Лексикологія англійської мови
English Etymology (native words, borrowed words).
- The etymology is the study of lexical history. It investigates the origins of individual lexemes, the relations they have had to each other, and how they have changed in meaning and in form to reach their present state.
- Native vocabulary. Many lexemes have always been there – in the sense that they arrived with the Germanic invaders, and have never fallen out of use. They stand for fundamental things dealing with everyday objects and things, e.g. domestic life: house,door, floor; calendar: sun, day, month; adjectives: black, wide, long; verbs: fly, drink, be . prepositions: above, about..
- The fact that most of these words are short and concrete has often been noted as a major stylistic feature of the Anglo-Saxon lexicon. Native words belong to the original English word-stock and are known from the earliest Old English manuscripts. It is customary to subdivide native words into those of the Indo-European stock (having cognates in the vocabularies of all or almost all Indo-European languages) and those of the common Germanic origin (having cognates only in Germanic languages, but not in Romance, Slavonic or other languages). Words having cognates in the vocabularies of different Indo-European languages form the oldest layer, denoting elementary concepts without which no human communication would be possible. That they fall into definite semantic groups (Antrushina 2000:54): e.g. terms of kinship: mother, son; landscape: summer, sun, wind, wood; animals: cat, goose; parts of body: hand, foot, bone; verbs: sit (sitzen), know, come, know; most numerals also belong here: 1-8,10, hundred.
- A much bigger part of this native vocabulary layer is formed by words of the common Germanic stock, i.e. of words having parallels in German, Norwegian, Dutch, but none in Russian or French. It contains a greater number of semantic groups, e.g.: nouns of general character: bridge, chicken, god, cheek, ice. verbs: burn, send, hear; adjectives: sick, grey, free. adverbs and pronouns: all, each, self. prepositions: after, by, up.
- The English proper element is opposed to the above-mentioned groups: the words are specifically English having no cognates in other languages standing alone in the vocabulary system of Indo-European Languages: bird, boy, girl, lord, lady, woman, daisy, always.
- Foreign borrowings. Whenever two languages come into contact, one or both may be modified. The feature which is imitated is called the model; the language in which the model occurs, or the speaker of that language, is called the donor; the language which acquires smth new in the process is the borrowing language. So, when one language takes lexemes from another, the new items are usually called loan words or borrowings. The number and character of borrowings do not only depend on the historical conditions, on the nature and length of the contacts, but also on the degree of the genetic and structural proximity of languages concerned. The closer the languages the deeper is the influence. Borrowings enter the language in 2 ways: through oral speech (by immediate contact between the people) and through written speech (by direct contact through books).To distinguish types of borrowings existing in the Modern English it is necessary to consider changes borrowings have undergone in the English language and how they have adapted themselves to its peculiarities. So, the adaptation of loan words (or assimilation) must be considered as a way of their interaction with the system of the language as a whole. The term “assimilation” of a loan word in used in Modern English Lexicology (Prof. J.V.Arnold, R.S.Ginsburg) to denote a partial or total conformation to the phonetical, graphical and morphological standards of the receiving language and its semantic system. The degree of assimilation depends upon the length of period during which the word has been used in the receiving language, upon its importance for communication purpose and its frequency.
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Prof. D.I.Kveselevich suggests the following three groups of borrowings according to the degree of assimilation:
1. completely assimilated borrowings (denizens) that follow English phonetical, grammatical and graphic standards and do not seem foreign in origin, e.g. call, face, husband, street, table, take, etc.
2. partially (or partly) assimilated borrowings (aliens) which fall into four subgroups:
a) not assimilated semantically because they denote objects and notions peculiar to the country from which they come (i.e. units of specific national lexicon), e.g. sombrero, shah, sheikh, toreador, hrivna;
b) not assimilated grammatically, e.g. nouns of Latin of Greek origin which retain their original plural forms: crisis – crises, phenomenon – phenomena;
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c) not assimilated phonetically, e.g. accent on the final syllable (machine, police), sounds that are not standard for the English language (/ ¥ / – regime, bourgeois), variation in pronunciation (boulevard, restaurant);
d) not assimilated graphically, e.g. final consonant is not pronounced (ballet, buffet), diacritic mark is kept (cliché), French digraphs are retained in spelling (bouquet, naive).
