Lexicology of the English Language

There are some differences between British and American English in the

usage of prepositions, such as prepositions with dates, days of the week BE

requres «on» / I start my holiday on Friday/, in American English there is

no preposition / I start my vacation Friday/. In Be we use «by day», «by

night»/»at night», in AE the corresponding forms are «days» and «nights».

In BE we say «at home» , in AE - «home» is used. In BE we say «a quarter to

five», in AE «a quarter of five». In BE we say «in the street», in AE -

«on the street». In BE we say «to chat to somebody», in AE «to chat with

somebody». In BE we say «different to something», in AE - «different from

someting».

There are also units of vocabulary which are different while denoting the

same notions, e.g. BE - «trousers», AE -«pants»; in BE «pants» are «трусы»

which in AE is «shorts». While in BE «shorts» are outwear. This can lead to

misunderstanding. There are some differences in names of places:

BE AE BE AE

passage hall cross-roads intersection

pillar box mail-box the cinema the movies

studio, bed-sitter one-room appartment

flyover overpass zebra crossing Pxing

pavement sidewalk tube, uderground subway

tram streetcar flat apartment

surgery doctor’s office lift elevator

Some names of useful objects:

BE AE BE AE

biro ballpoint rubber eraser

tap faucet torch

flashlight

parcel package elastic rubber

band

carrier bag shopping bag reel of cotton spool of thread

Some words connected with food:

BE AE BE

AE

tin can sweets

candy

sweet biscuit cookie dry biscuit

crackers

sweet dessert chips

french fries

minced meat ground beef

Some words denoting personal items:

BE AE BE

AE

fringe bangs/of hair/ turn- ups

cuffs

tights pantyhose mackintosh raincoat

ladder run/in a stocking/ braces suspenders

poloneck turtleneck waistcoat

vest

Some words denoting people:

BE AE BE

AE

barrister, lawyer, staff /university/

faculty

post-graduate graduate chap, fellow guy

caretaker janitor constable

patrolman

shopassistant shopperson bobby cop

If we speak about cars there are also some differences:

BE AE BE

AE

boot trunk bumpers

fenders

a car, an auto, to hire a car to rent a

car

Differences in the organization of education lead to different terms. BE

«public school» is in fact a private school. It is a fee-paying school not

controlled by the local education authorities. AE «public school» is a

free local authority school. BE «elementary school» is AE «grade school» BE

«secondary school» is AE «high school». In BE « a pupil leaves a secondary

school», in AE «a student graduates from a high school» In BE you can

graduate from a university or college of education, graduating entails

getting a degree.

A British university student takes three years known as the first, the

second and the third years. An American student takes four years, known as

freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years. While studying a British

student takes a main and subsidiary subjects. An American student majors in

a subject and also takes electives. A British student specializes in one

main subject, with one subsidiary to get his honours degree. An American

student earns credits for successfully completing a number of courses in

studies, and has to reach the total of 36 credits to receive a degree.

Differences of spelling.

The reform in the English spelling for American English was introduced

by the famous American lexicographer Noah Webster who published his first

dictionary in 1806. Those of his proposals which were adopted in the

English spelling are as follows:

a) the delition of the letter «u» in words ending in «our», e.g. honor,

favor;

b) the delition of the second consonant in words with double consonants,

e.g. traveler, wagon,

c) the replacement of «re» by «er» in words of French origin, e.g.

theater, center,

d) the delition of unpronounced endings in words of Romanic origin, e.g.

catalog, program,

e) the replacement of «ce» by «se» in words of Romanic origin, e.g.

defense, offense,

d) delition of unpronounced endings in native words, e.g. tho, thro.

Differences in pronunciation

In American English we have r-coloured fully articulated vowels, in the

combinations: ar, er, ir, or, ur, our etc. In BE the sound / /

corresponds to the AE /^/, e.g. «not». In BE before fricatives and

combinations with fricatives «a» is pronounced as /a:/, in AE it is

pronounced / / e.g. class, dance, answer, fast etc.

