1. History of American English: Major historical periods in the development of American English 2. Social-cultural influences on the development of American English 3. Dialects in American English 4. Style in American English 5. Characterizing American English vs. British English: Systematic differences between British and American English 6. Categories in thought and language 7. Frames and image schemas 8. Metaphor 9. Metonymy 10. Alternative conceptualization 11. English grammar from a cognitive perspective 12. Mental spaces 13. Conceptual integration 14. Linguistic relativity 15. American English, cognition, American culture Recommended readings

Dillard, J. L., A History of American English. New York: Longman, 1992. Dillard, J. L. Toward a Social History of American English. Berlin: Mouton, 1985. Dirven, René, Günter Radden, Cognitive English Grammar. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2007. Kövecses, Zoltán, ed., New Approaches to American English. Budapest: Eötvös Loránd University, 1995. Kövecses, Zoltán, American English. An Introduction. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2000. Kövecses, Zoltán, Language, Mind, and Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Kövecses, Zoltán, Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. 2nd, revised ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Kövecses, Zoltán, Réka Benczes, Kognitív nyelvészet. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2010. Lakoff, George, Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Lakoff, George, Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980. Lakoff, George, Mark Johnson, More Than Cool Reason. A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. McArthur, T., ed., The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. McCrum, R., W. Cran, R. MacNeil, The Story of English. New York: Penguin Books, 1986. Mencken, H. L., The American Language. New York: Knopf, 1919. Taylor, J., Linguistic Categorization. Prototypes in Linguistic Theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.