Lexicology of the English Language

The degree of assimilation of borrowings depends on the following

factors: a) from what group of languages the word was borrowed, if the word

belongs to the same group of languages to which the borrowing language

belongs it is assimilated easier, b) in what way the word is borrowed:

orally or in the written form, words borrowed orally are assimilated

quicker, c) how often the borrowing is used in the language, the greater

the frequency of its usage, the quicker it is assimilated, d) how long the

word lives in the language, the longer it lives, the more assimilated it

is.

Accordingly borrowings are subdivided into: completely assimilated,

partly assimilated and non-assimilated (barbarisms).

Completely assimilated borrowings are not felt as foreign words in the

language, cf the French word «sport» and the native word «start».

Completely assimilated verbs belong to regular verbs, e.g. correct

-corrected. Completely assimilated nouns form their plural by means of s-

inflexion, e.g. gate- gates. In completely assimilated French words the

stress has been shifted from the last syllable to the last but one.

Semantic assimilation of borrowed words depends on the words existing in

the borrowing language, as a rule, a borrowed word does not bring all its

meanings into the borrowing language, if it is polysemantic, e.g. the

Russian borrowing «sputnik» is used in English only in one of its meanings.

Partly assimilated borrowings are subdivided into the following groups:

a) borrowings non-assimilated semantically, because they denote objects and

notions peculiar to the country from the language of which they were

borrowed, e.g. sari, sombrero, taiga, kvass etc.

b) borrowings non-assimilated grammatically, e.g. nouns borrowed from

Latin and Greek retain their plural forms (bacillus - bacilli, phenomenon -

phenomena, datum -data, genius - genii etc.

c) borrowings non-assimilated phonetically. Here belong words with the

initial sounds /v/ and /z/, e.g. voice, zero. In native words these voiced

consonants are used only in the intervocal position as allophones of sounds

/f/ and /s/ ( loss - lose, life - live ). Some Scandinavian borrowings have

consonants and combinations of consonants which were not palatalized, e.g.

/sk/ in the words: sky, skate, ski etc (in native words we have the

palatalized sounds denoted by the digraph «sh», e.g. shirt); sounds /k/

and /g/ before front vowels are not palatalized e.g. girl, get, give, kid,

kill, kettle. In native words we have palatalization , e.g. German, child.

Some French borrowings have retained their stress on the last syllable,

e.g. police, cartoon. Some French borrowings retain special combinations

of sounds, e.g. /a:3/ in the words : camouflage, bourgeois, some of them

retain the combination of sounds /wa:/ in the words: memoir, boulevard.

d) borrowings can be partly assimilated graphically, e.g. in Greak

borrowings «y» can be spelled in the middle of the word (symbol, synonym),

«ph» denotes the sound /f/ (phoneme, morpheme), «ch» denotes the sound

/k/(chemistry, chaos),«ps» denotes the sound /s/ (psychology).

Latin borrowings retain their polisyllabic structure, have double

consonants, as a rule, the final consonant of the prefix is assimilated

with the initial consonant of the stem, (accompany, affirmative).

French borrowings which came into English after 1650 retain their

spelling, e.g. consonants «p», «t», «s» are not pronounced at the end of

the word (buffet, coup, debris), Specifically French combination of letters

«eau» /ou/ can be found in the borrowings : beau, chateau, troussaeu. Some

of digraphs retain their French pronunciation: ‘ch’ is pronounced as /sh/,

e.g. chic, parachute, ‘qu’ is pronounced as /k/ e.g. bouquet, «ou» is

pronounced as /u:/, e.g. rouge; some letters retain their French

pronunciation, e.g. «i» is pronounced as /i:/, e,g, chic, machine; «g» is

pronounced as /3/, e.g. rouge.

Modern German borrowings also have some peculiarities in their spelling:

common nouns are spelled with a capital letter e.g. Autobahn, Lebensraum;

some vowels and digraphs retain their German pronunciation, e.g. «a» is

pronounced as /a:/ (Dictat), «u» is pronounced as /u:/ (Kuchen), «au» is

pronounced as /au/ (Hausfrau), «ei» is pronounced as /ai/ (Reich); some

consonants are also pronounced in the German way, e.g. «s» before a vowel

is pronounced as /z/ (Sitskrieg), «v» is pronounced as /f/ (Volkswagen),

«w» is pronounced as /v/ , «ch» is pronounced as /h/ (Kuchen).

