Вопросы для итогового экзамена «Лексикология современного английского языка»

1. The object of lexicology. Lexicology and other branches of Linguistics.

The term lexicology is of Greek origin (from lexis – word and logos - science).
Lexicology is the part of linguistics which deals with the vocabulary and
characteristic features of words and word-groups.
The term word denotes the main lexical unit of a language resulting from the
association of a group of sounds with a meaning. This unit is used in grammatical
functions characteristic of it. It is the smallest unit of a language which can stand
alone as a complete utterance.
The term word-group denotes a group of words which exists in the language as
a ready-made unit, has the unity of meaning, the unity of syntactical function, e.g.
the word-group as loose as a goose means clumsy and is used in a sentence as a
predicative (He is as loose as a goose).
Lexicology can be general and special. General lexicology is the lexicology of
any language, part of General Linguistics. It is aimed at establishing language
universals – linguistic phenomena and propeties common to all languages.
Special lexicology is the lexicology of a particular language (English, German,
Russian, etc.).
Lexicology can study the development of the vocabulary, the origin of words and
word-groups, their semantic relations and the development of their sound form and
meaning. In this case it is called historical lexicology.
Another branch of lexicology is called descriptive and studies the vocabulary at a
definite stage of its development.
Lexicology is closely connected with other branches of linguistcs:
1. It is connected with Phonetics because the word‘s sound form is a fixed
sequence of phonemes united by a lexical stress.
2. Lexicology is connected with Morphology and Word-Formation as the word‘s
structure is a fixed sequence of morphemes.
3. It is connected with Morphology because the word‘s content plane is a unity of
lexical and grammatical meanings.
4. The word functions as part of the sentence and performs a certain syntactical
function that is why it is also connected with Syntax.
5. The word functions in different situations and spheres of life therefore it is
connected with Stylistics, Socio- and Psycholinguistics.
________________________________________________________

2. The basic units of vocabulary. The theory of the word. (Бабич стр. 16-18 пункт 1.4)

The definition of the word is one of the most difficult in linguistics because the
word has many aspects. It has a sound form because it is a certain arrangement of
phonemes; it has its morphological structure, being a certain arrangement of
morphemes; it is used in different word-forms and various meanings in speech.
The word is a sort of focus for the problems of phonology, lexicology, syntax, and
morphology.
 There have been many attempts to define the word. The efforts of many prominent
scholars threw light on this problem. Linguists define the word as the basic unit of
language. It is a unity of form and content. Its content or meaning is not identical to
notion.

Theory of the word. A word usually conveys a notion. Notion is psychological

category. Notion and linguistic categories are closely connected. Notions are
realized through words, without words they cannot exist. Notions are realized through
the component of the word called meaning. So by meaning we understand the
component of the word through which the notion is realized. We cannot identify word
and notion, notion and meaning, word and meaning. Word is wider than meaning.
Meaning is not identical to notion, but it may reflect human notions, and in this sense
may be considered as the form of their existence. Notions fixed in meanings of words
are formed as generalized and approximately correct reflections of reality; therefore
in signifying them words reflect reality in their content.
The French linguist A. Meillet wrote that “a word is defined by the association of
a particular meaning with a particular group of sounds capable of a particular
grammatical employment.” (A. Meillet. Linguistique historique et linguistique gе´nе
´rale. Paris, 1926. V. 1. P. 30.) We can accept this definition, and add that a word is
characterized by positional mobility within a sentence and indivisibility. Thus, the
word is the fundamental unit of a language used for the purposes of human
communication, resulting from the association of a group of sounds with a
meaning, capable of grammatical employment. It is the smallest language unit that
can stand alone as a complete utterance. The word is a two-facet unit: it has form and
content. Its content or meaning reflects human notions. Concepts fixed in the
meaning of words are formed as generalized reflections of reality, therefore in
signifying them words reflect reality in their content. The acoustic aspect of the word
serves to name objects of reality. When a word first comes into existence, it is built
out according to the existing patterns of the elements available in the language.

3. Word structure in Modern English (Бабич стр.37-41 пункты 3.1 и 3.2)

The word is the fundamental unit of language, it has form and content. Linguists
define the word as the smallest free form found in language. Words have an internal
structure consisting of smaller units organized with respect to each other in a
particular way. The most important component of word structure is the morpheme —
the smallest unit of language that carries information about meaning or function. The
word builder, for example, consists of two morphemes: build (with the meaning of
“construct”) and -er (which indicates that the entire word functions as a noun with
the meaning “one who builds”).
Some words consist of a single morpheme. For example, the word train cannot be
divided into smaller parts (say, tr and ain or t and rain) that carry information about
its meaning or function.
Morphemes are the smallest indivisible two-facet language units.
A morpheme that can be a word by itself is called a free morpheme whereas a
morpheme that must be attached to another element is said to be a bound
morpheme. The morpheme boy, for example, is free, since it can be used as a word
on its own; plural -s, on the other hand, is bound.
 All the representatives of the given morpheme are called allomorphs of that
morpheme.
In order to represent the morphological structure of words, it is necessary to
identify each of the component morphemes. Words that can be divided have two or
more parts: a core called a root and one or more parts added to it. The parts are called
affixes — “something fixed or attached to something else.” The root is the
morpheme that expresses the lexical meaning of the word, for example: teach —
teacher — teaching. Affixes are morphemes that modify the meaning of the root. An
affix added before the root is called a prefix (un-ending); an affix added after the root
is called a suffix. A word may have one or more affixes of either kind, or several of
both kinds.
Depending on the morphemes used in the word there are four structural types of
words in English:
1) simple (root) words consist of one root morpheme and an inflexion (boy, warm,
law, tables, tenth);
2) derived words consist of one root morpheme, one or several affixes and an
inflexion (unmanageable, lawful);
3) compound words consist of two or more root morphemes and an inflexion
(boyfriend, outlaw);
4) compound-derived words consist of two or more root morphemes, one or more
affixes and an inflexion (left-handed, warmhearted, blue-eyed).

4. The morphemic approach of the word structure. (The morphemic Theory).

There are two levels of approach to the study of word- structure: the
level of morphemic analysis and the level of derivational or word-formation
analysis. It has been universally acknowledged that a great many words have a
composite nature and are made up of morphemes, the basic units on the
morphemic level, which are defined as the smallest indivisible two-facet
language units.
The morphemic structure of English words reveals that they are
composed of morphemes of different types: root-morphemes and
affixational morphemes. Words that consist of a root and an affix are called
derived words or derivatives and are produced by the process of word building
known as affixation (or derivation).
The root-morpheme is the lexical nucleus of the word; it has a very
general and abstract lexical meaning common to a set of semantically related
words constituting one word-cluster, e.g. (to)teach, teacher, teaching. Besides
the lexical meaning root-morphemes possess all other types of meaning
proper to morphemes except the part-of-speech meaning which is not found in
roots. Affixational morphemes include inflectional affixes or inflections and
derivational affixes.
Inflections carry only grammatical meaning and are thus relevant only
for the formation of word-forms.
 Derivational affixes are relevant for building various types of words.
They are lexically always dependent on the root which they modify. They
possess the same types of meaning as found in roots, but unlike root-
morphemes most of them have the part-of-speech meaning which makes them
structurally the important part of the word as they condition the lexico-
grammatical class the word belongs to. Due to this component of their
meaning the derivational affixes are classified into affixes building different
parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs. Roots and derivational
affixes are generally easily distinguished and the difference between them is
clearly felt as, e.g., in the words helpless, handy, blackness, Londoner, refill,
etc.: the root-morphemes help-, hand-, black-, London-, fill-, are understood
as the lexical centers of the words, and –less, -y,            -ness, -er, re- are felt as
morphemes dependent on these roots.  Distinction is also made of free and
bound morphemes.
Free morphemes coincide with word-forms of independently functioning
words. It is obvious that free morphemes can be found only among roots, so
the morpheme boy- in the word boy is a free morpheme
It follows that bound morphemes are those that do not coincide with
separate word- forms, consequently all derivational morphemes, such as –
ness, -able, -er are bound. Root-morphemes may be both free and bound. The
morphemes theor- in the words theory, theoretical, or horr- in the words
horror, horrible, horrify; Angl- in  Anglo-Saxon; Afr- in Afro-Asian are all
bound roots as there are no identical word-forms.
The morphological analysis of word- structure on the morphemic level
aims at splitting the word into its constituent morphemes – the basic units at
this level of analysis – and at determining their number and types. 
According to the number of morphemes words can be classified
into monomorphic and polymorphic.
Monomorphic or root-words consist of only one root-morpheme,
e.g. small, dog, make, give, etc. All polymorphic word fall into two
subgroups:  derived words and compound words – according to the number
of root-morphemes they have. Derived words are composed of one root-
morpheme and one or more derivational morphemes, e.g. acceptable, outdo,
disagreeable, etc. Compound words are those which contain at least two root-
morphemes, the number of derivational morphemes being insignificant. 
In most cases the morphemic structure of words is transparent enough
and individual morphemes clearly stand out within the word. The segmentation
of words is generally carried out according to the method
of Immediate and Ultimate Constituents.

5. The Immidiate Constituents Theory of the inner structure of the word. (The IC
analysis) (Бабич стр. 41-42 пункт 3.3)
 The theory of Immediate Constituents (I.C.) was first suggested by L. Bloomfield
and later developed by many linguists. L. Bloomfield`s was to determine the ways in
which lexical units are related to one another. The main opposition dealt with is the
opposition of stem and affix.
Immediate constituents are any of the two meaningful parts forming a larger
linguistic unity.
A classic example of this kind of analysis is Bloomfield`s analysis of the word
ungentlemanly.
There is a negative prefix un-. So, at the first cut we obtain the following IC:
un+gentlemanly.
If we continue the analysis, we can separate the morpheme –ly. There are a lot of
adjectives with the pattern noun stem+-ly (womanly, masterly etc.). The two first
stages of analysis resulted in separating a free and a bound form: 1) un+gentlemanly
2) gentleman+ly. The third cut is the division the word into gentle+man.
The last cut is the division the word into gent+le.
Conclusion: Breaking a word into its immediate constituents we observe in each
cut the structural order of the constituents. Also we shall obtain only two constituents
at each cut which can be arranged according to their sequence in the word.

6. Etymological survey of the English word-stock.

Etymological survey of the English word-stock:

а)definition of native terms, borrowing, translation loan, semantic loan. Words

of native origin and their characteristics;

b)foreign elements in Modern English. Scandinavian borrowings, classical

elements - Latin and Greek, French borrowings, Ukrainian-English lexical
correlations;

c) assimilation of borrowings. Types and degrees of assimilation;

d) international words.

Etymology is both the study of the history of words and a statement of the origin and
history of a word. Etymologically, all English words are divided into native
words and borrowings.

