Лекция: Lexicology of the English Language

Лекция: Lexicology of the English Language

МOCКОВСКИЙ ПЕДАГОГИЧЕСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ

по лексикологии английского языка

(для студентов третьего курса)

Cocтавитель : Э. М. Дубенец, к.ф.н., доц.

This course of lexicology which forms a part of the curriculum for the

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: «библиотека», «картотека», «фильмотека» the element «тека»

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 АНЗУС, SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) was for a long time

used in Russian as СОЛТ, now a translation variant is used (ОСВ -Договор

об ограничении стратегических вооружений). This type of initialisms borrowed

into other languages is preferable, e.g. UFO - НЛО, CП - 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) - стереофильм.

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) -

небольшой эстрадный ансамбль, Afro (African) -прическа под африканца 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 «стартовая площадка» , in its transferred

meaning - «отправной пункт», «to link up» - «cтыковаться, стыковать

космические корабли» in its tranformed meaning it means -«знакомиться»;

b) a large group of phraseological units was formed from free word groups by

transforming their meaning, e.g. «granny farm» - «пансионат для престарелых»,

«Troyan horse» - «компьюторная программа, преднамеренно составленная для

повреждения компьютера»;

c) phraseological units can be formed by means of alliteration , e.g. «a sad

sack» - «несчастный случай», «culture vulture» - «человек, интересующийся

искусством», «fudge and nudge» - «уклончивость».

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» - «испытывать волнение», «to have green fingers»

- »преуспевать как садовод-любитель» 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

«ошибаться».

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 «дар» , «подарок» for the word «gift» which in Old English

had the meaning «выкуп за жену».

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«,»бригада». 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

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

- любезный, благородный, etymological doublets are: gentle - мягкий, вежливый

and genteel - благородный. From the French word gallant etymological

doublets are : ‘gallant - храбрый and ga’llant - галантный, внимательный.

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 «идти» 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 :»Вот он

идет» , 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 «ехать».

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»:

« мужчина» and «человек». In English, however, «man» cannot be applied to a

female person. We say in Russian: «Она хороший человек». 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» - «косяк рыбы» and «школа» ;

homographs, that is words with the same spelling but pronounced differently,

e.g. «bow» -/bau/ - «поклон» and /bou/ - «лук»; homophones that is words

pronounced identically but spelled differently, e.g. «night» - «ночь» and

«knight» - «рыцарь».

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» - «для» and «for» - «ибо».

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 «трусы»

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: «авиационное прикрытие», »политическое прикрытие». 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 - волнения среди молодежи, pussy-footer - политик, идущий на

компромисы, 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 -

представитель среднего класса, приверженец консервативных взглядов. 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 /имеющие право жить в стране и его

антоним/.

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

/бег на длинные дистанции/, 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»-»резкое падение курса акций» 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 - вызов на диспансеризацию, 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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Canon G. Historical Changes and English Wordformation: New Vocabulary items.

N.Y., 1986.

Ginzburg R.S. et al. A Course in Modern English Lexicology. M., 1979.

Jespersen ,Otto. Growth and Structure of the English Language. Oxford, 1982.

Halliday M.A.K. Language as Social Semiotics. Social Interpretation of

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