Chulanova_Lexicology_lectures.pdf

Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine Sumy State University G. V. Chulanova LEXICOLOGY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE LECTURE NOTES Sumy Sumy State University 2020 Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine Sumy State University LEXICOLOGY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Lecture notes for students o...

Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine Sumy State University G. V. Chulanova LEXICOLOGY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE LECTURE NOTES Sumy Sumy State University 2020 Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine Sumy State University LEXICOLOGY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Lecture notes for students of speciality 035 “Philology” Approved at the meeting of the Department of Germanic Philology. Minutes № 3 of 01.10.2019. Sumy Sumy State University 2020 1 Lexicology of the English Language : lecture notes / compilers G. V. Chulanova. – Sumy : Sumy State University, 2020. – 74 p. Germanic Philology Department of the Sumy State University Section of Germanic Philology 2 CONTENTS Introduction……………….…………………………………... Lecture I. The object of lexicology…………………………… Lecture II. Word-formation…………………………………… Lecture III. Etymological analysis of modern English vocabulary……………………………………………………... Lecture IV. Lexical meaning………………………………….. Lecture V. Semasiology……………………………………….. Lecture VI. Phraseology………………………………………. Lecture VII. Stylistic differentiation of English words……….. Lecture VIII. Dictionary Compiling…………………………... Reference………………………………………………………. 3 P. 5 6 12 23 30 40 54 61 66 73 INTRODUCTION The purpose of lexicology studies is to aid the teaching process by which a student becomes aware of English Lexicology. The course is intended to acquaint students with the main topics treated and analyzed at seminars in Modern Lexicology (etymology, neology, borrowings, word-formation, semasiology, semantic changes, phraseology, etc.) and meets the requirements of the programme in this subject. The aim of the course is to teach students to be wordconscious, to be able to guess the meaning of words they come across from the meanings of morphemes, to be able to recognise the origin of this or that lexical unit. The practical questions are preceded by theoretical notes which contain working definitions of principal concepts. 4 LECTURE I THE OBJECT OF LEXICOLOGY Lexicology Lexicology is a branch of linguistics; it’s the study of words. The term Lexicology is composed of two Greek morphemes: lexis meaning ‘word, phrase’ and logos which denotes ‘learning’. Thus, the literal meaning of the term Lexicology is ‘the science of the word’. About the word we know the following: The word is a unit of speech, which serves the purposes of human communication. So, the word can be defined as a unit of communication. The word can be described as the total of the sounds, which comprise it. The term word denotes the basic unit of a given language resulting from the association of a particular meaning with a particular group of sounds capable of a particular grammatical employment. A word therefore is simultaneously a semantic, grammatical and phonological unit. The modern approach to word studies is based on distinguishing between the external and the internal structures of the word. By external structure we mean the morphological structure of the word. The following morphemes can be distinguished here: the prefixes, the suffixes, the root. The internal structure of the word, or its meaning, is referred to as the word’s semantic structure. It’s the word’s main aspect. The word possesses both external (or formal) unity and semantic one. So, the word is a speech unit, used for the purposes of human communication, materially representing a group of sounds, possessing a meaning, susceptible to grammatical employment and characterized by formal and semantic unity. Exercise: What is the external structure of the word postimpressionists? The prefixes: post-, im-; the root: press; the nounforming suffixes: -ion, -ist and the grammatical suffix of plurality: -s. Morphemes If viewed structurally, words are divisable into smaller units which are called morphemes. Morphemes do not occur as free forms but only as constituents of words. Yet they possess meanings of their own. For example, the suffix -ful, means “full of smth”. 5 Morphemes can be subdivided according to semantic and structural points. Morphemes Semantic point Structural point From the semantic point of view, all morphemes are subdivided into 2 large classes: roots (or radicals) and non-root morphemes or affixes. Root is the lexical nucleus of a word. It’s common to a set of words that make up a lexical word-cluster, e. g. act in act, active, inactive, actor, action. The affixes fall into prefixes preceding the root (rewrite, unhappy) and suffixes which follow the root (worker, peaceful). The part of a word, which remains unchanged in all the forms of its paradigm is called a stem: darken in darkens, darkened, darkening. Stems that coincide with roots are known as simple stems, e. g. trees, reads, etc. Stems that contain one or more affixes are called derived stems, e. g. governments, teacher’s, etc. Binary stems comprising 2 simple or derived stems are called compound stems, e. g. ex-filmstar, schoolboy, etc. From the structural point of view morphemes fall into 3 types: free morphemes, bound morphemes, semi-bound morphemes. Structural point free e. g. friend- in friendship bound e. g. re- in rewrite 6 semi-free e. g. after- in after-thought Free morphemes can stand alone as a word, they are root morphemes only, e. g. friend in friendly, friendship. Bound morphemes are only constituent parts of words, they are prefixes or suffixes and can't stand alone as separate words, e. g. depart, misprint, receive. Semi-bound morphemes can function both as affixes (i. e., they are prefixes or suffixes) and as free morphemes (they can stand alone as a word): Chairman, well-known, after-thought. Positional variants of morphemes are known as allomorphs. Thus, the prefix in- (involuntary) can be represented by allomorph il(illegal), im- (impossible), ir- (irregular). According to the function morphemes can be subdivided into derivational and functional. According to their function derivational functional e. g. happiness and unhappy from happy e. g. -s in cats, -ed in helped Words English words fall into 4 main structural types: – Simple words (or root words) have only a root morpheme in their structure. This type is widely represented by a great number of words belonging to the original English stock or to earlier borrowings (house, room, book, street, etc.) and in Modern English has been greatly enlarged by conversion (e. g. hand – to hand, pale – to pale, etc.). There are also some shortenings or contractions, which are produced by shortening (contraction), e. g. ad, lab, flu, M.P., etc. 7 – Derivatives or derived words consist of a root and one or more affixes. They are produced by the word-building process known as affixation or derivation, e. g. joyful, retell, enlarge, etc. Derived words are extremely numerous in the English vocabulary. – Compounds – in which two or more stems are combined into a lexical unit, e. g. classroom, snow-white, forget-me-not. – Derivational compounds – in which phrase components are joined together by means of compounding + affixation, e. g. blackeyed, bald-headed, strong-willed. Structural types of words simple words derived words e. g. house, room e. g. joyful, retell compound words derivational compounds e. g. snow-white, forget-me-not e. g. long-legged, honey-mooner There exists a more complicated classification of the structural types of words. It takes into account the varieties of root morphemes, the positions of affixes as regards the root. I Simple words. 