Lexicology of the English Language

wall» combinations. E.I. Chapnik classified them into the following groups:

1. time relations, e.g. evening paper,

2. space relations, e.g. top floor,

3. relations between the object and the material of which it is made,

e.g. steel helmet,

4. cause relations, e.g. war orphan,

5. relations between a part and the whole, e.g. a crew member,

6. relations between the object and an action, e.g. arms production,

7. relations between the agent and an action e.g. government threat,

price rise,

8. relations between the object and its designation, e.g. reception hall,

9. the first component denotes the head, organizer of the characterized

object, e.g. Clinton government, Forsyte family,

10. the first component denotes the field of activity of the second

component, e.g. language teacher, psychiatry doctor,

11. comparative relations, e.g. moon face,

12. qualitative relations, e.g. winter apples.

ABBREVIATION

In the process of communication words and word-groups can be shortened.

The causes of shortening can be linguistic and extra-linguistic. By extra-

linguistic causes changes in the life of people are meant. In Modern

English many new abbreviations, acronyms , initials, blends are formed

because the tempo of life is increasing and it becomes necessary to give

more and more information in the shortest possible time.

There are also linguistic causes of abbreviating words and word-groups,

such as the demand of rhythm, which is satisfied in English by monosyllabic

words. When borrowings from other languages are assimilated in English they

are shortened. Here we have modification of form on the basis of analogy,

e.g. the Latin borrowing «fanaticus» is shortened to «fan» on the analogy

with native words: man, pan, tan etc.

There are two main types of shortenings : graphical and lexical.

Graphical abbreviations

Graphical abbreviations are the result of shortening of words and word-

groups only in written speech while orally the corresponding full forms are

used. They are used for the economy of space and effort in writing.

The oldest group of graphical abbreviations in English is of Latin

origin. In Russian this type of abbreviation is not typical. In these

abbreviations in the spelling Latin words are shortened, while orally the

corresponding English equivalents are pronounced in the full form,e.g.

for example (Latin exampli gratia), a.m. - in the morning (ante meridiem),

No - number (numero), p.a. - a year (per annum), d - penny (dinarius),

lb - pound (libra), i. e. - that is (id est) etc.

Some graphical abbreviations of Latin origin have different English

equivalents in different contexts, e.g. p.m. can be pronounced «in the

afternoon» (post meridiem) and «after death» (post mortem).

There are also graphical abbreviations of native origin, where in the

spelling we have abbreviations of words and word-groups of the

corresponding English equivalents in the full form. We have several

semantic groups of them :

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

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

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

d) names of states in USA, e.g. Ala - Alabama, Alas - Alaska etc.

e) names of address, e.g. Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr. etc.

f) military ranks, e.g. capt. -captain, col. - colonel, sgt - sergeant

etc.

g) scientific degrees, e.g. B.A. - Bachelor of Arts, D.M. - Doctor of

Medicine . ( Sometimes in scientific degrees we have abbreviations of Latin

origin, e.g., M.B. - Medicinae Baccalaurus).

h) units of time, length, weight, e.g. f. / ft -foot/feet, sec. - second,

in. -inch, mg. - milligram etc.

The reading of some graphical abbreviations depends on the context, e.g.

«m» can be read as: male, married, masculine, metre, mile, million, minute,

«l.p.» can be read as long-playing, low pressure.

Initial abbreviations

Initialisms are the bordering case between graphical and lexical

abbreviations. When they appear in the language, as a rule, to denote some

new offices they are closer to graphical abbreviations because orally full

forms are used, e.g. J.V. - joint venture. When they are used for some

duration of time they acquire the shortened form of pronouncing and become

closer to lexical abbreviations, e.g. BBC is as a rule pronounced in the

shortened form.

In some cases the translation of initialisms is next to impossible

without using special dictionaries. Initialisms are denoted in different

ways. Very often they are expressed in the way they are pronounced in the

language of their origin, e.g. ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand, United

States) is given in Russian as АНЗУС, SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation

Talks) was for a long time used in Russian as СОЛТ, now a translation

variant is used (ОСВ -Договор об ограничении стратегических вооружений).