Non-assimilated borrowings (barbarisms) are borrowings which are used by

Englishmen rather seldom and are non-assimilated, e.g. addio (Italian),

tete-a-tete (French), dolce vita (Italian), duende (Spanish), an homme a

femme (French), gonzo (Italian) etc.

CLASSIFICATION OF BORROWINGS ACCORDING

TO THE LANGUAGE FROM WHICH THEY WERE BORROWED

ROMANIC BORROWINGS

Latin borrowings.

Among words of Romanic origin borrowed from Latin during the period when

the British Isles were a part of the Roman Empire, there are such words as:

street, port, wall etc. Many Latin and Greek words came into English during

the Adoption of Christianity in the 6-th century. At this time the Latin

alphabet was borrowed which ousted the Runic alphabet. These borrowings

are usually called classical borrowings. Here belong Latin words: alter,

cross, dean, and Greek words: church, angel, devil, anthem.

Latin and Greek borrowings appeared in English during the Middle English

period due to the Great Revival of Learning. These are mostly scientific

words because Latin was the language of science at the time. These words

were not used as frequently as the words of the Old English period,

therefore some of them were partly assimilated grammatically, e.g. formula

- formulae. Here also belong such words as: memorandum, minimum, maximum,

veto etc.

Classical borrowings continue to appear in Modern English as well. Mostly

they are words formed with the help of Latin and Greek morphemes. There are

quite a lot of them in medicine (appendicitis, aspirin), in chemistry

(acid, valency, alkali), in technique (engine, antenna, biplane, airdrome),

in politics (socialism, militarism), names of sciences (zoology, physics) .

In philology most of terms are of Greek origin (homonym, archaism,

lexicography).

French borrowings

The influence of French on the English spelling.

The largest group of borrowings are French borrowings. Most of them came

into English during the Norman conquest. French influenced not only the

vocabulary of English but also its spelling, because documents were written

by French scribes as the local population was mainly illiterate, and the

ruling class was French. Runic letters remaining in English after the Latin

alphabet was borrowed were substituted by Latin letters and combinations

of letters, e.g. «v» was introduced for the voiced consonant /v/ instead of

«f» in the intervocal position /lufian - love/, the digraph «ch» was

introduced to denote the sound /ch/ instead of the letter «c» / chest/

before front vowels where it had been palatalized, the digraph «sh» was

introduced instead of the combination «sc» to denote the sound /sh/ /ship/,

the digraph «th» was introduced instead of the Runic letters «0» and « »

/this, thing/, the letter «y» was introduced instead of the Runic letter

«3» to denote the sound /j/ /yet/, the digraph «qu» substituted the

combination «cw» to denote the combination of sounds /kw/ /queen/, the

digraph «ou» was introduced to denote the sound /u:/ /house/ (The sound

/u:/ was later on diphthongized and is pronounced /au/ in native words and

fully assimilated borrowings). As it was difficult for French scribes to

copy English texts they substituted the letter «u» before «v», «m», «n» and

the digraph «th» by the letter «o» to escape the combination of many

vertical lines /«sunu» - «son», luvu» - «love»/.

Borrowing of French words.

There are the following semantic groups of French borrowings:

a) words relating to government : administer, empire, state, government;

b) words relating to military affairs: army, war, banner, soldier,

battle;

c) words relating to jury: advocate, petition, inquest, sentence,

barrister;

d) words relating to fashion: luxury, coat, collar, lace, pleat,

embroidery;

e) words relating to jewelry: topaz, emerald, ruby, pearl ;

f) words relating to food and cooking: lunch, dinner, appetite, to roast,

to stew.

Words were borrowed from French into English after 1650, mainly through

French literature, but they were not as numerous and many of them are not

completely assimilated. There are the following semantic groups of these

borrowings:

a) words relating to literature and music: belle-lettres, conservatorie,

brochure, nuance, piruette, vaudeville;

b) words relating to military affairs: corps, echelon, fuselage,

manouvre;

c) words relating to buildings and furniture: entresol, chateau, bureau;

d) words relating to food and cooking: ragout, cuisine.