1. R – stop, now, desk; 2. Rfr (root fragment) – lab (laboratory), pop (popular); II Derived words. 3. R + S (root + suffix) – realize, dancer; 4. Rfr + S – combo (combination); 5. P + R (prefix + root) – depart, subdivision; 6. P + R + S – misinterpretation, disagreeable; III Compound words. 7. R + R – timetable, schoolgirl; 8 8. Rfr + Rfr – smog (smoke + fog), brunch (breakfast + lunch); 9. R + I + R (root + interfix + root) – gasometer, statesman; 10. (R + S) + R – writing – table, safety-belt; 11. R + (R + S) – pen-holder, sky-jumping; 12. R + F + R (root + function word + root) – stay-at-home, trueto-life; IV Derivational compounds. 13. (R + R) + S – snub-nosed, long-legged. The four types (root words, derived words, compounds and derivational compounds) represent the main structural types of Modern English words, and, conversion, derivation and composition are the most productive ways of word-building process. By wordbuilding we understand processes of producing new words from the resources of the language. Various types of word formation in modern English possess different degrees of productivity, some of them are highly productive such as affixation, compounding, shortening, conversion, forming phrasal words others are semi-productive, such as back formation, reduplication, blending, sound imitation and nonproductive – sound interchange and change of stress. Questions: 1. What is the literal meaning of the term “lexicology?” 2. What is the modern approach to word studies based on? 3. Define the term “word”. 4. From a semantic point of view, what classes are all morphemes subdivided into? 5. What are the three types of morphemes from a structural point of view? 6. Explain the difference between bound and semi-bound morphemes. 7. What are the four main structural types of English words? 8. Give the examples of derivatives. 9. What is the difference between compounds and derivational compounds? 10. What are the most productive ways of word-building process? 9 11. What do you understand by word-building processes? 12. What are the semi-productive ways of word-building process? 13. What are the non-productive ways of word-building process? 10 LECTURE II WORD-FORMATION Affixation Affixation is a word formative process in which words are created by adding word-building affixes to roots. It includes: – Preffixation (+ prefix), – Suffixation (+ suffix). From the etymological point of view, affixes are classified according to their origin into two large groups: – Native (-ing, -er, -un, -mis), – Borrowed (-tion, -ment, -anti). Affixes can also be classified into productive (-er, -mis, -re, -able) and non-productive (-ous, -en; -hood). Suffixes derive a new part of a speech, so we must distinguish: noun-forming suffixes, adjective-forming suffixes, verb-forming and adverb-forming suffixes. Some Native suffixes: 1) noun – forming: -er (worker, teacher); -ness (coldness, loneliness); -ing (meaning, singing); -dom (freedom, wisdom); -hood (motherhood, childhood); -ship (friendship, mastership); -th (lenth, truth); 2) adjective-forming: -ful (careful, skilful); -less (careless, sleepless); -y (cosy, snowy); -ish (English, childish); -ly (ugly, lovely); -en (wooden, woolen); -some (handsome, tiresome); 3) verb-forming: -en (widen, darken); 4) adverb-forming: -ly (warmly, simply). Borrowed affixes, especially of Romance origin are numerous in the English vocabulary. Latin affixes: 1) noun-forming: -ion (opinion, union); -tion (revolution, starvation); 2) verb-forming: -ate (create, appreciate); -ute (distribute, contribute). The prefix dis- (disable, disagree); 3) adjective-forming: -able (curable, detestable); -ate (accurate, graduate); -ant (constant, important); -ent (absent, convenient). 11 French Affixes: 1) noun-forming: -ance (arrogance, endurance); -ence (consequence, patience); -ment (development, experiment); 2) verb: the prefix en- (enable, endear). Affixes can also be classified into productive and nonproductive types. Productive affixes take part in deriving new words in this particular period of language development. The best way to identify productive affixes is to look for them among neologisms. Semantic of affixes. Affix, which is a type of morpheme, is defined as the smallest indivisible component of the word possessing a meaning of its own. Affixes have widely generalized meanings and refer the whole word to a certain category, e. g. the adjective-forming suffix -ful has the meaning “full of smth”: beautiful, careful. Conversion Conversion is one of the most productive ways of modern English word-building. Conversion is sometimes referred to as an affixless way of word-building or even affixless derivation. It consists in making a new word from an existing word by changing the category of a part of speech. The new word has a meaning which differs from that of the original one though it can more or less be easily associated with it. It has also a new paradigm peculiar to its new category as a part of speech. Let’s analyse the paradigm of the noun nurse and the verb to nurse. Nurse, n Nurse, v -s, plural -s, 3rd person singular -‘s, possessive case -ed, past simple, past participle -s’, possessive case, plural -ing, present participle, gerund Nowadays conversion is accepted as one of the major ways of enriching English vocabulary with new words. Normally, a word changes its syntactic function without any shift in lexical meaning. For example both in yellow leaves and the leaves were turning yellow the adjective denotes colour. Yet, in the sentence The leaves yellowed the converted unit no longer denotes colour, but the process of changing colour. The other argument is the regularity and completeness with 12 which converted units develop a paradigm of their new category of part of speech. As soon as it has crossed the category borderline, the new word automatically acquires all the properties of the new category, so that if it has entered the verb category, it is used in all tense forms, it also develops the forms of the participle and the gerund. Modern English dictionaries present converted pairs as homonyms, as two words. The high productivity of conversion finds its reflexion in speech. But these new words are not registered by dictionaries e. g.: the annoyed Hero of a story by O’Henry when a shop assistant offers him oranges for the tenth time in one night, instead of peaches, for which he is looking, says: “if anybody oranges me again tonight, I’ll knock his face off”. One is not likely to find the word to orange in any dictionary, but in this situation the usage of this word answers the need of brevity, expressiveness and humour. Not every case of noun and verb (or verb and adjective, or adjective and noun) is the result of conversion. There are numerous pairs of words, as drink – to drink, love – to love, work – to work which do not