Vocabulary of American English
Word-formation
1) In Am.E. conversion is extremely popular for all types of phrases:
to category - a category, to frame up - a frame up (ложное судебное дело) husky-a husky
2) Affixation is more common:
"-ее" is more frequent: draftee - призывник " -nick" - a holdupnick (налетчик)
3) Abreviations, esp. in colloquial Am.:
VIP- a very important person, IOU - I owe you, DP-displaced person, GF - girl-friend, BF - boy-friend
It is, quite (rue that the vocabulary used by American speakers, has distinctive features of its own. More than that: there are whole groups оf words which belong to American vocabulary exclusively and constitute its specific feature. These words are called Americanisms.
The first group of such words may be described as historical Americanisms.
At the beginning of the 17th c. the first English migrants began arriving in America in search of new and better living conditions. It was then that English was first spoken, on American soil and it is but natural that it was spoken in its 17th-c. form. For instance, the noun fall was still used by the first migrants in its old meaning "autumn", the verb to guess in the old meaning "to think". The adjective sick in the meaning "ill, unwell". In American usage these words still retain their old meanings whereas in British English their meanings have changed.
These and Similar words, though the Americans and the English use them in different meanings, are nevertheless found both in American and in British vocabularies.
The second group of Americanisms includes words whichone is not likely to discover in British vocabulary. They are specifically American, and we shall therefore call them proper Americanisms. The oldest of these were formed by the first migrants to the American continent and reflected to a great extent, their attempts to cope with their new environment.
It should be remembered that America was called "The New World" not only because the migrants severed all connections with their old life. America was for them a truly new world in which everything was strikingly and bewilderingly different from what it had been in the Old Country (as they Called England): the landscape, climate, trees and рlants, birds and animals.
Therefore, from the very first, they were faced with a serious lack of words in their vocabulary with which to describe all these new and strange things. Gradually such words were formed. Here are some of them. Backwoods ("wooded, uninhabited districts"), cold snap ("a sudden frost"), blue-grass ("a sort of grass peculiar to North America"), blue-jack ("a small American oak"), egg-plant ("a plant wilth edible fruit"), sweet potato, ("a plant with sweet edible roots"). redbud ("an American tree having small budlike pink flowers; the state tree of Oklahoma"), red cedar ('"an American coniferous tree with reddish fragrant wood"), cat-bird ("a small North-American bird whose call resembles the mewing of a cat"). cat-fish ("called so because of spines likened to a cat's claws"), bull-frog ("a huge frog producing sounds not unlike a bull's toar"), sun-fish ("a fish with a round flat golden body").
If we consider all these words from the point of view of the "building materials" of which they are made we shall see that these are all familiarly English, even though the words themselves cannot be found in the vocabulary of British English. Yet, both the word-building pattern of composition and the constituents of these compounds are easily recognized as essentially English.
Later proper Americanisms are represented by names of objects, which are called differently in the United States and in England. E. g. the British chemist's is called drug store or druggist's in the United States, the American word for sweets (Br.) is candy, luggage (Br.) is called baggage (Amer.), underground (Br.) is called subway (Amer.), lift (Br.) is called elevator (Amer.), railway (Br.) is called railroad (Amer.), carriage (Br.) is called car (Amer.), car (Br.) is called automobile (Amer.).
If historical Americanisms have retained their 17lh-c. meanings (e. g. fall, n. mad, adj., sick. adj.), there are also words which though they can be found both in English and in American vocabulary, have developed meanings chaharacteristic of American usage. The noun date, is used both in British and American English in the meanings "the time of some event''; "the day of the week or month"; "the year"» On the basis of these meanings. in American English only; another meaning developed: an appointment for a particular time (transference based on contiguity: the day and time of an appointment > appointment itself).
American vocabulary is rich in borrowings. The principal groups of borrowed words are the same as were pointed out for English vocabulary. Yet, there are groups of specifically American borrowings which reflect the historical contacts of the Americans with other nations on the American continent.
These are for instance Spanish borrowings (e. g. ranch, sombrero, canyon, cinch) Negro borrowings (e. g. banjo) and especially Indian borrowings. The latter are rather numerous and have a pecular flavour of their own: wigwam, squaw, moccasin, toboggan, caribou, tomahawk. There are also some translation-loans of Indian origin: pale-face (the name of the Indians for all white people), war path, war paint, pipe of peace, fire-water.
These words are used metaphorically in both American and British modern communication. A woman who is too heavily made upmay be said to wear war paint, and a person may be warned against an enemy by: Take care: he is on the war path (i.e. he has hostile intentions).
Many of the names of places, rivers, lakes, even of states, are of Indian origin, and hold in their very sound, faint echoes of the distant past of the continent. Such names as for instance, Ohio (ou'haiou], Michigan [' ], Tennessee [tene'si:], Illinois [ ], Kentucky [ ] sound exotic and romantic. These names awake dim memories of those olden times when Indian tribes were free in the sole masters of the vast unspoiled beautiful.
Thus, American English has absorbed many words from different languages.
1) Indian: vigvam - вигвам, tpmagauk -томагавк.
2) Holland (Dutch): boss, hamburger - рубленый шницель, bloodwurstd, noodle, dollar.
3) French: "-vill" -Jecksonvil, Luisiana, Detroit.
4) Spanish: cafeteria, runcho, Quarteron (mixture of Indian and white)
5) Amer. E.: fall (autumn), I guess (I think), mad (angry). Some words preserve very old meanings: to hit - to reach (достигать), The news hit the headline. We hit the station. to raise - to breed (chicken)
6) New Americanisms are coined by different devices common for both varieties:
ragtime - синкопированная музыка
chewing gum - жевательная резинка
campus - университет
chainstores - магазины одной фирмы
downtown - деловая часть
downtime - простой, вынужденное безделье
dark horse - неожиданно избранный, неизвестный кандидат
favourite son - кандидат, имеющий больше шансов
all-outer - сторонник решительных мер
color-bar - расовая дискриминация
give-away policy — политика уступок
7) Interrelations between Br.E. and Am.E. are explained by extralinguistic (close economic, political, cultural, military ties) and linguistic factors. Linguistic reasons - Br.E. and Am.E. are the same language, sometimes the Englishman isn't aware of a new word, its being American or English.
The Br. E. affected the Am.E. up to the end of the XVIII century. Later the situation changed and in theXIX c. the influence of the American words on the Br.E. accelerated.
The causes: the political rise of the USA in the world at the beginning of the XIX c. The English of the USA does not differ from that of the British Isles. The elder generation is allergic to American words: home town = native town, to relax = to get up, to publicise = to boost, noncens = bunk [^], up-and coming = обещающий, подающий надежды, excuse = alibi, to be averse = tobe allergic.