The Diachronic Approach

7.3.1. historical Americanisms – English vocabulary units brought from Britain by the first settlers in the 17^th century and later: fall n for “autumn”, guess v for “think” OALD 9^th ed. guess1 have a particular idea or opinion about sb/sth, loan v for “lend”, sick adj for “ill”, patch n for “plot” (of land), mad adj for “angry”, deck n (of cards) for (especially BrE) pack (also deck NAme, BrE) ‘a complete set of 52 playing cards’), advocate v for “support” or “favour” etc.

7.3.2. Americanisms proper* – a large stock of new words that the early colonists coined by giving an English word a new meaning or arranging English elements in new combinations: LDOCE 6^th ed.: ˈ catfish n a type of fish that has whiskers (=strong hairs) around its mouth and lives in rivers or lakes.(The European fresh-water counterpart is usually called sheatfish/sheat-fish /ˈʃi:t.fɪʃ/. See Collins English Dictionary 10^th ed. – N.E.)

OALD 9^th ed.:ˈ eggplant n a vegetable with shiny dark purple skin and soft white flesh; ˈ cold snap n (informal a sudden short period of very cold weather); AHD 5^th ed. ˈ backwoods pl. n (used with a sing. or pl. verb) 1. heavily wooded, uncultivated, thinly settled areas. 2. an area that is far from population centers or that is held to be culturally backward; OALD 9^th ed. ˈ snowshoe n one of a pair of flat frames that you attach to the bottom of your shoes so that you can walk on deep snow without sinking in); locust /ˈləʊ.kəst ‖ ˈloʊ-/ a large insect like a grasshopper that lives in hot countries and flies in large groups, destroying all the plants and crops of an area.

*the unhappy version ‘proper Americanisms, later proper Americanisms’ has persisted throughout all the eight editions of G.B. Antrushina’s textbook ‘English Lexicology’ (EL 8^th ed., p.261)

7.3.3. later Americanisms proper – these are defined by G.B. Antrushina as “names of objects which are called differently in the United States and in England” (Ibid., p.261-262): chemist’s – drugstore; sweets – candy; sweet n – dessert; underground n – subway; subway – (pedestrian) underpass; rubber – eraser /ɪˈreɪ.zə^r‖ -ˈreɪ.sɚ/; pavement – sidewalk; roadway – pavement; trousers – pants; pants (men’s shorts) - underpants; (motor) coach – intercity bus; knock sb up – wake sb by knocking; flannel n – facecloth (washcloth); washcloth – dishcloth; film – movie; cinema – movie house (theater); clean v – shine (shoes); (buy sth on) hire purchase – instalment plan; holiday – vacation; inverted commas –quotation marks; sister – nurse; slim v – diet; spirits npl. – (hard) liquor /ˈlɪk.ɚ/etc. In terms of synchronic approach this group is definedas ‘lexical--semantic divergents’ (SEUE 2^nd ed., p.100).

7.3.4. loan words – words borrowed into AmEfrom other languages: a) ‘the earliest Americanisms were probably words borrowed… from the Indian languages’ (the languages of Native Americans), such as wigwam, squaw. An EFL student who specializes or majors (NAmE) in English should keep in mind that some (English) words, including personal names can be politically incorrect.

OALD 9^th ed. politically correct adj. (abbr. PC) used to describe language or behaviour that deliberately tries to avoid offending particular groups of people. Let us consider the word ‘Indian’ used above: OALD 9^th ed. Indian noun 1 a person from India 2 (old-fashioned, offensive)= NativeAmerican. squaw /skwɔ:/ noun (old use)a word for a native American woman that is now often considered offensive. This treatment agrees with the definition in AHD 5^th ed.: squaw n Offensive 1. A NativeAmerican woman, especially a wife. 2. Offensive Slang A woman or wife.

canoe /kəˈnu:/ noun a light narrow boat that you move along in the water with a paddle

tomahawk /ˈtɒm.ə.hɔ:k ‖ ˈtɑ:.mə.hɑ:k/ noun a light axe used by Native Americans

woodchuck CALD 4^th ed. a small animal with short legs and rough reddish-brown fur that lives in North America. AHD 5^th ed. WORD HISTORY The woodchuck goes by several names in the United States. One is groundhog, the name under which legends about the animal’s emergence from the ground on Groundhog Day have accrued. The word groundhog probably makes reference to the animal’s excellent burrowing abilities. In the Appalachian Mountains, the woodchuck is known as a whistle pig, in reference to the shrill whistle it makes when disturbed. The word woodchuck is probably a folk etymology of a word in an Algonquinian language of New England akin to the Narragansett word for the animal, ockqutchaun.... LDELC groundhog also woodchuck, marmot – n a small N American animal that has thick fur and lives in holes in the ground.

