Compare the dictionary entries in synchronic and diachronic dictionaries.

3. Make sure you understand the meaning of the following terms which are used in English dictionaries. Find the equivalents in Russian:

1. appreciative	16. informal
2. approving	17. ironical
3. archaic	18. jocular
4. Bible (biblical)	19. literary
5. colloquial	20. obsolete
6. dated	21. old use
7. derogatory	22. pejorative
8. dialectal	23. poetic
9. emotive	24. pompous
10. emphatic	25. rare
11. euphemistic	26. rhetorical
12. figurative	27. slang
13. formal	28. taboo
14. historical	29. technical
15. humorous	30. vulgar

VARIANTS AND DIALECTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

 

1. Historical and economic reasons for spreading of English over vast territories. Terms " variant" and " dialect". General characteristics of the English language in different parts of the English-speaking world.

1. Лексикология английского языка: учебник для ин-тов и фак-тов иностр. яз. / Р.З. Гинзбург [и др.]; под общ. ред. Р.З. Гинзбург. — 2-е изд., испр. и доп. — М.: Высш. школа, 1979. — С. 200—206.

2. Лещева, Л.М. Слова в английском языке. Курс лексикологии современного английского языка: учебник для студ. фак-в и отдел. английского языка (на англ. яз.) / Л.М. Лещева. — Минск: Академия управления при Президенте Республики Беларусь, 2001. — С. 123—124.

Local varieties of English on the British Isles and in the USA.

1. Антрушина, Г.Б. Лексикология английского языка: учебник для студ. пед. ин-тов по спец. № 2103 " Иностр. яз." / Г.Б. Антрушина, О.В. Афанасьева, Н.Н. Морозова; под ред. Г.Б. Антрушиной. — М.: Высш. школа, 1985. — С. 200—213.

2. Воробей, А.Н. Глоссарий лингвистических терминов / А.Н. Воробей, Е.Г. Карапетова. — Барановичи: УО " БарГУ", 2004. — 108 с.

3. Дубенец, Э.М. Современный английский язык. Лексикология: пособие для студ. гуманит. вузов / Э.М. Дубенец. — М. / СПб.: ГЛОССА / КАРО, 2004. — С. 141—142.

4. Лексикология английского языка: учебник для ин-тов и фак-тов иностр. яз. / Р.З. Гинзбург [и др.]; под общ. ред. Р.З. Гинзбург. — 2-е изд., испр. и доп. — М.: Высш. школа, 1979. — С. 206—209.

5. Лещева, Л.М. Слова в английском языке. Курс лексикологии современного английского языка: учебник для студ. фак-в и отдел. английского языка (на англ. яз.) / Л.М. Лещева. — Минск: Академия управления при Президенте Республики Беларусь, 2001. — С. 124—129.

British and American English.

1. Антрушина, Г.Б. Лексикология английского языка: учебник для студ. пед. ин-тов по спец. № 2103 " Иностр. яз." / Г.Б. Антрушина, О.В. Афанасьева, Н.Н. Морозова; под ред. Г.Б. Антрушиной. — М.: Высш. школа, 1985. — С. 200—206.

2. Дубенец, Э.М. Современный английский язык. Лексикология: пособие для студ. гуманит. вузов / Э.М. Дубенец. — М. / СПб.: ГЛОССА / КАРО, 2004. — С. 143—150.

3. Лещева, Л.М. Слова в английском языке. Курс лексикологии современного английского языка: учебник для студ. фак-в и отдел. английского языка (на англ. яз.) / Л.М. Лещева. — Минск: Академия управления при Президенте Республики Беларусь, 2001. — С. 129—135.

Key terms: variant, dialect.

Compulsory exercises:

1. Consider your answers to the following questions:

1. In what different ways might the language spoken in the USA be viewed linguistically?

2. What are the peculiarities of the vocabulary of English spoken in the USA?

3. Can we say that the vocabulary of the language spoken in the USA supports the hypothesis that there is an " American language"? Give a detailed answer.

4. What are the grammatical peculiarities of the American variety of English?

5. Describe some of the phonetic divergences in both varieties of English.

6. What other regional varieties of English do you know?

Give the British equivalents for the following Americanisms.

apartment

store

baggage

street car

truck

elevator

candy

corn

stand/wait in line

fall

drapes

semester

freeway

collect call

attorney

check

gasoline

3. Complete the table using British English or American English word.

	vacation
trousers
	apartment
trainers
	high school
biscuits
	garbage
	highway
fortnight
	subway

Explain the differences in the meanings of the following words in American and British English.

corn

apartment

homely

guess

Identify the etymology of the following words (consult the supplementary material).

Ohio

ranch

squash

mosquito

banjo

toboggan

pickaninny

Mississippi

sombrero

prairie

wigwam

6. Translate the following words giving both the British and American variants.

каникулы

бензин

осень

консервная банка

трамвай

тротуар

штора

ящик для мусора

лифт

конфета

грузовик

товарный поезд

багаж

метро

подтяжки

брюки

кран

почтовый ящик

бумажник

визитная карточка

The text includes some words used in American English. Find them and give the British English words.

