MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

MOLDOVA STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSLATION, INTERPRETATION AND APLIED
LINGUISTICS

CRISTINA SURDU

The Language of American and British Newspaper Style:

Differences and Similarities
363. Applied English Language Applied Portuguese Language

Diploma Paper

Head of the Department: _________________________Angela GRDINARU, PhD, Associate Professor

(signature)
Research adviser: _____________________________ Svetlana CORCODEL, MA, Senior Lecturer
(signature)
Author: ______________________________________ Cristina SURDU, Group 363
(signature)

CHISINAU - 2015
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Table of Contents
Annotation
Adnotare
Introduction.
CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY OF BRITISH
AND AMERICAN ENGLISH.
1.1 Definition and Origins of the Newspaper Style..
1.2 Etymological Approach to the Problem of British and American English.
1.3 Linguistic Aspect of British and American English
1.4 Social and Cultural Divergences and Convergences of British and American English
Conclusions

CHAPTER II: CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF BRITISH

AND AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS..
2.1 Structural Analysis of British and American Newspapers
2.2 Lexico-Semantic Analysis of British and American Newspapers
2.3 Stylistic Analysis of British and American Newspapers
Conclusions
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION
The only paper from which a man can really get the news of the world in a shape that he
can understand is the newspaper of his own hometown. The reason is that there are different
ways of serving up the news and we each get used to our own.
Newspaper - a publication that appears regularly and frequently, and carries news about a
wide variety of current events. Organizations such as trade unions, religious groups, corporations
or clubs may have their own newspapers, but the term is more commonly used to refer to daily or
weekly publications that bring news of general interest to large portions of the public in a
specific geographic area. The United States had 1,611 general-circulation daily newspapers in
1990 -- 14 percent fewer than it had in 1940, before the arrival of television.
This is where the greatest difference lies between the British newspapers and those of the
United States and Canada. Thus in America the great thing is to get the news and shout it at the
reader; in England they get the news and then break it to him as gently as possible. Hence the big
headings, the bold type, and the double columns of the American paper, and the small headings
and the general air of quiet and respectability of the English Press.
The object of this work is to study, analyze, and most importantly compare differences
between two major branches of English language: American English (also called General
American) and British English (also called UK English or English). As for the structure of work,
it falls intro two chapters.
The first chapter deals with etymological approach to the problem of British and
American English. Then we will take a look upon the

linguistic

aspect

of

British

and

American English, which is divided into three parts: (1) Vocabulary Differences; (2) Structural
Differences; (3) Stylistic Differences. Also we will provide some theoretical material upon the
social and cultural divergences of British and American English.
The second chapter is the contrastive study of British and American Newspaper. This
chapter is the practical approach on the theory that we dealt with. In this chapter we will provide
the structural, stylistic and lexical analysis of the British and American Newspaper.
The term British English is used to distinguish the standard form of English used in Great Britain
and Northern Ireland from the varieties used in other parts of the world. This term in itself is
tautologious and somehow misleading for it could be interpreted in many ways and shows only
broad sense of the language that is spoken in Britain because there are many variations, dialects,
and usages of this language.
Similarly to the British English, American English is a term that describes a language that
is spoken in the United States of America. It is also a broad term and shows the collection of
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words, pronunciation patterns which are used in the United States but that does not imply that
every American speaks American English as it is defined in books.
As these two languages are wealthy with different words and to point out differences
between all of the words would be daunting and not particularly useful thing only some group of
words will be studied. Also, because of the close relation between American English and British
English, some analysis at how these two languages altered will be given. There is a list of
authors and books on the subject of differences between American English and British English
and this course paper will try to give a comprehensible and concise insight on this case.

CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY OF BRITISH AND

AMERICAN ENGLISH
1.1 The Definition and Origins of Newspaper Style
The English language has been an important medium of the press for nearly 400 years. As
early as the first decades of the seventeenth century, several European countries were publishing
rudimentary newspapers, but censorship, taxation, wars, and other constraints allowed little
growth [].
The purpose of the newspaper is to give information on current topics. So it is like a mirror
which is held before the community and reflects the current activities in which the public may be
interested. It prints and shows the story of the town or countryside or even of neighbor towns,
state or nation throughout the world [country edit]. The relative importance of the news and the
readers interest determine the length to which an article should be carried. A development which
will have direct bearing on the community and which will affect a large number of readers
should be handled at length [country edit]. A newspaper is of all modern private institutions the
most comprehensive in function and complicated in principle. The newspaper is primarily a
collector and distributor of news and in this function has long ago beaten every possible rival out
if the field. It is the existence of the colossal revenue, more than double the annual budget of the
United Kingdom, which makes possible the costly task of collecting and transmitting the news of
the world from all places to all other places at once [the newsp].
Progress was much greater in Britain, though even in that country periods of censorship
greatly limited newspaper content until towards the end of the century. The Weekly Newes began
to appear from 1622; the London Gazette in 1666; and Lloyds News in 1696, providing general
news as well as information about shipping. American developments, beginning somewhat later,
included the Boston News-Letter (1704), The New-York Gazette (1725), and the New York City
Daily Advertiser (1785). The beginning of the eighteenth century in Britain saw the rise and fall
of The Tatler (179) and The Spectator (1711), while the end brought the arrival of The Times
(1788) and The Observer (1791) [].
The nineteenth century was the period of greatest progress, thanks to the introduction of
new printing technology and new methods of mass production and transportation. Censorship
and other restrictions continued in Continental Europe during early decades, however, which
meant that the provision of popular news in languages other than English developed much more
slowly. The high profile given to English in the popular press was reinforced by the way
techniques of news gathering developed. Newspapers are not solely international media: they
play an important role in the identity of a local community. Most papers are for home circulation,
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and are published in a home language. It is therefore impossible to gain an impression of the
power of English from the bare statistics of newspaper production and circulation. None the less,
according to the data compiled by the Encyclopedia Britannica in 2002 about 57 per cent of the
worlds newspapers were being published in those countries where the English language has
special status, and it is reasonable to assume that the majority of these would be in English [].
The top five papers were all in English: top was The New York Times, followed by The
Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the two British papers The Times and The Sunday
Times. Of particular importance are those English language newspapers intended for a global
readership, such as the International Herald-Tribune, US Weekly and International Guardian [].
When the focus is restricted to individual genres, the figures vary dramatically. As a visit to any
university library shows, in any country, most academic journals with an international readership
are published in English. In the 1990s the journal Linguistics abstracts was reviewing the content
of over 160 linguistics journals worldwide: nearly 70 per cent were published entirely in English.
In the physical sciences, the figure may reach 80 per cent or more [].
The multiplicity of newspapers is another feature that characterizes the American
civilization. Other developed countries do not have so many newspapers in proportion to the
population as we have in this country. In the British kingdom we find three or four papers in
London, one or two in Edinburgh, and one or two in Manchester, so that in the whole of the
British Isles there are not more than six or seven newspapers. In England also there is this great
difference, that there is a great reading of weekly newspapers; people are willing to wait a week
there to find out the news [the art of making].
The English Newspaper Style stated by Galperin is a system of interrelated lexical,
phraseological and grammatical means which is perceived by the community as a separate
linguistic unity that serves the purpose of informing and instructing the reader []. As how we
already know that style of written literary English was recognized as a specific form of writing
different form others. However, all the types of newspaper writing have both informative and
evaluative degree. But it is obvious that in most of the basic newspaper genres one of the two
functions prevail; for example or news of all the types is informative, or the editorial is
evaluative [].
In Newspaper Style, not all the printed materials found in newspaper can be classified in
this style. We can find not only news and comment on it, press report and articles, advertisements
and announcements on the pages of a newspaper, but also stories and poems, crossword puzzles
and chess problems and something like this. Materials that provide the function of informing the
reader and providing him the evaluation of information can be considered as belonging to
newspaper style. So, English Newspaper Style can be defined as a system of interrelated
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phraseological, lexical and grammatical means which is regarded by the community as a separate
linguistic unity which has the purpose of instructing and informing the reader.
The headline is the most concise form of newspaper information. Also the newspaper tries
to influence the opinion of the public on political or maybe on other matters. Headlines, in
keeping with the importance of the news, should be carried over all stories [country edit].
Elements of appraisal may be observed in the very selection and way of presentation of news, in
the use of specific vocabulary, such as allege and claim casting some doubt on the facts recorded,
and syntactical constructions indicating a lack of assurance of the reporter or his desire to avoid
responsibility (for example, Mr. X was said to have opposed the proposal; Mr. X was quoted
as saying).The headlines of new items, apart from giving information about the subjectmatter, also carry a considerable amount of appraisal (the size and arrangement of the headline,
the use of emotionally colored words and elements of emotive syntax), thus indicating the
interpretation of facts in the news item that follows. The principle vehicle of interpretation and
appraisal is the newspaper article and the editorial in particular. Editorial is a leading article
which is characterized by a subjective handling of facts. This purpose defines the choice of
language elements which are mostly emotionally colored [].
Because of the specific vocabulary, the Newspaper Style is characterized by an extensive
use of: (1) newspaper clichs (pressing problem, danger of war); (2) special political and
economic terms (president, election); non-terms political vocabulary (nation, crisis, agreement,
member); abbreviations (NATO, EEC); and neologisms. To have a better understanding on the
language peculiarities of English Newspaper Style will be sufficient just to analyze some basic
newspaper features as: (1) brief news items; (2) advertisement and announcements; (3) the
headline and (4) the editorial.
The brief news item has the function to inform the reader and is a virtue in newspaper
writing. It states only facts without giving any comments and all the facts are represented briefly
because readers time is valuable and it perusing the story of a half-column long in some shorter
paragraphs. The following grammatical peculiarities of brief news item are of paramount
importance, and may be regarded as grammatical parameters of newspaper style: (1) complex
sentences with a developed system of clauses; (2) verbal constructions; (3) syntactical
complexes; (4) attributive noun groups; (5) specific word order. It goes without saying that the
bulk of the vocabulary used in newspaper writing is neutral and common literary. But apart from
this, Newspaper Style has its specific vocabulary features and is characterized by an extensive
use of: special political and economic terms (socialism, constitution, election); non-term political
vocabulary (public, people, peace); newspaper clichs as stereotyped expressions, commonplace
phases familiar to the reader (vital issue, amid stormy applause, war hysteria); news items press
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reports and headlines abbreviations can be found in various kinds of name of organizations,
public and state bodies, political associations and so on (UNO, NATO, PIB); neologisms make
their way into the language of the newspaper very easily and often spring up on newspaper pages
(teach-in, backlash).
The title given to a news item or a newspaper article is called the headline. The function of
it is to inform the reader briefly of what the following news is about. The English headlines are
short and catching; they always are compacting the news stories and are written in a such way to
arouse the readers curiosity. The practices of headline writing differ with different newspapers.
So, syntactically, headlines may differ and can be compound from phrases of a variety of
patterns: (1) full declarative sentences; (2) interrogative sentences; (3) nominative sentences; (4)
headlines including direct speech and many others. The above-listed patterns are the most
typical, but they do not cover the variety of the headline structure. The editors give a special
attention to the headlines and it takes a lot of skill and ingenuity to make a catching headline.
The advertisement and announcement function is to inform the reader. We difference two
basic types of it in modern English newspaper: classified and non-classified. The various types
of information arranged according to subject-matter into sections can be found in the classified
advertisements and announcements. As for non-classified is hard to point out the variety of
language form. The vocabulary of it is neutral but contains sprinkling of emotionally colored
words or phrases which attract the attention of the reader.
The editorial function is to influence the reader by giving an interpretation of some certain
facts. In the editorial articles the emotional coloring is achieved by various stylistic devices as
metaphors or epithets. The purpose of it is to give the opinion of the editor and the interpretation
of the news published and to suggest to reader which is the correct one. In such way, the
editorials try to recourse not only to the readers mind but also to his feelings. As in the brief
news item, the editors use the emotionally colored vocabulary; alongside to political words and
expressions, maybe terms, clichs and abbreviations or also can be used some slang words and
son on. The editorial language is characterized by various combinations of the vocabulary; which
enhances the emotional effect. Emotional coloring is achieved by the help of various stylistic
devices (lexical and structural) i.e. brutal rule, crazy policies and so on.
Whatever stylistic gems one may encounter in the newspaper, they cannot obscure the
essentially traditional mode of expression characteristic of newspaper English. Because each
newspaper tries to catch their reader using their own technique as the use of coloring or
emotional words, by style of the writing, by catching slogans or advertisements and so on.
1.2 Etymological Approach to the Problem of British and American English
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Most teachers of English as a foreign language in various countries throughout the world
are aware of differences between the forms of the language which may be encountered in the
United States and that which prevails in England. At one time this caused relatively little
difficulty. British English was accepted as the form to be taught, and that put an end to the
matter.
Over the past fifteen or twenty years the situation has changed. The greater involvement of
the United States in the international scene, the presence of larger numbers of Americans in
foreign countries, the improved ease and speed of travel have made for much wider
dissemination of American English than was formerly the case. More residents of foreign
countries are hearing American English; more of them find it necessary to communicate with
Americans. As a consequence, the previously held assumption that the British variety of English
is necessarily the one to be taught in the schools has been challenged upon more than one
occasion. Some teachers have recommended a shift from British to American English; others,
feeling that the form of the language as it occurs in the country of its origin is somehow more
correct or more eloquent, have resisted change.
There is no single easy answer to this question, nor will the answer necessarily be the same
for all of the countries in which it is now an issue. Certainly the geographic factor must be given
serious consideration. In Mexico, for example, the people are much more likely to come into
contract with Americans than speakers of British English. It would seem eminently reasonable,
therefore, to teach the American variety of the language in Mexico. On the other hand, such
countries as Holland or Sweden our conclusion might be exactly the opposite. In some European
countries closer to England use the common British English; but in exception can take the Italy,
which is closer to England than to the United States in sheer number of miles, the amount of
contact with speakers of American English is surprisingly great. However, each of the student
who starts to learn English choose his/her preferences upon the English, either British English or
American.
We must be careful, however, not to fall into the error of exaggerating the differences
between American and British English. If we are to consider the question which has been raised,
let us by all means do so in the light of as much accurate information as we can assemble.
However, we can see some similarities between American and British English; even people say
that they are two different languages.
What is so very frequently overlooked is the amount of similarity between these two forms
of English, and indeed throughout the English-speaking world in its entirely. It is nothing short
of astonishing that in a language spoken as a native tongue by at least 270,000, 000 (figure has
grown to 300, 000, 000 native-speakers and an equal number who use it as a second language)
9

people distributed over the five continents of the globe the common element should be so great
and the differences so few.
The unity of English is particularly evident in its inflectional system and its syntax. Where
they do occur, differences in these grammatical features of the language reflect social or class
rather than regional or geographic differences. The inflection of the verb or the use of the
genitive case does not differ perceptibly in the standard language, whether it is that of San
Francisco, Canterbury, or Sydney, Australia. It is true, of course that the speaker of British
English may surprise an American by his pronunciation of the past tense from shone with the
vowel of fawn rather than of phone which the latter habitually employs. Like-wise, the
Americans use of the singular verb in The committee has adjourned would sound strange to the
British, who normally uses plural form in a situation such as this.
We found out that, there was time when America declare independent from the crown in
1776 the English language in those two countries where the same. In the past two years the
British accent has drastically changed while the American one has changed a little bit or subtly.
All began when Southern England upper classes started to remove the rhotic accent as a way to
differentiate the classes. In such a way the new accent started and the middle classes adopted it
too. Unfortunately, not for all the regions in England the shift to a new accent was ordinary,
Scotland and Ireland, where the population was composed almost of lower working classes, did
not adopted the change of the accent. In the neighbor country, America, only two exceptions
were notable, New York and New England areas, where the new accent was adopted, because of
their strong links with the British.
The term British English is used by linguists to show the form of English that is used in
Britain that means that British English is the English language which is used in United Kingdom.
Sometimes British English may be referred to as Oxford English. This is because of production
of dictionaries from Oxford University which gives it some kind of prestige in matters of
language. Written forms of American English are standardized across the United States and their
grammatical forms are similar to British English. And how we mentioned before, the American
English has developed due to mass media and of social and geographic mobility.
However, there was and other languages which helped English to improve. Many linguists
consider that foreign influence, especially the French one, to be the most important factor in the
history of English. The wide-spread viewpoint is supported only by the evidence of the English
word-stock, as its grammar and phonetic system are very stable and not easily influenced by
other languages []. To understand the nature of the English vocabulary and the development of
the history it is necessary to examine some layers of the etymology as the causes of their
10

