Etymological characteristics of the english lexicon

1. The sources of the English lexicon.

2. General composition of the word stock.

3. Words of native origin.

4. Borrowing. Assimilation of borrowings.

5. Linguistic effects of borrowing.

Key Terms

borrowing

caique

cognates

common Germanic words

etymology

folk etymology

etymological doublets (triplets) etymological fallacy

etymon

Indo-European roots international words loan translation loanword semantic loan word origin

Tasks and Exercises

1. Trace the etymology and comment on the etymological

meaning of the following words:

daisy, girl, goodbye, school, silly, window.

2. State the languages from which the following words are borrowed:

addendum, architect, area, canoe, cheese, intelligent, kinder­garten, majesty, nation, paper, place, rouble, saga, soprano, steppe, tomato, umbrella, waltz.

3. Make sure you know the following abbreviations used in the Concise Oxford Dictionary (cod):

Brit/ish

Celt/ic

cf./compare

cogn./ate

com./mon

Da./nish

Du./tch

E/English

F/French

f/rom

Fr./ench

G/German

Gk/Greek

Gmc/Germanic

Goth./ic

Heb./rew

It./Italian

L/Latin

LL/Late Latin

Norm./an

OE/Old English

OF/Old French

ON/Old Norse

OS/Old Saxon

Rom./Roman; Romanic

Teut./onic

Note: for the complete list of abbreviations seeTfce Concise Ox­ford Dictionary.

4. Match the etymological doublets:

balsam

canal

liquor

major

pauper

salon

shade

shirt

mayor

liqueur

balm

channel

shadow

skirt

saloon

poor

5. Give adjectives of Latin origin to the following nouns:

body, brother, cat, dog, earth, egg, father, foe, fox, hearty house, mind, mouth, name, town, woman (feminine, urban, mental, nominal, domestic, cordial, lupine, hostile, paternal, oval, oral, terrestrial, canine, feline, corporal, fraternal).

Questions

• What is the etymological composition of the English lexicon?

• What are the main characteristics of the words of native ori­gin?

• What is the difference between the terms source of the bor­rowing and origin of the word?

• What do you understand by folk etymology?

• What are the causes and ways of borrowing?

• What are the specific features of borrowings?

• What types of assimilation of borrowings are distinguished?

• What are the main factors determining the degree of assimila­tion?

• What is the influence of borrowings on the English vocabu­lary?

• What can you say about the role of native and borrowed words in the English language?

Recommended Reading

Амосова H.H. Этимологические основы словарного состава современного английского языка. М, 1956.

Антрушина Г.Б., Афанасьева О.В., Морозова Н.Н. Лексико­логия английского языка: Учеб. пособий На англ. яз. М., 1999.

Арнольд И. В. Лексикология современного английского языка: Учебник для ин-тов и фак. иностр. яз. На англ. яз. М, 1986.

Гинзбург P.3._t Хидекель С.С., Князева Г.Ю. и др. Лексиколо­гия английского языка: Учебник для ин-тов и фак. иностр. яз. На англ. яз. М, 1979.

Гринберг Л.Е., Кузнец М.Д. Сборник упражнений по лексико­логии английского языка М., 1966.

Лещева ЛМ. Слова в английском языке: Курс лексикологии современного английского языка; Учебник. На англ. яз. Мн.,2001.

Маковский М.М. Английская этимология: Учеб. пособие для

ин-тов и фак. иностр. яз. М., 1986. Медникова Э.М. Практикум по лексикологии английского

языка: Учеб. пособие для ин-тов и фак. иностр. яз. М.,

1978

Смирницкий A.M. Лексикология английского языка. М., 1956.

Харитончик З.А. Лексикология английского языка: Учеб. по­собие. Мн., 1992.

Crystal D. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Lan­guage. Printed in Italy, 1995.

Recommended Dictionaries

The Concise Oxford Dictionary. Bombay, 1987.

The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology / Ed. C.T. On­ions. Oxford, 1985.

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Oxford, 1974. Vol. 1,2.

Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language. Springfield, 1961. Vol. 1, 2.

WORD MEANING

1. Approaches to meaning (General overview).

2. Aspects and types of word meaning (General overview).

3. Word meaning and motivation. Phonetic, morphological and semantic motivation.

Key Terms

arbitrary	onomasiology
behaviourist approach	onomatopoeia
cognitive meaning	part-of-speech meaning
componential analysis	pragmatic meaning
concept	reference
connotation	referent
connotation meaning	referential approach
context	referential meaning
context of situation	semantic feature
verbal context	semantic models
contextual meaning	semantic triangle
contrastive analysis	semantics
demotivation	semasiology
denotation	semiotics
denotational meaning	sense
emotive meaning	sign
expressive meaning	significative meaning
extensional meaning	situational meaning
functional approach	sound imitation
grammatical meaning	structural meaning
ideational approach	symbol
intensional meaning	systemic meaning
lexical meaning	thought
lexical semantics	truth-conditional approach

Tasks and Exercises