The Linguistic Culture-2 (british media) (1157929), страница 26
Текст из файла (страница 26)
So Americans say “all day”, “all night”, “all morning”, “all week,” “allsummer”. A difference in the order of words may be noted in the use of the indefinite article.An American might say “a half dozen”or “a half hour”, whereas an Englishman would say“half a dozen”, “a half of an hour”.On the matter of prepositions there is some difference between English and American usage,too. Thus Americans say: “the worst accident in (not for) years”, “five minutes after (notpast) three”, a quarter of three, the man on (not in) the street, on the train, (not in it). He isthe best player on the team (not in the team); to write someone (without to).American English also tends to coin and use more freely nouns compounded from a verb anda preposition, such as blowout, checkup, fallout, feedback, etc.
New words are frequentlycreated by shifting the function of an existing word. Nouns are used as verbs: to park, topackage, to program, to vacation, adjectives can become nouns: briefs, comics, reds .Punctuation-Use of commas and periods inside quotation marks;-Word order in date writing;-Business letter salutations, colons vs. commasThough British and American spelling is the same in most cases, it differs in a few detailsUUowing to N. Webster’s reforms. The British word reflection is written in America asreflexion,Centreascenter,Catalogueascatalog,Programmeasprogram,Organisation, analyseasorganization, analyze,Defence, licenceasdefense, license,Travelling, cancellingastraveling, canceling,Practiseaspractice.There are differences in the intonation and pronunciation in two languages. as well.American English intonation does not rise or fall as much as that of British English, it soundsmore monotonous.
American voices usually have a higher pitch. That is why AmericanEnglish often seems too emphatic and American voices seem louder than those of Britishspeakers.American pronunciation is more nasalized than English. There are certain differences in thepronunciation of both consonants and vowels: AE [ae] – BE [a:] in class, last, bath; [ju:] ispronounced like [u:] in such words as «tube», «duty», «new» that are after the initial t, d, n, s,and z. ^ instead of [ O ] e.g.
“hot” [h^t], “body’ [b^di], “college” [k^lidз]. American [r]unlike the British [r] is pronounced with no friction and the tip of the tongue is curledbackward.-American [L] is always dark (твердое)-[t] is often omitted after [n]: “twenty” [‘tweni]-Voiceless consonants become voiced in the intervocalic position , e.g. “better” [‘bedэ]Here are some other examples of these differences:Pronunciation in B.E.Pronunciation in A.E.Chance, last, past [‘tIa:ns, ‘la:st, ‘pa:st][ ‘chains, ‘laest, ‘paest]Duke, suit[ ‘du:k, ‘su:t ][‘dju:k, ‘sju:t }Doctor, stop, pot [‘dоkta, ][‘d^kt ,’st^p , ‘p^t]Butter, atom[‘b^tэ, ‘aetэm][‘ b^ dэ , ‘aedэ m]Plenty, twenti[‘plenti, ‘twenti][‘pleni, ‘tweni]Clerk[‘ klэ: k][k’la:k]Either, neither ( A.E.- [i:], B.E.- [ai]), advertisement (A.E.-[ai], B.E.-[э:]tomatoB.E.{a:},A.E.{ei}; process-B.E.{эu}, A.E.{a}; candidate(, A.E.[ei] B.E.[I]).It is necessary to keep in mind, that pronunciation and intonation may be different indifferent American dialects.
The major dialect areas, recognized in American English areEastern New England, Western or Middle American, and Southern Americans can easilyidentify a man as a New Englander or a Southerner after hearing him say a few words. Thereare people who believe that the New England variety is a truly cultural form of speech, andthere are many Southerners who are quite sure that their way of speaking is the Americanbest.The speech of New England (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont) is characterized bythe retention of rounded vowel in words like ”hot” and “path” and flat a. The ConnecticutRiver is an important regional dialect boundary, separating the r-less dialect of Boston fromthe other regions. Southern dialect is characterized by the loss of r finally before theconsonants and by the unrounded vowel (as in father, grass, dance, path).
Instead ofdiphthong [aw] southerners pronounce sound [a] house, South, out. Many speakers insertglide in Tuesday [tyua-] and make no distinction between vowels in pin/pen. Final consonantcluster reduction occurs in words like last and kept (these are pronounced something like lassand kep). People in the southern states speak with a drawl - they tend to speak slowly andlengthen the last sound of each word. They use contracted Y’all for You all, expressions like“Howdy, y’all” for “Hello, everybody”.
