VARIANTOLOGY: SOME SOCIOLINGUISTIC ASPECTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN ENGLISH IN ХVІІ – ХІХ CENTURIES (BASED ON INNOVATIONS, COINAGES AND ADAPTATIONS)

Abstract

This research aims at studying American English through the prism of sociolinguistic and historical factors. American innovations, coinages and adaptations were objects of the analysis. The article deals with the period in the development of American English which laid foundations of the national variety of the language. American English in the XYII-XIXth centuries was influenced by the notion of ‘frontier’ which led to changes on the lexical and grammatical levels of the language. The conditions of ‘frontier’ triggered shifts which in the field of grammar may be illustrated by the phenomenon of conversion. Such directions of conversion have been studied: noun → verb, noun → adjective, verb → noun. American English vocabulary of the period under investigation is characterized by numerous innovations which are mostly descriptive words as a rule for the new environment. Borrowings from Indian languages were adapted and those were mostly proper names. There are numerous adaptations from other languages which now constitute the core of American English. Folk etymology was another source of coining new vocabulary units. There is a great group of vocabulary in both British and American English where the meaning and usage is different. A free-handed use of affixes in American English produced another group of Americanisms. As a result of all the processes in the XYII-XIXth centuries American English became less conservative and more exposed to innovations in vocabulary and word formation in comparison with British English.