3) unassimilated borrowed words and phrases (barbarisms) which preserve their original spelling and other characteristics, always corresponding English equivalents and, therefore, are not indispensable in English, e.g. ciao, persona grata, affiche, eureka, etc.
- The Celtic Element in the English Vocabulary. Especially numerous among the Celtic borrowings were place names, names of rivers, hills. For instance, the names of the rivers Thames, Avon, originate from Celtic words meaning “river” and “water”. Town names include Dover “water”, Eccles “church”, London (a tribal name), Kent (meaning unknown). Some Celtic words survived in English in some geographical names: aber -- Aberdeen, dun - Dundee, Dunstable, Dunbar, Dunbarton; inch- Inchcape, Inchcolon; inver-Inverary, Inverness.Some English personal names have Celtic origin: Arthur, Donald, Evan etc. A few Celtic words which have acquired international currency: budget, career, clan, flannel, mackintosh, plaid, tunnel.
- The Classical Element in the English Vocabulary.
Latin loans in Middle English : Administration and law: client, conspiracy, legal, summary; Science and learning: comet, equator, history, simile; Religion: limbo, memento; General: combine, depression, nervous.
The simultaneous borrowing of French and Latin words led to a highly distinctive feature of Modern English vocabulary – sets of three items all expressing the same fundamental notion differing slightly in meaning or style, e.g. kingly /royal/ regal and rise /mount/ ascend where the Old English word is usually the more popular one, with the French more literary, and the Latin word more learned.
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Greek words that came into English through the medium of Latin include: allegory, anaesthesia, chaos, dilemma. Modern scientific and technical terms of Greek origin are nearly all of international currency. Greek coming via French include: centre, character, chronicle, machine . The following came directly from Greek, though some are combinations unknown in classical times: pathos, telegram, xylophone. Also there were borrowings from French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
Renaissance loan words in English from Latin and Greek: anonymous, appropriate, catastrophe, impersonal, monosyllable, parasite, pneumonia, tonic, transcribe, utopian, vacuum, virus.
Completely assimilated Latin borrowings in English: animal, box, butter, cap, cheese, cook, cross, cup;
Greek borrowings: analysis, botany, comedy, chorus, democracy, dialogue, epilogue, episode, metaphor ;
- The Scandinavian Element in the English vocabulary. The linguistic result the Viking raids on Britain which began in AD 787 and continued at intervals for some 200 years was threefold:
1) a large number of settlements with Danish names appeared in England. There are over 1500 such place names in England, especially in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Over 600 end in -by, the Scandinavian word for “farm” or “town” – Grimsby, Rugby etc. Many end in – thorp (“village”), as in Althorp, Astonthorpe; -thwaite (“clearing”-порубка), as in Applethwaite, Storthwaite; -toft (“homestead”-участок земли), as in Lowestoft, Eastoft;
2) there was a marked increase in personal names of Scandinavian origin. The Scandinavian influence in the north ant east of the country was evident, where over 60 percent of personal names in early Middle English records show Danish influence. Scandinavian personal names ending in -son, such as Davidson, Jackson, Henderson, expressed kinship, the relation to a parent or ancestor.
3) many general words entered the language, nearly 1,000 eventually becoming part of Standard English. Only 150 of these words appeared in Old English manuscripts including landing, score, take, fellow.
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In grammar Scandinavian influence is also seen: they, them, their, both, same, till.
Completely assimilated Scandinavian borrowings: egg, husband, fellow, window, ugly, to scrub, to take.
- The French Element in the English Vocabulary. The main influence on English was, of course, French – strictly, Norman French, the language introduced to Britain by the invader. Following William the Conqueror, French was rapidly established in the corridors of power. Within 20 years of the invasion, almost all the religious houses were under French-speaking superiors. The linguistic consequences of these contacts was the borrowing of some French words into Old English, e.g. sennan, 'serve', prisun, 'prison', castel, 'casde'.
French loans in Middle English: administration: baron, constable, government, liberty, majesty, prince, treaty, vassal; law: accuse, advocate, blame, verdict, warrant; religion: abbey, baptism, temptation, virgin; military: army, battle, spy; food and drink: appetite, lettuce, salad, sardine, saucer; fashion: boots, button, collar, wardrobe; leisure and the arts: art, paper, pen, poet, prose, romance, sculpture; science and learning: poison, pulse, surgeon; the home: basin, closet, curtain, lamp, tower; general nouns: action, mountain, ocean, people, person, power; general adjectives: active, honest, horrible, special, usual; general verbs: form, grant, inform, remember, reply, satisfy, suppose; turns of phrase: by heart, have mercy on, on the point of.