A native word is one which hasn't been borrowed from another language, but
represents the original English wordstock as known from the earliest available
manuscripts of the OE period (5 th -7 th c.).
A borrowed word, also called a borrowing or a loan-word, is one which has come
into English from another language.

The term "borrowing" is also used to denote the process of adopting words from
other languages.

English has a great number of borrowed words (about 70%), which is explained by
the eventful history of the country and numerous international contacts.

The original English word stock contains:

(a) the Indo-European element,

(b) the Germanic element,
(c) the Anglo-Saxon (or the English proper) element.

Only the lattter element can be dated: the words of this group appeared in the
vocabulary in the 5th c. or later when the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded Britain.

The ultimate origins of English lie in IE (possibly spoken between c. 3000 and c.
2000 BC). The Indo-Buropean element consists of words common to all or most IE
languages. The roots denote elementary notions without which no communication
could be possible:

· terms of kinship: father, mother, brother, son, daughter, etc.;

· parts of the human body: nose, lip, heart, foot, etc.;

· animals: cow, swine, goose, fish;

· plants: tree, birch, corn;

· times of day: day, night;

· heavenly bodies: sun, moon, star;

· adjectives: red, new, glad, sad;

· numerals: from one to one hundred;

· pronouns: all personal pronouns except they which is a Scandinavian borrowing;

demonstrative pronouns;

· verbs: be, stand, sit, eat, know.

IE ceased to exist sometime soon after 2000 BC, having diversified into a number of
increasingly distinct offspring as a result of migration and natural linguistic changes.
One of these offspring is known as Primitive (Old) Germanic. It had a vocabulary
that included some roots not inherited from IE. Thus, the Germanic element of
English comprises words with roots common to all or most Germanic languages, but
not found in other IE languages:

· parts of the human body: head, arm, hand, finger, bone;

· animals: bear, fox, calf;

· plants: grass, oak, fir;

· seasons of the year: spring, summer, winter (butautumn was borrowed from
French);

· natural phenomena: rain, frost; but snow is IE;

· landscape features: sea, land;

· human dwellings, furniture: house, room, bench;

· sea-going vessels: boat, ship;

· adjectives: green, blue, grey, white, small, thick, high, old;

· verbs: see, hear, speak, tell, say, answer, make, give, drink.

The English proper element contains words which have no cognates in any other
language,e.g. bird, girl, boy, lord, lady, woman, always.

The OE vocabulary expanded mostly through compounding and derivation, e.g.

da3es - ēā3e > daisy; hāl "hale, whole" > hælђ "health".

Though native words are fewer in number, they play a very important role in English
due to their characteristics:

1) They possess great stability, i.e. they have existed for centuries and are sure to
exist for centuries to come.

2) They belong to very important semantic fields without which no communication

would be possible as they denote everyday notions and objects.

3) They are monosyllabic, as a rule, and structurally simple, which makes them
flexible, i.e. they serve as bases for numerous derivatives.

4) They are polysemantic.

5) They possess a wide range of lexical and grammatical valency, i.e. they enter into
innumerable collocations.

6) They are used in a great number of phraseological units.

7) They have a high frequency value in speech.

Thus, native words are an indespensible part of the English vocabulary.

.In the '80s, English borrowed words from 84 languages, as follows: French – 25%,
Spanish and Japanese both – 8%, Italian – 6.3%, Latin – 6.1%, Greek – 6%, German
– 5.5%. Here only the Japanese element breaks the traditional pattern, in which
European languages predominate.

Borrowing can have both linguistic and extralinguistic causes.

Extralinguistic causes are close contacts between different language communities,

which may be of two kinds: on the one hand, wars, invasions, conquests when a
foreign language is forced upon a reluctant conquered nation; on the other hand, trade
and cultural links, which are more favourable for borrowing.

Linguistic causes are the necessity to fill in gaps in the vocabulary to name new
objects and concepts.

Actually, reasons for borrowing may be:

(a) the domination of some languages by others (for cultural, economic, religious,
political or other reasons),

(b) a sense of need, e.g. for education or technology,

(c) prestige associated with using foreign words,

(d) a mix of some or all of these. Individuals may use a foreign expression because it
seems to them the most suitable term available, the only possible term (with no
equivalent in their own language) or the most expressive term.

Loan-words may enter a language in two ways:

1) through oral speech by immediate contact between people,

2) through written speech (e.g. books, periodicals) by indirect contact.

Oral borrowing was more important in earlier periods whereas in more recent times
written borrowing has gained importance.Oral borrowings are usually short and
completely assimilated,

e.g. street, mill, inch, pound (all from Latin).

Written borrowings often preserve their spelling and some peculiarities of

pronunciation; their assimilation takes more time,
e.g. naiveté, resumé (from French).

It is important to distinguish two terms: the source of borrowing and the origin of

borrowing. The former is applied to the language from which the word was
borrowed; the latter means the language the word originates from,

e.g. jacket, jumper, crimson, amber, magazine, zero, coffee

were borrowed from French (source of borrowing) but were originally Arabic.

Assimilation of borrowings (adaptation) means that a borrowing adapts itself more

or less thoroughly to the norms of the borrowing language.

There are different types of assimilation: graphic, phonetic, grammatic,

structural, semantic.

(1) Phonetic assimilation is substituting native sounds for foreign ones, as well as a

shift of stress,

e.g. café (Fr)[e] > [ei]; spitz (German)[∫] > [s].

In French and Latin borrowings the stress is usually shifted to the first syllable,

e.g. garage [gæ'ra:3] > ['gæra:3]

(2) Grammatic assimilation is the change of grammatical categories and paradigms

of borrowed words,

e.g. cactus - Pl. cacti and cactuses; trauma - Pl. traumata and traumas.

(3) Compounds and dirivatives are borrowed as simple words. But if a number of

loan-words have the same structure it becomes clear, morphemes are singled out and
in the course of time they may be even used to derive new words from native
stems,e.g. eatable, drinkable, talkative.

Derivatives may also be made from borrowed stems with the help of native
affixes,e.g. faintly, faintness < faint (Fr), beautiful < beauty (Fr).

Perhaps the largest morphological impact on English has been the addition of French,
Latin and Greek affixes such as dis-, pro-, anti-, -ity, -ism and such combining forms
as bio-, micro-,-metry, -logy, which replaced many of the original Gc affixes in
English.

(4) Semantic assimilation consists in changes in the semantic structure of loans.

Polysemantic words are usually borrowed in one meaning,e.g. kulak (Rus) "well-to-

do Russian peasant".
The original meaning may change, i.e. it may become more specialized or
generalized, e.g. umbrella was borrowed from Italian in the meaning "a sunshade,
parasol", then it came to denote similar protection from rain as well.

A borrowing can acquire new meanings, not found in the original semantic structure,

e.g. move was borrowed from French and later acquired the meanings "to propose",
"to change one's flat", "to mix with people".

The original primary meaning of a loan may become a minor one, e.g. fellow was
borrowed from Old Norse in the meaning "companion" , which later became its
minor meaning as a new meaning of the word appeared in English, i.e. "man, boy".

According to the degree of assimilation, borrowings

are completelyassimilated, partially assimilated and unassimilated (called
barbarisms).

Completely assimilated loan-words comply with all the norms of the language,

their foreign origin is entirely obscured; they are usually old borrowings,
characterized by high frequency of usage and stylistically neutral,e.g. cheek, wrong,
cockroach.

Partially assimilated loan-words may not be assimilated phonetically (regime,

foyer ['foiei]); graphically (corps [ko:]; buffet [ei]); morphologically, i.e. they
preserve foreign plurals (corpus - corpora); semantically, i.e. denote "alien" notions
and objects (jihad "religious war of Muslims against unbelievers", mullah, sarong).

Unassimilated loans are foreign words used by English people, but not adapted in
any way and for which there are English equivalents , e.g. carte blanche (Fr) - a free
hand, Status quo (L) - unchanged position.

Translation loans are words and expressions formed from morphemes available in

English after patterns characteristic of the source language by way of literal
morpheme-for-morpheme translation,e.g. Übermensch (Ger) - superman (translated
by B. Shaw), prima balerina (It) - first dancer.

Semantic borrowing is the appearance of a new meaning in an English word's

semantic structure under the influence of the correlated word in the source
language,e.g. reaction acquired the political meaning "tendency to oppose change or
return to former system" under the influence of the French word.

Etymological doublets are two (or sometimes more) words derived by different

routes from the same source. They differ to a certain degree in form, meaning and
usage. Etymological doublets may be:

1) two native words which were originally dialectal variants of the same OE word,
e.g. hale f. hāl (Northern dialect)and whole f. hōl(Southern and Eastern dialects), both
originally f. OE hāl;
2) a native and a borrowed word, e.g. shirt (native) and skirt (Scandinavian), both
originally f. Gc *skurt "short";

3) two borrowings from different languages which are etymologically descendant

from the same root, e.g. canal (L) - channel (Fr), etymologically f. L canalis;

4) words borrowed from the same language twice but at different time, e.g. corpse -
corps (originally f. L corpus "body"), both borrowed from French, but corpse was
borrowed from Norman French after the Norman conquest, while corps was
borrowed during the Renaissance period.

Etymological triplets are rare, e.g. hospital (L) - hostel (Norman Fr) - hotel (Fr

during the Renaissance).

International words are words of the same origin that exist in several languages as a
result of simultaneous or successsive borrowing from one ultimate souce. Usually
they are words of Latin or Greek origin. Here belong:

· scientific terms, e.g. philosophy, mathematics, medicine, antenna;

· terms of art, e.g. music, tragedy, comedy, theatre, museum;
· political terms, e.g. policy, democracy, anarchy, progress;
· foodstuffs, e.g. banana, chocolate, coffee, cocoa.

English has also contributed quite a few international words to world languages, e.g.

· sport terms: football, tennis, box, match, knock-down;

· clothes: sweater, pullover, tweed, jersey, nylon;
· entertainment: film, club, jazz, cocktail, etc.

International words in different languages, despite their outward similarity, often

have different meanings. They are called "false friends of interpreters" as interpreters
and translators, as well as language learners should be aware of them,e.g. sympathy
"compassion" – симпатия "liking",complexion "face colour" - комплекция
"build",decade "ten years" - декада "ten days".

7. Principle ways of word formation.

There are some ways of word formation in English language. The first is
affixation.
Affixation — the addition of an affix — is a basic means of forming words in
English. Linguists distinguish among three types of affixes.
An affix that is attached to the front of its base is called a prefix.
An affix that is attached to the end of its base is termed a suffix.
Both types of affix occur in English. Far less common than prefixes and suffixes
are infixes — a type of affix that occurs within a base of a word to express such
notions as tense, number, or gender.
 Affixation is divided into suffixation and prefixation. In Modern English,
suffixation is characteristic of noun and adjective formation, while prefixation is
typical of verb formation.
As a rule, prefixes modify the lexical meaning of stems to which they are added.
The prefixal derivative usually joins the part of speech the unprefixed word belongs
to, e.g. usual /un — usual.
In a suffixal derivative the suffix does not only modify the lexical meaning of the
stem it is added to, but the word itself is usually transferred to another part of speech,
e.g. care (n) / care — less (adj).

