本科毕业设计浅析英式英语与美式英语差异产生的原因.docx

本科毕业设计浅析英式英语与美式英语差异产生的原因.docx

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本科毕业设计浅析英式英语与美式英语差异产生的原因

Abstract

Englishisanimportanttoolininternationalcommunication.Withthedevelopmentofsociety,thetwovariantsofEnglish,BritishEnglishandAmericanEnglishhavechangedsignificantly.TherearealotofdifferencesbetweenAmericanEnglishandBritishEnglish,andthereasonsfortheirdifferencesliemainlyinthreeaspects:

histories,politicsandcultures.Thisthesisistryingtoanalyzethehistorical,politicalandculturalreasonsleadingtothedifferencesbetweenAmericanEnglishandBritishEnglish,andtryingtopresentsometypicalexamplesofdifferencesinvocabulary,spellingandgrammar.Atlast,itpointsoutthesignificanceoflearningthedifferencesbetweenAmericanEnglishandBritishEnglish.

Keywords:

AmericanEnglish;BritishEnglish;differences;reasons;significanceofstudy

中文摘要

英语在国际交流中发挥着极其重要的作用。

随着社会的发展，英语的两个重要的变体：

美式英语与英式英语，也产生了很大的变化。

美式英语与英式英语之间存在着许多差异，造成这些差异的因素是多方面的，本文尝试从历史、政治以及文化三方面去分析美式英语与英式英语产生差异的原因，并且通过典型的例证，列举了英语在词汇、拼写和语法等方面的区别，阐述了其间存在的主要差异，最后论文指出了学习美式英语与英式英语之间的差异的重要性。

关键词：

美式英语；英式英语；差异；原因；学习意义

1.Introduction

Englishlanguage,whetheritisspokeninNorthAmerica,theBritishIsles,Australiaoranyotherplacealloverworld,isonelanguagewithitsdifferentvarieties“equal”siblings.AmericanEnglishistheformofEnglishusedintheUnitedStates.BritishEnglishistheformofEnglishusedintheUnitedKingdomandtherestoftheBritishIsles.ItincludesallEnglishdialectsusedwithintheBritishIsles.TheyarethemostimportanttwovariantsofEnglish.Theyhavedifferentcharacteristics.SinceAmericanEnglishandBritishEnglisharesortof“samelanguage”,thenwhytherewillbethedifferencesbetweenthem?

WhenEnglishstudentsaregivenEnglishcourse,inmanycases,theyarejustlearning,payinglittleattentiontothedifferencesbetweenAmericanEnglishandBritishEnglish.Butasamatteroffact,AmericanEnglishandBritishEnglishdifferalotinmanyaspects.Thesedifferencesappearduetohistorical,political,social,cultural,racialreasons.FromthemomentwhennativeEnglishspeakerbroughttheEnglishintothenewcontinent,theEnglishlanguagehadalreadystartedchanging.

OnstudyingthereasonforthedifferencebetweenAmericanEnglishandBritishEnglish,manyscholarsfocusontheformingoftheindividuallanguagesysteminAmerica,andwhetherAmericanEnglishissuperiortotheBritishEnglishandmakingalisttosimplydistinguishthedifferencessystematically.Ontheparthowdidthedifferenceoccur,scholarsholdthedifferentviews.SomescholarsinsistAmericanEnglishismoreconservativethantheBritishEnglish,likeA.H.Markwardt.ButpartofthemadherestothepointthatAmericanEnglishvocabularyismoremodernthantheBritishEnglish,suchastheAmericanlinguistKenyon（Bauer,1994:

79）.AnAmericanwriterandjournalistHenryLMenckenclaims:

TheAmericanFormoftheEnglishLanguagewasdepartingfromtheparentstem,anditseemedlikelythatthedifferencesbetweenAmericanandEnglishwouldgoonincreasing.Bycontrast,Krapppoints,“HistoricalandcomparativestudybringsAmericanEnglishincloserrelationtothecentraltraditionoftheEnglishlanguagethaniscommonlysupposedtoexist”（Qtdin侯维瑞,1995:

9-10）.

ThisthesiswilltrytoanalyzethethreemainreasonsthatmakeAmericanEnglishandBritishEnglishdifferentbylistingandcomparingmanyexamples.Itisdividedintosixchapters.ChaptertwoisabriefintroductiontothehistoricalbackgroundofAmericanEnglishandBritishEnglish.ChapterthreepresentsthemainthreereasonsforthedifferencebetweenAmericanEnglishandBritishEnglish.Chapterfoursimplycomparesthedifferenceonhistorical,politicalandculturalaspects.ChapterfiveexplainsthesignificanceandtheadvantagesfromstudyingthedifferencebetweenAmericanEnglishandBritishEnglish.

2.BackgroundofBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglish

HowhavethesetwovarietiesofEnglishthendevelopedtowhattheyarenowadays?

TherearethreeperiodsinthedevelopmentoftheEnglishlanguage:

OldEnglish（orAnglo-Saxon）,MiddleEnglish,andModernEnglish.OldEnglishwasspokenfromaboutAD449toAD1100.ThefirstinvasionbytheJutes,Angles,andSaxonsfromtheareaofnorthernGermanyandsouthernDenmarkoccurredinAD449.ThetermAnglo-SaxonsoriginatedfromthecombinationofthenamesAngelsandSaxons.TheirlanguagesmixedwitheachotherandcametobetheearlyversionofEnglish,whichisnowknownasOldEnglish.ThatwastheoriginofEnglish（BaughandCable,1993:

345）.Withthedevelopmentofmigration,EnglishchangedandBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglishcameintobeing.

