Sem inar N I Lexicology as a Science 1.Object o f Lexicology. B ranches o f Lexicology. 2. The Connection o f Lexicology with Other Branches o f Linguistics.

3. The M ain Lexicological Problem s. M odern English Lexicology. 4. The Theoretical and Practical Value o f English Lexicology. Literature 1. I.V. Z ukova. A Practical course in English Lexicology. 2-nd edition. M .: A kadem ia, 2007, pp 6-9. 2. O.Burea. A G uide to English Lexicology, C hisinau, Continental Group, Sri, 2008, p p . 8-12. 3. D. M elenciuc. A Reader in English Lexicology. Chisinau,: CEPU SM , 2005. p.410.

4.

I.V. A rnold. T he English Word. M,: Vyshaia Skola, 1973.

Sem inar N2 The Theory o f the W ord. W ord Structure 1. A m biguity o f the Term W ord 2. D efinition o f the W ord. 3. The W ord as the Basic U nit o f Language. 4. Types o f W ords. 5. T he M orphological Structure o f the English W ords. Types o f M orphem es. AUomorphs. 6. M orphem ic C lassification o f Words. 7. The M ethod o f Im m ediate and Ultim ate Constituents. 8. Derivational Level o f A nalysis. Stems. Types o f Stems. Literature 1. O .Burea. A G uide to English Lexicology. Ch.: Continental Group, SRL, 2008 (230 p ) p. 1 3 - 2 8 2. I.V. Zykova. A Practical Course in English Lexicology. 2-nd edition. M.: A kadem ia, 2007 (288p) p.p.52-66; p.p. 70-76 3. I.V. A rnold. The English W ord. M.: V ysshaia Skola, 1973 p. 30-59 4. D. M elenciuc. A R eader in English Lexicology. Chisinau, CEPU SM , 2005 p.p. 131-143. Sem inar N3 The Sem antic Structure o f the W ords 1. 2. 3. ^4. 5. 6. 7. W ord m eaning as the Subject o f Sem asiology. Types o f M eaning. T he Lexical and Gram m atical M eanings The D enotative and Connotative M eanings. Types o f Conntations. W ord M eaning and M otivation. The Sem antic Structure o f Polysem antic Words. Types o f Sem antic Com ponents. M eaning and context.Types o f Contexts.

Literature 1. I.V. Zykova. A Practical Course in English Lexicology. 2-nd edition. M. A kadem ia, 2007 (288p.) p.p. 17-20; p 32 2. O. Burea. A G uide to English Lexicology. Chisinau: C ontinental G roup SRL, 2008 (23O P)pp30 - 46. 3. D. M elenciuc. A R eader in English Lexicology. Chisinau, C EPU SM , 2005 PP 7377; PP 36-56 4. I.V. A rnold. The E nglish W ord. M. V ysshaia Skola, 1973 p p l 12-125, Sem inar N4 Word Form ation 1.D erivation. A ffixation. Classification o f Affixes. 2. C om position. C lassification and Criteria o f Com pounds. N eutral, M orphological, Syntactic C om pounds. 3. Exocentric and E ndocentric Com pounds. 4. Conversion. S u b s ta n tia tio n o f Adjectives. 5. Shortening. 6 . Types o f C lippings 7. G raphical A bbreviations 8 . A cro n y m s, Initialism s, A lphabetism s. 9. M inor Types o f M odern W ord-Building a) Sound Interchange, Stress Interchange b) O nom atopoeia c) B lending, B ack - Form ation. Literature 1. O, Burea. A G uide to English Lexicology. Chisinau: C ontinental G roup SRL, 2008 (230P) p.p. 58-76. 2. I.V. Z ukova A Practical C ourse in English Lexicology. 2-nd edition. M. A kadem ia, 2007 (288p.) p.p. pp 70-78; 87 -96; 3. D. M elenciuc. A R eader in English Lexicology. Chisinau, CEPU SM , 2005 p.p. 123-177 4. I.V. A rnold. The English W ord. M. Vysshaia Skola, 1973 pp60-l 11

1. 2. 3.