Italian borrowings.

Cultural and trade relations between Italy and England brought many

Italian words into English. The earliest Italian borrowing came into

English in the 14-th century, it was the word «bank» /from the Italian

«banko» - «bench»/. Italian money-lenders and money-changers sat in the

streets on benches. When they suffered losses they turned over their

benches, it was called «banco rotta» from which the English word «bankrupt»

originated. In the 17-th century some geological terms were borrowed :

volcano, granite, bronze, lava. At the same time some political terms were

borrowed: manifesto, bulletin.

But mostly Italian is famous by its influence in music and in all Indo-

European languages musical terms were borrowed from Italian : alto,

baritone, basso, tenor, falsetto, solo, duet, trio, quartet, quintet,

opera, operette, libretto, piano, violin.

Among the 20-th century Italian borrowings we can mention : gazette,

incognitto, autostrada, fiasco, fascist, diletante, grotesque, graffitto

etc.

Spanish borrowings.

Spanish borrowings came into English mainly through its American variant.

There are the following semantic groups of them:

a) trade terms: cargo, embargo;

b) names of dances and musical instruments: tango, rumba, habanera,

guitar;

c) names of vegetables and fruit: tomato, potato, tobbaco, cocoa, banana,

ananas, apricot etc.

GERMANIC BORROWINGS

English belongs to the Germanic group of languages and there are

borrowings from Scandinavian, German and Holland languages, though their

number is much less than borrowings from Romanic languages.

Scandinavian borrowings.

By the end of the Old English period English underwent a strong influence

of Scandinavian due to the Scandinavian conquest of the British Isles.

Scandinavians belonged to the same group of peoples as Englishmen and

their languages had much in common. As the result of this conquest there

are about 700 borrowings from Scandinavian into English.

Scandinavians and Englishmen had the same way of life,their cultural

level was the same, they had much in common in their literature therefore

there were many words in these languages which were almost identical, e.g.

ON OE

Modern E

syster sweoster

sister

fiscr fisc

fish

felagi felawe

fellow

However there were also many words in the two languages which were

different, and some of them were borrowed into English , such nouns as:

bull, cake, egg, kid, knife, skirt, window etc, such adjectives as: flat,

ill, happy, low, odd, ugly, wrong, such verbs as : call, die, guess, get,

give, scream and many others.

Even some pronouns and connective words were borrowed which happens very

seldom, such as : same, both, till, fro, though, and pronominal forms with

«th»: they, them, their.

Scandinavian influenced the development of phrasal verbs which did not

exist in Old English, at the same time some prefixed verbs came out of

usage, e.g. ofniman, beniman. Phrasal verbs are now highly productive in

English /take off, give in etc/.

German borrowings.

There are some 800 words borrowed from German into English. Some of them

have classical roots, e.g. in some geological terms, such as: cobalt,

bismuth, zink, quarts, gneiss, wolfram. There were also words denoting

objects used in everyday life which were borrowed from German: iceberg,

lobby, rucksack, Kindergarten etc.

In the period of the Second World War the following words were borrowed:

Volkssturm, Luftwaffe, SS-man, Bundeswehr, gestapo, gas chamber and many

others. After the Second World War the following words were borrowed:

Berufsverbot, Volkswagen etc.

Holland borrowings.

Holland and England have constant interrelations for many centuries and

more than 2000 Holland borrowings were borrowed into English. Most of them

are nautical terms and were mainly borrowed in the 14-th century, such as:

freight, skipper, pump, keel, dock, reef, deck, leak and many others.

Besides two main groups of borrowings (Romanic and Germanic) there are

also borrowings from a lot of other languages. We shall speak about Russian

borrowings, borrowings from the language which belongs to Slavoninc

languages.

Russian borrowings.

There were constant contacts between England and Russia and they borrowed

words from one language into the other. Among early Russian borrowings

there are mainly words connected with trade relations, such as: rouble,

copeck, pood, sterlet, vodka, sable, and also words relating to nature,

such as: taiga, tundra, steppe etc.

