USA (798448), страница 14
Текст из файла (страница 14)
American Vocabulary. One of the peculiarities of American English is the usage of a number of medieval English words, which are no longer used in Britain today. When the earliest English colonists came 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 immediate examples. Some old English words have developed new meanings. The very popular word sheriff, which meant in England or Wales a person appointed by the King to carry out ceremonial duties and in Scotland the senior judge, in America is applied to the person who observes the law in the state. The word guy (a boy, or a man in A.E. in informal use) came from the name of one of the most popular villains in England Guy Fawkes who organized Gunpowder Plot against King James 1 in 1605.
Here are a few examples of British and American words, meaning the same phenomena or people:
B.E. A.E. B.E. A. E.
Government Administration Goods train freight train
Securities bonds label tag
Banknote bank bill some time ago a way back
Chairman president children kids
Manager executive post mail
Minister secretary form (at school) grade
Milliard billion tram street car
Leader editorial a tin a can
Offer tender a bill a check
Guarantee warranty a carpet a rug
To run a business to operate business a car a automobile
Goods train freight train a lorry a truck
Label tag timetable schedule
Biscuits cookies interval intermission
Secondary school high school tap faucet
Barrister/solicitor attorney sweets candy
When your flight deplanes (B.E.-disembarks) in America, you take carry-on (hand baggage), get a cart (trolley), stand in a line (queue) to receive your baggage (luggage) in the airport. If you want to continue your journey by railroad (not railway- B.E.), you won’t buy your ticket at the booking-office but at the ticket-window, and the man who sells it to you is not the booking-clerk, but the ticket-agent. The train is already waiting and you get into a car or 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 American friend’s of yours. If you want to fix a meeting (to arrange a meeting) with the friend, it will be best to call him up (not to ring up). If you don’t have enough change you may use a collect call (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 (a garden). 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 the windows, rugs (carpets) in all rooms. In the bathroom there is a tub (a bath) and a faucet (taps).
W 
hen 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, then drivers along a freeway (motorway), takes left ( turns left) and after about three miles he comes to the Interstate (the main motorway in the US connecting different states). The story can be continued on and on.
The origin of many common American words and phrases is very interesting and peculiar. Here are some of them:
Uncle Sam. That name used to belong to an American man Samuel Wilson who marched in a parade in the style of dress that had been copied for the picture in newspaper drawings. Later this name became national personification of the USA, and sometimes more specifically of the American Government.
Yankee This term was at first applied to the inhabitants of the Dutch colonies in North America, especially to those who lived in New Amsterdam, i.e. New York. Dutch name Jan corresponds to English John and Kee may be the pet form of another typical Dutch name. Yankee became the designation of any inhabitant of New England, and sometimes of the whole United States.
OK. The origin of the American word “okay” generally abbreviated to two letters OK, is quite obscure. One of the versions is that O.K. represents the initial letters of “all correct”. The establishment of the new word was reinforced by the use of the letters “O.K.” for signing official documents during the Presidential term of general Andrew Jackson (1829-1837), who could not be called a well-educated person. OK seems to occur more frequently nowadays in England than in the land of its origin and may be found in quite formal situations, such as on legal documents and computers to indicate the correctness of details.
Dollar. The word “dollar” comes from the name of coin used 400 years ago .In 1516 silver coins began to be minted in a mine near a small village, called Joachimstal, in Bohemia. The coin was called a “joahimstaler”, after the village name, or “taler” for short. When the talers were brought to the Netherlands they were used as “daler”. The English borrowed the Dutch form “daler” and began to spell it “dollar”. The dollar had been the currency of Germany and Spain for over two centuries before it became American. Thomas Jefferson proposed that the Spanish dollar would be the unit of currency, thus helping America to become independent of the British pound sterling after the war for independence.
The California Gold Rush in the late 19PthP century gave rise to many new words, transforming the meanings of the original ones.
Bonanza The modern usage of the word “bonanza” is a figurative extension of its original one as “a very productive mine”, which is itself a direct borrowing from Spanish (meaning “prosperity” or “success”). Nowadays, it denotes something that is prospering quickly, bringing good luck and wealth. One of the long-running American TV series Bonanza portrayed a family of men working on their enormous Nevada ranch. The film reminded the viewers of the farms and ranches in the late 19PthP century,, testifying to the figurative usage of the original word.
To Pan out. This expression meant a method for obtaining the gold by filling a pan with the ore and gently washing away the soil and gravel, leaving the heavier gold at the bottom of the pan. The expression was figuratively broadened to the meaning “ to get success”.
The new ways of life and characters of 20-21 centuries brought a lot of new words and coinages “Disk jockey”, “natural” (something very suitable), “show business”, “star” (popular performer), baby-sitter, basketball, chewing gum, credit card, home-made, know-how and so on are all originally from the American usage of the world of business, entertainment and technology. Many of the new American words are based on old grammar processes of compounding existing words, as in “boyfriend, bookstore, brainstorm ballfrog, supermarket, heliport (helicopter + airport), motel (motor+ hotel), docusoap (documentary + soap opera), breathalyzer (breath + analyze), fly-drive holiday (to travel by plan and a car”). American English also tends to coin and use more freely nouns compounded from a verb and a preposition, such as “blowout, checkup, fallout, etc. Nouns are used as verbs: to park, to package, to program, to vacation. Adjectives can become nouns: briefs, comics, etc..