4. 1. 2.

Seminar N5 Phraseology Phraseological Units versus Free Word - Groups W ays o f Form ing Phraseological Units. Principles o f Classification o f Phraseological Units. a) Contextual Approach b) Semantic Principle c) Structural Principle d) Com bination o f the Structural and the Semantic Principle. Proverbs, Sayings, Familiar Quatations and Cliches. Literature O. Burea. A. Guide to English Lexicology Continental Group SRL Ch. 2008, pp.84-108. I.V. Zykova. A Practical Course in English Lexicology, 2-nd edition, Akademia, M., 2007, pp. 128-136.

Seminar N 6 Stylistic Classification o f the English Vocabulary 1. The Opposition o f Stylistically Marked and Stylistically Neutral Words. 2 . Literary'V ocabulary Terms Learned Words and Official Vocabulary Archaic Words Barbarisms and Foreign Words Neologism s 3. Colloquial Vocabulary Colloquialisms Slang Yargonisms Profesionaiisms Dialect Words 4.Basic Vocabulary 1. O. Burea. A Quide to English Lexicology. Ch.: Continental Group SRL,2008 pp. 126-142. 2. I.V. Arnold. T he English Word. M., Vyssaia Skola, 1973, pp 222-235 Seminarul N7 English Variants and Dialects Standard English Variants and Dialects Scotlish English I rish English American English Divergencies between BE and AE (in lexics, phonetics, gram m ar and writing) Canadian English

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

7. A u stralian E ng lish 8. Indian E ng lish 1. O. B urea. A G u id e to E ng lish L exicology. Ch.: C o n tin e n ta l G ro u p S R L , 2008, pp. 171-189 2. I.v. A rnold. T h e E ng lish W ord. M., V yssaia Skola, 1973, pp. 2 36-247 3. I.V. Z y k o v a. A Practical C ou rse in English L ex ico log y, 2-nd edition. M., A k a d e m ia , 2 0 0 7 , pp 145-165. Sem inarul N8 English L exicograph y 1. M ain T y p e s o f E n g lish D iction aries 2. T y p e s o f E ng lish D ictionaries E lectro nic D iction aries. 3. S om e B asic P ro b le m s o f D iction ary C om piling. a) T h e C h o ic e o f L exical Units for Inclusion. b) T h e O rd e r o f A rr a n g e m e n t o f the Entries c) R e c o r d in g th e W o rd -m e a n in g s and arranging T h e m d) D e finitio n o f M e a n in g s e) Illu strativ e E x a m p le s 0 T h e P rinciple o f A d e q u a te Translation o f V ocab u lary Items, g) T he E n tries o f the S ynchronic and D iachronic Dictionaries. 3 .T h e P ro b lem s o f th e L e a r n e r s D ictionaries C om pilatio n. Literature 1. O. B urea. A G u id e to E nglish L exicology. Ch.: C on tinental G ro up S R L , 2008, pp. 192-209 2.I.V. A rnold. T h e E n glish W o rd . 2-nd edition. M. V y ssaia Scola, 1973, pp. 2 57-273 3. I.V. Z y k o v a. A Practical C o u rs e in English L exicology. 2 -n d edition, M., A k a d e m ia , 2007, pp. 187-200.

