One Language, Two Grammars?: Differences between British and American English

Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 4
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Figures......Page 9
Tables......Page 18
List of contributors......Page 26
Setting the scene: Why another book?......Page 27
Overarching insights: What to expect?......Page 30
Structure and contents: Where to find what?......Page 33
Acknowledgements......Page 38
1 Introduction......Page 39
2 Previous studies......Page 41
3.1.1 Gotten......Page 46
3.1.2 Proven......Page 48
3.1.3 Regularization of irregular past tense and past participle forms......Page 50
3.2 Concord with collective nouns......Page 53
3.3 The mandative subjunctive......Page 56
4 Typology of diachronic patterns......Page 58
5 Conclusion......Page 60
Appendix......Page 61
2 The term compound verb defined......Page 64
3 Spelling of compound verbs in AmE and BrE......Page 66
5 Inflection of compound verbs......Page 68
6 Distribution of compound verbs in AmE and BrE......Page 72
7 On the history of compound verbs......Page 79
8 Conclusion......Page 84
1 Introduction......Page 86
2 Material and method......Page 87
3 Background......Page 89
4.1 Aspect......Page 91
4.2 AmE vs. BrE......Page 94
4.3 Speech vs. writing......Page 96
4.4 Preterite and past participle forms......Page 97
4.5 Individual verbs and frequency effects......Page 99
4.6 Fixedness and adjectival uses......Page 106
5 Conclusion......Page 107
Appendix......Page 108
1 Introduction......Page 112
2 A processing approach to comparative alternation......Page 113
3.1 Previous research......Page 115
3.2 Eliminating positional effects......Page 116
3.3 Formal differentiation of the adjectives investigated......Page 118
3.4 Frequency of the positive form......Page 119
3.5 Frequency of both comparative forms (attested gradability)......Page 121
4.1 Formal differentiation of the adjectives investigated......Page 123
4.3 Are the individual adjectives simply more frequent in BrE than in AmE?......Page 124
5 Towards an explanation of the British and American differences in terms of style and cognitive complexity......Page 125
5.1 Comparative alternation according to style......Page 127
5.2 The relation between style and complexity......Page 129
6 Discussion and conclusion......Page 131
1 Introduction......Page 134
1.1 The Principle of Rhythmic Alternation......Page 135
1.2 Generalizations about British–American contrasts......Page 136
2 Empirical studies......Page 137
2.1.1 Lit versus lighted......Page 138
2.1.2 Knit versus knitted......Page 144
2.2 The pre- and post-determiner positions of quite......Page 146
3 Conclusion......Page 153
1 Introduction......Page 156
2 Post- and prepositional placement in present-day BrE and AmE......Page 157
3 British–American differences in the use of notwithstanding......Page 159
3.1 Notwithstanding in present-day BrE and AmE usage......Page 160
3.2 The historical development of postpositional notwithstanding......Page 161
4 British–American correspondences in the use of notwithstanding: The Complexity Principle......Page 163
4.1 Theoretical assumptions......Page 164
4.2 Simple vs. complex NPs......Page 166
4.3 Cognitive complexity in terms of word counts......Page 168
4.4 Cognitive complexity in terms of structure......Page 170
5 Conclusion......Page 173
1 Introduction......Page 175
1.1 More examples of 'reversed' use......Page 176
1.2 Verb subcategorization......Page 177
2.1 The evidence of the OED......Page 178
2.3 An alternative picture: French substituer......Page 180
3 Pattern frequencies in the BNC......Page 181
4.1 Register of substitute in the BNC......Page 183
4.2 Sport......Page 184
5.2 American usage......Page 185
7 The history of substitute revisited......Page 187
8.1 Time and place: British vs. American English......Page 188
8.2 The argument structure of verbs......Page 189
1 Introduction......Page 192
2.1 Early and long-term contrasts between BrE and AmE......Page 193
