The British Writers Voice in Middletons The Lie of the Land :: Language Culture British Papers

The British Writer's Voice in Middleton's The Lie of the Land As I read Hayden Middleton's The Lie of the Land, I became increasingly aware that I was not only hearing the writer's voice coming through, but that it was a distinctly British writer's voice. There were words and phrases that marked the text as being decidedly not American. Yet, as I became accustomed to the writer's voice, I became less and less conscious of the dialect and simply involved with the story. In reading the story a second time, this time paying special attention to these variances, I was surprised at how many differences there actually were. What follows is a list of the words and phrases I found, on which page of The Lie of the Land I first found them (or, in some cases, where I finally decided that they were a result of a British writer's voice rather than just the writer's voice), and what I believed would be an acceptable "American" choice. Where indicated, these "American translations" were confirmed in the book Understanding British English: Bridging the Gap Bet ween the English Language and Its American Counterpart, by Margaret E. Moore (quoted definitions are as found in this resource). In cases where I wasn't sure of the meaning and no "translation" was provided in Moore's book, I consulted Webster's Dictionary. Sometimes I had to guess (these are marked with question marks on either side of the "translation"). A few times I couldn't even give a fair guess: these I left as question marks. At times I also found it difficult to determine whether the choices were due to the author being British, or whether they were simply choices that may have been made regardless of the author's nationality. At those times I was guided by instinct. PAGE British Word/Phrase American Word/Phrase Confirmed? 5 tap faucet yes