Globalization of American English. The American vocabulary during the 19th and especially 20th and 21 centuries began to be exported abroad due to its economic, political and technological prominence in the world. American movies, radio, television, pop culture have certainly hastened the process. In recent years Americanisms have been introduced into international usage. Know-how, a cafeteria ,a supermarket, a filmstar, Coca/Pepsi-cola, a skyscraper, chewing gum ,a credit card, a baby sitter, electrocute, etc. firmly established not only in Standard English, but in many other countries as well.. Most words and usages are frequently borrowed from American English quite unconsciously.
American dictionaries give a fascinating glimpse of the vast changes in American and, inevitably, global English by the electronic age. Some fifty years ago no one walked on the Moon, bought a sun blocker or running shoes. VCRs were unknown. Heavy metal, punk rock music, post-modernism, yuppies and soft contact lenses didn’t exist. Hundreds of new business buzz-words are used, reflecting the birth of global markets and the take-over boom. Americans invented a lot of new words connected with new technology, computers and internet: state-of-the-art (very latest technology), artificial intelligence, a notebook, a laptop computer, download, upload, online, offline, website, to hack, software, know-how, the dotcom economy, screensaver, trackpad, thumbnail, footprint, gridlocked, cyber pet, a techno-wizard, a cybercafé and many others of computer-related terms are increasingly invading the daily life.
A lot of politically correct terminology also appeared: people of color, coloreds, organized crime (mafia), Hispanic culture, stay-at-home mom (housewife). Among such words there are euphemistic references: senior citizens or older adults (pensioners), the loved one (death and funeral references), to rehire employees ( to fire them), a restroom, powder room (ladies’ toilet), etc.
Vocabulary of equality: Fireman-firefighter; policeman-police (security) officer; mailman- mail carrier; salesman-sales person; manmade-artificial; synthetic-manufactured; stewardess-flight attendant, chairman-chairperson; chair-presiding officer.
A lot of abbreviations and acronyms appeared, especially often used in media and ads ( advertisements): NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) , UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), IMF (International Monetary Fund), CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), Call (Computer Assisted Language Learning), ZIP code (for Zone Improvement Plan), SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty),INF (Intermediate Range Nuclear Force), AAAAA (American Association for the Abolition of Abbreviations and Acronyms),all mod cons (all modern conveniences), ch.(central heating), d/g (double garage), etc.
The spreading of American English is also supported by the international examination TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) which all foreign students and immigrants are obliged to pass to study or live in the USA.
1. Answer the questions:
1. What kind of words did the English settlers borrow from other languages?
2. What importance did the founders of American nation attach to the power of the language? 3. When was the phrase “the American language” used for the first time? 4. Who was the first to think of reforming the chaotic English spelling? 5.What measures were suggested to promote American English? 6. What was the aim of this political action? 7. Why is Webster called the champion of American English? 8. What did Webster do to develop American English?
2. Can you explain what American and British people mean when they say: a bill, a purse, subway, pants, vest, and wash up? Can you give the British equivalents to the American words: gasoline, truck, sidewalk, line, vacation, trunk (of a car), hood (of a car), a cab, freeway, round trip, a railway car, an engineer(on train),an eraser, a closet, drapers, faucet, a yard, cookie, candy, garbage, intersection, a living room, a long-distance bus, blue-chip investments, call loan, stocks, an express man, to fix a meeting, government bonds?
3. Discussion problems:
1. Describe the differences between British and American English in grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. Give examples. 2. List the major dialects of American English.3.Why can American English be called as “a linguistic melting pot”? 4. What are the reasons of the influence of American English on its mother tongue and many other languages of the world? .
LIFESTYLES
It is very difficult to make generalizations about American characters or lifestyles, as the diversity of patterns of American life is really great. Very many things account for this: ethnic and social background, immigration date of their forbears, religion and other factors.77% of the USA population lives in urban areas, 23% - in rural areas. The population of the USA represents cultures from around the world. The largest minority group consists of Afro-Americans who make up about 12% of the population. Spanish-speaking people from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba and other Hispanic countries form another group, which equals 6% of the population. Native Americans are less than one half of I% of the total. Minorities of Asian descent include Chinese, Japanese, Indochinese and others. It is now estimated that by the year 2050 half of Americans will be Hispanic, Black, or Asian by ethnic background. For many immigrants America seemed to be the only place to fulfill their dreams. Before the late 1960s, immigrants were expected to become part of the mainstream of American culture – the idea of “the melting pot”.
Trying to make some general observations on the American character one should again remember the history of the USA.
What is the American Frontier?
The frontier experience began when the first colonists settled on the east coast of the continent in the 1600s and ended about 1890 when the last western lands were settled. Americans have always tended to view the frontier as the purest examples of hard work of the people, who turned the wilderness into towns, and towns into cities. The need for self - reliance on the frontier encouraged a spirit of inventiveness. Frontier men and women not only had to provide most of their daily essentials of living, but they were constantly facing new problems and situations, which demanded new solutions. The willingness to experiment and invent led to another American trait, a “can-do” spirit, and a sense of optimism that “every problem has a solution”. Americans take pride in overcoming challenges and obstacles. As American historian Frederick Jackson Turner wrote, Americans see themselves as ground - breakers in all areas of industry, science, and technology. They consider it natural that they should constantly create new ways of life, new means of constructing houses, new appliances, new cars, etc.
![](https://s.studizba.com/z.php?f=/templates/si/i/noavatar.png&w=100&h=100&t=1"){kind=avatar}
