british english.doc

美国人对英国人的英语，和英国人对美国人的英语都存在偏见，而且是十分深的偏见。这是两种文化的表现，两种思维方式的表现。从个人角度看，最难让中国人接受的英语应该是澳大利亚口音，当然不算印度和巴基斯坦口音。British English, American English, the same language?It was said by Sir George Bernard Shaw that England and America are two countries separated by the same language. My first personal experience of this was when I worked as a camp露营 counselor for two months in 2000 in Summer Camp run运行管理 by the Boy Scouts童子军 of America, as part of an international leader exchange scheme. Before I went, all the participants in the scheme were given a short list of words that are in common use in the UK which Americans would either be confused by or would even offend them. I memorized the words and thought Ill cope处理.When I finally arrived in the States three months later, I realized that perhaps a lifetime of watching American television was not adequate preparation for appreciating察觉 and coping with the differences between American and British speech. In the first hour of arriving at the camp I was exposed to High School American English, Black American English and American English spoken by Joe美口典型的美国 Public, all every different to each other. Needless to say, I did cope in the end. The Americans I met were very welcoming and helpful, and I found they were patient with me when I made a social fauxadj.假的 pas 舞蹈 when I used an inappropriate word or phrase.Upon my return I began to wonder whether anyone had documented用文件证件 证明 the differences between American and British English. I found several books on the subject but often these were written in a dry乏味的 and academic学术的 way. I felt that I could do better and use my sense of humor and personal experiences to help people from both sides of Atlantic to communicate more effectively when they meet.My research into the subject led me to several conclusions.Firstly, American English and British English are covering thanks to多亏了 increased transatlantic横跨大西洋的 travel and the media. The movement of slang俚语 words is mostly eastwards, though a few words from the UK have been adopted by the Ivy league fraternities团体(美国东北部哈佛、哥伦比亚等八个名牌大学的)常春藤联合会. This convergent集中的 trend is a recent one dating from从何时期开始 the emergence of Hollywood as the predominant占主导地位的 film making center in the world and also from the Second World War when large numbers of American GIs美国兵 were stationed驻扎 in the UK. This trend was consolidated加固 by the advent of television. Before then, it was thought that American English and British English would diverge as the two languages evolved发展. In 1789, Noah诺挪亚(男子名) Webster美国词典编辑家, in whose name American dictionaries are still published to this day, stated that: Numerous local causes, such as a new country, new associations of people, new combinations of ideas in the arts and some intercourse交流 with tribes部落 wholly unknown in Europe will introduce new words into the American tongue. He was right, but his next statement has since been proved to be incorrect. “These causes起因 will produce招致 in the course of time a language in North America as different from the modern Dutch荷兰语, Danish丹麦语 and Swedish瑞典语 are from the German or from one another.Webster had underrated the amount of social intercourse between England and her former colony殖民地. Even before Webster had started to compile编译 his dictionary, words and expressions from the America had already infiltrated渗透 the British language, for example canoe独木舟 and hatchet短柄小斧. Very few people in Britain realize how many of the words they use are of American origin. Often this importation进口 of American words has encountered a linguistic语言上的 snobbery势利行为 by the British, which was a manifestation显示 of the cultural snobbery that bedeviled使苦恼 Anglo英国人-American relationships for a long time. This is not, thankfully, the case now.Secondly, there are some generalizations概括 that can be made about American and British English which can reveal the nature of the two nations and their peoples. British speech tends to be less general, and directed more, in nuances细微差别 of meaning, attendant伴随的 murmurings低声说 and pauses, carries a wealth of shared assumptions假装 and attitudes. In other words, the British are preoccupied全神贯注的 with their social status within society and speak and act accordingly to fit into the social class they aspire追求 to. This is particularly evident when talking to someone from the middle class when he points out that he is upper middle class rather than middle class or lower middle class. John Major梅杰 (the former UK Prime Minister) may have said that we are now living in a classless society but the class system still prevails盛行. At that moment both he and the Leader of the Opposition反对派, Tony Blair, were talking about capturing the middle England, middle class vote as the key to winning the next general election. American speech tends to be influenced by the over-heated language of much of the media, which is designed to attach加入 an impression of exciting activity to passive被动的事情, if sometimes insignificant无关紧要的 events. Yet, curiously, really violent activity and life-changing events are hidden in blind antiseptic冷静的 tones that serve to disguise 伪装 the reality. Two examples come readily 容易地 to mind - the US Military with their friendly fire and collateral间接的 damages and the business world with their downsizing减少规模. British people tend to understatement谨慎的说法 whereas Americans towards hyperbole夸张法. A Briton 英国人 might respond to a suggestion with a word such as Terrific! only if he is expressing rapturous兴高采烈的 enthusiasm, whereas an American might use the word merely to signify表示 polite assent赞成.Thirdly, The American language had less regard than the British for grammatical语法上的 form, and will happily bulldoze用推土机推平 its way across distinctions区别 rather than steer朝前进 a path between them. American English will casually use one form of a word for another, for example turning nouns into verbs or verbs and nouns into adjectives形容词.