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The orthography of the English language in British and American
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5. The orthography of the English language in British and American
The orthography of the English language did not become fully standardized until the early 18th century. The various norms for writing words became influential after they were published in major dictionaries. Modern British English is based, for the most part, on Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755), while American is based on Noah Webster's An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). The British spelling is distinguished above all by the retention of the French spelling of many words. The orthography of American English has long departed from the British tradition, but there are still many words written according to British rules. It is generally believed that Webster did not invent the American spelling conventions, but popularized them, relying on "simplicity, etymology, or analogies". Webster also introduced some reformed spelling norms (similar to those proposed by the Simplified Spelling Board in the early 20th century), but most of them did not catch on. After the release of Johnson's and Webster's dictionaries, further changes in the spelling of both English variants ceased to be reflected in each other. Punctuation Dots in abbreviations. Americans write words like Mr., Mrs., St., Dr. with dots, while the British prefer an "open" style of punctuation, where a dot is placed only if the letter before the dot is the last letter in the word. Such abbreviations are called "contractions" by the British. There used to be dots in any abbreviations in the United Kingdom[93] but the tradition has outlived itself, and now most use "open" punctuation. In both variants it is also not customary to add a dot after units, e.g. kg (kg), Hz (Hz). Limiting and Extinction Adjectives In English, a determinative adjective can be either a limiting or a distributive adjective. Each of these forms determines its own sentence structure, both in terms of syntax, punctuation, and vocabulary, as well as in terms of meaning. For example, the disseminating adjective is separated by commas and usually contains the conjunctive word which. A definitive adjective, however, does not need commas, and the allied word is usually that. The difference between British and American English lies precisely in the meaning that the speaker puts into the sentence when using one type of adjective or another. For example, "The dog, which bit the man, was brown. ("The dog that bit that man was brown.") In this case, the adjective which bit the man refers to the distributive adjective. In American English, this adjective only provides incidental information about the specific dog (the fact of the bite); and this information is not key to understanding the main idea of the sentence (the brown color). In the case of "The dog that bit the man was brown," the adjective that bit the man is restrictive. In British English, on the other hand, sentences usually do not contain a semantic distinction between restrictive and disseminative adjectives. Therefore, in British English the sentence "The dog which bit the man was brown." is possible, where the adjective "which bit the man" (not separated by commas) can either separate this dog from the biters or simply report its brown color. The interlocutor in this case guesses the meaning of the sentence from the context or draws on his own knowledge. The British lexicographer Henry Fowler, in his dictionary A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), recommends the use of that (without a comma) for restrictive adjectives and which (with a comma) for disseminating ones. He notes, however, that these constructions are rarely distinguished in British English, and that their use is not the same in the United States and Britain. Thus, the dictionary does not explicitly state that the distinction between these types of adjectives is unique to the United States. Fowler also points out problems with the word that: "The most important thing here is that it [that] always tends to be at the beginning of the adjective; it is not separated from the main sentence or the preceding adjective by a preposition, as it is with whom and which; instead, the preposition always goes to the end of the adjective; this is not bad for the idea that restrictive adjectives (with that) are more closely related to the rest of the sentence than are extensives (with which); but all this forces the author either not to end his sentence (or adjective) with a preposition, or to use which instead of that. The scholar goes on to say that prepositions at the end of sentences are common: "the fear of ending [a sentence] with a preposition is due only to silly prejudices." Citations
