Chapter 3. Etymological survey of the english vocabulary: naming by borrowings

А word never — well, hardly ever — shakeS oJJ

etymology and its /огра//ол. Inspite о/ all changes iu in i

extension о/ and addition to its meaning, ап/; 1 pervaiding and governing these, there will persist t Ыеа.

— J.Ь.Austin, 'А Plea for Excuses' ш Philosор/ Papers, 1961,!

English as а Germanic language. Native English words. Borrowings ia English, Origin and source of borrowing. Loan ап4 native words relation. Assimilation of borrowings. Etymological doublets. 'Translator's false friends'. international words.

Etymology [fr Gk etymon 'true meaning' + logos 'word, learning'] studies the histon а linguistic form, especially of а word.

Knowledge of vocabulary development history, especially in а foreign language, та1 person а sophisticated learner, saves his/her time, energy and efforts in second langs acquisition, extends his/her philological horizons and explains unusual spell pronunciation or usage of words. The easiest, quickest and most dynamic way to surd lexicon is to give its etymological characteristics, though to study them is one of the n strenuous and toilsome jobs in linguistics.

ll. English as а Germanic Ьыаааа4

It is а well known fact that etymologically English is а Germanic language, the lsngt о1 Western Germanic tribes of the Jutes, the Angles and the Saxons who in the 5 сеп migrated across the English Channel and by about 700 gradually occupied most of ~ now is called England.

The first groups оГ Western Germanic tribes, mainly the Jutes, arrived at the reque the Celtic leader Vortigern. Vortigern appealed to them to help repel attacks by the 1 and Scots — early inhabitants of the British Isles who lived mainly in the mountain Scotland and Ireland. Не needed help because after а 400-year presence on the Ili Isles the Roman army was called home from England to defend Rome from attsc~ barbarians. This left native Celts without protection.

The Jutes caine, defeated the Picts and Scots but then killed Vortigern and establi their own rule. Later обжег Germanic tribes came from across the Channel, the ~а' and the Angles. Gradually the Angles became the dominant tribe and by the year 700 ed Angleland. By that time the Anglo-Saxon language became known as iter, by the year 1,000, as Anglish.

nar is the most conservative component of language, modern English :ommon features with grammars of олег Germanic languages. But the 1агу vividly demonstrates its Anglo-Яахоп roots, too.

two

iglisck that had formed by the 7 century was made up of words used ш

Anglo-Яахоп words used by the conquering tribes of Angles, Saxons and homogeneous, however. Several layers may be distinguished within them.

axon words can be traced to their common Indo European roots (father, r, son, daugitter, Ьпсй, cat, cold, one, two, ап4 three).

Agio-Saxon words had common Germanic roots (агт, bear, bout, finger, r, see, white, winter)

>und in conquering Germanic tribes' languages cannot be traced to any >г е.g. dog).

o borrowings, primarily continental Latin borrowings, that the the tribes :s and Saxons acquired from the contacts with а higher civilization when эп the continent (cup, cheese, butter, mill, line, оипсе, pipe, pound, wine).

о-Saxon origin include most auxiliary and modal verbs (can, may, must, , pronouns (I, уои, he, ту, and his), prepositions (in, out, on, and under), two, three, /оиг and hundred), conjunctions (and, but, and till), and many anal words, denoting parts о~йе body (head, hand, arm, back, /оо~ and (cow„ fish, goat, hen, horse, sheep,and swine), domestic life (door, Яоог, se), natural phenomena (storm, summer, and winter, etc.), qualities (old, iark, silly, and nice, etc.), actions (соте, see, hear, eat, оиу, sell, and

swings into the Anglo-Saxon language were words from the local Celtic fust migrants to England from central Europe, wandering tribes, who t 500 ВС. Though the Britons, or Celts, were not all killed or driven out of y were а defeated people and their language had по prestige. Few of their а English today: bog, glen, whiskey, bug, kick, creak, basket, dagger, lud. .с names for geographical places, like rivers (the Avon, the Esk„ the Usk, id the Severn), mountains and hills (Вел 1Yevis, from pen 'а hill'), are still used. Celtic names also are preserved as the first elements in many city „ (Wiachesrer, Cirenchester, Clouchester, Salisbury, Псй/1е!4 and Ikley) or the ~ па~а< elements in many villages (-ситЬ meaning 'deep valley' still survives in Duncprnb 'есор

Щ ~

Winchcombe).

