An analysis of the lexical characteristics of Canadian English and the cause of its origins

【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 &Li, 61). Hence, Canadian English has witnessed multiple new words for the description of sub-types of snow and its auxiliary. “Rothole”, a compound word made of “rot” and “hole”, refers to the snow hole which possesses certain capacity. There is no counterpart single word in AE or BE, as this natural phenomenon does not frequently occur there.

As for the geographic sub-type, it is much easier to detect as the referents are more apparently peculiar to Canada than the climate-related words are. “Rockies” has been developed into an independent word rather than the informal nickname of the mountains, which is due to the significance of Rocky Mountains in Canadian culture. Yet this sub-type possesses far fewer words than the other two, as the peculiar geographic spots are not as widespread as natural phenomena and biological beings.

On the contrary, the biological sub-type may be the most abundant one. Canadian-peculiar biological beings, including animals and flora, are distinct from the old continent which have no counterpart in the birth place of English. For instance, “baccalieu” is a bird species local to Newfoundland, “kiack” refers to a species of small, commercial fish abundant in North Atlantic, an important fishing area for Canadian fishermen. These words derived from the labor and observation of Canadian people through their interaction with the natural Canada.

2.2 Humanity conditions

Canadian culture, the culture of an immigration country with two “foundation nations”, is distinct from both American and British culture, and the political system highlight federalism and national integrity (Kollman, 2018). Hence its unique features also give rise to a series of new words, which fall into three categories: political, soft socio-cultural, and hard socio-cultural categories.

The political words is tightly related to Canadian’s political uniqueness despite its root in British political tradition and American influence. “Premier” refers to the most powerful political position of Canada, which has expanded the original meaning in British English. This word accords with Canadian political system that bestows its premier with much power and a special status (Carty et al, 1990). Political words reflects the monarchical parliamentary system of Canada as well as the issues existing in national integrity.

As for soft socio-cultural words, it develops from the non-entity, soft environment specific to Canadian culture. “Dirty” means “bad-tempered” in Newfoundland, a province of Canada. It has reached out of the original meaning of “not clean” and carries metaphoric meanings, implying Canadian people’s cognitive schema of comprehending emotions. Similarly, in AE “pissed” refers to “angry”, but in Canadian English it refers to “drunken”. The soft socio-cultural words is seldom new in form, yet it produces new meanings, referential or associative, with the old forms.

The hard socio-cultural words is linked to entities. Besides, referring to branches of university, AE commonly utilizes “school”, such as “school of chemistry”. Yet Canadian English employs “faculty” for the same referent, such as “Faculty of Business and Economics”. Moreover, “blue box” refers to a box in blue in AE; but in Canadian English, it refers to the box which holds refuse classification.

3. The root of the Canadian English lexicon

Canadian English words fall into three categories: first, some are new in form, which means its form is coined; second, some are new in meaning, which refers to the expansion or transfer of meaning in the old form existing in AE or BE; third, some maintains the original meaning and form of AE/BE. . Although it has been emphasized that they are peculiar to Canadian English, they have the root in other sources. The root of Canadian-specific words can be traced to American influence, British influence, French diffusion and immigration renewal.

3.1 American influence

AE, together with BE, is the most influential variety in terms of the formation of Canadian-specific words. To an extent, Canadian English can be roughly described as a hybrid of BE and AE, with AE exerting much influence on non-political social life while BE on political ones (Zhu& Li, 2016). There are both historic and contemporary international reasons.

Historically, Americans have long been a significant source of immigration into Canada, with their English variety entering into the boundary too. The “loyalists” fleeing to Canada in the American War of Independence brought to Canada the first flow of AE, and thanks to the geographic structure of boundary, it has never constrained the flow of Americans ever since (Harris, 2017). Later immigrants with Pennsylvania accents fused in. Their accent exerted a crucial influence on Canadian English (Zhu &Li, 2016). These people are not in correlation with American political view and thus play a key role in bestowing new meanings to political-related words, with the purpose of highlighting Canadian political independence. For instance, “table” means “postponing a decision” in American politics, but it means proposing to the Congress in Canada.

As for contemporary reasons, AE spreads fast and wide with the expanding power of US, with Canada as no immune. In the globalization, the US influence is not merely exerted upon developing countries, but also upon traditionally developed countries and western countries, thanks to the flourishing media and popular culture with the background of soft power (Leontovich, 2005). Those western countries influenced, certainly, includes Canada, the close neighbor and cultural relative of US.

4. Conclusion

This study analyzes the characteristics of Canadian English lexicon and illustrates the reasons for its formation. The lexical characteristics are divided into two types, natural conditions and humanity conditions. Natural conditions include climate, geographic and biological sub-types. Humanity condition consists of political, soft common cultural and hard common cultural. The root resides in the influence of American, British, French and new immigrants.

This study, however, is limited in two aspects. First, it lacks an abundant corpus, which may neglect some features of Canadian English lexicon. Second, the influence of new immigration has not been explored much, which still deserves further probation.

As for future studies, they can explore the lexical features of other English varieties. Besides, the phonological features of Canadian English should also be studied.

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