T he O b je c t o f Lexicology

L ex ico log y is the part o f linguistics w hich deals w ith the v oca b u la ry and charachteristic features o f w o rd s and w ord-groups. T he term lexicology first ap peared in the 1820s and it is c o m p o sed o f tw o G reek m orp hem es: lexis - w o rd and logos - science . Thus the literal m e an in g o f the term lexicology is the science o f the w o rd . Its basic task is the study and system atic description o f v o ca b u la ry in respect to its origin, d evelo p m e n t and its current o f vo cabulary in respect to its origin, d e v e lo p m e n t and its current u se.L exicology is co ncerned w ith w ords, variable w o rd -g ro u p s, phraseological units and m o rp h em e s w h ich m ak e up words. D instinction is m ad e betw een general lexicology and special lexicology. G e n e ral lexicology is a part o f general linguistics. It is concerned w ith the study o f vocab ulary irrespective o f the specific features o f any particular language. Special lexicology is the lexicology o f a partic u la r language (English, G erm an, French, etc.). It d evo tes its attention to the description o f th e characteristic peculiarities in the v o cab ulary o f a given language. T here are tw o principal app roaches in linguistic science to the study o f language material: the syn chronic (Gr.syn - together, w ith , chronos - t im e ) and the diachronic (Gr. D ia - th ro u g h ) approach. W ith regard to special lexicology the sy nch ron ic approach is concerned with the vo ca b u la ry o f a language as it exists at a given period o f time. D escrip tiv e lexicology deals with the v ocabulary and v o cabu lary units o f a particular language at a certain time. T h e diachronic approach in term s o f special lexicology deals with the vocabulary and vo cab ulary units o f a particular language at a certain time. T he diachronic ap proach in term s o f special lexicology deals with the chan g es and the d eve lo pm e n t o f vo ca b u la ry in the course o f time. H isto rica l lexicology deals w ith the evolution o f the v o cabulary units o f a language as the tim e goes by. C o m p a ra tiv e lexicology studies closely relative languages from the point o f view o f their identity and differentiation, w hile c o n tra stiv e lexicology attem pts to find out sim ilarities and differences in both related and non-related languages.

1.2 T h e C o n n ectio n o f Lexicology w ith O th e r B ra n c h es o f L inguistics

L exicolog y is closely connected w ith other branches o f linguistics: general linguistics, the history o f the language, phonetics, stylistics, g ram m ar, sociolinguistics, and som e others. T he im p ortance o f the connection between lexicology and phonetics consists in the facts that a w o rd is an association o f a given group o f sounds w ith a given m eaning, so that m an is one w ord and m ap is another. P hon em es have no m eaning o f their o w n but they serve to distinguish betw een m eanings. Distinction betw een the w o rds m a y be based upon stress: the w ord im port is recognized as a noun and distinguished from the verb i m port due to the position o f stress. Stress also distinguishes co m p o u n d s from otherw ise h o m o n y m o u s w ord-groups: b la c k b e rry -black berry. There is also a close relationship between lexicology and stylistics w hich studies m any problem s created in lexicology. T hese are the problem s o f m eaning, connotations, synonym y, functions and styles o f languages and som e oth er issues. L ex ico log y is also connected with gram m ar, w hich is concern ed w ith the various m eans o f expressing g ra m m a tica l relations b etw een w ord s as well. T he g ram m atical form and function o f the w ord affect its lexical m eaning. A w ell-kno w n exa m p le is the verb go when

in the continuous tenses, follow ed by to and an infinitive serves to express an action in the near and im m e d ia te future, or an intention o f future action. L ex ico log y is linked with the history o f a language since the latter investigates the changes and the d e v e lo p m e n t o f the vocabulary o f a language. L ex ic o lo g y is bound up with sociolinguistics w h ich investigates the extra-linguistic or social causes o f the changes in the vocabu lary o f a language. T he intense d eve lo pm e n t o f science and techn olo gy, w hich is a social, i.e. an extra-linguistic factor, has lately given birth to a great n u m b e r o f n ew words, e.g.: C D -R O M , e-m ail , S M S , pager, etc.

1.3 T h e M ain Lexicological P ro b le m s

M od ern E nglish lexicology aim s at giving a system atic description o f th e w ord -sto c k o f M o d ern E nglish. T hus, it investigates the problem s o f w o rd -structure and w ord-form atio n in M odern English, the sem an tic structure o f English words. T he laws g o vernin g the re p lenishm ent o f the voca b u la ry with new vocabulary units. M odern E nglish L exic olo gy studies the relations between various layers o f the English vocabulary and the specific laws that govern its d eve lo pm e n t at the p re sen t tim e and also the source and g row th o f the E nglish vocabulary, the ch ang es it has un d erg o n e in its history. T he branch o f lexicology specializing in w o rd -g roup s w hich are characterized by stability o f structure and transferred m ean in g is called phraseology. A section dealing w ith lexicography - the science and art o f co m p ilin g dictionaries - is also traditionally included in the course o f lexicology.

