American English

by Kovecses, Zoltan

• ISBN13: 9781551112299
• ISBN10: 1551112299
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-06-01
• Publisher: Broadview Pr

Summary

This book is a cultural-historical (rather than purely linguistic) introduction to American English. The first part consists of a general account of variation in American English. It offers concise but comprehensive coverage of such topics as the history of American English; regional, social and ethnic variation; variation in style (including slang); and British and American differences.The second part of the book puts forward an account of how American English has developed into a dominant variety of the English language. It focuses on the ways in which intellectual traditions such as puritanism and republicanism, in shaping the American world view, have also contributed to the distinctiveness of American English.

Table of Contents

Preface	1	(2)
Acknowledgments	3	(2)
A phonetic alphabet for English pronunciation	5	(2)
Why study American English?	7	(12)
The ``British vs. American'' issue	8	(1)
The American ``mind'' and intellectual traditions	9	(1)
What to teach: British or American?	10	(1)
Can American English reflect culture and the American ``mind''?	11	(1)
Properties of American English: a preview	12	(3)
Explaining American English	15	(1)
Which materials are used in this book?	16	(1)
Structure of the book	16	(3)
Study Questions and Activities	17	(2)
American English: a brief history	19	(18)
The historical background	19	(3)
Elizabethan English	22	(3)
Archaic features of American English	25	(5)
The influence of languages of the colonial period	30	(4)
The influence of later immigrants	34	(3)
Study Questions and Activities	36	(1)
A new nation	37	(14)
The task of naming	37	(1)
The naming of things	38	(1)
The frontier and the West	39	(4)
Language and technological developments	43	(1)
Setting up new institutions	44	(4)
People and their homes	48	(3)
Study Questions and Activities	49	(2)
Linguistic geography in the United States	51	(12)
Some history	51	(1)
Language, dialect, and idiolect	52	(1)
Linguistic geography	53	(6)
General assessment of linguistic geography	59	(4)
Study Questions and Activities	60	(3)
Regional dialects of American English	63	(12)
The study of American regional varieties	63	(1)
The Northern dialect	64	(3)
The Coastal South	67	(1)
The Midland dialect	68	(2)
The West as a dialect region	70	(2)
Some general regional markers	72	(1)
Reasons for uniformity and variation in American English	73	(2)
Study Questions and Activities	74	(1)
Social dialects of American English	75	(16)
Social vs. regional variation	75	(3)
Factors in social variation	78	(2)
Standard and nonstandard American English	80	(5)
Attempts at standardizing American English	85	(1)
Attitudes toward dialects of American English	86	(2)
Dialects and social problems	88	(3)
Study Questions and Activities	89	(2)
Ethnic dialects of American English	91	(14)
Hispanic American English	91	(3)
The Black English vernacular	94	(11)
Study Questions and Activities	102	(3)
Style in American English	105	(12)
Setting	105	(3)
Subject matter	108	(1)
Medium	109	(1)
Audience	110	(4)
Mixing styles	114	(3)
Study Questions and Activities	114	(3)
American slang	117	(22)
History of the study of English slang	117	(1)
The emergence of American slang	118	(1)
Sources of American slang	119	(8)
The subject matters of American slang	127	(2)
Distinctive properties of American slang	129	(8)
Impact of American slang on other varieties of English	137	(2)
Study Questions and Activities	138	(1)
Vocabulary differences between British and American English	139	(16)
Words of American origin	139	(1)
Vocabulary differences: some questions	140	(3)
The main subject areas of British and American English lexical differences	143	(5)
The interaction between British and American English vocabulary	148	(7)
Study Questions and Activities	153	(2)
General accounts of British-American linguistic differences	155	(10)
The ``linguistic geography'' approach	155	(1)
A collection of British archaisms	156	(1)
Social history	156	(1)
Parallel lists	157	(1)
``Form-referent'' typologies	158	(4)
``Intellectual traditions'' approach	162	(3)
Study Questions and Activities	164	(1)
Economy in American English	165	(12)
The historical context	165	(1)
Spelling reform	166	(1)
Economy	167	(10)
Study Questions and Activities	174	(3)
Rationality in American English	177	(26)
What is rationality?	177	(2)
Linguistic economy: the elimination of redundancy	179	(6)
Linguistic economy: one value, one form	185	(4)
Regularity	189	(10)
Iconicity	199	(4)
Study Questions and Activities	200	(3)
The ``straightforward'' American	203	(16)
Sincerity	204	(2)
Clear language	206	(6)
The causes of directness	212	(1)
Business talk	213	(2)
The tension between plain and ``unplain'' language	215	(4)
Study Questions and Activities	215	(4)
The democratic nature of American English	219	(16)
Standardization	220	(2)
Availability of Standard American English	222	(2)
Tolerance	224	(5)
The language of democracy	229	(1)
Antisexism in America: the linguistic fight	230	(5)
Study Questions and Activities	233	(2)
The ``casual'' American	235	(12)
The beginnings of American informality	236	(1)
Forms of address	237	(1)
Some informal speech acts	238	(2)
Informality in pronunciation and spelling	240	(2)
Style ``mixing''	242	(3)
Informality in writing	245	(2)
Study Questions and Activities	246	(1)
American prudery in language	247	(12)
The social and historical context	247	(2)
Swearing	249	(1)
Death and some related areas	250	(1)
The human body	251	(8)
Study Questions and Activities	256	(3)
Tall talk and grandiloquence	259	(16)
Tall talk	259	(6)
Grandiloquence, or dignifying the not-so-dignified	265	(10)
Study Questions and Activities	273	(2)
The inventivenes of American English	275	(14)
Inventiveness as a major property of American English	275	(3)
Making new words in American English	278	(8)
Where were neologisms created?	286	(1)
The causes of American inventiveness	287	(2)
Study Questions and Activities	288	(1)
The imaginativeness of American English	289	(20)
The nature of imaginativeness	289	(1)
Why items are borrowed from American English	290	(3)
Informality	293	(1)
Verbal prudery	293	(1)
Tall talk	294	(1)
Inventiveness	294	(1)
Some major metaphorical domains in American English	294	(9)
Some conceptual metonymies	303	(2)
British and American attitudes to imaginativeness	305	(4)
Study Questions and Activities	306	(3)
Action and success in American English	309	(8)
The components of American success	309	(2)
Linguistic reflections of success in American English	311	(3)
British and American differences	314	(3)
Study Questions and Activities	315	(2)
A new mind	317	(12)
The effects of social history on American English	317	(4)
Properties of American English	321	(2)
American English and the American character	323	(1)
American intellectual traditions	324	(2)
Tensions	326	(1)
American English and modernity	327	(2)
Study Questions and Activities	328	(1)
References	329	(8)
Index	337