Have went– an American usage problem

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-312
Author(s):  
INGRID TIEKEN-BOON VAN OSTADE ◽  
VIKTORIJA KOSTADINOVA
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Standard Form ◽  
The United States ◽  
Current Status ◽  
British English ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Text Corpora ◽  
Close Analysis

Have wentmay seem a straightforward non-standard grammatical form today, but it evidently has a different status in British and American English. While in British English it developed into a non-standard form after the codification of the strong verb system by the eighteenth-century normative grammarians, in American English it became a usage problem. This we concluded from its appearance primarily in usage guides published in the United States over the years. The current status of the variant in the region was confirmed by evidence we encountered both in anonymous surveys and in face-to-face interviews with native speakers of American English. Our findings for the differences in status ofhave wentin the course of its history were supported by corpus-based analyses of historical and modern text corpora for British and American English, while a close analysis of selected modern instances ofhave wentandhave goneshowed a different distribution between the two that appears to warrant a perceived difference in meaning noted by some of the American informants.

scholarly journals The acoustic characteristics of non-native American English vowels

Linguistica ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-72
Author(s):  
Biljana Čubrović
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Native American ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vowel Quality ◽  
Acoustic Characteristics ◽  
Language Background ◽  
English Vowels ◽  
Native Speech

This study aims at discussing the phonetic property of vowel quality in English, as exercised by both native speakers of General American English (AE) and non-native speakers of General American English of Serbian language background, all residents of the United States. Ten Serbian male speakers and four native male speakers of AE are recorded in separate experiments and their speech analyzed acoustically for any significant phonetic differences, looking into a set of monosyllabic English words representing nine vowels of AE. The general aim of the experiments is to evaluate the phonetic characteristics of AE vowels, with particular attention to F1 and F2 values, investigate which vowels differ most in the two groups of participants, and provide some explanations for these variations. A single most important observation that is the result of this vowel study is an evident merger of three pairs of vowels in the non-native speech: /i ɪ/, /u ʊ/, and /ɛ æ/.

A rose by any other name? Learner English and variety–status labelling: the case of English in South Korea

English Today ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 56-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jae Jung Song
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Indian English ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
British English ◽  
Outer Circle ◽  
The Face ◽  
Inner Circle

One of the major achievements of Braj Kachru's (1991) ‘liberation linguistics’ is that it has squarely placed Outer Circle varieties such as Indian English, Nigerian English and Singaporean English on a par with Inner Circle varieties such as American English and British English – in the face of negative attitudes, ranging ‘from amused condescension to racist stereotyping’ (Bruthiaux, 2003: 160). Following in Kachru's footsteps, many scholars have demonstrated that these Outer Circle Englishes are legitimate varieties of English, with distinct characteristics and with growing numbers of native speakers (e.g. Deterding, 2007; Jowitt, 1991; Sailaja, 2009). Indeed these Outer Circle English varieties are increasingly used, in respective countries, not only as the major or default medium of communication but also in the context of important domains such as education, media, government, literature and popular culture. The Kachruvian perspective has also given rise to the ‘egalitarian’ view that Inner Circle English speakers are no longer the only ones who can lay claim to the ownership of English. Outer Circle English speakers are now thought to be as much custodians of English as Inner Circle English speakers are.

scholarly journals Transfer, Similarity or Lack of Awareness? Inconsistencies of German Learners in the Pronunciation of LOT, THOUGHT, STRUT, PALM and BATH

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Kautzsch
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
First Year ◽  
Close Approximation ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
British English ◽  
English Vowels ◽  
Vowel Systems ◽  
Acoustic Analyses ◽  
University Level