appearance and the volume, the role, the borrowed elements used in the English vocabulary and
so on.
Unfortunately, the English language word-stock at the time was not so rich to express the
amount of phenomena, new notions and objects the immigrants had to deal with. There was an
urgent necessity of creating new words and they were being created by means of composition, ,
lexicalization of grammatical forms, derivation, abbreviation, change of grammatical forms,
conversion, change of meaning of the words existing in English (and this lead to differences in
the semantic structure of many lexemes in American and British variants of English). To fill this
gap, most of the words were borrowed from the Indian language and languages of the people
coming from different parts of the world. A lot of the French and Spanish words were borrowed
into American English that is due to the French and Spanish colonizers []. The term borrowing
used in linguistics is to denote the process of adopting words form other languages. So we can
borrow not only words but also word-building affixes as for example into English was borrowed
affixes as able, -ment, -ity and so on. Also it should be mentioned that some word-groups were
borrowed in their foreign form as vis--vis. Besides French and Spanish, words were borrowed
from Latin and Greek as memorandum, stratum, and alibi [].
Many American linguists say that American English differs from British English in having
no one locality whose speech patterns have come to be recognized as the model for the rest of
the country.
British English has also a rational degree of uniformity in its formal written form, but in
the spoken form is varying considerably because of the history of the dialect development of the
population throughout British Isles. In the United Kingdom, accents and dialects vary because of
historic background of the countries as England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Regional
dialects in United States are affected by the immigrant groups, especially in terms of
pronunciation. Also localized dialects can be found in a quite distinct variation in New York City
and in Southern Appalachia.
1.3 Linguistic Aspect of British and American English
Most of the differences in lexis or vocabulary between British and American English are in
connection with concepts originating from the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century,
when new words were coined independently. Almost the entire vocabularies of the
car/automobile and railway/railroad industries are different between the United Kingdom and
United States, for example. The differences most likely to create confusion are those where the
same word or phrase is used for two different concepts. Regional variations, even within the US
11

or the UK, can create the same problems. From the mid-20th century, movies and television have
spread new words in both countries, usually from the United States to the United Kingdom.
It is not a straightforward matter to classify differences of vocabulary. David Crystal
identifies some of the problems of classification on the facing page to his list of American
English/British English lexical variation and states "this should be enough to suggest caution
when working through an apparently simple list of equivalents".
Vocabulary differences between British and American English occur in certain welldefined and predictable situations, namely when they reflect differences in physical objects or
features characteristic of the two countries, when they reflect different practices or ways of
dealing with things, and when they are the product of institutional differences.
We may begin most conveniently with differences in physical features and objects. That
the plant and animal life in England and America should differ to some degree is easily
understandable. The United States is a large country with far greater range of climate and
topography than England. There are trees and plants which flourish in America which occur
rarely if at all in England. Such words as hickory, tamarack, and squash are all borrowings from
American Indian language. This is true also of such anima names as moose, raccoon, and
caribou.
Another type of situation likely to result in terminological differences occurs when a new
invention strikes both countries at the same time, facing each with the necessity of developing a
new terminology almost immediately. This was the case, for example with the railroad, as it is
called in America or the railway, as it is much more likely to be called in England. The
Americans TV is the Englishmans telly.
Another type of situation likely to produce varying terminologies in the two countries,
namely institutional differences. We may as well begin with the object of our immediate concern,
namely education. What is called a public school in England is known as a private school in the
United States. In the UK the US equivalent of a high school is often referred to as a secondary
school regardless of whether it is state funded or private. Secondary education in the United
States also includes middle school or junior high school, a two- or three-year transitional school
between elementary school and high school. In the UK a university student is said to study,
to read or informally simply to do a subject. In the recent past the expression 'to read a subject'
was more common at the older universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. In the US a
student studies or majors in a subject (although concentration or emphasis is also used in some
US colleges or universities to refer to the major subject of study). To major in something refers
to the student's principal course of study; to study may refer to any class being taken.
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The American vocabulary frequently preserves words and meanings of words which have
been discontinued in England. American English, for example, retains the term druggist, which
has been replaced by chemist in England. Andirons, still in common use in America, died out in
England at the end of the eighteenth century. The verb guess in the sense of suppose or
estimate Is now recognized as an Americanism.
Peter Burden in his notes on American English states some differences in British and
American spelling. Generally, American English or as a word ending is equivalent to our in
British English i.e. color and colour, flavor and flavor, labor and labour, and so on. American
er as a word ending is sometimes equivalent to re in British English i.e. center and centre,
theater and theatre and so on. Also in American English the final e is removed from verbs before
adding ing, in British English this is not done i.e. routeing (in British form) and routing (in
American form), however the American practice to drop the e is becoming quite popular in
British English [].
British English words that are spelled with double vowels ae or oe are just spelled with e in
American English i.e. leukaemia and leukemia, manoeuvre and maneuver, and so on. But we
should note that in American English, some terms may keep the ae spelling as standard i.e.
archaeology, although the spelling with just an e (archeology) is acceptable too. In British
English some nouns end in ogue, when in American English either og or ogue i.e. dialogue
and dialog/dialogue, catalogue and catalog/catalogue and so on. If a verb ends in a single l then
the American version of ing, -ed and er forms also have a single l, but in British English the
forms will have a double ll. Also Americans use more ize and ization while British use more
-ise and isation i.e. apologise and apologize, organize and organise and so on.
The other difference between British and American English is the pronunciation. The
intonation used by people makes it difficult for Americans to understand the British speakers and
vice versa. The most noted difference is the drop of the sound /r/ in British English, but with
some exceptions, the sound /r/ is pronounced fully if it directly follows a vowel as in the
following example bore or bar while in American /r/ will be pronounced fully in r-colored
vowels as third and dirt. As we mentioned above the /r/ sound may be dropped as in the
following examples bird and cupboard. Another major difference is in the pronunciation of the
vowel sound in the following words as laugh, fast half, in British speech a is long and firm. The
flat a is regarded as an American pronunciation. Also is noticeably different the pronunciation of
the o, where in England this o is pronounced very rounded while in America it has lost its
rounding and the most of the words are very similar to a in father. This shows that Americans
tend to neutralize the vowel sounds while British tend to retain their sharpness [a/z].
13