There are some differences in the position of the stress:

BE AE BE

AE

add`ress adress la`boratory

`laboratory

re`cess `recess re`search

`research

in`quiry `inquiry ex`cess

`excess

Some words in BE and AE have different pronunciation, e.g.

BE AE BE

AE

/`fju:tail/ /`fju:t l/ /`dousail /

/dos l/

/kla:k/ /kl rk/ /`fig /

/figyer/

/ `le3 / / li:3 r/ /lef`ten nt/

/lu:tenant/

/ nai / /ni: r/ /shedju:l/

/skedyu:l/

But these differences in pronunciation do not prevent Englishmen and

American from communicating with each other easily and cannot serve as a

proof that British and American are different languages.

Words can be classified according to the period of their life in the

language. The number of new words in a language is always larger than the

number of words which come out of active usage. Accordingly we can have

archaisms, that is words which have come out of active usage, and

neologisms, that is words which have recently appeared in the language.

ARCHAISMS

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. Some of them are: steed

/horse/, slay /kill/, behold /see/, perchance /perhaps/, woe /sorrow/ etc.

Sometimes a lexical archaism begins a new life, getting a new meaning,

then the old meaning becomes a semantic archaism, e.g. «fair» in the

meaning «beautiful» is a semantic archaism, but in the meaning «blond» it

belongs to the neutral style.

Sometimes the root of the word remains and the affix is changed, then

the old affix is considered to be a morphemic archaism, e.g. «beautious»

/»ous» was substituted by «ful»/, «bepaint» / «be» was dropped/, «darksome»

/»some» was dropped/, «oft» / «en» was added/. etc.

NEOLOGISMS

At the present moment English is developing very swiftly and there is so

called «neology blowup». R. Berchfield who worked at compiling a four-

volume supplement to NED says that averagely 800 neologisms appear every

year in Modern English. It has also become a language-giver recently,

especially with the development of computerization.

New words, as a rule, appear in speech of an individual person who wants

to express his idea in some original way. This person is called

«originater». New lexical units are primarily used by university teachers,

newspaper reporters, by those who are connected with mass media.

Neologisms can develop in three main ways: a lexical unit existing in the

language can change its meaning to denote a new object or phenomenon. In

such cases we have semantic neologisms, e.g. the word «umbrella» developed

the meanings: «авиационное прикрытие», »политическое прикрытие». A new

lexical unit can develop in the language to denote an object or phenomenon

which already has some lexical unit to denote it. In such cases we have

transnomination, e.g. the word «slum» was first substituted by the word

«ghetto» then by the word-group «inner town». A new lexical unit can be

introduced to denote a new object or phenomenon. In this case we have «a

proper neologism», many of them are cases of new terminology.

Here we can point out several semantic groups when we analize the group

of neologisms connected with computerization, and here we can mention words

used:

a) to denote different types of computers, e.g. PC, super-computer, multi-

user, neurocomputer / analogue of a human brain/;

b) to denote parts of computers, e.g. hardware, software, monitor,

screen, data, vapourware / experimental samples of computers for

exhibition, not for production/;

c) to denote computer languages, e.g. BASIC, Algol FORTRAN etc;

d) to denote notions connected with work on computers, e.g. computerman,

computerization, computerize, to troubleshoot, to blitz out / to ruin

data in a computer’s memory/.

There are also different types of activities performed with the help of

computers, many of them are formed with the help of the morpheme «tele»,

e.g. to telework, to telecommute / to work at home having a computer which

is connected with the enterprise for which one works/. There are also such

words as telebanking, telemarketing, teleshopping / when you can perform

different operations with the help of your computer without leaving your

home, all operations are registered by the computer at your bank/,

videobank /computerized telephone which registers all information which is

received in your absence/.

In the sphere of lingusitics we have such neologisms as: machine

translation, interlingual / an artificial language for machine translation

into several languages / and many others.