Conversion is the process of word building, where a new word becomes a

different part of speech but without adding any derivative element.
For example, the word round can be used as different part of speech — noun,
verb, preposition, adjective, and adverb.
The three most common types of conversion in English are verbs derived from
nouns (to butter, to ship), nouns derived from verbs (a survey, a call), and verbs
derived from adjectives (to empty).
There are different semantic groups of converted words that are characterized by
different semantic relations:
1. Verbs converted from nouns (denominal verbs) may denote:
(a) instrumental use of the object, e.g. screw — to screw, eye — to eye;
(b) action characteristic of the object, e.g. ape — to ape;
(c) acquisition: fish — to fish;
(d) deprivation of the object, e.g. dust — to dust.

2. Nouns converted from verbs (deverbal substantives) denote:

(a) instance of an action, e.g. to move — a move;
(b) word — agent of an action, e.g. to bore — a bore;
(c) place of an action, e.g. to walk — a walk;
(d) result of the action, e.g. to cut — a cut.

8. Main principles of classification of affixation: prefixation and suffixation. (etymology,

productivity, patterns). (Бабич стр 43-47 пункт 3.4)
Affixation — the addition of an affix — is a basic means of forming words in
English. Linguists distinguish among three types of affixes.
Affixation is divided into suffixation and prefixation. In Modern English,
suffixation is characteristic of noun and adjective formation, while prefixation is
typical of verb formation. As a rule, prefixes modify the lexical meaning of stems to
which they are added. In a suffixal derivative the suffix does not only modify the
lexical meaning of the stem it is added to, but the word itself is usually transferred to
another part of speech, e.g. care (n) / care — less (adj). Suffixes and prefixes may be
classified along different lines. The logical classification of suffixes is according to:
(a) their origin: Romanic (e.g. –age, -ment, -tion), Native (-er, -dom, -ship), Greek
(-ism, -ize), etc.;
(b) meaning, e.g. -er denotes the agent of the action, -ess denotes feminine gender,
-ence/ance has abstract meaning, -ie and -let express diminutiveness, -age, -dom —
collectivity, -an, -ese, -ian — appurtenance, etc.;
 (c) part of speech they form, e.g. noun suffixes –er, -ness, -ment; adjective-
forming suffixes –ish, -ful, -less, -y; verb-suffixes -en, -fy, etc.;
(d) productivity, i.e. the relative freedom with which they can combine with bases
of the appropriate category, e.g. productive suffixes are -er, -ly, -ness, -ie, -let, non-
productive (-dom, -th) and semiproductive (-eer, -ward).
As prefixes are indifferent to parts of speech they are characterized according to
(a) their origin: Native, e.g. un-; Romanic, e.g. in-; Greek, e.g. sym-;
(b) meaning, e.g. negative prefixes in-, un-, non-, a-, dis-; prefixes of time and
order ex-, neo-, after-, fore-, post-, proto-; prefix of repetition re-; reversal prefixes
de-, un-, dis-; locative prefixes, such as extra-, pan-, super-, sub-, trans-; size and
degree: hyper-, mega-, mini-, super-, sur-, ultra-, vice-, etc.;
(c) productivity, i.e. the ability to make new words: e.g. un- is highly productive.
The main function of prefixes is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of
speech.
Derivational Suffixes Derivational prefixes
-dom -be
-er -for
-ness -miss
-ence -de
-ess -dis
-ful -ex
-able -super
-ant -trans
Affixes can be productive and non-productive. We call productive those affixes
and types of word-formation which are used to form new words. The most productive
English prefixes are: de-, re-, un- pre- etc. Suffixes are: -ation, -ism, -ist etc.
The non-productive affixes are recognized as separate morphemes. F. ex. Deepen,
fasten, strengthen.
Etymology
From the point of view of etymology affixes are subdivided into two main classes:
the native affixes and the borrowed affixes.
By native affixes we shall mean those that existed in English in the Old English
period or were formed from Old English words. (-dom, -ful, -less, -hood).
The term borrowed affixes are parts of loan words which are taken from another
languages. (-able – Latin; -ade French)
Hybrids are words that are made up of elements derived from two or more different
languages.

9. Word Composition. Criteria of composition (Бабич стр 48-51 пункт 3.6)

Word-composition — the combination of two or more existing words to create a
new word — is one of the most common and important word-building processes in
English. It plays a central role in word formation in many languages. A compound is
a unit of vocabulary that consists of more than one lexical stem, e.g. campsite (N+N),
bluebird (A+N), whitewash (A+V), in-laws (P+N), jumpsuit (V+N).
Criteria of composition:
1) Phonological – there is a marked tendency in English to give compounds a
heavy stress on the first element;
2) Morphological - Compounds make up one inseparable unit with a strict order
of components and a new or single paradigm. For example: rich, richen, the
richest; oil rich, more oil rich etc. elements in compound words cannot be reordered
because additional items cannot be inserted between them. However, these criteria
again are not always strict because these one thing which united compound: ‘s’, for
example forget-me-nots.
These criteria do not work in noun + noun compounds. For example, paper-basket
and similar structures with attributive noun (stone wall). In both cases the order of
components is not so strict.
3) Syntactic – different dictionaries consist different varies of spelling of the
same
words. They may exist in a solid spelling and with a hyphen [haifn]: headmaster –
head-master, loudspeaker – loud-speaker etc. Sometimes hyphenation may serve
aesthetic purposes, helping to avoid words that will look too long: peace-loving
nations, old-fashioned ideas.

10. Meanings of compound words. Classification of compound words. The historical

development of English compounds.
Compound words are words consisting of at least two stems which occur in the
language as free forms.
Some compounds are made up of a determining and a determined part, which may
be called the determinant and the determinatum. In the word “sunbeam” “beam” is
the basic part – the determinatum. The determinant “sun” serves to differentiate it
from another beams.
There are two important peculiarities distinguishing compounding in English from
compounding in other languages:
1) Both immediate constituents of an English compound are free forms, i. e. they
can be used as independent words (afternoon, anyway, birthday etc.);
2) The regular pattern for the English language is a two-stem compound (mother-
in-law, bread-and-butter, good-for-nothing etc.)

Compounding, one of the oldest methods of word-formation occurring in all Indo-

European languages, is especially developed in Germanic languages.
English has made use of compounding in all periods of its existence. English has
built compound words during all periods and stages of its development. The two most
productive types of English compounds have been the following:

1) noun stem + noun stem (rainbow, snowflake, headache), derived from free
combinations of words,

2) adjectival stem + noun stem (holiday, sweetmeat).

Some compound words are preserved in the language in their primary form having
undergone various phonetic changes, which reduced them to simple or root words.
This process is called simplification of stems (опрощение основы). It was
investigated by Russian scholars V.A. Bogoroditsky, L.A. Bulakhovsky and N.N.
Amosova.
Classification of compounds
According to the type of composition:
1) Without any connecting elements: heart-beat, heart-break.
2) With a vowel or a consonant as a linking element: statesman, Afro-Asian.
3) With linking elements represented by preposition or conjunctions: forget-me-
not, son-in-law.

According to the structure of immediate constituents:

1) Compounds consisting of simple stems: film-star;
2) Compounds where at least one of the constituents is a derived stem: chain-
smoker;
3) Compounds where at least one of the constituents is a clipped stem: maths-
mistress;
4) Compounds where at least one of the constituents is a compound stem:
wastepaper-basket.

11. The structural and semantic correlation between compound words and free word-
groups.
A free word combination does not exist in language as a ready-made unit: it is
created in the process of speech, a big house (adj. + noun), to read books (verb +
noun), on the table (prep. + noun), etc.
Its meaning is derived from the meanings of words that make it up. In speech
language-units are combined according to the structural patterns of the English
language.
A compound word is grammatically and semantically inseparable and exists in the
language as a ready-made unit reproducible in speech

12. Conversion in the present-day English (traditional and occasional). Semantic

relationship in conversion. (Бабич стр 47-49 пункт 3.5)
Conversion is a process that assigns an already existing word to a new syntactic
category. Conversion may be considered to be the predominant method of English
verb-formation.
Conversion has been the subject of linguistic discussions since 1891 when H.
Sweet used this term in his New English Grammar. Various opinions have been
expressed on the nature and character of conversion.
Prof. Smirnitsky A. I. in his works on the English language treats conversion as a
morphological way of forming words, where a word is transferred from one paradigm
to another, and it is the paradigm that is used as a word-forming means. Hence, we
may define conversion as the formation of a new word through changes in its
paradigm. As a paradigm is a morphological category, conversion may be described
as a morphological way of forming words.
The three most common types of conversion in English are: verbs derived from
nouns (to butter, to ship), nouns derived from verbs (a survey, a call), and verbs
derived from adjectives (to empty). Less common types of conversion can yield
nouns from adjectives (a bitter, the poor, a final), from phrases, e.g. a down-and-
out, from affixes, e.g. socialism, ologies and isms, and verbs from prepositions (up
the price).
Conversion is usually restricted to words containing a single morpheme, although
there are a few exceptions such as referee (noun and verb), and dirty (adjective and
verb); in some cases, conversion can even apply to compounds.
There are two indisputable cases of conversion:
(1) formation of verbs from nouns and more rarely from other parts of speech;
(2) formation of nouns from verbs and rarely from other parts of speech.

Semantic relationships in conversion

At first sight the change in syntactic function and paradigm, that the stem
undergoes in conversion, is chaotic. But a closer investigation will show some signs
of patterned relationships, especially if one observes semantically related groups.
1) Verbs based on nouns denoting some part of the human body will show a
regularity of instrumental meaning: to eye (to watch carefully), to finger (to touch
with the fingers), etc.
2) The same type of instrumental relations will be noted in stems denoting
various tools, machines and weapons: to hammer, to knife.
3) The action being characteristic of what is named by the noun: to crowd (to
come together in large numbers).
4) The group of verbs based on the names of animals may be called
metaphorical, as their meaning implies comparison: to monkey (mimick or play tricks
like a monkey does)
5) Nouns denoting places, buildings, containers and the meaning of the
converted verb will be locative: to bag (to put in a bag).

13. Semasiology. Functional approach to meaning. Referential approach to meaning.

(Бабич стр 57-59 пункт 4.1)

Semasiology is the branch of the study of language concerned with the

meaning of words.
The main objects of semasiological study are as follows: semantic
development of words, its causes and classification, semantic grouping and
connections in the vocabulary system, i. e. synonyms, antonyms, terminological
systems etc.
Approaches: relative or functional and denotational or referential approach.
The functional approach is based on treating the language as a semiotic system
— the theory of relations. Each sign achieves a meaning only in comparison with
other signs, its neighbours, i.e. meaning can be studied only through context. It is an
attempt to study the system of semantic relations between words.