Some differences of these two great English-speaking nations which do exist were
presented here. The two varieties of the language differ simply because the speakers of each of
these major divisions of the English language reflect a different total environment and a different
set of historical events as a background.
Any domain of linguistic structure and use could be the basis of variety differentiation, but
the focus in comparing the traditional standards of British and America English has been almost
entirely associated with the vocabulary and phonology. But the grammatical point also does have
some differences in these two major countries. The differences are mainly shown in the usage of
prepositions, auxiliary verbs, articles, pronouns, adjectives and adverbs, and tense and
subjunctive mood.
In British English, collective nouns can take either singular or plural verb forms, according
to whether the emphasis is on the body as a whole or on the individual members respectively;
compare a committee was appointed with the committee were unable to agree. The term the
Government always takes a plural verb in British civil service convention, perhaps to emphasize
the principle of cabinet collective responsibility. In American English, collective nouns are
almost always singular in construction: the committee was unable to agree. However, when a
speaker wishes to emphasize that the individuals are acting separately, a plural pronoun may be
employed with a singular or plural verb: the team takes their seats, rather than the team takes its
seats. However, such a sentence would most likely be recast as the team members take their
seats. Despite exceptions such as usage in The New York Times, the names of sports teams are
usually treated as plurals even if the form of the name is singular.
In the United States the word through can mean up to and including as in Monday
through Friday. In the United Kingdom (and for many Americans) Monday to Friday, or
Monday to Friday inclusive is used instead; Monday through to Friday is also sometimes used.
British athletes play in a team; American athletes play on a team. In names of American rivers
the word river usually comes after the name (for example, Colorado River) whereas for British
rivers it comes before (as in the River Thames). In the New York City area, on line (two
words) refers to the state of waiting in a line or queue; for example, standing on a sidewalk
waiting for a table at a restaurant. Elsewhere in American English, one waits in line.
Throughout American English, going online (one word) refers to using the Internet. Usage of
queue among Americans has increased in the last twenty years. In British English, queue is the
universal term and no variants of line are used in relation to waiting in turn.
Use of prepositions before days denoted by a single word, where British people would say
She resigned on Thursday, Americans often say She resigned Thursday, but both forms are
common in American usage. In the UK, from is used with single dates and times more often than
14

in the United States. Where British speakers and writers may say the new museum will be open
from Tuesday, Americans most likely say the new museum will be open starting or on Tuesday.
Traditionally, British English uses the present perfect to talk about an event in the recent
past and with the words already, just and yet. In American usage these meanings can be
expressed with the present perfect or the simple past. This American style has become
widespread only in the past 20 to 30 years; the British style is still in common use as well. In
British English, have got or have can be used for possession and have got to and have to can be
used for the modal of necessity. The forms that include got are usually used in informal contexts
and the forms without got in contexts that are more formal. In American speech the form
without got is used more than in the United Kingdom, although the form with got is often used
for emphasis. Talking about the auxiliary and modal verbs we should manage some differences
as in British English shall and its negative form shant can be substituted for will, showing the
future. In American English shall is unusual. While shall is used in British English to ask for
advice, should is used in American English. In Great Britain neednt is often replaced with dont
need to, but in America neednt is unusual [a/z]. Also the use of real as an intensifier differs in
those two countries. In informal American English real is often used before adjectives and
adverbs while in British English insists on really [a/z].
Although there are many differences in detailed aspects in the use of British and American
English, they are similar to each other in most of aspects. Therefore, they shall only be
considered as different forms of the same language rather than two different languages.
From the stylistic point of view we also can classify some differences between American
and British English. The differences are mainly shown through the punctuation, quoting,
parentheses/brackets, and in titles and headlines.
Americans tend to write Mr., Mrs., St., Dr. whereas British open punctuation style will
write Mr, Mrs, St, Dr, following the rule that a full stop/period is used only when the last letter of
the abbreviation is not the last letter of the complete word. This kind of abbreviation is known as
a contraction in the United Kingdom. The use of full stops/periods after most abbreviations was
once standard in the United Kingdom but current publications generally tend to follow the
modern open style. Unit symbols such as kg and Hz are never punctuated.
Americans begin their quotations with double quotation marks () and use single quotation
marks () for quotations within quotations. British English usage varies, with some authoritative
sources such as The Economist and The Times recommending the same usage as in the United
States, whereas other authoritative sources, such as The King's English, recommend single
quotation marks. In journals and newspapers, quotation mark double/single use depends on the
individual publication's house style.
15

Americans almost always place commas and periods inside adjacent quotation marks.
Specific exceptions are made for cases in which the addition of a period or comma could create
confusion, such as the quotation of web addresses or certain types of data strings. In both styles,
question marks and exclamation marks are placed inside the quotation marks if they belong to
the quotation and outside otherwise. With narration of direct speech, both styles retain
punctuation inside the quotation marks, with a full stop changing into a comma if followed by
explanatory text, also known as a dialogue tag. Americans tend to apply quotations when
signifying doubt of veracity (sarcastically or seriously), to imply another meaning to a word or to
imply a cynical take on a paraphrased quotation, without punctuation at all.
In British English, ( ) marks are often referred to as brackets, whereas [ ] are called
square brackets and { } are called curly brackets. In formal British English and in American
English ( ) marks are parentheses (singular: parenthesis), "[ ]" are called brackets, and { }
can often be called curly braces. In both countries, standard usage is to place punctuation outside
the parenthesis, unless the entire sentence is contained within them. In the case of a parenthetical
expression which is itself a complete sentence, the final punctuation may be placed inside the
parenthesis, particularly if not a period.
English headlines are short and catching, they compact the gist of news stories into a few
eye-snaring words. A skillfully turned out headline tells a story, or enough of it, to arouse or
satisfy the reader's curiosity. The practices of headline writing are different with different
newspapers. The use of capitalization varies within American writing and British writing. The
words in newspaper headlines, titles of publications, and chapter and section headings are
sometimes capitalized as in conventional sentences. In other words, only the first word, proper
nouns, and acronyms, are capitalized.
The linguistic peculiarities in both languages differ just because of the countries
modernization. Americans have tried to make the English easier that is because of the enormous
number of immigrants who somehow twisted a little bit the language. And also it is because of
the geographical position of these two countries; even British were the first industrial colonizers
of the America and in contact with the habitants they could not change the entire lexical baggage
of them; some phenomena should be explained. The same idea goes for pronunciation, spelling,
and so on, that the America and Great Britain speak the same English language.
1.4 Social and Cultural Divergences and Convergences of British and American
English
Comparing these different types of power, a question may arise as to similarities and
differences between these two powerful countries. There are numerous cultural differences and
16

some similarities between the United States and the United Kingdom, except the Language
Differences between United States and the United Kingdom, there are even differences in
customs, attitudes, opinions, and reactions within the United States and also we may found some
social and cultural similarities.
America and Great Britain do not have only a common language but also historic roots,
because the first settlers came from England. These two countries are similar because of the
capitalist path of development; they respect the private property and entrepreneurship, as well as
the long-term partnership in business and politics. From the linguistic point of view they are
similar in grammar and syntax and morphology are identical; they use the same form of the
sentence construction and so on. How we mentioned above these two countries have many
common features.
First of all, the culture of England and America is a Universalist culture; because it is
characterized by adherence to well-establish rules, laws. The culture of both countries is
characterized by a dominant philosophy of rationalism which explains what is happening in the
world on the logical basis of cause-and-effect relationships. Since they are both individualistic
countries, they paid a great attention to personal space which everyone has the right on it. So
they have the right to make their one decision and to have responsibility for it. The
communication between representatives of both cultures represents quite friendly attitude; for
Brits is characteristic politeness and good manners while for Americans their democracy
[www.voc.ru]. But talking about the study of grammar in standard varieties of English, the
difference are small, but however the persist [books 28p].
Despite the above mentioned similarities, there are significant differences. History makes
England different from America, which contributed to develop the strength of their national
identity. Due to a rich history, culture, literature and art, England does not share the pragmatic
and aggressive approach to life and their work as Americans. The American habit to talk about
money is too vulgar for British people because they think that this is personal; and this should
not be discussed with others. Talking about interpersonal communication, British people are
more closed to strangers. They try to mention carefully about their success and to tell some
details of their personal life instead of Americans. Americans are much more relaxed about that.
They are too friendly and immediate can drag you into a conversation and to open their heart
which British people will never do.
Concerning the lexical items related to different social or cultural domain we will allude
some obvious divergence between these two countries. Words such as bill and biscuit are used
regularly in both American English and British English but mean different things in each form.
In American English a bill is usually paper money (as in "dollar bill") though it can mean the
17

