Lecture no.

- Varieties of English

Variety labels To use a language properly, we have to know the grammatical structures of the language and their meanings. But we also have to know what forms of language are appropriate for given situations, and for this purpose,
we will discuss instances of 'variety labels such as <Am ! "for American nglish#, <Br ! "for British nglish#, <$%! "for $eceived %ronunciation#, <&A! "for &eneral American#, <formal!, "informal#, <polite!, <familiar!. These labels are reminders that the nglish language is, in a sense, not a single language, but many languages, each of which belongs to a particular geographical area or to a particular kind of situation. The nglish used in the 'nited (tates is somewhat different from the nglish used in &reat Britain) the nglish used in formal written communications is in some ways different from the nglish used in informal conversation.

The common core *uckily for the learner, many of the features of nglish are found in all, or nearly all varieties. +e say that general features of this kind belong to the ,common core of the language. Take, for instance, the three words children, offspring, and kids. Children is a ,common core term) offspring is rather formal "and used of animals as well as human beings#) kids is informal and familiar. -t is safest, when in doubt, to use the ,common core term) thus children is the word you would want to use most often. But part of ,knowing nglish is knowing in what circumstances it would be possible to use offspring or kids instead of children.
grammar. /eeling tired, 0ohn went to bed early. 0ohn went to bed early because he felt tired. 0ohn felt tired, so he went to bed early. 123 143 153 *et us take another illustration, this time from

(entence 143 is a ,common core construction. -t could "for e6ample# be used in both speech and writing. 123 is rather formal in construction, typical of written e6position) 153 is informal, and is likely to occur in a rela6ed conversation.

Thus, you can assume that features of

nglish which are given no variety label belong to the ,common core.

Geographical and national varieties !rE" #mE" nglish is spoken as a native language by nearly three hundred million people. in the 'nited (tates of America, 7anada, Britain, -reland, Australia, the 7aribbean, and many other places. But since the varieties of nglish used in the 'nited (tates and in Britain are the most important in terms of population and influence, the only national varieties we shall distinguish in this course are American nglish <Am ! and British nglish <Br !. -n general, what we say in this course of lectures
applies e8ually to <Am ! and <Br !. The grammatical differences between the two varieties "in comparison with differences of pronunciation and vocabulary# are not very great. 9ere are some brief e6amples of how <Am ! and <Br ! can differ.

"A#

<Am ! has two past participle forms o f

get:.gotten and got, whereas <Br ! has only one. got. "The

past tense form is got in both varieties.#

/or e6ample. 2

<Am !. 9ave you gotten/got the tickets for the match : <Br !. 9ave you got the tickets for the match :
"B# There is also a difference in the repeated sub;ect after one. -n <Am ! we can say. ! we have to say.

One cannot succeed unless he tries hard. -n <Br

One cannot succeed unless one tries hard. "7# in <Br !. <Am !. Their house is different than ours. <Br !. Their house is different from ours. < "=# conte6ts. They suggested that (mith be dropped from the team. "chiefly Am ! They suggested that (mith should be dropped from the team. <Am ! and <Br ! +ithin each nglish>speaking country there are many differences of regional dialect "for e6ample, between the nglish spoken in ?ew ngland and in the (outhern (tates of the '.(.A.#> These differences rarely affect grammatical usage in written nglish or in educated spoken nglish, so we shall ignore them in this course.
-n representing pronunciation, we shall distinguish where necessary between &eneral American <&A! and $eceived %ronunciation <$%!, two varieties of pronunciation associated with <Am ! and <Br ! respectively.

The normal complement after different is than in <Am ! but from "or sometimes to)

The use of the sub;unctive after verbs like demand, require, insist, suggest, etc, is

more common in <Am ! than <Br !, where the construction is restricted to rather formal

$ritten and spo%en English <written! <spoken! The nglish of speech tends to be different from the nglish of writing in some fairly obvious ways. /or e6ample, in writing we usually have time to plan our message, to think about it carefully while writing, and to revise it afterwards if necessary. -n speech "unless it is, say, a lecture prepared in advance#, we have no time to do this, but must shape our message as we go.
@ften we use in speech words and phrases like well, you see, and kind of which add little information, but tell us something of the speakers attitude to his audience and to what he is saying. +e also often hesitate, or fill in gaps with ,hesitation fillers like er
&'()& and um AsmA while we think of what ne6t to say. +e may fail to complete a sentence, or lose track of our sentence and mi6 up

one grammatical construction with another. All these features do not normally occur in writing.

*ormal and informal English <formal! <informal! /ormal language is the type of language we use publicly for some serious purpose, for e6ample, in official reports, business letters and regulations. /ormal 4

nglish is nearly always written. 6ceptionally it is used in speech, for e6ample in formal public speeches. -nformal language
(ie collo8uial language# is the language of private conversation, of personal letters, etc. -t is the first type of language that a native>speaking child becomes familiar with. Because it is generally easier to understand than formal nglish, it is often used nowadays in public communication of a popular kind. for e6ample, advertisements and popular newspapers mainly employ a collo8uial or informal style.

There are various degrees of formality, as these e6amples show . +hen his dad died, %ete had to get another ;ob. After his fathers death, %eter had to change his ;ob. 1B3
1C3 1E3

@n the decease of his father, Dr Brown was obliged to seek alternative employment.

These sentences mean roughly the same thing, but would occur in different situations. (entence 1B3 could be part of
a casual conversation between friends of %eter Brown. 1C3 is of fairly neutral ",common core# style. 1E3 is very formal, in fact stilted, and would only occur in a written report.

