Moms and Mums argument

http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2016/mar/18/moms-as-american-as-motherhood-and-apple-pie


British readers of the Guardian sometimes complain about the “Americanisms” that find their way into the paper. (Often this term simply refers to a word they don’t like, which may or may not emanate from the other side of the Atlantic.) This blogpost, however, concerns an example of the opposite phenomenon. Let’s call it a “Britishism”.
A reader complains: “Will the Guardian please – please – stop putting the word ‘mum’ into the mouths of American speakers? No one there is or has a mum. No one uses the term. Its compulsory appearance in your accounts of life in the US is incongruous and bewildering.
“Surely your British readers know that Americans use the word ‘mom’. I don’t expect they would be shocked or offended by an accurate transcription of this element of vernacular speech. Why have you chosen to substitute an anglicism in every instance?
“And how far are you prepared to carry this practice? Are we to be informed at some point that a victorious candidate in Alabama claimed to be ‘jolly well chuffed’? Americans are often chided in Britain for their perceived cultural provincialism. I think a little mote-shifting is in order.”
As an example, he cites a father’s account about his son who went on a shooting rampage in a California high school. As our reader notes: “The insertion of the word ‘mum’ is noticeably at odds with the American tone of his remarks and follows a pattern in Guardian reporting from the US.
“I have read more Guardian dispatches, interviews etc than I can recall, in which country singers, film actors, soldiers, unemployed dishwashers, political officeholders and celebrated authors, all incontestably American, fondly alluded to their memories of ‘mum’.”
This reader will not have enjoyed a profile of the film executive Harvey Weinstein that began: “On Sunday, one man’s name will be invoked in Oscar acceptance speeches even more frequently than mum, America and the Almighty ... ”
This was silly. While people with mums do win Oscars occasionally, they are much more likely to go to those with moms (especially when the recipients also invoke America and the Almighty).
I agree with the reader, and we have added a style guide entry (“mom or mum?”) accordingly. So it’s soccer moms in the United States; soccer mums in the United Kingdom (although we generally eschew the word soccer in favour of football). Our two countries may be divided by a common language, but our differences can be celebrated and enjoyed.




Analysis


This article is targeted at the British / people who speak the English vernacular. It is a persuasive article trying to get across that we should all speak the American accent and dialect rather than using our 'Britishisms' to be unique.
Neologisms are used in this article like 'Britishism'. This gives a comedic effect to the text however it  could be interpreted that it harms the British positive face.


The discourse of this written text isn't as clear as I would expect from a guardian article however this could be due to the fact that this argument is personal to the writer and is an opinion rather than a fact based persuasive piece.
Examples of agitation in this text are shown when it says "Why have you chosen to substitute an Anglicism in every instance?" This rhetorical question doesn't seek an answer from the British reader, instead, (due to contextual factors as it is understandable the modern reader didn't discover the British accent and dialect) he questions the British audacity to speak differently than the average American