occur to conversion but coincide as a result of certain historical processes (dropping of ending, simplification of stems, etc.). The first cases of conversion, which were registered in the 14th c., imitated such pairs as love-to love, for they were numerous in the vocabulary and were subconsciously accepted by native speakers as one of the typical language patterns. The two categories of parts of speech affected by conversion are nouns and verbs: A hand – to hand, a face – to face. Nouns are frequently made of verbs, e. g. He has still plenty of go at his age (goenergy). Verbs can also be made from adjectives: to yellow, to green, to pale, to cool... The meanings of the converted word and of the word from which it was made can be associated. These associations can be classified: 1) the noun is the name of a tool, the verb denotes an action performed by this tool. To nail, to hammer, to pin, to comb, to pencil, to brush; 2) the noun is the name of an animal, the verb denotes an action 13 or aspect of behavior, considered typical of this animal. To dog, to rat, to wolf, to monkey; 3) the noun – the name of a part of the human body, the verb – an action performed by it: to shoulder, to leg, to elbow, to hand; 4) the noun denotes the name of a profession or occupation, the verb – activity typical of it: to nurse, to cook, to maid; 5) the noun – the name of a place and the verb – the process of occupying the place or putting smth. or smb. in it: to room, to place, to cage; 6) the noun – the name of a container, verb –act of putting smth. within the container. To pocket, to can, to bottle; 7) the noun – the name of a meal, verb – the process of taking it. To lunch, to supper. The suggested groups do not include all the great variety of verbs made from nouns by conversion. Composition Composition is the type of word building in which new words are produced by combining two or more stems. There are at least 3 aspects of composition that present special interest. The first is the structural aspect. 4 types of compounds are distinguished here: Compounds according to structure compound words proper derived or derivational compounds compounds of three or more stems compounds with shortened stem e. g. bookshelf, snowwhite, tip-top e. g. chainsmoker, blueeyed e. g. wastepaperbasket, newspaperownership e. g. T-shirt, Vday, Eurodollar 14 1) compounds consisting of simple stems: bookshelf, snowwhite; 2) compounds where at least one of the components is a derived stem: shoe-maker, chain-smoker; 3) compounds where at least one of the components is a clipped stem: T-shirt, TV-set; 4) compounds where at least one of the components is a compound stem: wastepaper-basket, newspaper-ownership. The classification of compounds according to the means of joining the components together distinguishes between neutral, morphological and syntactic structural types: Compounds according to the ways components are joined together neutral compounds morphologica l compounds syntactic compounds e. g. blackboard, sunflower, bedroom e. g. Anglo-Saxon, statesman e. g. good-fornothing, mother-in-law simple neutral compounds e. g. classroom, schoolboy derivational or derived compounds e. g. music-lover, dark-eyed 15 contracted compounds e. g. TV-set, H-bag 1. In neutral (or juxtapositional) compounds the process of compounding is realized without any linking elements, by a mere juxtaposition of two stems, as in blackboard, sunflower, bedroom, shopwindow. There are three subtypes of neutral compounds, depending on the structure of the constituent stems: a) Simple neutral compounds consist of simple affixless stems. classroom, schollboy. b) Derivational or derived compounds have affixes in their structure: music-lover, blue-eyed, filmgoer. c) Contracted compounds have a contracted or shortened stem in their structure: TV-set, V-day, H-bag (hand-bag). 2. Morphological compounds are few in number. This type is non-productive. Here two compounding stems are combined by a linking vowel or consonant: Anglo-Saxon, statesman, craftsman, handiwork. 3. In syntactic compounds we see segments of speech such as articles, prepositions adverbs: good-for-nothing, mother-in-law, sitathome. Another interesting question is of correlations of the separate meanings of the constituent parts and the actual meaning of the compound. Here we distinguish three groups: According to the correlations of the separate meanings of the constituent parts and the actual meaning of the compound non-idiomatic compounds e. g. dancingroom, bedroom idiomatic compounds e. g. blackboard, football, ladykiller 16 highly idiomatic compounds e. g. ladybird, bluestocking 1. Non-idiomatic compounds. Here the meaning can be described as the sum of their constituent parts: dancingroom, bedroom, classroom. 2. Idiomatic compounds. Here one of the components or both has changed its meaning: a blackboard is not necessarily black, football is not a ball but a game, a chatterbox is not a box but a person, and a ladykiller kills no one but is a man who fascinates women. 3. Highly idiomatic compounds whose meaning do not correspond to the separate meanings of their parts. Here the process of deducing the meaning is impossible, we must know the translation of the word: ladybird is not a bird, but an insect, a tallboy is not a boy but a piece of furniture, a bluestocking is a person. Shortening Shortenings are produced in two different ways: contraction (clipping) and abbreviation (initial shortening). The first way is to make a new word from a syllable of the original word. One should distinguish between 4 types of contraction: 1. Final clipping (apocope). The omitting of the final part of the word: doc (doctor), mag (magazine), Nick (Nickolas). 2. Initial clipping (apheresis). The omitting of the fore part of the word: plane (airplane), van (caravan), phone (telephone). 3. Medial clipping (syncope). The omitting of the middle part of the word: fancy (fantasy), specs (spectacles), maths (mathematics). 4. Mixed clipping, where the fore and the final parts of the words are clipped: flu (influenza), tec (detective), fridge (refrigerator). 17 Shortening contraction (clipping) abbreviation (initial shortening) final clipping (apocope): e. g. doc (doctor), mag (magazine) acronyms: e. g. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), UNO (United Nations Organization) initial clipping (apheresis): e. g. plane (airplane), phone (telephone) alphabetic abbreviations: e. g. USA, G.B.S. (George Bernard Shaw) medial clipping (syncope): e. g. fancy (fantasy), specs (spectacles) compound abbreviations: e. g. A-bomb (atomic-bomb), L-driver (learner - driver) mixed clipping: e. g. flu (influenza), tec (detective) latin abbreviations: e. g. cf. (compare), i. e. (that is), e. g. (for example) graphic abbreviations: e. g. Mr., ltd (limited) 18 The second way of shortenings is to make a new word from the initial letters of a word group. Abbreviations are subdivided into five groups. 1. Acronyms which are read in accordance within the reading rules as though they were ordinary words: NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), UNO (United Nations Organization). 2. Alphabetic abbreviations in which letters get their full alphabetic pronunciation and a full stress: USA, BBC, MP. Alphabetic abbreviation are sometimes used for famous people names: G. B. S. (George Bernard Shaw), B. B. (Brigitte Bardot). 