Shestak Y.S.
Eurasian National University
named after L.N. Gumilev
Some
Peculiarities of Expressing Temporality in Different Variants of the English
Language
The difference of American and British grammar is not
so big, but it exists, and it may confuse. In BE the Present Perfect is used to
express an action that has occurred in the recent past that has an effect on
the present moment: “She’s lost her purse”. In AE the Present Perfect form is
replaced by Past Simple, which is incorrect in BE: “She lost her purse”.
Other differences involving the use of the Present
Perfect in BE and the Past Simple in AE include ‘already’, ‘just’ and ‘yet’. For
example: “I’ve just received an e-mail” in BE and “I just received an e-mail”
in AE.
There are some verbs in BE that cannot be used in the
Present Continuous while in AE they can. Compare: “I like this conversation
more and more” in BE with “I’m liking this conversation more and more” in AE.
In America instead of the auxiliary verb ‘shall’ it is
used the verb ‘will’, which is displaced by the form ‘gonna’ – the colloquial
variant of ‘going to’. Also in colloquial AE there is a tendency to displace
the form of the third person of the verb ‘to do’. But this form is gradually
introduced in BE too: “She’s got a ticket to ride, and she don’t care”.
Phrases such as the following ‘a week today’, ‘a week
tomorrow’, ‘a week on Tuesday’, ‘Friday fortnight’ are common in Britain but
they are generally unknown in the USA. The standard construction in the USA is
‘a week from today’, ‘a week from tomorrow’.
In Great Britain there exists a term of time as
‘fortnight’, or two weeks. This term is widely used in Britain and Australia,
but rarely in the USA. At first the word ‘fortnight’ meant fourteen nights in
the time measuring of ancient Germans, as they had all important meetings at
night when it was a full moon and a new one.
Prepositions of time ‘while’ and ‘whilst’ are
synonymous in standard BE and AE, but in AE and CE, the term ‘while’ can be
considered pretentious or archaic. In style guides, some modern publications
disapprove of the use of ‘whilst’ (Times Online Style Guide, Guardian Style
Guide, Hanzard – the Canadian Parliament record).
In some Northern English ‘while’ usually takes the
meaning of ‘until’, as in: “I shall wait while you are ready” or “we went for a
walk from ten while eleven”.
The preposition ‘through’, used in AE to express
temporal relations does not perform this function in BE. “The White Hall is
open from ten a.m. to twelve noon, Tuesday through Saturday”. The Chamber’s
Twentieth Century Dictionary gives such equivalents for this preposition as ‘up
to and including’, ‘to or until the end of’.
The most significant structural divergence between AuE
and BE is the use of ‘will’ in AuE as a universal auxiliary verb of the Future
tense, the same is with ‘would’ instead of ‘should’. But it does not mean that
‘shall’ is not used in AuE. ‘Shall’ is used in an interrogative form of the
first person: “Shall we go?” and in those cases when ‘shall’ expresses motive
to the action: “You shall do it!”
‘Should’ is used only in the meaning of obligation.
In AuE there exists a tendency to shorten everyday
words and to develop local slang. Typical Australian phrases expressing
temporality: ‘bush-week’ (undetermined time), ‘whip the cat’ (to lock the
stable-door after the horse is stolen), ‘tucker time’ (time for eating),
‘piccaninny daylight’ (the beginning of dawn), ‘the Wet’ (the period of monsoon
rains in tropical areas of Australia).
The main peculiarities of the Canadian variant of the
English language are explained by the fact that CE is developing under the
influence of AE and BE, that is why it carries the features of both languages.
The only meaningful difference of CE from BE consists in absolutely exception
from the use the Past Perfect Continuous tense. It is replaced by the Past
Perfect Simple.
American grammar is simpler than British one. American
English is more flexible in comparison with British English, it is open to the
changes and it is simple for perception, according to these facts American
English is widespread throughout the world.
In general differences between Australian English,
Canadian English, American English and British English on grammatical level do
not have categorical character, confirming the unity of grammatical system of a
modern English language.
British English and American English are more similar
than they are different. New media and globalization enable more and more
people to participate in an active exchange of ideas and experiences and
therefore the geographical differences in the versions of English are becoming
less instead of greater.
Different variants of language emphasize national
peculiarities of a speaker and smooth contradictions between necessity of
achievement the understanding and of keeping own national culture.
Abbreviation:
BE – British English
AE – American English
AuE – Australian English
CE – Canadian English
References:
1)
Áåëÿåâà
Ò.Ì. è À. Ïîòàïîâà À. Àíãëèéñêèé ÿçûê çà ïðåäåëàìè Àíãëèè. – Ë., 1961 – ñ. 47 – 51.
2) Èëüèø
Á.À. Ñîâðåìåííûé àíãëèéñêèé ÿçûê: Òåîðåò. êóðñ. : Ó÷åá. ïîñîáèå äëÿ âóçîâ. -2-å
èçä., èñïð. è äîï. - Ì., 1948. - 347 ñ.
3)
Êàñàòêèíà
Ò. È. Î ñòåïåíè âëèÿíèÿ àìåðèêàíñêîãî àíãëèéñêîãî íà àíãëèéñêèé ÿçûê Êàíàäû. –
 êí.: Âîïðîñû ëèíãâèñòèêè. ßðîñëàâëü, 1973 – ñ. 59 – 64.
4) Îðëîâ Ã.À.
Ñîâðåìåííûé àíãëèéñêèé ÿçûê â Àâñòðàëèè: ó÷åáíîå ïîñîáèå äëÿ ïåä. âóçîâ. – Ì.:
Âûñøàÿ øêîëà, 1978
5) Øâåéöåð À.Ä. Ëèòåðàòóðíûé
àíãëèéñêèé ÿçûê â ÑØÀ è Àíãëèè. - Ì.: Âûñøàÿ øêîëà, 1971
6)
Chamber’s Twentieth Century
Dictionary // by A.M. Macdonald (ed.) // Chambers Harrap Publishers, 1972