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ENGLISH IN THE USA

ENGLISH IN THE USA. SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS. SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS. Lexical characteristics Phonetical characteristics Grammatical characteristics Orthographical characteristics. 1.LEXICAL CHARACTERISTICS. Borrowings from other languages (Native American, Dutch, Spanish, French etc.);

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ENGLISH IN THE USA

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  1. ENGLISH IN THE USA SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS

  2. SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS • Lexical characteristics • Phonetical characteristics • Grammatical characteristics • Orthographical characteristics.

  3. 1.LEXICAL CHARACTERISTICS • Borrowings from other languages (Native American, Dutch, Spanish, French etc.); • Words or meanings that are archaic or dialectal elements in Great Britain; • Words that changed their meaning or received a supplementary meaning in American English; • Words formed on the territory of the USA through composition, derivation, conversion, abbreviation etc.

  4. Borrowings from other languages • Borrowings from the Spanish language: alligator, creole, pickaninny, fiesta, plaza, poncho • Borrowings from the German language: wiener, hamburger, schnitzel, semester, seminar, loafer • Borrowings from the languages of the black slaves: banjo, jazz, juba, jukebox, voodoo

  5. Borrowings from the Native American languages: hominy, pone, mackinaw, papoose, squaw, sagamore, possum , raccoon Borrowings from the French language: prairie, voyageur, professor, bureau, calumet Borrowings from the Dutch language: boss, cookie, cruller, dollar, hook, to snoop, spook, waffle, dope, Yankee

  6. Archaisms andprovincialisms Many words in the American English became obsolete or disappeared from the literary language of England. Examples: fall, accommodations, pig, slim, to guess, maybe, to develop, shade, mad, sheepman, to quit, etc.

  7. Changes of meaning • the generalization of meaning: to visit somebody, barn, to extend, date, vacation, store • the specialization of meaning: Corn, Sidewalk, Subway, Convention, Message • changes of meaning based on euphemisms: landscape architect (gardener), shoetrician, sanitary officer, tonsorial artist (hairdresser), to make a reservation (to book a room), locomotive (engine), stenographer (short-hand writer), elevator (lift) etc.

  8. Words formed on the territory of the USA • Composition: peanut, bullfrog, catfish, tenderfoot (poor man), self-made man, self-culture, dead-beat (lazy), babysitter, playboy,disk jockey, taxi dancer • Derivation (affixation): prefixes e.g. anti-, super-, semi-, near-; suffixes e.g. –ize, -ee, -ery, -teria;

  9. Conversion: transitions from nouns to verbs e.g. to scalp, to tomahawk, to room, to shine, to muscle; transitions from verbs to noun e.g. divide, combine, frame-up, probe Abbreviation: aphaeresis e.g. cute (acute), most (almost), phone, quake (earthquake); apocope e.g. ad, auto, co-ed, gas; other abbreviated words e.g. V.I.P., U.S.A.F, NASA, radar, TB, ACE etc.

  10. 2.PHONETICAL CHARACTERISTICS Differences between the two languages regarding the pronunciation of several sounds: • ris alwayspronounced in American English • [æ] instead of [ɑː] before [f, θ, s] and before [s, f] + consonant or [m, n] + consonant e.g. class, grass, fast, after, example, aunt • [u:] instead of [ju:] e.g. duty, student, tube, new, nuclear, during • [ɒ] instead of [ɔ]e.g. crop, stop, lot, not, conflict, novel • the voicedt e.g. better, butter, matter, pity, water

  11. 3.ORTHOGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS The orthographical characteristics of American English consist of substitutions and simplifications: • –or instead of –our: ardor, harbor, humor • –er instead of –re: center, fiber, liter, meter • –ize (-yze) instead of –ise: civilize, organize, analyze • –se instead of –ce: practise

  12. – ense instead of –ence: defense, offense, pretense sk instead of sc: skeptic, mollusk i instead of e in the prefixes en- and em- : to inclose, to indorse, to inquiry y instead of i: gayety, gypsy, dryly l instead of ll: councilor, traveler, woolen, marvelous; p instead of pp: kidnaped, worshiped; s instead of ss: focused; –e, -ue, -me are eliminated at the ending of some words as envelop (the noun), catalog, dialog, prolog, gram;

  13. 4.GRAMATICAL CHARACTERISTICS Regarding the parts of speech, certain differences were recorded: • The article: somearticles do not appear in certain adverbial phrases or in those that contain the adjective all: e.g. the day after tomorrow, all morning, the indefinite article precedes half before the words hour, minute, dozen, million e.g. a half-dozen policemen

  14. The noun: Many words are used in American English only at their plural: accommodations, candies, foods, cramps etc. others only at their singular: coal, inning etc. The analytic genitive is replaced by the synthetic genitive: e.g. the agreement's application, Senate's committee, • The adjective: The degrees of comparison are realized more in a synthetic form: honester, solider, wonderfullest etc. Many adjectives receive the function of an adverb: careful, strange, wrong etc.

  15. The adverb: It is used to intensify or to form some new verbs: to beat up, to shut down; • The preposition: Many prepositions are used in another way than in British English: around the corner, aside from, back of, different than, aside of, on the train etc. • The conjunction: The omission of some conjunctions occur sometimes: after the verb to go followed by and + another verb, the conjunction and is omitted in some cases e.g. Go take care of him.

  16. The pronoun: The Americans have the tendency to maintain the form whom in the situations in which the English have replaced it with who e.g. Who are you with? Before a relative clause, the one(s) is more frequent than that (which), that (who). The numeral: There is a tendency to use forms as nineteen hundred not only for years but also for objects and people The verb: The synthetic conjunctive is used in a greater extent in the USA: I'm only asking you do your duty! Sometimes would corresponds with should (especially in rhetorical questions: How would I know?) The verb to quit – quitted – quitted is often used as to quit – quit – quit.

  17. BIBLIOGRAPHY • Brene C., Derochette F., Honders J., Salmon C., About British and American Life, Wahle, Liége, 1978, pp. 9-26 • Iarovici Edith, Engleza Americana, Editura Stiintifica, Bucuresti, 1971, pp. 7-258

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