Lexicology of the English Language
ÌOCÊÎÂÑÊÈÉ ÏÅÄÀÃÎÃÈ×ÅÑÊÈÉ ÓÍÈÂÅÐÑÈÒÅÒ
Êóðñ ëåêöèé è ïëàíû ñåìèíàðñêèõ çàíÿòèé
ïî ëåêñèêîëîãèè àíãëèéñêîãî ÿçûêà
(äëÿ ñòóäåíòîâ òðåòüåãî êóðñà)
Cocòàâèòåëü : Ý. Ì. Äóáåíåö, ê.ô.í., äîö.
This course of lexicology which forms a part of the
curriculum for the English sections of linguistic departments of
teacher-training colleges is intended for students of the third
year of the day department. It includes 15 lectures and 12
seminars which cover the main themes of Modern English
lexicology: wordbuilding, semantic changes, phraseology,
borrowings, semasiology, neology, lexicography. The material for
seminars includes topics to be discussed, test questions and
lexical units to be analized. Lexical units for the analysis
were chosen mainly among neologisms. There is also a brief list
of recommended literature.
The aim of the course is to teach students to be word-conscious, to be
able to guess the meaning of words they come across from the meanings of
morphemes, to be able to recognize the origin of this or that lexical unit.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Language units
Wordbuilding
Affixation
Compound words
Conversion
Substantivization
«Stone wall» combinations
Abbreviations
Seconadary ways of wordbuilding
Semantic changes
Specialization
Generalization
Metaphor and metonymy
Phraseology
Ways of forming phraseological units
Semantic classification of phraseological units
Structural classification of phraseological units
Syntactical classification of phraseological units
Borrowings
Classification of borrowings according to the borrowed
aspect
Classification of borrowings according to the degree of
assimilation
Classification of borrowings according to the language
from which they were borrowed.
Romanic borrowings/ Latin, French, Italian, Spanish/.
Germanic borrowings /Scandinavian, German, Holland/ .
Russian borrowings.
Etymological doublets.
Semaciology.
Word - meaning.
Lexical meaning - notion.
Polysemy.
Homonyms.
Synonyms .
Antonyms .
Local varieties of English.
British and American English.
Archaisms.
Neologisms.
Lexicography.
LEXICOLOGY
The term «lexicology» is of Greek origin / from «lexis» - «word» and
«logos» - «science»/ . Lexicology is the part of linguistics which deals
with the vocabulary and characteristic features of words and word-groups.
The term «vocabulary» is used to denote the system of words and word-
groups that the language possesses.
The term «word» denotes the main lexical unit of a language resulting
from the association of a group of sounds with a meaning. This unit is used
in grammatical functions characteristic of it. It is the smallest unit of a
language which can stand alone as a complete utterance.
The term «word-group» denotes a group of words which exists in the
language as a ready-made unit, has the unity of meaning, the unity of
syntactical function, e.g. the word-group «as loose as a goose» means
«clumsy» and is used in a sentence as a predicative / He is as loose as a
goose/.
Lexicology can study the development of the vocabulary, the origin of
words and word-groups, their semantic relations and the development of
their sound form and meaning. In this case it is called historical
lexicology.
Another branch of lexicology is called descriptive and studies the
vocabulary at a definite stage of its development.
LANGUAGE UNITS
The main unit of the lexical system of a language resulting from the
association of a group of sounds with a meaning is a word. This unit is
used in grammatical functions characteristic of it. It is the smallest
language unit which can stand alone as a complete utterance.
A word, however, can be divided into smaller sense units - morphemes. The
morpheme is the smallest meaningful language unit. The morpheme consists of
a class of variants, allomorphs, which are either phonologically or
morphologically conditioned, e.g. please, pleasant, pleasure.
Morphemes are divided into two large groups: lexical morphemes and
grammatical (functional) morphemes. Both lexical and grammatical morphemes
can be free and bound. Free lexical morphemes are roots of words which
express the lexical meaning of the word, they coincide with the stem of
simple words. Free grammatical morphemes are function words: articles,
conjunctions and prepositions ( the, with, and).
Bound lexical morphemes are affixes: prefixes (dis-), suffixes (-ish) and
also blocked (unique) root morphemes (e.g. Fri-day, cran-berry). Bound
grammatical morphemes are inflexions (endings), e.g. -s for the Plural of
nouns, -ed for the Past Indefinite of regular verbs, -ing for the Present
Participle, -er for the Comparative degree of adjectives.
In the second half of the twentieth century the English wordbuilding
system was enriched by creating so called splinters which scientists
include in the affixation stock of the Modern English wordbuilding system.
Splinters are the result of clipping the end or the beginning of a word
and producing a number of new words on the analogy with the primary word-
group. For example, there are many words formed with the help of the
splinter mini- (apocopy produced by clipping the word «miniature»), such as
«miniplane», «minijet», «minicycle», «minicar», «miniradio» and many
others. All of these words denote obects of smaller than normal dimensions.
On the analogy with «mini-» there appeared the splinter «maxi»- (apocopy
produced by clipping the word «maximum»), such words as «maxi-series»,
«maxi-sculpture», «maxi-taxi» and many others appeared in the language.
When European economic community was organized quite a number of
neologisms with the splinter Euro- (apocopy produced by clipping the word
«European») were coined, such as: «Euratom» «Eurocard», «Euromarket»,
«Europlug», «Eurotunnel» and many others. These splinters are treated
sometimes as prefixes in Modern English.
There are also splinters which are formed by means of apheresis, that is
clipping the beginning of a word. The origin of such splinters can be
variable, e.g. the splinter «burger» appeared in English as the result of
clipping the German borrowing «Hamburger» where the morphological structure
was the stem «Hamburg» and the suffix -er. However in English the
beginning of the word «Hamburger» was associated with the English word
«ham», and the end of the word «burger» got the meaning «a bun cut into
two parts». On the analogy with the word «hamburger» quite a number of new
words were coined, such as: «baconburger», «beefburger», «cheeseburger»,
«fishburger» etc.
The splinter «cade» developed by clipping the beginning of the word
«cavalcade» which is of Latin origin. In Latin the verb with the meaning
«to ride a horse» is «cabalicare» and by means of the inflexion -ata the
corresponding Participle is formed. So the element «cade» is a combination
of the final letter of the stem and the inflexion. The splinter «cade»
serves to form nouns with the meaning «connected with the procession of
vehicles denoted by the first component», e.g. «aircade» - «a group of
airplanes accompanying the plane of a VIP» , «autocade» - «a group of
automobiles escorting the automobile of a VIP», «musicade» - «an orchestra
participating in a procession».
In the seventieths of the twentieth century there was a political scandal
in the hotel «Watergate» where the Democratic Party of the USA had its pre-
election headquarters. Republicans managed to install bugs there and when
they were discovered there was a scandal and the ruling American government
had to resign. The name «Watergate» acquired the meaning «a political
scandal», «corruption». On the analogy with this word quite a number of
other words were formed by using the splinter «gate» (apheresis of the
word «Watergate»), such as: «Irangate», »Westlandgate», »shuttlegate»,
»milliongate» etc. The splinter «gate» is added mainly to Proper names:
names of people with whom the scandal is connected or a geographical name
denoting the place where the scandal occurred.
The splinter «mobile» was formed by clipping the beginning of the word
«automobile» and is used to denote special types of automobiles, such as:
«artmobile», «bookmobile», «snowmobile», «tourmobile» etc.
The splinter «napper» was formed by clipping the beginning of the word
«kidnapper» and is used to denote different types of crimesters, such as :
«busnapper», «babynapper», «dognapper» etc. From such nouns the
corresponding verbs are formed by means of backformation, e.g. «to busnap»,
«to babynap», «to dognap».
The splinter «omat» was formed by clipping the beginning of the word
«automat» (a cafe in which meals are provided in slot-machines). The
meaning «self-service» is used in such words as «laundromat», «cashomat»
etc.
Another splinter «eteria» with the meaning «self-service» was formed by
clipping the beginning of the word «cafeteria». By means of the splinter
«eteria» the following words were formed: «groceteria», «booketeria»,
«booteteria» and many others.
The splinter «quake» is used to form new words with the meaning of
«shaking», «agitation». This splinter was formed by clipping the
beginning of the word «earthquake». Ther following words were formed with
the help of this splinter: «Marsquake», «Moonquake», «youthquake» etc.
The splinter «rama(ama)» is a clipping of the word «panorama» of Greek
origin where «pan» means «all» and «horama» means «view». In Modern
English the meaning «view» was lost and the splinter «rama» is used in
advertisements to denote objects of supreme quality, e.g. «autorama» means
«exhibition-sale of expensive cars», «trouserama» means «sale of trousers
of supreme quality» etc.
The splinter «scape» is a clipping of the word «landscape» and it is
used to form words denoting different types of landscapes, such as:
«moonscape», «streetscape», «townscape», «seascape» etc.
Another case of splinters is «tel» which is the result of clipping the
beginning of the word «hotel». It serves to form words denoting different
types of hotels, such as: «motel» (motor-car hotel), «boatel» (boat hotel),
«floatel» (a hotel on water, floating), «airtel» (airport hotel) etc.
The splinter «theque» is the result of clipping the beginning of the word
«apotheque» of Greek origin which means in Greek «a store house». In
Russian words: «áèáëèîòåêà», «êàðòîòåêà», «ôèëüìîòåêà» the element
«òåêà» corresponding to the English «theque» preserves the meaning of
storing something which is expressed by the first component of the word. In
English the splinter «theque» is used to denote a place for dancing, such
as: «discotheque», «jazzotheque».
The splinter «thon» is the result of clipping the beginning of the word
«marathon». «Marathon» primarily was the name of a battle-field in Greece,
forty miles from Athens, where there was a battle between the Greek and
the Persian. When the Greek won a victory a Greek runner was sent to Athens
to tell people about the victory. Later on the word «Marathon» was used
to denote long-distance competitions in running. The splinter
«thon(athon)» denotes «something continuing for a long time», «competition
in endurance» e.g. «dancathon», «telethon», «speakathon», «readathon»,
«walkathon», «moviethon», «swimathon», «talkathon», «swearthon» etc.
Splinters can be the result of clipping adjectives or substantivized
adjectives. The splinter «aholic» (holic) was formed by clipping the
beginning of the word «alcoholic» of Arabian origin where «al» denoted
«the», «koh’l» - «powder for staining lids». The splinter «(a)holic»
means «infatuated by the object expressed by the stem of the word» , e.g.
«bookaholic», «computerholic», «coffeeholic», «cheesaholic», «workaholic»
and many others.
The splinter «genic» formed by clipping the beginning of the word
«photogenic» denotes the notion «suitable for something denoted by the
stem», e.g. «allergenic», «cardiogenic», «mediagenic», «telegenic» etc.
As far as verbs are concerned it is not typical of them to be clipped
that is why there is only one splinter to be used for forming new verbs in
this way. It is the splinter «cast» formed by clipping the beginning of
the verb «broadcast». This splinter was used to form the verbs
«telecast» and «abroadcast».
Splinters can be called pseudomorphemes because they are neither roots
nor affixes, they are more or less artificial. In English there are words
which consist of two splinters, e.g. «telethon», therefore it is more
logical to call words with splinters in their structure «compound-
shortened words consisting of two clippings of words».
Splinters have only one function in English: they serve to change the
lexical meaning of the same part of speech, whereas prefixes and suffixes
can also change the part-of-speech meaning , e.g. the prefix «en-» and
its allomorph «em» can form verbs from noun and adjective stems («embody»,
«enable», «endanger»), «be-» can form verbs from noun and adjective stems
(«becloud», «benumb»), «post-» and «pre-» can form adjectives from noun
stems («pre-election campaign», «post-war events»). The main function of
suffixes is to form one part of speech from another part of speech, e.g. «-
er», «-ing», «-ment» form nouns from verbal stems («teacher», «dancing»,
«movement»), «-ness», «-ity» are used to form nouns from adjective stems
(«clannishnes», «marginality»).
According to the nature and the number of morphemes constituting a word
there are different structural types of words in English: simple,
derived, compound, compound-derived.
Simple words consist of one root morpheme and an inflexion (in many cases
the inflexion is zero), e.g. «seldom», «chairs», «longer», «asked».
Derived words consist of one root morpheme, one or several affixes and an
inlexion, e.g. «deristricted», «unemployed».
Compound words consist of two or more root morphemes and an inflexion,
e.g. «baby-moons», «wait-and-see (policy)».
Compound-derived words consist of two or more root morphemes, one or more
affixes and an inflexion, e.g. «middle-of-the-roaders», «job-hopper».
When speaking about the structure of words stems also should be
mentioned. The stem is the part of the word which remains unchanged
throughout the paradigm of the word, e.g. the stem «hop» can be found in
the words: «hop», «hops», «hopped», «hopping». The stem «hippie» can be
found in the words: «hippie», «hippies», «hippie’s», «hippies’». The stem
«job-hop» can be found in the words : «job-hop», «job-hops», «job-hopped»,
«job-hopping».
So stems, the same as words, can be simple, derived, compound and
compound-derived. Stems have not only the lexical meaning but also
grammatical (part-of-speech) meaning, they can be noun stems («girl» in the
adjective «girlish»), adjective stems («girlish» in the noun
«girlishness»), verb stems («expell» in the noun «expellee») etc. They
differ from words by the absence of inflexions in their structure, they
can be used only in the structure of words.
Sometimes it is rather difficult to distinguish between simple and
derived words, especially in the cases of phonetic borrowings from other
languages and of native words with blocked (unique) root morphemes, e.g.
«perestroika», «cranberry», «absence» etc.
As far as words with splinters are concerned it is difficult to
distinguish between derived words and compound-shortened words. If a
splinter is treated as an affix (or a semi-affix) the word can be called
derived , e.g.-, «telescreen», «maxi-taxi» , «shuttlegate», «cheeseburger».
But if the splinter is treated as a lexical shortening of one of the stems
, the word can be called compound-shortened word formed from a word
combination where one of the components was shortened, e.g. «busnapper»
was formed from « bus kidnapper», «minijet» from «miniature jet».
In the English language of the second half of the twentieth century there
developed so called block compounds, that is compound words which have a
uniting stress but a split spelling, such as «chat show», «pinguin suit»
etc. Such compound words can be easily mixed up with word-groups of the
type «stone wall», so called nominative binomials. Such linguistic units
serve to denote a notion which is more specific than the notion expressed
by the second component and consists of two nouns, the first of which is an
attribute to the second one. If we compare a nominative binomial with a
compound noun with the structure N+N we shall see that a nominative
binomial has no unity of stress. The change of the order of its components
will change its lexical meaning, e.g. «vid kid» is «a kid who is a video
fan» while «kid vid» means «a video-film for kids» or else «lamp oil»
means «oil for lamps» and «oil lamp» means «a lamp which uses oil for
burning».
Among language units we can also point out word combinations of
different structural types of idiomatic and non-idiomatic character, such
as «the first fiddle», «old salt» and «round table», «high road». There
are also sentences which are studied by grammarians.
Thus, we can draw the conclusion that in Modern English the following
language units can be mentioned: morphemes, splinters, words, nominative
binomials, non-idiomatic and idiomatic word-combinations, sentences.
WORDBUILDING
Word-building is one of the main ways of enriching vocabulary. There are
four main ways of word-building in modern English: affixation,
composition, conversion, abbreviation. There are also secondary ways of
word-building: sound interchange, stress interchange, sound imitation,
blends, back formation.
AFFIXATION
Affixation is one of the most productive ways of word-building throughout
the history of English. It consists in adding an affix to the stem of a
definite part of speech. Affixation is divided into suffixation and
prefixation.
Suffixation.
The main function of suffixes in Modern English is to form one part of
speech from another, the secondary function is to change the lexical
meaning of the same part of speech. ( e.g. «educate» is a verb, «educatee»
is a noun, and « music» is a noun, «musicdom» is also a noun) .
There are different classifications of suffixes :
1. Part-of-speech classification. Suffixes which can form different
parts of speech are given here :
a) noun-forming suffixes, such as : -er (criticizer), -dom (officialdom),
-ism (ageism),
b) adjective-forming suffixes, such as : -able (breathable), less
(symptomless), -ous (prestigious),
c) verb-forming suffixes, such as -ize (computerize) , -ify (micrify),
d) adverb-forming suffixes , such as : -ly (singly), -ward (tableward),
e) numeral-forming suffixes, such as -teen (sixteen), -ty (seventy).