This type of initialisms borrowed into other languages is preferable, e.g.

UFO - НЛО, CП - JV etc.

There are three types of initialisms in English:

a) initialisms with alphabetical reading, such as UK, BUP, CND etc

b) initialisms which are read as if they are words, e.g. UNESCO, UNO,

NATO etc.

c) initialisms which coincide with English words in their sound form,

such initialisms are called acronyms, e.g. CLASS (Computor-based Laboratory

for Automated School System).

Some scientists unite groups b) and c) into one group which they call

acronyms.

Some initialisms can form new words in which they act as root morphemes

by different ways of wordbuilding:

a) affixation, e.g. AWALism, ex-rafer, ex- POW, to waafize, AIDSophobia

etc.

b) conversion, e.g. to raff, to fly IFR (Instrument Flight Rules),

c) composition, e.g. STOLport, USAFman etc.

d) there are also compound-shortened words where the first component is

an initial abbreviation with the alphabetical reading and the second one is

a complete word, e.g. A-bomb, U-pronunciation, V -day etc. In some cases

the first component is a complete word and the second component is an

initial abbreviation with the alphabetical pronunciation, e.g. Three -Ds

(Three dimensions) - стереофильм.

Abbreviations of words

Abbreviation of words consists in clipping a part of a word. As a result

we get a new lexical unit where either the lexical meaning or the style is

different form the full form of the word. In such cases as »fantasy» and

«fancy», «fence» and «defence» we have different lexical meanings. In such

cases as «laboratory» and «lab», we have different styles.

Abbreviation does not change the part-of-speech meaning, as we have it

in the case of conversion or affixation, it produces words belonging to

the same part of speech as the primary word, e.g. prof is a noun and

professor is also a noun. Mostly nouns undergo abbreviation, but we can

also meet abbreviation of verbs, such as to rev from to revolve, to tab

from to tabulate etc. But mostly abbreviated forms of verbs are formed by

means of conversion from abbreviated nouns, e.g. to taxi, to vac etc.

Adjectives can be abbreviated but they are mostly used in school slang and

are combined with suffixation, e.g. comfy, dilly, mizzy etc. As a rule

pronouns, numerals, interjections. conjunctions are not abbreviated. The

exceptions are: fif (fifteen), teen-ager, in one’s teens (apheresis from

numerals from 13 to 19).

Lexical abbreviations are classified according to the part of the word

which is clipped. Mostly the end of the word is clipped, because the

beginning of the word in most cases is the root and expresses the lexical

meaning of the word. This type of abbreviation is called apocope. Here we

can mention a group of words ending in «o», such as disco (dicotheque),

expo (exposition), intro (introduction) and many others. On the analogy

with these words there developed in Modern English a number of words where

«o» is added as a kind of a suffix to the shortened form of the word, e.g.

combo (combination) - небольшой эстрадный ансамбль, Afro (African)

-прическа под африканца etc. In other cases the beginning of the word is

clipped. In such cases we have apheresis , e.g. chute (parachute), varsity

(university), copter (helicopter) , thuse (enthuse) etc. Sometimes the

middle of the word is clipped, e.g. mart (market), fanzine (fan magazine)

maths (mathematics). Such abbreviations are called syncope. Sometimes we

have a combination of apocope with apheresis,when the beginning and the end

of the word are clipped, e.g. tec (detective), van (avanguard) etc.

Sometimes shortening influences the spelling of the word, e.g. «c» can

be substituted by «k» before «e» to preserve pronunciation, e.g. mike

(microphone), Coke (coca-cola) etc. The same rule is observed in the

following cases: fax( facsimile), teck (technical college), trank

(tranquilizer) etc. The final consonants in the shortened forms are

substituded by letters characteristic of native English words.

SECONDARY WAYS OF WORDBUILDING

SOUND INTERCHANGE

Sound interchange is the way of word-building when some sounds are

changed to form a new word. It is non-productive in Modern English, it was

productive in Old English and can be met in other Indo-European languages.