The other group of borrowings in this early period of Old English is 6om Latin, 'у1, „ the barbaric invaders — tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes — tried to annihilate а11

r~mt 01 Roman cuite, they ho~owed into their lang age via Celtic abo ut 450 Lat words that were already in wide use in England. It' s 400-year occupation by ц„,

legions (purr, street, mile, mounlain, the element chester or custer, retained in names of towns [from L casrr 'camp']).

Insular borrowings from Celtic and Latin made up only about 3% of the vocabulary ~f Engelisck, or Old English.

So, the 7'" century AD Old English consisted of words of common Indo-Ешореад а„~ Germanic roots, as well as borrowings from Celtic, continental and early |,~а1, borrowings from Latin. All these words may be regarded as native in contrast to 1а1и borrowpngs that came into the language along with great сЬап8еып the Ие of Еп81аа~ ~ people, and first of all, the conversion of Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. This caused thq first really extensive wave of borrowings from Latin into English..

One should be also aware that there are different interpretations of the term 'native', Some scholars use the term 'native'exclusively to refer to words of Anglo-Saxon origiii, The term 'native' may also be understood as comprising'words coined later on the baiis of the ancient Anglo-Saxon words Ъу means of various processes operative in English with the help of native elements (-er, -ness, -doe, -hood, -skip, -й, etc.).

Not all the words of that period have survived. About 85% of them are по longer in use. Yet, according to some estimates, about 50,000 Anglo-Saxon words remain in English today /Hughes 1988:4/.

Most of them have undergone fundamental changes in meaning, wif, for example~ reminds modern wife, but in Old English it referred to any woman, married or а®~ Nevertheless they make up а great portion of the core of modern English vocabiila5 These words are communicatively the most important in English, are most Ггес1аеФ used (80% of the 500 most frequent words, according to Thorndike and 1.о48~' dictionary by are Anglo-Яахоп), are usually 'monosyllabic, and are among the m> iinportant functional and sema

ntic groups in the English vocabulary.

l3. Borrowing in English

The most important changes in Englisck vocabulary that made Englisck а ~еРа~ р~1е Germanic language happened after the 7" century. They were caused by а пап~ее' Ф er oI historical events that were followed by extensive borrowings into the native layer.

The conversioit of the English to Christianity began in about the year 600 ап4 +as со completed in the 7 сепгигу. As а iesult Latin and Greek words appeared such ав ~ге; bishop, creed, devil, school, church, priest, disciple, psalm, temple, пип, etc.). It is tnteres г .е~пп8 to note that native, pagan, Anglo-Яахоп words like God, godspell, Ыи/ого and syn» ,гг ьЬо~че4 а strong resistance to loan words, though they were not related to

Christianity.

дпойег change occurred when from the end of the 8 to the middle of the 11 пгогу Swedes, Norwegians and Danes, known as Vikings that in their language Old

1~1огае, а related Germanic language, meant 'pirates', invaded England. This period is known ая t}le Danish invasion.

~1~е Vikings сате as ruthless warriors, but in their second generation in England they became craftsmen and farmers and inteimarried with the Angelcynns. Examples of the words that Scandinavians contributed to modern English are: both, call, Же, egg, fellow, flat, fog, gap, get, give, happy, happen, husband, ill, knife, law, leg, loan, low, odd, reindeer, take, they, their, them, tidings, ugly, want, weak, window, wrong, and sale. Some of them are still easy to recognize as they begin with sk-: ski, skin, sky, skill, skirt, and scrub. At least 1,400 localities in England have Scandinavian names (names with Scandinavian elements -beck 'brook', -by 'village', toft 'а site for а dwelling and additional land' are found in Askby, Selby, 9'езгЬу, Brtmtoft, ап4 МоггоЯ.

