Лекции по "Лексикологии"

Alas! they had been friends in youth;

But whispering tongues can poison truth

And constancy lives in realms above;

And life is thorny; and youth is vain;

And to be wroth with one we love,

Doth work like madness in the brain .

Though learned words are mainly associated with the printed page, this is not exclusively so. Any educated English-speaking individual is sure to use many teamed words not only in his formal letters and professional communication but also in his everyday speech. On the other hand, excessive use of learned elements in conversational speech presents grave hazards. Utterances overloaded with such words sound absurd and ridiculous.

Archaic and Obsolete Words

These words stand close to the "learned" words, particularly to the modes of poetic diction. Learned words and archaisms are both associated with the printed page. Yet, as we have seen, many learned words may also be used in conversational situations. This cannot happen with archaisms, which are invariably restricted to the printed page. These words are rejected by the living language. Their last refuge is in historical novels (whose authors use them to create a particular period atmosphere) and, of course, in poetry which is rather conservative in its choice of words.

Thou and thy, aye ("yes") and nay ("no") are certainly archaic and long since rejected by common usage, yet poets use them even today. (We also find the same four words and many other archaisms among dialectisms, which is quite natural, as dialects are also conservative and retain archaic words and structures.)

Numerous archaisms can be found in Shakespeare, but it should be taken into consideration that what appear to us today as archaisms in the works of Shakespeare, are in fact examples of everyday language of Shakespeare's time.

Further examples of archaisms are: mom (for morning), eve (for evening), moon (for month), damsel (for girl), errant (for wandering, e. g. errant knights), etc. 

Sometimes, an archaic word may undergo a sudden revival. So, the formerly archaic kin (for relatives; one's family) is now current in American usage.

The terms "archaic" and "obsolete" are used more or less indiscriminately by some authors. Others make a distinction between them using the term "obsolete" for words which have completely gone out of use. The Random House Dictionary defines an obsolete word as one "no longer in use, esp. out of use for at least a century", whereas an archaism is referred to as "current in an earlier time but rare in present usage".

The borderline between "obsolete" and "archaic" is vague and uncertain, and in many cases it is difficult to decide to which of the groups this or that word belongs.

There is a further term for words which are no longer in use: historisms. By this we mean words denoting objects and phenomena which are things of the past and no longer exist.

Professional Terminology

Hundreds of thousands of words belong to special scientific, professional or trade terminological systems and are not used or even understood by people outside the particular speciality. Every field of modern activity has its specialized vocabulary. There is a special medical vocabulary, and similarly special terminologies for psychology, botany, music, linguistics, teaching methods and many others.

Term, as traditionally understood, is a word or a word-group which is specifically employed by a particular branch of science, technology, trade or the arts to convey a notion peculiar to this particular activity.

So, bilingual, interdental, labialization, palatalization, glottal slop, descending scale are terms of theoretical phonetics.

Today this is a frequent occurrence, as various elements of the media of communication (TV, radio, popular magazines, science fiction, etc.) ply people with scraps of knowledge from different scientific fields, technology and the arts. It is quite natural that under the circumstances numerous terms pass into general usage without losing connection with their specific fields.

Modern research of various terminological systems has shown that there is no impenetrable wall between terminology and the general language system. To the contrary, terminologies seem to obey the same rules and laws as other vocabulary strata. Therefore, exchange between terminological systems and the "common" vocabulary is quite normal, and it would be wrong to regard a term as something "special" and standing apart.

Basic Vocabulary

These words are stylistically neutral, and, in this respect, opposed to formal and informal words described above. Their stylistic neutrality makes it possible to use them in all kinds of situations, both formal and informal, in verbal and written communication. Certain of the stylistically marked vocabulary strata are, in a way, exclusive: professional terminology is used mostly by representatives of the professions; dialects are regional; slang is favoured mostly by the young and the uneducated. Not so basic vocabulary. These words are used every day, everywhere and by everybody, regardless of profession, occupation, educational level, age group or geographical location. These are words without which no human communication would be possible as they denote objects and phenomena of everyday importance (e. g house, bread, summer, winter, child, mother, green, difficult, to go, to stand, etc.).