The causes of sound interchange can be different. It can be the result of

Ancient Ablaut which cannot be explained by the phonetic laws during the

period of the language development known to scientists., e.g. to strike -

stroke, to sing - song etc. It can be also the result of Ancient Umlaut or

vowel mutation which is the result of palatalizing the root vowel because

of the front vowel in the syllable coming after the root ( regressive

assimilation), e.g. hot - to heat (hotian), blood - to bleed (blodian) etc.

In many cases we have vowel and consonant interchange. In nouns we have

voiceless consonants and in verbs we have corresponding voiced consonants

because in Old English these consonants in nouns were at the end of the

word and in verbs in the intervocal position, e.g. bath - to bathe, life -

to live, breath - to breathe etc.

STRESS INTERCHANGE

Stress interchange can be mostly met in verbs and nouns of Romanic origin

: nouns have the stress on the first syllable and verbs on the last

syllable, e.g. `accent - to ac`cent. This phenomenon is explained in the

following way: French verbs and nouns had different structure when they

were borrowed into English, verbs had one syllable more than the

corresponding nouns. When these borrowings were assimilated in English the

stress in them was shifted to the previous syllable (the second from the

end) . Later on the last unstressed syllable in verbs borrowed from French

was dropped (the same as in native verbs) and after that the stress in

verbs was on the last syllable while in nouns it was on the first syllable.

As a result of it we have such pairs in English as : to af`fix -`affix, to

con`flict- `conflict, to ex`port -`export, to ex`tract - `extract etc. As

a result of stress interchange we have also vowel interchange in such words

because vowels are pronounced differently in stressed and unstressed

positions.

SOUND IMITATION

It is the way of word-building when a word is formed by imitating

different sounds. There are some semantic groups of words formed by means

of sound imitation

a) sounds produced by human beings, such as : to whisper, to giggle, to

mumble, to sneeze, to whistle etc.

b) sounds produced by animals, birds, insects, such as : to hiss, to

buzz, to bark, to moo, to twitter etc.

c) sounds produced by nature and objects, such as : to splash, to rustle,

to clatter, to bubble, to ding-dong, to tinkle etc.

The corresponding nouns are formed by means of conversion, e.g. clang (of

a bell), chatter (of children) etc.

BLENDS

Blends are words formed from a word-group or two synonyms. In blends two

ways of word-building are combined : abbreviation and composition. To form

a blend we clip the end of the first component (apocope) and the beginning

of the second component (apheresis) . As a result we have a compound-

shortened word. One of the first blends in English was the word «smog»

from two synonyms : smoke and fog which means smoke mixed with fog. From

the first component the beginning is taken, from the second one the end,

«o» is common for both of them.

Blends formed from two synonyms are: slanguange, to hustle, gasohol etc.

Mostly blends are formed from a word-group, such as : acromania (acronym

mania), cinemadict (cinema adict), chunnel (channel, canal), dramedy (drama

comedy), detectifiction (detective fiction), faction (fact fiction)

(fiction based on real facts), informecial (information commercial) ,

Medicare ( medical care) , magalog ( magazine catalogue) slimnastics

(slimming gymnastics), sociolite (social elite), slanguist ( slang

linguist) etc.

BACK FORMATION

It is the way of word-building when a word is formed by dropping the

final morpheme to form a new word. It is opposite to suffixation, that is

why it is called back formation. At first it appeared in the languauge as a

result of misunderstanding the structure of a borrowed word . Prof.

Yartseva explains this mistake by the influence of the whole system of the

language on separate words. E.g. it is typical of English to form nouns

denoting the agent of the action by adding the suffix -er to a verb stem

(speak- speaker). So when the French word «beggar» was borrowed into

English the final syllable «ar» was pronounced in the same way as the

English -er and Englishmen formed the verb «to beg» by dropping the end of

the noun. Other examples of back formation are : to accreditate (from

accreditation), to bach (from bachelor), to collocate (from collocation),

to enthuse (from enthusiasm), to compute (from computer), to emote (from

emotion) to reminisce ( from reminiscence) , to televise (from television)

etc.

