Contrastive Studies on American and British English from the Perspective of Word Meaning and Idiomatic Usage 商务英语毕业论文.doc.doc

Contrastive Studies on American and British English from the Perspective of Word Meaning and Idiomatic Usage Abstract: Making contrast is a very important method to know and understand the world and also one of the basic approaches to conduct language research and study. It is widely known that the importance and influence of English language have become more and more obviously in globalize society nowadays, as English has already become an international language worldwide. While there are certainly many more varieties of English, American and British English are the two varieties that are taught in most ESL/EFL programs. Generally, it is agreed that no one version is correct, however, there are certainly preferences in use. This paper summarizes a variety of differences between American and British English from the perspective of word meaning and idiomatic usage. The most important rule of thumb is to try to be consistent in our usage. Maybe, the only thing we could do is to understand and utilize the English language through distinguish the differences between them as possible as we can, and make full use of this language as a tool to known and touch the world outside. Keywords: Contrastive Studies, Word Meaning, Idiomatic Usage 摘要：比较是人类认识世界的重要方法，也是语言的基本方法之一。众所周知，英语作为一门国际性语言，其重要性和影响力在经济全球化的今天日益显著。ESL/EFL课程中进行教授。一般认为，二者不存在对错之分。然而，在使用上却存在着偏好。本文从词意与习惯用法的角度，对美式英语与英式英语的差异做了大量总结。而对于我们来说，最重要的原则是能在使用的过程发现其相容性。我们应该做的唯一事情是，通过对英国英语和美国英语的区别了解，去更好地理解和运用这门语言，使英语成为我们认识世界、接触世界的一项有效工具。 Introduction It is widely known that the importance and influence of English language have become more and more obviously in globalize society nowadays, as English has already become an international language worldwide. Until today, the English has formed several different types due to the difference between history background, geography environment and social development of English using countries. Among these countries, American English in American region i