Prepositions în American and British English

The words and the phrases of a language can’t be discussed and analysed separated from their historical and social background.

Generally speaking, language may be considered an integral part of history.It can help us to understand history and ourselves since history resides in the legacy of the language long after the battles and the events are over.

The American language can be presented through American history and obviously America and its history can be revealed through language.Thus, we can say that the typical and common American terms best reveal American history and also an important aspect of social history.

The English language was brought to America by masses of Englishmen (colonists from England) who settled along the Atlantic coast in 17-th century. Even earlier than that, the American continent had begin to be invaded by Spanish, Portuguese, French and other immigrants, who were trying to escape from feudal exploitation and religious persecutions, as well as by adventurers in search of riches.

Nowadays, there are divergences between American and British English, which still persist in spelling, pronounciation, in vocabulary and in the syntax of colloquial speech.In fact, American English is a variant of British English, characterised by some particularities, that are inherent when we transplant a language from one teritory to another.

As far as grammar is concerned , the differences between American English and British English are neither essentials, nor very numerous.However, there are some important contrasts which worth being mentioned and further on we will analyse the differencies between the American prepositional system and the British one.

H.W.Horwil, the author of ‘’A Dictionary of Modern American Usage’’(Oxford,1954) , explains that is often said that in America the prepositions are used in a greater measure than in England.Further on, he proves the unfounded character of this statement , but mentioning in the same time that we might have cases in American English, when the preposition isn’t necessary, for instance all of , off of, feel of, remember of ,smell of, visit with.

On the other hand,says H.W.Horwil, there are so many prepositions eliminated by the American usage of certain intransitive verbs as transitive, that we are legitimate to doubt the greater frequency of the prepositions in American English than in British English.Some intransitive verbs from British English are transitive in American English: to appeal a decision, to argue a question, to protest an action, to battle something, to go places, to operate a person, to swarm the streets etc..

We can also meet, in American English,other cases of transitive verbs used like being intransitive: to mention about, to marry with, to visit with.

In addition to that, we may draw attention to some cases – quite frequent in American English -, when the preposition is omitted. In general, it’s the preposition of , the one which is omitted( sometimes it may be at, by or through),especially after out. In the latter case(i.e after out), we might not talk about the omission of the preposition of, but rather about the maintenance of the preposition of direction out (having the meaning of out of).In consequence, the distinctions referring to the prepositions in the two variants don’t regard the quantity, but the quality.

‘’…he walked past the machines and out the door’’(E. Hemingway, ‘’In Another Country’’).

‘’I looked out the window for a while’’(J.D.Salinger, ‘’The Catcher in the Rye’’).

In other cases, the preposition from American English differ from the prepositions used in British English.H.W.Horwil quotes , for instance, sales at auction( by in Br.E), at retail( instead of by retail), imprisonment at hard(with hard- Br.E),to name for(after- Br. E.),the worst accident in years(for- Br.E.), on hand(at hand- Br. E.), on the street(in the street- Br.E.),on the sky(in the sky-Br.E), on the weekend(at the weekend- Br.E).

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