As we can notice in cases of back formation the part-of-speech meaning

of the primary word is changed, verbs are formed from nouns.

SEMANTIC CHANGES

The meaning of a word can change in the course of time. Changes of

lexical meanings can be proved by comparing contexts of different times.

Transfer of the meaning is called lexico-semantic word-building. In such

cases the outer aspect of a word does not change.

The causes of semantic changes can be extra-linguistic and linguistic,

e.g. the change of the lexical meaning of the noun «pen» was due to extra-

linguistic causes. Primarily « pen» comes back to the Latin word «penna» (a

feather of a bird). As people wrote with goose pens the name was

transferred to steel pens which were later on used for writing. Still later

any instrument for writing was called « a pen».

On the other hand causes can be linguistic, e.g. the conflict of synonyms

when a perfect synonym of a native word is borrowed from some other

language one of them may specialize in its meaning, e.g. the noun «tide» in

Old English was polisemantic and denoted «time», «season», «hour». When the

French words «time», «season», «hour» were borrowed into English they

ousted the word «tide» in these meanings. It was specialized and now means

«regular rise and fall of the sea caused by attraction of the moon». The

meaning of a word can also change due to ellipsis, e.g. the word-group «a

train of carriages» had the meaning of «a row of carriages», later on «of

carriages» was dropped and the noun «train» changed its meaning, it is used

now in the function and with the meaning of the whole word-group.

Semantic changes have been classified by different scientists. The most

complete classification was suggested by a German scientist Herman Paul in

his work «Prinzipien des Sprachgeschichte». It is based on the logical

principle. He distiguishes two main ways where the semantic change is

gradual ( specialization and generalization), two momentary conscious

semantic changes (metaphor and metonymy) and also secondary ways: gradual

(elevation and degradation), momentary (hyperbole and litote).

SPECIALIZATION

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 is revealed in the context.

The meaning of a word can specialize when it remains in the general

usage. It happens in the case of the conflict between two absolute synonyms

when one of them must specialize in its meaning to remain in the language,

e.g. the native word «meat» had the meaning «food», this meaning is

preserved in the compound «sweetmeats». The meaning «edible flesh» was

formed when the word «food», its absolute synonym, won in the conflict of

absolute synonyms (both words are native). 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». «Starve» got

the meaning «to die of hunger» .

The third way of specialization is the formation of Proper names from

common nouns, it is often used in toponimics, e.g. the City - the business

part of London, Oxford - university town in England, the Tower -originally

a fortress and palace, later -a prison, now - a museum.

The fourth way of specialization is ellipsis. In such cases primaraly we

have a word-group of the type «attribute + noun», which is used constantly

in a definite situation. Due to it the attribute can be dropped and the

noun can get the meaning of the whole word-group, e.g. «room» originally

meant «space», this meaning is retained in the adjective «roomy» and word

combinations: «no room for», «to take room», «to take no room». The

meaning of the word «room « was specialized because it was often used in

the combinations: «dining room», «sleeping room» which meant «space for

dining» , «space for sleeping».

GENERALIZATION

It is a process contrary to specializaton, in such cases the meaning of a

word becomes more general in the course of time.

The transfer from a concrete meaning to an abstract one is most frequent,

e.g. «ready» (a derivative from the verb «ridan» - «ride») meant «prepared

for a ride», now its meaning is «prepared for anything». «Journey» was

borrowed from French with the meaning «one day trip», now it means «a trip

of any duration».

All auxiliary verbs are cases of generalization of their lexical meaning

because they developed a grammatical meaning : «have», «be», «do», «shall»

, «will» when used as auxiliary verbs are devoid of their lexical meaning

which they have when used as notional verbs or modal verbs, e.g. cf. «I

have several books by this writer» and «I have read some books by this

author». In the first sentence the verb «have» has the meaning «possess»,

in the second sentence it has no lexical meaning, its grammatical meaning

is to form Present Perfect.

