Consistency in Native Varieties: A Perception of British and American English usage in Cameroon

This article provides a constructional (CxG) analysis of N-ADJ compounds in which the noun receives a degree reading (e.g. bullet-straight, Kennedy-handsome). A semantic analysis based on similes and scale matching is provided, and the recent history and increased productivity of the construction are examined in light of data from both the Corpus of Historical American English and a range of present-day corpora. The article introduces new evidence of the increased functional flexibility of both common and proper nouns in English and discusses the ongoing conventionalisation of proper noun degree modifiers in both American English and other varieties of English. The results of the study suggest that the recent introduction of proper noun degree modifiers has been supported by both constructional (semantic) change and macro-trends that have affected English usage more generally.

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Phrasal verbs: ‘a process of the common, relatively uneducated, mind’?

English Today ◽

10.1017/s026607841100054x ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 27 (4) ◽

pp. 53-57

Author(s):

Kate Wild

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

American English ◽

Semantic Content ◽

Phrasal Verbs ◽

English Usage ◽

The Common ◽

Step Down ◽

Phrasal Verb ◽

Positive Comment ◽

Changing Attitudes

If you look through a modern guide to English usage, you will probably find that it has something to say about phrasal verbs. It might be a warning not to use certain phrasal verbs in certain contexts. For example, Allen (2005: 181–90) offers a table of ‘more formal alternatives to those phrasal verbs that can sometimes be too informal for writing’, with suggestions for replacing sum up with conclude and step down with resign, among others. In many cases, it will be a warning about phrasal verbs where the adverbial particle adds little semantic content to the verb: The Chicago Manual of Style advises writers to ‘avoid the phrasal verb if the verb alone conveys essentially the same meaning – e.g. rest up is equivalent to rest’ (2003: 174). It might attribute such usages to American English, as in Evans' (2000: 54–5) comment that phrasal verbs such as win out, stop off and check up on, which ‘grow like toadstools’, are ‘American parasites’. It might be a positive comment, such as Bryson's note that phrasal verbs are ‘one of the most versatile features of English’, but if so, it will probably be qualified: Bryson adds that in many cases the added particles ‘are merely a sign of careless writing’ (Bryson, 2002: 156–7). What is it about phrasal verbs that provokes such comments? By examining grammars, usage books, dictionaries and other materials since the eighteenth century, I will discuss changing attitudes towards phrasal verbs and how they fit into the context of broader opinions about language.

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On the Origin of the Grammarians' Rules for the Use of Shall and Will

PMLA ◽

10.1632/459156 ◽

1947 ◽

Vol 62 (4) ◽

pp. 1178-1182

Author(s):

J. R. Hulbert

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Eighteenth Century ◽

American English ◽

Recent Book ◽

Early Nineteenth Century ◽

English Grammar ◽

Important Study ◽

English Usage ◽

History Of ◽

The Subject

The most important study of the future with shall and will in Modern English is the article by Professor Fries published twenty years ago. In Part One, “The origin and development of the conventional rules,” Professor Fries presents a remarkably concise and thorough survey of the treatment of shall and will by English grammarians from 1530 to the early nineteenth century. In Part Two he summarizes the results of an analysis of the use of shall and will in English plays from 1557 to 1915, compares American with English usage, considers the theory of ‘glimmering through’ of ‘primitive meanings,‘ and states his conclusions. Professor Fries reverts to the subject in his recent book, American English Grammar. Here he says:The conventional rules for shall and will did not arise from any attempt to describe the practice of the language as it actually was either before the eighteenth century or at the time the grammar was written in which these rules first appeared. The authors of these grammars (Lowth and Ward) definitely repudiated usage…. That the general usage of shall and will did not at any time during the history of Modern English agree with the conventional rules is a conclusion that can be reasonably drawn from the facts revealed in the following charts.

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Variation in American English Usage

American Speech ◽

10.2307/454952 ◽

1979 ◽

Vol 54 (3) ◽

pp. 222

Author(s):

William R. Van Riper ◽

Harold B. Allen

Keyword(s):

American English ◽

English Usage

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CORRELATION OF NORTH AMERICAN ENGLISH AND BRITISH ENGLISH DIVERGENCIES IN LEXIS

Вісник Житомирського державного університету імені Івана Франка. Філологічні науки ◽

10.35433/philology.2(88).2018.10-15 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 10-15

Author(s):

V. Yevchenko

Keyword(s):

Historical Linguistic ◽

Language Development ◽

North American ◽

American English ◽

Special Kind ◽

The Other ◽

Semantic Structure ◽

British English ◽

Lexical Unit ◽

English Usage

The article focuses on the description of a special type of relationship that arises between lexical units within the corpus of English words in the framework of the sociolinguistic approach. Various ways of correlation between North American and British usages emerge in present-day English due to the action of two processes of the language development favoured by a set of historical, linguistic and sociolinguistic factors: divergence and convergence. The paper describes the most frequent forms of lexical correlation between North American English usage and British English usage. The research states that the semantic structure of the lexical unit or its register of usage can undergo changes under influences of the other variety. The lexemes, common to both national varieties with partial coincidence of the semantic structure and, sometimes, with shifts in the register of usage, are more affected by the process of convergence. The part of the English lexis less affected by convergent processes comprises common lexemes with the split in the semantic structure, the components of which are different or antonymic. The part of the present-day English lexis likely to be involved in the process of internal borrowing mostly includes lexemes specific to US English or British English with, or without lexical equivalents in the other variety. A special kind of correlation between lexical units of common origin can bring about usages functionally confined only to one variety. The functional predominance can contribute to the formation of different chains of synonyms actualized in each of the varieties. When lexemes have lexical equivalents specific to one of the national varieties of English, the so-called ''pseudo-synonymous relations” within the English lexical system can arise

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