In the US there are many place names of Indian origin: Illinois /ˌɪl.ɪˈnɔɪ, -əˈ-ˈ/(‘the tribe of tall people’), Tennesee /ˌten.əˈsi:, -ɪˈ-/‖ˌten.ɪˈsi:; regionally: ˈten.ɪ.si/ (from the Indian name of the river)

Alabama (‘plant-gatherers’), Nebraska (‘flat water’), Idaho (‘the pearl of the mountains). There are also loan translations of Indian terms: warpath, paleface, pipe of peace, bury the hatchet,firewater etc.

b) from Spanish: cockroach, corral, lasso, ranch, canyon, sombrero, cinch, burrito, burro etc

c) borrowings from the languages of the Negro slaves (Afro-Americans): banjo, voodoo etc.

d) Dutch: cookie, sleigh, Yankee, boss, ˈ Santa Claus, stoop MEDAL AmE a raised area outside the front door of a house, cole slaw etc.

e) French: prairie, buccaneer, carryall, gopher; from Spanish through French: calaboose, quadroon. There are also numerous towns in the USA with the French suffix –ville ( North Carolina: Asheville, Edneyville, Fayetteville, Hendersonville, Knoxville, Maryville, Statesville, Waynesville;

Maryland: Catonsville, Hyattsville, Laytonsville, Millersville, Pikesville, Rockville, Sikesville etc.;

Illinois: Baileyville, Bartonville, Beaverville, Bondville, Cedarville, Claytonville, Earlville, Flatville, Granville, Lightsville, Milledgeville, Orangeville, Rushville, Sherburnville, Westville etc).

f) German: sauerkraut,noodle, kindergarten, poodle, yodel, lager, zeitgeist, wanderlust, etc).

7.3.5. clippings or abbreviations are not confined to AmE, but theymake up an important group in it (though the borderline between AmE and International Standard English in the age of global mass media is getting more and more difficult to define): ad, Afro, aggro n, alchy (alkie), auto, beaut, bike, cell (phone), coke, comfy, combo, condo, disco, dorm, fax, gym, intro, lab, mac / mac out (to eat sth, usually a lot), mag, mart, math (s), mega, mike, movie (from “moving pictures’), N!(condescending negative response), prof, rev sth (up), soc Slang U /soʊʃ/ from “social climber”, a person with a superficial personality known for participating in a lot of social activities), super, van, veg /veʤ/, vet, (fan) zine.

7.3.6. structural lexical variants – words differing in derivational affixes (prefixes and suffixes) but identical in lexical meaning: acclimatize (acclimatise BrE) /əˈklaɪ.mə.taɪz/ - acclimate. /ˈæk.lɪ.meɪt; əˈklaɪ.mət/; aluminium /æl.jəˈmɪn.i.əm/ - aluminum /əˈlu:.mɪ.nəm/; trapezeum /trəˈpi:.zi.əm/ - trapezoid /ˈtræp.ɪ.zɔɪd/. From the American point of view (N.W. Schur. British English, A to Zed. p.409), “the British tend to lengthen (they feel that we tend to shorten) the first word of many compound nouns, particularly by adding the ending –ing ”: sail ing -boat, row ing -boat, diall ing -code or tone,bank ing -account, wash ing -day, wash ing -basin, danc ing -hall, spark ing -plug, market ing -research.’ OALD, 9^th ed.: dress verb (BrE) dressing-up clothes ◊ (NAmE) dress-up clothes; LDOCE 6^th ed: BrE ˈfiling ˌcabinet n [C]a piece of office furniture with drawers for storing letters, reports etc AmE ˈfile ˌcabinet. The suffix –y in BrE may correspond to –ation in AmE:OALD 9^th ed.: BrE expir y (date)◊ AmE expir ation (date). The suffix – er seems to belong here too: BrE:dump er truck AmE: dump truck. ‘Other examples of BrE are found in department al store, cook ery bookand high ly strung…There is a tendency often to pluralize, as in brain s trust, overhead s, removal s (the moving business), insurance s (e.g. ‘Insurances Arranged’). An –ed is often added, as instocking ed feet, ice d water, close d company for close corporation, …wheel ed chair, twin-bed ded room, wing ed collar, but two-room flat (note the absence of –ed in room)… Note, too, the British insistence on adding an object in certain expressions where the American usage is content with the verb alone: to move house, to shower oneself, although the object of the verb is occasionally omitted.Also note pour with rain. (What else would it pour with?). However, watch out: sometimes they do the shortening, as in swing door for swinging-door, sunk garden for sunken garden, spring-clean for spring cleaning,.., punch-bag for punching bag, drive for driveway ”. Another example is OALD 9^th ed. BrE: He’s got a drink problem. NAmE: He has a drinking problem. Here also belong ˌ drink ˈ driver (BrE) (also ˌ drunk ˈ driver NAmE, BrE); ˌ drink- ˈ driving (also ˌ drunken ˈ driving) (both BrE) (also ˈ drunk driving NAmE, BrE) noun [U] driving a vehicle after drinking too much alcohol

7.3.7. complete and partial Americanisms:In his books ‘An Outline of the Modern English Language in the United States’ (1963) and ‘Standard English in the USA and England’ (1971, p.158; 1978, p.136) A.D. Švejcer (whose approach is shared by R.S. Ginzburg: CMEL, p.14) suggested that Americanisms be divided into complete or full, i.e. words and fixed phrases specific of the US variety in all their meanings (drugstore, sidewalk, washcloth etc) and partial, i.e. those peculiar to AmE in one of their meanings (pavement, shoulde r, grade etc). Lexical-semantic differences between BrE and AmE are too various and complex to be accounted for by a general description and require a special, detailed treatment.

 

Questions and Tasks

 

1. What does the comparative analysis of BrE and AmE vocabulary aim to describe?

 

2. How does A.D. Švejcer classify the vocabulary of Standard English in the USA and England?

 

3. What are the two main ways of analyzing a language lexicon or comparing the vocabularies of its

major varieties?

 

4. What does the term ‘historical Americanisms’ stand for?

 

5. What is the difference between ‘Americanisms proper’ and ‘later Americanisms proper’?

 

6. What are the major sources of loan words in AmE?

 

7. How important are abbreviations in AmE?

 

8. What do structural lexical variants of BrE and AmE differ in?

 

9. Why is A.D. Švejcer’s classification of all Americanisms into complete and partial insufficient?