METAPHOR

It is a transfer of the meaning on the basis of comparison. Herman Paul

points out that metaphor can be based on different types of similarity:

a) similarity of shape, e.g. head (of a cabbage), bottleneck, teeth (of a

saw, a comb);

b) similarity of position, e.g. foot (of a page, of a mountain), head (of

a procession);

c) similarity of function, behaviour e.g. a whip (an official in the

British Parliament whose duty is to see that members were present at the

voting);

d) similarity of colour, e.g. orange, hazel, chestnut etc.

In some cases we have a complex similarity, e.g. the leg of a table has a

similarity to a human leg in its shape, position and function.

Many metaphors are based on parts of a human body, e.g. an eye of a

needle, arms and mouth of a river, head of an army.

A special type of metaphor is when Proper names become common nouns, e.g.

philistine - a mercenary person, vandals - destructive people, a Don Juan -

a lover of many women etc.

METONYMY

It is a transfer of the meaning on the basis of contiguity. There are

different types of metonymy:

a) the material of which an object is made may become the name of the

object , e.g. a glass, boards, iron etc;

b) the name of the place may become the name of the people or of an

object placed there, e.g. the House - members of Parliament, Fleet Street

- bourgeois press, the White House - the Administration of the USA etc;

c) names of musical instruments may become names of musicians, e.g. the

violin, the saxophone;

d) the name of some person may becom a common noun, e.g. «boycott» was

originally the name of an Irish family who were so much disliked by their

neighbours that they did not mix with them, «sandwich» was named after Lord

Sandwich who was a gambler. He did not want to interrupt his game and had

his food brought to him while he was playing cards between two slices of

bread not to soil his fingers.

e) names of inventors very often become terms to denote things they

invented, e.g. «watt» , «om», «rentgen» etc

f) some geographical names can also become common nouns through metonymy,

e.g. holland (linen fabrics), Brussels (a special kind of carpets) , china

(porcelain) , astrachan ( a sheep fur) etc.

ELEVATION

It is a transfer of the meaning when it becomes better in the course of

time, e.g. «knight» originally meant «a boy», then «a young servant», then

«a military servant», then «a noble man». Now it is a title of nobility

given to outstanding people; «marshal» originally meant «a horse man» now

it is the highest military rank etc.

DEGRADATION

It is a transfer of the meaning when it becomes worse in the course of

time. It is usually connected with nouns denoting common people, e.g.

«villain» originally meant «working on a villa» now it means «a scoundrel».

HYPERBOLE

It is a transfer of the meaning when the speaker uses exaggeration,

e.g. «to hate»(doing something), (not to see somebody) «for ages».

Hyperbole is often used to form phraseological units, e.g. «to make a

mountain out of a molehill», «to split hairs» etc.

LITOTE

It is a transfer of the meaning when the speaker expresses affirmative

with the negative or vica versa, e.g. not bad, no coward etc.

PHRASEOLOGY

The vocabulary of a language is enriched not only by words but also by

phraseological units. Phraseological units are word-groups that cannot be

made in the process of speech, they exist in the language as ready-made

units. They are compiled in special dictionaries. The same as words

phraseological units express a single notion and are used in a sentence as

one part of it. American and British lexicographers call such units

«idioms». We can mention such dictionaries as: L.Smith «Words and Idioms»,

V.Collins «A Book of English Idioms» etc. In these dictionaries we can find

words, peculiar in their semantics (idiomatic), side by side with word-

groups and sentences. In these dictionaries they are arranged, as a rule,

into different semantic groups.

Phraseological units can be classified according to the ways they are

formed, according to the degree of the motivation of their meaning,

according to their structure and according to their part-of-speech meaning.

WAYS OF FORMING PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

A.V. Koonin classified phraseological units according to the way they

are formed. He pointed out primary and secondary ways of forming

phraseological units.