The basic vocabulary is the central group of the vocabulary, its historical Foundation and living core. That is why words "of this stratum show a considerably greater stability in comparison with words of the other strata, especially informal.

Basic vocabulary words can be recognized not only by their stylistic neutrality but, also, by entire jack of other connotations (i. e. attendant meanings). Their meanings arc broad, general and directly convey the notion, without supplying any additional information.

For instance, the verb to walk means merely "to move from place to place on foot" whereas in the meanings of its synonyms to stride, to stroll, to trot, to stragger and others, some additional information is encoded as they each describe a different manner of walking, a different gait, tempo, purposefulness or lack-of purpose and even length, of paces. Thus, to walk, with its direct broad meaning, is a typical basic vocabulary word, and its synonyms, with their elaborate additional information encoded in their meanings, belong to the periphery of the vocabulary. The table gives some examples of such synonyms belonging to different stylistic, strata.

Basic vocabulary	Informal	Formal
Begin	Start, get started	Commence

 

Continue	Co on, get on	Proceed
End	Finish, be through, be over	Terminate
Child, baby	Kid, brat, beam	Infant, babe

In teaching a foreign language, the basic vocabulary words comprise the first -and absolutely essential part of the students' functional and recognition vocabularies. They constitute the beginner's vocabulary. Yet, to restrict the student to the basic vocabulary would mean to deprive his speech of colour, expressive force and emotive shades, for, if basic vocabulary words are absolutely necessary, they also decidedly lack something: they are not at all the kind of words to tempt a writer or a poet. 

LECTURE 3

THE ETYMOLOGY OF ENGLISH WORDS.

ARE ALL ENGLISH WORDS REALLY ENGLISH?

As a matter of fact, they are - if we regard them in the light of present-day English. If, however, their origins are looked  into, the picture may seem quite different. A person who knows French; (Italian, Latin, Spanish) will recognize a great number of familiar-looking words when looking through an English book.

It is true that English vocabulary, which is one of they most extensive amongst the world's languages contains a immense number of words of foreign origin. Explanations for this may be found in the history of the language which is closely connected with the history of the nation speaking the language. In order to better understand the problem, we will make a brief survey of certain historical facts and different epochs.

The first century B. C. Most of the territory now known to us as Europe is occupied by the Roman Empire. Among the inhabitants of the continent arc Germanic tribes, "barbarians" as the. Romans call them. The Germanic tribes have a more primitive stage of development than the higher civilization of Rome. They are primitive cattle-breeders and know almost nothing about land cultivation. Their tribal languages contain only Indo-European and Germanic elements.

After a number of wars between the Germanic tribes and the Romans these two opposing peoples come into peaceful contact. Trade is carried on, and the Germanic people get knowledge of new and useful things. The among them are new things to eat

The Germanic cattle-breeding was on a primitive scale. Its only products known to the Germanic tribes were meat and milk. From the Romans they earn now to make butter and cheese and, as there are no words for these foodstuffs in their tribal languages, they use the Latin words to name them (Lat. butyrum, caseus). Later the Gen.ianic tribes learned from the Romans some new fruits and vegetables and used they Latin names: cherry (Lat. cernsum), pear (Lat. pirum), pint (Lut. prinus), pea (Lat pisum), beet (Lat beta), pepper (Lat. piper). It is interesting to note that the word plant also a Latin borrowing of this period (Lat. plants),

Here are some more examples of Latin borrowings of this period cup, (Lat cuppa), kitchen qj&. coquma), will (Lat. motina}, port (Lat portus), wjne(Lai. vinum).