In the sphere of biometrics we have computerized machines which can

recognize characteristic features of people seeking entrance : finger-print

scanner / finger prints/, biometric eye-scanner / blood-vessel arrangements

in eyes/, voice verification /voice patterns/. These are types of

biometric locks. Here we can also mention computerized cards with the help

of which we can open the door without a key.

In the sphere of medicine computors are also used and we have the

following neologisms: telemonitory unit / a telemonitory system for

treating patience at a distance/.

With the development of social activities neologisms appeared as well,

e.g. youthquake - волнения среди молодежи, pussy-footer - политик, идущий

на компромисы, Euromarket, Eurodollar, Europarliament, Europol etc.

In the modern English society there is a tendency to social

stratification, as a result there are neologisms in this sphere as well,

e.g. belonger - представитель среднего класса, приверженец консервативных

взглядов. To this group we can also refer abbreviations of the type

yuppie /young urban professional people/, such as: muppie, gruppie, rumpie,

bluppie etc. People belonging to the lowest layer of the society are

called survivers, a little bit more prosperous are called sustainers, and

those who try to prosper in life and imitate those, they want to belong

to, are called emulaters. Those who have prospered but are not belongers

are called achievers. All these layers of socety are called VAL /Value

and Lifestyles/ .

The rich belong also to jet set that is those who can afford to travel by

jet planes all over the world enjoying their life. Sometimes they are

called «jet plane travellers».

During Margaret Thatcher’s rule the abbreviation PLU appeared which means

«People like us» by which snobbistic circles of society call themselves.

Nowadays /since 1989/ PLU was substituted by «one of us».

There are a lot of immigrants now in UK , in connection with which

neologisms partial and non-partial were formed /имеющие право жить в

стране и его антоним/.

The word-group «welfare mother» was formed to denote a non-working single

mother living on benefit.

In connection with criminalization of towns in UK volantary groups of

assisting the police were formed where dwellers of the neighbourhood are

joined. These groups are called «neighbourhood watch», «home watch».

Criminals wear «stocking masks» not to be recognized.

The higher society has neologisms in their speech, such as : dial-a-meal,

dial-a-taxi.

In the language of teen-agers there are such words as : Drugs! /OK/,

sweat /бег на длинные дистанции/, task /home composition /, brunch etc.

With the development of professional jargons a lot of words ending in

«speak» appeared in English, e.g. artspeak, sportspeak, medspeak, education-

speak, video-speak, cable-speak etc.

There are different semantic groups of neologisms belonging to everyday

life:

a) food e.g. «starter»/ instead of «hors d’oevres»/, macrobiotics / raw

vegetables, crude rice/ , longlife milk, clingfilm, microwave stove,

consumer electronics, fridge-freezer, hamburgers /beef-, cheese-, fish-,

veg- /.

b) clothing, e.g. catsuit /one-piece clinging suit/, slimster , string /

miniscule bikini/, hipster / trousers or skirt with the belt on hips/,

completenik / a long sweater for trousers/, sweatnik /a long jacket/,

pants-skirt, bloomers / lady’s sports trousers/.

c) footwear e.g. winklepickers /shoes with long pointed toes/, thongs

/open sandals/, backsters /beech sandals with thick soles/.

d) bags, e.g. bumbag /a small bag worn on the waist/, sling bag /a bag

with a long belt/, maitre / a small bag for cosmetics/.

There are also such words as : dangledolly / a dolly-talisman dangling in

the car before the windscreen/, boot-sale /selling from the boot of the

car/, touch-tone /a telephone with press-button/.

Neologisms can be also classified according to the ways they are formed.

They are subdivided into : phonological neologisms, borrowings, semantic

neologisms and syntactical neologisms. Syntactical neologisms are divided

into morphological /word-building/ and phraseological /forming word-

groups/.

Phonological neologisms are formed by combining unique combinations of

sounds, they are called artificial, e.g. rah-rah /a short skirt which is

worn by girls during parades/, «yeck» /»yuck» which are interjections to

express repulsion produced the adjective yucky/ yecky. These are strong

neologisms.