Primary ways of forming phraseological units are those when a unit is

formed on the basis of a free word-group :

a) Most productive in Modern English is the formation of phraseological

units by means of transferring the meaning of terminological word-groups,

e.g. in cosmic technique we can point out the following phrases: «launching

pad» in its terminological meaning is «стартовая площадка» , in its

transferred meaning - «отправной пункт», «to link up» - «cтыковаться,

стыковать космические корабли» in its tranformed meaning it means

-«знакомиться»;

b) a large group of phraseological units was formed from free word groups

by transforming their meaning, e.g. «granny farm» - «пансионат для

престарелых», «Troyan horse» - «компьюторная программа, преднамеренно

составленная для повреждения компьютера»;

c) phraseological units can be formed by means of alliteration , e.g. «a

sad sack» - «несчастный случай», «culture vulture» - «человек,

интересующийся искусством», «fudge and nudge» - «уклончивость».

d) they can be formed by means of expressiveness, especially it is

characteristic for forming interjections, e.g. «My aunt!», « Hear, hear !»

etc

e) they can be formed by means of distorting a word group, e.g. «odds and

ends» was formed from «odd ends»,

f) they can be formed by using archaisms, e.g. «in brown study» means «in

gloomy meditation» where both components preserve their archaic meanings,

g) they can be formed by using a sentence in a different sphere of life,

e.g. «that cock won’t fight» can be used as a free word-group when it is

used in sports (cock fighting ), it becomes a phraseological unit when it

is used in everyday life, because it is used metaphorically,

h) they can be formed when we use some unreal image, e.g. «to have

butterflies in the stomach» - «испытывать волнение», «to have green

fingers» - »преуспевать как садовод-любитель» etc.

i) they can be formed by using expressions of writers or polititions in

everyday life, e.g. «corridors of power» (Snow), «American dream» (Alby)

«locust years» (Churchil) , «the winds of change» (Mc Millan).

Secondary ways of forming phraseological units are those when a

phraseological unit is formed on the basis of another phraseological unit;

they are:

a) conversion, e.g. «to vote with one’s feet» was converted into «vote

with one’s f eet»;

b) changing the grammar form, e.g. «Make hay while the sun shines» is

transferred into a verbal phrase - «to make hay while the sun shines»;

c) analogy, e.g. «Curiosity killed the cat» was transferred into «Care

killed the cat»;

d) contrast, e.g. «cold surgery» - «a planned before operation» was

formed by contrasting it with «acute surgery», «thin cat» - «a poor person»

was formed by contrasting it with «fat cat»;

e) shortening of proverbs or sayings e.g. from the proverb «You can’t

make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear» by means of clipping the middle of

it the phraseological unit «to make a sow’s ear» was formed with the

meaning «ошибаться».

f) borrowing phraseological units from other languages, either as

translation loans, e.g. « living space» (German), « to take the bull by the

horns» ( Latin) or by means of phonetic borrowings «meche blanche»

(French), «corpse d’elite» (French), «sotto voce» (Italian) etc.

Phonetic borrowings among phraseological units refer to the bookish style

and are not used very often.

SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATION OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

Phraseological units can be classified according to the degree of

motivation of their meaning. This classification was suggested by acad.

V.V. Vinogradov for Russian phraseological units. He pointed out three

types of phraseological units:

a) fusions where the degree of motivation is very low, we cannot guess

the meaning of the whole from the meanings of its components, they are

highly idiomatic and cannot be translated word for word into other

languages, e.g. on Shank’s mare - (on foot), at sixes and sevens - (in a

mess) etc;

b) unities where the meaning of the whole can be guessed from the

meanings of its components, but it is transferred (metaphorical or

metonymical), e.g. to play the first fiddle ( to be a leader in

something), old salt (experienced sailor) etc;

c) collocations where words are combined in their original meaning but

their combinations are different in different languages, e.g. cash and

carry - (self-service shop), in a big way (in great degree) etc.

STRUCTURAL CLASSIFICATION OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

Prof. A.I. Smirnitsky worked out structural classification of

phraseological units, comparing them with words. He points out one-top

units which he compares with derived words because derived words have only

one root morpheme. He points out two-top units which he compares with

compound words because in compound words we usually have two root

morphemes.