3. The Norman conquest started with the lost battle near Hastings in 1066 and lasted for two hundred years. (The rulers of Normandy had originally been Scandinavian Vikings who occupied parts of northern France. By the middle of the 11'" century, however, they had lost their Scandinavian language and spoke French).

fter the conquest the native aristocracy were largely destined and French became the anguage of the upper class. Ii is interesting to note, however, that up to 1250, before the огпу(а1 end оГ the Norman invasion, по тоге than about one thousand French words had ntered the language. Mostly they were words that lower classes acquired from the >o»1ity (baron, лоЖе, servant, messenger, feast, and story). Cooking terms are largely )reach: sauce, boll, frу, roast, toast, pastry, soup, and jelly. The outward parts of the аког(У ~ave for /асе, and most of the better known inner organs were untouched by the оппа"~ (arm, hand, finger,

лозе, eye, skin, heart, brain, lung, kidney, li ver, bone). But https://studfile.net/а, nerve stomach, artery, tendon attest the foreign influence. О.Jespersen points out

~аг а

аг 11~е heaviest borrowing from French took place not immediately after the Conquest ! " ~~п~ееп 1250 and 1400, during the period when English was reborn ап4 French was ,~ ~ ~„ге,.Кп language. "As the free tongue of independent men, English was more than

~111п

~indreds '"К «> embrace French and take it to its heart" /Pei 1967:41/. On the whole many

~з1 1.„ ,"~ ~ ~f words from French related to government, social and military order, arts, ' " е"»>ne entered English: market, demand, enemy, arrest, army, soldier, navy,

~ Peace, royal, state, court, false, judge, justice, verdict, prison, parliament,

government, art, painting, poet, ctiamber, labour, mansion, diamond, salon, mirr, scent, jewel, robe, coat, сонат, curtain, and beef.

4. The Renaissance period (1500-1650) was marked by significant developments science, art and culture, especially а revival of interest in ancient civilization. Many te were translated into English from Latin, Greek, Italian and lots of words from thi languages were introduced to English (allegro, anaclironism, capacity, catastrop, celebrate, chronology, confidence, contract, criterion, dogma, epic, expend, fert granite, laconic, museum, native, opera, piano, portico, soprano, sarcasm, and system

5. More recent extensive cultural contacts between Great Britain and other Engli speaking countries and major European and other states have contributed much borrowings, though the &equency of borrowings into English considerably reduced. M: words are borrowed from French: flambeau, marmot, and parquet; from Germ, waltz, rucksack, liindergarten, JVazi, wolfram, and nickel; from Spanish (especially fr American Spanish via American English): Hidalgo, parade, domino, buffalo, veran from Danish: deck, skipper, dock, yacht; from Hungarian: goulash; from Russi kopeck, intelligentsia, pogrom, tsar, samovar, sable, and steppe; and other count (from Chinese: tea, tycoon, fan (ап; &om West Indies: barbeque, hurricane, саппй & om Eskimos: anorak, and others).

As in the сазе with native words, one should bear in mind that there are dijfe> interpretations of the term 'borrowing in English'. It may be understood as:

1) the process and the result of the process of adopting by seventh-cenI Engelisck and later words, word combinations or morphemes from other languages (-а -ment, parliament, and coup d etat);

2) any word or word combination created in English on the basis of а foreign for а) 1гаы1ат|оп-1оааз — words and expressions from the material available in

language after the patterns characteristic of the given language, but under the influenc foreign lexical units. Quite а lot of them have Germanic origins (supernian [&оп IJbermensch], lightning-war [from G Blitzkrieg], niasterpiece [from G Meisterstu йотеисйпея [from G Heimweh], standpoint [from G Standpunkt]), sumnut confere [from О Gipfel Conference], though олег languages contributed to this pmcess too, example, тайен tongue [from. lingua materna], first dancer [&om L prima baleri wa

ll-роро [from Russ стенная газета]; Ии moment of truth [from Sp el momenti

la verdad];

