美国英语和英国英语的主要差异

The Main Differences Between British EnglishAnd American English

英语是世界上最广泛运用和影响的语言之一。但由于地域、历史、文化、社会习俗等不同因素影响,当今英语已变成英国英语和美国英语,并且它们各具有自身特点。本文重点介绍了美、英英语的主要差异。首先对英国英语和美国英语的起源与发展作了简单的介绍,并进一步较详细就英、美语在拼写、语音、词汇、语法等方面进行了差异比较。从文中可知,英、美英语在拼写中较少部分词汇拼写不相同,且美语相对来说比英国英语简单。由于地域或文化传播的媒介不同,英、美英语语音差异较明显。英、美词汇差异主要有三种不同表现形式:同词异义,同义异词和特有词。英美语语法差异不大,其表达形式不同、意义却一样。通过本文介绍,英语语言学习者系统地了解英、美英语的主要差异后,能理解这些差异并进一步提高运用英语知识的能力。

English is one of widely used languages in the world. But, under the influence of geography, history, culture and social customs, English has divided into two major varieties: British English and American English,each having its own characters.This paper deals with the main differences between British English and American English in regard to spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. The more noticeable differences are phonetic and especially lexical. Grammatical differences between Br.E and A.E are few and trivial. Generally speaking, American English and British English in spelling are essentially the same, except that, as the following divergences show, the American variant is simpler than its English counterpart. The differences of American and British English vocabulary can be grouped into three categories.But the concept of differences must not be taken too far, because Br.E and A.E will be two major varieties of one language, not two different languages. With the rapid development of modern science, technology, mass media, constant cultural and economic exchanges bewteen these two nations, differences between them are becoming smaller. In practice, the tendency is towards better understanding between the people of the two countries.