This book examines American cultural values and their expressions in everyday speech, particularly an American discourse strategy which the author coins as a metaphoric comparison'. The book argues that culture not only conditions perceptions of reality but also shapes language patterns. Through comparisons with Polish, it shows how idiosyncratic and culture-bound American English is and how, in view of its global popularity, adopting it as mode of communication can alter the lens through which we see the world in both clearly discernible and subtle ways. This book will be of interest to a broad audience including linguists, American Studies scholars, non-native speakers of English, and Slavists.

Katarzyna Dziwirek is a Professor Emerita in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Washington, USA.