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【Abstract】Canadian English is a significant English variety. This study analyzes its lexical characteristics from the perspective of referent, and to illustrate the roots for it. It reveals that the lexicon specific to Canadian English is classified into natural and humanity conditions, and they derive from American English, British English, French and new immigration’s mother tongues.
【Key words】Canadian English; lexicon; language variety
【作者簡介】王儒钰(1995-)，女，吉林吉林人，东北师范大学，英语语言文学(语言学)硕士在读，研究方向：英语语言学。
1. Introduction
English has experiences a great diffusion to many other regions with the expansion of British power and international commercial. Canadian English, having gained its recognized status as a form of “standard English”, is an inner circle English that derives from British English (BE) and American English(AE) (Kachru, 1992). Canada is an immigration country with part of British origin which not only adjoins the US but also absorbs quantities of immigration flow with their own mother tongue. Hence the lexicon of Canadian English combines the characteristics of BE, AE and many other languages/varieties such as Eskimo. This study is to analyze the lexical characteristics of Canadian English and to illustrate the reasons for its formation.
2. The lexical characteristics of Canadian English
A variety occupies it position in terms of multiple aspects, including phonetic-phonological features, lexical features, syntactic features and socio-linguistic features (Wardhaugh, 1998). Among all these aspects, lexical aspect is the most dynamic one (Zhang, 2014). Hence it is significant to analyze a language variety’s characteristic from the angle of lexicon. Language is also a system of social use, thus the localized natural and humanity conditions play a key role in the production of lexicon.
2.1 Natural conditions
Some Canadian-specific words are related to natural conditions. They can be divided into three sub-types: climate, geographic and biological words.
For the climate subtype, concerning the cold climate of Canada, “snow” has been a core of the development of a diversity of new words (Zhu
【Key words】Canadian English; lexicon; language variety
【作者簡介】王儒钰(1995-)，女，吉林吉林人，东北师范大学，英语语言文学(语言学)硕士在读，研究方向：英语语言学。
1. Introduction
English has experiences a great diffusion to many other regions with the expansion of British power and international commercial. Canadian English, having gained its recognized status as a form of “standard English”, is an inner circle English that derives from British English (BE) and American English(AE) (Kachru, 1992). Canada is an immigration country with part of British origin which not only adjoins the US but also absorbs quantities of immigration flow with their own mother tongue. Hence the lexicon of Canadian English combines the characteristics of BE, AE and many other languages/varieties such as Eskimo. This study is to analyze the lexical characteristics of Canadian English and to illustrate the reasons for its formation.
2. The lexical characteristics of Canadian English
A variety occupies it position in terms of multiple aspects, including phonetic-phonological features, lexical features, syntactic features and socio-linguistic features (Wardhaugh, 1998). Among all these aspects, lexical aspect is the most dynamic one (Zhang, 2014). Hence it is significant to analyze a language variety’s characteristic from the angle of lexicon. Language is also a system of social use, thus the localized natural and humanity conditions play a key role in the production of lexicon.
2.1 Natural conditions
Some Canadian-specific words are related to natural conditions. They can be divided into three sub-types: climate, geographic and biological words.
For the climate subtype, concerning the cold climate of Canada, “snow” has been a core of the development of a diversity of new words (Zhu