1.4 T h e T h e o re tic a l a n d P ra c tic a l V alue o f E n g lish Lexicology

T he im portance o f English lexicology is based on the fact that at present it is the w o rld s m o st w idely used language. O ver 309 m illion people sp ea k E nglish as their first language in the U nited States o f A m erica, the United K in gdo m , Ireland, Australia, Canada, N e w Zealand, South A frica, etc. It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language th ro u g h o u t the world, especially in C o m m o n w e a lth countries and in m any international organizations. I ts a global language , the lingua fran ca o f the m odern era. W hile English is not an official language in m o st countries, it is currently the language m ost often taught as a second lan guage around the world. It is, the official language for aerial and m aritim e com m u n icatio n s, as well as one o f the official languages o f the Europ ean Union, the U nited N ation s, and m ost international athletic organizations, including the International O ly m p ic C om m ittee. B ooks, m ag azin es, and n ew sp a p ers written in English are available in m a n y countries around the world. E nglish is also the m ost com m o n ly used language in the sciences^ L ex ico log y applied linguistics, n am ely o f lexicography, standardization o f term inology, literary criticism and especially o f foreign language teaching. In training a w o uld-be teacher o f languages lexicology helps to stimulate a system atic ap p ro ach to the facts o f vocabulary and an o rga n iz ed co m p arison o f the foreign and native language. N e w w o rd s are better rem e m b ered if they are given not at random but organized in them atic groups, w ord-fam ilies, sy n o n y m ic series, etc.

Jo h n L yons p o in ts out that w ord should be discussed in term s o f tw o criteria: positional m obility and u n in terruptability. To illustrate the first he segm ents into m orphem es the follow ing sentence: The - boy- s- w alk - ed - slo w -ly up - t h e - hill The sentence m ay be reg ard ed as a sequence o f ten m orphem es, w h ich occu r in a particular ord er relative to one another. T here are several possible changes in th is o rd er w hich yield an acceptable E nglish sentence: S lo w -ly-the-boy-s-w alk-ed-up-the-hill U p -th e-hill-slow -ly-w alk-ed-the-boy-s T here is no p o ssib ility o f the sequence s-the-boy, ly-slow , ed - w alk. O ne o f th e characteristics o f the w ord is that it ten d s to be internally stable but positionally m p b ilm v rite s John Lyons in his book Introduction to T heoretical L inguistics . S tephen U llm an n analyzed the w ord from the sem antic p o in t o f v iew , it w ill fall into a certain n u m b er o f m eaningful segm ents w hich are ultim ately co m p o sed o f m eaningful units. These m eaningful u n its are called w o rd s. T he sem an tic-p h o n o lo g ical approach m ay be illustrated by A .H . G ard in ers definition: A w ord is an articulate sou n d -symbol in its aspect o f denoting so m eth in g w hich is spoken about. A. M eillet com bines the sem antic, phonological and gram m atical criteria and defines the w ord as the association o f a p a rticu la r m eaning w ith a particular group o f sounds capable o f a particular gram m atical em p lo y m en t. Sum m ing up, w e can sa y th at a w ord is the sm allest significant u n it o f a given language capable ..of functioning alone and characterized by positional m o bility w ith in a sentence, m orphological uninterruptability an d sem an tic integrity. 2.2 T he W ord as the Basic U nit o f L anguage W ords are the central elem en ts o f language system , they face both w ays: they are the biggest units o f m orphology and the sm allest o f syntax, and w hat is m ore, they em body the m ain structural properties and functions o f th e language. W ords can be separated in an utterance by other such units and can be u sed in isolation. T he m odern a p p ro ach to w ord studies is based on distinguishing betw een the external and the internal structures o f the w ord. B y external structure o f the w ord w e m ean its m orphological structure. F o r exam ple, in the w ord post-im pressionists the fo llow ing m orphem es can be distinguished: the p refix es p ost-, im -, the root press, the noun, the n ounform ing suffixes -ion, ist, and the gram m atical suffix o f plurality .-s . A ll these m orphem es constitute the external structure o f the w ord p o stim p ressio n alists. T he internal structure o f the w ord, o r its m eaning, is now adays com m only referred to as the w ords sem antic structure. T he area o f lexicology specializing in the sem an tic studies o f the w ord is called sem antics. T he w ord po ssesses b oth external o r form al unity and sem antic unity. T he form al unity o f the w ord can best be illu strated by com paring a w ord and a w ord-group com prising identical constituents. The differen ce betw een a blackbird and a black b ird is best explained by their relationship w ith the gram m atical system o f the language. T he w ord blackbird, w hich is characterized by unity, possesses a single gram m atical fram ing: b lackbird/s . T he first constituent; black is n o t su b ject to any gram m atical changes. In the w ord-group a black bird each constituent c a n a cq u ire gram m atical form s o f its ow n: th e.b lack est birds Ive ever seen O ther w ords can be inserted betw een the com ponents w hich is im possible so far as the w ord is concerned as it Would violate its unity: a black night b ird . In the w o rd-group a black bird each o f the m eaningful w ords conveys a separate concept: bird - a kind o f living creatu re , b lack - acolour . The w ord b lackbird conveys only o n e concept - the type o f the b ird . T h is \is one o f the m ain features o f any w ord: it alw ays conveys one concept, nb m atte r h o w m any com ponent m orphem es it m ay have in its external structure. A further stru ctu ral feature o f the w ord is its susceptibility to gram m atical em ploym ent. In speech m ost w ords c a n be used in different gram m atical form s in w hich their interrelations are realized. T he system sh o w in g a w ord in all its w ord-form s is called its paradigm . N ouns are