The denotational approach considers a word as a unit possessing its own

meaning. The main problem is the relation between the word, its meaning and the
object in reality which it denotes. The basis of the denotational theory is the double
nature (ideal and material) of the word. The material side of the word (symbol), its
meaning, and the referent are connected with one another. The meaning of a word is
the reflection of the objective reality in our consciousness. The word is a form of a
notion’s material existence.

14. The main types of lexical meaning. (Бабич стр 59-62 пункт 4.2)
The definition of lexical meaning is determined different. For example, F. de
Saussure differentiates the meaning as relation between the object or notion named
and the name itself.
The linguistics of the Bloomfieldian defines the meaning as the situation in which the
word is uttered.
Russian linguists point out that lexical meaning is the realization of the notion by
means of a definite language system.
There are two important elements of the meaning: the denotational — the
realization of the notion (which makes communication possible) and the
connotational, i.e. the pragmatic communicative value of the word (which serves to
express all sorts of emotional, expressive, evaluative overtones).
The denotational meaning is the notional content of a word. This component
makes the communication possible. When we say that a word denotes something, we
mean that it is the name of a thing.
The connotation of a word is what the word implies in addition to its denotational
meaning. It is the set of associations that a word’s use can evoke. We call connotation
what the word conveys about the speaker’s attitude to the social circumstances and
the appropriate functional style, about his approval or disapproval of the object
spoken, or the degree of intensity.
The connotation of a word has the capacity for expressing:
 - Emotion (daddy - father)
- Evaluation (clique - group)
- Intensity (adore - love)
- Stylistic colouring (slay - kill)
Often a word’s connotation will be fully explained in the dictionary. Yet the
context of the word can also help to reveal the general and added meanings. The
context is the part of the statement in which the word or passage at issue occurs, that
which leads up to and follows a particular expression.
Denotative and connotative components make up the semantic structure (or
semantic paradigm) of a word.

15. The stylistic layers of the English vocabulary. (Бабич стр 47-49 пункт 3.5)
The English vocabulary can be traditionally subdivided into two large stylistically
marked layers: literary words and expressions and conversational words and
expressions (the words of the basic stock being stylistically neutral). Each of these
large layers is, in its turn, further subdivided into lexical groups (scholars have
different opinions on some items of classification). All of them, when used, serve as a
source of additional information about the speaker.
All the words in English classified as literary can be divided into general literary
words and special literary words.
There are in English the great variety of types of words. F. ex., archaisms –
words that were common but have been ousted from the language by their modern
synonyms. But they remain in the language: thou, hereby, damsel, errant, behold,
woe, etc.
Among archaisms a certain groups of words are sometimes called obsolete words.
They are words which have gone out of use and are no longer understood by the
present generation: whilom (formerly), wight (fellow), anon (at once), etc. When the
thing is no longer used, its name becomes a historism. Historisms are words
denoting objects of material culture and phenomena of the past, e.g. the names of
ancient transport means (brougham, berlin, hansom, phaeton), types of weapons (a
crossbow, a blunderbuss).
A term is a word or a phrase with a fixed meaning, denoting a thing or a process
in some branch of science, production or in some other field of human activity, and
having acquired certain linguistic characteristics, i.e. it should be monosemantic,
have only a denotational meaning, possess no synonyms, e.g. appendix (med.) — a
small, narrow tube attached to the large intestine. In medical sphere it is
monosemantic. Terms are widely used in newspapers, in official style, and in fiction.
Conversational words and expressions may be colloquialisms, slang,
dialectisms, vulgarisms, jargonisms.
There are three groups of colloquial words: literary, familiar and low colloquial
words.
Literary colloquial words are used by educated people in everyday intercourse.
Familiar colloquial is more emotional, free and careless; it is characterized by a
great number of ironical or jocular expressions.
Low colloquial is a term used for illiterate popular speech; it contains vulgar
words and elements of dialect.
 Dialect is a regional or social variety of a language characterized by its own
phonological, syntactic, and lexical properties. Dialectal words reflect the
geographical background of the speaker. Differences in language use depend on an
individual’s social and geographical background, dialects refer to the language
variety based on the user.
Slang is often used to denote a variety of vocabulary strata that consists either of
newly coined words and phrases or of current words employed in special meaning,
e.g. school slang, sport slang, newspaper slang, etc. Slang refers to the use of faddish
or nonstandard lexical items.
When a register is connected to a particular profession or activity, it may also be
characterized by specific vocabulary items known as jargon. Jargon may involve
specialized meanings for existing lexical items. There also may be new terms coined
specifically for that register.
A neologism is word, term, or phrase which has been recently created (“coined”)
— often to apply to new concepts, or to reshape older terms in newer language form.
Neologisms are especially useful in identifying inventions, new phenomena, or old
ideas which have taken on a new cultural context.

16. Different approaches to classification of phraseological units. The main types of

phraseological units in Modern English. (Бабич стр 112 пункт 8.1)
Phraseology is a branch of linguistics which studies different types of set
expressions, which like words name various objects and phenomena.
The term “phraseological unit” denotes set expressions or certain groups of set
expressions.

Semantic Classification of Phraseological Units (was suggested by acad.

Vinogradov V.V)
a) phraseological fusions are units whose meaning cannot be deduced from the
meanings of their component parts, e.g. red tape, a mare’s nest. The meaning of the
components is completely absorbed by the meaning of the whole;
b) phraseological unities are expressions the meaning of which can be deduced from
the meanings of their components; e.g. to show one’s teeth (to be unfriendly), to
stand to one’s guns (to refuse to change one’s opinion), etc.
c) phraseological combinations are traditional word groups. Word combinations
are combined with their original meaning, e.g. to break news, to meet the demands,
to take a liking, etc.

Structural Classification of Phraseological Units (Prof. Smirnitsky A.I.)

Prof. Smirnitsky suggested three classes of stereotyped phrases:
traditional phrases (nice distinction, rough sketch);
phraseological combinations (to fall in love, to get up);
idioms (to wash one’s dirty linen in public), but only the second group is given
a detailed analysis.
He classified phraseological combinations according to their structure into two
large groups: (1) one-top (one-summit) phraseological units, which he compared
with derived words and (2) two-top phraseological units, which he compared with
compound words.
 Functional Classification of Phraseological Units (by Arnold I. V.)
Phraseological units are subdivided into:
1) noun equivalents: N + N (maiden name), N’s + N (cat’s paw), Ns’ + N
(ladies’ man), N + prp + N (the arm of the law), N + A (knight errant), N + and + N
(all the world and his wife), A + N (green room), N+subordinate clause (ships that
pass in the night);
2) verb equivalents: V + N (take advantage), V + postpositive (to give up), V
+ (one’s) + N + (prep): to snap one’s fingers at, V + and + V (pick and choose), V +
subordinate clause (see how the land lies);
3) adjective equivalents: A + and + A (high and mighty), (as) + A + as + N
(as old as the hills);
4) adverb equivalents: N + N (tooth and nail), prep + N (by heart), adv + prep
+ A + N (once in a blue moon), prep + N + or + N (by hook or by crook), conj +
clause (before one can say Jack Robinson);
5) phraseological units functioning like prepositions: prep + N + prep (in
consequence of);
6) phraseological units functioning like interjections: Take your time! My
eye!

Contextual Classification of Phraseological Units (by prof. Amosova N.N.)

Phraseological units are subdivided into two types: phrasemes and idioms.
Phrasemes are, as a rule, two-member word-groups in which one of the
members has a particular meaning dependent on the second component as it is found
only in the given context, e.g. in small hours the second component (hours) serves as
the only clue to this particular meaning of the first component.
Idioms are distinguished from phrasemes by the idiomaticity of the whole
word-group. They are semantically and grammatically inseparable units, e.g. red tape
— “bureaucratic methods”.

Prof. Kunin’s Classification of Phraseological Units (structural-semantic

classification of phraseological units)
A.V. Kunin divides set expressions into three classes: phraseological units,
phraseomatic units, and borderline (mixed) cases.

17. Antonyms. Classification of antonyms. (Бабич стр 82 пункт 5.3)

Antonyms are words that are opposites with respect to some component of
their meaning. English abounds in pairs of words such as wide/narrow,
admit/deny, produce/consume, old/young, big/small, bitter/sweet, clean/dirty.
Not every word may have an antonym, though practically every word has a
synonym (for example, words of concrete denotation have no antonyms: table,
blackboard).
All antonyms can be divided in at least 3 groups:
a) Contradictories. They express contradictory notions which are mutually
opposed and deny each other. Their relations can be described by the formula "A
 versus NOT A": alive vs. dead (not alive); patient vs. impatient (not patient).
Contradictories may be polar or relative (to hate- to love [not to love doesn't mean
"hate"]).
b) Contraries are also mutually opposed, but they admit some possibility between
themselves because they are gradable (e.g. cold – hot, warm; hot – cold, cool). This
group also includes words opposed by the presence of such components of meaning
as SEX and AGE (man -woman; man - boy etc.).
c) Incompatibles. The relations between them are not of contradiction but of
exclusion. They exclude possibilities of other words from the same semantic set (e.g.
"red"- doesn't mean that it is opposed to white it means all other colors; the same is
true to such words as "morning", "day", "night" etc.).

18. Synonymy. Classification of synonyms. Euphemisms. (Бабич стр 77-82 пункт 5.2)
Traditionally synonyms are described as words different in soundform but
identical or similar in meaning. It is not accurate to speak of synonyms as identical in
meaning as the same range of idea may be very wide.
Synonyms are subdivided into different groups:
a) Ideographic or denotational: the difference in the meaning concerns the notion
expressed: change — alter — vary; understand — realize; to walk — to pace — to
stroll — to stride.
b) Stylistic synonyms have the same denotational components but differ in
connotational components of meaning: hearty — cordial; imitate — monkey; terrible
— horrible — atrocious. Among stylistic synonyms we find archaic/modern (oft —
often); neologisms/common (baby-moon — artificial satellite); British/American
(post — mail); euphemisms (die — pass away).
English scholars speak also of absolute synonyms of exactly the same meaning
(ash — ravan) and of phraseological synonyms which are used in different
collocations: language — tongue (only mother tongue); cardinal — main (only 4
cardinal points). There are also contextual synonyms that are similar in meaning
under some specific distributional conditions (e.g. get and buy).

Euphemism is used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a

conventionally more acceptable one.
For example, the word to die has the following euphemisms: to expire, to pass away.
Euphemisms are words or expressions that speakers substitute for taboo words
in order to avoid a direct confrontation with topics that are embarrassing, frightening,
or uncomfortable.