2. Semantic classification . Suffixes changing the lexical meaning of
the stem can be subdivided into groups, e.g. noun-forming suffixes can
denote:
a) the agent of the action, e.g. -er (experimenter), -ist (taxist), -ent
(student),
b) nationality, e.g. -ian (Russian), -ese (Japanese), -ish (English),
c) collectivity, e.g. -dom (moviedom), -ry (peasantry, -ship
(readership), -ati ( literati),
d) diminutiveness, e.g. -ie (horsie), -let (booklet), -ling (gooseling),
-ette (kitchenette),
e) quality, e.g. -ness (copelessness), -ity (answerability).
3. Lexico-grammatical character of the stem. Suffixes which can be added
to certain groups of stems are subdivided into:
a) suffixes added to verbal stems, such as : -er (commuter), -ing
(suffering), - able (flyable), -ment (involvement), -ation
(computerization),
b) suffixes added to noun stems, such as : -less (smogless), ful
(roomful), -ism (adventurism), -ster (pollster), -nik (filmnik), -ish
(childish),
c) suffixes added to adjective stems, such as : -en (weaken), -ly
(pinkly), -ish (longish), -ness (clannishness).
4. Origin of suffixes. Here we can point out the following groups:
a) native (Germanic), such as -er,-ful, -less, -ly.
b) Romanic, such as : -tion, -ment, -able, -eer.
c) Greek, such as : -ist, -ism, -ize.
d) Russian, such as -nik.
5. Productivity. Here we can point out the following groups:
a) productive, such as : -er, -ize, --ly, -ness.
b) semi-productive, such as : -eer, -ette, -ward.
c) non-productive , such as : -ard (drunkard), -th (length).
Suffixes can be polysemantic, such as : -er can form nouns with the
following meanings : agent,doer of the action expressed by the stem
(speaker), profession, occupation (teacher), a device, a tool
(transmitter). While speaking about suffixes we should also mention
compound suffixes which are added to the stem at the same time, such as
-ably, -ibly, (terribly, reasonably), -ation (adaptation from adapt).
There are also disputable cases whether we have a suffix or a root
morpheme in the structure of a word, in such cases we call such morphemes
semi-suffixes, and words with such suffixes can be classified either as
derived words or as compound words, e.g. -gate (Irangate), -burger
(cheeseburger), -aholic (workaholic) etc.
Prefixation
Prefixation is the formation of words by means of adding a prefix to the
stem. In English it is characteristic for forming verbs. Prefixes are more
independent than suffixes. Prefixes can be classified according to the
nature of words in which they are used : prefixes used in notional words
and prefixes used in functional words. Prefixes used in notional words are
proper prefixes which are bound morphemes, e.g. un- (unhappy). Prefixes
used in functional words are semi-bound morphemes because they are met in
the language as words, e.g. over- (overhead) ( cf over the table ).
The main function of prefixes in English is to change the lexical meaning
of the same part of speech. But the recent research showed that about
twenty-five prefixes in Modern English form one part of speech from another
(bebutton, interfamily, postcollege etc).
Prefixes can be classified according to different principles :
1. Semantic classification :
a) prefixes of negative meaning, such as : in- (invaluable), non-
(nonformals), un- (unfree) etc,
b) prefixes denoting repetition or reversal actions, such as: de-
(decolonize), re- (revegetation), dis- (disconnect),
c) prefixes denoting time, space, degree relations, such as : inter-
(interplanetary) , hyper- (hypertension), ex- (ex-student), pre- (pre-
election), over- (overdrugging) etc.
2. Origin of prefixes:
a) native (Germanic), such as: un-, over-, under- etc.
b) Romanic, such as : in-, de-, ex-, re- etc.
c) Greek, such as : sym-, hyper- etc.
When we analyze such words as : adverb, accompany where we can find the
root of the word (verb, company) we may treat ad-, ac- as prefixes though
they were never used as prefixes to form new words in English and were
borrowed from Romanic languages together with words. In such cases we can
treat them as derived words. But some scientists treat them as simple
words. Another group of words with a disputable structure are such as :
contain, retain, detain and conceive, receive, deceive where we can see
that re-, de-, con- act as prefixes and -tain, -ceive can be understood as
roots. But in English these combinations of sounds have no lexical meaning
and are called pseudo-morphemes. Some scientists treat such words as simple
words, others as derived ones.
There are some prefixes which can be treated as root morphemes by some
scientists, e.g. after- in the word afternoon. American lexicographers
working on Webster dictionaries treat such words as compound words. British
lexicographers treat such words as derived ones.
COMPOSITION
Composition is the way of wordbuilding when a word is formed by joining
two or more stems to form one word. The structural unity of a compound
word depends upon : a) the unity of stress, b) solid or hyphonated
spelling, c) semantic unity, d) unity of morphological and syntactical
functioning. These are charachteristic features of compound words in all
languages. For English compounds some of these factors are not very
reliable. As a rule English compounds have one uniting stress (usually on
the first component), e.g. hard-cover, best-seller. We can also have a
double stress in an English compound, with the main stress on the first
component and with a secondary stress on the second component, e.g. blood-
vessel. The third pattern of stresses is two level stresses, e.g. snow-
white,sky-blue. The third pattern is easily mixed up with word-groups
unless they have solid or hyphonated spelling.
Spelling in English compounds is not very reliable as well because they
can have different spelling even in the same text, e.g. war-ship, blood-
vessel can be spelt through a hyphen and also with a break, iinsofar,
underfoot can be spelt solidly and with a break. All the more so that there
has appeared in Modern English a special type of compound words which are
called block compounds, they have one uniting stress but are spelt with a
break, e.g. air piracy, cargo module, coin change, pinguin suit etc.
The semantic unity of a compound word is often very strong. In such cases
we have idiomatic compounds where the meaning of the whole is not a sum of
meanings of its components, e.g. to ghostwrite, skinhead, brain-drain etc.
In nonidiomatic compounds semantic unity is not strong, e. g., airbus, to
bloodtransfuse, astrodynamics etc.
English compounds have the unity of morphological and syntactical
functioning. They are used in a sentence as one part of it and only one
component changes grammatically, e.g. These girls are chatter-boxes.
«Chatter-boxes» is a predicative in the sentence and only the second
component changes grammatically.
There are two characteristic features of English compounds:
a) Both components in an English compound are free stems, that is they
can be used as words with a distinctive meaning of their own. The sound
pattern will be the same except for the stresses, e.g. «a green-house» and
«a green house». Whereas for example in Russian compounds the stems are
bound morphemes, as a rule.
b) English compounds have a two-stem pattern, with the exception of
compound words which have form-word stems in their structure, e.g. middle-
of-the-road, off-the-record, up-and-doing etc. The two-stem pattern
distinguishes English compounds from German ones.
WAYS OF FORMING COMPOUND WORDS.
Compound words in English can be formed not only by means of composition
but also by means of :
a) reduplication, e.g. too-too, and also by means of reduplicatin
combined with sound interchange , e.g. rope-ripe,
b) conversion from word-groups, e.g. to micky-mouse, can-do, makeup etc,
c) back formation from compound nouns or word-groups, e.g. to
bloodtransfuse, to fingerprint etc ,
d) analogy, e.g. lie-in ( on the analogy with sit-in) and also phone-in,
brawn-drain (on the analogy with brain-drain) etc.
CLASSIFICATIONS OF ENGLISH COMPOUNDS
1. According to the parts of speech compounds are subdivided into:
a) nouns, such as : baby-moon, globe-trotter,
b) adjectives, such as : free-for-all, power-happy,
c) verbs, such as : to honey-moon, to baby-sit, to henpeck,
d) adverbs, such as: downdeep, headfirst,
e) prepositions, such as: into, within,
f) numerals, such as : fifty-five.
2. According to the way components are joined together compounds are
divided into:
a) neutral, which are formed by joining together two stems without any
joining morpheme, e.g. ball-point, to windowshop,
b) morphological where components are joined by a linking element :
vowels «o» or «i» or the consonant «s», e.g. {«astrospace», «handicraft»,
«sportsman»),
c) syntactical where the components are joined by means of form-word
stems, e.g. here-and-now, free-for-all., do-or-die .
3. According to their structure compounds are subdivided into:
a) compound words proper which consist of two stems, e.g. to job-hunt,
train-sick, go-go, tip-top ,
b) derivational compounds, where besides the stems we have affixes, e.g.
ear-minded, hydro-skimmer,
c) compound words consisting of three or more stems, e.g. cornflower-
blue, eggshell-thin, singer-songwriter,
d) compound-shortened words, e.g. boatel, tourmobile, VJ-day, motocross,
intervision, Eurodollar, Camford.
4. According to the relations between the components compound words are
subdivided into :
a) subordinative compounds where one of the components is the semantic
and the structural centre and the second component is subordinate; these
subordinative relations can be different:
with comparative relations, e.g. honey-sweet, eggshell-thin, with
limiting relations, e.g. breast-high, knee-deep, with emphatic relations,
e.g. dog-cheap, with objective relations, e.g. gold-rich, with cause
relations, e.g. love-sick, with space relations, e.g. top-heavy, with time
relations, e.g. spring-fresh, with subjective relations, e.g. foot-sore etc
b) coordinative compounds where both components are semantically
independent. Here belong such compounds when one person (object) has two
functions, e.g. secretary-stenographer, woman-doctor, Oxbridge etc. Such
compounds are called additive. This group includes also compounds formed by
means of reduplication, e.g. fifty-fifty, no-no, and also compounds formed
with the help of rhythmic stems (reduplication combined with sound
interchange) e.g. criss-cross, walkie-talkie.
5. According to the order of the components compounds are divided into
compounds with direct order, e.g. kill-joy, and compounds with indirect
order, e.g. nuclear-free, rope-ripe .
CONVERSION
Conversion is a characteristic feature of the English word-building
system. It is also called affixless derivation or zero-suffixation. The
term «conversion» first appeared in the book by Henry Sweet «New English
Grammar» in 1891. Conversion is treated differently by different
scientists, e.g. prof. A.I. Smirntitsky treats conversion as a
morphological way of forming words when one part of speech is formed from
another part of speech by changing its paradigm, e.g. to form the verb «to
dial» from the noun «dial» we change the paradigm of the noun (a
dial,dials) for the paradigm of a regular verb (I dial, he dials, dialed,
dialing). A. Marchand in his book «The Categories and Types of Present-day
English» treats conversion as a morphological-syntactical word-building
because we have not only the change of the paradigm, but also the change of
the syntactic function, e.g. I need some good paper for my room. (The noun
«paper» is an object in the sentence). I paper my room every year. (The
verb «paper» is the predicate in the sentence).
Conversion is the main way of forming verbs in Modern English. Verbs can
be formed from nouns of different semantic groups and have different
meanings because of that, e.g.
a) verbs have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting
parts of a human body e.g. to eye, to finger, to elbow, to shoulder etc.
They have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denoting
tools, machines, instruments, weapons, e.g. to hammer, to machine-gun, to
rifle, to nail,
b) verbs can denote an action characteristic of the living being denoted
by the noun from which they have been converted, e.g. to crowd, to wolf,
to ape,
c) verbs can denote acquisition, addition or deprivation if they are
formed from nouns denoting an object, e.g. to fish, to dust, to peel, to
paper,
d) verbs can denote an action performed at the place denoted by the noun
from which they have been converted, e.g. to park, to garage, to bottle, to
corner, to pocket,
e) verbs can denote an action performed at the time denoted by the noun
from which they have been converted e.g. to winter, to week-end .
Verbs can be also converted from adjectives, in such cases they denote
the change of the state, e.g. to tame (to become or make tame) , to clean,
to slim etc.
Nouns can also be formed by means of conversion from verbs. Converted
nouns can denote:
a) instant of an action e.g. a jump, a move,
b) process or state e.g. sleep, walk,
c) agent of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been
converted, e.g. a help, a flirt, a scold ,
d) object or result of the action expressed by the verb from which the
noun has been converted, e.g. a burn, a find, a purchase,
e) place of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has been
converted, e.g. a drive, a stop, a walk.
Many nouns converted from verbs can be used only in the Singular form and
denote momentaneous actions. In such cases we have partial conversion. Such
deverbal nouns are often used with such verbs as : to have, to get, to take
etc., e.g. to have a try, to give a push, to take a swim .
CRITERIA OF SEMANTIC DERIVATION
In cases of conversion the problem of criteria of semantic derivation
arises : which of the converted pair is primary and which is converted from
it. The problem was first analized by prof. A.I. Smirnitsky. Later on P.A.
Soboleva developed his idea and worked out the following criteria:
1. If the lexical meaning of the root morpheme and the lexico-grammatical
meaning of the stem coincide the word is primary, e.g. in cases pen - to
pen, father - to father the nouns are names of an object and a living
being. Therefore in the nouns «pen» and «father» the lexical meaning of the
root and the lexico-grammatical meaning of the stem coincide. The verbs
«to pen» and « to father» denote an action, a process therefore the lexico-
grammatical meanings of the stems do not coincide with the lexical meanings
of the roots. The verbs have a complex semantic structure and they were
converted from nouns.
2. If we compare a converted pair with a synonymic word pair which was
formed by means of suffixation we can find out which of the pair is
primary. This criterion can be applied only to nouns converted from verbs,
e.g. «chat» n. and «chat» v. can be compared with «conversation» -
«converse».
3. The criterion based on derivational relations is of more universal
character. In this case we must take a word-cluster of relative words to
which the converted pair belongs. If the root stem of the word-cluster has
suffixes added to a noun stem the noun is primary in the converted pair and
vica versa, e.g. in the word-cluster : hand n., hand v., handy, handful the
derived words have suffixes added to a noun stem, that is why the noun is
primary and the verb is converted from it. In the word-cluster: dance n.,
dance v., dancer, dancing we see that the primary word is a verb and the
noun is converted from it.
SUBSTANTIVIZATION OF ADJECTIVES
Some scientists (Yespersen, Kruisinga ) refer substantivization of
adjectives to conversion. But most scientists disagree with them because in
cases of substantivization of adjectives we have quite different changes in
the language. Substantivization is the result of ellipsis (syntactical
shortening ) when a word combination with a semantically strong attribute
loses its semantically weak noun (man, person etc), e.g. «a grown-up
person» is shortened to «a grown-up». In cases of perfect substantivization
the attribute takes the paradigm of a countable noun , e.g. a criminal,
criminals, a criminal’s (mistake) , criminals’ (mistakes). Such words are
used in a sentence in the same function as nouns, e.g. I am fond of
musicals. (musical comedies).
There are also two types of partly substantivized adjectives:
those which have only the plural form and have the meaning of collective
nouns, such as: sweets, news, empties, finals, greens,
those which have only the singular form and are used with the definite
article. They also have the meaning of collective nouns and denote a
class, a nationality, a group of people, e.g. the rich, the English, the
dead .
«STONE WALL» COMBINATIONS.
The problem whether adjectives can be formed by means of conversion from
nouns is the subject of many discussions. In Modern English there are a lot
of word combinations of the type , e.g. price rise, wage freeze, steel
helmet, sand castle etc.
If the first component of such units is an adjective converted from a
noun, combinations of this type are free word-groups typical of English
(adjective + noun). This point of view is proved by O. Yespersen by the
following facts:
1. «Stone» denotes some quality of the noun «wall».
2. «Stone» stands before the word it modifies, as adjectives in the
function of an attribute do in English.
3. «Stone» is used in the Singular though its meaning in most cases is
plural,and adjectives in English have no plural form.
4. There are some cases when the first component is used in the
Comparative or the Superlative degree, e.g. the bottomest end of the scale.
5. The first component can have an adverb which characterizes it, and
adjectives are characterized by adverbs, e.g. a purely family gathering.
6. The first component can be used in the same syntactical function with
a proper adjective to characterize the same noun, e.g. lonely bare stone
houses.
7. After the first component the pronoun «one» can be used instead of a
noun, e.g. I shall not put on a silk dress, I shall put on a cotton one.
However Henry Sweet and some other scientists say that these criteria are
not characterisitc of the majority of such units.
They consider the first component of such units to be a noun in the
function of an attribute because in Modern English almost all parts of
speech and even word-groups and sentences can be used in the function of an
attribute, e.g. the then president (an adverb), out-of-the-way vilages (a
word-group), a devil-may-care speed (a sentence).