3. Compound abbreviations in which the first constituent is a letter and the second part is a complete word: A-bomb (atomicbomb), L-driver (learner-driver). In compound abbreviation also may be clipped one or both constituents: Interpol (international police). 4. Graphic abbreviations which are used in texts for economy of space. They are pronounced as the corresponding unabbreviated words: Mr., Mrs., m (mile), ltd (limited). 5. Latin abbreviations can be read as separate letters or be substituted by the English equivalents: e. g. (for example), cf. (compare), i. e. (that is). Sound imitation (onomatopoeia) Words are made by imitating different kinds of sounds that may be produced by animals, birds, insects and other human beings. It’s interesting that sounds produced by the same kind of animal are frequently represented by quite different sound groups in different languages. For instance, English dogs bark: bow-wow; English cocks cry cock-a-doodle-doo; ducks quack and frogs croak. It is only English and Russian cats seem capable to mutual understanding when they meet. Reduplication In reduplication new words are made by doubling a stem, either without any phonetic changes as in bye-bye or with a variation of the root vowel or consonant as in ping-pong. The first group of reduplicative compounds are called reduplicative compounds proper. 19 Their constituents are identical in their form: blah-blah, goody-goody. The second type is called gradational (or ablaut) reduplication. This type of word building is greatly facilitated in modern English by the vast number of monosyllables: chit-chat, riff-raff, etc. Also we distinguish rhyme compounds: here the constituents are joined to rhyme: willy-nilly, helter-skelter. Stylistically speaking, most words made by reduplication represent informal groups such as slang and colloquialisms: walkie-talkie, shi-shi. Reduplicative compounds reduplicative compounds proper compounds gradational (or ablaut) e. g. blah-blah, goody-goody e. g. chit-chat, riff-raff rhyme compounds e. g. willy- nilly Back formation (reversion) Back formation is the derivation of new words by means of subtracting a suffix: e. g. greed from greedy, lase from laser, etc. The earliest examples of this type of word building are the verbs to beg that was made from the French borrowing beggar and to burgle from burglar; to cobble from cobbler. In all these cases the verb was made from the noun by subtracting what was mistakenly associated with the English suffix -er. The pattern of the type to work – worker was firmly established in the English language and it was taken for granted that any noun denoting profession or occupation is certain to have a corresponding verb of the same root. So, in the case of the verbs to beg, to burgle the process was reversed. Instead of a noun made from a verb by 20 affixation, a verb was produced from a noun by subtraction. Later examples of back-formation are: to butle from butler, to babysist from babysiter, to fingerprint from finger printings, to straphang from straphanger. Blending Blending is the formation of new lexical units by means of merging fragment of words into one new word, or combining the elements of one word with another: drunch = drinks+lunch, cinemagnate = cinema+magnate, etc. Questions: 1. Explain the meaning of the term “affixation”. What groups it includes? Give some examples. 2. What is the main point of the term “conversion?” 3. How the associations of the converted word may be classified? Give some examples. 4. Give the meaning to the term “composition”. 5. Name types of compounds according to their structure. Give some examples. 6. What types of compounds according to the correlations of the separate meanings of the constituent parts and the actual meaning do you know? Give some examples. 7. In what ways are shortenings produced? Describe each one. 8. What is the difference between initial and final clipping? 9. How are the sounds produced by animals represented in different languages? 10. What are the three types of reduplicative compounds? Give examples. 11. What is back formation? What are the earliest examples of this type of word building? 12. How are the new lexical units formed? 21 LECTURE III ETYMOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF MODERN ENGLISH VOCABULARY Borrowings Up to 70% of the English vocabulary are borrowings from various foreign languages. Partially the words are borrowed because of the historical circumstances which stimulate the borrowing process. Each time two nations come into close contact, certain borrowings are a natural consequence. The nature of the contact may be different. It may be wars, invasions or trade and international cultural and sports relations. Sometimes it is done to fill a gap in vocabulary. For example, the words potato and tomato were borrowed by English from Spanish when these vegetables were first brought to England. But sometimes the borrowed words express nearly the same, but not exactly the same. A word is borrowed because it represents the same concept in some new aspect. It supplies a new shade of meaning. This type of borrowing enlarges groups of synonyms. That’s it how the French desire was added to wish, the Latin admire and the French adore to like and love. Assimilation of the borrowed words Most of the borrowed words adjust themselves to their new environment and get adapted to the norms of the recipient language. They undergo certain changes which gradually erase their proper features and finally they are assimilated. Borrowed words are adjusted in three main areas of the new language system: the phonetic, the grammatical and the semantic. The nature of phonetic adaptation is best shown by comparing Norman French borrowings. The Norman borrowings have for a long time been fully adapted to the phonetic system of the English language. Such words as table, plate, courage bear no phonetic traces of their French origin. Some of the later borrowings sound surprisingly French: matinee, ballet, cafe. In these cases, phonetic adaptation is not completed. 22 Grammatical adaptation consists in a complete change of the former paradigm of the borrowed word. Yet, this is also a lasting process. For example, words phenomenon (pl. phenomena), criterion (pl. criteria) are not fully adopted. By semantic adaptation is meant adjustment to the system of meanings of the vocabulary. For instance, the adjective large was borrowed from French in the meaning of “wide”. It was not actually wanted because it fully coincided with the English adjective wide. This could have led to its rejection. Yet, large managed to establish itself very firmly in the English vocabulary by semantic adjustment. It entered another synonymic group with the general meaning of “big in size”. According to the degree of assimilation, borrowings can be classified into three groups: 1) completely assimilated borrowings (denizens) that follow English phonetical, grammatical and graphic standards and do not seem foreign in origin, e. g. husband, table, street, take. 2) partially assimilated borrowings (aliens). They fall into four subgroups: a) not assimilated semantically: sherbet, toreador; b) not assimilated grammatically, e. g. nouns of Latin and Greek origin which retain their original plural form: crisis – crises, phenomenon – phenomena; c) borrowings which aren’t assimilated phonetically: boulevard, foyer; d) not assimilated graphically: Cliché, naïve. 