same as in British English, an invoice (as in "the repair bill was 250"). In American English a
biscuit is what in British English is called a scone. In British English a biscuit is what American
English calls a cookie. As chronicled by Winston Churchill, the opposite meanings of the verb to
table created a misunderstanding during a meeting of the Allied forces; in British English to
table an item on an agenda means to open it up for discussion whereas in American English , it
means to remove it from discussion, or at times, to suspend or delay discussion.
The word football in British English refers to Association football, also once known
as soccer. In American English, "football" means American football. However, the standard
American English term soccer, a contraction of association (football), is also of British
origin, derived from the formalization of different codes of football in the 19th century, and was
a fairly unremarkable usage (possibly marked for class) in British English until relatively
recently; it has lately become perceived incorrectly as an Americanism.
Another interesting noun is bill because in US this may refer to a piece of paper money as
for example in a twenty-dollar bill. What is necessary to point out is that American people use
instead of bill the word check in the restaurants. Thats why pavement and bill have different
meaning in both varieties. So, pedestrians walk on a pavement, while in America it denotes the
surface of a road where vehicles move; also talking about the meaning of the bill in American
English this word has shifted from the sum which you owe in a restaurant to a banknote [].
Words with completely different meanings are relatively few; most of the time there are
either (1) words with one or more shared meanings and one or more meanings unique to one
variety (for example, bathroom and toilet) or (2) words the meanings of which are actually
common to both British English and American English but that show differences in frequency,
connotation or denotation (for example, smart, clever, mad).
Some differences in usage and/or meaning can cause confusion or embarrassment. In
American English the word fag (short for faggot) is a highly offensive term for a homosexual
male but in British English it is a normal and well-used term for a cigarette, for hard work, or for
a chore, while a faggot itself is a sort of meatball. In American English the word pissed means
being annoyed whereas in British English it is a coarse word for being drunk (in both
varieties, pissed off means irritated). Similarly, in American English the word pants is the
common word for the British English trousers and knickers refers to a variety of half-length
trousers, while the majority of British English speakers would understand pants to
mean underpants and knickers to mean female underpants.
Sometimes the confusion is more subtle. In American English the word quite used as a
qualifier is generally reinforcement: for example, "I'm quite hungry" means "I'm very hungry".
In British English quite (which is much more common in conversation) may have this meaning,
18

as in "quite right" or "quite mad", but it more commonly means "somewhat", so that in British
English "I'm quite hungry" can mean "I'm somewhat hungry". This divergence of use can lead to
misunderstanding.
And some known facts about divergences of these two countries are as for example: in the
UK the word whilst is historically acceptable as a conjunction (as an alternative to while,
especially prevalent in some dialects). In American English only while is used in both contexts.
In the UK generally the term fall meaning "autumn" is obsolete. Although found often
from Elizabethan literature to Victorian literature, continued understanding of the word is usually
ascribed to its continued use in America. In the UK the term period for a full stop is not used; in
American English the term full stop is rarely, if ever, used for the punctuation mark. For
example, Tony Blair said, "Terrorism is wrong, full stop", whereas in American English,
"Terrorism is wrong, period. The use of the interjection: period to mean "and nothing else; end
of discussion" is beginning to be used in colloquial British English.
The reasons of these changes are due to the British settlers who landed in America, and the
language had the need to adapt some of its new environment and to respond to the peoples
needs. All these changes started to be perceived from the beginning of the American history. Also
the distance between these two countries had a great role in it and which determined the
evolution of the language. So, American English took died out word from Britain (gotten). The
both countries have influenced each other throughout the decades, especially now when we are
surrounded by technologies, globalization and Internet. In fact, American English has adopted
some British terms and the British English also has adopted some Americanisms. This is because
of the influence of TV programs, communication technologies or even movie industry.
Today historians and linguists agree that American and British English are both variants of
the English language, that they are more similar than different. The only divergence between
them is the differences in national cultural development and national history, also, varying of
local and regional idioms and colloquialisms, and some of advertising and media influences. And
to conclude, people should remember that those two languages use different meaning of various
words; and we must be careful, in accordance with the context of situation, we must use the
proper meaning [].

19

CONCLUSION
The Chapter I: Theoretical Overview of the Study of British and American English gives
the information upon the some differences of the British and American English. We have
classified into the etymological approach to the problem, linguistic aspects and some socialcultural divergences between those two languages.
From the etymological point of view upon the problem the two varieties of the language
differ simply because the speakers of each of these major divisions of the English language
reflect a different total environment and a different set of historical events as a background, and
that resumes that these two great nations of English-speaking are not speaking two different
languages but the same languages from different backgrounds.
Most of the differences in lexis or vocabulary between British and American English are in
connection with concepts originating from the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century,
when new words were coined independently. The differences most likely to create confusion are
those where the same word or phrase is used for two different concepts.
Structural differences are mainly shown in the usage of prepositions, auxiliary verbs,
articles, pronouns, adjectives and adverbs, and tense and subjunctive mood. Although there are
many differences in detailed aspects in the use of British and American English, they are similar
to each other in most of aspects. Therefore, they shall only be considered as different forms of
the same language rather than two different languages.
From the stylistic point of view we also can classify some differences between American
and British English. The differences are mainly shown through the punctuation, quoting,
parentheses/brackets, and in titles and headlines. And social and cultural divergences mainly
explain the vocabulary difference between these two, American and British English, which will
create confusion while using it between an American and British.

CHAPTER II: CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN

NEWSPAPERS
20

2.1 Structural Analysis of British and American Newspapers

At the turn of the century the main division in English journalism was between the quality
press, embodied in The Times and the Manchester Guardian, and the popular press, exemplified
by the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Express and the Daily Mail. Whereas earlier forms of
journalism employed formal register, syntax and grammar, their modern equivalents exhibit a
mixture and juxtaposition of register as well as flexibility and experimentation in word
formation.
Moving on to the great neighbor of the Great Britain, America, there each state has a
newspaper and has its own news. The most known newspapers in America are the following The
New York Times, this version of the newspaper has the largest circulation of any metropolitan
newspaper in US; another famous newspaper is The Wall Street Journal which represents a
business and economic newspaper with the news published in New York; The Washington Times
is a daily broadsheet and many others newspapers.
Grammar is always changing and many new ways of using grammar in British English
come from American English because of the influence of American popular culture, American
media and the Internet. The British journalists follow the American model of writing, using the
grammar or even words to create sharpness and journalistic color []. However some
differences within grammar persist.
In British English, the present perfect tense is used a lot more than in American English.
Present perfect tense is used to describe a past event that has present consequences, but in
American English, the simple past tense is normally used. The grammatical differences between
these two varieties are not very great and are almost negligible in formal and written usage. And
to compare these two and to spot the difference we took the same news with the same theme
from The Guardian named Vatican tribunal to hear cases of bishops accused of covering up
child abuse and from The New York Times the news named Pope Creates Tribunal for Bishop
Negligence in Child Sexual Abuse Cases.
The extract from The Guardian newspaper: Pope Francis has established a tribunal to
investigate bishops accused of failing to protect children and vulnerable adults from sex abuse,
in a move seen as the most forceful act by the pontiff to date to tackle the churchs legacy of
abuse and cover-ups.
The extract from The New York Times newspaper: Pope Francis approved the creation of
a Vatican tribunal for judging bishops accused of covering up or failing to act in cases of child
sexual abuse by priests, an unprecedented step long demanded by victims in the more than three
decades that the Roman Catholic Church has publicly dealt with the abuse scandal.
21

