The stylistic differentiation of the English vocabulary. Literary stratum of words. (Archa-isms; Barbarisms or foreign words; Neologisms; Terms)
The word-stock of any given language can be roughly divided into three uneven groups, differing from each other by the sphere of its possible use. The biggest division is made up of neutral words, possessing no stylistic connotation and suitable for any communicative situation; two smaller ones are literary and colloquial strata respectively.
Neither of the two named groups of words, possessing a stylistic meaning, is homogeneous as to the quality of the meaning, frequency of use, sphere of application, or the number and character of potential users. This is why each one is further divided into the general, i.e. known to and used by most native speakers in generalized literary (formal) or colloquial (informal) communication, and special bulks. The latter ones, in their turn, are subdivided into subgroups, each one serving a rather narrow; specified communicative purpose.
So, among special literary words, as a rale, at least two major subgroups are mentioned. They are:
1. Terms, i.e. words denoting objects, processes, phenomena of science, humanities, technique.
2.Archaic words, i.e. out-dated words that denote existing objects; can be divided in 3 groups:
a) denoting historical phenomena which are no more in use (such as "yeoman", "vassal", "falconet"). These are historical words.
b) used in poetry in the XVII-XIX cc. (such as "steed" for "horse"; "quoth" for "said"; "woe" for "sorrow"). These are poetic words.
c) in the course of language history ousted by newer synonymic words (such as "whereof = of which; "to deem" = to think; "repast" = meal; "nay" = no) or forms ("maketh" = makes; "thou wilt" = you will; "brethren" = brothers). These are called archaic words (archaic forms) proper.
Barbarisms – words from other languages used by English people in conversation or in writing but not assimilated in any way and for which there are corresponding English equivalents, e. g.: addio, chao = good bye. The stylistic functions of barbarisms and foreign words are similar, they are used to create a local colouring, to identify a personage as a foreigner, or to show his/her mannerism.
Bookish (learned) words are mostly used in official or high-flown style (catenate, depicture, disimprove, dalliance). In official usage, they mark the text as belonging to this or that style of written speech, but when used in colloquial speech or in informal situations, they may create a comical effect. Literary words, both general (also called learned, bookish, high-flown) and special, contribute to the message the tone of solemnity, sophistication, seriousness, gravity, learnedness. They are used in official papers and documents, in scientific communication, in high poetry, in authorial speech of creative prose.
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Lexical neologisms are new words that denote new objects (laser, shopping, pop promo, killer, satellite). Stylistic neologisms are new names that denote already existing objects and notions
There are a number of ways for coining new words, using a variety of neologism types. A few of these include:
-Blending Words or Portmanteaus
This type is a blend of two words that create a completely new word such as:(Smoke + fog = smog; Breakfast + lunch = brunch; Spoon + fork = spork)
- Transferred Words
These words are derived from other languages, adjusted in English such as, “herbs” has been taken from French herbes.
-Derived Words
These words use Latin and ancient Greek phrases that match with their English counterparts such as, “village,” “villager,” and “villa” have all been derived from the Latin word villa.
The stylistic differentiation of the English vocabulary. Colloquial stratum of words (Slang. Jargonisms. Vulgarisms; Dialectal words)
Colloquial words mark the message as informal, non-official, conversational.
1. Slang forms the biggest one.
Slang words, used by most speakers in very informal communication, are highly emotive and expressive. This tendency to synonymic expansion results in long chains of synonyms of various degrees of expressiveness, denoting one and the same concept.
So, the idea of a “pretty girl” can be defined by more than one hundred ways in slang: “cookie”, “tomato”, “Jane”, “sugar”, “bird”, “cutie”, etc.
The slang words and phrases can be raised to the standard colloquial: “pal”, “chum”, “crony” for “friend”; “how’s tricks” for “how’s life”; “beat it” for “go away”.
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2. Jargonisms are also expressive and emotive, but, unlike slang they are used by limited groups of people, united either professionally (professionalisms), or socially (jargonisms proper).
2 points are evident:
professionalisms are formed according to the existing word-building patterns or present existing words in new meanings, and, covering the field of special professional knowledge, which is semantically limited, they offer a vast variety of synonymic choices for naming one and the same professional item.
Jargonisms proper are characterized by similar linguistic features, but differ in function and sphere of application.
They originated from the thieves’ jargon (воровской жаргончик) and served to conceal the actual significance of the utterance from the uninitiated. Their major function thus was to be cryptic (загадочный), secretive. This is why among them there are cases of conscious deformation of the existing words.
The so-called back jargon (or back slang) can serve as an example: in their effort to conceal the machinations of dishonest card-playing, gamblers used numerals in their reversed form: “ano” for “one”, “owt” for “two”, “erth” for “three”.
Anglo-American tradition, starting with E. Partridge, a famous English lexicographer, does not differentiate between slang and jargonisms regarding these groups as one extensive stratum of words divided into general slang, used by all, or most, speakers and special slang, limited by the professional or social standing of the speaker.
Indeed slang (general slang) and jargonisms (special slang) have much in common, are emotive, expressive, unstable, fluctuating, tending to expanded synonymy within certain lexico-semantic groups and limited to a highly informal, substandard communication.
So it seems appropriate to use the indicated terms as synonyms.
3. Vulgarisms are coarse words with a strong emotive meaning, mostly derogatory, normally avoided in polite conversation.
The history of vulgarisms reflects the history of social ethics. Nowadays words which were labeled vulgar in the 18 and 19 centuries are considered such no more. In fact, at present we are faced with the reverse of the problem: there are practically no words banned from use by the modern permissive society.
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Such intensifies as “bloody”, “damned”, “cursed”, "hell of”, formerly deleted from literature and not allowed in conversation, are not only welcomed in both written and oral speech, but, due to constant repetition, have lost much of their emotive impact and substandard quality.
Для примера:
One of the best-known American editors and critics Maxwell Perkins, working with the serialized 1929 magazine edition of Hemingway's novel A. Farewell to Arms found that the publishers deleted close to a dozen words which they considered vulgar for their publication. Preparing the hardcover edition Perkins allowed half of them back (“son of a bitch”, “whore”, “whorehound”, etc.).
Starting from the late nineteen-fifties no publishing house objected to any coarse or obscene expressions. Consequently, in contemporary West European and American prose all words, formerly considered vulgar for public use (including the four-letter words), are even approved by the existing moral and ethical standards of society and censorship.
4. Dialectal words are normative and devoid of any stylistic meaning in regional dialects, but used outside of them, carry a strong flavour of the locality where they belong.
In Great Britain 4 major dialects are distinguished: Lowland Scotch, Northern, Midland (Central) and Southern.
In the USA 3 major dialectal varieties are distinguished: New England, Southern and Midwestern (Central, Midland).
These classifications do not include many minor local variations. Dialects markedly differ on the phonemic level: one and the same phoneme is differently pronounced in each of them.
They differ also on the lexical level, having their own names for locally existing phenomena and also supplying locally circulating synonyms for the words, accepted by the language in general.
Some of them have entered the general vocabulary and lost their dialectal status (“lad”, “pet”, “squash”, “plaid”).
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