Phraseology and Culture in English

 
UK (15) 
US (42) 
noun
4 (Things) = 26.6% 
e.g.
The Changing show, Hy-
the's Victorian Pier,
plays, sessions
30 (Things) = 71.4% 
e.g.
dinner, upgrades, es-
presso
ing-form/clause 
6 (mental and physical 
activities) = 40% 
e.g.
star-gazing, cycling, ex-
ploring, knowing
9 (mental and physical 
activities) = 21.4% 
e.g.
choosing, comparing,
feeding
pronoun 
5 (cohesive) = 33.3% 
them (1), it (4) 
3 (cohesive) = 7.1% 
it (3) 
Although the occurrences in the UK corpus are rather too infrequent to al-
low general conclusions, it appears as if identification by means of nouns is 
more important in this pattern in the US than in the UK persuasive types of 
text. Since nouns usually refer to ‘things’ in the corpus, rather than to ‘activi-
ties’ this suggests that the US corpus contains more references to commodi-
ties that can be enjoyed rather than to activities (which may be interpreted 
as pointing to a more ‘passive’ consumer-recipient in the US than in the UK, 
a conclusion, however, which, due to a lack of a representative amount of data, 
is sheer surmise). In the UK corpus this colligational pattern is only used once 
in connection with evaluation (enjoy knowing its exceptional value), whereas 
all other occurrences are used for identification. In the US corpus six of 42 
instances are evaluative (14.3%), compared to 36 that are not (85.6%). Again, 
the tendency for more explicit evaluation in the US corpus is confirmed. 
3.6. Other tendencies 
There are other tendencies, not yet mentioned, that differentiate the UK 
corpus from the US corpus, among them a much higher tendency in the UK 
corpus for the pattern and enjoy (representing 50.6% versus 26.8% of all 
occurrences of enjoy) (and also for or enjoy, but here the occurrences are 
too infrequent to warrant any general conclusions). This pattern will be 
explored below, however, since it has more to do with collocation than with 
colligation. The following differences can only be stated tentatively, be-
cause the occurrences are below 20. 

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Enjoy!: The (phraseological) culture of having fun
119
Firstly, it appears that there is a preference for the pattern enjoy + (pre-
modified) numeral in the US corpus (19 occurrences in contrast to just four 
in the UK corpus). Within this pattern there is a distinction between the use 
of exact numbers (1, 5, 2, 100, 13, 12, 16, 16, 20, 8, 5, 6, 13, 5.9) and the 
use of approximations (2-3, thousands, over 330, more than 250):
11
seum. That's right… enjoy one year's worth of programming, 
eave the beaten path, and enjoy one of the world's most specta 
ll-color catalog today and enjoy $5.00 off first order. The Fish 
amous. Visit a cabaret and enjoy two cocktails of your choice while 
t the loss immediately and enjoy 100% protection.
10) 
The Toronto Star today and enjoy 13 weeks of seven-day home delivery 
variety puzzle enthusiast! Enjoy 12 issues each of Variety Puzzles & 
ords, and only crosswords. Enjoy 16 crossword puzzle magazines for 
an Boat or an Antique Car. Enjoy 16 wonderfully themed rides and 
INGS on days of low tides. Enjoy 2-3 hours of tidepool exploration, 
e on retirement
zbull; Enjoy 20% off your first discount 
cipes and much, much more! Enjoy 8 issues (1 YR).
ss Bay Ecological Reserve. Enjoy thousands of puffins as they dive, 
ople in 50 countries. Now, enjoy five new episodes in the career of 
ndependent amusement park. Enjoy six themed areas of exciting rides, 
ones, play mini-golf xamp; enjoy 13 rides including Sawmill, 
an merchandise.
zbull; Enjoy a 5.9% Introductory Annual 
est cryptogram value ever! Enjoy over 330 coded quotes and clever 
dtangle&trade #
zbull; Enjoy more than 250 included puzzles that 
work in both p 
Secondly, there is a preference for structures with all (of / the) in the US-
corpus (8 occurrences in contrast to just one occurrence in the UK corpus). 
Here are some examples: 
pply for your new card and enjoy all of these preferred cardholders 
informed with Basic Cable. Enjoy all of the top-rated shows 
unsets, easy beach access. Enjoy all of life's best in this 5 yr 
Tyrol Plus club member and enjoy all the benefits! Also take 
< on Chocolate Perfume and enjoy all the pleasures of this wonderful 
added resistance and fun. Enjoy all the exercises you perform on 
s.
But while a member, enjoy all the benefits of Club 
of glistening city lights. Enjoy all this and more on our favorite 

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120
Monika Bednarek and Wolfram Bublitz 
All probably works as a marker of intensity (Labov 1984) in such exam-
ples, and is used to heighten the positive evaluation expressed in the texts, 
in order to make them even more persuasive. 
Thirdly, the phrase enjoy yourself/yourselves is more frequent in the UK 
than in the US subcorpus (1.7% versus 0.3%). This is a tendency that can 
also be observed across other registers, as becomes apparent from the fol-
lowing list of the most frequent occurrences for enjoy yourself/yourselves
in the subcorpora of the Bank of English:
enjoy yourself/yourselves