On the Differences between American and British English Bible Versions with Reference to get Passive

초록

In the case of the diachronic change of the get passive, the history of the English language shows functional cyclicity of the language. The functional roles of Old English passives are divided into the two auxiliary verbs weorðan and beon/wesan, these being dynamic (unintentional and informal), and stative (intentional and formal), respectively. In Middle English, the usage of be with a past participle encompasses both formal (stative, intentional) and informal (dynamic, unintentional) functions. This stems from the loss of the auxiliary verb weorðan and the merging of the functional roles of beon/wesan and weorðan into be(on). In Early Modern English and Present-day English, the Bible versions representing British English, including the Revised English Bible (1989, 2010), show fewer examples of get constructions and get passives than the Bible versions representing American English, such as GNT (1976), NIV (2011) and NASB (1971, 1977, 1995, 2020). It might be concluded that the trend evident in get constructions and get passives spread from American English, characterized by informality and colloquiality, to British English, characterized by being formal and conservative.

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