Journal archive

Abstract: The article analyzes such a unique linguistic phenomenon as structural-systemic simplification, indicating the pro-cess of autonomization of American English in the macrosystem of World Englishes. Linguistic simplification is the dynamic pro-cess of separating American English from British English. Simplification of any language is based on the strategy of speech production in the communicative register. The article focuses on the aspect of grammatical simplification of the language on the material of some quasi-modal verbs. The urgency of the research is quite obvious and can be explained by the need for a comprehensive study of the structural-systemic simplification of American English, which underlies its autonomy in the macrosystem of World Englishes. The scope of the study embraces structural-systemic simplification, while the research object includes the grammatically competitive quasi-modal units be going to and gonna; have to / have got to and gotta; want to and wanna. The aim of the article consists in the need to analyze the impact of linguistic simplification on the autonomization of American English in the system of global English. In connection with this aim, the main tasks of the article are: a) to outline the sociohistorical and sociocultural aspect of the isolation of American English in the macrosystem of World Englishes; b) to identify the extralinguistic prerequisites for the for-mation of grammatically competitive quasi-modal units; c) to describe the grammaticalization of quasi-modal verbs, as well as to predict the possibility of its status segregation in the communicative register. The theoretical significance of the article can be attributed to the possibility of providing new data in the field of linguistic variantology of the English language regarding the position of American English in the macrosystem of World Englishes.

About the author(s) :

Irina G. Zhirova

State University of Education (Moscow, Russia)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5684-3005

 

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 27.05.2024; date of publication: 28.12.2024

References:

Barinova, A. O., Gritsenko, E. S. (2024). Etnichnost' v angloyazychnoi kartine mira (na materiale leksikografii i korpusov) [Ethnicity in the English-language Picture of the world (Based on Lexicography and Corpora)]. 4th edition. Mosow, Flinta. 168 p.

Chomsky, N. (1972). Aspekty teorii sintaksisa [Aspects of the Theory of Syntax]. Moscow, Izdatel'stvo Moskovskogo universiteta. 258 p.

Chomsky, N. (1986). Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use. Greenwood Publishing Group. 307 p.

Chomsky, N. (2006). Language and Mind. 3 rd edition. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 190 p.

Collins, P. (2009). Modals and Quasi-modals in English. Rodopi. 193 p.

Crystal, D. (2003). English as a Global Language. 2 nd edition. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 212 p.

Dillard, J. L. (1980). Perspectives on American English. The Hague, Mouton Publishes. 467 p.

Feshchenko, V. V. (2022). Yazyk v yazyke [Language in Language]. Moscow, Librokom. 368 p.

Finegan, E., Rickford, J. R. (2004). Language in the USA: Themes for the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 502 p.

Goodman, N. (1943). On the Simplicity of Ideas. In The Journal of Symbolic Logic. Association for Symbolic Logic. Vol. 8. Issue 4, pp. 107–121.

Gorodova, E. S. (2016). Sistemno-strukturnoe uproshchenie kak faktor avtonomizatsii amerikanskogo varianta angliiskogo yazyka v makrosisteme World Englishes [Systemic-Structural Simplification as a Factor of Autonomization of the American Version of English in the Macrosystem World Englishes]. Avtoref. dis. … kand. filol. nauk. Moscow. 20 p.

Hurford, J. R. (2011). The Origins of Grammar: Language in the Light of Evolution II. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 791 p.

Kharman, G. (2024). Ob"ektno-orientirovannaya ontologiya. Novaya teoriya vsego [Object-Oriented Ontology. A New Theory of Everything]. Moscow, Librokom. 256 p.

Kravchenko, A. V. (2021). Otkryvaya yazyk zanovo: Ot nerealistichnoi lingvistiki k real'noi nauke o yazyke. Ot strukturalizma i kognitivizma – k ekologicheskomu realizmu (Novaya povestka dnya v yazykoznanii) [Opening the Language Again: From Unrealistic Linguistics to Real Language Science. From Structuralism and Cognition to Ecological Realism (New Daily Story in Language Science)]. Moscow, LENAND. 432 p. Online Etymology Dictionary. URL: https://www.etymonline.com/word/want (mode of access: 15.12.2024).

Proshina, Z. G. (2020). Kontaktnaya variantologiya angliiskogo yazyka: Problemy teorii. World Englishes Paradigm [Contact Variation of the English Language: Problems of Theory. World English Paradigm]. Moscow, URSS. 208 p.

Revinsky, M. (2000). Sistematizatsiya opisaniya relyatsionnykh affiksov grammatikalizatsionnogo proiskhozhdeniya v finno-ugorskikh yazykakh (na primere imennogo slovoizmeneniya) [Systematization of the Description of Relational Affixes of Grammatical Origin in Finno-Ugric Languages (Using the Example of Nominal Inflection)]. In Lincvistica-Uralica. No. 1, pp. 16–31.

Schweitzer, A. D. (1995a). Amerikanskii variant literaturnogo angliiskogo yazyka: puti formirovaniya i sovremennyi status [American Literary English: Ways of Formation and Modern Status]. In Voprosy yazykoznaniya. No. 6, pp. 3–16.

Schweitzer, A. D. (1995b). Istoriya amerikanskogo varianta angliiskogo yazyka: diskussionnye problemy [History of American English: Controversial Issues]. In Voprosy yazykoznaniya. No. 3, pp. 77–91.

Simpson, D. (1986). The Politics of American English. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 301 p.

Ter-Minasova, S. G. (2019). Sintagmatika rechi. Ontologiya i evristika. Obshchaya i angliiskaya sintagmatika sostavnykh nominativnykh grupp [Syntagmatics of Speech. Ontology and Heuristics. General and English Syntagmatics of Compound Nominative Groups]. Moscow, URSS. 200 p.

Thomson, A. J., Martinet, A. V. (1986). A Practical English Grammar. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 383 p.

Zhirova, I. G. (2020). Struktura vyskazyvaniya i sistema yazykovykh kommunikativnykh sredstv: na material sovremennykh khudozhestvennykh proizvedenii [The Structure of the Utterance and the System of Linguistic Communicative Means: Based on Contemporary Works of Art]. In Nauchnyi rezul'tat. Voprosy teoreticheskoi i prikladnoi lingvistiki. Vol. 6. No. 3, pp. 85–98.

Zhirova, I. G. (2023). Lingvisticheskaya kategoriya emfatichnost' v antropotsentrizme: Yazykovaya lichnost' Margaret Tetcher v emotsional'no-otsenochnom diskurse [Lingvistic Category of Emphaticness in Anthroposentience: Margaret Tetcher’s Linguistic Personality in Emotional-Sensuality Discourse]. Moscow, LENAND. 253 p.