Out of the Fire Into the Frying Pan

A fighter pilot bailed out of his aircraft which had suddenly caught fire. He safely landed in an orchard on an apple tree and climbed down without a scratch, but a

few minutes later he was taken to hospital. The garden­er's fierce and vigilant dog had been waiting for him under the tree.

More Precise

Two aviation meteorologists were engaged in shop talk.

"No, I don't watch the TV weather commentary. I reckon you get better weather on the radio," said one of them thoughtfully.

XI. Group the following italicized phraseological units, us­ing Professor Koonin's classification system. Translate them into Russian.

1. Margot brightened "Now you are talking! That would be a step up for women's lib (= liberation)." 2. Why was I more interested in the one black sheep than in all the white lambs in my care? 3. To the young, cliches seem freshly minted. Hitch your wagon to the star! 4. Out of sight out of mind. Anyway it'll do you good to have a rest from me. 5. In a sense it could be said that the ice was broken between us. 6. Rose Water-ford smothered a giggle, but the others preserved a stony silence. Mrs. Forrester's smile froze on her lips. Albert had dropped a brick. 7. "The fact is that Albert Forrester has made you all look a lot of damned fools." "All," said Clifford Boyleston. "We're all in the same boat." 8. It's no good crying over spilt milk. 9. Like many serious patriots, in her inability to know for cer­tain which way the cat would jump she held her politi­cal opinions in suspense. 10. "How long do you want to go for? For always?" "Yes, for always." "Oh, my God!" 11. That also was a gentleman's paper, but it had bees in its bonnet. Bees in bonnets were respectable things, but personally Soames did not care for them.

CHAPTER 14

Do Americans Speak English or American?

In one of his stories Oscar Wilde said that the En­glish "have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language."

Bernard Shaw, on the contrary, seemed to hold a dif­ferent opinion on the point, but he expressed it in such an ambiguous way that, if one gives it some thought, the idea is rather the same as that of Wilde. Shaw said that America and England are two great nations sepa­rated by the same language.

Of course, both these statements were meant as jokes, but the insistence on a certain difference of the language used in the United States of America to the language spoken in England is emphasized quite seri­ously.

Viewed linguistically, the problem may be put in this way: do the English and the Americans speak the same language or two different languages? Do the United States of America possess their own language?

The hypothesis of the so-called "American language" has had several champions and supporters, especially in the United States (H. L. Mencken. The American Lan­guage. N.-Y., 1957).

Yet, there are also other points of view. There are scholars who regard American English as one of the di­alects of the English language. This theory can hardly be accepted because a dialect is usually opposed to the literary variety of the language whereas American En­glish possesses a literary variety of its own. Other scholars label American English "a regional variety" of the English language.

Before accepting this point of view, though, it is nec­essary to find out whether or not American English, in its modern stage of development, possesses those char­acteristics which would support its status as an inde­pendent language.

A language is supposed to possess a vocabulary and a grammar system of its own. Let us try and see if Amer­ican English can boast such.