There are different semantic relations between the components of «stone
wall» combinations. E.I. Chapnik classified them into the following groups:
1. time relations, e.g. evening paper,
2. space relations, e.g. top floor,
3. relations between the object and the material of which it is made,
e.g. steel helmet,
4. cause relations, e.g. war orphan,
5. relations between a part and the whole, e.g. a crew member,
6. relations between the object and an action, e.g. arms production,
7. relations between the agent and an action e.g. government threat,
price rise,
8. relations between the object and its designation, e.g. reception hall,
9. the first component denotes the head, organizer of the characterized
object, e.g. Clinton government, Forsyte family,
10. the first component denotes the field of activity of the second
component, e.g. language teacher, psychiatry doctor,
11. comparative relations, e.g. moon face,
12. qualitative relations, e.g. winter apples.
ABBREVIATION
In the process of communication words and word-groups can be shortened.
The causes of shortening can be linguistic and extra-linguistic. By extra-
linguistic causes changes in the life of people are meant. In Modern
English many new abbreviations, acronyms , initials, blends are formed
because the tempo of life is increasing and it becomes necessary to give
more and more information in the shortest possible time.
There are also linguistic causes of abbreviating words and word-groups,
such as the demand of rhythm, which is satisfied in English by monosyllabic
words. When borrowings from other languages are assimilated in English they
are shortened. Here we have modification of form on the basis of analogy,
e.g. the Latin borrowing «fanaticus» is shortened to «fan» on the analogy
with native words: man, pan, tan etc.
There are two main types of shortenings : graphical and lexical.
Graphical abbreviations
Graphical abbreviations are the result of shortening of words and word-
groups only in written speech while orally the corresponding full forms are
used. They are used for the economy of space and effort in writing.
The oldest group of graphical abbreviations in English is of Latin
origin. In Russian this type of abbreviation is not typical. In these
abbreviations in the spelling Latin words are shortened, while orally the
corresponding English equivalents are pronounced in the full form,e.g.
for example (Latin exampli gratia), a.m. - in the morning (ante meridiem),
No - number (numero), p.a. - a year (per annum), d - penny (dinarius),
lb - pound (libra), i. e. - that is (id est) etc.
Some graphical abbreviations of Latin origin have different English
equivalents in different contexts, e.g. p.m. can be pronounced «in the
afternoon» (post meridiem) and «after death» (post mortem).
There are also graphical abbreviations of native origin, where in the
spelling we have abbreviations of words and word-groups of the
corresponding English equivalents in the full form. We have several
semantic groups of them :
a) days of the week, e.g. Mon - Monday, Tue - Tuesday etc
b) names of months, e.g. Apr - April, Aug - August etc.
c) names of counties in UK, e.g. Yorks - Yorkshire, Berks -Berkshire etc
d) names of states in USA, e.g. Ala - Alabama, Alas - Alaska etc.
e) names of address, e.g. Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr. etc.
f) military ranks, e.g. capt. -captain, col. - colonel, sgt - sergeant
etc.
g) scientific degrees, e.g. B.A. - Bachelor of Arts, D.M. - Doctor of
Medicine . ( Sometimes in scientific degrees we have abbreviations of Latin
origin, e.g., M.B. - Medicinae Baccalaurus).
h) units of time, length, weight, e.g. f. / ft -foot/feet, sec. - second,
in. -inch, mg. - milligram etc.
The reading of some graphical abbreviations depends on the context, e.g.
«m» can be read as: male, married, masculine, metre, mile, million, minute,
«l.p.» can be read as long-playing, low pressure.
Initial abbreviations
Initialisms are the bordering case between graphical and lexical
abbreviations. When they appear in the language, as a rule, to denote some
new offices they are closer to graphical abbreviations because orally full
forms are used, e.g. J.V. - joint venture. When they are used for some
duration of time they acquire the shortened form of pronouncing and become
closer to lexical abbreviations, e.g. BBC is as a rule pronounced in the
shortened form.
In some cases the translation of initialisms is next to impossible
without using special dictionaries. Initialisms are denoted in different
ways. Very often they are expressed in the way they are pronounced in the
language of their origin, e.g. ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand, United
States) is given in Russian as ÀÍÇÓÑ, SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation
Talks) was for a long time used in Russian as ÑÎËÒ, now a translation
variant is used (ÎÑ -Äîãîâîð îá îãðàíè÷åíèè ñòðàòåãè÷åñêèõ âîîðóæåíèé).
This type of initialisms borrowed into other languages is preferable, e.g.
UFO - ÍËÎ, CÏ - JV etc.
There are three types of initialisms in English:
a) initialisms with alphabetical reading, such as UK, BUP, CND etc
b) initialisms which are read as if they are words, e.g. UNESCO, UNO,
NATO etc.
c) initialisms which coincide with English words in their sound form,
such initialisms are called acronyms, e.g. CLASS (Computor-based Laboratory
for Automated School System).
Some scientists unite groups b) and c) into one group which they call
acronyms.
Some initialisms can form new words in which they act as root morphemes
by different ways of wordbuilding:
a) affixation, e.g. AWALism, ex-rafer, ex- POW, to waafize, AIDSophobia
etc.
b) conversion, e.g. to raff, to fly IFR (Instrument Flight Rules),
c) composition, e.g. STOLport, USAFman etc.
d) there are also compound-shortened words where the first component is
an initial abbreviation with the alphabetical reading and the second one is
a complete word, e.g. A-bomb, U-pronunciation, V -day etc. In some cases
the first component is a complete word and the second component is an
initial abbreviation with the alphabetical pronunciation, e.g. Three -Ds
(Three dimensions) - ñòåðåîôèëüì.
Abbreviations of words
Abbreviation of words consists in clipping a part of a word. As a result
we get a new lexical unit where either the lexical meaning or the style is
different form the full form of the word. In such cases as »fantasy» and
«fancy», «fence» and «defence» we have different lexical meanings. In such
cases as «laboratory» and «lab», we have different styles.
Abbreviation does not change the part-of-speech meaning, as we have it
in the case of conversion or affixation, it produces words belonging to
the same part of speech as the primary word, e.g. prof is a noun and
professor is also a noun. Mostly nouns undergo abbreviation, but we can
also meet abbreviation of verbs, such as to rev from to revolve, to tab
from to tabulate etc. But mostly abbreviated forms of verbs are formed by
means of conversion from abbreviated nouns, e.g. to taxi, to vac etc.
Adjectives can be abbreviated but they are mostly used in school slang and
are combined with suffixation, e.g. comfy, dilly, mizzy etc. As a rule
pronouns, numerals, interjections. conjunctions are not abbreviated. The
exceptions are: fif (fifteen), teen-ager, in one’s teens (apheresis from
numerals from 13 to 19).
Lexical abbreviations are classified according to the part of the word
which is clipped. Mostly the end of the word is clipped, because the
beginning of the word in most cases is the root and expresses the lexical
meaning of the word. This type of abbreviation is called apocope. Here we
can mention a group of words ending in «o», such as disco (dicotheque),
expo (exposition), intro (introduction) and many others. On the analogy
with these words there developed in Modern English a number of words where
«o» is added as a kind of a suffix to the shortened form of the word, e.g.
combo (combination) - íåáîëüøîé ýñòðàäíûé àíñàìáëü, Afro (African)
-ïðè÷åñêà ïîä àôðèêàíöà etc. In other cases the beginning of the word is
clipped. In such cases we have apheresis , e.g. chute (parachute), varsity
(university), copter (helicopter) , thuse (enthuse) etc. Sometimes the
middle of the word is clipped, e.g. mart (market), fanzine (fan magazine)
maths (mathematics). Such abbreviations are called syncope. Sometimes we
have a combination of apocope with apheresis,when the beginning and the end
of the word are clipped, e.g. tec (detective), van (avanguard) etc.
Sometimes shortening influences the spelling of the word, e.g. «c» can
be substituted by «k» before «e» to preserve pronunciation, e.g. mike
(microphone), Coke (coca-cola) etc. The same rule is observed in the
following cases: fax( facsimile), teck (technical college), trank
(tranquilizer) etc. The final consonants in the shortened forms are
substituded by letters characteristic of native English words.
SECONDARY WAYS OF WORDBUILDING
SOUND INTERCHANGE
Sound interchange is the way of word-building when some sounds are
changed to form a new word. It is non-productive in Modern English, it was
productive in Old English and can be met in other Indo-European languages.
The causes of sound interchange can be different. It can be the result of
Ancient Ablaut which cannot be explained by the phonetic laws during the
period of the language development known to scientists., e.g. to strike -
stroke, to sing - song etc. It can be also the result of Ancient Umlaut or
vowel mutation which is the result of palatalizing the root vowel because
of the front vowel in the syllable coming after the root ( regressive
assimilation), e.g. hot - to heat (hotian), blood - to bleed (blodian) etc.
In many cases we have vowel and consonant interchange. In nouns we have
voiceless consonants and in verbs we have corresponding voiced consonants
because in Old English these consonants in nouns were at the end of the
word and in verbs in the intervocal position, e.g. bath - to bathe, life -
to live, breath - to breathe etc.
STRESS INTERCHANGE
Stress interchange can be mostly met in verbs and nouns of Romanic origin
: nouns have the stress on the first syllable and verbs on the last
syllable, e.g. `accent - to ac`cent. This phenomenon is explained in the
following way: French verbs and nouns had different structure when they
were borrowed into English, verbs had one syllable more than the
corresponding nouns. When these borrowings were assimilated in English the
stress in them was shifted to the previous syllable (the second from the
end) . Later on the last unstressed syllable in verbs borrowed from French
was dropped (the same as in native verbs) and after that the stress in
verbs was on the last syllable while in nouns it was on the first syllable.
As a result of it we have such pairs in English as : to af`fix -`affix, to
con`flict- `conflict, to ex`port -`export, to ex`tract - `extract etc. As
a result of stress interchange we have also vowel interchange in such words
because vowels are pronounced differently in stressed and unstressed
positions.
SOUND IMITATION
It is the way of word-building when a word is formed by imitating
different sounds. There are some semantic groups of words formed by means
of sound imitation
a) sounds produced by human beings, such as : to whisper, to giggle, to
mumble, to sneeze, to whistle etc.
b) sounds produced by animals, birds, insects, such as : to hiss, to
buzz, to bark, to moo, to twitter etc.
c) sounds produced by nature and objects, such as : to splash, to rustle,
to clatter, to bubble, to ding-dong, to tinkle etc.
The corresponding nouns are formed by means of conversion, e.g. clang (of
a bell), chatter (of children) etc.
BLENDS
Blends are words formed from a word-group or two synonyms. In blends two
ways of word-building are combined : abbreviation and composition. To form
a blend we clip the end of the first component (apocope) and the beginning
of the second component (apheresis) . As a result we have a compound-
shortened word. One of the first blends in English was the word «smog»
from two synonyms : smoke and fog which means smoke mixed with fog. From
the first component the beginning is taken, from the second one the end,
«o» is common for both of them.
Blends formed from two synonyms are: slanguange, to hustle, gasohol etc.
Mostly blends are formed from a word-group, such as : acromania (acronym
mania), cinemadict (cinema adict), chunnel (channel, canal), dramedy (drama
comedy), detectifiction (detective fiction), faction (fact fiction)
(fiction based on real facts), informecial (information commercial) ,
Medicare ( medical care) , magalog ( magazine catalogue) slimnastics
(slimming gymnastics), sociolite (social elite), slanguist ( slang
linguist) etc.
BACK FORMATION
It is the way of word-building when a word is formed by dropping the
final morpheme to form a new word. It is opposite to suffixation, that is
why it is called back formation. At first it appeared in the languauge as a
result of misunderstanding the structure of a borrowed word . Prof.
Yartseva explains this mistake by the influence of the whole system of the
language on separate words. E.g. it is typical of English to form nouns
denoting the agent of the action by adding the suffix -er to a verb stem
(speak- speaker). So when the French word «beggar» was borrowed into
English the final syllable «ar» was pronounced in the same way as the
English -er and Englishmen formed the verb «to beg» by dropping the end of
the noun. Other examples of back formation are : to accreditate (from
accreditation), to bach (from bachelor), to collocate (from collocation),
to enthuse (from enthusiasm), to compute (from computer), to emote (from
emotion) to reminisce ( from reminiscence) , to televise (from television)
etc.
As we can notice in cases of back formation the part-of-speech meaning
of the primary word is changed, verbs are formed from nouns.
SEMANTIC CHANGES
The meaning of a word can change in the course of time. Changes of
lexical meanings can be proved by comparing contexts of different times.
Transfer of the meaning is called lexico-semantic word-building. In such
cases the outer aspect of a word does not change.
The causes of semantic changes can be extra-linguistic and linguistic,
e.g. the change of the lexical meaning of the noun «pen» was due to extra-
linguistic causes. Primarily « pen» comes back to the Latin word «penna» (a
feather of a bird). As people wrote with goose pens the name was
transferred to steel pens which were later on used for writing. Still later
any instrument for writing was called « a pen».
On the other hand causes can be linguistic, e.g. the conflict of synonyms
when a perfect synonym of a native word is borrowed from some other
language one of them may specialize in its meaning, e.g. the noun «tide» in
Old English was polisemantic and denoted «time», «season», «hour». When the
French words «time», «season», «hour» were borrowed into English they
ousted the word «tide» in these meanings. It was specialized and now means
«regular rise and fall of the sea caused by attraction of the moon». The
meaning of a word can also change due to ellipsis, e.g. the word-group «a
train of carriages» had the meaning of «a row of carriages», later on «of
carriages» was dropped and the noun «train» changed its meaning, it is used
now in the function and with the meaning of the whole word-group.
Semantic changes have been classified by different scientists. The most
complete classification was suggested by a German scientist Herman Paul in
his work «Prinzipien des Sprachgeschichte». It is based on the logical
principle. He distiguishes two main ways where the semantic change is
gradual ( specialization and generalization), two momentary conscious
semantic changes (metaphor and metonymy) and also secondary ways: gradual
(elevation and degradation), momentary (hyperbole and litote).
SPECIALIZATION
It is a gradual process when a word passes from a general sphere to some
special sphere of communication, e.g. «case» has a general meaning
«circumstances in which a person or a thing is». It is specialized in its
meaning when used in law (a law suit), in grammar (a form in the paradigm
of a noun), in medicine (a patient, an illness). The difference between
these meanings is revealed in the context.
The meaning of a word can specialize when it remains in the general
usage. It happens in the case of the conflict between two absolute synonyms
when one of them must specialize in its meaning to remain in the language,
e.g. the native word «meat» had the meaning «food», this meaning is
preserved in the compound «sweetmeats». The meaning «edible flesh» was
formed when the word «food», its absolute synonym, won in the conflict of
absolute synonyms (both words are native). The English verb «starve» was
specialized in its meaning after the Scandinavian verb «die» was borrowed
into English. «Die» became the general verb with this meaning because in
English there were the noun «death» and the adjective «dead». «Starve» got
the meaning «to die of hunger» .
The third way of specialization is the formation of Proper names from
common nouns, it is often used in toponimics, e.g. the City - the business
part of London, Oxford - university town in England, the Tower -originally
a fortress and palace, later -a prison, now - a museum.
The fourth way of specialization is ellipsis. In such cases primaraly we
have a word-group of the type «attribute + noun», which is used constantly
in a definite situation. Due to it the attribute can be dropped and the
noun can get the meaning of the whole word-group, e.g. «room» originally
meant «space», this meaning is retained in the adjective «roomy» and word
combinations: «no room for», «to take room», «to take no room». The
meaning of the word «room « was specialized because it was often used in
the combinations: «dining room», «sleeping room» which meant «space for
dining» , «space for sleeping».
GENERALIZATION
It is a process contrary to specializaton, in such cases the meaning of a
word becomes more general in the course of time.
The transfer from a concrete meaning to an abstract one is most frequent,
e.g. «ready» (a derivative from the verb «ridan» - «ride») meant «prepared
for a ride», now its meaning is «prepared for anything». «Journey» was
borrowed from French with the meaning «one day trip», now it means «a trip
of any duration».
All auxiliary verbs are cases of generalization of their lexical meaning
because they developed a grammatical meaning : «have», «be», «do», «shall»
, «will» when used as auxiliary verbs are devoid of their lexical meaning
which they have when used as notional verbs or modal verbs, e.g. cf. «I
have several books by this writer» and «I have read some books by this
author». In the first sentence the verb «have» has the meaning «possess»,
in the second sentence it has no lexical meaning, its grammatical meaning
is to form Present Perfect.