The current study presents acoustic analyses of non-high back vowels and low central vowels in the lexical sets LOT, THOUGHT, STRUT, PALM and BATH as pronounced by German learners of English. The main objective is to show that learners of English at university level are highly inconsistent in approximating the vowels of their self-chosen target accents British English (BrE) and American English (AmE). To that end, the acoustic qualities of the English vowels of learners are compared to their native German vowels and to the vowels of native speakers of BrE and AmE. In order to facilitate statements about the effect of increased experience, the study differentiates between students in their first year at university and in their third year or later. The results obtained are highly variable: In some cases the learners transfer their L1 vowels to English, other cases show clear approximations to the target vowels, while other cases again document the production of new vowels neither found in German nor in English. However, close approximation to the target vowels only sometimes correlates with higher proficiency. This might be an indicator of a low level of awareness of systematic differences between the BrE and AmE vowel systems. But the data also indicate that the more advanced learners produce more distinct AmE BATH vowels and BrE THOUGHT vowels than the less advanced learners, which points to a partial increase of awareness resulting from increased experience. All in all it seems that raising the awareness of differences between target accents in L2 instruction is necessary if the envisage goal is for learners to reach near-native pronunciation.

AN INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN ENGLISH.Gunnel Tottie. Oxford: Blackwell, 2002. Pp. xx + 294. $68.95 cloth, $31.95 paper.

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 590-591
Author(s):  
Robert Bayley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Students ◽  
American English ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
The United States ◽  
British English ◽  
American Universities ◽  
Student Questions

Virtually all American English teachers who have taught outside of the United States have been confronted by student questions about the differences between American and British English, often with the implication that British English is somehow superior. Despite such implications, the economic and political importance of the United States, as well as the attractiveness of American universities to international students, has created a strong demand for more knowledge about American varieties of English. An introduction to American English goes a long way toward meeting that demand.

Eighteenth Century English in Nova Scotia

1956 ◽  
Vol 2 (R1) ◽  
pp. 3-3
Author(s):  
M. H. Scargill
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Nova Scotia ◽  
New England ◽  
American English ◽  
British English ◽  
Early Eighteenth Century

The Original Minutes of His Majesty’s Council at Annapolis Royal, 1720–1739 show some interesting examples of English. As is to be expected, the English used corresponds closely with late seventeenth and early eighteenth century British English and with American English of New England records or the same periods. The British English documents ‘with which these Minutes have most in common are the Wentworth Papers, 1705-1739 and the Verney Letters, 1696-1717.

scholarly journals VIETNAMESE LEARNERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS AMERICAN AND BRITISH ACCENTS

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Huong Le Thu Phan
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
British English ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Inner Circle ◽  
Efl Classrooms ◽  
Received Pronunciation

English possesses different varieties due to its worldwide usage which challenges the tendency of favorite accents among EFL classrooms in non-English speaking countries. However, learners show more positive familiarity and preference for General American English (GA) and British English, Received Pronunciation (RP) which are grouped as the inner-circle of English. This study investigated 53 students in a university in southern part of Vietnam. They were asked to complete an online questionnaire which examined their evaluations of two accents on different traits of status and solidarity, their preference and familiarity. A verbal guise technique is employed with two female native speakers. The data was analyzed by SPSS with different T-tests and ANOVA. The study revealed that the respondents showed greater recognition and evaluations for GA which associated with prestige, familiarity and social attractiveness. Nearly two-thirds of participants revealed a preference to the American speaker although more than half of them did not recognize where she was from.

scholarly journals Contemporary English – a challenge for non-native speakers

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 85
Author(s):  
Jana Beresova
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
British English ◽  
New Words ◽  
American Popular Culture ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Grammatical Structures

