One language, two grammars?: differences between British and American English

487 Pages·2009·3.35 MB·English

by  Günter Rohdenburg

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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