President Clinton, from Arkansas, had a southernaccent.In New York City, especially in the boroughs outside Manhattan, many people speak socalled New Yorkese.Speakers of New Yorkese often speak very fast and tend not topronounce “r” in words that end in “er”. A word like “water’ sounds like “wata”. Thepresence or absence of “r” has become class marker. The pronunciation of curl as coil andbird as boid is characteristic of working-class speech.The language which teenagers often like to use is strongly influenced by popular musicand fashion. The immediate examples: Yinz, yunz, you’uns (plural you): Hey yoy, gues; Mypeoples = my parents; I were = I was; I didn’ have no money; there ain’t no sense= there is nosense; got’em=got them; gimme=give me; I ain’t got= I haven’t got; oughtta=ought to; niggergal= black girl; Whaddaya think she’s talkin’ about? (What do you think she’s talkingabout?), wysi-wyg (what you see is what you get)Black American or Afro-American Speech has also some peculiarities.One theory holds that this variety of American English developed from so-called pidginEnglish – the language first used by black slaves of different African languages forced tocommunicate with each other and their owners.
Another view holds that Black English resultsfrom the retention of British English features that have not been retained in other varieties ofAmerican English.American VocabularyOne of the peculiarities of American English is the usage of a number of medievalEnglish words, which are no longer used in Britain today. When the earliest English colonistscame to America they were speaking English of the 17-th century. The words fall (autumn),used by Shakespeare, and corn (which means in England any grain, e.g .wheat) are immediateexamples.
Some old English words have developed new meanings. The very popular wordsheriff, which meant in England or Wales a person appointed by the King to carry outceremonial duties, and in Scotland the senior judge, in America is applied to the person whoobserves the law in the state. The word guy (a boy, or a man in A.E. in informal use) camefrom the name of one of the most popular villains in England Guy Fawkes who organizedGunpowder Plot against King James 1 in 1605.Here are a few examples of British and American words, meaning the same phenomenaor people:B.E.A.E.B.E.GovernmentAdministrationGoods trainfreight trainSecuritiesbondslabeltagBanknotebank billsome time agoa way backChairmanpresidentchildrenkidsManagerexecutivepostmailMinistersecretaryform(at school)gradeMilliardbilliontramstreet carLeadereditoriala tina canOffertendera billa checkGuaranteewarrantya carpeta rugTo run a businessto operate businessa cara automobileGoods trainfreight traina lorrya truckLabeltagtimetablescheduleBiscuitscookiesintervalintermissionSecondary schoolhigh schooltapfaucetBarristor/solicitorattorneysweetscandyWhen your flight deplanes (B.E.-disembarks) in America, you take carry-on (handbaggage), get a cart (trolley), stand in a line (queue) to receive your baggage (luggage) in theairport.
If you want to continue your journey by railroad (not railway- B.E.), you won’t buyyour ticket at the booking-office but at the ticket-window, and the man who sells it to you isnot the booking-clerk, but the ticket-agent. The train is already waiting and you get into a caror a sleeper (B.E.- a sleeping carriage). After your journey you get out on the track (platform)and take a cab ( a taxi) or go by subway ( tube, underground) to the hotel or Americanfriend’s of yours. If you want to fix a meeting ( to arrange a meeting) with the friend, it willbe best to call him up (not to ring up). If you don’t have enough change you may use a collectcall ( B.E.- charge transferred).IF your friend has an apartment ( a flat) on the second floor (B.E.-first floor) or over,you take an elevator (lift) to come to him. If he lives in a house, he may have a yard (agarden).
In the house there is a living room with a dining area, a bedroom and a bathroom.There is a closet (B.E. “wardrobe”) in the bedroom, there are draperies (curtains) on thewindows, rugs (carpets) in all rooms. In the bathroom there is a tub (a bath) and a faucet(taps).When an American goes out he may walk along a sidewalk, (pavement) to the downtown(to the center). He uses the crosswalk ( pedestrian crossing) to cross the street. He puts gas(petrol) at a kitty-corner (diagonally opposite) gas filling station into his automobile, thendrivers along a freeway (motorway), takes left ( turns left) and after about three miles hecomes to the Interstate (the main motorway in the US connecting different states).
The storycan be continued on and on.The origin of many common American words and phrases is very interesting andpeculiar. Here are some of them:Uncle Sam. That name used to belong to an Americanman Samuel Wilson who marched in a parade in the style of dress that had been copied forthe picture innewspaper drawings.
Later this name became national personificationof the USA, and sometimes more specifically of the AmericanGovernment.Yankee This term was at first applied to the inhabitants of the Dutchcolonies in North America, especially to those who lived in NewAmsterdam, i.e. New York. Dutch name Jan corresponds to English John and Kee may be thepet form of another typical Dutch name.
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