List of Figures.

List of Tables.

Preface.

Introduction..

Part I: Writing it and Saying it.

Part II: American History for Language Students.

Part III: Running America: Government and Education.

Part IV: Life and Language in the United States.

Part V: American English Vocabulary: A Systematic View.

Part VI: Caught Out or Caught Off Base? Metaphors in American English.

Part VII: The Grammar of American English.

Part VIII: Using English in the United States.

Part IX: Varieties of American English.

Part X: Language Politics in the United States: English and Other Languages.

Websites.

Bibliography.

Linguistic Glossary.

Index of Alphabetisms and Acronyms.

Index of Zip Codes for States.

Subject Index.

Word Index.

"A splendidly informative, yet lucid and easy-to-consult work. It contains all one might expect - such as clear chapters on vocabulary and accent - but also much much more: the sections on American culture, metaphor, greetings, swearwords, and websites are super-useful."
--Jean Aitchison, Worcester College, University of Oxford


"I have many excellent European students whose English grammar is first-class but who have no idea what a sophomore is. This book is a wonderful introduction to the interface between American English and American society which attends not only to linguistic detail but also to the way in which the culture of Americans is reflected in their language."
--Peter Trudgill, Fribourg University


"This textbook is thus highly recommended to students of English with basic reading knowledge and teachers of English (prospective teachers, too) as a second or foreign language virtually anywhere in the world. Native speakers of American English will also find this book interesting." (Journal of Sociolinguistics)


"Overall, this book not only provides a clear overview of the distinguishing characteristics of American English but also the historical and cultural background to explain those characteristics." (Studies in Second Language Acquisition)

Gunnel Tottie is Professor of English Linguistics at the
University of Zurich, Switzerland. She is author of Negation in
English Speech and Writing (1991) and editor of Creating and
Using English Language Corpora (with Udo Fries and Peter
Schneider, 1994), and Negation in the History of English
(with Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade and Wim van der Wurff,
1999).

G. Tottie, University of California, Berkeley