英语词汇学3-2012.8.

3.1 World Englishes3.1.1 The spread of English
The status of the English language as the lingua franca in the world is beyond doubt.Thus, a Chinese can understand and be understood by, for example, a German through the medium of English.But such a role for English, seemingly a result of globalization, is not complete in itself, as we do find obvious disparities among its speakers from different regions, reflecting characteristics of their home regions.A better word to describe the development of the English language can probably be “glocalization”, the blending of “globalization” and “localization”, which is already in good use in financial and social sciences.The glocalized English implies that English today has been engaged in two simultaneous forces of evolution: becoming more global and common in use for international communication, and absorbing local characteristics from the region that it comes to.
Chapter 3
The Growth of the English Vocabulary (2)— British ＆ American
Points for Thinking


1. How did English spread in the world? 2. How do you comment on the similarities and disparities among the English varieties in the world? 3. What lexical differences are found between British English and American English? 4. How do British English and American English affect each other? 5. How will the English language develop in the future?
3.1.1 The spread of English

The first stage started from the late 17th century to the 18thcentury The second stage features the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century is the third stage, highlighted by the two World Wars. The major force in internationalizing English came from America century, English has entered the fourth stage of expansion. The driving force in this period was the American innovation of information technology, especially the advanced computer technology and the rapid development of the Internet.
3.3 American English
3.3.1 History Historically the growth of the English language in the United States falls into three periods corresponding to the country's social and political changes.
3.2.1 Dialects and accents 3.2.2 The changing British English vocabulary

Modern English consists of three main elements.At the very core of its vocabulary lie the Anglo-Saxon elements, almost commonly used in life, such as father, mother, brother, hand, heart, bone, year, month, day. The second powerful source is French, which brought to English a great number of words involving administration, religion, military, fashion and art, especially after the Norman Conquest, such as government, state, authority, religion, confession, communion, army, navy, enemy, fashion, robe, veil, etiquette, literature, critique.While in areas of medicine, law, theology, science and literature, Latin has contributed the most: education, tuberculosis, civil, history, technology and crisis.
3.2 British English

British English has a broad sense and a narrow sense.In its broad use, it refers to the language of the entirety of the United Kingdom, including all the varieties of the language, temporal or regional, standard or nonstandard, formal or informal.The narrow use refers to the form of Standard English used in Britain, or the medium of the upper and (especially the professional) middle class.The standards cover its pronunciation and vocabulary and came into being during the 15th century.This form of English mainly follows the accent of Received Pronunciation (RP), though a number of other accents can be involved as well.Today Standard English is widely taught at school and to foreign students.
As English expanded into non-English regions and met with nonnative speakers, changes occurred to itself. In the British colonial period, the British Empire opened to a wider world by sending out its poor, criminals and middle classes to the new settlements, and then its better-off administrators. All their contact with non-English peoples, cultures and languages created chances for English to borrow words from other languages.
3.1.3 English nativization

However, the English expansion does not simply mean the assimilation of the world.In its contact with other local cultures and languages, English keeps a twoway communication with them, having an effect on both sides.Globally, English is forming a universal standard; while locally, it interacts with other languages and transforms into a regional dialect.