English in North America

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English in North America

• Lecture by
• Prof. Dr. Hildegard L.C. Tristram
• Winter Semester 2003/2004
• Potsdam

Syntax
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Syntax
Syntax deals with the types and categories of
the combination of lexical items to form
phrases, clauses and sentences. Syntactic
model used here (descriptive) functional
grammar, i.e. no formal grammar (!) ?
Digression
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North American Syntax
Leonard Bloomfield (1887-1949) Language,
1933 behaviorist, inductive empiricism
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North American Syntax
Noam Chomsky, (born Dec, 7 1928), rationalist,
universalism, deductive theoretician ?
syntax and politics Sourcehttp//monkeyfist.c
om/chomskyarchive/images
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North American Syntax
Noam Chomskys approaches Syntactic
Structures 1957 Aspects of the Theory of
Syntax 1965 Government and Binding 1981 Mini
malist Theory 1993 Optimality Theory 1999
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Functionalist Syntax
Basic characteristics of the syntax of all IE
languages nominative languages verbal
languages a) copulas b) full verbs
transitive and intransitive
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Basic Assumptions of Syntax
Two Basic Sentence Types SNom PredCop
Nominal ComplementNom Adverbial Time
Place Manner SNom PredVerb itr/tr
(Object(s)) Dative Accusative
Adverbial Time Place Manner
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Typological Drift of IE Syntax
Indo European hypothetical parent language (ca
4000 or 3000 BC), synthetic and
inflecting syntheticity stem
inflections cases (different semantic roles),
number (sg., pl., dual), gender (masc., fem.,
neutre), 2 or more tenses, 3 persons free
word order SOV, SVO, VSO
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Typological Drift of IE Syntax
todays English fairly analytical, only
inflectional endings left full verbs
3rd pers. sg. indicative -s nouns
poss. sg. animate suffixes -s nouns
pl. -ed verbs past tense
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Typological Drift of IE Syntax
typological restructuring across time from
syntheticity to analycity loss
compactness of expression and free order of
words gain transparency and flexibility
of expression, fixed word order
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North American English Syntax
EmodE period, when NAmE and BrE separated a
period of transition with a still relatively free
word order and a developing
grammaticalization of analyticisms Subsequ
ently different developments of
grammaticalizations innovations and
conservativisms on both sides of the North
Atlantic
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North American English Syntax
Many so-called Americanisms in the syntax can
be found in non-standard British Englishes as
well, both rural and urban. Standardness means
a limitation of grammatical choices, the degrees
of acceptability and gramma- ticalization being
different on both sides of the Atlantic.
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North American English Syntax
eleven types of specific syntactic patterns
discussed here syntax of the predicate
(VP), of pronouns, of adverbials, of the
superlative and the split infinitive, plus
their respective subtypes
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North American English Syntax
I. Morphological types of verbs simple verbs
grow, outgrow, overgrow etc. prepositional
verbs put up, laugh at phrasal verbs go away
phrasal prepositional verbs put up with,
go/get away with, take up on, set out
for different types of verbs used in VP in
NAmE and BrE
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North American English Syntax
American British operate a
patient operate upon a patient brush up on your
Eng brush up your Eng deprive s.o. s.th. deprive
s.o. of s.th. battle the crime wave battle
against the crime wave look out the
window look out of the window go out the door go
out of the door protest a decision protest
against a decision
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North American English Syntax

• II. Variable complementation of the predicate
• a) realisation of object clauses (infinite or
  clausal)
• American British
• teach s.o. to do s.th. teach s.o. how to do
  s.th.
• know to do s.th. know how to do s.th.

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North American English Syntax

• b) use of specific prepositional object clauses
• American British
• Id like for you to do sth. Id like you to do
  sth.

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North American English Syntax
III. preference of special lexical
verbs American British say to do
s.th. tell s.o. to do s.th. aim to do
s.th. intend to do s.th. enjoin a
strike prohibit a strike enjoin s.o. from
issue an adjunction against
striking s.o., prohibiting the strike
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North American English Syntax
IV. Use of the subjunctive a) used after
verbs expressing volition propose,
recommend, suggest, request I propose that
he go home. He proposed that a committee be
set up.
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North American English Syntax
b) also after nouns derived from verbs of
volition proposal, recommendation,
suggestion, request The proposal that he go
home was met with applause.
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North American English Syntax

• c) also after adjectives of the same meaning
  (volition) in constructions with it as
  pseudo- subject
• it is necessary, it is important, it is high
  time
• It is high time that he go home.