METAPHOR
It is a transfer of the meaning on the basis of comparison. Herman Paul
points out that metaphor can be based on different types of similarity:
a) similarity of shape, e.g. head (of a cabbage), bottleneck, teeth (of a
saw, a comb);
b) similarity of position, e.g. foot (of a page, of a mountain), head (of
a procession);
c) similarity of function, behaviour e.g. a whip (an official in the
British Parliament whose duty is to see that members were present at the
voting);
d) similarity of colour, e.g. orange, hazel, chestnut etc.
In some cases we have a complex similarity, e.g. the leg of a table has a
similarity to a human leg in its shape, position and function.
Many metaphors are based on parts of a human body, e.g. an eye of a
needle, arms and mouth of a river, head of an army.
A special type of metaphor is when Proper names become common nouns, e.g.
philistine - a mercenary person, vandals - destructive people, a Don Juan -
a lover of many women etc.
METONYMY
It is a transfer of the meaning on the basis of contiguity. There are
different types of metonymy:
a) the material of which an object is made may become the name of the
object , e.g. a glass, boards, iron etc;
b) the name of the place may become the name of the people or of an
object placed there, e.g. the House - members of Parliament, Fleet Street
- bourgeois press, the White House - the Administration of the USA etc;
c) names of musical instruments may become names of musicians, e.g. the
violin, the saxophone;
d) the name of some person may becom a common noun, e.g. «boycott» was
originally the name of an Irish family who were so much disliked by their
neighbours that they did not mix with them, «sandwich» was named after Lord
Sandwich who was a gambler. He did not want to interrupt his game and had
his food brought to him while he was playing cards between two slices of
bread not to soil his fingers.
e) names of inventors very often become terms to denote things they
invented, e.g. «watt» , «om», «rentgen» etc
f) some geographical names can also become common nouns through metonymy,
e.g. holland (linen fabrics), Brussels (a special kind of carpets) , china
(porcelain) , astrachan ( a sheep fur) etc.
ELEVATION
It is a transfer of the meaning when it becomes better in the course of
time, e.g. «knight» originally meant «a boy», then «a young servant», then
«a military servant», then «a noble man». Now it is a title of nobility
given to outstanding people; «marshal» originally meant «a horse man» now
it is the highest military rank etc.
DEGRADATION
It is a transfer of the meaning when it becomes worse in the course of
time. It is usually connected with nouns denoting common people, e.g.
«villain» originally meant «working on a villa» now it means «a scoundrel».
HYPERBOLE
It is a transfer of the meaning when the speaker uses exaggeration,
e.g. «to hate»(doing something), (not to see somebody) «for ages».
Hyperbole is often used to form phraseological units, e.g. «to make a
mountain out of a molehill», «to split hairs» etc.
LITOTE
It is a transfer of the meaning when the speaker expresses affirmative
with the negative or vica versa, e.g. not bad, no coward etc.
PHRASEOLOGY
The vocabulary of a language is enriched not only by words but also by
phraseological units. Phraseological units are word-groups that cannot be
made in the process of speech, they exist in the language as ready-made
units. They are compiled in special dictionaries. The same as words
phraseological units express a single notion and are used in a sentence as
one part of it. American and British lexicographers call such units
«idioms». We can mention such dictionaries as: L.Smith «Words and Idioms»,
V.Collins «A Book of English Idioms» etc. In these dictionaries we can find
words, peculiar in their semantics (idiomatic), side by side with word-
groups and sentences. In these dictionaries they are arranged, as a rule,
into different semantic groups.
Phraseological units can be classified according to the ways they are
formed, according to the degree of the motivation of their meaning,
according to their structure and according to their part-of-speech meaning.
WAYS OF FORMING PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
A.V. Koonin classified phraseological units according to the way they
are formed. He pointed out primary and secondary ways of forming
phraseological units.
Primary ways of forming phraseological units are those when a unit is
formed on the basis of a free word-group :
a) Most productive in Modern English is the formation of phraseological
units by means of transferring the meaning of terminological word-groups,
e.g. in cosmic technique we can point out the following phrases: «launching
pad» in its terminological meaning is «ñòàðòîâàÿ ïëîùàäêà» , in its
transferred meaning - «îòïðàâíîé ïóíêò», «to link up» - «còûêîâàòüñÿ,
ñòûêîâàòü êîñìè÷åñêèå êîðàáëè» in its tranformed meaning it means
-«çíàêîìèòüñÿ»;
b) a large group of phraseological units was formed from free word groups
by transforming their meaning, e.g. «granny farm» - «ïàíñèîíàò äëÿ
ïðåñòàðåëûõ», «Troyan horse» - «êîìïüþòîðíàÿ ïðîãðàììà, ïðåäíàìåðåííî
ñîñòàâëåííàÿ äëÿ ïîâðåæäåíèÿ êîìïüþòåðà»;
c) phraseological units can be formed by means of alliteration , e.g. «a
sad sack» - «íåñ÷àñòíûé ñëó÷àé», «culture vulture» - «÷åëîâåê,
èíòåðåñóþùèéñÿ èñêóññòâîì», «fudge and nudge» - «óêëîí÷èâîñòü».
d) they can be formed by means of expressiveness, especially it is
characteristic for forming interjections, e.g. «My aunt!», « Hear, hear !»
etc
e) they can be formed by means of distorting a word group, e.g. «odds and
ends» was formed from «odd ends»,
f) they can be formed by using archaisms, e.g. «in brown study» means «in
gloomy meditation» where both components preserve their archaic meanings,
g) they can be formed by using a sentence in a different sphere of life,
e.g. «that cock won’t fight» can be used as a free word-group when it is
used in sports (cock fighting ), it becomes a phraseological unit when it
is used in everyday life, because it is used metaphorically,
h) they can be formed when we use some unreal image, e.g. «to have
butterflies in the stomach» - «èñïûòûâàòü âîëíåíèå», «to have green
fingers» - »ïðåóñïåâàòü êàê ñàäîâîä-ëþáèòåëü» etc.
i) they can be formed by using expressions of writers or polititions in
everyday life, e.g. «corridors of power» (Snow), «American dream» (Alby)
«locust years» (Churchil) , «the winds of change» (Mc Millan).
Secondary ways of forming phraseological units are those when a
phraseological unit is formed on the basis of another phraseological unit;
they are:
a) conversion, e.g. «to vote with one’s feet» was converted into «vote
with one’s f eet»;
b) changing the grammar form, e.g. «Make hay while the sun shines» is
transferred into a verbal phrase - «to make hay while the sun shines»;
c) analogy, e.g. «Curiosity killed the cat» was transferred into «Care
killed the cat»;
d) contrast, e.g. «cold surgery» - «a planned before operation» was
formed by contrasting it with «acute surgery», «thin cat» - «a poor person»
was formed by contrasting it with «fat cat»;
e) shortening of proverbs or sayings e.g. from the proverb «You can’t
make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear» by means of clipping the middle of
it the phraseological unit «to make a sow’s ear» was formed with the
meaning «îøèáàòüñÿ».
f) borrowing phraseological units from other languages, either as
translation loans, e.g. « living space» (German), « to take the bull by the
horns» ( Latin) or by means of phonetic borrowings «meche blanche»
(French), «corpse d’elite» (French), «sotto voce» (Italian) etc.
Phonetic borrowings among phraseological units refer to the bookish style
and are not used very often.
SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATION OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
Phraseological units can be classified according to the degree of
motivation of their meaning. This classification was suggested by acad.
V.V. Vinogradov for Russian phraseological units. He pointed out three
types of phraseological units:
a) fusions where the degree of motivation is very low, we cannot guess
the meaning of the whole from the meanings of its components, they are
highly idiomatic and cannot be translated word for word into other
languages, e.g. on Shank’s mare - (on foot), at sixes and sevens - (in a
mess) etc;
b) unities where the meaning of the whole can be guessed from the
meanings of its components, but it is transferred (metaphorical or
metonymical), e.g. to play the first fiddle ( to be a leader in
something), old salt (experienced sailor) etc;
c) collocations where words are combined in their original meaning but
their combinations are different in different languages, e.g. cash and
carry - (self-service shop), in a big way (in great degree) etc.
STRUCTURAL CLASSIFICATION OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
Prof. A.I. Smirnitsky worked out structural classification of
phraseological units, comparing them with words. He points out one-top
units which he compares with derived words because derived words have only
one root morpheme. He points out two-top units which he compares with
compound words because in compound words we usually have two root
morphemes.
Among one-top units he points out three structural types;
a) units of the type «to give up» (verb + postposition type), e.g. to
art up, to back up, to drop out, to nose out, to buy into, to sandwich
in etc.;
b) units of the type «to be tired» . Some of these units remind the
Passive Voice in their structure but they have different prepositons with
them, while in the Passive Voice we can have only prepositions «by» or
«with», e.g. to be tired of, to be interested in, to be surprised at etc.
There are also units in this type which remind free word-groups of the type
«to be young», e.g. to be akin to, to be aware of etc. The difference
between them is that the adjective «young» can be used as an attribute and
as a predicative in a sentence, while the nominal component in such units
can act only as a predicative. In these units the verb is the grammar
centre and the second component is the semantic centre;
c) prepositional- nominal phraseological units. These units are
equivalents of unchangeable words: prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs ,
that is why they have no grammar centre, their semantic centre is the
nominal part, e.g. on the doorstep (quite near), on the nose (exactly), in
the course of, on the stroke of, in time, on the point of etc. In the
course of time such units can become words, e.g. tomorrow, instead etc.
Among two-top units A.I. Smirnitsky points out the following structural
types:
a) attributive-nominal such as: a month of Sundays, grey matter, a
millstone round one’s neck and many others. Units of this type are noun
equivalents and can be partly or perfectly idiomatic. In partly idiomatic
units (phrasisms) sometimes the first component is idiomatic, e.g. high
road, in other cases the second component is idiomatic, e.g. first night.
In many cases both components are idiomatic, e.g. red tape, blind alley,
bed of nail, shot in the arm and many others.
b) verb-nominal phraseological units, e.g. to read between the lines , to
speak BBC, to sweep under the carpet etc. The grammar centre of such units
is the verb, the semantic centre in many cases is the nominal component,
e.g. to fall in love. In some units the verb is both the grammar and the
semantic centre, e.g. not to know the ropes. These units can be perfectly
idiomatic as well, e.g. to burn one’s boats,to vote with one’s feet, to
take to the cleaners’ etc.
Very close to such units are word-groups of the type to have a glance, to
have a smoke. These units are not idiomatic and are treated in grammar as a
special syntactical combination, a kind of aspect.
c) phraseological repetitions, such as : now or never, part and parcel ,
country and western etc. Such units can be built on antonyms, e.g. ups and
downs , back and forth; often they are formed by means of alliteration, e.g
cakes and ale, as busy as a bee. Components in repetitions are joined by
means of conjunctions. These units are equivalents of adverbs or adjectives
and have no grammar centre. They can also be partly or perfectly idiomatic,
e.g. cool as a cucumber (partly), bread and butter (perfectly).
Phraseological units the same as compound words can have more than two
tops (stems in compound words), e.g. to take a back seat, a peg to hang a
thing on, lock, stock and barrel, to be a shaddow of one’s own self, at
one’s own sweet will.
SYNTACTICAL CLASSIFICATION
OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
Phraseological units can be clasified as parts of speech. This
classification was suggested by I.V. Arnold. Here we have the following
groups:
a) noun phraseologisms denoting an object, a person, a living being, e.g.
bullet train, latchkey child, redbrick university, Green Berets,
b) verb phraseologisms denoting an action, a state, a feeling, e.g. to
break the log-jam, to get on somebody’s coattails, to be on the beam, to
nose out , to make headlines,
c) adjective phraseologisms denoting a quality, e.g. loose as a goose,
dull as lead ,
d) adverb phraseological units, such as : with a bump, in the soup, like
a dream , like a dog with two tails,
e) preposition phraseological units, e.g. in the course of, on the stroke
of ,
f) interjection phraseological units, e.g. «Catch me!», «Well, I never!»
etc.
In I.V.Arnold’s classification there are also sentence equivalents,
proverbs, sayings and quatations, e.g. «The sky is the limit», «What makes
him tick», » I am easy». Proverbs are usually metaphorical, e.g. «Too many
cooks spoil the broth», while sayings are as a rule non-metaphorical, e.g.
«Where there is a will there is a way».
BORROWINGS
Borrowing words from other languages is characteristic of English
throughout its history More than two thirds of the English vocabulary are
borrowings. Mostly they are words of Romanic origin (Latin, French,
Italian, Spanish). Borrowed words are different from native ones by their
phonetic structure, by their morphological structure and also by their
grammatical forms. It is also characterisitic of borrowings to be non-
motivated semantically.
English history is very rich in different types of contacts with other
countries, that is why it is very rich in borrowings. The Roman invasion,
the adoption of Cristianity, Scandinavian and Norman conquests of the
British Isles, the development of British colonialism and trade and
cultural relations served to increase immensely the English vocabulary. The
majority of these borrowings are fully assimilated in English in their
pronunciation, grammar, spelling and can be hardly distinguished from
native words.
English continues to take in foreign words , but now the quantity of
borrowings is not so abundunt as it was before. All the more so, English
now has become a «giving» language, it has become Lingva franca of the
twentieth century.
Borrowings can be classified according to different criteria:
a) according to the aspect which is borrowed,
b) according to the degree of assimilation,
c) according to the language from which the word was borrowed.
(In this classification only the main languages from which words were
borrowed into English are described, such as Latin, French, Italian.
Spanish, German and Russian.)
CLASSIFICATION OF BORROWINGS ACCORDING TO THE BORROWED ASPECT
There are the following groups: phonetic borrowings, translation loans,
semantic borrowings, morphemic borrowings.
Phonetic borrowings are most characteristic in all languages, they are
called loan words proper. Words are borrowed with their spelling,
pronunciation and meaning. Then they undergo assimilation, each sound in
the borrowed word is substituted by the corresponding sound of the
borrowing language. In some cases the spelling is changed. The structure of
the word can also be changed. The position of the stress is very often
influenced by the phonetic system of the borrowing language. The paradigm
of the word, and sometimes the meaning of the borrowed word are also
changed. Such words as: labour, travel, table, chair, people are phonetic
borrowings from French; apparatchik, nomenklatura, sputnik are phonetic
borrowings from Russian; bank, soprano, duet are phonetic borrowings from
Italian etc.
Translation loans are word-for-word (or morpheme-for-morpheme )
translations of some foreign words or expressions. In such cases the notion
is borrowed from a foreign language but it is expressed by native lexical
units, «to take the bull by the horns» (Latin), «fair sex» ( French),
«living space» (German) etc. Some translation loans appeared in English
from Latin already in the Old English period, e.g. Sunday (solis dies).
There are translation loans from the languages of Indians, such as: «pipe
of peace», «pale-faced», from German «masterpiece», «homesickness»,
«superman».
Semantic borrowings are such units when a new meaning of the unit
existing in the language is borrowed. It can happen when we have two
relative languages which have common words with different meanings, e.g.
there are semantic borrowings between Scandinavian and English, such as the
meaning «to live» for the word «to dwell’ which in Old English had the
meaning «to wander». Or else the meaning «äàð» , «ïîäàðîê» for the word
«gift» which in Old English had the meaning «âûêóï çà æåíó».
Semantic borrowing can appear when an English word was borrowed into some
other language, developed there a new meaning and this new meaning was
borrowed back into English, e.g. «brigade» was borrowed into Russian and
formed the meaning «a working collective«,»áðèãàäà». This meaning was
borrowed back into English as a Russian borrowing. The same is true of the
English word «pioneer».
Morphemic borrowings are borrowings of affixes which occur in the
language when many words with identical affixes are borrowed from one
language into another, so that the morphemic structure of borrowed words
becomes familiar to the people speaking the borrowing language, e.g. we can
find a lot of Romanic affixes in the English word-building system, that is
why there are a lot of words - hybrids in English where different morphemes
have different origin, e.g. «goddess», «beautiful» etc.
CLASSIFICATION OF BORROWINGS ACCORDING TO THE DEGREE OF ASSIMILATION
The degree of assimilation of borrowings depends on the following
factors: a) from what group of languages the word was borrowed, if the word
belongs to the same group of languages to which the borrowing language
belongs it is assimilated easier, b) in what way the word is borrowed:
orally or in the written form, words borrowed orally are assimilated
quicker, c) how often the borrowing is used in the language, the greater
the frequency of its usage, the quicker it is assimilated, d) how long the
word lives in the language, the longer it lives, the more assimilated it
is.
