“Divided by a common language”?
The treatment of Americanism(s) in Late
Modern English dictionaries and usage guides on both sides of the
Atlantic
The present study investigates the treatment of
the term Americanism and its plural form in their
generic sense in selected British and American reference works of
the 19th and early 20th centuries. It concentrates on two special
types of reference books, namely dictionaries of Americanisms and
usage guides from both sides of the Atlantic. By analyzing whether
the paraphrase or the labelling conveys a positive, a neutral, or a
negative stance, the terms Americanism(s) serve as
keywords for Anglo-American linguistic attitudes towards the “other”
variety. Methodologically, the study combines socio-lexicography and
meta-pragmatics; the results show a change in the relationship of
the two varieties and also substantive differences in how the two
types of reference book deal with the topic.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background and method
- 2.1The Scottish connection:
Americanism coined on
Scotticism
- 3.Dictionaries of Americanisms
- 3.1Pickering
(1816)
- 3.2Bartlett
(1848)
- 3.3Farmer
(1889)
- 3.4Thornton
(1912)
- 3.5Summary
- 4.British and American usage guides
- 4.1Alford
(1864)
- 4.2Moon
(1865)
- 4.3White
(1870)
- 4.4Fowler & Fowler
(1906)
- 4.5Partridge
(1942)
- 4.6Gowers
(1948)
- 4.7Summary
- 5.Summary and conclusion
-
Notes
-
References
References
1.Primary sources
1.1Dictionaries
Bartlett, John Russell
4
1896
[1848] Dictionary of
Americanisms. A Glossary of Words and Phrases
Usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United
States. Boston MA: Little, Brown and Company.
Beattie, James
1787 Scoticisms
arranged in Alphabetical Order, designed to correct
Improprieties of Speech and
Writing. Edinburgh: Creech.
DA = Matthews, Mitford M.
1951 Dictionary
of Americanisms on Historical
Principles. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.
DAE = Craigie, W. A. & Hulbert, James Root
1938 A
Dictionary of American English on Historical
Principles, 4 Vols. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.
DOST = Craigie, William A., Aitken, Adam J. & Stevenson, James A. C.
1931–1986 A
Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue from the
twelfth Century to the end of the
Seventeenth, 6 Vols. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press.
EDD = Wright, Joseph
1898–1905 The
English Dialect
Dictionary, 6 Vols. Oxford: Henry Frowde.
Farmer, John S.
1889 Americanisms –
Old & New. A Dictionary of Words, Phrases and
Colloquialisms Peculiar to the United States,
British America, The West Indies, & c., &
c. London: Thomas Poulter & Sons.
Jamieson, John
1808 An
Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language,
illustrating the words in their different
significations, by examples from ancient and modern
writers, 2 Vols. Edinburgh: University Press.
Oxford English
Dictionary
Mackie, Alexander
1881 Scotticisms
arranged and
corrected. London: Hamilton Adams & Co.
Pickering, John
1816 A
Vocabulary or Collection of Words and Phrases Which
Have Been Supposed to Be Peculiar to the United
States of
America. Boston MA [
repr. together
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SND = Grant, William & Murison, David D.
1931–1976 The
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and containing all the Scottish words known to be in
use or to have been in use c.
1700, 10 Vols. Edinburgh: The Scottish National Dictionary Association.
Thornton, Richard H.
1912 An
American Glossary. Being an attempt to illustrate
certain Americanisms upon historical
principles. Philadelphia PA: J. B. Lippincott and London: Francis & Co.
1.2Usage guides
Alford, Henry
[
1864] 5
1880
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Usage. London: George Bell and Sons.
Fowler, H. W.
1926
and
[1965]
2
1968
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English
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Fowler, H. W. & Fowler, F. G.
[1906]
3
1931
The
King’s
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Gowers, Sir Ernest
1948 Plain
Words. A Guide to the Use of
English. London: His Majesty’s Stationary Office.
Moon, George Washington
[1865]
10
1876
The
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Canterbury’s Essays on the Queen’s
English. London: Hatchards.
Partridge, Eric
[1942]
5
1957
Usage
and Abusage. A Guide to Good
English. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
White, Richard Grant
[1870]
9
1886
Words
and their Uses, Past and Present. A Study of the
English
Language. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington.
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Cited by
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2022.
Methodological approaches to the study of codification, prescription, and prescriptivism.
Studia Neophilologica 94:3
► pp. 334 ff.
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