declined, verbs - conjugated, qualitative adjectives have degrees, o f com parison. Som e adverbs also h a v e degrees o f co m p ariso n (e.g. w ell, badly), oth ers are im m u ta b le (e.g.here, there, never). The lexical m e a n i n g o f a w ord is the sam e throughout the p a ra d ig m , i.e. all the w ord-form s o f one an d the sam e w ord are lexically identical. T h e gram m atical m ea n in g varies from one form to another (cf. to take, tak es, took, taking o r singer, sin g e rs, sin g e rs, s in g e rs ). T herefore, w hen w e speak o f th e w o rd sin g er o r th e w ord take as used in actual u tte ran c e s w e use the term w ord conventionally, b e c au se w hat is m anifested in the speech ev e n t is n o t the w ord as a w hole but one o f its form s w h ich is identified as belonging to one d efin ite paradigm 2.3.T ypes o f W ords W o rd s can be classified according to th eir m o rphological stru ctu re, sem antic type, syntactic function, sty listic differen tiatio n or according to th eir origin. f .M orphologically, w e distinguish m onom orphic, i.e. ro o t-w o jd s, and polym orphic w ords, i.e. d eriv ativ es, co m pounds, com pound-derivatives (d eriv atio n al com p o u n d s). S em antically, w e d istinguish m onosem antic w ords, i.e. w o rd s h a v in g only one lexical m eaning, and p o ly sem an tic w ords, i.e. w ords having several m ean in g s. S y ntactically, w e distinguish categorem atic, i.e. no tio n al w o rd s, an d syncategorem atic, i.e. form -w ords. S tylistically, w e distinguish neutral, elevated (bookish), c o llo q u ia l, slang w ords, etc. E ty m o lo g ically , w e distinguish native, borrow ed, h y b rid a n d international words. Q uestions and T asks 1.W hat do w e m ea n by an orthographic w ord, a phonological w ord a n d a lexical item ? 2.W hat do w e m ea n by a gram m atical w ord-form ? H ow m any g ram m atical form s does the E n g lish lexem e b e have? G ive som e exam ples o f lex ical ite m s w h ich have only one g ram m atical form . 3.G ive the d efin itio n s o f the w ord as exem plified by differen t linguists. 4. W hat is the d ifference betw een content w ords and fu n ctio n w o rd s?. Illu strate your answ er w ith exam ples. 5. W hat does E .S ap ir m ean by the indivisibility o f the w o rd ? G iv e exam ples. 6. W h at does Jo h n L yons m ean by the positional m o bility a n d m o rp h o lo g ical uninterru p tab ility o f w ords? 7. W hat is u n d erstood by form al unity o f a w ord? E x p lain w h y the w ord blackboard c a n be considered a unity and w hy the com bination o f w ords a b lac k board d o e s n t p o ssess such a unity. 8.W hat is u n d erstood by the sem antic unity o f a w ord? W h ich o f the follow ing pos sesses sem an tic unity a blackberry or a black berry? 9..G ive a b rie f account o f the m ain characteristics o f a w ord lO .H ow can w e classify w ords m orphologically, sem antically, sy n tactically , stylis tically, etym ologically? y 3. W ord Structure 3.1. T he M orphological Structure o f E n g lish W ords. M orphem es. T ypes o f M orphem es. A llo m o rp h s T here are tw o levels o f a p p ro a c irto the study o f w o rd -stru ctu re: th e level o f m orphem ic analysis and th e level o f derivational analysis .M any w ords are m a d e up o f m orphem es, the basic units o n the m o rp h em ic level, w hich are defined as the sm a lle st in d iv isib le tw o-facet language units. T he term m o rp h em e is derived from G reek m orphe form + -em e. T h e G reek suffix -e m e has been adopted by linguists to denote the sm allest significant or d istin ctiv e unit. A w ord m ay consist o f a single m orphem e. A ccording to the ro le they play in constructing w ords, m o rp h em es are subdivided into: root-m orphem es (roots) and affixational m orphem es (affixes).

