One language, two grammars?: differences between British and American English PDF
Preview One language, two grammars?: differences between British and American English
This page intentionally left blank One Language, Two Grammars? ItiswellknownthatBritishandAmericanEnglishdiffersubstantiallyin theirpronunciationandvocabulary,butdifferencesintheirgrammarhave largely been underestimated. This volume focuses on British–American differencesinthestructureofwordsandsentencesandsupportsthemwith computer-aided studies of large text collections. Present-day as well as earlierformsofthetwovarietiesareincludedintheanalyses.Thismakes itthefirstbook-lengthtreatmentofBritishandAmericanEnglishgrammar in contrast, with topics ranging from compound verbs to word order differences and tag questions. The authors explore some of the better- knowncontrasts,aswellasagreatvarietyofinnovativethemesthathaveso farreceivedlittleornoconsideration.Bringingtogethertheworkofateam ofleadingscholarsinthefield,thisbookwillbeofinteresttothoseworking within the fields of English historical linguistics, language variation and change,anddialectology. Gu¨nterRohdenburgisProfessorEmeritusofEnglishLinguisticsinthe Department of English and American Studies at the University of Paderborn. JuliaSchlu¨terisAssistantProfessorinEnglishLinguisticsandLanguage HistoryattheUniversityofBamberg. STUDIES IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE Generaleditor MerjaKyto¨ (UppsalaUniversity) EditorialBoard Bas Aarts (University College London), JohnAlgeo(UniversityofGeorgia),Susan Fitzmaurice(NorthernArizonaUniversity),CharlesF.Meyer(Universityof Massachusetts) TheaimofthisseriesistoprovideaframeworkfororiginalstudiesofEnglish,both present-dayandpast.Allbooksarebasedsecurelyonempiricalresearch,andrepresent theoreticalanddescriptivecontributionstoourknowledgeofnationalandinternational varietiesofEnglish,bothwrittenandspoken.Theseriescoversabroadrangeof topicsandapproaches,includingsyntax,phonology,grammar,vocabulary,discourse, pragmaticsandsociolinguistics,andisaimedataninternationalreadership. Alreadypublishedinthisseries: ChristianMair:InfinitivalComplementClausesinEnglish:AStudyofSyntaxinDiscourse CharlesF.Meyer:AppositioninContemporaryEnglish JanFirbas:FunctionalSentencePerspectiveinWrittenandSpokenCommunication IzchakM.Schlesinger:CognitiveSpaceandLinguisticCase KatieWales:PersonalPronounsinPresent-DayEnglish LauraWright:TheDevelopmentofStandardEnglish,1300–1800:Theories,Descriptions, Conflicts CharlesF.Meyer:EnglishCorpusLinguistics:TheoryandPractice StephenJ.NagleandSaraL.Sanders(eds.):EnglishintheSouthernUnitedStates AnneCurzan:GenderShiftsintheHistoryofEnglish KingsleyBolton:ChineseEnglishes IrmaTaavitsainenandPa¨iviPahta(eds.):MedicalandScientificWritinginLate MedievalEnglish ElizabethGordon,LyleCampbell,JenniferHay,MargaretMaclagan,AndreaSudbury andPeterTrudgill:NewZealandEnglish:ItsOriginsandEvolution RaymondHickey(ed.):LegaciesofColonialEnglish MerjaKyto¨,MatsRyde´nandErikSmitterberg(eds.):NineteenthCenturyEnglish: StabilityandChange JohnAlgeo:BritishorAmericanEnglish?AHandbookofWordandGrammarPatterns ChristianMair:Twentieth-CenturyEnglish:History,VariationandStandardization EvelienKeizer:TheEnglishNounPhrase:TheNatureofLinguisticCategorization RaymondHickey:IrishEnglish:HistoryandPresent-DayForms One Language, Two Grammars? Differences between British and American English Edited by GU¨ NTER ROHDENBURG AND JULIA SCHLU¨ TER CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521872195 © Cambridge University Press 2009 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2009 ISBN-13 978-0-511-48067-6 eBook (NetLibrary) ISBN-13 978-0-521-87219-5 hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Contents Listoffigures pagevii Listoftables xvi Listofcontributors xxiv Introduction GU¨ NTER ROHDENBURG AND JULIA SCHLU¨ TER 1 1 Coloniallag,colonialinnovationorsimplylanguage change? MARIANNE HUNDT 13 2 Compoundverbs PETER ERDMANN 38 3 