Grammatical differences between American and British English

Analysis of the data obtained allows us to conclude that the material examined is dominated by ethnographic realities, in particular the realities of everyday life.   2.2 Textual analysis of American English in a book “Something wicked this way comes” by Ray Bradbury  As it is known in modern linguistic, any language is a complicated system. A literary language is nothing more than a system in which there is some freedom in choosing options, determined not only by the structural features, but also by differences in the operation of certain rules or norms of the language. It should be taken into account that there are languages in the world that are spoken not only by native speakers, but also by the representatives of other nationalities. As a result, the language can be changed over time.This issue was discussed by many linguists, in particular A. D. Schweitzer, B. V. Bratus, J. S. Kenyon and so on.This paragraph is devoted to the analysis of American English in a roman “Something wicked this way comes” by Ray Bradbury. First it was published in 1962, and together with two other stories “Farewell Summer” and “Dandelion Wine” was included in a trilogy of Bradbury`s memories about his childhood in Waukegan. The plot of the roman was borrowed from his own story “Ferris Wheel”.The plot focused on two boys, the main heroes of the story, who ran away from home at night to watch the carnival and witnessed the transformation of Cooger into a twelve-years old boy. Their adventures began from this moment.The novel “Something wicked this way comes” is based on a script which Bradbury created for a director Gene Kelly. But Kelly didn`t manage to find financial support and this idea wasn`t materialized. The novel was filmed in 1983.AuxiliariesThe first Americanisms in the novel are seen in the end of the first chapter, they are illustrated below. These cases show the absence of auxiliaries in questions:“Fun! You crazy? (p. 14chapter 1)“Jim. Think of your mom. You want her burnt?”In these sentences the auxiliary verbs in the questions are omitted, which is typical for the American language. It is known that Americans like to simplify English grammar,so this fact is seen in the demonstrated sentences. Also, the usage of American eqivalent “mom” is observed here. The same phenomenon is seen in chapter 2 :“Theatre closed?” said Will, not looking back.“All clear?” cried a voice below. The omitting of auxiliary verb in the past and present simlpe is presented in the questions above.We got to warn Miss Foley what’s hiding in her house, don’t we?” We got to check, don’t we? Shake his paw, stare him in his good eye or some such, and if it is him“Hey there… hey…” Good grief, thought Will - this example contains typical for American greeting “Hey”.The irregular verb “smell” appears here in the form that typical for regular verbs with the ending – ed. As it was discussed in the theoretical part American people don`t care about learning irregular forms and often add simply +ed:He smelled of moon swamps and old Egyptian bandages.Strange. Why not say my nephew? ( chapter 25) “Jim? You awake?” “Hi, Mom.”In the last demonstrated sentence the observed fact shows not only the omitting of auxiliary but also the American equivalent «mom”. Besides, the absence of auxiliary verb is seen in the question.Tenses In chapter 7 the usage of tense is characteristic for American English, the absence of auxiliary verb “have” is noticed in the question:“You ever seen carnival ladies, Jim?” “Grizzly bears. But how come this handbill claims—” “Oh, shut up!” – here the present perfect tense is used without auxiliary verb ‘have’ in the question.As for the tenses, they are often met in the book in American way of usage, i.e. the omittion of auxiliaries especially in questions, instead of present perfect the past simple is used , the illustration is given below:“Storm never came. But he went.”– This case was considered in the theoretical part of the research. The adverb ‘never’appeared in the past simple sentence, while in British English the form will be “ Storm has never come. The same fact is founf in another example, in chapter 39: “I never knew you could talk.” The usage of past simple tense instead of present perfect typical for American is displayed there. According to British grammar rules the sentence with adverb “never” should be written in present perfect. In chapter 36 there are question written with omitted auxiliary verb. The case is shown below:“How much you lose? Dime? Quarter? Half dollar?” (chapter 36) – the question doesn`t have auxiliary verb.Due to British grammar rules the questions must contain auxiliaries after question words.Let us consider the futher cases, that were found in chapter 7: “You mad at me, Will?” “No, it’s just—get it!”The phrase “get it” is commonly used by American and considered as a slang.“You saw their faces?” asked Mr. HallowayBut, Will thought, that won’t stop the carnival searching through town to visit me. “Promise, Dad?”“You want to come up this way, too?”His father’s voice followed: “Want me to come along?” ( chapter 32)“Blind, yes, blind. But I see what I see, I see where I be,” said the Witch, softly“Lose something?”(Chapter 36)In the sentence illustrated above, again it is seen the fact of absence of auxiliary verb in the question, but in present simple. Simplification of phrases in colloquial American speech. Shorten formsThe writer uses a lot of forms of colloqial speech. In that way he aimed to characterize the main characters of the story, to create a stylistic portrait of them But it’s too late, we saw! We got to see more! Don’t we?”You see his face? The eyes, Will! That’s one part of people don’t change, young, old, six or sixty!The writer avoided auxiliaries very often, as it is clearly seen in these questions.In chapter 7 the form “ain`t”is noticed in the following example:“SEE! THE SKELETON! Ain’t that fine, Will? This form appeared from the combinig of words “am not”, and is considered as a slang commonly used by American people.“I’m gonna bust your nose! Come on!” “Gonna” is a shorten form of “going to”.Shortened forms of rhe words are observed in Chapter 32 of the roman,which are presented futher:“I saw him, you saw him, looks kinda like the lightning-rod man...»