3) unassimilated borrowed words (barbarisms). They preserve their original spelling and other characteristics, always have corresponding English equivalents, e. g. coup d’etat, eureka, persona grata, etc. 23 Classification of borrowings according to the degree of assimilation completely assimilated (denizens) e. g. husband, table not assimilated phonetically e. g. boulevard, bourgeois partially assimilated (aliens) not assimilated graphically e. g. cliché, naïve unassimilated words (barbarisms) e. g. coup d’etat, eureka not assimilated grammatically e. g. crisis – crises, genius – genii not assimilated semantically e. g. sherbet, toreador Translation – loans The term “loan word” is equivalent to borrowing. By translation – loans we indicate borrowings which are not taken into the vocabulary of another language more or less in the same phonemic shape in which they have been functioning in their own language, but undergo the process of translation. They are only compound words, because they can be subjected to such an operation when each stem is being translated separately: e. g. 5 year-plan (from Russian пятилетка), first dancer (from Italian prima-ballerina), collective farm (from Russian колхоз), wonder child (from German wunderkind), etc. 24 Borrowings can be classified according to the language from which they were borrowed Classification of borrowings according to the language from which they were borrowed Romanic borrowings: street, port, wall, etc. Latin words: alter, cross, dean. Greek words: church, angel, devil, anthem Italian borrowings: volcano, granite, bronze, lava. baritone, basso, tenor, falsetto, solo, duet, trio, quartet, quintet, opera, operette, libretto German borrowings: cobalt, bismuth, zink, quarts, gneiss, wolfram. iceberg, lobby, rucksack, Kindergarten, etc. In the period of the Second World War and after it: Luftwaffe, SS-man, Bundeswehr, gestapo, gas chamber Berufsverbot, Volkswagen, etc. Holland borrowings: freight, skipper, pump, keel, dock, reef, deck, leak and many others French borrowings: a) government: administer, empire, state, government; b) military affairs: army, war, banner, soldier, battle; c) jury: advocate, petition, inquest, sentence, barrister; d) fashion: luxury, coat, collar, lace, pleat, embroidery; e) jewelry: topaz, emerald, pearl; f) food and cooking: lunch, dinner, appetite, to roast, to stew, cuisine. g) literature and music: bellelettres, conservatorie, brochure, Spanish borrowings: a) trade terms: cargo, embargo; b) names of dances and musical instruments: tango, rumba, habanera, c) names of vegetables and fruit: tomato, potato, cocoa, banana, ananas, apricot, etc. Germanic borrowings: nouns: bull, cake, egg, kid, knife, window, etc., adjectives: flat, ill, happy, low, odd, ugly, wrong, etc., verbs: call, die, guess, get, give, scream. pronouns and connective words: same, both, till, fro, though, pronominal forms with «th»: they, them, their 25 International words It often happens that a word is borrowed by several languages and not just by one. Such words usually convey concepts which are significant in the field of communication. Many of them are of Latin and Greek origin. Most names of sciences are international, e. g. philosophy, mathematics, physics, chemistry. There are numerous terms of art in this group, e. g. music, drama, comedy, theatre, primadonna. It’s natural that political terms frequently occur in the international group of borrowings: progress, democracy, antimilitarism, policy. In the 20th century scientific and technological advances brought a great number of new international words: television, atomic, radio sputnik (is a Russian borrowing, meaning a man-made sattelite). The English language also contributed a considerable number of international words to world languages, especially sports terms: volleyball, hockey, cricket, football. Fruits and foodstuffs imported from exotic countries often transport their names too and, being simultaneously imported to many countries, become international: chocolate, banana, coffee, mango, grapefruit. International words shouldn’t be confused with pseudointernational words (translator’s false friends) which have the same origin but different semantic structures. The divergence in meaning can be partial (e. g. the English adjective liberal corresponds not only to Russian либеральный, but also to богатый, великодушный, щедрый and others) or complete (e. g. the English aspirant doesn’t mean аспирант, but претендент, кандидат). Etymological doublets The words shirt and skirt are of the same root. Shirt is a native word, and skirt is a Scandinavian borrowing. Their phonemic shape is different and yet there is a certain resemblance which reflects their common origin. Their meanings are also different but easily associated. They both denote articles of clothing. 26 Such words as these two originating from the same etymological source, but differing in phonetic shape and meaning are called etymological doublets. They may enter the vocabulary by different roots. Some of these pairs (like shirt and skirt) consist of a native word and a borrowed one. Others are represented by two borrowings from different languages which are historically originated from the same root: canal (Latin) – channel (French), captain (Latin) – chieftan (French). Etymological doublets A native word + borrowed word e. g. shirt and skirt Two borrowed words from different languages e. g. canal (Latin) – channel (French), captain (Latin) – chieftan (French) Two borrowed words from the same language e. g. travel (Norman. Fr.) – travail (Parisian Fr.), cavalry (Norman. Fr.) – chivalry (Parisian Fr.). Still others were borrowed from the same language twice in different periods of time: travel (Norman. Fr.) – travail (Parisian Fr.), cavalry (Norman. Fr.) – chivalry (Parisian Fr.). A doublet may also consist of a shortened word and the one from which it was derived: history – story, fanatic – fan, shadow – shade. Etymological hybrids are words whose elements are derived 27 from different languages, e. g. eatable (native root + Romanic suffix), distrust (native root + Romanic prefix), beautiful (Romanic root + native suffix), etc. Etymological triplets are groups of three words of common origin: hospital (lat) – hostel (Norm. Fr.) – hotel (Par. Fr.), to capture (Lat.) – to catch (Norm. Fr.) – to chase (Par. Fr.). Questions 1. What are the main causes of the borrowed words? 2. How many words of the English vocabulary are borrowed? 3. How many groups of the borrowed words can be distinguished according to the degree of assimilation‚? 4. What is the term for partially assimilated borrowings? 5. What are the four groups of partially assimilated borrowings? 6. What distinguishes unassimilated borrowed words or barbarisms? Give the examples of such words. 7. Can we claim that the word gestapo is borrowed from German? Why? 8. What are the international words? 9. What is the difference between international words and pseudo-international words? 10. How do we identify translation – loans? Give the examples of translation – loans. 