The paper focuses on contemporary American English and its challenge for those who are exposed to it as non-native users. Due to globalisation, the two main varieties of English (British and American) are becoming closer than they used to be as native speakers of both communicate directly and influence their varieties significantly. The traditional differences between British English and American English are less meaningful, however, English nowadays develops rapidly. The focus of research is based on current trends in both grammar and vocabulary, analysing contemporary American literary prose as many new words and new ways of using grammar in British English come from American English due to the influence of American popular culture and media. Contemporary literary prose is a valuable material of natural written and spoken language. In the paper, both speeches (that of the narrator and characters) are analysed, focusing on expressions and grammatical structures which are likely to attract a non-native reader. The selected samples of the language are discussed and systemised with an aim to generalise some trends typical for contemporary English. Keywords: contemporary English; vocabulary; grammar; informal language;

scholarly journals What's in a word: Sounding sarcastic in British English

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aoju Chen ◽  
Lou Boves
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Functional Data ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
British English ◽  
Telephone Conversation ◽  
Contour Shape ◽  
Direct Support ◽  
Key Word

Using a simulated telephone conversation task, we elicited sarcastic production in different utterance types (i.e. declaratives, tag questions andwh-exclamatives from native speakers of the southern variety of British English. Unlike previous studies which focus on static prosodic measurements at the utterance level (e.g. mean pitch, pitch span, intensity), we examined both static prosodic measurements and continuous changes in contour shape in the semantically most important words (or key words) of the sarcastic utterances and their counterparts in the sincere utterances. To this end, we adopted Functional Data Analysis to model pitch variation as contours and represent the contours as continuous function in statistical analysis. We found that sarcasm and sincerity are prosodically distinguishable in the key words alone. The key words in sarcastic utterances are realised with a longer duration and a flatter fall than their counterparts in sincere utterances regardless of utterance type and speaker gender. These results are compatible with previous reports on the use of a smaller pitch span and a slower speech rate in sarcastic utterances than in sincere utterances in North American English. We also observed notable differences in the use of minimum pitch, maximum pitch and contour shape in different utterance types and in the use of mean pitch and duration by male and female speakers. Additionally, we found that the prosody of the key words in sarcastic utterances and their counterparts in sincere utterances has yielded useful predictors for the presence (or absence) of sarcasm in an utterance. Together, our results lend direct support to a key-word–based approach. However, the prosodic predictors included in our analysis alone can achieve only an accuracy of 70.4%, suggesting a need to examine additional prosodic parameters and prosody beyond the key words.

scholarly journals Is smiling during humor so obvious? A cross-cultural comparison of smiling behavior in humorous sequences in American English and French interactions

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 563-591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Béatrice Priego-Valverde ◽  
Brigitte Bigi ◽  
Salvatore Attardo ◽  
Lucy Pickering ◽  
Elisa Gironzetti
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Cross Cultural Comparison ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Cross Cultural Research ◽  
Smiling Behaviors

AbstractThe present article is part of a larger cross-cultural research project on speaker-hearer smiling behavior in humorous and non-humorous conversations in American English and French. The American corpus consists of eight computer-mediated interactions between English native speakers, and the French one consists of four face-to-face interactions between French native speakers. The goal of the study is twofold: first, we analyze the link between smiling and humor, focusing on the degree of synchronicity of smiling and the intensity of smiling during humorous and non-humorous segments; second, we investigate the various targets mobilized in conversational humor. The results obtained comparing the two data-sets show a correlation between the presence of humor, an increased smiling intensity, and an increase in the synchronized smiling behaviors displayed by participants. However, the two corpora also differ in terms of the displayed smiling behaviors: French participants display more non-synchronic smiling when humor is absent and more synchronic smiling when humor is present. Regarding the various targets of humor (Speaker, Recipient, Other person, Situation, Speaker+Recipient), while their distribution is different – it is more evenly distributed in the French data – the way in which these are mobilized in order to become humorous is quite similar.

Which English Should We Teach for International Technical Communication?

1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kirkman
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
British English

There are differences of vocabulary, grammar, and usage in American English and British English. As international interchange of information increases, we must alert writers and editors to these differences, and encourage them to find forms of expression common to both versions of English. If they do not, their texts may create difficulties, not only for readers using English as a foreign language, but also for native speakers of American English or British English.

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