From the above examples we can see a clear difference in writing between those two
newspapers. The British newspaper uses the past perfect tense or present perfect tense to
describe the past event while American newspaper uses the past simple. In American writing not
always we will find the past tense, American newspapers also use the past perfect tense as we
can see from the same example above: Roman Catholic Church has publicly dealt with the
abuse scandal.
The importance of the adverbial element in the formation of some complex verbs (e.g. to
call down, to count out, to get away with, to lay off and so on) is obvious. These constructions
are extremely frequent among the Americans who, in spite of their preference for high-flown,
bombastic words often say to go out instead of to collapse; to turn down instead of to reject; to
slip up instead of to err; to pass up instead of to decline and do on [].
Such constructions are numerous in England too, being preferred to some erudite
borrowings (e.g. to bring about for to accomplish or to cause; to put up with for to tolerate; to
size up for to estimate, and so on) [].
Talking about the conjugation of verbs some verbs that are regular in British English are
irregular in American English. In British English, we can spell the past simple and -ed participle
of verbs such as burn, dream, lean, learn, smell, spell, spill with either -ed (learned, spilled) or -t
(learnt, spilt). American English prefers the -ed ending. In British English, the past simple form
of fit is usually fitted. In American English, the past simple form of fit is most often fit. In British
English, the past tense of get is got, while American English usually uses its past participle
gotten. In the following sentences we will see the clear examples of it:
Regardless of the executive order, Russians have access to the Internet and even in
villages, information has gotten through. Mr. Putin may not be able to count on the complicity of
his citizens if more young men come home in body bags. (Example extracted from The New
York Times)
Putin has been treated to a far warmer welcome in Italy than he would have got in any of
the other large EU countries. (Example extracted from The Guardian)
According to the custom that British English usually uses got while American English
gotten, we can quickly tell the nationality of the speaker. The former is British and the latter is
American. When Americans use got, they mean own, possess and dominate.
Differences between British and American English in prepositions are shown in the
following two aspects: (1) different use of prepositions in the construction of phrases; (2) when
using phrases, one will use a preposition while the other will omit it. In British English, before
day, week or certain day, the preposition on shall be used, while it is not so in American
English as we can see in the following sentences:
22

Pope Francis was encouraged by a top American diplomat to take a tougher stance
against Vladimir Putin before his meeting with the Russian president on Wednesday evening.
(Example extracted from The Daily Telegraph)
The groups seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes
refinancing and home purchase demand, rose 8.4 percent in the week that ended June 5.
(Example extracted from The Wall Street Journal)
In front of weekend and Christmas, British English uses at or over, while American
English adopts over or on.

In American English, when home is used as an adverb, the

preposition at is not needed. But, in British English, at is required before home. Hence, at home
is used in British English. In the following sentence took from The Seattle Times newspaper we
can observe the example of the position of the preposition on: The three generations were
killed as they gathered at Wayne and Judy Andersons Carnation-area home for a holiday
celebration on Christmas Eve 2007.
The both of English are different in articles; most phrases of British English have articles,
while those of American English do not have. The the in the standard expressions in British
English all the afternoon, all the winter, all the week, this time of the year, and so on are usually
omitted in American English.
Table 2.1
British English
all the day long
All the week
this time of the year
go into hospital
in college
at university
at lessons

American English
all day long
All week
this time of year
go into the hospital
in the college
at the university
at the lessons

In the above Table 2.1 are represented some expressions which are exceptions in British
English when it does not use articles, while American English does. As we observed that in
British English the article the denotes the period of time while American English uses the to
denote the place. Also we need to mention that the British English will use articles in front of
sickness, river and etc., while American English does not. For example, British English
expresses in the form of the measles, the mumps, the flu, the Niagara Falls and the Black Creek,
while American English says measles, mumps, flu, Niagara Falls and Black Creek. Another
difference in articles is the position of a or an with half. In British English a follows half, for
example half a dozen, half an hour, half a mile and half a pound. In American English a is put in
front of half as for example a half dozen, a half hour, a half mile and a half pound and so on.
23

In American English, adverbs can be used more freely in respect of position. They can
either be placed in front of auxiliary verbs or behind them, while the meaning of the sentences
remains the same. For example, we can either say They never will agree to it or They will
never agree to it. For another example, You probably could have done it yourself means the
same as You could probably have done it yourself. However, in British English, adverbs are
usually placed behind the first auxiliary verb. In the following example from The Guardian it
shows the position of the adverbs: Four years may have simply been too long for a series that
never had the kind of cultural influence enjoyed by Sex and the City, especially with the reborn
TV industry now turning out so much boxset fodder that older material is more easily forgotten.
And we found from The Seattle Times a sentence which shows the reverse of the British adverb
positioning: Mair had never told most of his classmates he has Aspergers. Never told them he
had started his schooling in a special-education classroom, or that he received social therapy
treatment when he was younger.
One could often see or hear around instead of round or about in America as for example
around the corner, around nine oclock, around eighty dollars and so on. This tendency can be
noticed, to a certain extent, in England too.
To sum up, we should retain here is that sometimes, American and British English use
different grammatical form to express the same meaning or maybe the same grammatical form
expresses different meanings in British and American English. But however, in spite of these
differences they are similar to each other in most of aspects. Therefore, they should be
considered as some different forms of the same language instead of two different languages. But
the aspect of the newspaper we also can suppose that takes part of the structure. For this we have
selected two different newspapers, one from the America and one from the Great Britain and
made a comparative view upon these two newspapers.
The Guardian is a British newspaper which the width and the length of the page consists of
47x31.5 cm; The New York Times is an American newspaper which the length and the width of
the page consists of 121.5x34.48 cm. The Guardian has 44 pages in comparison with The New
York Times which is divided into several sections as: the first section represents the National and
International news and also the Business news; the second section consists of quick crosswords,
puzzles, Technology news; the third section consists of Sports, Movies, and Weather and so on.

24

Figure 1 The Guardian Newspaper

The front page of The Guardian represents of the logo which is replaced on the center of
the page and is underline on a blue background with a white print; the masthead is on the same
blue background. On the left side of the paper we have a bare of codes following by some cover
stories as you can see in the following example:

Figure 2 The Guardian Newspaper

Figure 3 The Guardian Newspaper

The headline and the summarized story persist also on the front and accompanied with the
stand-first which a line after the headline which gives more information about the story; near this
is put a photo which is needed to tell the story and to catch the eye. On the bottom of the page is
placed the advert which companies pay for advertising space.

Figure 4 The New York Times

Figure 5 The New York Times

The second representative is The New York Times. The logo of this newspaper is on the
bottom of the front page and under the this logo is the masthead which represents all the
information about the newspaper as the number of pages, the date, the serial number and so on.
The principle headline is missing instead we have several headlines accompanied by stand-first;
but to recover the headline a photo is put which shows major theme of todays newspaper. And
also other news is accompanied with illustration in this way to increase the emotional part of the
25

story. On the bottom of the page we have cover stories and on the right corner is the bare of
codes.
To sum up the comparison of these two newspapers we can say that each paper has its
structural aspect and style to attract the readers eye. As we can see The Guardian uses a colored
logo instead of a simple black and white print of The New York Times. Also, talking about the
information represented on the front pages of both newspapers stated above; The Guardian has
only top news while The New York Times has several top news on which is based the todays
newspaper. The advertisement is missing on the front page of The New York Times in comparison
with The Guardian which is of the bottom of the page. Also the dimension of the newspaper
varies at those two newspapers. Also these two newspapers have different dimension of pages
and the number of it also differ. In the result we have a compact newspaper as The New York
Times, where all the material is divided into compartments; and The Guardian newspaper where
is represented the same material but in a larger form; also here the advertisement have a big role,
because the illustrations also took a lot of pages. As for example in The Guardian an advert can
take two pages and the other ones are bigger enough in comparison with The New York Times
where the illustration or adverts also are smaller than in The Guardian.
Another two famous newspapers The Wall Street Journal and The Independent were
compared. The Independent is a British newspaper which regards culture and politics but tends to
take a more pro-market stance on economic issues. It consists of 72 pages with the width and the
length of the page is about 34x26.2 cm. The Wall Street Journal is an American newspaper which
emphasis on business and economic news. It is divided also intro 3 sections: the first sections is
the Business and Political World; the second one is the Entertainment as crosswords, different
games and the last one is about Television and Sports; with a page width and length of
110.5x30.48 cm.
The Independent newspapers logo has a simple print but what is interesting in it that it is
the place on the front page; its on the left side of the newspaper in a vertical form and written
with capitalized letters INDEPENDENT and the article the is left with lower case as we can
notice in the following Figure 6; the masthead is under the bare of codes and the edition.