“For cri-yi, I’m froze, let’s go watch them set up!”“Jim! Get outa there!” “Will…” Jim sighed faintly. “Let me be.” (chapter 16)‘Kinda” is a short form of “kind of”.The omitting of prepositionsThe futher illustations found in the work, display the absence of prepositions:We are home!” cried Jim, surprised. Happy? But how and why? Here, a few feet off, was the janitor, the library man, the stranger, his uniform gone. Everyone home for dinner. Just us alone. “Jim, you nut. I’m taking you home!” Jim walked in silence beside him for a long while and then said, “Nobody home.” (chapter 2)The word ‘Home’ is frequently shown here without preposition “at” in comparison with British language.Spelling These sentences indicate the American writing of a word “color”. While in British English this word has a form with letter “u” – “colour”. Now the same color paper lay crushed, its rococo type hidden, in his father’s fingers. He knew what color her eyes would be.AdverbsThe adverbs, typical for American version, can be observed in the further sentence:“It was running backward.”As it was discussed in the previous paragraph of our work, British use theadverb form with letter – s in the end, ‘backwards’. The same case isfound in chapter 11, and will be illustrated next:Jim slid down the drainpipe on his house, toward the sleeping lawns. (chapter 11)Here is an American spelling of an adverb without letter -s.In conclusion it must be said, that all illustrated in the research examples prove the presence of American English in the work of Ray Bradbury Something wicked the way comes».Ray Bradbury is often called the best writer of science fiction. The work of Ray Bradbury “Something wicked the way comes” is a serious and complicated work, full of metaphors and mystics. The writer reveals the confrontation of good and evil features of people, reflecting their hidden desires, fears and temptations.Chapter 2. Summary of Results  Having analyzed American and British English, it is possible to speak about the emergence and fixing of the certain average universal English. It contains features of different languages, neutral on colouring and foreigners speak more slowly, say the sounds separately. We can speak about particular varieties of the English language, which appear in the dialects. The reasons of that were historical prerequisites.The grammatical differences between British and American English can be summarised as follows: 1) In British and American English, different grammatical forms are sometimes used to express the same meaning, or the same grammatical form is used to express different meanings;2) In certain structures, British and American English may use different grammatical forms; one integrated, the other omitted;3) Sometimes, the same concept and meaning is expressed using the same grammatical form in both British and American English. This version of language is also more convenient. So, America created almost modern new language. English was transformed into the language of global communication and as a result, it loses its status of a foreign language. This situation demands reorganization of language education system. Conclusion.   In the given research a closer look was taken to the problem of grammatical differences in between American and British English language.  Some historical facts and details about the origin of American English were considered in the first chapter. Due to these historical facts shown in the research, it must be underlined, that American language has a lot of words, which came from immigrants. As it was shown above, American English was created by the emigrants from different other countries during the colonization in the 17th century. It was clarified that these two versions of language have certain differences in using tenses and conditional clauses, in writing, prepositions, usage and formation of adverbs. Besides, the difference can be observed in modal verbs, auxiliaries and in usage of prepositions. Some set expressions can have another verb than in British.  Based on the analysis of American and British English in the work written by Ray Bradbury “Something wicked the way comes”, the following phenomena could be noticed, namely:   The omitting of auxiliaries in various tenses and colloquial phrases, simplified shorten forms,Also some cases of contractions, - the type of adverbs formation typical for American,  -  the usage of words which have another equivalent in British (the American greeting “Hey” is shown in the book very often),   - the writing of some words which is common only for American English.  Apart from that, the writer avoided prepositions with the word “home” as it is common in American language The questions in different tensed were presented in the book without auxiliaries.The results of this research indicate differences in many aspects of the language and it can be underlined that America created a modern language which is easier in usage.  REFERENCES  Russian sources:  Agapova I. 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The history of England (Electronicresource) URL.: https://ru.wikipedia.org/ 26. Yastrubenko O. A., Scheglova E. V. The phenomenon of Americanism in modern society. The “World`s Science»№2 (35), 2020 [Electronic Resource]CyberLeninka URL.://https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/fenomen-amerikanizma-v-sovremennom-obschestve/viewerAPPENDIX   1. Сolour & color  (BrE)  (AmE) colour, behaviour, mould color, behavior, mold 2. Centre & Center  (BrE) (AmE) metre, fibre, centre, theatre, spectre meter, fiber, center, theater, specter Past simple form of some verbs.  (BrE)  (AmE) burnt, dreamt, leapt burned, dreamed, leaped  DescriptionBritishAmerican If the pronoun‘one’is a subjectin the sentence, so it must be used he, him, his, himself Оne shоuld trу to get to know one's nеighbоurs. Оne shоuld trу to get to know his nеighbоurs. American  British  A doll house a doll´s house She is hard as nails. She is as hard as nails. I just had lunch. I`m not hungry. I`ve just had lunch. They’ve got a lot of money, don’t they?   They’ve got a lot of money, haven’t they? Is he home?  Is he at home?