19. Semantic structure of a word. (Бабич стр.61)

The semantic structure of a word can be characterized with the help of the
polysemy.
Polysemy is the ability of a word to possess several meanings or lexico-semantic
variants (LSV), e.g. bright means “shining” and “intelligent”.
Many words in English are polysemantic or have a complicated semantic
structure. There are few monosemantic (having only one meaning) words in English.
They are mainly special terms like morpheme, antibiotics, numerals, etc.
 Thus, semantic
structure of a word is
the interrelation and
the interdependence
of all its lexico-semantic variants. It is determined not only by the number of its
lexico-semantic variants but also by their types. The semantic structure of a word is a
flexible category; it changes with the development of the language.

20. Homonyms. Classification of homonyms. (Бабич стр 74-77 пункт 5.1)

Homonyms (from Greek homos “similar” and onoma “name”) are usually defined
as words which have identical sounding or spelling but have nothing in common in
their meanings.
Homonymy is the result of various processes which take place in a language.
Homonyms may be formed through the changes in the meaning of the words.
Different meanings of one and the same word may lose their semantic connection and
may form different words which coincide in their phonetic form (phonetic
convergence) but have nothing in common in their meaning, e.g.: flower — flour, sea
— see.
There exist several classifications of homonyms. W. Skeat classified homonyms
according to their spelling and sound form and pointed out three types of homonyms
in English:
1) perfect homonyms: club — a heavy staff for use as a weapon, club — an
association of persons meeting periodically; bank — a financial institution, bank — a
small cliff at the edge of a river; light — not heavy, light — illumination. These are
phonetic-graphic homonyms which are identical in sound and in spelling;
2) homophones are words with the same sound but different spellings and
different meanings: read (past tense) — red, pair — pear, piece — peace, capital —
capitol, heir — air;
3) homographs are words accidentally identical in spelling but different in sound
and in meaning: bow /bou/ — a weapon for shooting arrows, bow /bau/ — an
inclination of the body or head in salutation. Lead /led/ — the heaviest of the base
metals, lead /li:d/ — to conduct; row /rou/ — a line of people, row /rau/ — a quarrel.

Another classification was suggested by prof. A. I. Smirnitsky who added to

Skeat’s classification one more criterion: grammatical meaning. Homonyms fall into
three groups:
- lexical (no link between their lexical meanings), e.g. fair — fare, bow — bow; -
- grammatical (belong to different parts of speech), e.g. milk — to milk, practice
— to practise;
 - lexico-grammatical (no link between their lexical meanings and they belong to
different parts of speech), e.g. tear (n) — tear (v), bear (n) — bare (a).

According to a third classification, we distinguish between full homonyms and

partial homonyms. Full homonyms are identical in sound in all their forms or
paradigms (ear “ухо” — ear “колос”). Partial homonyms are identical in sound in
several forms (to lay — to lie, to lie — to lie).

21. The history of American English. (Бабич стр.145)

 22. Words of native origin. (Бабич стр 22-24 пункт 2.1)
By the Native Element we understand words that are not borrowed from other
languages. A native word is a word that belongs to the Old English word-stock. The
Native Element is the basic element, though it constitutes only up to 20—25% of the
English vocabulary.
Many Old English words can be traced back to Indo-European, a prehistoric
language that was the common ancestor of Greek and Latin as well. Others came into
Old English as it was becoming a separate language.
(a) Indo-European Element: since English belongs to the Germanic branch of the
Indo-European group of languages, the oldest words in English are of Indo-
European origin. They form part of the basic word stock of all Indo-European
languages.
There are several semantic groups:
● words expressing family relations: brother, daughter, father, mother, son;
● names of parts of the human body: foot, eye, ear, nose, tongue;
● names of trees, birds, animals: tree, birch, cow, wolf, cat;
● names expressing basic actions: to come, to know, to sit, to work;
● words expressing qualities: red, quick, right, glad, sad;
 ● numerals: one, two, three, ten, hundred, etc.
There are many more words of Indo-European origin in the basic stock of the
English vocabulary.

(b) Common Germanic words are not to be found in other IndoEuropean

languages but the Germanic.
They constitute a very large layer of the vocabulary, e.g.:
● nouns: hand, life, sea, ship, meal, winter, ground, coal, goat;
● adjectives: heavy, deep, free, broad, sharp, grey;
● verbs: to buy, to drink, to find, to forget, to go, to have, to live, to make;
● pronouns: all, each, he, self, such;
● adverbs: again, forward, near;
● prepositions: after, at, by, over, under, from, for.

23. The setting of an entry in different types of dictionaries. The relationship between
Lexicology and Lexicography.
Lexicography is a branch of applied linguistics dealing with the theory and
practice of compiling dictionaries.
Lexicology and lexicography are closely connected. They have the same object
of investigation — vocabulary (its form, meaning, usage, origin) on the one hand,
on the other hand they make use of each other’s achievements. Lexicographical
theory makes use of the achievements of linguistic fundamentals; each individual
entry is made up in accordance with the current knowledge in the various fields of
language study.

The term dictionary is used to denote a book listing words of a language with
their meanings and often with data regarding pronunciation, usage and/or origin.

A dictionary entry is a set of information that describes a word or phrase.

The order of arrangement of the entries is different in different types of

dictionaries. The order may be (a) alphabetical, (b) the cluster-type order, i.e.
words of the same root, or close in their denotational meaning, or in their frequency
value are grouped together; and also (c) mixed type
Each mode of presentation has its advantages. (a) The alphabetical order
provides for an easy finding of any word, (b) The cluster-type order requires less
space and presents a clearer picture of the relations of each unit with the others in the
language system.
It depends on the type of a dictionary, whether it is an etymological, phonetical
dictionary or dictionary of antonyms, synonym etc.
Alphabetical order, cluster type (thesaurus – dictionary of synonyms and
antonyms), mixed type (phraseological units)
 24. Colloquial words. Poetical words.
Colloquial words are a kind of informal English - the English most commonly
written or spoken by educated people
Colloquial words are subdivided into:
a) literary colloquial (are used to denote the vocabulary used by educated
people in the course of ordinary conversation or when writing letters to intimate
friends)
b) familiar colloquial (is more emotional and much more free and careless
than literary colloquial. It also characterized by a great number of jocular or ironical
expressions)
c) low colloquial words (illiterate popular speech, it contains vulgar words and
elements of dialect)
Conversational words and expressions may be slang, dialectisms, vulgarisms,
jargonisms.
Dialectal words reflect the geographical background of the speaker. Differences
in language use depend on an individual’s social and geographical background,
dialects refer to the language variety based on the user. We may learn a lot about the
person’s background by the way a person speaks.
Thus, dialect is a regional or social variety of a language characterized by its
own phonological, syntactic, and lexical properties

The term “slang” is often used to denote a variety of vocabulary strata that
consists either of newly coined words and phrases or of current words employed in
special meaning, e.g. school slang, sport slang, newspaper slang, etc. Slang refers to
the use of faddish or nonstandard lexical items.

When a register is connected to a particular profession or activity, it may also be

characterized by specific vocabulary items known as jargon. Jargon may involve
specialized meanings for existing lexical items. There also may be new terms coined
specifically for that register. Jargon is generally developed to facilitate
communication within the group, it can also be used to indicate membership in the
group. Jargon is not always viewed positively.

Poetic words form an insignificant layer of special literary vocabulary. They are
mostly archaic or very rarely used highly literary words.
Poetic words are stylistically marked they form a lexico-stylistic paradigm. In the
17th-18th centuries they were widely used in poetry as synonyms of neutral words. In
modern poetry such a vocabulary barely exists.

 Poetic words are diverse, they include: 

a) archaic words (commix – mix); 
b) archaic forms (vale – valley); 
c) historic words (argosy – large merchant ship); 
d) poetic words proper (anarch, brine).
 Their main function is to mark the text in which they are used as poetic, thus
distinguishing it from non-fiction texts. In modern poetry such words are seldom
used. Their stylistic meaning gets more vivid when they are contrasted to neutral
words. 

25. Сlassification and types of dictionaries. Modern trends in English Lexicography.

English dictionaries may all be roughly divided into two groups —
encyclopaedic and linguistic.
The encyclopaedic dictionaries, (The Encyclopaedia Britannica and The
Encyclopedia Americana) are scientific reference books dealing with every branch of
knowledge, or with one particular branch, usually in alphabetical order.
They give information about the extra-linguistic world; they deal with facts and
concepts. 
Linguistic dictionaries are wоrd-books the subject-matter of which is lexical units
and their linguistic properties such as pronunciation, meaning, peculiarities of use, etc.
Linguistic dictionaries may be divided into different categories by different criteria.
1. According to the nature of their word-list may speak about general
dictionaries (include frequency dictionary, a rhyming dictionary, a Thesaurus)
and restricted (belong terminological, phraseological, dialectal word-books,
dictionaries of new words, of foreign words, of abbreviations, etc).
2. According to the information they provide all linguistic dictionaries fall into two
groups: explanatory and specialized.
Explanatory dictionaries present a wide range of data, especially with regard to the
semantic aspect of the vocabulary items entered (e.g. New Oxford Dictionary of
English).
Specialized dictionaries deal with lexical units only in relation to some of their
characteristics (e.g. etymology, frequency, pronunciation, usage)
3. According to the language of explanations all dictionaries are divided
into: monolingual and bilingual.
4. Dictionaries also fall into diachronic and synchronic with regard of
time. Diachronic (historical) dictionaries reflect the development of the English
vocabulary by recording the history of form and meaning for every word registered
(e.g. Oxford English Dictionary). Synchronic (descriptive) dictionaries are
concerned with the present-day meaning and usage of words (e.g. Advanced
Learner’s Dictionary of Current English).
(Phraseological dictionaries, New Words dictionaries, Dictionaries of slang, Usage
dictionaries, Dictionaries of word-frequency, A Reverse dictionary, Pronouncing
dictionaries, Etymological dictionaries, Ideographic dictionaries, synonym-books,
spelling reference books, hard-words dictionaries, etc.)

Modern trend is online dictionaries.

