Contents inroduction chapter I. American english as a variant of english

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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CHAPTER II. ANALYSIS OF WEBSTER AND MENCKEN`S 
AMERICAN ENGLISH 
2.1 Word formation in American English 
Word formation is one of the ways of word formation, as opposed to 
word production (with the help of affixation and alternation) - the association of 
full-valued words or their bases into a whole-form complex, a compound word, 
the section of word formation devoted to the analysis and description of 
compound words and their classification. Word compounding can have a 
syntactic character, when it maximally repeats the models of syntactic 
constructions (cf. English "blackboard" - blackboard, German “tiefblau” - The 
word compounding is the formation of new word combinations by means of a 
new syntactic construction (cf. English "blackboard" - class board, German 
“tiefblau" - dark blue), morphological, when it is performed with the help of 
special morphological means and has no direct parallels in syntax (cf. Russian 
"helicopter"), and mixed, morphological-syntactic, when combining these 
features (Russian "senokos", "leaffall"). Word compounding is the formation of 
new words by combining two or more words into a compound word. Compound 
words are written either together or with a hyphen. 
American English is more characterized by word formation through word 
formation. Today it is more often in the Western Hemisphere that stable phrases 
are turned into new words. When forming word combinations consisting of a 
noun-object and a verb that speaks of its purpose, the British version more often 
uses a gerund (sailing boat), while Americans would prefer to simply glue the 
verb to the noun (sailboat). 
It's the same with collocations referring to an object and its owner: 
dollhouse vs. doll's house. I think it's clear which version is American and 
which is British. 
Simple bases (cowboy, blackboard, spaceship,etc.), as well as simple base 
and derivative base (pen-holder, match-maker, baby-sitter) can be subject to 

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compounding. The method of joining the bases can be neutral, when both bases 
are joined "butt" (eye-brow, sunrise, schoolgirl), and with a connecting element 
(handicraft, tradesman, mother-of-pearl). A compound word is usually whole, 
and its grammatical characteristic depends on the second component. 
Very often word formation acts as a means of creating a derivative base 
for the further process of word formation. The resulting base is converted, 
reversed, or affixed, resulting in a new, derived word (blacklist - to blacklist; 
daydream - to daydream; stagemanager - to stagemanage; babysitter - to 
babysit; honeymoon - to honeymooner; etc.). 
Even in the early period of English language development in the United 
States, a large proportion of neologisms were compound and compound 
derivatives. To this day, word formation still plays a significant role in 
enriching the vocabulary of the American version of English. 
For example, the Americanism "know-how" is used to mean professional 
craftsmanship. This word is frequently used in the U.S. to mean dexterity, skill, 
and work experience. The compound word "mastermind" means a person of 
genius. And the word "gangland" is used to mean the underworld.