In the U.S., the periods and commas found in quotations are almost always placed inside quotation marks. This is not the case only when the addition of a period or comma might introduce ambiguity into a sentence, such as when a website name is quoted or specific numerical data is given. In both versions of English, question marks and exclamation marks are put under quotation marks when they are part of a quotation. In both the United States and the United Kingdom, all original punctuation is retained under quotation marks in direct speech. Carefree means "free from care or anxiety." (American style) Carefree means 'free from care or anxiety'. (British style with single quotation marks) "Hello, John," I said. (Both styles.) Did you say, "I'm not"? No, I said, "Why not? My "friend" just told the whole school my secret. The American style is used in most American newspapers, as well as in major publishers and style guides in the United States and Canada. Such guides include the MLA Style Manual from the Modern Language Association, the APA Publication Manual from the American Psychological Association, The Chicago Manual of Style from the University of Chicago, the AIP Style Manual from the American Institute of Physics, the AMA Manual of Style from the American Medical Association, the APSA Style Manual from the American Political Science Association, The AP Guide to Punctuation from Associated Press and The Canadian Style from Government Services Canada. Hart's Rules, published for Oxford University Press in 1904, calls the British style of quotation marks "new." The British style is also found in other languages, such as Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, Catalan, Dutch and German. It is also used in America: the British Style is usually preferred by organizations whose professional duties include frequent input of specific characters. For example, the ACS Style Guide is based on British rules and is used among chemists and programmers. According to the Jargon File dictionary of hacker slang, American hackers switched to the British system of punctuation in quotation marks. The reason for that was that putting a dot inside a quotation mark might change the meaning of the whole line if the computer processes it character by character[98]. The modern American system, however, requires that dots be placed outside of quotation marks in such cases, so the described problem no longer exists. Parentheses
"I am going to the store (if it is still open)." - "I am going to the store (if it is still open)." (This page is intentionally blank.) "(This page is left blank intentionally.)" "I am going to the store (Is it still open?)" - "I am going to the store (Is it still open?)" "I am going to the store (I hope it's still open!)" - "I am going to the store (I hope it's still open!)" Titles and headings The use of lowercase and uppercase letters in titles and headlines is inconsistent. Sometimes words in newspaper headlines, titles of printed publications, their chapters or parts, are written according to the same rules as in the rest of the text. That is, a capital letter is written only at the beginning of sentences, in proper names, and so on. Nevertheless, a common practice of some publishers is to capitalize some words to give them more meaning. It is perceived as an indication of the high professionalism of the publication. In America, it is quite common in book titles, but not in newspaper headlines. There are no specific rules on this; the existing norms are heterogeneous and often contradict each other. Most commonly, all words except articles, prepositions, and conjunctions are written in capital letters. Many British tabloids (for example, The Sun or the Daily Sport) write all their headlines in capital letters to attract attention, sometimes even to the detriment of the readability of the text. Regular-format newspapers (The Guardian, The Times, The Independent), on the contrary, put a capital letter only in the first letter of the first word of the headline. U.S. newspapers often use a comma as an abbreviation of the word and . For example, the Washington Post published an article titled "A TRUE CONSERVATIVE: For McCain, Bush Has Both Praise, Advice." Here the second comma is in place of the word. References Algeo, John (2006). British or American English?. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-37993-8. Hargraves, Orin (2003). Mighty Fine Words and Smashing Expressions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515704-4 McArthur, Tom (2002). The Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866248-3. Peters, Pam (2004). The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-62181-X. Trudgill, Peter and Jean Hannah. (2002). International English: A Guide to the Varieties of Standard English, 4th ed. London: Arnold. • Algeo, Jon (2006). Britaniya yoki Amerika inglizi? Kembrij: Kembrij universiteti nashriyoti. ISBN 0-521-37993-8. • Hargraves, Orin (2003). Qudratli nozik so'zlar va iboralar. Oksford: Oksford universiteti nashriyoti. ISBN 0-19-515704-4 • MakArtur, Tom (2002). Jahon ingliz tili bo'yicha Oksford qo'llanma. Oksford: Oksford universiteti nashriyoti. ISBN 0-19-866248-3. • Peters, Pam (2004). Ingliz tilidan foydalanish bo'yicha Kembrij qo'llanmasi. Kembrij: Kembrij universiteti nashriyoti. ISBN 0-521-62181-X. • Trudgill, Piter va Jan Xanna. (2002). Xalqaro ingliz tili: standart ingliz tilining turlari bo'yicha qo'llanma, 4-nashr. London: Arnold. Download 49.11 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
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