28 LECTURE IV LEXICAL MEANING Meaning can be described as a component of the word through which a concept is communicated. It is only when we hear a spoken word or read a printed word the corresponding concept springs into mind. It enables the word to denote real objects, qualities, actions and abstract notions. One should distinguish three main types of the lexical meaning of words: Main types of the lexical meaning of words nominative meaning syntactically conditioned meaning e. g. look at, look for, look after, etc. phraseologically bound meaning e. g. buy smth. for a song; to be on the safe side; to cut a long story short, etc. denotation connotation e. g. girl, dog, love, great, begin, etc. e. g. girlie, doggy, worship, etc. 1) nominative meaning which is the direct meaning of the word, immediately referring to objects in extralinguistic reality. The nominative meaning includes denotational and connotational components. Denotation is the expression of the direct meaning of the 29 word without any emotive evaluation or stylistic colouring, e. g. friend, dog, love, great, begin, etc. Connotation is the supplementary expressive meaning presented either by emotive charge, e. g. girlie, doggy, worship, etc., or by stylistic reference, e. g. father (neutr.) :: parent (book.) :: dad (col.) :: governor (slang); great (neutr.) :: terrific (col.). 2) syntactically conditioned meaning manifesting itself in colligations. Cf. look at :: look for :: look after, etc. 3) phraseologically bound meaning which is idiomatic and manifests itself only in certain phraseological units, e. g. buy smth. for a song; to be on the safe side; to cut a long story short, etc. The branch of linguistics which studies the meaning of words is called semasiology or semantics. The modern approach to semantics is based on the assumption that the inner form of the word (its meaning) presents a structure which is called the semantic structure of the word. There are three main semantic structures of words: monosemy, semantic diffusion and polysemy. Main semantic structures of words monosemy e. g. chemistry, molecule, sputnik, etc. semantic diffusion e. g. stuff, thing polysemy e. g. table, to take 1. Monosemy is the existence within one word of only one meaning. Monosemantic words are comparatively few in number. They are mainly scientific terms, e. g. chemistry, molecule, sputnic, etc. 2. Semantic diffusion is observed in words with a very wide conceptual volume. Such words can name an indefinitely large 30 number of objects. For instance, the word thing denotes “any object of our thought”. It can name various objects, living beings, facts, problems, pieces of writing, possessions, etc. 3. Polysemy is the existence within one word of several meanings. A word having several meanings is called polysemantic. Most English words are polysemantic. If each word is capable of conveying at least two concepts instead of one, then the expressive potential of the whole vocabulary increases twofold. Thus, a welldeveloped polysemy is not a drawback but a great advantage in a language. The process of enriching the vocabulary doesn’t consist merely in adding new words to it, but, also, in the constant development of polysemy. Meaning the secondary meaning the direct meaning the primary (etymological) e. g. wall – L. vallum – “fortification” derived e. g. wall – “upright structure, forming part of a room or building” the secondary denotative e. g. walls of the heart; reactor wall the figurative meaning e. g. wall of partition; wall of fire; wall of hostility The system of meanings of any polysemantic word develops gradually, mostly over the centuries, as more and more new meanings are either added to old ones, or lost. So the complicated processes of 31 polysemy development involve both the appearance of new meanings and the loss of old ones. The general tendency with English vocabulary at the modern stage is to increase the total number of its meanings and in this way to provide for a quantitative and qualitative growth of the languages expressive resources. Also we can divide meaning into direct and secondary ones. Types of Semantic Components There are two types of semantic components: denotative and connotative. Types of semantic components connotative denotative The leading semantic component in the semantic structure of a word is usually termed denotative (or sometimes referential) component. The denotative component expresses the conceptual content of a word. The following list presents denotative components of some English verbs: to glare → to look to glance → to look to shiver → to tremble to shudder → to tremble. The definitions given in the right column only partially describe the meaning of their corresponding words. To give more or less full picture of the meaning of a word, it is necessary to include in the scheme of analysis additional semantic components which are termed connotations or connotative components. 32 Let us give connotative components to our verbs. to glare → to look steadily 1. Connotation of duration lastingly in anger 2. Emotive connotation rage, etc. to glance → to look + briefly passingly 1. Connotation of duration to shiver → to tremble lastingly 1. Connotation of duration with the cold 2. Connotation of cause to shudder → to tremble briefly 1. Connotation of duration with horror, 2. Connotation of cause disgust, etc. 3. Emotive connotation One can get a sufficiently clear picture of what the word really means by singling out denotative components. A meaning can have two or more connotative components. The process of development a new meaning (or a change of meaning) is termed transference. Transference based on resemblance (similarity). This type of transference is also referred to as linguistic metaphor. A new meaning appears as a result of associating two objects (phenomena, qualities…) due to their outward similarity. Ex.: “The noun eye has for one of its meaning ‘hole in the end of a needle’ which developed through transference based on resemblance. Metaphors may be based on various types of similarity, for example, similarity of shape, position, colour, function, etc. E. g. the neck of a bottle, the teeth of a saw, to catch an idea, etc. The noun drop has, in addition to its main meaning, ‘a small particle of water or other liquid’, the meanings: ‘ear-rings shaped as drops of water’ (e. g. diamond drops), and ‘candy of the same shape’ (e. g. mint drops) both these meanings are also based on resemblance. 