Strong neologisms include also phonetic borrowings, such as «perestroika»

/Russian/, «solidarnosc» /Polish/, Berufsverbot / German /, dolce vita

/Italian/ etc.

Morphological and syntactical neologisms are usually built on patterns

existing in the language, therefore they do not belong to the group of

strong neologisms.

Among morphological neologisms there are a lot of compound words of

different types, such as «free-fall»-»резкое падение курса акций» appeared

in 1987 with the stock market crash in October 1987 /on the analogy with

free-fall of parachutists, which is the period between jumping and opening

the chute/. Here also belong: call-and-recall - вызов на диспансеризацию,

bioastronomy -search for life on other planets, rat-out - betrayal in

danger , zero-zero (double zero) - ban of longer and shorter range weapon,

x-rated /about films terribly vulgar and cruel/, Ameringlish /American

English/, tycoonography - a biography of a business tycoon.

There are also abbreviations of different types, such as resto, teen

/teenager/, dinky /dual income no kids yet/, ARC /AIDS-related condition,

infection with AIDS/, HIV / human immuno-deficiency virus/.

Quite a number of neologisms appear on the analogy with lexical units

existing in the language, e.g. snowmobile /automobile/, danceaholic

/alcoholic/, airtel /hotel/, cheeseburger /hamburger/, autocade /

cavalcade/.

There are many neologisms formed by means of affixation, such as:

decompress, to disimprove, overhoused, educationalist, slimster, folknik

etc. Phraseological neologisms can be subdivided into phraseological units

with transferred meanings, e.g. to buy into/ to become involved/, fudge

and dudge /avoidance of definite decisions/, and set non-idiomatic

expressions, e.g. electronic virus, Rubic’s cube, retail park, acid rain ,

boot trade etc.

Changes in pronunciation.

In Modern British English there is a tendency to change pronunciation of

some sounds and combinations of sounds due to the influence of American

English and some other factors. These changes are most noticeable in the

speech of teachers and students of the universities in the Southern part of

England /Oxford, Cambridge, London/.

There are the following changes in pronouncing vowels:

a) shortening of long vowels, especially at the end of the word and

before voiceless consonants, e.g. see, keep;

b) lengthening of short vowels before voiced consonants, e.g. big, good,

come, jam etc. In such adjectives which end in /d/ lengthening of the

vowel is observed all over England, e.g. bad, sad, glad, mad etc.

c) drawling of stressed syllables and clipping of unstressed syllables.

d) In unstressed syllables / / is pronounced instead of / i /, e.g. /b

`ko:z/, /`evid ns/ etc.

e) In the words consisting of three or more syllables there is a tendency

to have two main stresses,e.g. /`nes `s ri/, /`int `restin/.

f) The diphthong /ou/ is pronounced / u/,e.g. home /h um/, go /g u/.

g) the diphthong / u / is pronounced /o:/, e.g. sure /sho:/.

Vowels can also change under the influence of consonants:

a) after fricatives and consonants /n/ and /m/ /ju:/ is pronounced as

/u:/, e.g. resume, music, news, enthusiasm.

b) before fricatives and combinations of fricatives with consonants «a«

is pronounced as / /, e.g. dance, answer, class, fast.

The pronunciation of some consonants is also changed :

a) after a vowel /r/ is pronounced ,e.g. /ka:r/ , /ha:rt/.

b)There appears an intrusive /r/ in the combinations where after the

final vowel / / there is a vowel at the beginning of the next word, e.g.

the idea of, Asia and Europe/ on the analogy with word combinations there

is, there are/.

c) /p/ and /t/ are glotalized in the middle of the word,e.g. matter is

pronounced as /`m ? /, happy as /`h ? i/.

d) /s/ is used instead of /sh/ before /i/ in the structure of suffixes,

e.g. social /`sousi l/, negotiate / ni`gousi,eit/;

e) /l/ is vocalized at the end of the word, e.g. full/ ful/( close to

/v/ in sound).

f) /sh/ is voiced in the intervocal position in some geographical names,

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