is the pistachio vowel as mentioned above, it is just a draw of the pistachio vowel. but in american english, it is sound like r (there are some exceptions developed into pistachio vowel) apart from the short sound light reading (as singular) and after the vowel (as clarity). and in british english, ar is all the long a: here is a more important distinction in vowel pronunciati