Theformationofthepreteriteandthepast participle MAGNUS LEVIN 60 4 Syntheticandanalyticcomparatives BRITTA 86 MONDORF 5 Phonologyandgrammar JULIA SCHLU¨ TER 108 6 Prepositionsandpostpositions EVA BERLAGE 130 7 Argumentstructure DAVID DENISON 149 8 Reflexivestructures GU¨ NTER ROHDENBURG 166 9 Nounphrasemodification DOUGLAS BIBER, JACK GRIEVE AND GINA IBERRI-SHEA 182 10 Nominalcomplements GU¨ NTER ROHDENBURG 194 11 Non-finitecomplements UWE VOSBERG 212 12 Thepresentperfectandthepreterite JOHAN 228 ELSNESS 13 Therevivedsubjunctive GO¨ RAN KJELLMER 246 14 Themandativesubjunctive WILLIAM J. CRAWFORD 257 v vi Contents 15 Theconditionalsubjunctive JULIA SCHLU¨ TER 277 16 Tagquestions D. J. ALLERTON 306 17 Thepragmaticsofadverbs KARIN AIJMER 324 18 HowdifferentareAmericanandBritishEnglish grammar?Andhowaretheydifferent? GUNNEL 341 TOTTIE 19 Newdepartures GU¨ NTER ROHDENBURG AND JULIA SCHLU¨ TER 364 Bibliography 424 Index 452 Figures 1.1 ComparativeformsinARCHER-1 page16 1.2 SuperlativeformsinARCHER-1 17 1.3 ProgressivepassivesinBrEandAmE 18 1.4 Havevs.beasperfectauxiliarieswithintransitivesin BrEandAmE 18 1.5 Theget-passiveinBrEandAmEinARCHER-1 19 1.6 Relativefrequencyofprogressiveswithanimateand inanimatesubjectsinARCHER-1–BrEandAmE compared 19 1.7 Pasttenseandpastparticipleformsinfictional writing–adjectivalusesincluded 26 1.8 Pasttenseandpastparticipleformsinfictional writing–adjectivalusesexcluded 27 3.1 Thecorrelationbetweenaspectandverbinflections inthepreteriteinInd2000 67 3.2 Theuseof-edinNYT1995andInd2000(preterite andpastparticipleformscombined) 69 3.3 Theuseof-edinLSACandthespokenpartofthe BNC(preteriteandpastparticipleformscombined) 70 3.4 Theuseof-edinNYT1995 72 3.5 Theuseof-edinInd2000 72 3.6 Theuseof-edinLSAC 72 3.7 Theuseof-edinBNC(spoken) 72 3.8 Theuseofirregularpastparticipleformsinpassives andactivesinInd2000 73 3.9 Thecorrelationbetweenthenumberoftokensand irregularinflectioninNYT 77 3.10 Thecorrelationbetweenthenumberoftokensand irregularinflectioninInd 77 3.11 Thecorrelationbetweenthenumberoftokensand irregularinflectioninLSAC 77 3.12 Thecorrelationbetweenthenumberoftokensand irregularinflectioninBNC(spoken) 77 vii viii Listoffigures 4.1 Analyticcomparativesoffifty-fourmono-and disyllabicadjectivesaccordingtopositionintheBritish corpus(withouttheBNC)andtheAmericancorpus 91 4.2 Analyticcomparativesofnon-attributive monosyllabicadjectivesintheBritishcorpus (withoutBNC) 101 4.3 Analyticcomparativesofnon-attributive monosyllabicadjectivesintheAmericancorpus 102 5.1 Thedistributionoftheparticipialvariantslitand lightedinaseriesofBritishprosecorpora 113 5.2 Thedistributionoftheparticipialvariantslitand lightedaccordingtosyntacticfunctioninaseriesof BritishandAmericanprosecorpora 115 5.3 Thedistributionoftheparticipialvariantslitand lightedaccordingtosyntacticfunctioninaBritish andAmericannewspapercorpus 117 5.4 Thedistributionoftheparticipialvariantsknitand knittedaccordingtosyntacticfunctioninaBritish andAmericannewspapercorpus 118 5.5 Thedistributionoftheparticipialvariantsknit andknittedinaseriesofBritishprosecorpora 119 5.6 Thedistributionofaquiteandquitea(n)before attributiveadjectivesinaseriesofBritishprose corpora 122 5.7 Thedistributionofaquiteandquitea(n)before attributiveadjectivesinaseriesofBritishand Americanprosecorpora 123 5.8 Thedistributionofaquiteandquitea(n)before attributiveadjectivesaccordingtomodein present-dayBrEandAmE 125 6.1 Postpositionalnotincluded,excepted,asideandapart inasetofpresent-dayBritishandAmerican newspapers 132 6.2 Postpositionalnotwithstandinginasetof present-dayBritishandAmericannewspapers 134 6.3 Postpositionalnotwithstandingfromthelate fourteenthtoeighteenthcenturies 136 6.4 Postpositionalnotwithstandingduringthenineteenth andearlytwentiethcenturies 136 6.5 PostpositionalnotwithstandingassociatedwithNPs ofuptotenwordsexcludingNPswithdependent clausesinasetofAmericanhistoricalnewspapers from1895to1955 137
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