英式英语和美式英语的异同学士学位论文.docx

英式英语和美式英语的异同学士学位论文.docx

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英式英语和美式英语的异同学士学位论文

毕业论文诚信声明

本人郑重声明：

所呈交的毕业论文SimilaritiesandDissimilaritiesbetweenBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglish是本人在指导老师的指导下，独立研究、写作的成果。

论文中所引用是他人的无论以何种方式发布的文字、研究成果，均在论文中以明确方式标明。

本声明的法律结果由本人独自承担。

毕业论文作者签名：

2013年6月4日

江西科技师范大学

毕业设计（论文）

题目（中文）：

英式英语和美式英语的异同

（外文）：

SimilaritiesandDissimilaritiesbetweenBritish

EnglishandAmericanEnglish

院（系）：

外国语学院

专业：

英语

学生姓名：

许小珊

学号：

20092448

指导教师：

万淑兰

2013年6月4日

Contents

1.Introduction……………………………………………………….1

2.TheDefinitionofBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglish……....2

2.1BritishEnglish………………………………………………...........2

2.2AmericanEnglish……………………………………………..........2

3.SimilaritiesbetweenBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglish…..2

3.1SimilaritiesinOrigin………………………………………………2

3.2SimilaritiesinPrinciple…………………………………………....3

4.DissimilaritiesbetweenBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglish.3

4.1DissimilaritiesinPronunciation…………………………………..4

4.1.1DissimilaritiesinVowels…………………………………………...4

4.1.2DissimilaritiesinConsonants……………………………………...5

4.1.3DissimilaritiesinPronunciationoftheSameWord……………...6

4.1.4DissimilaritiesinIntonation……………………………………….6

4.2DissimilaritiesinSpelling…………………………………………6

4.3DissimilaritiesinVocabulary……………………………………..8

4.4DissimilaritiesinGrammar………………………………………9

4.4.1DissimilaritiesinCertainVerbs………………………………….10

4.4.2DissimilaritiesinNouns…………………………………………..11

4.4.3DissimilaritiesinArticles…………………………………………11

4.4.4DissimilaritiesinPronouns……………………………………….12

4.4.5DissimilaritiesinPrepositions……………………………………12

4.4.6DissimilaritiesinTense……………………………………………13

4.4.7DissimilaritiesinSubjunctiveMood………………………….….13

4.4.8DissimilaritiesinSyntax…………………………………………..13

5.Conclusion……………………………………………………......14

5.1ImportanceofKnowingTheirSimilaritiesandDissimilarities…14

5.2AttitudestowardTheirSimilaritiesandDissimilarities………....14

Bibliography…………………………………………………...…...15

SimilaritiesandDissimilaritiesbetweenBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglish

Abstract:

Asaworldlanguage,EnglishisoneoftheworkinglanguagesoftheUnitedNations,anditisalsoregardedasaninternationallanguage.BritishEnglishandAmericanEnglisharetwomajorvarietiesofEnglish.Generallyspeaking,thesetwolanguagesareaboutthesame.Becauseoftheinfluenceofpolitics,economy,geography,history,cultureandmanyotherfactors,therearedifferencesbetweenBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglish.ThispaperwillfirstdiscussthesimilaritiesbetweenBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglishinoriginandprinciplelevels,andthenwillmainlyfocusonthedissimilaritiesbetweentheminsuchlevelsaspronunciation,spelling,vocabulary,andgrammar.

Keywords:

BritishEnglish;AmericanEnglish;similarities;dissimilarities

1.Introduction

ItiswellknownthatEnglishisconsideredasthemostcommonlanguagewhichisfrequentlyusedallovertheworld.Withthedevelopmentofeconomicglobalization,theimportanceofEnglishhasbecomeincreasinglyprominent.NowadaysEnglishisusedasatoolininternationalexchange;itisoneoftheworkinglanguagesintheUnitedNations.SinceEnglishisoftendescribedasthefirstgloballanguage,ithasbecomearequirementinanumberoffields,occupationsandprofessions.Asaconsequence,everyoneisinvolvedinthewaveoflearningEnglish.

While,becauseoftheinfluenceofgeography,history,cultureandsocialcustoms,Englishhashadatendencytobedividedintotwovarieties:

oneiscalledBritishEnglish（BrE）,whichisusedintheBritishIsles,Australia,NewZealand,SouthAfrica,andWestIndies;theotheriscalledAmericanEnglish（AmE）,whichisusedmainlyintheUnitedStatesandCanada.BritishEnglishandAmericanEnglisharetwomajorvarietiesofEnglishintheworld.However,thereisnostandardtomeasurewhichisbetter;actuallytheybelongtothesamelanguageandhavemanysimilaritiesinoriginandprinciplelevels.Besides,BritishEnglishandAmericanEnglishalsohavegreatdissimilaritiesinpronunciation,spelling,vocabulary,andgrammar.Byknowingthesimilaritiesanddissimilaritiesbetweenthem,EnglishlearnerswillbefamiliarwiththecultureandcharacteristicsofBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglish,aswellasbroadentheirhorizon.