Accordingly borrowings are subdivided into: completely assimilated,
partly assimilated and non-assimilated (barbarisms).
Completely assimilated borrowings are not felt as foreign words in the
language, cf the French word «sport» and the native word «start».
Completely assimilated verbs belong to regular verbs, e.g. correct
-corrected. Completely assimilated nouns form their plural by means of s-
inflexion, e.g. gate- gates. In completely assimilated French words the
stress has been shifted from the last syllable to the last but one.
Semantic assimilation of borrowed words depends on the words existing in
the borrowing language, as a rule, a borrowed word does not bring all its
meanings into the borrowing language, if it is polysemantic, e.g. the
Russian borrowing «sputnik» is used in English only in one of its meanings.
Partly assimilated borrowings are subdivided into the following groups:
a) borrowings non-assimilated semantically, because they denote objects and
notions peculiar to the country from the language of which they were
borrowed, e.g. sari, sombrero, taiga, kvass etc.
b) borrowings non-assimilated grammatically, e.g. nouns borrowed from
Latin and Greek retain their plural forms (bacillus - bacilli, phenomenon -
phenomena, datum -data, genius - genii etc.
c) borrowings non-assimilated phonetically. Here belong words with the
initial sounds /v/ and /z/, e.g. voice, zero. In native words these voiced
consonants are used only in the intervocal position as allophones of sounds
/f/ and /s/ ( loss - lose, life - live ). Some Scandinavian borrowings have
consonants and combinations of consonants which were not palatalized, e.g.
/sk/ in the words: sky, skate, ski etc (in native words we have the
palatalized sounds denoted by the digraph «sh», e.g. shirt); sounds /k/
and /g/ before front vowels are not palatalized e.g. girl, get, give, kid,
kill, kettle. In native words we have palatalization , e.g. German, child.
Some French borrowings have retained their stress on the last syllable,
e.g. police, cartoon. Some French borrowings retain special combinations
of sounds, e.g. /a:3/ in the words : camouflage, bourgeois, some of them
retain the combination of sounds /wa:/ in the words: memoir, boulevard.
d) borrowings can be partly assimilated graphically, e.g. in Greak
borrowings «y» can be spelled in the middle of the word (symbol, synonym),
«ph» denotes the sound /f/ (phoneme, morpheme), «ch» denotes the sound
/k/(chemistry, chaos),«ps» denotes the sound /s/ (psychology).
Latin borrowings retain their polisyllabic structure, have double
consonants, as a rule, the final consonant of the prefix is assimilated
with the initial consonant of the stem, (accompany, affirmative).
French borrowings which came into English after 1650 retain their
spelling, e.g. consonants «p», «t», «s» are not pronounced at the end of
the word (buffet, coup, debris), Specifically French combination of letters
«eau» /ou/ can be found in the borrowings : beau, chateau, troussaeu. Some
of digraphs retain their French pronunciation: ‘ch’ is pronounced as /sh/,
e.g. chic, parachute, ‘qu’ is pronounced as /k/ e.g. bouquet, «ou» is
pronounced as /u:/, e.g. rouge; some letters retain their French
pronunciation, e.g. «i» is pronounced as /i:/, e,g, chic, machine; «g» is
pronounced as /3/, e.g. rouge.
Modern German borrowings also have some peculiarities in their spelling:
common nouns are spelled with a capital letter e.g. Autobahn, Lebensraum;
some vowels and digraphs retain their German pronunciation, e.g. «a» is
pronounced as /a:/ (Dictat), «u» is pronounced as /u:/ (Kuchen), «au» is
pronounced as /au/ (Hausfrau), «ei» is pronounced as /ai/ (Reich); some
consonants are also pronounced in the German way, e.g. «s» before a vowel
is pronounced as /z/ (Sitskrieg), «v» is pronounced as /f/ (Volkswagen),
«w» is pronounced as /v/ , «ch» is pronounced as /h/ (Kuchen).
Non-assimilated borrowings (barbarisms) are borrowings which are used by
Englishmen rather seldom and are non-assimilated, e.g. addio (Italian),
tete-a-tete (French), dolce vita (Italian), duende (Spanish), an homme a
femme (French), gonzo (Italian) etc.
CLASSIFICATION OF BORROWINGS ACCORDING
TO THE LANGUAGE FROM WHICH THEY WERE BORROWED
ROMANIC BORROWINGS
Latin borrowings.
Among words of Romanic origin borrowed from Latin during the period when
the British Isles were a part of the Roman Empire, there are such words as:
street, port, wall etc. Many Latin and Greek words came into English during
the Adoption of Christianity in the 6-th century. At this time the Latin
alphabet was borrowed which ousted the Runic alphabet. These borrowings
are usually called classical borrowings. Here belong Latin words: alter,
cross, dean, and Greek words: church, angel, devil, anthem.
Latin and Greek borrowings appeared in English during the Middle English
period due to the Great Revival of Learning. These are mostly scientific
words because Latin was the language of science at the time. These words
were not used as frequently as the words of the Old English period,
therefore some of them were partly assimilated grammatically, e.g. formula
- formulae. Here also belong such words as: memorandum, minimum, maximum,
veto etc.
Classical borrowings continue to appear in Modern English as well. Mostly
they are words formed with the help of Latin and Greek morphemes. There are
quite a lot of them in medicine (appendicitis, aspirin), in chemistry
(acid, valency, alkali), in technique (engine, antenna, biplane, airdrome),
in politics (socialism, militarism), names of sciences (zoology, physics) .
In philology most of terms are of Greek origin (homonym, archaism,
lexicography).
French borrowings
The influence of French on the English spelling.
The largest group of borrowings are French borrowings. Most of them came
into English during the Norman conquest. French influenced not only the
vocabulary of English but also its spelling, because documents were written
by French scribes as the local population was mainly illiterate, and the
ruling class was French. Runic letters remaining in English after the Latin
alphabet was borrowed were substituted by Latin letters and combinations
of letters, e.g. «v» was introduced for the voiced consonant /v/ instead of
«f» in the intervocal position /lufian - love/, the digraph «ch» was
introduced to denote the sound /ch/ instead of the letter «c» / chest/
before front vowels where it had been palatalized, the digraph «sh» was
introduced instead of the combination «sc» to denote the sound /sh/ /ship/,
the digraph «th» was introduced instead of the Runic letters «0» and « »
/this, thing/, the letter «y» was introduced instead of the Runic letter
«3» to denote the sound /j/ /yet/, the digraph «qu» substituted the
combination «cw» to denote the combination of sounds /kw/ /queen/, the
digraph «ou» was introduced to denote the sound /u:/ /house/ (The sound
/u:/ was later on diphthongized and is pronounced /au/ in native words and
fully assimilated borrowings). As it was difficult for French scribes to
copy English texts they substituted the letter «u» before «v», «m», «n» and
the digraph «th» by the letter «o» to escape the combination of many
vertical lines /«sunu» - «son», luvu» - «love»/.
Borrowing of French words.
There are the following semantic groups of French borrowings:
a) words relating to government : administer, empire, state, government;
b) words relating to military affairs: army, war, banner, soldier,
battle;
c) words relating to jury: advocate, petition, inquest, sentence,
barrister;
d) words relating to fashion: luxury, coat, collar, lace, pleat,
embroidery;
e) words relating to jewelry: topaz, emerald, ruby, pearl ;
f) words relating to food and cooking: lunch, dinner, appetite, to roast,
to stew.
Words were borrowed from French into English after 1650, mainly through
French literature, but they were not as numerous and many of them are not
completely assimilated. There are the following semantic groups of these
borrowings:
a) words relating to literature and music: belle-lettres, conservatorie,
brochure, nuance, piruette, vaudeville;
b) words relating to military affairs: corps, echelon, fuselage,
manouvre;
c) words relating to buildings and furniture: entresol, chateau, bureau;
d) words relating to food and cooking: ragout, cuisine.
Italian borrowings.
Cultural and trade relations between Italy and England brought many
Italian words into English. The earliest Italian borrowing came into
English in the 14-th century, it was the word «bank» /from the Italian
«banko» - «bench»/. Italian money-lenders and money-changers sat in the
streets on benches. When they suffered losses they turned over their
benches, it was called «banco rotta» from which the English word «bankrupt»
originated. In the 17-th century some geological terms were borrowed :
volcano, granite, bronze, lava. At the same time some political terms were
borrowed: manifesto, bulletin.
But mostly Italian is famous by its influence in music and in all Indo-
European languages musical terms were borrowed from Italian : alto,
baritone, basso, tenor, falsetto, solo, duet, trio, quartet, quintet,
opera, operette, libretto, piano, violin.
Among the 20-th century Italian borrowings we can mention : gazette,
incognitto, autostrada, fiasco, fascist, diletante, grotesque, graffitto
etc.
Spanish borrowings.
Spanish borrowings came into English mainly through its American variant.
There are the following semantic groups of them:
a) trade terms: cargo, embargo;
b) names of dances and musical instruments: tango, rumba, habanera,
guitar;
c) names of vegetables and fruit: tomato, potato, tobbaco, cocoa, banana,
ananas, apricot etc.
GERMANIC BORROWINGS
English belongs to the Germanic group of languages and there are
borrowings from Scandinavian, German and Holland languages, though their
number is much less than borrowings from Romanic languages.
Scandinavian borrowings.
By the end of the Old English period English underwent a strong influence
of Scandinavian due to the Scandinavian conquest of the British Isles.
Scandinavians belonged to the same group of peoples as Englishmen and
their languages had much in common. As the result of this conquest there
are about 700 borrowings from Scandinavian into English.
Scandinavians and Englishmen had the same way of life,their cultural
level was the same, they had much in common in their literature therefore
there were many words in these languages which were almost identical, e.g.
ON OE
Modern E
syster sweoster
sister
fiscr fisc
fish
felagi felawe
fellow
However there were also many words in the two languages which were
different, and some of them were borrowed into English , such nouns as:
bull, cake, egg, kid, knife, skirt, window etc, such adjectives as: flat,
ill, happy, low, odd, ugly, wrong, such verbs as : call, die, guess, get,
give, scream and many others.
Even some pronouns and connective words were borrowed which happens very
seldom, such as : same, both, till, fro, though, and pronominal forms with
«th»: they, them, their.
Scandinavian influenced the development of phrasal verbs which did not
exist in Old English, at the same time some prefixed verbs came out of
usage, e.g. ofniman, beniman. Phrasal verbs are now highly productive in
English /take off, give in etc/.
German borrowings.
There are some 800 words borrowed from German into English. Some of them
have classical roots, e.g. in some geological terms, such as: cobalt,
bismuth, zink, quarts, gneiss, wolfram. There were also words denoting
objects used in everyday life which were borrowed from German: iceberg,
lobby, rucksack, Kindergarten etc.
In the period of the Second World War the following words were borrowed:
Volkssturm, Luftwaffe, SS-man, Bundeswehr, gestapo, gas chamber and many
others. After the Second World War the following words were borrowed:
Berufsverbot, Volkswagen etc.
Holland borrowings.
Holland and England have constant interrelations for many centuries and
more than 2000 Holland borrowings were borrowed into English. Most of them
are nautical terms and were mainly borrowed in the 14-th century, such as:
freight, skipper, pump, keel, dock, reef, deck, leak and many others.
Besides two main groups of borrowings (Romanic and Germanic) there are
also borrowings from a lot of other languages. We shall speak about Russian
borrowings, borrowings from the language which belongs to Slavoninc
languages.
Russian borrowings.
There were constant contacts between England and Russia and they borrowed
words from one language into the other. Among early Russian borrowings
there are mainly words connected with trade relations, such as: rouble,
copeck, pood, sterlet, vodka, sable, and also words relating to nature,
such as: taiga, tundra, steppe etc.
There is also a large group of Russian borrowings which came into English
through Rushian literature of the 19-th century, such as : Narodnik,
moujik, duma, zemstvo. volost, ukase etc, and also words which were formed
in Russian with Latin roots, such as: nihilist, intelligenzia, Decembrist
etc.
After the Great October Revolution many new words appeared in Russian
connected with the new political system, new culture, and many of them were
borrowed into English, such as: collectivization. udarnik, Komsomol etc
and also translation loans, such as: shock worker, collective farm, five-
year plan etc.
One more group of Russian borrowings is connected with perestroika, such
as: glasnost, nomenklatura, apparatchik etc.
ETYMOLOGICAL DOUBLETS
Sometimes a word is borrowed twice from the same language. As the
result, we have two different words with different spellings and meanings
but historically they come back to one and the same word. Such words are
called etymological doublets. In English there are some groups of them:
Latino-French doublets.
Latin English from Latin English from French
uncia inch
ounce
moneta mint
money
camera camera
chamber
Franco-French doublets
doublets borrowed from different dialects of French.
Norman Paris
canal channel
captain chieftain
catch chaise
Scandinavian-English doublets
Scandinavian English
skirt shirt
scabby shabby
There are also etymological doublets which were borrowed from the same
language during different historical periods, such as French doublets:
gentil - ëþáåçíûé, áëàãîðîäíûé, etymological doublets are: gentle - ìÿãêèé,
âåæëèâûé and genteel - áëàãîðîäíûé. From the French word gallant
etymological doublets are : ‘gallant - õðàáðûé and ga’llant - ãàëàíòíûé,
âíèìàòåëüíûé.
Sometimes etymological doublets are the result of borrowing different
grammatical forms of the same word, e.g. the Comparative degree of Latin
«super» was «superior» which was borrowed into English with the meaning
«high in some quality or rank». The Superlative degree (Latin
«supremus»)in English «supreme» with the meaning «outstanding»,
«prominent». So «superior» and «supreme» are etymological doublets.
SEMASIOLOGY
The branch of lexicology which deals with the meaning is called
semasiology.
WORD - MEANING
Every word has two aspects: the outer aspect (its sound form) and the
inner aspect (its meaning) . Sound and meaning do not always constitute a
constant unit even in the same language. E.g. the word «temple» may denote
«a part of a human head» and «a large church» In such cases we have
homonyms. One and the same word in different syntactical relations can
develop different meanings, e.g. the verb «treat» in sentences:
a) He treated my words as a joke.
b) The book treats of poetry.
c) They treated me to sweets.
d) He treats his son cruelly.
In all these sentences the verb «treat» has different meanings and we can
speak about polysemy.
On the other hand, one and the same meaning can be expressed by different
sound forms, e.g. «pilot» , and «airman», «horror» and «terror». In such
cases we have synonyms.
Both the meaning and the sound can develop in the course of time
independently. E.g. the Old English /luvian/ is pronounced /l^v / in Modern
English. On the other hand, «board» primariliy means « a piece of wood sawn
thin» It has developed the meanings: a table, a board of a ship, a stage, a
council etc.
LEXICAL MEANING - NOTION
The lexical meaning of a word is the realization of a notion by means of
a definite language system. A word is a language unit, while a notion is a
unit of thinking. A notion cannot exict without a word expressing it in the
language, but there are words which do not express any notion but have a
lexical meaning. Interjections express emotions but not notions, but they
have lexical meanings, e.g. Alas! /disappointment/, Oh,my buttons!
/surprise/ etc. There are also words which express both, notions and
emotions, e.g. girlie, a pig /when used metaphorically/.
The term «notion» was introduced into lexicology from logics. A notion
denotes the reflection in the mind of real objects and phenomena in their
relations. Notions, as a rule, are international, especially with the
nations of the same cultural level. While meanings can be nationally
limited. Grouping of meanings in the semantic structure of a word is
determined by the whole system of every language. E.g. the English verb
«go» and its Russian equivalent «èäòè» have some meanings which coincide:
to move from place to place, to extend /the road goes to London/, to work
/Is your watch going?/. On the other hand, they have different meanings: in
Russian we say :»Âîò îí èäåò» , in English we use the verb «come» in this
case. In English we use the verb «go» in the combinations: «to go by bus»,
«to go by train» etc. In Russian in these cases we use the verb «åõàòü».
The number of meanings does not correspond to the number of words,
neither does the number of notions. Their distribution in relation to words
is peculiar in every language. The Russian has two words for the English
«man»: « ìóæ÷èíà» and «÷åëîâåê». In English, however, «man» cannot be
applied to a female person. We say in Russian: «Îíà õîðîøèé ÷åëîâåê». In
English we use the word «person»/ She is a good person»/
Development of lexical meanings in any language is influenced by the
whole network of ties and relations between words and other aspects of the
language.