2.1TheoriginanddevelopmentofBritishEnglish

TheEnglishspokenintheBritishIsleshas,ofcourse,alonghistory.AftertheOldEnglishperiod,anewerabeganastheNormanFrencharrivedinEngland.ThoseFrench-speakingpeoplebecametherulingclass,andsoFrenchwasthelanguageofrulingclass.ManyFrenchwordsthencameintoEnglish.However,thelanguageofruralpeopleinBritainwhotookupalargeproportionofthepopulationremainedEnglish.ThatwashowEnglishcametobethelanguageofBritishIsles（Yule,2005:

186-187）.

BritishEnglishhasareasonabledegreeofuniformityinitsformalwrittenform,which,astaughtinschools,islargelythesameasintherestoftheEnglish-speakingworld（exceptNorthAmerica）.Ontheotherhand,theformsofspokenEnglish-dialects,accentsandvocabulary-usedacrosstheBritishIslesvaryconsiderablymorethaninmostotherEnglish-speakingareasoftheworld,evenmoresothanintheUnitedStates,duetoamuchlongerhistoryofdialectdevelopmentintheEnglishspeakingareasofGreatBritainandIreland.Dialectsandaccentsvary,notonlybetweenEngland,NorthernIreland,ScotlandandWales（whichconstitutetheUnitedKingdom）,butalsowithintheseindividualareas.TherearealsodifferencesintheEnglishspokenbydifferentsocio-economicgroupsinanyparticularregion.ReceivedPronunciation（alsoreferredtoasBBCEnglishorQueen’sEnglish）hastraditionallybeenregardedas‘properEnglish’–‘theeducatedspokenEnglishofsouth-eastEngland’.TheBBCandotherbroadcastersnowintentionallyuseamixofpresenterswithavarietyofBritishaccentsanddialects,andtheconceptof'properEnglish'isnowfarlessprevalent.

2.2TheoriginanddevelopmentofAmericanEnglish

In1620,onehundredandtwentypuritansonthesteamshipnamedMayFlowerarrivedatthePlymouthinMassachusetts,andthentheyweresettledthereandsetupthecolony.AtthattimeBritainwasintheElizabethIera.AndthelanguagewasjustinthebeginningstageofModernEnglish.ThelanguagespokenbythoseEnglishsettlersmostweretheEnglishfromtheendof16centuryorthebeginningof17century.TheybroughtElizabethanEnglishtotheNewWorldofNorthAmerica,anditbecamethestartingpointofAmericanEnglish.

Thefirstcolonieswerefoundedin1607,andthefirstcolonizerswerecontemporariesofShakespeare,SpenserandMilton（吴伟仁,1990:

57）.Probablyonthisaccount,wordswhichhavediedoutinBritain,orchangedtheirmeaningmaysurviveintheUnitedStates.FormorethanthreecenturiestheAmericanvocabularydevelopedmoreorlessindependentlyoftheBritishstockandwasinfluencedbythenewsurroundings.

TheUnitedStatesiscalleda“bigmeltingpot”.BecauseofthecomplicateddemographiccompositioninAmerica,thereareimmigrantsfromFrance,Spain,Asia,AboriginesinMidwestandotherplaces.EnglishinAmerica,whichwasaffectedbysomanykindsofcultureandaccents,finallyseparatedfromtraditionalBritishEnglish.ThedictionaryAmericanDictionaryoftheEnglishLanguageycompliedbyNoahWebsterwaspublishedin1828.Thedictionaryclearlyspecifiesthe“AmericanEnglishwords”.ThisisanepochalsymboloftheageofAmericanEnglish（Noah,1828:

32）.

3.TheReasonsfortheDifferencesbetweenAmericanEnglishandBritishEnglish

BeforeanalyzingthedifferencesbetweenAmericanEnglishandBritishEnglish,itisnecessarytostudythereasonsfortheirdifference.AmericanEnglishandBritishEnglishcamefromonelanguage.However,geographic,historic,politicandculturaldifferences,alloftheseelementscanbethereasonstomakeAmericanEnglishandBritishEnglishmoreandmoredifferent.

3.1Historicalreasons

Americaisanimmigrantcountrywhichhasashorthistorybutithasdevelopedatafastspeed.In1770s,theAmericanWarofIndependencebrokeout.Aftereightyears,AmericafinallygotfreefromtherulingofBritain,andendedthestageofcolony.TheUnitedStatesofAmericanwasestablishedin1787.MostofthecitizensweretheimmigrantsfromEurope,almostallofthemwereBritishwhospokeEnglish.In1845,theIrishpotatofaminedrove1.5millionIrishmentoseeksurvivalintheNorthAmerica.TheEuropeanindustrialrevolutionin1848againforcedmanyGermanstosettleinthePennsylvaniaandMidwestinAmerica.AftertheendoftheCivilWar,manyoftheNorwegiansandItaliansjoinedtheranksofimmigration.Fromthenon,AmericahadbecometheparadiseofEuropeanimmigrants.MillionsofCzechs,Slovakians,PolacksandYugoslavsinordertoescapefromthepoliticalprosecutionthencametotheAmericancontinentinthefirsthalfofthetwentiethcentury.

DuringthedevelopmentofAmericanEnglish,AmericanEnglish’sconservationandinnovationisthemainreasontoleadthedifferencesbetweenBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglish.PracticallythespeechoftheAmericanEnglishisarchaicwithrespecttothatoftheBritishEnglish.

AmericanEnglishwasformedintheseventeenthcentury,basedontheconstructionofBritishcoloniesinNort