An online dictionary is a dictionary that is accessible via the Internet through a
web browser. They can be made available in a number of ways: free, free with a paid
subscription for extended or more professional content, or a paid-only service. Some
online dictionaries are organized as lists of words, similar to a glossary, while others
offer search features, reverse lookups, and additional language tools and content such
as verb conjugations, grammar references, and discussion forums.
 26. Latin, Greek and French borrowings (of early and late periods) in the English
Language. (Бабич стр. 24-30)
Language contact over time can result in an important source of new words —
borrowing. English has taken over words from most of the other languages with
which it has had contact.
As the speakers of Old English became acquainted with Latin, they began to
borrow Latin words for things for which no native word existed.
To the first periods belong military terms (wall, street, etc.), trade terms (pound,
inch), names of containers (cup, dish), names of food (butter, cheese), words
connected with building (chalk, pitch), etc. These were concrete words that were
adopted in purely oral manner, and they were fully assimilated in the language.
Roman influence was felt in the names of towns, e.g. Manchester, Lancaster, etc.
from the Latin word caster — лагерь.
Such words as port, fountain and mountain were borrowed from Latin through
Celtic. With the Adoption of Christianity mostly religious or clerical terms were
borrowed: dean, cross, alter, abbot (Latin); church, devil, priest, anthem, school,
martyr (Greek).
Many words from Greek, the other major source of English words, came into
English by way of French and Latin. Others were borrowed in the sixteenth century
when interest in classic culture was at its height. Directly or indirectly, Greek
contributed athlete, acrobat, elastic, magic, rhythm, and many others. There are some
classical borrowings in Modern English as well: anaemia, aspirin, iodin, atom,
calorie, acid, valency, etc.
There are words formed with the help of Latin and Greek morphemes (roots or
affixes): tele, auto, etc. Latin and Greek words are used to denote names of sciences,
political and philosophic trends; these borrowings usually have academic or literary
associations (per capita, dogma, drama, theory, and pseudonym).
Many other Latin words came into English through French. French is the
language that had most influence on the vocabulary of English; it also influenced its
spelling.
There are several semantic groups of French borrowings:
● government terms: to govern, to administer, assembly, record, parliament;
● words connected with feudalism: peasant, servant, control, money, rent,
subsidy;
● military terms: assault, battle, soldier, army, siege, defence, lieutenant;
● words connected with jury: bill, defendant, plaintiff, judge, fine;
● words connected with art, amusement, fashion, food: dance, pleasure, lace,
pleat, supper, appetite, beauty, figure, etc.

Borrowed words can be classified according to the aspect which is borrowed. We

can subdivide all borrowings into the following groups:
— phonetic borrowings (table, chair, people);
— translation loans (Gospel, pipe of peace, masterpiece);
— semantic borrowings (pioneer);
— morphemic borrowings (beautiful, uncomfortable)
 27. The difference in vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar between British and
American English. (Бабич глава 10)
Pronunciation
There are several regular differences between Received Pronunciation (RP)
and General American (GA), such as the pronunciation of final /-r/ in the latter. Most
vowels are pronounced a little differently in British and American English.
RP has many words in /a:/ which are pronounced with /{/ in GA, e.g.: bath,
class, example, half, pass, staff, etc.
In British English the sound /o/ corresponds to the American /^/, e.g. hot.
There are many differences in the position of the stress, e.g. words ending in –
ary/-ory or –et attract stress on the final syllable: secretary, preparatory, laboratory,
ballet, valet. This is one of the areas where American influence on British English has
been particularly strong.

Grammar
In British English the present perfect is used to express an action that has
occurred in the recent past that has an effect on the present moment. For example:
I’ve lost my key. Can you help me look for it? In American English the following is
also possible: I lost my key. Can you help me look for it? In British English the above
would be considered incorrect. However, both forms are generally accepted in
standard American English.
The present perfect tense is more common in British English than in
American, where the simple past tense is usually used instead.
There are two forms to express possession in English: Have or Have got.
While both forms are correct (and accepted in both British and American English),
have got (have you got, he hasn’t got, etc.) is generally the preferred form in British
English while most speakers of American English employ the have (do you have, he
doesn’t have, etc.).

The past participle of the verb get is gotten in American English. For example:
He’s gotten much better at playing tennis. British English — He’s got much better at
playing tennis.

Nouns of direction with -wards: British forwards, upwards, afterwards, etc.;

American forward, upward, afterward. However, there is no real distinction here, as
both forms are used in both varieties, except that afterward is rare in British English.

Vocabulary
Probably the major differences between British and American English lie in the
choice of vocabulary. Some words mean different things in the two varieties, for
example, mean: American English — angry, bad humored, British English — not
generous, tight fisted.
Most of the differences are connected with concepts originating from the
nineteenth century to the mid twentieth century, where new words were coined
independently; for example, almost the entire vocabularies of the car and railway
industries are different in British and American English. Other sources of difference
are slang or vulgar terms, where frequent new coinage occurs, and idiomatic phrases,
including phrasal verbs.

28. The history of British and American Lexicography.

The history of dictionary-making for the English language goes to Old English
period where its 1st traces are found in the form of glosses of religious books with
interlinear translations from Latin.
Regular bilingual English-Latin dictionaries were already in existence in the
15th century. They were associated with foreign language study from the time
immemorial.
The unilingual dictionary is a comparatively recent type. The first unilingual
dictionary explaining words by English equivalents appeared in 1604. Its title was “A
Table Alphabeticale, Containing and Teaching the True Writing and
Understanding of Hard Usual English Words Borrowed from the Hebrew, Greeke,
Latin and French”.
The first attempt of a dictionary including all the words of the language was made
by Nathaniel Bailey who in 1721 published his 1st edition of “Universal
Etymological English Dictionary” including the pronunciation and etymology.
The golden age of English lexicography began in the 19th century when English
Philological Society started work on compiling what is known as “Oxford English
Dictionary” (OED), it but was named “New English Dictionary on Historical
Principles”.
The principles, structure and scope of OED, its merits and demerits are discussed
up to nowadays. Its prestige is enormous. It is considered superior to corresponding
dictionaries of other languages.
It has some variants: “The Sorter Oxford English Dictionary”, “The Concise
OED” (1911). Another dictionary created by joined effort – Joseph Wright’s English
Dialect Dictionary.

The 1st American dictionary was compiled by Samuel Johnson. He published in

1798 “A School Dictionary”. It was followed in 1800 by another dictionary that
showed sights of Americanization. It was Noah Webster considered to be father of
American lexicography, who broke away from English idiom and embodied in his
book the specifically American usage of his time.
His 1st book “American Dictionary of the English Language” appeared in 2
volumes in 1828 and later sustained numerous revised and enlarged editions. In many
respects Webster follows the lead of Johnson, but he attempts to simplify the spelling
and pronunciation that were current in the USA of the period.
Webster’s dictionary enjoyed great popularity. It was due not only to accuracy and
clarity of definitions, but also to richness of additional information of encyclopaedic
character, which had become a tradition in American lexicography.
Webster’s book aims to treat the entire vocabulary of the language providing
definitions, pronunciation and etymology. As an encyclopaedia it gives explanations
about things named, including scientific and technical subjects.

29. Assimilation of borrowings.

The term 'assimilation of borrowings' is used to denote a partial or total
conformation to the phonetical, graphical and morphological standards of the English
language and its semantic system.
According to the degree of assimilation all borrowed words can be divided into three
groups:
1) completely assimilated borrowings;
2) partially assimilated borrowings;
3) unassimilated borrowings or barbarisms.
1. Completely assimilated borrowed words follow all morphological, phonetical
and orthographic standards, take an active part in word-formation.
The morphological structure and motivation of completely assimilated
borrowings remain usually transparent, so that they are morphologically analyzable
and therefore supply the English vocabulary not only with free forms but also with
bound forms, as affixes are easily perceived and separated in series of borrowed
words that contain them (e.g. the French suffixes -age, -ance and -ment).
They are found in all the layers of older borrowings, e. g. cheese (the first layer of
Latin borrowings), husband (Scand), face (Fr), animal (Latin, borrowed during the
revival of learning).
 A loan word never brings into the receiving language the whole of its semantic
structure if it is polysemantic in the original language (e.g., ‘sport’in Old French -
‘pleasures, making merry and entertainments in general’, now - outdoor games and
exercise).
2. Partially assimilated borrowed words may be subdivided depending on the
aspect that remains unaltered into:
a) borrowings not completely assimilated graphically (e.g., Fr. ballet, buffet;some
may keep a diacritic mark: café, cliché;retained digraphs (ch, qu, ou, etc.): bouquet,
brioche);
b) borrowings not completely assimilated phonetically (e.g., Fr. machine, cartoon,
police (accent is on the final syllable), [3] — bourgeois, prestige, regime(stress +
contain sounds or combinations of sounds that are not standard for the English
language));
c) borrowings not assimilated grammatically (e.g., Latin or Greek borrowings retain
original plural forms: crisis - crises, phenomenon - phenomena;
d) borrowings not assimilated semantically because they denote objects and notions
peculiar to the country from which they come (e. g. sari, sombrero, shah, rajah,
toreador, rickshaw(Chinese), etc.
3. Unassimilated borrowings or barbarisms. This group includes words from other
languages used by English people in conversation or in writing but not assimilated in
any way, and for which there are corresponding English equivalents, e.g. the Italian
addio, ciao— 'good-bye'.
Etymological doublets are two or more words originating from the same
etymological source, but differing in phonetic shape and meaning (e.g. the words
‘whole’(originally meant ‘healthy’, ‘free from disease’) and ‘hale’ both come from
OE ‘hal’:one by the normal development of OE ‘a’ into ‘o’, the other from a northern
dialect in which this modification did not take place. Only the latter has servived in
its original meaning).

30. Slang.
Slang is a form of informal speech, it seems to mean everything that is below the
standard of usage of present-day English.
Slang is represented both as a special vocabulary and as a special language. Slang
is much rather a spoken than a literary language. It originates, nearly always, in
speech.
The following stylistic layers of words are generally marled as slang:
1. Words which may be classed as thieves' cant, or the jargons of other social
groups and professions, like dirt (- 'money'), dotty (- 'mad'), a barker (= 'a
gun').
2. Colloquial words and phrases like for good, to have a hunch, a show (at the
theatre) and the like.
3. Figurative words and phrases are not infrequently regarded as slang and
included in special slang dictionaries, e.g. Scrooge (- 'a mean person'),
blackcoat (= 'a clergyman').
4. Words derived by means of conversion, one of the most productive means of
word-building in present day English, are also sometimes classed as slang,
for example, the noun agent is considered neutral because it has no stylistic
notation, whereas the verb to agent is included in one of the American
dictionaries of slang.
5. Abbreviations of the /яб-type, for example, rep (reputation), cig (cigarette)
ad (advertisement), as well as of they7w-type (influenza).
6. Set expressions which are generally used in colloquial speech and which are
clearly colloquial, are also marked with the notation slang, e.g., to go in for,
in a way, and many others.
7. Improprieties of a morphological and syntactical character, e.g., How come,
I says, double negatives as / don't know nothing and others of this kind.
8. Any new coinage that has not gained recognition and therefore has not yet
been received into standard English is easily branded as slang, leggo (let
go')-
Slang is nothing but a deviation from the established norm at the level of the
vocabulary of the language.