-n nglish there are many differences of vocabulary between formal and informal language. Duch of the vocabulary of formal nglish is of /rench, *atin, and &reek origin) and we can often
,translate these terms into informal language by replacing them by words or phrases of Anglo>(a6on origin. compare commence, continue, conclude <formal! with begin, keep (up), end:

The meeting will commence at B p.m. 1formal3 The meeting will begin at B oclock. 1informal3 The government is continuing its struggle against inflation. 1formal3 The government is keeping up its fight against inflation. 1rather informal3 The concert concluded with a performance of Beethovens Cth symphony. <formal! They ended the concert with Beethovens Cth. "informal# Dany phrasal and prepositional verbs are characteristic of informal style. +*,)-#L.
,) 1,--,0 1,)E $,)2

+/0*,)-#L.
E34/V#LE0T

isco!er "#plode "ncounter $n!ent "nter %olerate $n!estigate &urrender 5

find out blow up come across make up go in (to) put up with look into
gi!e in

But there is not always a direct

,translation between formal and informal

nglish. This may be because an

informal term has emotive 8ualities not present in formal language, or because formal language often insists on greater precise>ness. The informal word 'ob, for instance, has no formal e8uivalent. instead, we have to choose a more precise and restricted term, according to the conte6t. employment, post (esp. <Br F, position, appointment, profession, !ocation, etc.

There are also some grammatical differences between formal and informal a clause. (he longed for a friend in whom she could confide. "formal#
(he longed for a friend (who) she could confide in. "informal#

nglish. for

e6ample, the use of who and whom, and the placing of a preposition at the beginning or at the end of

$n what country was he born: "formal#

(hat country was he born in: "informal#

#merican English vs. !ritish English Vocabulary

Because of its large spreading and worldwide presence, nglish is the international language used in diverse areas, such as computer software, controlling aircraft, managing diplomacy and official relations. The most controversial two sorts of Dodern British nglish are American nglish "Am # and nglish nglish "Br # which fight to obtain the supremacy over the largest number of

speakers. -n order to make a clear distinction between American nglish and British nglish, we have to relate them to (tandard nglish. Also known as the ( , it is the most formal version of the language taught throughout the educational system and also to foreign learners. -t is the language used in official reports and documents, in government, parliament or law courts speeches, as well as in mass media. ven though these two languages come from the same GancestorH, there nevertheless e6ists a wide range of differences, from miscellaneous grammatical usage to social and cultural differences. A simple instance, in point of vocabulary, is provided by what is called a GlorryH in Britain and a GtruckH in the '(A. 8ually what in Britain is called a GpavementH is called a GsidewalkH in the '(A and a GfootpathH in Australia or ?ew Ieeland. These e6amples are forms of heteronymy "according to *aurie Bauer it stands for Gthe situation where the same item is referred to by a number of various wordsH2#) each word, GlorryH or GtruckH, GpavementH or GsidewalkH can be named heteronyms. This heteronymy is best illustrated by articles of clothing. #merican English (uspenders 'nderwear
2

!ritish English &arters "Ja ring made of elastic that you wear around your sock or stocking to prevent it from falling down# %ants

*aurie Bauer, )n $ntroduction to $nternational *arieties of "nglish, dinburgh 'niversity %ress, 4KK4, p. B4.

%ants %anties

Trousers Lnickers"Ja piece of underwear for a womans lower body# Turtle>neck shirt %olo>neck shirt 'ndershirt Mest (weater 0umper -t can also be possible that words may have different meanings depending on where "or by whom# they are used. This type of words are called tautonyms "J same form but different meanings#4. These semantic variations between nglish dialects also give raise to potential Gfalse friendsH. /or instance, some of the best e6amples are. levator. -n Am it denotes a lift in a building, whereas in Br , the same word refers to a crane "a very tall machine used for lifting or moving heavy ob;ects and building tall structures# =owntown. -n Am , this noun is mainly used to denote the business or shopping areas, in or near the center of a town or city. -n comparison to it, in Br GdowntownH represents the outskirts of an area, the outlying parts of a town. 9omely. Br e6plains this ad;ective as meaning Gsimple and pleasant in a way that makes you fell comfortable and at homeH, while in the Am the same word can be used as meaning GuglyH. To table. -n the 'L Gto tableH a motion means to place it on the agenda "to bring it to the table for consideration#, whereas in the '( it means e6actly the opposite Gto remove it from considerationH. All these regional variants may generate confusion if the respective interlocutors do not speak the same variety of language, in our case of nglish. The speakers of Br are able to understand much better their American co>interlocutors, partly thanks to the e6cessive spreading of the '( culture and literature. (till, there are also rarely>used words that remain difficult to understand by other speakers. This can occur especially because of their absence in the daily usage of the language or because of their becoming obsolete. This takes us to the problem of fre5uency. /or e6ample, in the 'L, the term GperiodH for a Gfull stopH is not used) in the Am the term Gfull stopH is rarely, if ever, used for the punctuation mark. /or e6ample, Tony Blair said, GTerrorism is wrong, full stopH, whereas in Am , GTerrorism is wrong, periodH. 9ere are some of the most commonly met differences in vocabulary between British and American nglish. !ritish English autumn biscuit block of flats caravan
4

#merican English fall cookie apartment building trailer

-bid., p. B5.

chemists shop chips the cinema crisps cross roads driving licence engine estate agent film flat ground floor hand bag highstreet holiday lift lorry luggage mainroad maiNe maths mobile "phone# motorway pavement petrol post postbo6 pub puncture railway rubber shop ta6i timetable tin trousers tube van vest wallet whiskey windscreen

drugstore /rench fries the movies potato chips intersection drivers license motor realtor movie apartment first floor purse main street vacation elevator truck baggage highway corn math cell phone e6pressway, freeway sidewalk gas mail mailbo6 bar flat railroad eraser store cab schedule can pants subway truck undershirt billfold scotch windshield