Among one-top units he points out three structural types;

a) units of the type «to give up» (verb + postposition type), e.g. to

art up, to back up, to drop out, to nose out, to buy into, to sandwich

in etc.;

b) units of the type «to be tired» . Some of these units remind the

Passive Voice in their structure but they have different prepositons with

them, while in the Passive Voice we can have only prepositions «by» or

«with», e.g. to be tired of, to be interested in, to be surprised at etc.

There are also units in this type which remind free word-groups of the type

«to be young», e.g. to be akin to, to be aware of etc. The difference

between them is that the adjective «young» can be used as an attribute and

as a predicative in a sentence, while the nominal component in such units

can act only as a predicative. In these units the verb is the grammar

centre and the second component is the semantic centre;

c) prepositional- nominal phraseological units. These units are

equivalents of unchangeable words: prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs ,

that is why they have no grammar centre, their semantic centre is the

nominal part, e.g. on the doorstep (quite near), on the nose (exactly), in

the course of, on the stroke of, in time, on the point of etc. In the

course of time such units can become words, e.g. tomorrow, instead etc.

Among two-top units A.I. Smirnitsky points out the following structural

types:

a) attributive-nominal such as: a month of Sundays, grey matter, a

millstone round one’s neck and many others. Units of this type are noun

equivalents and can be partly or perfectly idiomatic. In partly idiomatic

units (phrasisms) sometimes the first component is idiomatic, e.g. high

road, in other cases the second component is idiomatic, e.g. first night.

In many cases both components are idiomatic, e.g. red tape, blind alley,

bed of nail, shot in the arm and many others.

b) verb-nominal phraseological units, e.g. to read between the lines , to

speak BBC, to sweep under the carpet etc. The grammar centre of such units

is the verb, the semantic centre in many cases is the nominal component,

e.g. to fall in love. In some units the verb is both the grammar and the

semantic centre, e.g. not to know the ropes. These units can be perfectly

idiomatic as well, e.g. to burn one’s boats,to vote with one’s feet, to

take to the cleaners’ etc.

Very close to such units are word-groups of the type to have a glance, to

have a smoke. These units are not idiomatic and are treated in grammar as a

special syntactical combination, a kind of aspect.

c) phraseological repetitions, such as : now or never, part and parcel ,

country and western etc. Such units can be built on antonyms, e.g. ups and

downs , back and forth; often they are formed by means of alliteration, e.g

cakes and ale, as busy as a bee. Components in repetitions are joined by

means of conjunctions. These units are equivalents of adverbs or adjectives

and have no grammar centre. They can also be partly or perfectly idiomatic,

e.g. cool as a cucumber (partly), bread and butter (perfectly).

Phraseological units the same as compound words can have more than two

tops (stems in compound words), e.g. to take a back seat, a peg to hang a

thing on, lock, stock and barrel, to be a shaddow of one’s own self, at

one’s own sweet will.

SYNTACTICAL CLASSIFICATION

OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS

Phraseological units can be clasified as parts of speech. This

classification was suggested by I.V. Arnold. Here we have the following

groups:

a) noun phraseologisms denoting an object, a person, a living being, e.g.

bullet train, latchkey child, redbrick university, Green Berets,

b) verb phraseologisms denoting an action, a state, a feeling, e.g. to

break the log-jam, to get on somebody’s coattails, to be on the beam, to

nose out , to make headlines,

c) adjective phraseologisms denoting a quality, e.g. loose as a goose,

dull as lead ,

d) adverb phraseological units, such as : with a bump, in the soup, like

a dream , like a dog with two tails,

e) preposition phraseological units, e.g. in the course of, on the stroke

of ,

f) interjection phraseological units, e.g. «Catch me!», «Well, I never!»

etc.

In I.V.Arnold’s classification there are also sentence equivalents,

proverbs, sayings and quatations, e.g. «The sky is the limit», «What makes

him tick», » I am easy». Proverbs are usually metaphorical, e.g. «Too many

cooks spoil the broth», while sayings are as a rule non-metaphorical, e.g.