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North American English Syntax
d) use after specific conjunctions though,
lest, if, unless though he come home, he
will not miss anything we shall take
precautions, lest he come home e) fossilized
phrases come at the time of you will be
all set, come Sunday, come voting
time go according to go Jack
Schultz how come why how come you hair is
black?
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North American English Syntax
V. Use of so-called medial constructions, i.e.
constructions which are active in form and
passive in meaning (reversed diathesis)
active passive she
rebound the book the book was rebound
medial the book
was rebinding i.e. the book was
being rebound
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North American English Syntax
This construction is popular among American
realtors The condo(minium) is building.
(i.e. under construction) The building is
now renting, redecorating, refurbishing etc.
This estate is now leasing.
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North American English Syntax
VI. Syntax of personal pronouns a) form of
the subject pronoun may be used for object
reference in a fronted position instead of
the object pronoun She he instructed in
philosophy. (he instructed her in
philosophy)
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North American English Syntax
b) subject pronouns may be used with object
function in expanded comparative
constructions This country has no
better friend than he (This country has no
better friends than him, he was the best
friend this country ever had)
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North American English Syntax
c) I and he (subject pronouns) may also be
used in prepositional coordinations He
came with Susy and I The American
government are always slandering Indonesia
and he himself (i.e. President Sukarno),
(from New York Times)
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North American English Syntax
VII. Use of Who (subj.) and Whom (obj.)
(interrogative/relative pronouns) a) Wh
om (obj.) is replaced by Who in an
accusative relationship with the antecedant
of relative clauses The man who I met
yesterday. also in interrogative
clauses Who did you meet yesterday?
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North American English Syntax
b) Whom, on the other hand, may be used to
introduce a predicate noun clause He
had to decide whom the opposing candidates
will be
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North American English Syntax
c) Whom may also be used in relative clauses
with parenthetical I think or people say
etc. The men whom some say are
mouthpieces of the gods (Thornton Wilder,
The Ides of March)
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North American English Syntax
VIII. Use of indefinite pronouns a) Ones
is used as the plural of one in phrases such
as the ones which instead of those
which The latter distinctions are the ones
which should be made the basis of
discussion b) also ones which for such
as The issues which came up for
adjudication were ones which had created
widespread public interest
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North American English Syntax
c) Within one and the same sentence,
indefinite one may be taken up by he, him,
his (so-called generic he) One is
warned to be courteous if he would avoid
offending his friends
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North American English Syntax
IX. Marking of adverbials a) The days of
the week in adverbial position are
frequently used without prepositions He
arrived Wednesday on Wednesday He arrived
Wednesday night on Wednesday night
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North American English Syntax
b) habitual actions are expressed by means of
petrified adverbial -s forms She
generally calls Mondays, Tuesdays, and
Fridays
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North American English Syntax
c) The adverbial suffix -ly is sometimes
used where British Englishes have simple
adverbs, such as thusly, overly She is
not too overly optimistic too optimistic
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North American English Syntax
d) On the other hand, the -ly suffix is not
used with some very common adjectives which
are, therefore, not distinguished from adverbs
(mainly colloquial style) gt sure,
real, mighty, awful she is real cute, the
journey was mighty dangerous, the problem
proved awful difficult
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North American English Syntax
e) in informal styles -ly may be missing
altogether Nobody is happy to work
slow They lived happy ever after
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North American English Syntax
f) Also good used for well in American
Englishes I feel good! (I feel well)
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North American English Syntax
X. Degrees of comparison expression of the
superlative When the superlative indicates
a maximum degree of sth., frequently the phrase
the most is used, where Standard British English
would have the largest amount of or the
greatest amount of I get the most meat,
the most butter, the most cheese Here you
get the most house for the money invested
(the best value in terms of a house)
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North American English Syntax
XI. Use of the split infinitive I have
decided to not go home not to go
home Janes uncle prayed to God to always
protect him from evil always to protect him
from evil He promised to never eat meat
again never to eat meat again
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Conclusion

• Compared to St BrE, NAmE syntax may be
• conservative (in terms of historical
  development),
• being due to the so-called colonial lag, i.e.
  showing slow(er) linguistic developments than
  those of the motherland
• innovative (in terms of historical development),
  due to the fast(er) development because of the
  frontier situation
• Other forms may be due to random developments in
  
• the process of analyticization rather than to
  any observable set patterns.

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Conclusion
Examples Conservatisms habitual adverbs
(Fridays), medial constructions,
subjunctive Innovations non-habitual adverb
marking, split infinitive, use of
pronouns Random choices in analyticization
verbal types (simple, prepositional,
phrasal, phrasal prep.)
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Conclusion
Two final remarks 1. Syntax is usually slow
in developing across time, compared to the
much faster developments in phonology and
lexis. ? most of the syntactic patterns are
shared by BrE and NAmE, no systematic
difference of syntax 2. Syntax of NAmE
infringing upon BrE syntax in recent years
e.g. use of the split infinitive, and I feel
good!