31. Archaisms. Neologisms. The classification of words according to time.

Words can be classified according to the period of their life in the language.
We can have archaisms, words which have come out of active usage, and neologisms,
words which have recently appeared in the language.
Archaisms are words which are no longer used in everyday speech, which
have been ousted by their synonyms. Archaisms remain in the language, but they
are used as stylistic devices to express solemnity.
Most of these words are lexical archaisms and they are stylistic synonyms of
words which ousted them from the neutral style: steed (horse), slay (kill),
perchance (perhaps), betwixt (between). These lexical archaisms belong to the
poetic style.
Whe the causes of the word‘s disappearance are extra-linguistic, e.g. when
the thing is no longer used, its name becomes a historism. Historisms are very
numerous as names for social relations, institutions, objects of material culture of
the past. here belong such transport means as brougham, berlin, fly, gig; also such
vehicles as prairie schooner, also such boats as caravel, galleon, and such
weapons as breastplate, crossbow, arrow, vizor.
At the present moment English is developing very swiftly and there is so
called neology blowup. A neologism (Greek neo — “new” and logos “word”) is
word, term, or phrase which has been recently created — often to apply to new
concepts, or to reshape older terms in newer language form. Neologisms are
especially useful in identifying inventions, new phenomena, or old ideas which have
taken on a new cultural context.
The term “neologism” was itself coined around 1800. It can also refer to an
existing word or phrase which has been assigned a new meaning. Neologisms are
newly coined words, or words that have acquired a new meaning because of social,
economic, political, or cultural changes in human society.
Neologisms come about by different means: some are imported from other
languages, some phrases are translated from another language (these are called
calques): superman, from the German Übermensch. Many are made by combining
familiar words or roots to make new combinations, e.g. the Greek word tele, meaning
“at a distance”, and the Latin word visio, “sight”, gave the word television. Some
words began life as acronyms or other abbreviations: laser is an abbreviation of
“light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”; AIDS is “Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome”, UCE is “unsolicited commercial email”.
There are different types of neologisms: scientific — words or phrases created
to describe new scientific discoveries or inventions: black hole (1968), laser (1960);
political — words or phrases created to make some kind of political or rhetorical
point: political correctness (1990), homophobia (1969), cosmocrat; imported —
words or phrases originating in another language to express ideas that have no
equivalent term in the native language: tycoon, potato (1565), dе´tente (1960s).

Linguists distinguish three versions of neologisms:

- unstable, i.e. extremely new, being proposed, or being used only by a very
small subculture;
- diffused — having reached a significant audience, but not yet having gained
acceptance;
- stable — having gained recognizable and probably lasting acceptance.

32. Stylistically neutral words.

All words are divided into stylistically neutral (basic vocabulary having no
stylistic connotations) and stylistically marked.
Stylistically neutral words can be used in any styles and situations, every day,
everywhere and by everybody, regardless of profession, education, age group or
geographical location. Their meanings are broad, general and direct. A lot of these
words have synonyms, which are stylistically marked, e.g. child-infant-kid, continue
– go on – proceed, begin – start- commence.
Basic Vocabulary is stylistically neutral. Their stylistic neutrality makes it
possible to use them in all kinds of situations, both formal and informal, in verbal
and written communication. Basic vocabulary is used every day, everywhere and
by everybody, regardless of profession, occupation, educational level, age group
or geographical location. These are words without which no human
communication would be possible as they denote objects and phenomena of
everyday importance (e.g., house, bread, summer, winter, child, mother, green,
difficult, to go, to stand, etc.).

33. Etymological doublets. (Бабич стр 30)

Sometimes a word is borrowed twice into English. It has different forms and
meanings in English. We have two separate words with the different spellings and
meanings but historically they come back to one and the same word. For example,
catch and chase, goal and jail, quiet and quite.
Such words are called etymological doublets. These are words of the same
etymological root but which came into the language by different ways:
(1) One of the doublets is native, the other is borrowed: screw (n) Scandinavian —
shrew (n) English.
(2) Both doublets may be borrowed from different languages, but these languages
must be co-generic, for example: captain (Latin) — chieftain (French); senior (Latin)
— sir (French); canal (Latin) — channel (French).
(3) Etymological doublets may be borrowed from the same language but in
different historical periods, one word earlier, the second later: travel (Norman
borrowing) — travail (Parisian borrowing); corpse (Norman borrowing) — corps
(Parisian borrowing); a triple: hospital (Latin) — hostel (Norman French) — hotel
(Parisian French).
(4) Both doublets are native, but one originates from the other: history — story;
phantasy — fancy; defence — fence, shadow — shade. Etymological doublets are
typical of English.

34. International words. (Бабич стр 31)

International words are defined as “words of identical origin that occur in
several languages as a result of simultaneous or successive borrowings from one
ultimate source”.
International words should not be mixed with words of the common Indo-
European stock.
International words reflect the history of world culture, they convey notions which
are significant in communication. New inventions, political institutions, foodstuffs,
leisure activities, science, technological advances have all generated new lexemes
and continue to do so: sputnik, television, antenna, bionics, gene, cybernetics,
bungalow, anaconda, coffee, chocolate, grapefruit, etc. The English language
contributed a considerable number of international words to world languages, e.g. the
sports terms: football, baseball, cricket, golf. International words are mainly
borrowings.

35. Hybrids. Barbarisms.

They represent different aspects of borrowings – borrowed aspect and degree of
assimilation.
Hybrids are words that are made up of elements derived from two or more
different languages.
English contains thousands of hybrid words, the vast majority of which show
various combinations of morphemes coming from Latin, French and Greek and those
of native origin.
Thus, readable has an English root and a suffix that is derived from the Latin
–abilis and borrowed from French. Moreover, it is not an isolated case, but rather an
established pattern that could be represented as English stem+ -able (eatable,
usable).
Its variant with the native negative prefix un- is also worthy of note: un-+English
stem+-able (unbelievable).
More frequent pattern is un-+Romanic stem+ -able, which is also a hybrid
(unallowable, unmovable).

The English Vocabulary contains a considerable layer of words called barbarisms

- words of foreign origin, not completely assimilated.
Barbarisms are part of the English word-stock. Foreign words do not belong to
the English Vocabulary. They are not registered in English dictionaries. In printed
works they are usually italicized to indicate their alien nature or their stylistic
value, e.g. addio (Italian), tete-a-tete (French), dolce vita (Italian), duende
(Spanish), an homme a femme (French), gonzo (Italian) etc.

36. Proverbs, sayings, familiar quotations. (Бабич стр 105)

There are phraseological units, expressing statement, that have the form of a
complete sentence. A.V. Kunin calls them communicative.
Among communicative phraseological units we distinguish two groups of
expressions: 1) proverbs and 2) sayings.
A proverb (from Latin: pro “forward” + verb “word”) is a collection of words
(i.e. a phrase or sentence) that has been disseminated forth, and states a general
truth or gives advice: Ask no questions, hear no lies. Silence is sometimes an answer.
A saying (from Old English: say (tell) + ing gerund suffix) is any common,
colloquial expression, or a remark often made, e.g. That cat won’t jump. Woe betide
you! What will Mrs. Grundy say? The fat is in the fire. Back to the ol’ grind stone.
Generally, proverbs and sayings are emotionally coloured. Thus, proverbs are
short sayings that express popular wisdom, a truth or a moral lesson in a concise and
imaginative way. For example: It never rains, but it pours. Easy come, easy go.
Familiar quotations differ from proverbs in their origin; they come from
literature and in the course of time become part and parcel of the language. For
example: “Few things are harder to put up with than a good example.” (M. Twain)
“If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” (Chesterfield) “Eat to live, not live
to eat.” (Socrates).

37. Blending. Back-formation. Shortening. (Бабич стр 51)

Affixation, compounding, and conversion are the three major types of word-
formation. They play a crucial role in the formation of new words in English. Apart
from these a number of other ways of forming words are referred to word formation,
such as:
— back-formation or disaffixation (baby-sitter — to baby-sit). Backformation is
a process that creates a new word by removing a real or supposed affix from another
word in the language. Resurrect was originally formed in this way from resurrection,
enthuse from enthusiasm, donate from donation, orient or orientate from orientation.
Back-formation continues to produce new words in modern English, for instance,
the form attrit was formed from attrition, the verb lase from laser, liposuct from
liposuction;
The most productive type of back-formation is derivation of verbs from
compounds that have either –er or –ing as their last element. For example: thought –
read<thought – reader<thought – reading.
Blending is one of the many ways new words are made in English. It refers to
joining the beginning of one word and the end of another to make a new word with a
new meaning.
Some blends have become so integrated into the standard vocabulary of English
that speakers are unaware of their status, for example, motel from motor and hotel,
bit (in computer jargon) from binary and digit, modem from modulator and
demodulator.
Sometimes a word is formed by a process that is on the borderline between
compounding and blending. It combines all of one word with part of another, e.g.
workaholic, medicare, Eurotunnel, slanguage, guesstimate;

Shortening is significant subtraction, in which part of the original word is taken

away. Shortening of spoken words is also called clipping or curtailing.
Newly shortened words appear continuously from numerous neologisms, such
as demo – demonstration, fridge – refrigerator etc.

There are various classifications of shortened words. The general accepted one is
that based on the position of the clipped part.
1. Final clipping – the beginning of the prototype is retained: ad-advertisement,
gym-gymnastics.
2. Initial-clipped words retaining the final part of the prototype: story-history,
phone-telephone.
3. In the words with medial clipping the medial part of the word is left out: maths
– mathematics, ma`am – madam.

38. Semantic changes. (Бабич стр 65)

Words change their meanings. This change in meaning is called semantic change.
Every word in its development has undergone many semantic changes.
1) One of the most striking types of semantic change is triggered by metaphor, a
figure of speech based on a perceived similarity between distinct objects or
actions. Metaphorical change usually involves a word with a concrete meaning
taking on a more abstract sense (e.g. metaphorical meaning of grasp is
“understand”), although the word’s original meaning is not lost.
The meanings of many English words have been extended through metaphor. For
example, many metaphors are based on parts of a human body: we speak of the
hands and face of a clock, the foot of a bed or of a mountain, the leg of a chair or
table, the tongue of a shoe, the eye of a needle or a potato.
 There is a special type of metaphor when proper names become common nouns,
e.g. a Don Juan — a great lover of women, a Scrooge — a mean, miserly person,
from the name of the miser in Ch. Dickens’s Christmas Carol, etc.

2) Metaphor is often thought of as a literary device. In traditional literary

criticism, metaphors are distinguished from similes. A metaphor states that
something is equivalent to another thing which is not usually associated with it
(The man is a lion). A simile states that something is like another thing which
it is not usually associated with (The man is like a lion).

3) Sometimes the meaning may be transformed on the basis of contiguity (“The

kettle is boiling”, i.e. the water or whatever there is in the kettle is boiling). It is
metonymy. A metonymy involves the association of one thing with another
which occurs with or near it. For example, when one says that one wants to be
away from one’s books for a while, it may indicate that one wants to keep
away from one’s studies for a while. Here are some further examples:
He’s in dance. (= the dancing profession)
She frowns on blue jeans. (= the wearing of blue jeans)

There are different types of metonymy. The name of the place may be used for
its inhabitants: the White House is the residence of the President of the USA and is
identified with him, e.g.: The White House isn’t saying anything.
The institution for people responsible, for example: I don’t approve of the
government’s actions; producer for product (He bought a Ford. He’s got a
Picasso.)

