2 General characteristics of the e. Lexicon

Lexicon – the total stock of meaningful units in a l-ge: words, idioms. 1) polysemantic words; 2) homonyms, homographs, homophones; 3) borrowings; 4) phrasal verbs, stone wall constructions & idioms; 5) various local dialects & modification; 6) neologisms (800 per year). A neologism – a “new word” in a l-ge. Neologisms can develop in 3 main ways: 1) neologisms proper – a new lexeme is introduced to denote a new object / phenomenon (speaker-phone – домофон, machine translation); 2) semantic neologisms – a lexicon existing in a l-ge change its meaning to denote a new object / phenomenon (umbrella / under the NATO umbrella); 3) transnomination – a new lexicon develops to denote some “old” object / phenomenon (slum – ghetto – трущобы).

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.

1 – native words (30 %); 2 – borrowed words /loans (70 %). Typical features of native words: 1 – they mean trivial notions; 2 – they have monosyllabic character; 3 – high frequency (Zipth’s law – the shorter the word is the more frequently it is used); 4 – polysemantic character; 5 – great word-building power (derivatives & compounds); 6 – high combinability (make set expressions); 7 – they are stylistically neutral in different speech styles. 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. History of borrowings: 1 – Roman invasion; 2 – introduction of Christianity; 3 – the Danish & Scandinavian invasions; 4 – Norman Conquest; 5 – Italian Renaissance; 6 – British colonialism; 7 – modern borrowings. Types of borrowing: 1) the original l-ge (where a word was born); 2) the source (donor) l-ge – from which it was taken. Sources of borrowing: 1) from other l-ges (from Latin, French, Greek, Hindi); 2) from dialects of the same l-ge (London dialect became superior for economical & political reasons). 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.

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.

Doublets are words which have the same origin but they are different in phonetic shape and in meaning. EG: the word “shirt” is a native one. “skirt” was borrowed from Scandinavian. (одежда)

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

Here is a very brief list of examples of Norman French borrowings. Administrative words: state, council, power. Legal terms: court, crime, prison. Military terms: army, war, battle, Educational terms: pupil, lesson, pen, pencil.

Loans: 1) translation loans (wall newspaper – стенная газета); 2) semantic loans (the development of a new meaning due to the influence of another from Russian l-ge). Assimilation of loans conformation to the standards of the receiving l-ge: 1) completely assimilated (complete phonetical, graphical, morphological & semantic assimilation): - Latin borrowings (cheese, animal, wall); - Scand. (husband, fellow); - French (table, chair, face) 2) partially assimilated: - not assimilated semantically (they denote notions peculiar to that country – sheik, toreador); - grammatically (crisis – crises); - phonetically (machine, police, prestige); - graphically (ballet, buffet); 3) barbarisms (non – assimilated) – words from other l-ges used by English people in conversation or writing – Italian “addio”. Etymological douplets – have the same meaning but different etymology & used in different styles (bookish & colloquial) – to start & to commence.