The Linguistic Culture-2 (british media) (1157929), страница 25
Текст из файла (страница 25)
Words had to be provided for all aspects of their new life:names of rivers, mountains, lakes, plants and animal world, for implements and food .TheIndian languages gave the colonists a lot of such words and thousands of geographical namesall over the USA. The names Palmyra, Washington, Alabama, Alaska, Chicago, Idaho,Massachusetts, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Manhattan (island of hills) and many others are of theIndian origin.
Such words as canoe, moccasin, wigwam, toboggan, tomahawk, squaw,raccoon, opossum, skunk, moose, caribou ,totem, etc. were also borrowed from the Indians.Besides the Indian influences, American English reflects the other non-Englishcultures, which the colonists and frontier men met in their conquest of the continent. As weknow, in theexpansion of their territory, the English-speaking colonists came into contactwith the French and Spanish. Some of the borrowings from these languages proved to be veryproductive in American English.
Words like liaison, rendezvous, silhouette, prairie, chowderand rapids came from French. Creole, mulatto, canyon, ranch, sombrero, rodeo, mosquito,lasso cafeteria, hammock, stampede, vigilante were acquired from Spanish. Opera, pizza,dominoes are of Italian origin.The Dutch settlers also contributed some words to American English. Among thewidely used words of the Dutch origin are Yankee, boss, roster, cookie, Santa Claus.The words of German origin found their way into the American vocabulary as well:frankfurter, hamburger, semester, seminar are among them.The black slaves from Africa brought to North America not only their culture, songs andmusic but also words: jazz, hippie are probably African in origin.Linguistic NationalismThe American Revolution marked the turning point in the creation of new, American variantof the English language.
For Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, and the other leaders of theAmerican Revolution, American English was one of the weapons for independence, forforming national consciousness. After the Revolution the problem of having a nationallanguage acquired great political significance .The extent to which the English languagebecame a political problem is illustrated by the curious procession, in New York on July 23,1788, which coincided with the ratification of the new American Constitution. An associationof young men, called the Philological Society, carried the coat of arms and a book inscribed“Federal Language”, emphasizing the strong desire of many Americans to break with theclassical British English.John Adams and Thomas Jefferson made the first attempts to renovate the English language.Jefferson was fascinated by words and liked to invent the new ones.
“Belittle” was one of hismost famous, much laughed at in London at his time. Benjamin Franklin, who founded thefirst free public library in the USA, was also interested in the reform of the English language.In 1768, he published a paper entitled “A Scheme for a New Alphabet and a Reformed Modeof Spelling”. His ideas were not adopted, but made a profound influence on further USlinguists. One of the first to publish the Grammar book in New York was Lindley Murray(1745-1826), the author of “English Grammar, Adapted to the Different Classes of Learners”(1795).All revolutionary ideas of Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and Murray were implemented in theworks of the greatest America’s lexicographer Noah Webster (1758-1843).Noah Webster’s Language ReformsThe most famous of all American dictionary-makers, NoahWebster was as influential in the history of American English asGeorge Washington in the American Revolution.From hisDissertations on the English Language in 1789 to his greatmonument of 1828, an American Dictionary of the EnglishLanguage (referred to simply as “Webster’s”), his work was thereal landmark in American language history.Webster was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and, like manyother American revolutionaries, started teaching as a means of living..
During the war forindependence, schoolbooks, traditionally imported from London, were in short supply. Besides,in Webster’s view, they were unsatisfactory for American children. He complained that theEnglish language used in such books had been corrupted by the British aristocracy, who set itsown standards for proper spelling and pronunciation. He claimed to “save our native tongue fromthe clamor of pedantry” surrounding the English language and provide a specific Americanapproach to training children. So, still in his twenties, Webster set about filling the gap andpublished three-volume compendium “A Grammatical Institute of the English Language”,consisting of a Speller(1783), a Grammar (1784) and Reader(1785).The "Speller" had the greatest success and sold more than 80 million copies, turning outto be a runaway bestseller.
It was written so that it could be easily taught to elementary pupils,and it progressed by age. Most people called it the "Blue-Backed Speller" because of its bluecover, and for many years it was the main textbook in American elementary school.The royalties gave Webster the money to continue working on his political activity andlinguistic reforms. Webster toured the United States, convincing that "America must be asindependent in literature as she is in politics, as famous for arts as for arms”, and to accomplishthis she must protect the literary products of her countrymen by copyright.
Webster also wrotehis vigorous Federalistic work Sketches of American Policy (1785). In Philadelphia, where hepaused briefly he published his politically effective An Examination into the Leading Principlesof the Federal Constitution (1787).In 1806, Webster published his first Dictionary, the next step in his program tostandardize the American language The following year, at the age of 43, Webster began writingan expanded and comprehensive dictionary, "An American Dictionary of the English Language",which took him twenty-seven years to complete. To supplement the etymology of the words,Webster learned twenty-six languages, including old Anglo-Saxon and Sanskrit.He completed his two-volume Dictionary after returning fromEuropean tour andpublished it in 1828, when he was already 70.
His book contained seventy thousand words andbecame the culmination of Webster’s efforts on Americanization of the English language.The dictionary was not sold well at Webster’s lifetime and to bring out his second editionWebster had to mortgage his house. On May 28, 1843, a few days after he had completedrevising an appendix to the second edition, Noah Webster died.in debt and poverty.Though not all Webster’s ventures were recognized at his time, his contribution in thecreation of American language is hard to overestimate. His name became synonymous with theword “dictionary”, and. his works on linguistics had an enormous influence on Americanstandards of spelling and writing.
By including thousands of technical and scientific terms,Webster laid the groundwork for modern lexicography and very many dictionaries published inthe USA still bear his name.Two Nations separated by the same languageOnce a famous Irish playwright Bernard Show said that America and England were twonations separated by the language. What are the main differences between British andAmerican English now?There are a few grammatical differences.UUTo begin with, some British irregular verbs (e.g.
burn, learn, etc.) turned into regular ones inAmerica. Past participle of get became gotten.Americans say “Do you have a car?” where British people would prefer to say: “Have you gota car?The auxiliary word shall is used more seldom, and model verb may in the meaning“permission” has been changed for can.So-called “bare infinitive” (without to) is used after help, insist, suggest, etc.: The doctorinsisted / suggested that the injured man be taken to hospital.Past Simple (not Present Perfect) is often used with modifiers just, already, yet:” I’m nothungry. I just had lunch”. “Don’t forget to mail the letter. I already mailed it”.One may say that Americans tend to use articles more loosely than Englishmen. The definitearticle is often omitted in America after “all” in cases where it would be considered necessaryin English.
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