Российский государственный педагогический университет им. А.И. Герцена
Факультет иностранных языков
Лексикологический анализ
стихотворения
“Distant View of a Provincial Town”
by John Betjeman
Выполнил студент III курса, 2ЛА группы
Сребницкий Владимир Владимирович
Научный руководитель:
доц. Пузанова Н.А.
Санкт-Петербург
2010
Contents
1. The poem for analysis.................................................................................................................3
2. The functional style.....................................................................................................................4
3. A variant of the English language................................................................................................4
4. Etymology....................................................................................................................................5
5. Polysemy......................................................................................................................................7
6. Motivation....................................................................................................................................9
7. Lexical and grammatical meanings...........................................................................................10
8. Synonyms...................................................................................................................................13
9. Antonyms...................................................................................................................................14
10. Homonyms...............................................................................................................................15
11. Hypero-hyponimic relations....................................................................................................16
12. Word formation........................................................................................................................17
13. Phraseology..............................................................................................................................18
14. Proper names............................................................................................................................19
14. Bibliography............................................................................................................................20
Distant View of a Provincial Town
Beside those spires so spick and span
Against an unencumbered sky
The old Great Western Railway ran
When someone different was I.
St. Aidan's with the prickly nobs
And iron spikes and coloured tiles
Where Auntie Maud devoutly bobs
In those enriched vermilion aisles
St. George's where the mattins bell
But rarely drowned the trams for prayer
No Popish sight or sound or smell
Disturbed that gas-invaded air
St. Mary's where the Rector preached
In such a jolly friendly way
On cricket, football, things that reached
The simple life of every day
And that United Benefice
With entrance permanently locked,
How Gothic, grey and sad it is
Since Mr. Grogley was unfrocked!
The old Great Western Railway shakes
The old Great Western Railway spins
The old Great Western Railway makes
Me very sorry for my sins.
Legenda
distant – etymology
view – polysemy
railway – motivation
sky – lexical and grammatical meanings
football – synonyms
sad – antonyms
cricket – homonyms
tiles – hypero-hyponimic relations
provincial – word formation
spick and span – phraseology
St. Aidan's - proper names
The Functional Style
Functional style of language is a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication. A functional style should be regarded as the product of a certain concrete task set by the sender of the message. Functional styles appear mainly in the literary standard of the language. These represent varieties of the abstract invariant and can deviate from the invariant, even breaking away with it.
Being a poem, “Distant View of a Provincial Town” refers to poetic style.
A variant of the English language
As far as John Betjeman was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who received education in Oxford, the poem is written in Standard English – “the official language of Great Britain taught at schools and universities, used by the press, the radio and the television and spoken by educated people. It’s universally recognized as acceptable wherever English is spoken or understood”.
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words – when they entered a language, from what source, and how their form and meaning have changed over time. English derives from Old English (sometimes referred to as Anglo-Saxon), a West Germanic variety, although its current vocabulary includes words from many languages. The Old English roots can be seen in the similarity of numbers in English and German. Though more than half of the words in English either come from the French language or have a French cognate, most of the common words used are still of Germanic origin. There are also words of Latin and Greek origin.
distant
from French distant (Oresme, 14th c.), adaptation of Latin distānt-em “standing apart, separate, distant, different”, pr. pple. of distāre “to stand apart”.
view
adopted from Anglo-French vewe, veue, vue, vieue, view, = Old French veue (French vue), ppl. n. from veoir (French voir) “to see”.
provincial
from French provincial (13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), or adaptatin of Latin prōvinciāl-is, formed on prōvincia: “conquered territory” from “pro-“ + ‘vinco” (“to conquer”).
town
Old English tuun, tún m. = Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Middle Low German tûn: Old Teutonic *tûnoz, -om, cognate with Celtic dûn in -dūnum, Old Irish dûn, Welsh dīn “fortified place, castle, camp”.