Completely assimilated French borrowings in English: aunt, beauty, beast,chance, fruit, garden, honour, language, manner, pair, part, place, story, trouble, general, to agree, to decide, to enjoy, to repeat, to wait.
The most popular borrowings: Italian: sonata, piano, casino, spaghetti, Dutch: deck, yacht, landscape, luck, boss; Spanish: armada, banana, barbecue, chilli, chocolate, cigar, potato, siesta, tobacco, vanilla; Portuguese: cobra, Madeira, verandah; Russian: early borrowings 16c – shuba, tsar, kvass, Cossack, sable, 17c – steppe, troika, 18 c – kibitka, suslik, beluga, 19 c – samovar, vodka, taiga, after 1917 Sovietisms: soviet, komsomol, kolkhoz;German: nickel, Fahrenheit, kindergarten, rucksack, waltz; Indian: bandana, bungalow, jungle, nirvana, sugar, orange; Chinese: tea, silk; Japanese: hara-kiri, riksha, kimono, samurai; Australian: boomerang, kangaroo, kaola; African: baobab, chimpanzee, zebra; Polinisian: tattoo, taboo; North American Indians: moccasin, opossum, tomahawk, wigwam; Persian and Turkish: lemon, shah.
General characteristics of English Vocabulary (borrowed words, etymological doublets, hybrids; international words; neologisms; shortening; lexical and graphic abbreviations; acronyms).
- Linguostylistics discerns the following lexico-stylistic layers of the English vocabulary: 1. Stylistically neutral words;2. Literary-bookish words;3. Colloquial words.
- Stylistically neutral layer,which is the living core of the vocabulary, consists of words mostly of native origin though it also comprises fully assimilated borrowings. Such words are devoid of any emotive colouring and are used in their denotative meaning, e.g. table, street, move, easy, never, etc. In groups of synonyms neutral words fulfil the function of the synonymic dominant. The words belonging to the common core of the language: Pronouns: she, it, you, my, , this, these, somebody, nothing, which, why; Prepositions and articles: a, the, in, at, for, if; Nouns: man, boy, bird, Terms of kinship: mother, sister, daughter; Parts of the body: arm, leg, neck, eyes; Nature: moon, sky, field, river, sea etc; Household items: house, bed, plate; Food: meat, fish, bread; Verbs: to be, can, must, , to see, to hear, to eat, , to make, to do, to put; Adjectives: good, bad, strong, big, short, low, white, yellow;
- Literary-bookish words belong to the formal style. The so-termed learned words are used in descriptive passages of fiction, scientific texts, radio and television announcements, official talks and documents, business correspondence, etc. As a rule, these words are mostly of foreign origin and have polymorphemic structure, e.g. cordial, paternal, comprise, exclude, miscellaneous, thereby, herewith.
Terms are words or nominal groups which convey specialized concepts used in science, technology, art, etc., e.g. phoneme, radar, knee-joint, periodic table, still life, choreography, etc. As a rule terms are devoid of any emotional colouring and are not used in transferred meaning.
Barbarisms are words or expressions borrowed without (or almost without) any change in form and not accepted by native speakers as current in the language, e.g. ad libitum, entre nous, table d'hote, coup d'Etat,.
Poetic words with elevated, "lofty" colouring are traditionally used only in poetry. Most of them are archaic and have stylistically neutral synonyms, e.g. lone ("lonely"), woe ("sorrow"), array ("clothes"), behold ("see"), oft ("often"), ere ("before"), etc.
Archaisms are obsolete names for existing things, actions, phenomena, etc. All of them can be replaced by neutral synonyms, e.g. deem ("think"), glee ("joy"), nigh ("near"). Among archaisms the so-called Grammatical archaisms are singled out which represent obsolete grammatical forms: thee, thy; he goeth, thou knowest, etc. Among archaic words one should distinguish historical words that denote no-longer existing objects, e.g. mail, archer, fletcher, galleon, arbalernt, etc. Historical words have no neutral synonyms in Modern English.