POLYSEMY
The word «polysemy» means «plurality of meanings» it exists only in the
language, not in speech. A word which has more than one meaning is called
polysemantic.
Different meanings of a polysemantic word may come together due to the
proximity of notions which they express. E.g. the word «blanket» has the
following meanings: a woolen covering used on beds, a covering for keeping
a horse warm, a covering of any kind /a blanket of snow/, covering all or
most cases /used attributively/, e.g. we can say «a blanket insurance
policy».
There are some words in the language which are monosemantic, such as most
terms, /synonym, molecule, bronchites/, some pronouns /this, my, both/,
numerals.
There are two processes of the semantic development of a word: radiation
and concatination. In cases of radiation the primary meaning stands in the
centre and the secondary meanings proceed out of it like rays. Each
secondary meaning can be traced to the primmary meaning. E.g. in the word
«face» the primary meaning denotes «the front part of the human head»
Connected with the front position the meanings: the front part of a watch,
the front part of a building, the front part of a playing card were formed.
Connected with the word «face» itself the meanings : expression of the
face, outward appearance are formed.
In cases of concatination secondary meanings of a word develop like a
chain. In such cases it is difficult to trace some meanings to the primary
one. E.g. in the word «crust» the primary meaning «hard outer part of
bread» developed a secondary meaning «hard part of anything /a pie, a
cake/», then the meaning »harder layer over soft snow» was developed, then
«a sullen gloomy person», then «impudence» were developed. Here the last
meanings have nothing to do with the primary ones. In such cases homonyms
appear in the language. It is called the split of polysemy.
In most cases in the semantic development of a word both ways of semantic
development are combined.
HOMONYMS
Homonyms are words different in meaning but identical in sound or
spelling, or both in sound and spelling.
Homonyms can appear in the language not only as the result of the split
of polysemy, but also as the result of levelling of grammar inflexions,
when different parts of speech become identical in their outer aspect, e.g.
«care» from «caru» and «care» from «carian». They can be also formed by
means of conversion, e.g. «to slim» from «slim», «to water» from «water».
They can be formed with the help of the same suffix from the same stem,
e.g. «reader»/ a person who reads and a book for reading/.
Homonyms can also appear in the language accidentally, when two words
coincide in their development, e.g. two native words can coincide in their
outer aspects: «to bear» from «beran»/to carry/ and «bear» from «bera»/an
animal/. A native word and a borrowing can coincide in their outer aspects,
e.g. «fair» from Latin «feria» and «fair « from native «fager» /blond/. Two
borrowings can coincide e.g. «base» from the French «base» /Latin basis/
and «base» /low/ from the Latin «bas» /Italian «basso»/.
Homonyms can develop through shortening of different words, e.g. «cab»
from «cabriolet», «cabbage», «cabin».
Classifications of homonyms.
Walter Skeat classified homonyms according to their spelling and sound
forms and he pointed out three groups: perfect homonyms that is words
identical in sound and spelling, such as : «school» - «êîñÿê ðûáû» and
«øêîëà» ; homographs, that is words with the same spelling but pronounced
differently, e.g. «bow» -/bau/ - «ïîêëîí» and /bou/ - «ëóê»; homophones
that is words pronounced identically but spelled differently, e.g. «night»
- «íî÷ü» and «knight» - «ðûöàðü».
Another classification was suggested by A.I Smirnitsky. He added to
Skeat’s classification one more criterion: grammatical meaning. He
subdivided the group of perfect homonyms in Skeat’s classification into two
types of homonyms: perfect which are identical in their spelling,
pronunciation and their grammar form, such as :»spring» in the meanings:
the season of the year, a leap, a source, and homoforms which coincide in
their spelling and pronunciation but have different grammatical meaning,
e.g. «reading» - Present Participle, Gerund, Verbal noun., to lobby - lobby
.
A more detailed classification was given by I.V. Arnold. She classified
only perfect homonyms and suggested four criteria of their classification:
lexical meaning, grammatical meaning, basic forms and paradigms.
According to these criteria I.V. Arnold pointed out the following groups:
a) homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings, basic forms and
paradigms and different in their lexical meanings, e.g. «board» in the
meanings «a council» and « a piece of wood sawn thin»; b) homonyms
identical in their grammatical meanings and basic forms, different in their
lexical meanings and paradigms, e.g. to lie - lied - lied, and to lie -
lay - lain; c) homonyms different in their lexical meanings, grammatical
meanings, paradigms, but coinciding in their basic forms, e.g. «light» /
«lights»/, «light» / «lighter», «lightest»/; d) homonyms different in their
lexical meanings, grammatical meanings, in their basic forms and paradigms,
but coinciding in one of the forms of their paradigms, e.g. «a bit» and
«bit» (from « to bite»).
In I. V. Arnold’s classification there are also patterned homonyms,
which, differing from other homonyms, have a common component in their
lexical meanings. These are homonyms formed either by means of conversion,
or by levelling of grammar inflexions. These homonyms are different in
their grammar meanings, in their paradigms, identical in their basic forms,
e.g. «warm» - «to warm». Here we can also have unchangeable patterned
homonyms which have identical basic forms, different grammatical meanings,
a common component in their lexical meanings, e.g. «before» an adverb, a
conjunction, a preposition. There are also homonyms among unchangeable
words which are different in their lexical and grammatical meanings,
identical in their basic foms, e.g. « for» - «äëÿ» and «for» - «èáî».
SYNONYMS
Synonyms are words different in their outer aspects, but identical or
similar in their inner aspects. In English there are a lot of synonyms,
because there are many borrowings, e.g. hearty / native/ - cordial/
borrowing/. After a word is borrowed it undergoes desynonymization, because
absolute synonyms are unnecessary for a language. However, there are some
absolute synonyms in the language, which have exactly the same meaning and
belong to the same style, e.g. to moan, to groan; homeland, motherland etc.
In cases of desynonymization one of the absolute synonyms can
specialize in its meaning and we get semantic synonyms, e.g. «city»
/borrowed/, «town» /native/. The French borrowing «city» is specialized. In
other cases native words can be specialized in their meanings, e.g. «stool»
/native/, «chair» /French/.
Sometimes one of the absolute synonyms is specialized in its usage and we
get stylistic synonyms, e.g. «to begin»/ native/, «to commence»
/borrowing/. Here the French word is specialized. In some cases the native
word is specialized, e.g. «welkin» /bookish/, «sky» /neutral/.
Stylistic synonyms can also appear by means of abbreviation. In most
cases the abbreviated form belongs to the colloquial style, and the full
form to the neutral style, e.g. «examination’, «exam».
Among stylistic synonyms we can point out a special group of words which
are called euphemisms. These are words used to substitute some unpleasant
or offensive words, e.g «the late» instead of «dead», «to perspire» instead
of «to sweat» etc.
There are also phraseological synonyms, these words are identical in
their meanings and styles but different in their combining with other words
in the sentence, e.g. «to be late for a lecture» but «to miss the train»,
«to visit museums» but «to attend lectures» etc.
In each group of synonyms there is a word with the most general meaning,
which can substitute any word in the group, e.g. «piece» is the synonymic
dominant in the group «slice», «lump», «morsel». The verb « to look at» is
the synonymic dominant in the group «to stare», «to glance», «to peep». The
adjective «red’ is the synonymic dominant in the group «purple», «scarlet»,
«crimson».
When speaking about the sources of synonyms, besides desynonymization and
abbreviation, we can also mention the formation of phrasal verbs, e.g. «to
give up» - «to abandon», «to cut down» - «to diminish».
ANTONYMS
Antonyms are words belonging to the same part of speech, identical in
style, expressing contrary or contradictory notions.
V.N. Comissarov in his dictionary of antonyms classified them into two
groups : absolute or root antonyms /»late» - «early»/ and derivational
antonyms / «to please’ - «to displease»/ . Absolute antonyms have
different roots and derivational antonyms have the same roots but
different affixes. In most cases negative prefixes form antonyms / un-, dis-
, non-/. Sometimes they are formed by means of suffixes -ful and -less.
The number of antonyms with the suffixes ful- and -less is not very
large, and sometimes even if we have a word with one of these suffixes its
antonym is formed not by substituting -ful by less-, e.g. «successful»
-»unsuccessful», «selfless» - «selfish». The same is true about antonyms
with negative prefixes, e.g. «to man» is not an antonym of the word «to
unman», «to disappoint» is not an antonym of the word «to appoint».
The difference between derivational and root antonyms is not only in
their structure, but in semantics as well. Derivational antonyms express
contradictory notions, one of them excludes the other, e.g. «active»-
«inactive». Absolute antonyms express contrary notions. If some notions
can be arranged in a group of more than two members, the most distant
members of the group will be absolute antonyms, e.g. «ugly» , «plain»,
«good-looking», «pretty», «beautiful», the antonyms are «ugly» and
«beautiful».
Leonard Lipka in the book «Outline of English Lexicology» describes
different types of oppositeness, and subdivides them into three types:
a) complementary, e.g. male -female, married -single,
b) antonyms, e.g. good -bad,
c) converseness, e.g. to buy - to sell.
In his classification he describes complimentarity in the following way:
the denial of the one implies the assertion of the other, and vice versa.
«John is not married» implies that «John is single». The type of
oppositeness is based on yes/no decision. Incompatibility only concerns
pairs of lexical units.
Antonymy is the second class of oppositeness. It is distinguished from
complimentarity by being based on different logical relationships. For
pairs of antonyms like good/bad, big/small only the second one of the above
mentioned relations of implication holds. The assertion containing one
member implies the negation of the other, but not vice versa. «John is
good» implies that «John is not bad», but «John is not good» does not imply
that «John is bad». The negation of one term does not necessarily implies
the assertion of the other.
An important linguistic difference from complementaries is that antonyms
are always fully gradable, e.g. hot, warm, tepid, cold.
Converseness is mirror-image relations or functions, e.g. husband/wife,
pupil/teacher, preceed/follow, above/below, before/after etc.
«John bought the car from Bill» implies that «Bill sold the car to John».
Mirror-image sentences are in many ways similar to the relations between
active and passive sentences. Also in the comparative form: »Y is smaller
than X, then X is larger than Y».
L. Lipka also gives the type which he calls directional opposition
up/down, consiquence opposition learn/know, antipodal opposition
North/South, East/West, ( it is based on contrary motion, in opposite
directions.) The pairs come/go, arrive/depart involve motion in different
directions. In the case up/down we have movement from a point P. In the
case come/go we have movement from or to the speaker.
L. Lipka also points out non-binary contrast or many-member lexical sets.
Here he points out serially ordered sets, such as scales / hot, warm,
tepid, cool, cold/ ; colour words / black, grey, white/ ; ranks /marshal,
general, colonel, major, captain etc./ There are gradable examination
marks / excellent, good, average, fair, poor/. In such sets of words we
can have outer and inner pairs of antonyms. He also points out cycles, such
as units of time /spring, summer, autumn, winter/ . In this case there are
no «outermost» members.
Not every word in a language can have antonyms. This type of opposition
can be met in qualitative adjectives and their derivatives, e.g. beautiful-
ugly, to beautify - to uglify, beauty - ugliness. It can be also met in
words denoting feelings and states, e.g. respect - scorn, to respect - to
scorn, respectful - scornful, to live - to die, alive - dead, life - death.
It can be also met among words denoting direction in space and time, e.g.
here - there, up - down , now - never, before - after, day - night, early -
late etc.
If a word is polysemantic it can have several antonyms, e.g. the word
«bright» has the antonyms «dim», «dull», «sad».
LOCAL VARIETIES OF ENGLISH
ON THE BRITISH ISLES
On the British Isles there are some local varieties of English which
developed from Old English local dialects. There are six groups of them:
Lowland /Scottish/ , Northern, Western, Midland, Eastern, Southern. These
varieties are used in oral speech by the local population. Only the
Scottish dialect has its own literature /R. Berns/.
One of the best known dialects of British English is the dialect of
London - Cockney. Some peculiarities of this dialect can be seen in the
first act of «Pigmalion» by B. Shaw, such as : interchange of /v/ and /w/
e.g. wery vell; interchange of /f/ and /0/ , /v/ and / /, e. g/ fing
/thing/ and fa:ve / father/; interchange of /h/ and /-/ , e.g. «’eart» for
«heart» and «hart» for «art; substituting the diphthong /ai/ by /ei/ e.g.
«day» is pronounced /dai/; substituting /au/ by /a:/ , e.g. «house» is
pronounced /ha:s/,«now« /na:/ ; substituting /ou/ by /o:/ e.g. «don’t» is
pronounced /do:nt/ or substituting it by / / in unstressed positions, e.g.
«window» is pronounced /wind /.
Another feature of Cockney is rhyming slang: «hat» is «tit for tat»,
«wife» is «trouble and strife», «head» is «loaf of bread» etc. There are
also such words as «tanner» /sixpence/, «peckish»/hungry/.
Peter Wain in the «Education Guardian» writes about accents spoken by
University teachers: «It is a variety of Southern English RP which is
different from Daniel Jones’s description. The English, public school
leavers speak, is called «marked RP», it has some characteristic features :
the vowels are more central than in English taught abroad, e.g. «bleck
het»/for «black hat»/, some diphthongs are also different, e.g. «house» is
pronounced /hais/. There is less aspiration in /p/, /b/, /t/ /d/.
The American English is practically uniform all over the country, because
of the constant transfer of people from one part of the country to the
other. However, some peculiarities in New York dialect can be pointed out,
such as: there is no distinction between / / and /a: / in words: «ask»,
«dance» «sand» «bad», both phonemes are possible. The combination «ir» in
the words: «bird», «girl» «ear» in the word «learn» is pronoinced as /oi/
e.g. /boid/, /goil/, /loin/.In the words «duty’, «tune» /j/ is not
pronounced /du:ti/, /tu:n/.
BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH
British and American English are two main variants of English. Besides
them there are : Canadian, Australian, Indian, New Zealand and other
variants. They have some peculiarities in pronunciation, grammar and
vocabulary, but they are easily used for communication between people
living in these countries. As far as the American English is concerned,
some scientists /H.N. Menken, for example/ tried to prove that there is a
separate American language. In 1919 H.N. Menken published a book called
«The American Language». But most scientists, American ones including,
criticized his point of view because differences between the two variants
are not systematic.
American English begins its history at the beginning of the 17-th century
when first English-speaking settlers began to settle on the Atlantic coast
of the American continent. The language which they brought from England
was the language spoken in England during the reign of Elizabeth the First.
In the earliest period the task of Englishmen was to find names for
places, animals, plants, customs which they came across on the American
continent. They took some of names from languages spoken by the local
population - Indians, such as :»chipmuck»/an American squirrel/, «igloo»
/Escimo dome-shaped hut/, «skunk» / a black and white striped animal with a
bushy tail/, «squaw» / an Indian woman/, »wigwam» /an American Indian tent
made of skins and bark/ etc.
Besides Englishmen, settlers from other countries came to America, and
English-speaking settlers mixed with them and borrowed some words from
their languages, e.g. from French the words «bureau»/a writing desk/,
«cache» /a hiding place for treasure, provision/, «depot’/ a store-house/,
«pumpkin»/a plant bearing large edible fruit/. From Spanish such words as:
»adobe» / unburnt sun-dried brick/, »bananza» /prosperity/, «cockroach» /a
beetle-like insect/, «lasso» / a noosed rope for catching cattle/ were
borrowed.
Present-day New York stems from the Dutch colony New Amsterdam, and
Dutch also influenced English. Such words as: «boss», «dope», «sleigh»
were borrowed .
The second period of American English history begins in the 19-th
century. Immigrants continued to come from Europe to America. When large
groups of immigrants from the same country came to America some of their
words were borrowed into English. Italians brought with them a style of
cooking which became widely spread and such words as: «pizza», «spaghetti»
came into English. From the great number of German-speaking settlers the
following words were borrowed into English: «delicatessen», «lager»,
«hamburger», «noodle», «schnitzel» and many others.
During the second period of American English history there appeared quite
a number of words and word-groups which were formed in the language due to
the new poitical system, liberation of America from the British
colonialism, its independence. The following lexical units appeared due to
these events: the United States of America , assembly, caucus, congress,
Senate, congressman, President, senator, precinct, Vice-President and many
others. Besides these political terms many other words were coined in
American English in the 19-th century: to antagonize, to demoralize,
influential, department store, telegram, telephone and many others.