2.2 More recent cases of divergence......Page 197
3 Frequency contrasts involving reflexive verbs......Page 203
4 Conclusion......Page 206
Appendix: Reflexive verbs analysed in the two databases......Page 207
1 Introduction......Page 208
2 Overview of the corpus analyses......Page 210
3 Variation in the choice of noun-modifiers......Page 212
4 Conclusion......Page 218
2 Directly linked nominal complements governed by adjectives......Page 220
2.2 Due 'owed as a debt or as a right'......Page 221
3 The use of direct objects after verbs......Page 223
3.1 Antagonistic verbs......Page 224
3.2 Verbs of leaving......Page 226
4 Double objects and their passive equivalents......Page 227
4.1 Verbs of separation......Page 228
4.3.1 Active uses of peripheral verbs......Page 229
4.3.2 Primary passives......Page 233
5 Conclusion......Page 236
1 Introduction......Page 238
2 Have no business......Page 239
3 Decline......Page 241
4 Lay claim......Page 245
5 Can't stand......Page 249
6 Conclusion......Page 252
1 Introduction......Page 254
2 The history of the present perfect and the preterite in English......Page 255
3 Elicitation test......Page 262
4 A closer look at developments within the second half of the twentieth century......Page 265
5 Concluding remarks......Page 269
2.1 Definition......Page 272
2.2 History......Page 273
3.1.1.1 Traces of the subjunctive......Page 274
3.1.1.3 Structural ambiguity: present indicative vs. infinitive......Page 275
3.1.1.4 Structural ambiguity: present indicative vs. present subjunctive......Page 276
3.1.2 Potentially decisive factors......Page 277
3.3.1 Puzzling word order......Page 278
3.3.2 Omitted auxiliary......Page 279
3.3.3 Structural ambiguity......Page 281
4 Conclusion......Page 282
1 Introduction......Page 283
2 Preliminaries: triggers, proportional counts and types of complement clauses......Page 284
3.1 Overview......Page 287
3.2 Mandative vs. non-mandative complements......Page 288
3.3 Types of mandates......Page 294
4 Conclusion......Page 298
Appendix A......Page 300
Appendix B......Page 301
1 Introduction......Page 303
2 Previous research......Page 306
2.1 Diachronic studies......Page 307
2.2 Synchronic studies......Page 308
3 Methodology......Page 309
4 The diachronic dimension......Page 313
5.1 Semi-formulaic uses......Page 319
5.2 The special status of the verb be......Page 321
5.3 The influence of negation......Page 324
5.4 The choice of modal auxiliary......Page 327
6 Conclusion......Page 330
1 Preliminaries......Page 332
2 The definition of tag questions (or question tags)......Page 333
3 Forms of tag across languages......Page 335
4 The pragmatic function of tags......Page 339
5 Patterns of traditional concordant mini-clause tag questions......Page 342
6 The sequential patterns of traditional mini-clause tags......Page 344
7 Differences between British and American English......Page 349
1 Introduction......Page 350
2 Epistemic certainty in an interactive perspective......Page 352
3 Sure as a response......Page 353
3.1 Sure as a response to offers, invitations and requests......Page 354
3.2 Sure as a response after thanking and apologizing......Page 355
3.3 Sure as a backchannel item......Page 356
4.1 General overview......Page 357
4.3 Bundles involving a form of do......Page 360
4.4 Bundles involving modal auxiliaries......Page 361
5 Grammaticalization......Page 362
6 Conclusion......Page 366
1 Introduction......Page 367
2.1 Lexico-grammar: verb complementation......Page 368
2.2 Paradigmatic choices: relative markers after same......Page 376
2.3 Frequency and pragmatics: the case of tag questions......Page 378
3 Discussion......Page 388
1 Outline......Page 390
2.1 Adverbs and adverbials......Page 392
2.2 Prepositions......Page 408
2.3 Noun phrases......Page 415
2.4 Predicates and predicatives......Page 423
2.5 Sentential structures......Page 433
3 Conclusion......Page 446
Electronic Corpora......Page 450
Dictionaries......Page 452
Secondary Sources......Page 453
Index......Page 478