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Subject:RE: US vs. UK pronoun/voice usage? From:"Brierley, Sean" <Sean -at- Quodata -dot- Com> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 9 Nov 1999 13:42:58 -0500
There's another difference, amongst the Rightpondians (and I am assuming a
Northern-Hemisphere outlook on this). I think, if you stop by the market or
pub, you'll find the Rightpondians feel "one" is stilted. Of course, it
depends on your audience. If your audience is toffs, maybe not <vbg>.
Audience, audience, audience . . ..
Sean
sean -at- quodata -dot- com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sandy Harris [SMTP:sharris -at- dkl -dot- com]
>
> One is a simple grammatical difference. Both British and American English
> allow several ways of expressing an impersonal description:
>
> The middle two have a transatlantic difference. Both are used on both
> sides of the pond, but leftpondians tend to prefer impersonal "you"
> and rightpondians "one".
>
> I don't think this reflects cultural differences in quite the way you
> mean. Brits don't use "one" because they're being more formal. They just
> speak that way; "one" is the natural thing to use in most impersonal
> constructions. The catch is that for leftpondian hearers, it isn't at
> all natural so we label it as formal, which it would be if we used it.
>
>