Ь) semantic borrowings — the appearance of а new word meaning due to influence of the related wor6 in а foreign language. For example, the meaninl subdivision of an executive department' appeared in the English word bureau under influence of the related Russian word бюро as in'Политическое бюро'. Or; on anal with the Russian word товарищ used as the foun of address in the former USSR some other socialist (communist) countries, the related English word comrade acquir new meaning 'COMMUNIST;

с) words coined from Greek or Latin roots — the longest and usually i difficult words in the English vocabulary where alongside with well familiar рйо~оуг

1,оле there are many special terms like о1огЫлойиулуо1о~у or лрйуущощал

~ е longest ord registered in English texts ~0 fa~ лрса1саБлосе1асеоа1ищ1лозосиргеопй 1о11с.

~1,е English vocabulary is considered to have а mixed character because of th,

1 ео

n~ber of bomowings fm more than 80 1апри8ея all очей the world. ~Ц in all ~~~~ оЕ modern English vocabulary consists of loans, or borrowed words, адд о~1 1 the и огдя are native due to the specific conditions of English language с1~уе1о~~~

/peaking of borrowings, one should not confuse the terms 'source of borrowjn ~ф~ of the word'. The term 'source of borrowing' is more important for ~depot~

ge forrI1 811d meaning of the word than its origin because the borrowed word ~, bea~ the sound and graphic form and semantic properties characteristic of Qe 1щ~ fmm which they were borrowed. The word schoo1, for example, is borrow~ jnm E е ац from Latin [schola], retains its meaning and spelling, but is of Greek origin 1~ д~ 1,а4 а rather different meaning 'leasure, discussion, lecture, school'.

stive elements and bnrmwines in t nilich ~ атв t апт~~А»:' +a. С 11

hrough centuries of borrowing words from огпег languages, English has aequi arger and тоге varied vocabulary. Scholars estimate that in modern English thei bout one million words, and they are diverse in their origin. Yet, there are some! о.

orrowings not only extended йе Anglo-Saxon vocabulary; they also pushed many ~ ores into oblivion. About two-thirds of all original Anglo-Saxon words died ot eems extraordinary, for example, that the Old English words for umle, nephew, skin, расе, take, breakfast, vegetables, /гш/, money, number, war, touch, window

furniture should have been ousted from the vocabulary entirely, or survive onl

gati remote, recondite catches" Hughes 1988:4-5/.

First to disappear and to be replaced by borrowed words were many compounds derivatives that were characteristic of 014 English (witanagemot 'council-тее1|ц мега/Ы 'man-money' — the financial penalty for killing а man; а verb settan comes |щ ME, but in ОЕ it was used with lots of suffixes and prefixes: asettan 'to place', /огзеаац 'obstruct', foresettan 'to place before', gesettan 'to populate', tosettan 'to dispose итеиап 'to put down'). Only some derived words survived (friendship, kingdom, аа,1 ctsildlsood) /Pei 1967:21/.

Borrowings, except Scandinavian loans, spoken mainly by upper echelons of society made another radical change in the Old English Anglo-Saxon lexicon — they йфеd таис native words to а lower stylistic register, to the layer of words spoken mainly by common people (cf.: veil and calf, Ьее~апй cow, pork апйр/Я.

1.о1з of borrowed words influenced not only the lexical but even the grammatical systesi of English. Borrowings led to the loss of inflection. Under the influence of French some construction typical of that language were used in English, too. For example, the preposition of before а noun phrase became more widely овей ш modern English than it had been in Old English to express possession (the leg of йе table).