- Colloquial words are characteristic of the informal style of spoken English. Informal style is relaxed, free-and-easy, familiar and unpretentious. The choice of words is determined in each particular case not only by an informal situation, but also by the speaker’s educational and cultural background, age group. One should distinguish between literary (standard) colloquial words as units of Standard English and non-literary colloquialismsthat belong to sub-standard English vocabulary. Literary colloquial words are used in everyday conversations both by cultivated and uneducated people and are also met in written literary texts. As for their etymology and syllabic structure, literary colloquial words are closer to neutral words than to literary-bookish units, but, as a rule, have stronger emotional colouring. They are formed on standard word-formative patterns, some of them being particularly frequent: old chap, I’ve got, granny, disco, baby-sit, chopper, make-up.
The informal style of spoken English is also characterized by extensive use of occasional words, qualifiers, responsives, pragmatic phraseological units, evaluative attributes and predicatives, e.g. Oscarish, awfully glad, dead right, there you are, what next?, smart kid.
- Non-literary (sub-standard) colloquial words include slang, jargonisms, professionalisms and vulgarisms. Slang comprises highly informal words not accepted for dignified use. Such words are expressive sub-standard substitutes for current words of standard vocabulary. As a rule, their meanings are based on metaphor and have a jocular or ironic colouring, e.g. bob, attic ("head"), beans ("money"), governor ("father"), to leg /it/ ("to walk"). Slang words are easily understood by all native speakers, because they are not specific for any social or professional group (cf. with Ukrainian просторіччя, e.g. баньки /" очі "/, макітра /" голова "/, поцупити / " вкрасти "/ etc.). Informal words peculiar for a certain social or professional group should be considered as jargonisms. Such words are usually motivated and, like slang words, have metaphoric character, e.g. walkie-talkie (воен.), to cut a lesson (школ.); astronauts' jargon/; Mae West ("pneumatic vest") /military jargon/; grass, tea, weed ("narcotic") /drug addicts' jargon/, etc. Among social jargons cant or argot (thieves' jargon) stands somewhat apart. Cant (argot) words are non-motivated and have special "agreed-upon", secretive meanings, e.g. book ("life sentence"), splosh ("money"), to rap ("to kill"), altarroom (toilet)etc. Professionalisms are sub-standard colloquial words used by people of a definite trade or profession. Such words are informal substitutes for corresponding terms, e.g. identikit ("photorobot"), Hi-Fi ("high fidelity"), smash-up ("accident"), ack-ack gun ("anti-aircraft gun"), and the like. Vulgarisms include: a/ expletives and swear words of abusive character, like damn, goddam, bloody, etc.; b/ obscene (or taboo) words which are highly indecent mug, boozer, to shoop.
- It is interesting to point out also that phraseological units, like words, belong to stylistically neutral, literary-bookish and colloquial layers. In most cases, phraseological collocations (standardized phrases) are stylistically neutral: to make friends, to make haste; to go to bed, all of a sudden. Among literary-bookish phraseological units one can find barbarisms: ad verbum (Lat.), a la lettre (Fr.), a propos (Fr.), etc.); archaic and poetic units (a heart of oak, the apple of discord, to fall from grace, etc.). A great number of phraseological units are literary colloquial e.g. bag and baggage, like water off duck's back, to be at sixes and sevens, to be on the carpet, etc.
Non-literary (sub-standard) colloquial phraseological units are subdivided into:
a) slang units, e.g. to have a crush on smb., to get (to go) bananas, to buy the farm, what’s cooking(I wonder what is going to happen), The million dollar question (The question that everybody would like to know the answer to), a hen party (a party to which only women or girls are invited),etc. b) jargonisms, e.g. to put to bed (jur-); to lay an egg (a bomb) (theatr.); to sell one's back (sport); rough stuff (sport.); to go into the drunk, sleeping partner (a person who invested capital in business, but plays no part in managing it), a glass jaw (a weakness which renders a person extremely vulnerable to attack – used in boxing),etc. c) professionalisms, e.g. to hit the ground (av.); to ride the beam (av.); to fall into a caldron (mil.); to ride a desk (mil.); to hit the headlines (jour.), to send smb down (to send smb to prison), d) vulgarisms, e.g. to hand smb. crap to have a boob, a baby snatcher (a woman who has a boy-friend much younger than herself), useyour loaf (use your brain, think), sugar daddy (an old rich man who gives money for young women for sex).
