Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[akasya]

hi,
I will tell "semantic differences between dialect"in the english lesson but ı couldnt find anything. if you knows please share with me , thank you

[CP]

Sorry, but I don't understand what you mean. Are you talking about different meanings of words in different dialects of English? Example: a jumper in England means what Americans call a sweater, while a jumper in America is a type of dress worn by girls.

If you have some examples of questions or exercises that you need help with, we can try to help out. Thanks.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[dragn]

Hi Akasya,

CP is right...it makes a huge difference if you mean the semantic differences between different dialects of English or between English and other languages. Those are two completely different things.

For example, if you mean between English and other languages, then an example might be something like this:

In English you can say things like my bank or my dentist, obviously meaning the bank or dentist that you do business with or go to on a regular basis. In Chinese, you can't say that because you don't own the bank or the dentist.

I strongly suspect, just as CP surmised, that you mean semantic differences between different dialects of English. At least I hope so for your sake, because that's probably an easier topic to deal with.

If that's the case, I'd start with differences between British and American English and go from there. Fortunately for you, this is something I'm sure lots of folks can contribute to. CP got you started; here are a few more to get you rolling.

(AE = American English; BE = British English)

AE: elevator / BE: lift
AE: cookie / BE: biscuit
AE: drunk / BE: pissed
AE: pissed / BE: angry (Of course, it also means angry in AE.)
AE: mail (v, n) / BE: post (v, n)
AE: sidewalk / BE: pavement ( In AE, pavement is the hard surface of a paved road or street.)
AE: candy / BE: sweets
AE: crazy / BE: mad
AE: chick / BE: bird (Both mean girl/young woman, and in Australia it's sheila.)
AE: pharmacist / BE: chemist (In AE, a chemist is an expert in the field of chemistry.)

...and the list goes on and on.

Hope this helps, and good luck.

Greg

[akasya]

yes I mean different meanings of english and I dont know what is the meaning of semantic? and thank you for your help

[dragn]

Semantic just means pertaining to meaning in language (it does have other somewhat more technical meanings, but they're not a concern to you here). So, what CP and I have told you is just the sort of thing you're looking for. For starters, I'd just go to Google and search on the keywords "british american english" and you'll find a bevy of websites that will help you out. If you want more help from the folks in the forum, I'd post again with a subject line that mentions something about the differences between British and American English (or Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, Irish English, etc. etc.)

Good luck.

Greg

[akasya]

thank you for your helps really:)