2.TheDefinitionofBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglish

2.1BritishEnglish

AccordingtotheWikipedia,BritishEnglish（BrE）istheformofEnglishusedintheUnitedKingdom.ItincludesallEnglishdialectsusedwithintheUnitedKingdom.EnglishisaWestGermaniclanguageoriginatedfromtheAnglo-Frisiandialects,anditwasfirstbroughttoBritainbyGermanicsettlers.Generallyspeaking,thehistoryoftheEnglishlanguagecanbedividedintothreeperiods:

thefirstperiodisfrom450to1150whichisalsocalledtheOldEnglishorAnglo-Saxonperiod;thesecondperiodfrom1150to1500whichisknownastheMiddleEnglishperiod;thethirdperiodfrom1500tothepresentdaywhichisalsocalledtheModernEnglishperiod.ThroughtheseperiodsBritishEnglishhasgraduallybeenenrichedanddeveloped,anditbecomestheworldwidelanguageaftertheIndustrialRevolutionfrom18thto19th.

2.2AmericanEnglish

AccordingtotheWikipedia,AmericanEnglish（AmE）istheformofEnglishusedintheUnitedStates.ItincludesallEnglishdialectsusedwithintheUnitedStates.TheuseofEnglishintheUnitedStatesisaresultofEnglishcolonization.Duringthe17thcentury,thefirstgroupofEnglish-speakingsettlersarrivedinNorthAmerica,andthennumerousimmigrantscamehereinthe18thand19thcenturies.Sincethen,AmericanEnglishhasbeenformedgraduallyandlaterbeinfluencedbythelanguagesofWestAfrica,theNativeAmericanpopulation,German,Irish,Spanish,andsoon.AmericanEnglishhasitsownuniquecharacteristicsforitssplendidcultureanditscreativethoughtsaswellasitswillingtoabsorbtheessenceofotherlanguages.

3.SimilaritiesbetweenBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglish

3.1SimilaritiesinOrigin

Metaphorically,languageisregardedasamirrorofsociety,throughwhichwecanunderstandsocialactivitiesofacertainsocietybetter.Ithasbecomeacceptableforeveryonetothinkthatthereexistsacloserelationshipbetweenlanguageandculture.Languageisanecessarycarrierofculture.Culturerepresentslanguageinaneffectivewayofusing.Besides,languageistherepresentationofthehistoryanditisagoodrecordfordifferentcountries.However,languageiscontinuouslychangingwiththedevelopmentoftheworld.

EnglishisaWestGermaniclanguagethatwasfirstspokeninearlymedievalEngland.EnglishbelongstotheGermantribes—theAngeles,theSaxons,theJutes,theDanes,etc.TheyusedtoliveinthenorthernpartofEurope,butlateronmovedtotheBritishIslesandbecametheearliestinhabitantsofEngland.Aboutthreeorfourcenturiesago,BritishimmigrantsbroughtEnglishtoanewcolony.Undertheinfluenceofnewsocietyandenvironment,ithasbecomedifferentformsafterthedevelopmentinhundredsofyears.AmericanEnglishoriginatedfromtheBritishEnglish.TheEnglishlanguagewasbroughttoNorthAmericabycolonistsfromEnglandsince1607.Duringthattime,largeamountofpeoplewenttheretosettheirhomes.AtthattimetheyhadalreadytakentheEnglishofElizabethanperiodtoAmerica,whichbecamethestartingpointofAmericanEnglish.

3.2SimilaritiesinPrinciple

Generallyspeaking,everylanguagehasitsowncharacteristicsanditsownrules.Thesemayincludephonetics,intonation,grammar,andvocabulary.BritishEnglishandAmericanEnglisharetwomajorvarietiesofEnglish;thereisnobigdifferencebetweenthemintheseaspects.Indeed,thepronunciation,grammarandvocabularyofthemareapproximatelyalike.Besides,thereisnoessentialdifferencebetweenBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglishinintonation.Bothofthemusedifferentintonationtotransferdifferentinformationandexpressdifferentintentions.Theyusuallyhavethreebasictones,namelyrisingtone,fallingtone,andleveltone.SowhetheryouuseBritishEnglishorAmericanEnglish,thereisnodifficultyincommunicatingwitheachother.

4.DissimilaritiesbetweenBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglish

AlthoughBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglishbothbelongtoEnglish,themainpartsofthemareaboutthesame,thereexistplentyofdissimilaritiesinpronunciation,spelling,vocabulary,andgrammar.InordertolearnEnglishwellandbeabletodistinguishBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglish,itisbettertounderstandthosedifferences.What’smore,byknowingdissimilaritieswillhelpavoidsomemisunderstandingsandembarrassingtimes.

4.1DissimilaritiesinPronunciation

Aseveryoneknows,humanbeingsarecapableofmakingallkindsofsounds,butonlysomeofthesesoundscanbeusedindailycommunication.EverylanguagehasitsownrulesorlawsinpronunciationthatiswhythereexistnumerouskindsoflanguageintheworldlikeChinese,Japanese,French,andGermanetc.BritishEnglishandAmericanEnglishhavemanydifferencesasfollows:

4.1.1DissimilaritiesinVowels

Inlinguistics,ReceivedPronunciation（RP）whichisalsocalledBBCEnglish,OxfordEnglish,orKing’s/Queen’sEnglish,anditisspokenbytheupper-middleandupperclassesthroughouttheEngland.GeneralAmerican（GA）whichisreferredtothewidelyacceptedaccentusedbymosteducatedspeakersintheUSA.TherearemanydifferencesbetweenRPandGAinvowels,thedetailsareasfollows:

1）InBritishEnglish“a”ispronounced[a:

]before[θ],[s],[m],[n],etc.while[æ]inAmericanEnglish.Forexample:

BritishEnglish

AmericanEnglish

[a:

]

[æ]

ask

[a:

sk]

[æsk]

answer

[´a