There is also a large group of Russian borrowings which came into English

through Rushian literature of the 19-th century, such as : Narodnik,

moujik, duma, zemstvo. volost, ukase etc, and also words which were formed

in Russian with Latin roots, such as: nihilist, intelligenzia, Decembrist

etc.

After the Great October Revolution many new words appeared in Russian

connected with the new political system, new culture, and many of them were

borrowed into English, such as: collectivization. udarnik, Komsomol etc

and also translation loans, such as: shock worker, collective farm, five-

year plan etc.

One more group of Russian borrowings is connected with perestroika, such

as: glasnost, nomenklatura, apparatchik etc.

ETYMOLOGICAL DOUBLETS

Sometimes a word is borrowed twice from the same language. As the

result, we have two different words with different spellings and meanings

but historically they come back to one and the same word. Such words are

called etymological doublets. In English there are some groups of them:

Latino-French doublets.

Latin English from Latin English from French

uncia inch

ounce

moneta mint

money

camera camera

chamber

Franco-French doublets

doublets borrowed from different dialects of French.

Norman Paris

canal channel

captain chieftain

catch chaise

Scandinavian-English doublets

Scandinavian English

skirt shirt

scabby shabby

There are also etymological doublets which were borrowed from the same

language during different historical periods, such as French doublets:

gentil - любезный, благородный, etymological doublets are: gentle - мягкий,

вежливый and genteel - благородный. From the French word gallant

etymological doublets are : ‘gallant - храбрый and ga’llant - галантный,

внимательный.

Sometimes etymological doublets are the result of borrowing different

grammatical forms of the same word, e.g. the Comparative degree of Latin

«super» was «superior» which was borrowed into English with the meaning

«high in some quality or rank». The Superlative degree (Latin

«supremus»)in English «supreme» with the meaning «outstanding»,

«prominent». So «superior» and «supreme» are etymological doublets.

SEMASIOLOGY

The branch of lexicology which deals with the meaning is called

semasiology.

WORD - MEANING

Every word has two aspects: the outer aspect (its sound form) and the

inner aspect (its meaning) . Sound and meaning do not always constitute a

constant unit even in the same language. E.g. the word «temple» may denote

«a part of a human head» and «a large church» In such cases we have

homonyms. One and the same word in different syntactical relations can

develop different meanings, e.g. the verb «treat» in sentences:

a) He treated my words as a joke.

b) The book treats of poetry.

c) They treated me to sweets.

d) He treats his son cruelly.

In all these sentences the verb «treat» has different meanings and we can

speak about polysemy.

On the other hand, one and the same meaning can be expressed by different

sound forms, e.g. «pilot» , and «airman», «horror» and «terror». In such

cases we have synonyms.

Both the meaning and the sound can develop in the course of time

independently. E.g. the Old English /luvian/ is pronounced /l^v / in Modern

English. On the other hand, «board» primariliy means « a piece of wood sawn

thin» It has developed the meanings: a table, a board of a ship, a stage, a

council etc.

LEXICAL MEANING - NOTION

The lexical meaning of a word is the realization of a notion by means of

a definite language system. A word is a language unit, while a notion is a

unit of thinking. A notion cannot exict without a word expressing it in the

language, but there are words which do not express any notion but have a

lexical meaning. Interjections express emotions but not notions, but they

have lexical meanings, e.g. Alas! /disappointment/, Oh,my buttons!

/surprise/ etc. There are also words which express both, notions and

emotions, e.g. girlie, a pig /when used metaphorically/.

The term «notion» was introduced into lexicology from logics. A notion

denotes the reflection in the mind of real objects and phenomena in their

relations. Notions, as a rule, are international, especially with the

nations of the same cultural level. While meanings can be nationally

limited. Grouping of meanings in the semantic structure of a word is

determined by the whole system of every language. E.g. the English verb

«go» and its Russian equivalent «идти» have some meanings which coincide:

to move from place to place, to extend /the road goes to London/, to work

/Is your watch going?/. On the other hand, they have different meanings: in

Russian we say :»Вот он идет» , in English we use the verb «come» in this

case. In English we use the verb «go» in the combinations: «to go by bus»,

«to go by train» etc. In Russian in these cases we use the verb «ехать».

The number of meanings does not correspond to the number of words,

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