It was getting near lunchtime and I needed some gas, so I left the freeway and drove towards the nearest town. There was a gas station just outside the town and I decided to stop and have a look round. I put the car in a parking lot and took a cab to the centre. It was midday and very hot, so I stopped at a little cafe with tables on the sidewalk. I started talking to a truck driver, who gave me a history of the town, and afterwards he took me on a guided tour. It made a very nice break.

Give synonyms for the following American shortenings. Describe the words from the stylistic point of view.

gym

mo

circs

auto

perm

cert

n. g.

b. f.

g. m.

dorm

The American words in the sentences below are printed in italics. Replace each American word or phrase with a British word or phrase from the following list.

fail

flat

trousers

playing truant

bill

holidays

nappies

railway timetable

tap

caretaker

pavement

chemist

post

postman

saloon car

ordinary uniformed policeman

rise

(a) His mother thought he was at school but in fact he was playing hookey. He'll probably flunk his exams.

(b) The kitchen faucet in my apartment isn't working. I'll tell the janitor. He'll get it fixed.

(c) Blue-collar workers are asking for a pay-hike and longer paid vacations.

(d) The dog attacked the mailman and tore his pants.

(e) Do you have a railroad schedule? I want an early train for Chicago tomorrow.

(f) A patrolman reported a light-blue sedan parked right across the sidewalk on 3^rd Street.

(g) She has a little baby so she has to make regular visits to the drugstore to buy diapers.

(h) When the waiter handed me the check after the meal, I found that I had no money!

(i) How much does it cost to mail a letter to Australia?

The American words in the sentences below are printed in italics. Replace each American word or phrase with a British word or phrase from the following list.

petrol

jam

underground

specialise

queue

garden

cinema

maths

rubbish

note

petrol station

secondary school

autumn

lift

ground floor

university

sweets

shops

windscreen

(a) We had to stand in line at the movie-theatre last night.

(b) Our back yard looks lovely in the fall. The leaves on the trees turn brown and red.

(c) He wants to major in math at college when he leaves high school.

(d) When you stop for gas at a gas station, they sometimes clean your windshield.

(e) We had to buy a lot at the stores, then we took the subway home.

(f) The elevator's broken down again, but it doesn't matter. We live on the first floor.

(g) She likes candy and bread and butter with jelly on it. They're bad for her teeth.

(h) The only money I have is a twenty dollar bill.

(i) In this district they only collect the garbage once a week.

Additional exercises:

1. State which of the words are used in America, which in England.

Mail-car, mail-van, mailman, postman, mail-box, pillar-box, special delivery, express post, domestic mail, inland post, foreign mail, overseas mail, telegraph blank, telegraph form.

Read the following extract and give more examples illustrating the same group of Americanisms. What do we call this group?

M: — Well, now, homely is a very good word to illustrate Anglo-American misunderstanding. At any rate, many funny stories depend on it, like the one about the British lecturer visiting the United States; he faces his American audience and very innocently tells them how nice it is to see so many homely faces out in the audience.

Homely in Britain means, of course, something rather pleasant, but in American English not very good looking. This older sense is preserved in some British dialects.

(From A Common Language by A.H. Marckwardt and R. Quirk) (In this book two prominent scholars, an American and an Englishman, discuss the differences between the American and British varieties of English).

Read the following extract. What are the three possible ways of creating names for new species of plants and animals and new features of the landscape? Give more examples of the same. What do we call this group of Americanisms?

Q: ...I think that this time we ought to give some attention to those parts of the language where the differences in the vocabulary are much more noticeable.

M: Yes, we should. First, there are what we might call the 'realia' — the real things — the actual things we refer to in the two varieties of the language, for example, the flora and fauna — that is to say the plants and animals of England and of the United States are by no means the same, nor is the landscape, the topography.

Q: All this must have created a big problem for those early settlers, mustn't it?

M: It surely did. From the very moment they set foot on American soil, they had to supply names for these new species of plants and animals, the new features of landscape that they encountered. At times they made up new words such as mockingbird, rattlesnake, egg-plant. And then occasionally they used perfectly familiar terms but to refer to different things. In the United States, for example, the robin is a rather large bird, a type ofthrush.

Q: Yes, whereas — with us it is a tiny little red-breasted bird.

M: And a warbler, isn't it?

Q: Yes.

M: It sings. Corn is what you call maize. We never use it for grain in general, or for wheat in particular.

Q: Or oats. Well, wouldn't foreign borrowings also be important in a situation like this?

M: Oh, they were indeed. A good many words, for example, were adopted from the American Indian languages — hickory, a kind of tree; squash, a vegetable; moccasin, a kind of footwear. We got caribou and prairie from the early French settlers. The Spanish gave us canyon and bronco.

(From A Common Language by A.H. Marckwardt and R. Quirk)

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