Journal of American Studies of Turkey

11 (2000) : 103-105

Book Review

American English by Zoltan Kovecses. (2000), 250 pages. Available from: Broadview Press, 3576 California Road Orchard Park, NY 14127 USA.

Diane Ewart Grabowski

Just as the United States is often referred to as “the world’s only remaining superpower,” English is generally regarded as the global superpower among languages. But which English? British English has traditionally served as the language’s gold standard. On the other hand, the influence of U.S. political and economic power, especially as manifested in its export of popular culture, has made the American form of the language a strong rival to its British counterpart.

Zoltan Kovecses’ American English, written as a textbook “for students of American English around the world, including…native speakers of American English” (1), gives an overview of the historical development and linguistic features of this particular variety of the language. Although Kovecses is a linguist, his primary interest here is “integrat[ing] into a coherent framework the impact of a variety of intellectual traditions on the development of American English” (1).

The text opens with an account of the development of American English in the context of the history of the United States. The phenomenon of “naming” new places, things, and activities – and later, technological innovations – is dealt with as a major aspect of this historical development. Kovecses next describes linguists’ approaches to defining the various dialects occurring within American English, beginning with the field of linguistic geography and its methodology and findings regarding regional dialects, before going on to look at more recent scholars’ interest in social and ethnic dialects and American style and slang.

It is, of course, difficult if not impossible to characterize American English without comparing it to the other dominant variety of the language. (The author does not extend his analysis to comparisons with other varieties of English or with other languages.) An overview of attempts to describe and/or explain the differences between American and British English through historical as well as more purely linguistic approaches serves as coda to the first half of the book and prelude to the second, in which Kovecses examines American English through what he refers to as the “intellectual traditions” approach.

His thesis is that six traditions –Puritanism, Victorianism, rationality, utilitarianism, republicanism and romanticism– have “historically shaped American English on a large scale” (325). The result can be seen in the properties of American English, designated here as economical, regular, direct, democratic and tolerant, informal, prudish, inflated, inventive, imaginative, and action-oriented (322-3). After looking at each of these properties in some detail, the author concludes by examining their relationship to the intellectual traditions in question, and the relationship of those traditions to the global reach of American English as “the language of…liberal democracy” and modernity (327).

As Kovecses himself states, this is a conservative account. He contends that intellectual traditions have, along with social conditions, shaped a “unique American character” and language. However, he offers no comfort to traditionalists who promote a prescriptive view of language. For instance, in the description of American dialects such as Nonstandard American English and Black English Vernacular [chapters 6 and 7], it is demonstrated that these dialects follow their own rules, and have some features that might be considered more systematic than those found in Standard American English, such as the use of regularized or invariable verb forms. Moreover, it is noted that American English’s facility in spinning off catchy neologisms and trendy idioms – abhorrent to purists as deviations from “correct” usage – has enabled American vocabulary items, in particular, to take hold not only in British English but in many other languages as well.

American English introduces linguistic concepts to the non-linguist in an admirably clear (and interesting) fashion, presenting material in the areas of phonology, grammar, syntax, and morphology as well as lexis. The many examples given throughout the book assist the reader in understanding these concepts, at the same time as they illustrate Kovecses’s contentions regarding the characteristics of American English.

It is true that some of the examples are dated, incorrect, or in other ways not reflective of actual American usage. Also, stereotypes (for instance, a frontier world of cowboys, gamblers, and prospectors) are sometimes used to make points or build arguments, from categorization of source domains for American lexis to characterization of the properties of American English. Finally, one might question various aspects of the construct linking these properties to particular intellectual traditions. For example, does American thriftiness derive more from Puritan ideology, or from conditions of economic hardship faced by early settlers and later immigrants alike? Whatever its source, did it in fact result in economy of language? (Whether or not thrift remains an American characteristic today is, of course, another matter entirely.)

By bringing up questions like these, American English serves to provoke thought and discussion on the nature of American language and society, making it a useful text or supplementary reading for students of American culture, literature or history. Certainly, it offers a different approach to the study of American culture, and at the same time introduces the reader to the field of linguistics. The author has in general succeeded in addressing student needs in the case of both native and non-native speakers of American English, although the review of American history is too elementary for most American students, while non-native speakers may find the reading heavy going in places. As a text, the book draws heavily on the existing literature rather than presenting much new research or data. Sources are clearly indicated in the text and listed in the extensive bibliography. Study questions and activities are provided at the end of each chapter.

Non-student readers may also find the book of interest, in that it gives them a fresh perspective on linguistic features they may have noticed only in passing. Take a walk, bite the dust, hit the road, break the news – these common idioms exemplify what Kovecses refers to as the “action-orientedness” typical of American English (134, 311). Another property, inventiveness, is seen as being manifested in an often remarked upon American linguistic process, noun-to-verb grammatical shift – to contact, to network, to advocate, to microwave (282).

Kovecses is careful to note that for his purposes the language properties he lists are value-neutral. Yet in the final analysis, American English gives some comfort to those of us who (even though believers in the currently orthodox descriptive view of language) may in our hearts feel a bit embarrassed about speaking or studying an “inferior” variety of English. As this text reminds us, its imaginativeness and inventiveness have produced lexis ranging from the colorful to the everyday, from the quaint to the necessary: rambunctious, rock-and-roll, zipper, laser, night crawler, commuter, slam dunk, Reaganomics, okay. Whether by choice, coercion, or co-option, American English has become the English learned by increasing numbers of non-native speakers. Without denying that American power, especially economic power, is the main reason for this, we also must take into account the possibility that there just may be an intrinsic appeal and aptness in the way American English expresses the fast-breaking realities of today’s world.