The fifth century A. D. Several of the Germanic tribes (the most numerous amongst them being the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes) migrated across the sea now known as the English Channel to the British Isles. There they were confronted by the Celts, the original inhabitants of the Isles. The Celts desperately defended their lands against the invaders, but they were no match for the military-minded Teatons and gradually lost most of their territory. They retreated to the North and South-West (modem Scotland, Wales and Cornwall). Through their numerous contacts with the defeated Celts, the concquerors got to know and assimilated a number of Celtic words (Mod. E bald, down, glen, druid, bard, cradle). Especially numerous among the Celtic borrowings were places names, names of rivers, hills, etc. The Germanic tribes occupied the land, but the names of many. Parts of their territory remained Celtic. For instance the names of the rivers Avon. Exe, Esk. Usk, Ux originate from Celtic words meaning "river" and "water"

Even the name of the English-capital originates from Celtic Llyn+dun in which llyn is another Celtic word for «river» and dun stands for "a fortified hill, the meaning of the whole being "fortress on the hill over the river" (London).

Some Latin words entered the Anglo-Saxon languages through Celtic, among them such widely-used words as street (Lm. strata via) and wall (Lat.. vallum).

The seventh century A. D.  This century was significant for the christianization of England. Latin was' the .official language of the Christian church and consequently the spread of Christianity was accompanied by anew

period of Latin borrowings. These no longer came from spoken Latin as they did eight centuries earlier) but from church, they indicated persons, objects and ideas associated with church and religious rituals. E.g. priest (Lot, presbyter), bishop (Lat. episcopus), monk (Lat. monachus), nurt (Lal. nonna). Candle, (Lat. candela). Additionally there were educational terms. It was quite natural that these were also Latin borrowings, for the First schools in England were church schools, and the first teachers priests and monks. So the very word school is a Latin borrowing (Lat. schola., of Greek origin) and so are such words as scholar (Lat. scholar(-is) and magister (Lat. magister).

From the end of the 8th c. to the middle of the 11 th c. England underwent several Scandinavian invasions which left their trace on English vocabulary. Here are some examples of early Scandinavian borrowings: call, v., take, v., cast,  v , die, v,, law, n., husband, n. (< Sc. Hus+bondi, i.e. "inhabitant of the house"), window < Sc. n. vindauga, i. e. "the eye of the wind"), ill, adj., low, adj., weak adj.

Some of the word of this group are easily recognizable as Scandinavian borrowings by the initial sc.-combination, E. g. Sky, skill,-skin, ski, skirl.

With the famous Battle of Hastings, when the English were defeated by the Normans under William the Conqueror, we come to the epoch of the Norman Conquest. The epoch can well be called eventful not only in nation^¹, social, political and human terms, but also in linguistic terms. England became a bi-lingual country and the impact on the English vocabulary of this two-hundred-years period is immense: French words from the Norman dialect penetrated every aspect of social life. Here is a very brief list of examples of Norman French borrowings:

Administrative words: state, government, parliament, council, power.

Legal terms: court, judge, justice, crime, prison.

Military terms: army, war, soldier, officer, battle, enemy.

Educational terms: pupil, lesson, library, science, pen, pencil.

Everyday life was also, affected by the powerful influence of French words. Numerous terms of everyday life were also borrowed from French in this period: e. g. table, plate, saucer, dinner, supper, river, autumn, uncle, etc.

The Renaissance Period. In England, as in all European countries, this period was marked by significant developments in science, art and culture and also, by a revival of interest in the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome and their languages. The Renaissance borrowings were rarely concrete names. They were mostly abstract words (e.g. major, minor, filial, moderate, intelligent, permanent, to elect, to create). There were naturally numerous scientific and artistic terms (datum, status, phenomenon, philosophy, method, music). The same is true of (Greek Renaissance borrowings (e. g. atom, cycle, ethics, esthete). The Renaissance was a period of extensive cultural contacts between the major European states. Therefore new words also entered the English vocabulary from oilier European languages. The most significant again were French borrowings. This time they came from the Parisian dialect of French and are known as Parisian borrowings Examples: regime, routine, police, machine, ballet, matinee, scene, technique, bourgeois, etc. (One should note that these words of French origin sound and «look» very different from their Norman predecessors.

Italian also contributed a considerable number of words to English, e. g, piano, violin, opera, alarm, colonel. 

Why Are Words Borrowed?

Every time two nations come into close contact, certain borrowings are a natural consequence. The nature of the contact may be different. It may be wars, invasions or conquests when foreign words are upon the conquered nation. There are also periods of peace when the process of borrowing is due to trade and international cultural relations.

