Principle types of English Pronounciation American based pronounciation
Lexical differences between American and British varieties of English
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2.2 Lexical differences between American and British varieties of English.
The modern British language, firstly, is heterogeneous, and secondly, it is far from classical English that existed 3 centuries ago. Changes occur primarily in vocabulary, one of the most mobile parts of the language: new phenomena arise that need to be named, and old ones acquire new names. New vocabulary comes to the British youth language from other varieties of English, in particular, American. America has created an almost new language: changes have affected not only phonetics and vocabulary, but also the most stable part of the language - grammar. Therefore, it is quite natural that the disputes are mainly around two variants of the English language - British and American. Unlike the British version, American English is more flexible, open to change and easy to understand. In particular, that is why it has become more widespread in the world. This is the language of a new generation without a specific nationality and place of residence, brought up on mass culture. The lexical differences between American and British varieties of English are due to the fact that Americans differed greatly from the life of the British. Lexical differences relate mainly to the field of slang and to those words of the normative language that denote purely American or purely British realities in the social, economic, political, technical and artistic spheres. American English has created thousands of words and phrases that have entered both general English (hitchhike, landslide) and the global lexicon (ok, teenager). There are three types of lexical units in American English: basic vocabulary (words that have the same meaning as British words); general concepts expressed in different words, for example:
Examples of using these words in speech: 1) While they were thus occupied, our jailor reentered. 2) It was a close, sultry day: devoid of sunshine, but with a sky too dappled and hazy to threaten rain: and our place of meeting had been fixed at the guide-stone, by the cross-roads. 3) She thought about him the very first moment on waking; and his was the very last name mentioned m her prayers. The table does not include lexical differences due to cultural differences - for example, different educational systems in the UK and the USA or different systems of military ranks. Many lexical differences are insignificant - for example, one word in the phrase changes: Amer. "Keep tabs on" - Brit. "Keep check on" - "follow someone." In the learning process, you need to pay attention to those lexical differences that can cause confusion in understanding. For example, "subway" in the US means "subway", but in the UK it means "underpass"; "pavement" in the US - "pavement", in the UK - "sidewalk". It is also worth paying attention to the difference in the spelling of many words in the US and in Britain. For example:
In general, in American orthography, words of French origin in -our are written through -or (honor, splendor); instead of -re in a number of words -er is written (theater, center). These differences are due in large part to Noah Webster (1758-1843), who introduced the American practice of writing -er instead of -re (center, meter, theater), -or instead of - our (favor, honor, labor), check instead of check, connection instead of connexion, jail instead of gaol, story instead of storey, etc. Another feature of the modern colloquial language of Americans is the designation of a class of objects or phenomena by one of the words of this class. This phenomenon in the language is called synecdoche (the designation of the whole by the part). So, according to M. A. Goldenkov, “Americans call all raptors hawks”, that is, “hawks”. He also noted the use of the word bug - “bug” - as a designation for all bugs in general (the last meaning of this word is “electronic eavesdropping device”, which gave rise to calling such devices “bugs” in Russian) and the word pine - “pine " in the meaning of "spruce" (including Christmas). There is another common area of English vocabulary, which has recently been actively penetrating literature and cinema and therefore requires special explanations. It's about American slang. Slang occupies a fairly large part of the vocabulary of the modern American. In the twentieth century, there is an active process of transition of slang vocabulary into literary English. "Permeability to non-literary layers of language, especially slang, has long been one of the characteristic features of American and Australian varieties of English." In the recent past, slang was such now common words and expressions as of course, to take part, to get up, lunch. Special mention should be made of the expression, which has recently been included in all school textbooks of the English language, being an American slang idiom by origin. This expression is OK, a colloquial abbreviation for the phrase all correct. M. A. Goldenkov lists the following meanings of this word: 1. "please" (response to an expression of gratitude) 2. “healthy”, “healthy”, “healthy” (in response to a question like “How are you?”, “How is your wife?”) 3. "correct" 4. "everything is fine" 5. “good”, “okay” (synonymous with “all right”). Currently, there is an active penetration into the English language of other than familiar to us, options for affirmation and negation. Instead of yes, even the British now use yea. In addition, “often the English, in the Canadian manner, do not say “yes”, but “yap”, and not “no”, but “nope”. American English also influenced the functioning of proper names. "In the current century, the tradition of using derivatives of full names (diminutive and diminutive forms) as independent names has continued to develop." Name derivatives in modern English are used not only at the private level of communication (among relatives, friends and acquaintances), but also in an official setting. The names of some US presidents can serve as an example of this: James Earl Carter was shortened to Jimmy Carter, William Jefferson Clinton to Bill Clinton. Download 37.54 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
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