Introduction

It is well known that British and American English differ substantially in their pronunciation and vocabulary - but differences in their grammar have largely been underestimated.

This volume focuses on British–American differences in the structure of words and sentences and supports them with computer-aided studies of large text collections.

Present-day as well as earlier forms of the two varieties are included in the analyses. This makes it the first book-length treatment of British and American English grammar in contrast, with topics ranging from compound verbs to word order differences and tag questions.

The authors explore some of the better-known contrasts, as well as a great variety of innovative themes that have so far received little or no consideration.

Bringing together the work of a team of leading scholars in the field, this book will be of interest to those working within the fields of English historical linguistics, language variation and change, and dialectology.