26

Figure 6. The Independent

Figure 7. The Wall Street Journal

The Independent newspaper catches our eyes with the photo which can suggest the theme
of todays edition; but the headline belongs to a different subject and which also suggests another
important theme of todays edition. The stand-first represent a line which gives more information
about the story but there we have a summarized phrase. And no advert images on the front pages
while The Wall Street Journal uses the adverts on the top and of the bottom of the front page as
you can see in the Figure 7 and Figure 8.

Figure 8. The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journals logo is also simple with a white and black print positioned on the
top of the page and with its masthead representing the date, the code, and the serial number and
so on. On the front page are represented several news along with some pictures and if it is an
economic newspaper we have some examples of diagrams as we can notice on the Figure 8.
These two newspapers differ from each other beginning with the size of the pages and the
material it contain; and ending with the arrangement of the adverts and of the news.
To sum up the two different comparisons of two different newspapers, we can conclude
that each of them is different apart. Even The Guardian and The Independent are different, even
if they represent the same country; the news, the style, the images and the topics differ as well as
taking into account and the American newspaper, The New York Times and The Wall Street
Journal. Some of it prefer the bigger illustrations on pages some does not use it at all; some may
prefer to put just one or two main news on the front page and some may put several of them on
the front page. Some of these newspapers are too commercial and some of them are not. It all
depends on the editors choice and how many readers they do have.

27

2.2 Lexico-Semantic Analysis of British and American Newspapers

Givi Zviadadze states in his preface to Dictionary of Contemporary American English that
the spoken and written language in the United States remain, and will always remain, different in
many respects from the spoken and written language in Great Britain. Both standards differ in
terms of spelling, vocabulary, style, grammar and pronunciation.
In determining the methods for examining the linguistic material on the lexical level,
however, we must not lose sight of the basic differences which is observed between the lexical
and semantic units [stand].

28

2.3 Stylistic Analysis of British and American Newspapers

The average American is an inveterate newspaper reader. There are many reasons for this,
but the most important one is the high level of education and intelligence among the common
people of this country. In Europe, as a rule, it is only the upper and middle classes that read
newspapers. The great number of the plain people is, either, too ignorant, too busy, or too
29

indifferent to read. England is an exception to this rule, for there, as in the United States, the
average English mechanic and laborer subscribes to a newspaper [American news].
And to keep the reader, the companies not just gather the useful information but also draw
attention upon the style of the newspaper as the design and the dimension of the page, the
headlines, the adverts, the illustrations, the font printing type and so on. So the stylistic analysis
of the some newspapers from these two greatest countries, America and Great Britain, will make
it clear how they keep their readers exiting and which techniques they use to attract more and
more readers throughout the world.
Moving to the analyzing the style of British and American newspaper we have chosen
some representative newspaper of the both countries. And in the section below we will describe
and compare the page structure and we will take a look from the stylistic point of view; and we
will try to show some differences between an American and a British newspaper. We will
describe stylistic point of view regarding some theories of linguists and giving examples upon
that theory.
From the Galperins point of view, there are a few stylistic differences between American
and British Newspaper Style which is divided into the following parts: (1) Titles and headlines;
(2) Numbers; (3) Quotations. To compare the following part of the newspaper we had chosen
The Daily Telegraph (Great Britain) and The Seattle Times (America); also The New York Times
and The Guardian.
We, as readers, begin to read the news from the headline and titles which sums up the
entire information and if you are interested in it you read if not move on to the next page.
Galperin finds the headline a dependent form of newspaper writing. Its main function is to
inform the reader briefly about the text that follows it. As headlines very often contain elements
of appraisal, they also function to instruct the reader. What is interesting in headlines and titles is
that the American and British newspaper use different writing.
The use of capitalization varies within American writing and British writing. The words in
newspaper headlines, titles of publications, and chapter and section headings are sometimes
capitalized as in conventional sentences. In other words, only the first word, proper nouns, and
acronyms, are capitalized.

30

Figure 2.6 The Seattle Times

Figure 2.7 The Daily Telegraph

In other instances, particularly in American English, additional words are sometimes

capitalized in headlines and titles for additional emphasis. Typically, all words are capitalized,
except prepositions, conjunctions, and short articles. As for example we could state this example
from The New York Times: Probing Link to Bin Laden, U.S. Tells Pakistan to Name Agents
and American headlines very often contain emotionally colored words and phrases. To produce a
strong emotional effect, broken-up set expressions and deformed special terms are commonly
used. As for example another The New York Times headline: You have Worked Hard All Week
Now Indulge Yourself. British headlines are usually short and catchy. In tabloids sensational
headlines are very common. The capitalization form is used just for proper names, countries,
states, organizations and so on; the rest of the prepositions, conjunctions are written with the
lower case. As for example we could state from the newspaper The Guardian the following
headline UK economy settling into above-trend growth, says OECD and The Daily Express
headline PM warns against hostility to US.
Unfortunately, not all the American newspapers follow the theory of Galperin. As for
example The Seattle Times also adapt the British writing of headlines and titles. Searching for
examples of titles in this newspaper we found out that all depends in what year was printed the
newspaper [Annex?]. The capitalized form is used just for front page headline and the rest of the
headlines only proper names or organizations are written with the capitalize form and the rest
only with lower case. This phenomenon is used not only in this newspaper but also in The
Washington Times, Arizona republic, Detroit Free Press and so on [].
As we already know headlines should be simple, easily readable and appropriate to the
kind of paper in which they are printed. Another peculiarities of the headline are the choice of
words use for headline or the structure of if always differ, the tend to not use finite and auxiliary
verbs or adverbs and so on which we are going to discuss.
To create a simple readable headline sometimes are used language features as the omission
of words, the use of short words, the use of loaded words (words with strong connotations), the
use of noun phrases, also the use of pun, words play, metaphor and many others. Talking about
the omission of the words, usually, only function words are omitted, these are grammatical words
which do not carry an ambiguous meaning: determiners (some, this, that, the, a, an), pronouns,
auxiliaries. And titles (Mr., Sir, and Lord) and punctuation may be also omitted.
The following example is extracted from The New York Times:
Obama Looks at Adding Base and Troops in Iraq, to Fight ISIS

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We can notice here a clearly omission of the President, which the omission of it is obvious,
because the President Obama is well-known and we can easily omit. Another example extracted
from The Guardian represents an omission of the article the:
Painting of Johann Sebastian Bach returns home to Leipzig
Or another example from The Guardian where the verb to be and the article the are
omitted:
Malaysia to free British tourist over naked mountain pose and from The Wall Street
Journal newspaper: Indian Organizations Banned from Receiving Foreign Funds
Another classification is the use of short words as for example row (argument), aid
(assistance), raid (robbery), and the tabloids use most of these kinds of words. The following
example is extracted from The Washington Times:
North Korea provides Angola with military aid, violates UN sanctions another example
was taken from The Guardian:
Bungie: No raid in second Destiny expansion House of Wolves and another one taken
from The Washington Times:
Kodak, Oak Ridge lab collaborate to attract start-ups where lab is the abbreviated form
of the laboratory.
Moving to loaded words which represent particular strong connotations that is, words that
carry an emotional loading beyond their literal meaning; we have taken some examples to
explain it better.
Not Fit for Man or Beast in this example extracted from The New York Times the beast
is the meaning of an animal and it has a negative connotation. In the next example from The
Guardian: How the super-rich got richer: 10 shocking facts about inequality the word rich is
the loaded word for the wealthy and it has a negative connotation. But an example taken also
from The Guardian which the word affluent expresses the positive connotation of the word
wealthy: Cheltenham has a certain affluent image
Sometimes we can notice the absence of the verb in a headline; such phenomenon is called
nominalization, headlines which do not contain verbs. As can we notice in the following example
extracted from The Guardian:
Christopher Lee: Readers tributes and memories and another example extracted from
The New York Times: Beyond the Chokehold: The Path to Eric Garners Death
Puns are another stylistic device used for making headlines. Puns are plays with words
which consist in homophones and homonyms. In such way the companies try to get the attention
of the reader and to fix it in the readers memory. The British newspaper love puns and to prove
we can look at the Figure 9.
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Figure 9. The Sun

