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1、AmericanEnglish1.ThegrowthofAmericanEnglish.Earlierintheseventeenthcentury,EnglishwasbroughtbytheimmigrationfromtheUnitedKingdomtotheAmericas.By1732theoriginalthirteenEnglishcolonieshadbeensetup.ThelanguagetheearlyimmigrantsbroughtwiththemwasElizabethanEnglish,thelanguagespokenbyShakespeare,Milton
2、andBunyan,whichbelongedtotheearlystageofModernEnglish.FollowingAmericanindependence,famouspersonslikeJohnAdams,BenjaminFranklinconsiderthatthecountryshouldhavealanguageofitsown.Theindependenceledtotheemergenceasenseofnationality.Inthefieldoflanguage,thispatrioticfeelingwasmanifestedytheargumentfor
3、therecognitionoftheAmericanvarietyorstandardofEnglish.Duringthe19thcenturyandthe20thcentury,BritishEnglishwasinadominantpositionallovertheworldAftertwoworldwars,theimpactoftheUnitedStatesgreatlyexceededtheUnitedKingdominthepolitical,economic,andculturalaspects,soalargenumberofAmericanwordsweremelt
4、intoBritishEnglish,andsomeevenreplacedthetraditionalBritishEnglishwords.2.CharacteristicsofAmericanEnglish.1)ConservativenessandcreativenessinusageAmericanEnglishcontainsarchaicfeaturesofthelanguagewhichhavedisappearedinEnglishitself.SomewordsnowobsoleteinEnglandarefamiliarandincommonuseinAmerica.
5、Thewordloan,forexample,whenusedasatransitiveverb,islabeledanAmericanisminmostdictionaries.Britishusageprefersland.AmericanEnglishischaracterizedby“YankeeIngenuityandtheFrontierSpirit.”FunctionalchangemayserveasthefirstillustrationofthecreativenessinusageinAmericanEnglish.Somewordswentthroughconver
6、sionofonepartofspeechinAmericanEnglishbutnotinBritishEnglish.Moreover,functionchangeissometimesaccompaniedbytheadditionofanewmeaningtoawordafteritsconversion.1)VerbosityandbrevityofexpressionInpresentdayAmericanEnglish,thereisatendencytoconveyanideainascomplicatedawayaspossible.Insteadofbeingsimpl
7、e,terseanddirect,thestyleissettled,long-winded;insteadofchoosingthesimpleanddirectworditprefersthequaintandthepicturesque.Thistendencyisknownasverbosity.Foronething,newphysicalconditionsonanewcontinentcallforneww
