The Lexical Differences Between American English and British English_英语专业毕业论文.docVIP

The Lexical Differences Between American English and British English Abstract With the development of the two countries—America and the U.K., the differences in some fields are clear and are also reflected in their languages. Even though there are many similarities in both variants, there are many differences in lexicology because of different regions, social backgrounds, the ways of people’s thinking, etc. This paper discusses the differences in lexicology between British English and American English and their tendency through the historical development of the two variants. Key Words American English; British English; the lexical difference 摘　要 美国是一个移民国家,美国英语主要是十七世纪英国英语在美国的进一步发展。美国英语和英国英语虽然有很多相同之处,但是由于历史文化和社会背景及人们的思维方式导致了很多的不同。随着社会的发展,美国英语与英国英语的差别越来越显著。本文通过回顾分析英国英语和美国英语的历史演变和发展过程,论述了美国英语和英国英语在词汇方面存在的主要差异，通过了解两种英语在词汇方面存在的差异,使英语学习者比较容易地掌握某一种英语以及正确地表达英语包含的丰富的知识。本文同时还指出了美国英语以其独有的特点和语言艺术魅力越来越受到人们的关注,从而探讨英语的发展趋势。 关键词 美国英语；英国英语；词汇差异 Introduction Among the thousands of different languages in the world there is only one that can claim to be a more or less universal language—English. It is estimated that there are over 300 million native speakers, of whom some 200 million live in the United States and some 50 million in the United Kingdom. In addition to native speakers there are about 500 to 700 million people using English, which makes the total number of speakers nearly one-forth of the world’s population. Today, American English is particularly influential; there are many other varieties of English around the world, including, for example, Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English. Among the different variants of English the two best known are American English and British English. There do exist differences between the two, just as many differences in the varieties within themselves. To be consistent in the use of English, and more importantly, to be understood, the nonnative speaker needs t