whetherweputitinquotationmarksornot
isnotapassiveprocess
andhappensdifferentlyindifferentEnglish-speakingcommunities.WehavecomeacrossmanyexamplesinthisbookwherethegeneralityofAmericaninÃuenceonBritishEnglishcannoteasilybedenied
butwhereitisfarfromeclipsingtheindependentdevelopmentsfoundinthisandothernationalstandards.ï²ï´ï±ï±.ï¶OthertrendsTheforcesforchangewehavedealtwithinsomedetail(grammaticalization
colloquialization
densiÃcation
ÃAmericanizationÃ)arenottheonlyonesthatcount.Intheremainderofthischapterwetakeabrieflookatsomeothertrendsthatshouldnotbeoverlooked
andindeeddeservemoreattentionthanwecangivethem.ï±ï±.ï¶.ï±Democratization:ironingoutdifferencesFromacriticaldiscourseanalysisviewpoint
Fairclough(ï±ï¹ï¹ï²:ï¹ï¸)usedthetermdemocratizationtorefertoÃreductionofovertmarkersofpowerasymmetryÃ.Hemeanttheterminabroadsense
coveringarangeoflinguisticbehavioursincludingÃatendencytowardsinformalityoflanguageÃleadingtoÃashiftintherelationshipbetweenspokenandwrittenlanguageÃ(p.ï²ï°ï´).Inshort
inhiseyesdemocratizationcansubsumewhatwehavecalledcolloquialization.Howevercloselyrelatedtocolloquializationitmaybe
inthissectionwedistinguishdemocratizationasareÃection
throughlanguage
ofchangingnormsinpersonalrelations.Thetendencyhasbeentophaseoutmarkersofdistance
respect
superiorityorinferiority
andtoaimattheexpressionofgreaterequalityandfamiliarity.Wehavealreadyseenalikelymanifestationofthis:thedeclineofmust(seesectionï´.ï±)andtheriseofneedtoÃaswellashavetoÃmayhavebeenpartlymotivatedbyavoidanceofanauthoritarianstanceinutteranceswithdirectiveimplications.AnotherexampleisthedeclineintheuseoftitularnounsusedasapreÃxtonames.Mr
MrsandMissarethemostcommon(seeFiguresï±ï±.ïµandï±ï±.ï¶).Twokindsofbiaspersistfromtheï±ï¹ï¶ï°sintotheï±ï¹ï¹ï°s:oneisaheavypreponderanceofmaleratherthanfemaletitles;theotherisaweakerpartialityforthesetitlesinAmE
wheretitularnounsareapproximatelyï´ïµ%ï²ï´Incidentally
ÃAmericanizationÃisneitheranewwordnoranewtrend.TheLOBCorpuscontainsaquotationfromGeorgeBernardShawusingthewordasfollowsinï±ï¹ï±ï²:Forwhathasbeenhappeninginmylifetime[…]istheAmericanizationofthewholeworld.[LOBGï±ï³].
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