sky
adopted from Old Norsk ský neut., “cloud” (:—original *skiuja), directly related to Old Saxon skio masc., Old English scéo (doubtful), and more remotely to Old English scuwa, Old Norsk skugge “shade, shadow”.
old
Early Middle English old:—Old English ald (West Saxon eald) = Old Frisian and Old Saxon ald, Old High German alt:—Old Teutonic *alˈđo-z, originally a ppl. formation (corresponding to Greek forms in -τός, L. -tus) from Old Teutonic vb. stem al-, Gothic al-an “to grow up”, Old Norsk al-a “to nourish, bring up”, cognate with Latin . al-ĕre “to nourish”.
great
Old English gréat = Old Frisian grât, Old Saxon grôt , Old High German, Middle High German grôȥ:—Old Teutonic. *grauto-:—pre-Teutonic *ghroudo-.
different
from French différent (14th century in Hatz.-Darm.), adaptation of Latin different-em differing, different, pr. pple. of differ-re transitive “to bear or carry asunder, etc” ., intr. “to tend asunder, have opposite bearings, differ” .
iron
Old English íren, used beside ísern, ísen, = Old Frisian ísern, Old Saxon îsarn, Old High German îsarn, later îsan, Old Norsk ísarn, Gothic eisarn:—Old Teutonic type *īsarnom; cognate with Old Celtic *īsarnom.
devoutly
from devout – Middle English devot, devout, adaptation of Old French devot, devote (12th century in Littré), = Provincial devot, Spanish devoto, Italian divoto, adaptation of Latin dēvōt-us “devoted, given up by vow”, pa. pple. of dēvovēre “to devote”.
aisle
Originally adaptation of Old French ele, eele:— Latin āla “wing” (contr. from axilla). Refashioned in French after Latin as aelle 15th century, æle, aile 16th century; in 15th –16th century French. In English confused in 15th century with ile, yle “island” (perhaps with the idea of a detached or distinct portion of a church), and refashioned with this, a1700, as isle; recently modified after French aile to aisle.
mattins
from mattin – early Middle English matines, adaptation of French matines fem. pl. (11th century) = Provencal matinas:— Ecclesiastical Latin mātūtīnās (nom. mātūtīnæ), fem. pl. of mātūtīnus “pertaining to the morning”.
tram(s)
adaptation of French trame, Old French traime, trème, 12th century in Godef. Compl., (as in the late sense 1) “woof of a web”, also figurative “cunning device or contrivance, machination, plot”:—L. trāma “woof”. The literal sense of French and Latin appears in English only in a technical use from modern French in 17th century; but the fig. sense of ‘machination’ was adopted already in the 14th century.
benefice
from Old French benefice, adaptation of Latin beneficium, formed on bene “well” + -ficium “a doing”.
sin(s)
Old English syn (n, for original *sunjō, related to continental forms with extended stem, namely Old Frisian sende, Middle Dutch sonde, Old Saxon sundea, sundia, Old High German sunt(e)a, sund(e)a, Old Norsk synð, synd. The stem may be related to that of Latin sons, sont-is “guilty”.
Polysemy
Polysemy is a phenomenon, when one word has a set of different meanings.
view
noun
1. extent or range of vision : sight <tried to keep the ship in view>
2. the act of seeing or examining : inspection; also : survey <a view of English literature>
3. a mode or manner of looking at or regarding something
4. scene, prospect <the lovely view from the balcony>
5. the foreseeable future <no hope in view>
6. a pictorial representation
On examining the relationships between the senses of the noun “view”, we may conclude that the first meaning of “view” (“view1”) is closely connected to the second meaning (“view 2”) and the later, for its part, is related to the third meaning (“view 3”), thus forming a chain-like model of polysemy. As for “view 4”, its meaning has common components of meaning with ‘view 1” but it it also closely tied to “view 5” as well as to”view 6”, so they form a radial model of polysemy. The two models together construct a mixed model of polysemy illustrated in the following picture.
VIEW