T he i'oot-m orphem e is the lexical nucleus o f the w ord; T h u s,-h ea rt- is th e com m on root o f the follow ing series o f w ord s: heart, hearten, dishearten, h e a rtily , h e a rtle ss, hearty, heartiness, etc.A ffixational m o rp h e m es include inflectional affixes (o r in flectio n s) a n d derivational affixes. Inflections c arry o n ly g ram m atical m eaning and are thus rele v an t o n ly fo r th e form ation o f w ordform s (e.g. w orks, w o rk in g , w orked)- D erivational affixes are rele v an t fot bu ild in g various ty p es o f w ords (e.g. w o rk e r, w o rk less). T hey are lexically alw ay s d ep e n d en t o n th e ro o t w hich th ey m odify. R oots and d eriv atio n al affix es are generally easily d istinguished an d th e d ifferen ce betw een th em is clearly felt as, fo r instance in the w ords helpless, h andy, b lack n ess, refill, etc.: th e rootm orphem es h elp -,h an d -, black-, -fill, are understood as th e lex ical cen ters o f the w ords, and less, -y, -ness, re- are felt as m orphem es dependent on these roots. , 1 A cco rd in g to th eir p o sitio n , derivational affixes are su b d iv id ed in to prefixes, suffixes and infixes. A prefix is a d eriv atio n al m orphem e standing before the ro o t and m odifying m eaning, cf. dis-, un-, ir-, in dish earten , unhappy, irregular. A suffix is a deriv atio n al m orphem e follow ing the stem and fo rm in g a n ew deriv ativ e in a different part o f sp eech o r a d ifferen t w ord class, cf. - e n , -y, -less in hearten. A n infix is an affix placed w ithin th e w ord, -s-in sportsm an. M orphem es can be e ith e r bound o r free. Free m o rp h em es c o in cid e w ith w ord-form s o f independently fu n ctio n in g w ords. T he m orphem e -h e a rt- in the w ord dishearten is a free m orphem e; the w ord k in d -h e a rte d has tw o free m orphem es: k in d -an d heart-.B ound m orphem es are those th a t do n o t co in cid e w ith separate w ord-form s, su ch as - y , -en, -less in the w ords hearty, hearten, h eartless. R oot-m orphem es m ay be both free and b o und. It should also be noted that m o ip h e m e s m ay h a v e different phonem ic shapes. T hus, fo r e x a m p le, -ion / -tion / -sion / ation are the p o sitio n al varian ts o f the sam e suffix. T hey are co n sid e red as variants o f one and the sam e m o rp h em e and are called its allom orphs. D ifferen t m o rp h em es are characterized by contrastive d istrib u tio n , i.e. if they occur in the sam e en v iro n m en t th ey signal different m eanings. T he suffixes - a b le and - e d , for in s t a n c e , are d ifferen t m o rp h em es, not allom orphs, because ad jectiv es in - a b le m ean capable of, suitable for, o r d e serv in g o f (e.g. adaptable, w ashable, resp ectab le), w here& s - e d as a suffix for a d je c tiv e s has a resultant force (e.g. adapted, w ashed, respected). A llom orphs w ill also o c c u r am ong prefixes.A prefix such as im - o ccurs before bilabials (e.g. im possible), its a llo m o rp h ir- before r (e.g. irregular), il- before 1 (e.g. illegal). It is in -b e fo re all other co nsonants and v o w els (e.g. indirect, inability). 