In the above picture we have an example taken from the British Newspaper called The Sun.
In this headline was used a homophone (words with the same sound but a different spelling and
meaning). In this sentence Klaas is read as class, actually, Klaas is a Dutch professional
footballer who plays for the Netherlands national football team. Another example found in The
Independent: Farmer Bill Dies in House in this headline we have a homonym (words with the
same sound and spelling but different meaning). The farmers name is Bill and we should not
mistake with the meaning of written statement of the money owed for goods.
Besides homonyms and homophones, a headline can be expressed by metaphor. The
following headline was taken from The Philadelphia Inquirer, a representative of American
newspaper, which contains a metaphor: A gem on the global stage this news is about a young
talented girl who from a young age gained the public admiration for her excellent performance,
and the young girl was compared to a gem which the meaning is something precious. Another
example came from The Sunday Express (British newspaper): Savile was Part of Satanic
Ring. This news was about a pedophile who abused his victim in a satanic ritual in a hospital
that is why he was described as taking part to a Satanic Ring.
We can notice headlines which have rhyme: Put Dice on Ice extracted from The New
York Times; Im in the Clear and on the Beer extracted from The Daily Express; Roo Blows
Fuse Over Boos extracted from The Sun; and from The Washington Times The Crime of all
the Times and so on. Headlines can also be composed of alliteration as in the following
examples: Cannibal Cops Find Killers Kit from The Sun; History In his Hands from the
Daily Mirror; Charlie Charged from The New York Times and so on.
Another stylistic feature that differentiates the British and American writing is the writing
of numbers. When writing numbers, it is normal in British English to insert an and before the
tens and units. All the British newspapers follow this rule and in the following examples selected
from The Times newspaper (Great Britain) we shall see:

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With the economy confirmed at having got off to a robust start to two thousand and
fourteen and with early data and survey evidence for the second quarter looking solid, we
believe it will achieve growth of at least 3% this year
This is common and for other British newspapers as for example an extract from The
Guardian newspaper:
That comes to thirteen thousand, four hundred and sixty-two pounds and twenty-seven
pence
American writing numbers differs from the British one. While British writing keep the and
before the tens and units, American drop the and, this is common not only in written for but also
may be found in the communication. The following example is extracted from The New York
Times newspaper:
By reincorporating in Britain, Pfizer would most likely save about two hundred five
millions of dollars a year for each percentage point less it pays in taxes, according to Barclays
Also monetary vocabulary is often found different between British and American English.
For amounts over the dollar, an American would say both dollars and cents or drop both
denominations as in three twenty or three dollars and twenty cents for $3.20. In Great Britain the
form three pounds twenty is the most used.
And the last feature, in opinion of the Galperin, is the quotations marks. In newspaper they
are often used to illustrate an idea or a dialogue, and how we see the quotation mark also differ
between British and American English. In Americans writing, commas and periods are placed
inside quotation marks as we can see in the following example:
Trouble-proof means not easily disturbed or injured.
In British writing, the punctuation will be placed inside the quotation marks only if it
relates to the quote. Otherwise, the punctuation will be placed outside as we may see in the
following example:
Trouble-proof means not easily disturbed or injured.
In the above examples, British style uses single quotes () for initial quotations, then
double quotes () for quotations within the initial quotation. But American style uses double
quotes () for initial quotations, then single quotes () for quotations within the initial quotation.
The above examples also show that the American style places commas and periods inside the
quotation marks, even if they are not in the original material. British style (more sensibly) places
unquoted periods and commas outside the quotation marks. For all other punctuation, the British
and American styles are in agreement: unless the punctuation is part of the quoted material, it
goes outside the quotation marks.
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Life in Mosul one year on: Isis with all its brutality is more honest than the Shia
government. (Example extracted from The Guardian)
The second Friday, the imam said: Caliph al-Baghdadi has set a deadline for Christians
in Mosul to withdraw by Saturday afternoon. We asked their priests to come and discuss the tax
they should pay to us, and they declined. (Example extracted from The Guardian)
Its all really boxy. Not really flattering, Ms. Sherman, a literary agent from nearby Livingston,
N.J., said on a recent afternoon. (Example extracted from The New York Times)

From the example above we can state that, generally, in American English, the single
quotation marks are not used very often instead of British English where we can use single and
double quotation marks in the reverse, with single for dialogue and double for quotations within
dialogue. All this is done just to emphasize the words or phrases; this gives a nuance or shading
to the text.
The most significant developments in popular journalism at this time, both in the United
States and Britain, were to have major impact on the structure of newspapers style for the last
hundred years.

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GENERAL CONCLUSION
The main goal of this research paper was to analyze the language of English and American
Newspaper Style. We have tried to show where the difference lies between the British
newspapers and those of the United States.
The Chapter I: Theoretical Overview of the Study of British and American English gives
the information upon the some differences of the British and American English. We have
classified into the etymological approach to the problem, linguistic aspects and some socialcultural divergences between those two languages.
From the etymological point of view upon the problem the two varieties of the language
differ simply because the speakers of each of these major divisions of the English language
reflect a different total environment and a different set of historical events as a background, and
that resumes that these two great nations of English-speaking are not speaking two different
languages but the same languages from different backgrounds.
Most of the differences in lexis or vocabulary between British and American English are in
connection with concepts originating from the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century,
when new words were coined independently. The differences most likely to create confusion are
those where the same word or phrase is used for two different concepts.
Structural differences are mainly shown in the usage of prepositions, auxiliary verbs,
articles, pronouns, adjectives and adverbs, and tense and subjunctive mood. Although there are
many differences in detailed aspects in the use of British and American English, they are similar
to each other in most of aspects. Therefore, they shall only be considered as different forms of
the same language rather than two different languages.
From the stylistic point of view we also can classify some differences between American
and British English. The differences are mainly shown through the punctuation, quoting,
parentheses/brackets, and in titles and headlines. And social and cultural divergences mainly
explain the vocabulary difference between these two, American and British English, which will
create confusion while using it between an American and British.
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In the Chapter II we have compared the semantic, lexical and stylistic differences of the
English and American language in Newspaper Style. We have stated that it uses different terms
to represent the same concept, have different spelling and some times and the pronunciation
differs, the major of vocabulary differs from one to another. Talking about stylistic differences
we have classified into the title, the quotation and numbers used in newspapers. An American
headline very often contains emotionally colored words and phrases, producing a strong
emotional effect, broken-up set expressions and deformed special terms are commonly used. A
British headline are usually short, catchy and very often are neutral, it means it does not have
emotional effect on reader. Talking about writing numbers, it is normal in British English to
insert an and before the tens and units, but American English does not insert an and. In
American English, commas and periods are placed inside the quotation marks, even if they are
not in the original material. In British English unquoted periods and commas are placed outside
the quotation marks.
Thus, this research has helped us to recognize, however, that English native speakers from
different countries differ from each other. Each of them has their peculiarities to express their
thought, idea, not only by using different vocabulary but also by the way how they express the
message. That is why we have stated that Americans use more emotive charged phrases to attract
the readers eye. They put more emphasis on emotions of the reader, instead of British English
which uses short phrases and neutral words.

Bibliography

Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable A history of the English Language, Routledge:
1993 (444p.)

37

David Crystal English as a Global Language, 2nd edition, Cambridge: 2003

Frank Smolinski Landmarks of American Language & Linguistics, Volume II,

Washington: 1993

Galperin Stylistics, Moscow: 1977 (331p.)

Givi Zviadadze

Dictionary of Contemporary American English contrasted with British

English, Tbilisi: 1981 (462p.)

Melenciuc D.A. A Reader in English Stylistics, Chisinau: 2005

Peter Burden American English Collier-Maemillan: 1972 (104p.)

Internet sources:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_American_and_British_English
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_American_newspapers
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_British_newspapers
4. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/british-and-american-terms
5. http://www.perfectyourenglish.com/writing/english-writing.htm
6. www.nytimes.com
7. www.theguardian.com

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