One Language, Two Grammars?: Differences between British and American English (Studies in English Language)

Günter Rohdenbur; Julia Schlüter

ISBN 10: 0521872197 / ISBN 13: 9780521872195

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2010

About this Item

Hardcover, 3rd printing, xxiv + 461 pages, NOT ex-library. Shipping weight over 1kg. Faint blue marks along the side edges of two pages; a tiny corner crease on a couple of leaves. Else interior is clean and bright throughout with unmarked text, free of inscriptions and stamps, firmly bound. Moderate handling marks on outer page edges and boards. No dust jacket. -- This collection investigates the grammatical divergences between British and American English. While differences in vocabulary and pronunciation are widely recognised, the text challenges the assumption that the two national varieties share an identical grammatical system. Using large-scale electronic databases, such as the British National Corpus, the contributors provide empirical evidence on specific syntactic variations. Chapters focus on distinct structural differences, including determiners, tense and aspect usage, modal verbs like 'shall' versus 'will', adverb placement, and relative clauses. The research highlights diverging trends, accurately mapping how American English frequently leads in progressive forms while simultaneously preserving older features like the bare mandative subjunctive. Tracing these morphological and syntactic shifts back to the seventeenth century, the text examines historical mechanisms such as the colonial lag hypothesis. The empirical data demonstrates that neither variety is strictly more conservative or innovative than the other, as both are driven by contact influences, frequency effects, and stylistic factors. The book provides quantified historical and contemporary data for researchers studying transatlantic language variation within corpus linguistics, historical linguistics, and dialectology.

Seller Inventory # 013186

Bibliographic Details

• Title: One Language, Two Grammars?: Differences between British and American English (Studies in English Language)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521872197
• ISBN 13: 9780521872195
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket

About this title

Synopsis

It is well known that British and American English differ substantially in their pronunciation and vocabulary - but differences in their grammar have largely been underestimated. This volume focuses on British–American differences in the structure of words and sentences and supports them with computer-aided studies of large text collections. Present-day as well as earlier forms of the two varieties are included in the analyses. This makes it the first book-length treatment of British and American English grammar in contrast, with topics ranging from compound verbs to word order differences and tag questions. The authors explore some of the better-known contrasts, as well as a great variety of innovative themes that have so far received little or no consideration. Bringing together the work of a team of leading scholars in the field, this book will be of interest to those working within the fields of English historical linguistics, language variation and change, and dialectology.

Book Description

This volume focuses on British-American differences in the structure of words and sentences. The first full-length treatment of the topic, it will be of interest to scholars working within the fields of English historical linguistics, language variation and change, and dialectology.