There are some differences between British and American English in the
usage of prepositions, such as prepositions with dates, days of the week BE
requres «on» / I start my holiday on Friday/, in American English there is
no preposition / I start my vacation Friday/. In Be we use «by day», «by
night»/»at night», in AE the corresponding forms are «days» and «nights».
In BE we say «at home» , in AE - «home» is used. In BE we say «a quarter to
five», in AE «a quarter of five». In BE we say «in the street», in AE -
«on the street». In BE we say «to chat to somebody», in AE «to chat with
somebody». In BE we say «different to something», in AE - «different from
someting».
There are also units of vocabulary which are different while denoting the
same notions, e.g. BE - «trousers», AE -«pants»; in BE «pants» are «òðóñû»
which in AE is «shorts». While in BE «shorts» are outwear. This can lead to
misunderstanding. There are some differences in names of places:
BE AE BE AE
passage hall cross-roads intersection
pillar box mail-box the cinema the movies
studio, bed-sitter one-room appartment
flyover overpass zebra crossing Pxing
pavement sidewalk tube, uderground subway
tram streetcar flat apartment
surgery doctor’s office lift elevator
Some names of useful objects:
BE AE BE AE
biro ballpoint rubber eraser
tap faucet torch
flashlight
parcel package elastic rubber
band
carrier bag shopping bag reel of cotton spool of thread
Some words connected with food:
BE AE BE
AE
tin can sweets
candy
sweet biscuit cookie dry biscuit
crackers
sweet dessert chips
french fries
minced meat ground beef
Some words denoting personal items:
BE AE BE
AE
fringe bangs/of hair/ turn- ups
cuffs
tights pantyhose mackintosh raincoat
ladder run/in a stocking/ braces suspenders
poloneck turtleneck waistcoat
vest
Some words denoting people:
BE AE BE
AE
barrister, lawyer, staff /university/
faculty
post-graduate graduate chap, fellow guy
caretaker janitor constable
patrolman
shopassistant shopperson bobby cop
If we speak about cars there are also some differences:
BE AE BE
AE
boot trunk bumpers
fenders
a car, an auto, to hire a car to rent a
car
Differences in the organization of education lead to different terms. BE
«public school» is in fact a private school. It is a fee-paying school not
controlled by the local education authorities. AE «public school» is a
free local authority school. BE «elementary school» is AE «grade school» BE
«secondary school» is AE «high school». In BE « a pupil leaves a secondary
school», in AE «a student graduates from a high school» In BE you can
graduate from a university or college of education, graduating entails
getting a degree.
A British university student takes three years known as the first, the
second and the third years. An American student takes four years, known as
freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years. While studying a British
student takes a main and subsidiary subjects. An American student majors in
a subject and also takes electives. A British student specializes in one
main subject, with one subsidiary to get his honours degree. An American
student earns credits for successfully completing a number of courses in
studies, and has to reach the total of 36 credits to receive a degree.
Differences of spelling.
The reform in the English spelling for American English was introduced
by the famous American lexicographer Noah Webster who published his first
dictionary in 1806. Those of his proposals which were adopted in the
English spelling are as follows:
a) the delition of the letter «u» in words ending in «our», e.g. honor,
favor;
b) the delition of the second consonant in words with double consonants,
e.g. traveler, wagon,
c) the replacement of «re» by «er» in words of French origin, e.g.
theater, center,
d) the delition of unpronounced endings in words of Romanic origin, e.g.
catalog, program,
e) the replacement of «ce» by «se» in words of Romanic origin, e.g.
defense, offense,
d) delition of unpronounced endings in native words, e.g. tho, thro.
Differences in pronunciation
In American English we have r-coloured fully articulated vowels, in the
combinations: ar, er, ir, or, ur, our etc. In BE the sound / /
corresponds to the AE /^/, e.g. «not». In BE before fricatives and
combinations with fricatives «a» is pronounced as /a:/, in AE it is
pronounced / / e.g. class, dance, answer, fast etc.
There are some differences in the position of the stress:
BE AE BE
AE
add`ress adress la`boratory
`laboratory
re`cess `recess re`search
`research
in`quiry `inquiry ex`cess
`excess
Some words in BE and AE have different pronunciation, e.g.
BE AE BE
AE
/`fju:tail/ /`fju:t l/ /`dousail /
/dos l/
/kla:k/ /kl rk/ /`fig /
/figyer/
/ `le3 / / li:3 r/ /lef`ten nt/
/lu:tenant/
/ nai / /ni: r/ /shedju:l/
/skedyu:l/
But these differences in pronunciation do not prevent Englishmen and
American from communicating with each other easily and cannot serve as a
proof that British and American are different languages.
Words can be classified according to the period of their life in the
language. The number of new words in a language is always larger than the
number of words which come out of active usage. Accordingly we can have
archaisms, that is words which have come out of active usage, and
neologisms, that is words which have recently appeared in the language.
ARCHAISMS
Archaisms are words which are no longer used in everyday speech, which
have been ousted by their synonyms. Archaisms remain in the language, but
they are used as stylistic devices to express solemnity.
Most of these words are lexical archaisms and they are stylistic synonyms
of words which ousted them from the neutral style. Some of them are: steed
/horse/, slay /kill/, behold /see/, perchance /perhaps/, woe /sorrow/ etc.
Sometimes a lexical archaism begins a new life, getting a new meaning,
then the old meaning becomes a semantic archaism, e.g. «fair» in the
meaning «beautiful» is a semantic archaism, but in the meaning «blond» it
belongs to the neutral style.
Sometimes the root of the word remains and the affix is changed, then
the old affix is considered to be a morphemic archaism, e.g. «beautious»
/»ous» was substituted by «ful»/, «bepaint» / «be» was dropped/, «darksome»
/»some» was dropped/, «oft» / «en» was added/. etc.
NEOLOGISMS
At the present moment English is developing very swiftly and there is so
called «neology blowup». R. Berchfield who worked at compiling a four-
volume supplement to NED says that averagely 800 neologisms appear every
year in Modern English. It has also become a language-giver recently,
especially with the development of computerization.
New words, as a rule, appear in speech of an individual person who wants
to express his idea in some original way. This person is called
«originater». New lexical units are primarily used by university teachers,
newspaper reporters, by those who are connected with mass media.
Neologisms can develop in three main ways: a lexical unit existing in the
language can change its meaning to denote a new object or phenomenon. In
such cases we have semantic neologisms, e.g. the word «umbrella» developed
the meanings: «àâèàöèîííîå ïðèêðûòèå», »ïîëèòè÷åñêîå ïðèêðûòèå». A new
lexical unit can develop in the language to denote an object or phenomenon
which already has some lexical unit to denote it. In such cases we have
transnomination, e.g. the word «slum» was first substituted by the word
«ghetto» then by the word-group «inner town». A new lexical unit can be
introduced to denote a new object or phenomenon. In this case we have «a
proper neologism», many of them are cases of new terminology.
Here we can point out several semantic groups when we analize the group
of neologisms connected with computerization, and here we can mention words
used:
a) to denote different types of computers, e.g. PC, super-computer, multi-
user, neurocomputer / analogue of a human brain/;
b) to denote parts of computers, e.g. hardware, software, monitor,
screen, data, vapourware / experimental samples of computers for
exhibition, not for production/;
c) to denote computer languages, e.g. BASIC, Algol FORTRAN etc;
d) to denote notions connected with work on computers, e.g. computerman,
computerization, computerize, to troubleshoot, to blitz out / to ruin
data in a computer’s memory/.
There are also different types of activities performed with the help of
computers, many of them are formed with the help of the morpheme «tele»,
e.g. to telework, to telecommute / to work at home having a computer which
is connected with the enterprise for which one works/. There are also such
words as telebanking, telemarketing, teleshopping / when you can perform
different operations with the help of your computer without leaving your
home, all operations are registered by the computer at your bank/,
videobank /computerized telephone which registers all information which is
received in your absence/.
In the sphere of lingusitics we have such neologisms as: machine
translation, interlingual / an artificial language for machine translation
into several languages / and many others.
In the sphere of biometrics we have computerized machines which can
recognize characteristic features of people seeking entrance : finger-print
scanner / finger prints/, biometric eye-scanner / blood-vessel arrangements
in eyes/, voice verification /voice patterns/. These are types of
biometric locks. Here we can also mention computerized cards with the help
of which we can open the door without a key.
In the sphere of medicine computors are also used and we have the
following neologisms: telemonitory unit / a telemonitory system for
treating patience at a distance/.
With the development of social activities neologisms appeared as well,
e.g. youthquake - âîëíåíèÿ ñðåäè ìîëîäåæè, pussy-footer - ïîëèòèê, èäóùèé
íà êîìïðîìèñû, Euromarket, Eurodollar, Europarliament, Europol etc.
In the modern English society there is a tendency to social
stratification, as a result there are neologisms in this sphere as well,
e.g. belonger - ïðåäñòàâèòåëü ñðåäíåãî êëàññà, ïðèâåðæåíåö êîíñåðâàòèâíûõ
âçãëÿäîâ. To this group we can also refer abbreviations of the type
yuppie /young urban professional people/, such as: muppie, gruppie, rumpie,
bluppie etc. People belonging to the lowest layer of the society are
called survivers, a little bit more prosperous are called sustainers, and
those who try to prosper in life and imitate those, they want to belong
to, are called emulaters. Those who have prospered but are not belongers
are called achievers. All these layers of socety are called VAL /Value
and Lifestyles/ .
The rich belong also to jet set that is those who can afford to travel by
jet planes all over the world enjoying their life. Sometimes they are
called «jet plane travellers».
During Margaret Thatcher’s rule the abbreviation PLU appeared which means
«People like us» by which snobbistic circles of society call themselves.
Nowadays /since 1989/ PLU was substituted by «one of us».
There are a lot of immigrants now in UK , in connection with which
neologisms partial and non-partial were formed /èìåþùèå ïðàâî æèòü â
ñòðàíå è åãî àíòîíèì/.
The word-group «welfare mother» was formed to denote a non-working single
mother living on benefit.
In connection with criminalization of towns in UK volantary groups of
assisting the police were formed where dwellers of the neighbourhood are
joined. These groups are called «neighbourhood watch», «home watch».
Criminals wear «stocking masks» not to be recognized.
The higher society has neologisms in their speech, such as : dial-a-meal,
dial-a-taxi.
In the language of teen-agers there are such words as : Drugs! /OK/,
sweat /áåã íà äëèííûå äèñòàíöèè/, task /home composition /, brunch etc.
With the development of professional jargons a lot of words ending in
«speak» appeared in English, e.g. artspeak, sportspeak, medspeak, education-
speak, video-speak, cable-speak etc.
There are different semantic groups of neologisms belonging to everyday
life:
a) food e.g. «starter»/ instead of «hors d’oevres»/, macrobiotics / raw
vegetables, crude rice/ , longlife milk, clingfilm, microwave stove,
consumer electronics, fridge-freezer, hamburgers /beef-, cheese-, fish-,
veg- /.
b) clothing, e.g. catsuit /one-piece clinging suit/, slimster , string /
miniscule bikini/, hipster / trousers or skirt with the belt on hips/,
completenik / a long sweater for trousers/, sweatnik /a long jacket/,
pants-skirt, bloomers / lady’s sports trousers/.
c) footwear e.g. winklepickers /shoes with long pointed toes/, thongs
/open sandals/, backsters /beech sandals with thick soles/.
d) bags, e.g. bumbag /a small bag worn on the waist/, sling bag /a bag
with a long belt/, maitre / a small bag for cosmetics/.
There are also such words as : dangledolly / a dolly-talisman dangling in
the car before the windscreen/, boot-sale /selling from the boot of the
car/, touch-tone /a telephone with press-button/.
Neologisms can be also classified according to the ways they are formed.
They are subdivided into : phonological neologisms, borrowings, semantic
neologisms and syntactical neologisms. Syntactical neologisms are divided
into morphological /word-building/ and phraseological /forming word-
groups/.
Phonological neologisms are formed by combining unique combinations of
sounds, they are called artificial, e.g. rah-rah /a short skirt which is
worn by girls during parades/, «yeck» /»yuck» which are interjections to
express repulsion produced the adjective yucky/ yecky. These are strong
neologisms.
Strong neologisms include also phonetic borrowings, such as «perestroika»
/Russian/, «solidarnosc» /Polish/, Berufsverbot / German /, dolce vita
/Italian/ etc.
Morphological and syntactical neologisms are usually built on patterns
existing in the language, therefore they do not belong to the group of
strong neologisms.
Among morphological neologisms there are a lot of compound words of
different types, such as «free-fall»-»ðåçêîå ïàäåíèå êóðñà àêöèé» appeared
in 1987 with the stock market crash in October 1987 /on the analogy with
free-fall of parachutists, which is the period between jumping and opening
the chute/. Here also belong: call-and-recall - âûçîâ íà äèñïàíñåðèçàöèþ,
bioastronomy -search for life on other planets, rat-out - betrayal in
danger , zero-zero (double zero) - ban of longer and shorter range weapon,
x-rated /about films terribly vulgar and cruel/, Ameringlish /American
English/, tycoonography - a biography of a business tycoon.
There are also abbreviations of different types, such as resto, teen
/teenager/, dinky /dual income no kids yet/, ARC /AIDS-related condition,
infection with AIDS/, HIV / human immuno-deficiency virus/.
Quite a number of neologisms appear on the analogy with lexical units
existing in the language, e.g. snowmobile /automobile/, danceaholic
/alcoholic/, airtel /hotel/, cheeseburger /hamburger/, autocade /
cavalcade/.
There are many neologisms formed by means of affixation, such as:
decompress, to disimprove, overhoused, educationalist, slimster, folknik
etc. Phraseological neologisms can be subdivided into phraseological units
with transferred meanings, e.g. to buy into/ to become involved/, fudge
and dudge /avoidance of definite decisions/, and set non-idiomatic
expressions, e.g. electronic virus, Rubic’s cube, retail park, acid rain ,
boot trade etc.
Changes in pronunciation.
In Modern British English there is a tendency to change pronunciation of
some sounds and combinations of sounds due to the influence of American
English and some other factors. These changes are most noticeable in the
speech of teachers and students of the universities in the Southern part of
England /Oxford, Cambridge, London/.
There are the following changes in pronouncing vowels:
a) shortening of long vowels, especially at the end of the word and
before voiceless consonants, e.g. see, keep;
b) lengthening of short vowels before voiced consonants, e.g. big, good,
come, jam etc. In such adjectives which end in /d/ lengthening of the
vowel is observed all over England, e.g. bad, sad, glad, mad etc.
c) drawling of stressed syllables and clipping of unstressed syllables.
d) In unstressed syllables / / is pronounced instead of / i /, e.g. /b
`ko:z/, /`evid ns/ etc.
e) In the words consisting of three or more syllables there is a tendency
to have two main stresses,e.g. /`nes `s ri/, /`int `restin/.
f) The diphthong /ou/ is pronounced / u/,e.g. home /h um/, go /g u/.
g) the diphthong / u / is pronounced /o:/, e.g. sure /sho:/.
Vowels can also change under the influence of consonants:
a) after fricatives and consonants /n/ and /m/ /ju:/ is pronounced as
/u:/, e.g. resume, music, news, enthusiasm.
b) before fricatives and combinations of fricatives with consonants «a«
is pronounced as / /, e.g. dance, answer, class, fast.
The pronunciation of some consonants is also changed :
a) after a vowel /r/ is pronounced ,e.g. /ka:r/ , /ha:rt/.
b)There appears an intrusive /r/ in the combinations where after the
final vowel / / there is a vowel at the beginning of the next word, e.g.
the idea of, Asia and Europe/ on the analogy with word combinations there
is, there are/.
c) /p/ and /t/ are glotalized in the middle of the word,e.g. matter is
pronounced as /`m ? /, happy as /`h ? i/.
d) /s/ is used instead of /sh/ before /i/ in the structure of suffixes,
e.g. social /`sousi l/, negotiate / ni`gousi,eit/;
e) /l/ is vocalized at the end of the word, e.g. full/ ful/( close to
/v/ in sound).
f) /sh/ is voiced in the intervocal position in some geographical names,
e.g . «Asia», «Persia»;
g) combinations of sounds /dj/, /tj/ , /sj/ in such words as duke, tube,
issue have two variants of pronunciation: /d3u:k/ and /dju:k/, /chu:b/ and
/tju:b/, /`ishu:/ and /`isju:/;
g) pronunciation approaching spelling is being developed, e.g. often
/`oftn/, forehead / fo:`hed/ etc;
h) /t/ and/d/ at the end of words are not pronounced, e.g. «half past
five’ /`ha:f `pa:s`faiv/, «old man» /`oul `m n/.