33 Words denoting animals and their actions may be used metaphorically to denote human qualities. Such cases belong to zoosemy, e. g. a fox (“a crafty person”), an ass (“a stupid person”), to wolf (“to eat greedily”), etc. Metaphoric epithets, denoting human qualities, are often applied to inanimate objects: cruel heat, a sullen sky, etc. Transference based on contiguity. It is also called linguistic metonymy. The association is based upon subtle psychological links between different objects and phenomena, sometimes traced and identified with much difficulty. The two objects may be associated together because they often appear in common situations, and so the image of one is easily accompanied by the image of the other. The simplest case of metonymy is synecdoche. Here the name of a part is applied to the whole or vice versa, e. g. to earn one’s bread; I don’t want to provoke the police (a single policeman is meant), etc. In metonymic epithets certain properties of the whole are ascribed to the part, e. g. threatening eyes (it is the person who is threatening), etc. Linguistic metonymy Synecdoche the name of a part is applied to the whole or vice versa Methonymic epithets certain properties of the whole are ascribed to the part 34 Other examples of metonymy include: The foot of a bed is the place where the feet rest when one lies in the bed, but the foot of a mountain got its name by another association: the foot of a mountain is its lowest part, so that the association here is founded on common position. By the arms of an arm-chair we mean the place where the arms lie, so that the type of association here is same as in the foot of the bed. The leg of a bed (table…) is a part which serves as a support, the original meaning ‘the leg of a man or animal’. The meaning of the adj. sad in Old English was ‘satisfied with food (укр. ситый). Later this meaning developed a connotation of a greater intensity of quality and came to mean ‘oversatisfied with food’, having eaten too much. Thus, the meaning of the adj. sad developed a negative evaluative connotation and now described the physical unease and discomfort of a person who has had too much to eat. The next shift of meaning as to transform the description of physical discomfort into one of spiritual discontent because these two states often go together. So the modern meaning of the word ‘sad’ → ‘melancholy’, ‘sorrowful’ was developed. Broadening (or Generalization) of meaning. Narrowing (or Specialization) of meaning. Sometimes, the process of transference may result in a considerable change in the range of meaning. For instance, the verb to arrive (French borrowing) began its life in English in the narrow meaning ‘to come to shore, to land’. In modern English it has greatly widened and developed the general meaning ‘to come’. The meaning developed through transference based on contiguity, but the range of the second meaning is much broader. It is interesting to trace the history of the word girl. In the Middle English it had the next meaning of ‘a small child of either sex’. Then the word underwent the process of transference based on contiguity and developed the meaning of ‘a small child of the female sex’, so that the range of meaning was narrowed. In its further semantic development the word gradually broadened its range of meaning. At first it came to denote not only a female child but, also, a 35 young unmarried woman, later, only young woman, so that its range of meaning is quite broad. Change in the range of meaning Broadening (Generalization) Narrowing (Specialization) Some more examples: deer → any beast → a certain kind of beast; meat → any food → a certain food product; voyage → any trip or journey → a journey by sea or water. In all these words the second meaning developed through transference based on contiguity, and when we speak of them as examples of narrowing of meaning we imply that the range of the second meaning is more narrow than that of the original meaning. Narrowing (or specialization) of meaning is a process contrary to broadening. It is a gradual process when a word passes from a general sphere to some special sphere of communication, e. g. case has a general meaning “circumstances in which a person or a thing is”. It is specialized in its meaning when used in law (a law suit), in grammar (a form in the paradigm of a noun), in medicine (a patient, an illness). The difference between these meanings can be revealed from the context. The meaning of a word can specialize when it remains in the general usage. It occurs in the case of the conflict between two absolute synonyms when one of them specializes in its meaning to remain in the language, e. g. the English verb starve was specialized in its meaning after the Scandinavian verb die was borrowed into English. Die became the general verb with this meaning because in English there were the noun death and the adjective dead. The meaning of starve was “to die of hunger”. 36 The Process of Development and Change of Meaning generalization specialization metaphor metonymy hiperbol Types of semantic change of meaning litotes irony elevation degradation euphemism 37 Questions: 1. What are the main types of the lexical meaning of words? 2. Explain the difference between denotative and connotative semantic components. 3. What is meant by the term “transference?” 4. What type of transference is referred to as linguistic metaphor? 5. What is called zoosemy? Give some examples. 6. Give the definition of the term “broadening”. 7. Give an examples of narrowing. 8. What is linguistic metonymy based on? 9. Give an examples of metonymic epithets. 10. What is “synecdoche?” 38 LECTURE V SEMASIOLOGY Homonyms: Words of the Same Form. Homonyms are words which are identical in sound and spelling, or, at least, in one of these aspects, but different in their meaning. E. g. bank, n. – a shore bank, n. – an institution for receiving, lending, exchanging the money. ball, n. – a sphere; any spherical receiving, ball, n. – a large dancing party. English vocabulary is rich in such pairs and even groups of words. Their identical forms are mostly accidental: the majority of homonyms coincided due to phonetic changes which they underwent during their development. Homonyms are accidental creations, and therefore purposeless. In the process of communication they lead to confusion and misunderstanding. But it takes them one of the most important sources of popular humour. The pun is a joke based upon the play upon words of similar form but different meaning (i.e. on homonyms). Ex. ‘A tailor guarantees to give each of his customers the perfect fit’(the joke is based on the homonyms: I. fit, n. – perfectly fitting clothes; II. fit, n. – a nervous spasm). Homonyms which are the same in sound and spelling are traditionally termed homonyms proper. Another joke is based on a pun which makes use of another type of homonyms: ‘Waiter”. ‘Yes, sir”. ‘What is this?’ ‘It’s bean soup, sir’. ‘Never mind what it has been. I want to know what it is now’. Bean, n. and been, Past Part. are homophones. They are the same in sound but different in spelling. 39 The third type of homonyms is called homographs. These are words which are the same in spelling but different in sound. E. g. to bow [bau], v. – to incline the head or body in salutation. bow [bou], n. – a flexible strip of wood for propelling arrows. to tear [teə], v. – to pull apart or in pieces by force. tear [tiə], n. – a drop from an eye. Homonyms according to their spelling and sound forms perfect homonyms (or homonyms proper) e. g. back n “part of the body” – back adv “away from the front” – back v “go back” homophones homographs e. g. arms – alms; e. g. buy – by; bow [bou] – bow [bau]; him – hymn; lead [li:d] – lead [led]; knight – row [rou] – row [rau] night; not – knot Homonyms may be classified by the type of their meaning. In this case one should distinguish between: a) lexical homonyms which belong to the same part of speech; b) grammatical homonyms which belong to different parts of speech; c) homoforms which are identical only in some paradigm constituents. 