These latter circumstances are certainly more favourable for stimulating the borrowing process, for during invasions and occupations the natural psychological reaction of the oppressed nation is to reject the language of the oppressor. In this respect the linguistic heritage of the Norman Conquest seems exceptional, especially if compared to the influence of the Mongol-Tartar Yoke on the Russian language. The Mongol-Tartar Yoke also represented a long period of cruel oppression, yet the imprint left by it on the Russian vocabulary is insignificant. This is explained by the level of civilization of me two conflicting nations. Russian civilization and also the level of its language development at the time of the Mongol-Tartar invasion were superior to those of the invaders. That is why the Russian language successfully resisted the influence of a less developed language system. On the other hand, the, Norman culture of the  llth, c. was certainly superior to that of the Saxons. The result was that an immense number of French words forced their way into English vocabulary. Yet, linguistically speaking, this turned into a victory. Instead of being smashed by the powerful foreign element the English language managed to preserve its essential structure and vastly enriched its expressive resources with the new borrowings.

But all this only serves to explain the conditions which encourage the borrowing process. The question of «why» is often answered in two ways:

1) Sometimes it is done to fill a gap in vocabulary. Then the Saxons borrowed Latin words for "butter", "plum", "beet", they did it because their own vocabularies lacked words for these new objects. For the same reason the words potato and tomato were borrowed by English from Spanish then these vegetables were first brought to England by the Baniards

2) There may by a word (or then several words) which expresses some particular notion. Yet, one more word is borrowed which means almost the same, - but not exactly. The new words is borrowed because it represents the same notion in some new aspect, supplies a new shade of meaning or a different emotional colouring. This type of borrowing enlarges groups of synonyms and greatly provides to enrich the expressive resources of the vocabulary. That is how the Latin cordial was, added to the native friendly, the French desire to wish, the Latin admire and the French adore to like and love.

Borrowed words are adjusted in the three main areas of the new language system the phonetic, the grammatical and the semantic.

The three stages of gradual phonetic assimilation of French borrowings can be illustrated by different 
phonetic variants of the word garage:

      (Amer.)

Grammatical adaptation consists in a complete change of the former paradigm of the borrowed-word (i. e. system of the grammatical forms peculiar to it as a part of speech). If it is a noun, it will adopt, sooner or later a new system of declension; if it is a verb, it will be conjugated according to the rules of the recipient language. Yet, this is also a lasting process. The Russian noun пальто was borrowed from French early in the 19th c. and has not yet acquired the Russian system of declension. The same can be said about such English Renaissance

borrowings as datum (pi. data), phenomenon (pi phenomena), criterion (pi. criteria) whereas earlier Latin borrowings such as cup, plum, street, wall, were &//k adapted to the grammatical system of the language long ago.

By semantic adaptation is meant adjustment to the system of meanings of the vocabulary.

The adjective gay was borrowed from French with several meanings at once «noble of birth", "bright, shining, "multi-coloured". Rather soon it be same a synonym of the native merry and in some time was wed more often than «merry» become the group with the general meaning of "high spirits" obviously lacked certain shades which were successfully supplied by gay.

International Words.

It is often happens that a word is borrowed by several languages, and not just be one. Such words usually convey notions which are significant in the field of communication.

a) Many of them are of Latin and Greek origin. Most names of sciences are international, e.g. philosophy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, linguistics, lexicology.

b) There are also numerous terms of art in this group: music, theatre, drama, tragedy, comedy, artist, prima-donna.

c) It is quite natural that political terms frequently occur in the international group of borrowings: politics, policy, revolution, progress, democracy, communism, anti- militarism..

d) 20th c. scientific and technological advances brought a great number of new international words: atomic, antibiotic, radio, television, sputnik. The latter is a Russian borrowing, and it became an international word (meaning a man-made satellite) in 1961, immediately after the first space night by Yury Gagarin

e) The English language also contributed a considerable number of international words to world languages. Among them the sports terms occupy a prominent position: foot-ball, volley-ball,, baseball, hockey, cricket, rugby, tennis, golf.  etc.