LEXICOGRAPHY
The theory and practice of compiling dictionaries is called
lexicography. The history of compiling dictionaries for English comes as
far back as the Old English period, where we can find glosses of religious
books / interlinear translations from Latin into English/. Regular
bilingual dictionaries began to appear in
the 15-th century /Anglo-Latin, Anglo-French , Anglo-German/.
The first unilingual dictionary explaining difficult words appeared in
1604, the author was Robert Cawdry, a schoolmaster. He compiled his
dictionary for schoolchildren. In 1721 an English scientist and writer
Nathan Bailey published the first etymological dictionary which explained
the origin of English words. It was the first scientific dictionary, it was
compiled for philologists.
In 1775 an English scientist compiled a famous explanatory dictionary.
Its author was Samuel Johnson. Every word in his dictionary was illustrated
by examples from English literature, the meanings of words were clear from
the contexts in which they were used.. The dictionary was a great success
and it influenced the development of lexicography in all countries. The
dictionary influenced normalization of the English vocabulary. But at
the same time it helped to preserve the English spelling in its
conservative form.
In 1858 one of the members of the English philological society Dr.
Trench raised the question of compiling a dictionary including all the
words existing in the language. The
philological society adopted the decision to compile the dictionary
and the work started. More than a thousand people took part in collecting
examples, and 26 years later in 1884 the first volume was published. It
contained words beginning with «A» and «B». The last volume was published
in 1928 that is 70 years after the decision to compile it was adopted. The
dictionary was called NED and contained 12 volumes.
In 1933 the dictionary was republished under the title «The Oxford
English Dictionary», because the work on the dictionary was conducted in
Oxford. This dictionary contained 13 volumes. As the dictionary was very
large and terribly expensive scientists continued their work and compiled
shorter editions of the dictionary: «A Shorter Oxford Dictionary»
consisting of two volumes. It had the same number of entries, but far less
examples from literature. They also compiled «A Concise Oxford Dictionary»
consisting of one volume and including only modern words and no examples
from literature.
The American lexicography began to develop much later, at the end of the
18-th century. The most famous American English dictionary was compiled by
Noah Webster. He was an active stateman and public man and he published his
first dictionary in 1806. He went on with his work on the dictionary and in
1828 he published a two-volume dictionary. He tried to simplify the English
spelling and transcription. He introduced the alphabetical system of
transcription where he used letters and combinations of letters instead of
transcription signs. He denoted vowels in closed syllables by the
corresponding vowels, e.g. / a/, /e/, / i/, / o/, /u/. He denoted vowels
in the open syllable by the same letters, but with a dash above them,e.g.
/ a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/. He denoted vowels in the position before /r/ as
the same letters with two dots above them, e.g. / a/, /o/ and by the l
etter «e» with two dots above it for the combinations «er», «ir», «ur»
because they are pronounced identically. The same tendency is preserved
for other sounds : /u:/ is denoted by /oo/, /y/ is used for the sound /j/
etc.
Classification of dictionaries
All dictionaries are divided into linguistic and encyclopedic
dictionaries. Encyclopedic dictionaries describe different objects,
phenomena, people and give some data about them. Linguistic dictionaries
describe vocabulary units, their semantic structure, their origin, their
usage. Words are usually given in the alphabetical order.
Linguistic dictionaries are divided into general and specialized . To
general dictionries two most widely used dictionaries belong: explanatory
and translation dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include
dictionaries of synonyms, antonyms, collocations, word-frequency,
neologisms, slang, pronouncing, etymological, phraseological and others.
All types of dictionaries can be unilingual ( excepting translation ones)
if the explanation is given in the same language, bilingual if the
explanation is given in another language and also they can be polilingual.
There are a lot of explanatory dictionaries (NED, SOD, COD, NID, N.G.
Wyld’s «Universal Dictionary» and others). In explanatory dictionaries the
entry consists of the spelling, transcription, grammatical forms, meanings,
examples, phraseology. Pronunciation is given either by means of the
International Transcription System or in British Phonetic Notation which is
different in each large dictionary, e.g. /o:/ can be indicated as / aw/,
/or/, /oh/, /o/. etc.
Translation dictionaries give words and their equivalents in the other
language. There are English-Russian dictionaries by I.R. Galperin, by
Y.Apresyan and others. Among general dictionaries we can also mention
Learner’s dictionaries. They began to appear in the second half of the 20-
th century. The most famous is «The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary» by A.S.
Hornby. It is a unilingual dictionary based on COD, for advanced foreign
learners and language teachers. It gives data about grammatical and lexical
valency of words. Specialized dictionaries of synonyms are also widely
used, one of them is «A Dictionary of English Synonyms and Synonymous
Expressions» by R.Soule. Another famous one is «Webster’s Dictionary of
Synonyms». These are unilingual dictionaries. The best known bilingual
dictionary of synonyms is «English Synonyms» compiled by Y. Apresyan.
In 1981 «The Longman Lexicon of Contemporary English» was compiled, where
words are given in 14 semantic groups of everyday nature. Each word is
defined in detail, its usage is explained and illustrated, synonyms,
antonyms are presented also. It describes 15000 items, and can be referred
to dictionaries of synonyms and to explanatory dictionaries.
Phraseological dictionaries describe idioms and colloquial phrases,
proverbs. Some of them have examples from literature. Some lexicographers
include not only word-groups but also anomalies among words. In «The Oxford
Dicionary of English Proverbs» each proverb is illustrated by a lot of
examples, there are stylistic references as well. The dictionary by
Vizetelli gives definitions and illustrations, but different meanings of
polisemantic units are not given. The most famous bilingual dictionary of
phraseology was compiled by A.V. Koonin. It is one of the best
phraseological dictionaries.
Etymological dictionaries trace present-day words to the oldest forms of
these words and forms of these words in other languages. One of the best
etymological dictionaries was compiled by W. Skeat.
Pronouncing dictionaries record only pronunciation. The most famous is D.
Jones’ s «Pronouncing Dictionary».
Dictionaries of neologisms are : a four-volume «Supplement to NED» by
Burchfield, «The Longman Register of New Words»/1990/, «Bloomsury
Dictionary of New Words» /1996/.
SEMINARS
Seminar 1
Language units.
The smallest language unit.
The function of a root morpheme.
The main function of suffixes.
The secondary function of suffixes.
The main function of prefixes.
The secondary function of prefixes.
Splinters and their formation in English.
The difference between affixes and splinters.
Structural types of words in English.
The stem of a word and the difference beween a simple word, a stem and a
root.
The difference between a block compound and a nominal benomial.
The difference between a word and a phraseological unit.
The similarity between a word and a phraseological unit.
Analyze the following lexical units according to their structure. Point
out the function of morphemes. Speak about bound morphemes and free
morphemes. Point out allomorphs in analyzed words:
accompany unsystematic forget-me-not
computerise expressionless reservation
de-restrict superprivileged moisture
lengthen clannish pleasure
beautify workaholic reconstruction
beflower inwardly counterculture
specialise moneywise three-cornered
round table Green Berets to sandwich in
Seminar 2.
Affixation.
Classification of suffixes according to the part of speech they form.
Classification of suffixes according to the stem they are added to.
Classification of suffixes according to their meaning.
Classification of suffixes according to their productivity.
Classification of suffixes according to their origin.
Classification of prefixes according to their meaning.
Classification of prefixes according to their origin.
Classification of prefixes according to their productivity.
Analyze the following derived words, point out suffixes and prefixes and
classify them from different points of view:
to embed nourishment unsystematic
to encourage inwardly to accompany
translatorese dispensable clannishness
to de-restrict workaholic jet-wise
reconstruction to overreach thouroughly
afterthought foundation childishness
transgressor to re-write completenik
gangsterdom pleasure concentration
refusenik counter-culture brinkmanship
allusion self-criticism to
computerise
slimster reservation
translation
Seminar 3
Compound words.
Characteristic features of compound words in different languages.
Characteristic features of English compounds.
Classification of compound words according to their structure.
Classification of compound words according to the joining element.
Classification of compound words according to the parts of speech.
Classification of compound words according to the semantic relations
between the components.
Ways of forming compound words.
Analyze the following compound words:
note-book speedometer son-in-law
to job-hop brain-gain video-corder
fair-haired forget-me-not Anglo-Russian
teach-in back-grounder biblio-klept
theatre-goer well-dressed bio-engineer
to book-hunt mini-term to baby-sit
blood-thirsty good-for-nothing throw-away
do-gooder skin-head kleptomania
sportsman para-trooper airbus
bus-napper cease-fire three-
cornered
tip-top brain-drain bread-and-
butter
Compare the strucure of the following words:
demagougery tablewards heliport
tobbacoless money-wise non-formal
booketeria go-go motel
counter-clockwise to frontpage productivity
giver-away newly-created nobody
Seminar 4.
Conversion.
Conversion as a way of wordbuilding.
Different points of view on the nature of conversion.
Semantic groups of verbs which can be converted from nouns.
The meanings of verbs converted from adjectives.
Semantic groups of nouns which can be converted from verbs.
Substantivised adjectives.
Characteristic features of combinations of the type «stone wall».
Semantic groups of combinations of this type.
Analyze the following lexical units:
to eye a find to
slim
a grown-up to airmail steel helmet
London season resit sleep
a flirt a read
handout
to weekend a build-up supersonics
a non-formal to wireless to submarine
to blue-pencil to blind - the blind - blinds
distrust a jerk to
radio
news have-nots the
English
to co-author to water to winter
a sit-down mother-in-law morning star
undesirables a walk a find
dislike log cabin finals
Seminar 5.
Shortenings and abbreviations.
Lexical and graphical abbreviations,the main differences between them.
Types of graphical abbreviations.
Types of initias, peculiarities of their pronunciation.
Lexical shortenings of words, their reference to styles.
Compound-shortened words, their structural types.
Analyze the following lexical units:
aggro /aggression/ Algol / algorythmic language/
apex /eipeks/ - advanced purchased excursion/ payment for an excursion
ninety days before the time of excursion/
A-day /announcement Day - day of announcing war/
AID / artifitial insemination by a donor/
AIDS / acquired immunity deficiency syndrome/
Ala / Alabama/ a.s.a.p. /as soon as possible/
bar-B-Q ,barb /barbecue/ to baby-sit / baby-sitter/
A-level /advanced level/ BC /birth certificate/
burger /hamberger/ Camford, Oxbridge
CALL /computer-assisted language learning/
CAT /computer-assisted training/
cauli / cauliflower/ COD / cash on delivery/
COBOL / k ubol/ /common business-oriented language/
co- ed comp /komp, k mp/ /accompaniment/
DINKY /double income ,no kids yet/
E-Day /entrance day //Common Market/ expo/exposition/
edbiz/ educational business/ el-hi / elementary and high
schools/, ex lib/ex libris/ /from the library of/
etc Euratom fax /facsimile/
G-7 / group of seven: GB, Germany, Japan, France, Canada, Italy, Spain/.
FORTRAN /formula translation/.
Seminar 6.
Phraseological units.
Ways of forming phraseological units.
Semantic classification of phraseological units.
Structural classification of phraseological units.
Syntactical classification of phraseological units.
Analyze the following phraseological units according to their meaning,
structure, syntactical function and the way they are formed:
When pigs fly /never/. To leap into marriage.
To be a whipping boy. To be behind scenes.
Girl Friday /a man’s assistant/. Fire in the belly.
Man Friday /a true friend/. A dear John.
To be on the beam. Game, set and match.
Country and western. To jump out of one’s skin.
As smart as paint. It’s my cup of tea.
Robin Crusoe and Friday / seats at a theatre divided by a passage/.
Fortune favours fools. To be in the dog house.
The green power. Green Berets.
Culture vulture. To get off one’s back.
To make headlines. On the nose.
With a bump. To have a short fuse.
To vote with one’s feet. Nuts and bolts.
Blackboard jungle. The sky is the limit.
Cash and carry. To nose out.
To sandwich in. Berlin wall.
A close mouth catches no flies. To speak BBB.
To sound like a computer. As dull as lead.
Last but not least. On the stroke of.
Seminar 7.
Phraseological units.
Students choose ten phraseological units from Koonin’s dictionary of
phraseological units and a unilingual dictionary of idioms and analyze them
in the written form. During the seminar they analyze their phrasological
units chosen from dictionaries at the blackboard.
Seminar 8.
Borrowings.
Classification of borrowings according to the language from which they
were borrowed:
Latin borrowings.
French borrowings.
Italian borrowings.
Scandinavian borrowings.
German borrowings.
Russian borrowings.
Classification of borrowings according to the borrowed aspect: phonetic
borrowings, semantic borrowings, translation loans, morphemeic borrowings,
hybrids.
Classification of borrowings according to the degree of assimilation:
fully assimilated borrowings, partly assimilated borrowings, barbarisms.
Borrowings partly assimilated semantically, grammatically, phonetically and
graphically.
Analyze the following borrowings:
school represent sky-blue
degree rhythm immobility
chandelier the Zoo vase
mot /mou/ hybrid bouffant
illuminate keenly communicative
possessiveness to reproach command
moustache gifted boutique
skipper cache-pot well-scrubbed
nouveau riche emphatic mysteriously
dactyl Nicholas group
to possess chenile psychological
garage guarantee contempt
trait/trei/ triumph stomach
sympathy cynical Philipp
schoolboy Christianity paralyzed
system hotel cyclic
diphtheria kerchief dark-skinned.
Seminar 9
Semaciology.
Word and notion.
Lexical meaning and notion.
Polysemy.
Homonyms.
Synonyms.
Antonyms.
Classifications of homonyms when applied to analysis.
Classifications of antonyms when applied to analysis.
Analyze the following lexical units applying the above mentioned
classifications of homonyms and antonyms:
present - absent, present - to present
like , to like - to dislike - dislike
sympathy - antipathy
progress - to progress, regress - to regress
success - failure, successful- unsuccessful
left - left/to leave/, right adj. - right n.
inflexible - flexible
unsafe - safe adj. - safe n.
fair n. - fair adj. unfair, foul
piece - peace
dark-haired - fair-haired
a row - a row /rou/ - /rau/
a fan - a fan
superiority - inferiority
different - similar, indifferent, alike, difference - similarity
meaningful - meaningless
after prep.- before -before adv., before conj.
to gossip - a gossip
shapeless - shapy
air - to air - air
fearless - fearful
bright - dim, dull, sad
to fasten - to unfasten
something - nothing
eldest - oldest -youngest
to husband - husband
obscure - to obscure
unaccustomed - accustomed
to exclude - to include
to conceal -to reveal
too - too- two
somewhere - nowhere
a drawer - a drawer
with - without
Seminar 10.
Neology.
Neology «blowup» and the work of R.Berchfield.
Semantic neologisms, transnomination and proper neologisms.
Semantic groups of neologisms connected with computerization.
Social stratification and neologisms.
Semantic groups of neologisms referring to everyday life.
Phonological neologisms and borrowings as strong neologisms.
Morphological and syntactical neologisms.
Changes in pronunciation.
Analyze the following neologisms from the point of view of neology theory
and also from the point of view of their morphemic structure and the way
they were formed :
to clip-clip AIDS coup
sound barrier to Vice-Preside boutique
to re-familiarize tourmobile sevenish
to de-dramatize non-formals to baby-sit
to scrimp and save fireside chat hide-away
coin-in-the-slot cashless society memo
We shall overcome. to dish old wine in new bottles
to-ing and fro-ing multinationals the Commons
hyperacidity religiosity D-Day
face-to-face/tuition/ femme-fatalish to the wingtips
to river singer-songwriter beatnik
communication gap laundered money cheeseburger
Don’t change horses. to put a freeze on micro-surgical
SA out-doorsy medicare
Cold War self-exile public-
schooly
brain-drainer movers and shakers Euroyuppie
Seminar 11.
Control work on the analysis of language units. Each student gets
six language units of different types / simple words, derived words,
compound words, phraseological units, combinations of the type «stone
wall», borrowings, abbreviations, antonyms, homonyms, neologisms ,
abbreviations/ and is to analize them from all points of view which were
studied during the seminars.
Seminar 12.
Lexicography.
Analysis of the control paper.
Historical development of British lexicography.
Historical development of American lexicography.
Classification of dictionaries.
Student reports on dictionaries they use in their work.
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