Yet, surviving words belonging to the native word-stock are characterized by а high &equency of usage and developed polysemy; they have great word-building potential and enter а number of set-expressions. Thus, in spite of their relatively small number, native words make up а core of the English vocabulary without which the English language cannot function.

ls. Assimilation of borrowing'

The life of word-immigrants in English is not easy. They have always been considered alien unless they were borrowings from а kindred language like Old Scandinavian.

Usually they go through а very long process of assimilation: they change to conform to pronunciation patterns and grammar forms of the English language and finally become indistinguishable from native words. Some unconventional sounds and sound combinations are replaced (cf. Вась [Ьа:k] in English and [bah] in German; psyche [ saiki] and [psuch6] in Greek, psalm [sa:m] in English and [psalmos] in

Greek), devil in English and diabolos in Latin, bislsop in English and episcopos in Latin, etc.). The accent in French words is usually transferred to the first syllable as |и'Ьоиоиг. Borrowed words lose their former grammatical paradigm as does the Russian borrowing sputnik that acquired in English the regular plural form sputnik-

,s are still taking place in the way words are stressed: in two syllable words the ,ав а tendency to be moved &от the second syllable to the first ('илий, 'garage,

idually the border between loan and native words becomes less rigid. Some ;, completely or partially assimilated, are able to form hybrlds — words of foreign iut with а native affix (artless, falsehood, and uninteresting) or vice versa, words e origin but with а borrowed affix (dislike, eatable, lovable, leakage).

loans that сате into English through written speech still retain their peculiarities unciation, spelling, morphology and meaning (phenontenon, charisrna, and coup ). They also have а чегу low derivational potential and low frequency of псе.

relatively few words are being borrowed into English &от foreign languages ed with previous periods (absurd, ivory tower, paparazzo). But the number of 1 loans — words borrowed from other dialects and variants of the вате language instantly increasing (gas from American English for репо!, movie for /Ви, radio rless, some specific words like ОК and Uncle Sant). Боте people believe that ternal loans тау endanger the British variant of the English language.

фщщы жы~~

agical doublets are words with the same etymological origin but which have t phonemic structure and meaning because they were borrowed from different or during different periods or as the result of specific historical development of а а language.

d'or source for etymological doublets in English is words of Latin origin that came llish in two ways: directly from Latin and via French (fragile [L] — frail [Fr], .] — channel [Fr], cavalry [L] — cltivalry [Fr]), grammar [L] — glantour [Fr], (.] — liqueur [Fr], major [L]) — ntayor [Fr]; senior [L] — sir [Fr].

ymological doublets came into English from different dialects of а language (like id essay from different French dialects), or from the вате language at different of its development (Нсе dish and disc (or disk) are both borrowings from Latin; l dish, however, is an early continental Latin bormwing [ОЕ disc 'plate'; akin to k 'plate, table'], but the word disc is а new English borrowing &от Latin).

ndinavian influence is also responsible for many doublets in English, like bathe bask [Sc], по [ОЕ] — nay [Sc], rear [ОЕ] — raise [Sc],front [OE] — fro [Sc], ОЕ] — scatter [Sc], shirt [ОЕ] — skirt [Sc], яйф [ОЕ] — skip [Sc], whole [ОЕ] [Sc].

Боте doublets may be traced to common Indo-European roots. Thus, guest 'enemy, stranger' and host 'аппу; multitude' (the same root is in hostile) both go back to Indo- European ghostt-s, but guest is а native English word that was registered in common Germanic (gasti-z) and host is а Latin borrowing.

The loss of associations between meanings in polysemantic words ('split polysemy') supported by further divergence in spelling and sound form may also create etymological doublets as is the case with регион and parson (the meaning 'а non-resident clergyman, who has the function of а parish priest' in the word personne of Latin origin but the Old French source of borrowing appeared in English, and later саше to be spelled differently.

English is especially rich in etymological doublets due to the great influx of words through borrowing. Walter W. Skeat in А Concise Etymological Dictionary о/ the English аngиаgе (Oxford, 1955) lists 543 pairs оЫоиЫеЬ.

