One Language, Two Grammars?

Differences Between British and American English
Ed. by Gunter Rohdenburg and Julia Schluter

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

It is well known that British and American English differ substantially in their pronunciation and vocabulary - but differences in their grammar have largely been underestimated. This volume focuses on British-American differences in the structure of words and sentences and supports them with computer-aided studies of large text collections. Present-day as well as earlier forms of the two varieties are included in the analyses. This makes it the first book-length treatment of British and American English grammar in contrast, with topics ranging from compound verbs to word order differences and tag questions. The authors explore some of the better-known contrasts, as well as a great variety of innovative themes that have so far received little or no consideration. Bringing together the work of a team of leading scholars in the field, this book will be of interest to those working within the fields of English historical linguistics, language variation and change, and dialectology.

Produktdetails

• Studies in English Language
• Verlag: Cambridge University Press
• Seitenzahl: 486
• Erscheinungstermin: 22. Januar 2009
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 30mm
• Gewicht: 900g
• ISBN-13: 9780521872195
• ISBN-10: 0521872197
• Artikelnr.: 24927087

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction Günter Rohdenburg and Julia Schlüter; 1. Colonial lag, colonial innovation or simply language change? Marianne Hundt; 2. Compound verbs Peter Erdmann; 3. The formation of the preterite and the past participle Magnus Levin; 4. Comparatives Britta Mondorf; 5. Phonology and grammar Julia Schlüter; 6. Prepositions and postpositions Eva Berlage; 7. Argument structure David Denison; 8. Reflexive structures Günter Rohdenburg; 9. Noun phrase modification Douglas Biber, Jack Grieve and Gina Iberri-Shea; 10. Nominal complements Günter Rohdenburg; 11. Non-finite complements Uwe Vosberg; 12. The present perfect and the preterite Johan Elsness; 13. The revived subjunctive Göran Kjellmer; 14. The mandative subjunctive William J. Crawford; 15. The conditional subjunctive Julia Schlüter; 16. Tag questions D. J. Allerton; 17. The pragmatics of adverbs Karin Aijmer; 18. How different are American and British grammar? And how are they different? Gunnel Tottie; 19. New departures Günter

Rezensionen

Review of the hardback: '... an important book ...' Journal of English Language and Linguistics