3. Etymological survey of the English lexicon.

The term “etymology” comes from Greek and it means the study of the earlist forms of the word. Now etymology studies both: the form and the meaning of borrowed and native words. In every modern language there are native and borrowed words. It is quite natural and logical because contacts between people, and peoples are lead to the process of borrowing. As for English language many scientist consider the foreign influence to be the most important factor in the development of the Eng. language. There are more borrowed words in English than in any other European language. So we speak of the mixed character of the English vocabulary. It contains the native element and the borrowed elements. The native element includes Indo-European, Germanic element and English proper element: boy, girl, lord, lady – proper English word.

By the native element we mean words which were not borrowed from other languages. The number of native words is rather small, about 25%-30%. About 70% of words are borrowed. This fact gave ground to the assumption that English is not a Germanic language, but a Romenic-Germanic language.

Today the accepted point of view is that Eng. is a Germanic language and the mixed character of its vocabulary is one of its main features. It can be proved by the fact that in speech the correlation between native and borrow words is different. It was found out that in the works of English classics about 80% of words are native. (prepositions, modal and auxiliary verbs, a great many irregular verbs, some nouns and adjectives denoting everyday notions). The native element include Indo-European, Germanic and English proper words. Indo-European words have cognates in other I-E languages. EG: English words of this group denote elementary concepts without which no human communication would be possible. day, night, mother, father, son, daughter.

Germanic words have cognates in modern Germanic languages. EG: They denote parts of human body: hand, head, arm, bone. Animals: fox, bear.

English proper words don’t have any cognates in other languages: lord, lady, boy, girl.

The term “borrowing” may mean the process of borrowing and the result of the process-the word itself. The term source of borrowing means the language which from the word was taking into English. EG: delicious was taken from French so, French is the source of borrowing.

The term origin of borrowing denotes the language to ehich the word may be traced. EG: the word “school is a Latin borrowing. (It comes from Latin) of greek origin. It means that to Latin (it) came from Greek. “to adore” came from French. There are different reasons for borrowing words, linguistic and extro-lingustic (historic) reason. Historic reasons include wars and conquest and peaceful contacts as well. The main linguistic reason are the following: 1.) a gap in vocabulary. EG: potato, tomato were borrowed from Spanish, when these vegetables were brought to the British island. So, the word were borrowed together with notions which they denoted. 2.) To present the same notion in a new aspect, from a different point of view. EG: The French word “to adore” was added to native words “to like” and “to love”, to denote the strongest degree of the process.

This type of borrowing enlarge groups of synonyms. Заимствование: а) время б) историч. справка в) классиф.

The classification of English borrowings includes more than ten groups. The main groups of borrowing are:

- the three layers of dating borrowing- borrowings from French- borrowing from Scandinavian

Translation-loan(s) (калька) – are borrowings which are made up by means of literally translating words and word combinations. EG: from the Russian language: пятилетка – five-year plan. from German: Wunderkind – wonder child. from Italian: prima ballerina – first dancer.

Doublets are words which have the same origin but they are different in phonetic shape and in meaning. Doublets appeared in English in different ways.

1) One of the pair may be a native word and the other a borrowed one. EG: the word “shirt” is a native one. “skirt” was borrowed from Scandinavian. (одежда)

2) Both the words are borrowed, but from different languages. EG: senior (from Latin) sir (from French)

3) Both the words are borrowed from one of the same language, but at different period of time. EG: cavalry (Normandy French) – кавалерия. Chivalry (Parisian Language) – рыцарство (ch-показывает о более позднем происхождение)

4) Shortening may bring to life etymological doublets. EG: history and story, defense and fance.

International words are the words, which borrowed by several language, among international words are names of sciences (phonetic, physics, political terms, sports, name of fruits, foods)

With the famous Battle of Hastings, when the English were defeated by the Normans under William the Conqueror, we come to the eventful epoch of the Norman Conquest. The epoch can well be called eventful not only in national, social, political and human terms, but also in linguistic terms. England became a bi-lingual country, and the impact on the English vocabulary made over 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.