Stylistic Classification of the English Vocabulary
In the English vocabulary words may be stylistically marked or neutral.
Stylistically marked words are divided into formal and informal. Formal words belong to the literary stylistic layer. Informal words belong to non-literary stylistic layer. This is binary opposition.
Stylistically formal vocabulary we may see in books, magazines, hear it in public lectures, announces, in official talks. Usually such types of communication are reduced to monologues, addressed by one person to many and often prepared in advance. The informal vocabulary is used in personal, two-way, everyday communication. Neutral words make up the core of the English vocabulary. They denote everyday concepts.
Literary bookish words are divided into several groups:
1. Terms. They are any word or word group which is used to name a notion, characteristic of some special field of knowledge. Terms follow several requirements:
a) they must be monosemantic, polysemy is a drawback (figurative meanings are also undesirable, however, in some contexts terms can acquire them);
b) they must be independent of the context.
Every field of science has its own set of terms. However, they may be borrowed from other fields of science. Terms may be formed as a way of ellipse, clipping and abbreviation. They may combine forms of Latin and Greek. Terms may be popular (known to the public at large) or they may be used exclusively within a profession.
2. Learned words. To such words we refer a considerable proportion of the vocabulary, found in texts on some specific problem. The learned vocabulary comprises of archaic connectives (hereby, partake). There are some set expressions: as follows, in terms of.
3. Archaisms. They are words which were once common, but now replaced by synonyms and fell out of usage. Archaisms are divided into several groups:
a) archaisms proper (they are obsolete words that dropped from the language);
b) historisms (they denote concepts and phenomena that have gone out of use. They name social relations, institutions and different objects of cultural past. For example, gig, phaeton, bloomers. Many words remain in the vocabulary in their figurative meaning);
c) morphological archaisms (they are archaic forms of non-archaic words);
d) poetisms (they are archaic words used in poetry and sometimes in prose to create elevated atmosphere);
4. Barbarisms. They are words from other languages used by English people in conversation or in writing, but not assimilated in any way for which they have correspondent English equivalents. They are facts of the language and are fixed in dictionaries.
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5. Foreignisms. They are words of foreign origin that have not been assimilated into the English language, but they do not belong to the word-stock of the English language. They are not registered in dictionaries.
6. Neologisms. They are newly coined words or phrases, new meanings of already existing words or words borrowed from other languages. Neologisms are created for new things, irrespective of their scale of importance. While speaking about neologisms one must regard time: they refer to the present time only.
A subtype of neologisms is nonce words. They are situational neologisms coined for some occasion. They are individual neologisms created after the existing word-building pattern for stylistic purpose and having value for a given text.
Words of non-literary layer:
1. Colloquialisms. They are divided into:
a) literary colloquial (they denote the vocabulary of educated people in the course of ordinary conversation or when writing letters to intimate friends);
b) familiar colloquial (they are more emotional and colorful than literary colloquial);
c) low colloquial (this term is used for illiterate popular speech).
2. Slang. They are expressive, mainly ironic words serving to create fresh names for some things. They are not facts of Standard English. For example, the word loaf is a slang name for a head.
3. Vulgarisms. They are divided into vulgarisms proper and trite vulgarisms. Vulgarisms proper are very rude words used to insult or humiliate. Trite vulgarisms have lost their shocking power and moved closer to colloquial words.
4. Jargonisms. They are subdivided into professional and social. Professional jargonisms are used within groups joined by professional interests (tinned fish is jargonism for submarine). Social jargonisms are used within social or age groups (for example, in criminal circles book is a life sentence).
5. Dialectical words. They are words and expressions used by common people in certain regions of a country, suggestive of the origin and educational and cultural standard of the speaker.
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