40 Lexical homonyms belong to the same part of speech e. g. club n. (клуб) :: club n. (ключка); plane n. (лiтак) :: plain n. (рiвнина) Homonyms by the type of meaning Grammatical Homonyms belong to different parts of speech e. g. weather n. (погода) :: whether conj.; horse n. (кiнь) :: hoarse a. (хрипкий) Homoforms identical only in some of their paradigm constituents e. g. scent n. :: sent (Past Ind. and p. p. of send); seize v. :: / he / sees (Pr. Ind. , 3d p. sing. of see) Sources of Homonyms 1. Phonetic changes which words undergo in the course of historical development. Two or more words which were formerly pronounced differently may develop identical sound forms. 2. Night and knight were not homonyms in Old English as the initial k was pronounced. In Old English the verb to write had the form writan, and the adjective right had the form reht, riht. 3. Borrowing is another source of homonyms. A borrowed word may, in the final stage of its phonetic adaptation, duplicate in form either a native word or another borrowing. So, in the group of homonyms rite, n. – to write, v. – right, adj. the second and the third words are of native origin whereas rite is a Latin borrowing. Match, n. (a game) is a native, and match, n. (a slender short piece of wood used for producing fire) is French borrowing. 4. Word building also contributes significantly the growth of homonymy, and the most important in this respect is conversion. Such 41 pairs of words as comb – to comb, pale – to pale are numerous in the vocabulary. Homonyms of this type, which are the same in the sound and spelling but refer to different categories of parts of speech, are called lexico-grammatical homonyms. Shortening is a further type of the word-building increases the number of homonyms: fan (shortened from fanatic) and fan (веер, опахало, вентилятор). Words made by sound-imitation can also form pairs of homonyms with other words: bang (a loud, sudden noise) – bang. Sources of Homonyms phonetic changes e. g. night – knight conversion e. g. comb – to comb word building split polysemy e. g. board (piece of timber) – board (daily meals) shortening e. g. fan (fanatic) – fan borrowing e. g. rite – to write – right sound-imitation e. g. bang – bang In all the mentioned cases the homonyms developed from two or more different words, and their similarity is purely accidental. Another source: two or more homonyms can originate from different meanings of the same word when, for some reason, the semantic structure of the word breaks into several parts. This type of formation is called split polysemy. Let us consider the history of three homonyms: board, n. – a long and thin piece of timber board, n. – daily meals, esp. as provided for pay, e.g. room and board 42 board, n. – an official group of persons who direct some activity, e. g. a board of directors. These three words are in no way associated with one another. Yet board has a meaning ‘table’. It developed from the meaning ‘a piece of timber’ by transference based on contiguity (association of an object and the material from which it is made). The meanings ‘meals’ and ‘an official group of persons’ develop from the meaning ‘table’ also by transference based on contiguity. It was meaning ‘table’ which served as a link to hold together all the parts. Classification of homonyms. Professor Smirnitsky classified homonyms into two large classes: full homonyms and partial homonyms. Full lexical homonyms are words which represent the same category of parts of speech and have the same paradigm. E. g. match, n. (a contest in which people or teams compete against each other in a particular sport). = match, n. (a thin piece of wood); wren n. (a member of the Women’s Royal Naval Service) = wren n. (a bird). Partial homonyms are subdivided into three subgroups. 1. Simple lexico-grammatical partial homonyms are words which belong to the same category of parts of speech. Their paradigms have one identical form, but it is never the same form, as will be seen from the examples. E. g. to found, v. found, v. (Past Indefinite, Past Participle of to find). E. g. to lay, v. lay, v. (Past Indefinite of to lie). 43 Homonyms according to professor Smirnitsky’s classification partial homonyms simple lexicogrammatical partial homonyms e. g. (to) found v. – found v. (past indef., past participle of to find) full homonyms e. g. wren n. (a member of the Women’s Royal Naval Service) – wren n. (a bird) complex lexicogrammatical partial homonyms e. g. rose n. – rose v. (past indef. of to rise), maid n – made v (past indef., past participle of to make) partial lexical homonyms e. g. to lie (lay, lain) v. – to lie (lied, lied), to hang (hung, hung) – hand hanged, hanged) v. 2. Complex lexico-grammatical partial homonyms are words of different categories of parts of speech which have one identical form in their paradigms. E. g. rose, n. rose, v. (Past Indefinite of to rise). E. g. left, adj. left, v. (Past Indefinite, Past Participle of to leave). 44 3. Partial lexical homonyms are words of the same category of parts of speech which are identical only in their corresponding forms. E. g. to lie (lay, lain), v. to lie (lied, lied), v. E. g. to can (canned, canned), v. can (could). Euphemisms. There are words in every language which people try to avoid because they are considered indecent, rude, too direct or impolite. These words are often described in a round – about way, by using substitutes called euphemisms. So, euphemisms are more “decent” synonymic substitutes used instead of indecent, impolite or too direct words. The word lavatory has many euphemisms: powder room, washroom, restroom, ladies’ (room), gentlemen’s (room), watercloset, W.C., public conveniences and even windsor castle. Antonyms Antonyms are words of the same category of parts of speech which have contrasting meanings, such as hot – cold; light – dark; up – down. Antonyms contraries e. g. cold – hot contradictories e. g. dead – alive, single – married incompatibles e. g. red –black, blue Polysemantic word may have an antonym (or several antonyms) for each its meanings. So the adjective dull has the antonyms interesting, amusing, clever, bright, active. 45 Most antonyms are adjectives which is only natural because qualitative characteristics are easily compared and contrasted: high – low; strong –weak. Antonyms gradable complementary e. g. young – old; early – late e. g. off – on converses e. g. above – below; before – after Verbs take the second place, so far as antonymy is concerned: to lose – to find, to open – to close; to live – to die. Antonimic adverbs can be subdivided into two large groups: a) adverbs derived from adjectives: warmly – coldly; loudly – softly; b) Adverbs proper: now – then, here – there, ever – never, in – out. Nouns are not rich in antonyms: friend – enemy, love – hatred. Antonyms fall into two main groups: 1. Root antonyms (those which are of different roots), e. g. long – short, love – hatred, to start – to finish, etc. 2. Affixal antonyms (in which special affixes or their absence express semantic opposition), e. g. hopeful – hopeless, happy – unhappy, appear – disappear, faulty – faultless, etc. Together with synonyms, antonyms represent the language’s important expressive means. Antonyms absolute or root e. g. long – short; up – down derivational (affixal) e. g. hopeful – hopeless; happy – unhappy 46 Paronyms Paronyms are words resembling each other in form, but different in meaning and usage, e. g. ingenious (“clever”) – ingenuous (“frank”); effect – affect; personal – personnel. The likeness may be accidental as in the verbs affect and effect. The similarity may be also due to a common source. It is etymologically j