«Where there is a will there is a way».

BORROWINGS

Borrowing words from other languages is characteristic of English

throughout its history More than two thirds of the English vocabulary are

borrowings. Mostly they are words of Romanic origin (Latin, French,

Italian, Spanish). Borrowed words are different from native ones by their

phonetic structure, by their morphological structure and also by their

grammatical forms. It is also characterisitic of borrowings to be non-

motivated semantically.

English history is very rich in different types of contacts with other

countries, that is why it is very rich in borrowings. The Roman invasion,

the adoption of Cristianity, Scandinavian and Norman conquests of the

British Isles, the development of British colonialism and trade and

cultural relations served to increase immensely the English vocabulary. The

majority of these borrowings are fully assimilated in English in their

pronunciation, grammar, spelling and can be hardly distinguished from

native words.

English continues to take in foreign words , but now the quantity of

borrowings is not so abundunt as it was before. All the more so, English

now has become a «giving» language, it has become Lingva franca of the

twentieth century.

Borrowings can be classified according to different criteria:

a) according to the aspect which is borrowed,

b) according to the degree of assimilation,

c) according to the language from which the word was borrowed.

(In this classification only the main languages from which words were

borrowed into English are described, such as Latin, French, Italian.

Spanish, German and Russian.)

CLASSIFICATION OF BORROWINGS ACCORDING TO THE BORROWED ASPECT

There are the following groups: phonetic borrowings, translation loans,

semantic borrowings, morphemic borrowings.

Phonetic borrowings are most characteristic in all languages, they are

called loan words proper. Words are borrowed with their spelling,

pronunciation and meaning. Then they undergo assimilation, each sound in

the borrowed word is substituted by the corresponding sound of the

borrowing language. In some cases the spelling is changed. The structure of

the word can also be changed. The position of the stress is very often

influenced by the phonetic system of the borrowing language. The paradigm

of the word, and sometimes the meaning of the borrowed word are also

changed. Such words as: labour, travel, table, chair, people are phonetic

borrowings from French; apparatchik, nomenklatura, sputnik are phonetic

borrowings from Russian; bank, soprano, duet are phonetic borrowings from

Italian etc.

Translation loans are word-for-word (or morpheme-for-morpheme )

translations of some foreign words or expressions. In such cases the notion

is borrowed from a foreign language but it is expressed by native lexical

units, «to take the bull by the horns» (Latin), «fair sex» ( French),

«living space» (German) etc. Some translation loans appeared in English

from Latin already in the Old English period, e.g. Sunday (solis dies).

There are translation loans from the languages of Indians, such as: «pipe

of peace», «pale-faced», from German «masterpiece», «homesickness»,

«superman».

Semantic borrowings are such units when a new meaning of the unit

existing in the language is borrowed. It can happen when we have two

relative languages which have common words with different meanings, e.g.

there are semantic borrowings between Scandinavian and English, such as the

meaning «to live» for the word «to dwell’ which in Old English had the

meaning «to wander». Or else the meaning «дар» , «подарок» for the word

«gift» which in Old English had the meaning «выкуп за жену».

Semantic borrowing can appear when an English word was borrowed into some

other language, developed there a new meaning and this new meaning was

borrowed back into English, e.g. «brigade» was borrowed into Russian and

formed the meaning «a working collective«,»бригада». This meaning was

borrowed back into English as a Russian borrowing. The same is true of the

English word «pioneer».

Morphemic borrowings are borrowings of affixes which occur in the

language when many words with identical affixes are borrowed from one

language into another, so that the morphemic structure of borrowed words

becomes familiar to the people speaking the borrowing language, e.g. we can

find a lot of Romanic affixes in the English word-building system, that is

why there are a lot of words - hybrids in English where different morphemes

have different origin, e.g. «goddess», «beautiful» etc.

CLASSIFICATION OF BORROWINGS ACCORDING TO THE DEGREE OF ASSIMILATION

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 -

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