Конкурс исследовательских работ обучающихся Ступинского муниципального района Предметная секция: Лингвистика

II. GRAMMATICAL AND LEXICAL - SEMANTIC FEATURES OF AMERICAN ENGLISH
In this chapter we are going to examine the grammatical features of American English and British English.
There are thousands of differences in detail between British and American English, and they make together enough difficulties.


LEXICAL DIFFERENCE

Let’s focus on a description of lexical differences of everyday language that could lead to a complete failure of communication.

The American lexicographer and educator Noah Webster had already published the first American English dictionary in 1806, discussing the necessity for an American language, because England was too far away to be used as a model. The passion for complete independence from all English authorities culminated in his ‘Compendious Dictionary of English Language’ in which he proposed the creation of an independent dialect to accommodate the written language to the spoken language.
Vocabulary differences give the right to treat the two varieties as two completely different languages. It is by the reason of numerous borrowing from the Spanish and Indian languages that was not in British English.

British variant	American variant	Russian
underground	Subway	метро
the cinema	The movies	кинотеатр
shop	store	магазин
pavement	sidewalk	тротуар
queue	line	очередь
football	soccer	футбол
holiday	vacation	каникулы
autumn	fall	осень
post	mail	почта
maize	corn	кукуруза

Therefore, it can be said that only a direct contact with the other language or a specific study on the differences can improve mutual intelligibility between the two varieties of English, admitting and respecting their differences.