An Introduction to American English explores American English in the context of American history and institutions, while also making comparisons with British English.

Gunnel Tottie is Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. She is author of Negation in English Speech and Writing (1991) and editor of Creating and Using English Language Corpora (with Udo Fries and Peter Schneider, 1994), and Negation in the History of English (with Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade and Wim van der Wurff, 1999).