- Taboo language. When a lexeme is highly charged with connotation we commonly refer to it as “loaded”. The language of politics and religion is full of such loaded expressions: capitalist, radical, federalism, democracy, politician, priest, dogma, sect, etc. The language of science and law, on the other hand, attempts to avoid vocabulary which is highly connotative. In general, the more a domain or topic is controversial, the more it will contain loaded vocabulary. A few dozen lexemes comprise the special category of taboo language – items which people avoid using in polite society, either because they believe them harmful or feel them embarrassing or offensive. The Concise Oxford Dictionary(1996) defines taboo(borrowed into English from the Tongan language) as:' 1. a system or the act of setting a person or thing apart as sacred, prohibited, or accursed; 2. a prohibition or restric tion imposed on certain behaviour, word usage, etc., by social custom.' Taboo subjects or words may often be of a religious or cultural nature, the name of God, for example; or men may be prohibited from mentioning certain things associated with women. In lexicology, the label 'taboo' is usually applied to words that would be extremely offensive if spoken in most contexts. Indeed, many dictionaries no longer use the label 'taboo' for these kinds of word: Collins Electronic Dictionary (1992) still does, but the Longman Dictionary of the English Language (LDEL) (1991) uses 'vulgar', and the Concise Oxford Dictionary (1996) uses 'coarse slang'. This is perhaps a recognition that such words, which would at one time have been almost unmentionable and even excluded from dictionaries, can now be found to a large extent in popular fiction and even in daily newspapers. Taboo words in English are largely concerned with non-technical words for parts of the human anatomy associated with sex and excretion and for the act of sexual intercourse — some eighteen such terms labelled 'coarse slang' in The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1996).
¨There are various ways of avoiding a taboo item. One is to replace it by a more technical term, as commonly happens in medicine. Another, common in older writing, is to part-spell the item (bl – ). The everyday method is to employ an expression which refers to a taboo topic in an indirect way – a euphemism. English has thousands of euphemistic expressions, of which these are a tiny example: under the weather (ill), not all there (mentally subnormal), be economical with the truth (to lie).
Jargon is itself a loaded word. One dictionary defines it neutrally as “the technical vocabulary or idiom of a special activity or group”, but this sense is almost completely overshadowed by another: “obscure and often pretentious language marked by a roundabout way of expression and use of long words”.
For most people, it is this second sense which is at the front of their minds when they think about jargon. Jargon is said to be a bad language, something to be avoided at all costs. No one ever describes it in positive terms. Nor does one usually admit to using it oneself: the myth is that jargon is something only other people employ. It is interesting to note that the reality is that everyone uses jargon. It is an essential part of the network of occupations and pursuits which make up society. All jobs present an element of jargon, which workers learn as they develop their expertise. All hobbies require mastery of jargon. All sports and games have their jargon. Each society grouping has its jargon. The phenomenon turns out to be universal – and valuable. It is the jargon element which, in a job, can promote economy and precision of expression, and thus help make life easier for the workers [Crystal p.174].
Clichés. In clichés we see fragments of language apparently dying, yet unable to die. Clichés emerge when expressions outlive their usefulness as conveyors of information. Such phrases as at this moment, every Tom, Dick and Harry have come to be so frequently used that they have lost their power to inform, to enliven, to mean. And yet they survive, in a kind of living death, because people continue to use them, despite criticism. They are, in effect, lexical zombies [Crystal p. 186]. To use expressions which have been largely emptied of meaning implies that the user is someone who cannot be bothered to be fresh, clear, careful, or precise, or possibly someone who wishes to avoid clarity. The suggestion is that such people are at best lazy or unimaginative. In the case of learned clichés, perhaps they want also to impress, to show of.But clichés have their defenders who point out that many of the expressions have a value, and their value is the ability to avoid saying anything precise. Such clichés are commonplace, because it is not possible to be fresh and imaginative all the time. Life is full of occasions when a serious conversation is simply too difficult and clichés can fill a gap in conversation. In such circumstances, clichés are an admirable lexical life jacket. The passing remarks as people recognize each other in the street but with no time to stop, the politeness of strangers on train, the interactions at cocktail parties: these are the kinds of occasion which give cliché right to be. On the one hand, they are “comfortable”, on the other hand they “stop us thinking of nothing”. But whether we like them or not, one thing is certain: “they are highly contagious, and there is no known immunity, except possibly silence… and even that only conceals the infection…”[Crystal p.186].
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