Three words of the same origin make up an etymological triplet (саШе — chattel— capital [fr. L capitale3). These are not as common as etymological doublets.

l7. 'Тгавя!яЬг'e false friends'. Ioternationsl wordeJ

Iп the process of word borrowing only one meaning of а polysemantic word appears in а пем language, and even this meaning may be changed. That is why loan words may be tricky for а language learner: а native and foreign words may be similar in form but be radically different in meaning. For example, the central meaning of the noun magazine is not 'магазин', as а Russian speaker may assume, but 'периодический журнал, обычно с иллюстрациями', the central meaning of the word routtne is not only 'рутина' but 'заведенный порядок', though the word may be translated in this way in some contexts; adventure may not necessarily be 'авантюра'.

The difference in meaning between correlative words with similar forms is not always illustrated even in the best English-Russian dictionaries. Thus, the main meaning of the word angina is not 'ангина' as is stated in the English-Russian Dictionary by ЧК. Muller (М., 1977) but 'грудная жаба'. The adjective Саисаяап means not only 'кавказский' but 'относящийся к белой расе'. When the adjective eclectic is translated as 'эклектический', 'эклектичный' as it is in this dictionary, а native Russian speaker would never guess the neutral or even positive connotations of this English word (as in 'eclectic and thorough introd

uction to ...'), because in Russian it has only negative connotations: 'относящийся к эклектизму, проникнутый эклектизмом' (эклекмизи 'отсутствие единства, целостности, последовательности в убеждениях, теориях; беспринципное сочетание разнородных, противоположных воззрений, например, идеализма с материализмом; в искусстве — формальное, механическое соединение различных стилей' /Словарь иностранных слов, 1985/). The English word invalid is not fully equivalent to the Russian word инвалид because it is used most frequently as aa

meaning 'not valid', retaining its etymological meaning from the borrowed ord.

~ are borrowed from а less prestigious language, their positive connotations тау negatively in the language of borrowing (cf.: uroda 'а beauty' in Polish and урод, а 'ugly person' in Russian, saray 'palace, mansion' т Turkish and сарай 'shed, , Russian).

>rds that have similar forms in different languages but different meanings are [ 1о be 'translator's false friends'.

,tjonal words — Йшег from other borrowings in that they reflect relationships а number of countries and not relations between two countries as ш the case with к1 words. International words are the result of simultaneous or successive ings in many languages (sputnik, perestroika, killer, aria, and opera).

ional words and borrowings should not be mixed with words of common Indo- ,an stock like eat, mother or father, as they always have been in the genetically languages.

the number оПоап names in English is great, borrowing has never been the major >f naming and replenishing the English vocabulary. Word-formation and lexical- ic derivation of а пате were much more productive in English through all of its historical development.

г reading:

а Н.Н. Этимологические основы словарного состава современного нглийского языка. — М.: Издательство иностранной литературы, 1958.

ина В.И. Новая лексика современного английского языка. — М.: Высшая (кола, 1989.

н В.П. Заимствования в английском языке. — Киев, Издательство Киевского ннверситета, 1964.

Charles. The English language: а historical introduction. — Cambridge: CUP, )94.

Albert С., Cable, Thomas. А History of the English аnguаgе. Third Edition Kevised). — Redwood Вшп Limited, Towbridge й Esher, 1978.

Geofpey. Words in time. — Oxford: Basil Blackwell Inc., 1988.

e, Robert; Cran, Ю1йащ MacNeil, Robert. The Story of English. New and evised Edition. — London, Boston: ВВС Books, 1992.

srio. The story of the English language. — Pitiladelphia and Меч York: В.Lippincott Со., 19б7.

Chapter 4. WORD MEANING: LЕХ1СА1 NAMING

4.1. lехical scmantics It is meaning that makes language usefgl — George А. Miller, The science о/word, 1991:146