4) Semantic narrowing – the process in which the meaning of a word becomes

less general or less inclusive than its historically earlier meaning, e. g. meat
(originally meat meant any kind of food).
5) Semantic broadening – the process in which the meaning of a word becomes
more general than its historically earlier meaning, e. g. bird meant small fowl,
now – any winged creature.
6) Degradation – the way of transforming the meaning when the meaning
becomes worse or less favourable, e. g. villain originally meant working on a
villa.
7) Elevation – the first meaning has a negative connotation and the new one has
not, e. g. nice – originally “foolish”, now – “fine, good”.

39. Sound Interchange. Distinctive stress. Sound imitation.

Sound interchange is the way of word-building when some sounds are
changed to form a new word. (food-feed)
It is non-productive in Modern English, it was productive in Old English and
can be met in other Indo-European languages.
 The causes of sound interchange can be different. It can be the result of Ancient
Ablaut which cannot be explained by the phonetic laws during the period of the
language development known to scientists., e.g. to strike - stroke, to sing - song
etc. It can be also the result of Ancient Umlaut or vowel mutation which is the
result of palatalizing the root vowel because of the front vowel in the syllable
coming after the root (regressive assimilation), e.g. hot - to heat (hotian), blood -
to bleed (blodian) etc.
In many cases we have vowel and consonant interchange. In nouns we have
voiceless consonants and in verbs we have corresponding voiced consonants
because in Old English these consonants in nouns were at the end of the word and
in verbs in the intervocal position, e.g. bath - to bathe, life - to live, breath - to
breathe etc.
STRESS INTERCHANGE (Distinctive stress)
Stress interchange can be mostly met in verbs and nouns of Romanic origin:
nouns have the stress on the first syllable and verbs on the last syllable, e.g.
`accent - to ac`cent. This phenomenon is explained in the following way: French
verbs and nouns had different structure when they were borrowed into English,
verbs had one syllable more than the corresponding nouns. When these
borrowings were assimilated in English the stress in them was shifted to the
previous syllable (the second from the end). Later on the last unstressed syllable in
verbs borrowed from French was dropped (the same as in native verbs) and after
that the stress in verbs was on the last syllable while in nouns it was on the first
syllable. As a result of it we have such pairs in English as: to af`fix -`affix, to
con`flict- `conflict, to ex`port -`export, to ex`tract - `extract etc. As a result of
stress interchange we have also vowel interchange in such words because vowels
are pronounced differently in stressed and unstressed positions.
SOUND IMITATION
It is the way of word-building when a word is formed by imitating different
sounds. There are some semantic groups of words formed by means of sound
imitation
a) sounds produced by human beings, such as : to whisper, to giggle, to mumble,
to sneeze, to whistle etc.
b) sounds produced by animals, birds, insects, such as: to hiss, to buzz, to bark, to
moo, to twitter etc.
c) sounds produced by nature and objects, such as: to splash, to rustle, to clatter,
to bubble, to ding-dong, to tinkle etc. 
The corresponding nouns are formed by means of conversion, e.g. clang (of a
bell), chatter (of children) etc.

40. Graphical abbreviations. Acronyms.

Graphical abbreviations often pass into oral speech and become widely used in
conversation. Words formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive
parts or major parts of a compound term are called acronyms. (NATO, UNESCO)
 Graphical abbreviations are the result of shortening of words and word-groups
only in written speech while orally the corresponding full forms are used. They are
used for the economy of space and effort in writing.
The term abbreviation may be also used for a shortened form of a written word or
phrase used in a text in place of the whole. Abbreviation is achieved by omission of
letters from one or more parts of the whole, as for instance abbr – abbreviation, B. A.
– for Bachelor of Arts.
The oldest group of graphical abbreviations in English is of Latin origin. In
Russian this type of abbreviation is not typical. In these abbreviations in the spelling
Latin words are shortened, while orally the corresponding English equivalents are
pronounced in the full form, e.g. for example (Latin exampli gratia), a.m. - in the
morning (ante meridiem), No - number (numero), p.a. - a year (per annum), d -
penny (dinarius), lb - pound (libra), i. e. - that is (id est) etc.
There are also graphical abbreviations of native origin, where in the spelling we
have abbreviations of words and word-groups of the corresponding English
equivalents in the full form. We have several semantic groups of them:

a) days of the week, e.g. Mon - Monday, Tue - Tuesday etc.

b) names of months, e.g. Apr - April, Aug - August etc.

c) names of counties in UK, e.g. Yorks - Yorkshire, Berks -Berkshire etc.

41. The main variants of the English language: in the UK, outside the British Isles, local
dialects in the USA and in Great Britain, social variation of the English Language.
(Бабич главы 8, 10 и 11)
Languages are composed of different varieties and dialects. We can distinguish
several different kinds of English, all by the differing situations in which each is
used.
Standard English is the kind of English usage most widely recognized as
acceptable, also taught at schools and universities, used by press, the radio and the
television.
Standard English is used in many different situations. We can distinguish two
kinds of Standard English: they are called formal English and informal English.
Formal English is the English, more often written than spoken, used by highly
educated people in formal situations. Grammar and usage are generally conservative.
It should be used in formal essays, essay answers to examination questions, formal
reports, research papers, literary criticism, scholarly writings, and addresses on
serious or solemn occasions.
Informal English is the English most commonly written or spoken by educated
people. In vocabulary and sentence style informal English is less elaborate than
formal English. Informal English is the language most English-speaking people use
most of the time. It is the language of magazines, newspapers, and most books, and of
business letters and talks intended for general audiences.
 The vocabulary of the standard English is contrasted to dialects. Local dialects are
varieties of the English language peculiar to some districts and having no
normalized literary form.
Regional varieties possessing a literary form are called variants. In Great Britain
there are two variants: Scottish English and Irish English, and five main groups of
dialects: Northern, Midland, Eastern, Western and Southern.
One of the best known Southern dialects is Cockney, the regional dialect of
London. This dialect is marked by some deviations in pronunciation but few in
vocabulary and syntax. Cockney is lively and witty and its vocabulary imaginative
and colourful (boots – daisy roots, hat – tit for tat, head – loaf of bread etc.).
Besides the British Isles English is spoken:
Ireland
Scotland
Wales
Besides the Irish and Scottish variants, there are American English, Australian English,
Canadian English, Indian English, New Zealand English.
AMERICAN ENGLISH
The variety of English spoken in the USA has received the name of American
English. AmE cannot be called a dialect although it is a regional variety, because it
has a literary normalized form called Standard American. The American variant of
the English language differs from British English in pronunciation, some minor
features of grammar, but chiefly in vocabulary.

Australian English is the variety of the English language used in Australia. It

is similar to British English, but it also borrows from American English, for example,
truck is used instead of lorry. It is most similar to New Zealand English.
South African English is the variety of the English language used in South
Africa and surrounding counties, notably Namibia and Zimbabwe. It is a mother
tongue only for 40 % of the white inhabitants and a tiny minority of black inhabitants
of the region. South African English bears some resemblance in pronunciation to a
mix of Australian and British English.
In South African English there are words that do not exist in British and
American English, usually derived from Afrikaans or African languages, for
example, bra, bru – ‘male friend’, dorp – ‘a small rural town or village’, sat – ‘dead,
passed away’.
Canadian English is usually defined by the ways in which it differs from
American or British English. American visitors at first think how British the
Canadian vocabulary sounds (tap, braces, and porridge, instead of “faucet”,
“suspenders” and “oatmeal”). The British think how Americanized the Canadians
have become (they hear gas, truck and wrench for “petrol”, “lorry” and “spanner”).

42. Polysemy: Diachronic and Synchronic approaches to polysemy, Historical

Changeability of semantic structure, polysemy and context.
 Polysemy is the ability of a word to possess several meanings or lexico-
semantic variants (LSV), e.g. bright means “shining” and “intelligent”.

Many words in English are polysemantic or have a complicated semantic

structure. There are few monosemantic (having only one meaning) words in
English.

Diachronically, polysemy is understood as the growth and development of the

semantic structure of the word. Historically we differentiate between the primary
and secondary meanings of words.

The relation between these meanings isn't only the one of order of appearance but
it is also the relation of dependence = > we can say that secondary meaning is
always the derived meaning (e.g. dog – 1. animal, 2. despicable person)

Synchronically it is possible to distinguish between major meaning of the word

and its minor meanings. However, it is often hard to grade individual meaning of
the word in order of their comparative value (e.g. to get the letter - получить
письмо; to get to London - прибыть в Лондон - minor).

Historical Changeability of semantic structure

The only more or less objective criterion in this case is the frequency of
occurrence in speech (e.g. table – 1. furniture, 2. food). The semantic structure is
never static and the primary meaning of a word may become synchronically one
of the minor meanings and vice versa. Stylistic factors should always be taken into
consideration.

Word meanings are liable(склонен) to change in the course of the development of

language. The system of meanings of polysemantic words evolves(развивается)
gradually. The older a word is, the better developed is its semantic structure.

Most scholars distinguish between the development and change of meaning. The
term development of meaning is the process of semantic extension(расширение)
when a new meaning and an old one coexist(сосуществуют) in the semantic
structure of the word.( snail(улитка) - a small animal moving very slowly> a slow
person) Change of meaning is the process of semantic extension resulting in
complete replacement of the old meaning of a word by the new one. E.g. Hospital
is closely connected in its etymology with the word “guest” in OE – “hospital” – a
place where guests were placed. But now this meaning is completely lost.

Polysemy and context.

From the discussion of the paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations it follows

that a full understanding of the semantic structure of any lexical item can be
gained only from the study of a variety of contexts in which the word is used, i.e.
from the study of the intralinguistic relations of words in the flow of speech. This
is of greatest importance in connection with the problem of the synchronic
approach to polysemy.

It will be recalled that in analysing the semantic structure of the polysemantic

word table we observed that some meanings are representative of the word in
isolation, i.e. they invariably occur to us when we hear the word or see it written
on paper. Other meanings come to the fore only when the word is used in certain
contexts. This is true of all polysemantic words. The adjective yellow, e.g., when
used in isolation is understood to denote a certain colour, whereas other meanings
of this word, e.g. ‘envious’, ‘suspicious’ or ‘sensational’, ‘corrupt’, are perceived
only in certain contexts, e.g. ‘a yellow look’, ‘the yellow press’, etc.

Polysemy of words: "yellow"- sensational (Am., sl.)

The meaning which has the highest frequency is the one representative of the
whole semantic structure of the word. The Russian equivalent of "a table" which
first comes to your mind and when you hear this word is 'cтол" in the meaning "a
piece of furniture". And words that correspond in their major meanings in two
different languages are referred to as correlated words though their semantic
structures may be different.

Primary meaning - historically first.

Major meaning - the most frequently used meaning of the word synchronically.