3.2. M o rp h em ic C lassification o f W ords A cco rd in g to the n u m b er o f m orphem es w ords can be classified into m onom orphic and polym orphic. M o n o m o rp h ic or root-w ords consist o f o n ly one ro o t-m o rp h em e, e.g. heart, sm all, m ake, etc. A ll p o ly m o rp h ic w ords fall into two subgroups: d eriv ed w o rd s and com pound w ords - acco rd in g to th e n u m b er o f root-m orphem es they have. D erived w o rd s are com posed o f one ro o t-m o rp h em e an d one o r m ore derivational "morphemes, e.g. h earty , dishearten, heartless, etc. C om pound w o rd s are th o se w hich contain at least tw o ro o t-m o rp h em es. T here can be both ro o t and derivationalY orphem .es in com pounds as in kind-hearted (d eriv atio n al com pounds), or only root-m orphem es as in sw eet-h eart (com pound w o rd | proper). D erived w o rd s n u m erica lly constitute the largest class o f w o rd s in th e existing w ordstock; derived nouns co m p rise approxim ately 67 % o f the total num ber, ad jectiv es about 86 % , w hereas com pound nou n s m ake ab o u t 15 % and A djectives about 4 %. R o o t w ords com e to 18 % in nouns, ad jectiv e^ root w ords com e to approxim ately 12 %. R oot- w ords o ccu p y a predom inant place. In E nglish, acco rd in g to the recent frequency counts, ab o u t 60 % o f the to tajn u m b er o f nouns and 62 % o f the to tal n u m b er o f adjectives in current use are ro o t-w o rd s. D erived w ords com prise about 38 % an d 37 % respectively w hile com pound w o rd s com prise an insignificant 2 % in nouns and 0 .2 % in adjectives. It is the rootw ords that c o n stitu te the foundation and the backbone o f the vo cab u lary and that are o f param ount im p o rtan ce in speech. R oot-w ordS are characterized b y a high degree o f collocability

and a co m p lex variety o f m eanings in contrast w ith w ords o f o th e r stru ctu ral types. R oot-w ords also serve as p a re n t fo rm s fo r all tv p es o f derived and co m p o u n d w ords. 3.3. T h e M e th o d o f Im m ediate and U ltim ate C o n stitu en ts T he seg m e n tatio n o f w o rd s is generally carried out a c co rd in g to the m ethod o f Im m ediate and U ltim ate C o n stitu en ts. T his m ethod is based on the b in ary p rin cip le, i.e. each stage o f the pro ced u re in v o lv es tw o com ponents the w ord im m ediately b re a k s into. A t each stage these tw o com p o n en ts are refe rre d to as the Im m ediate C onstituents. E ach Im m ed iate C onstituent at the next stage o f an aly sis is in turn broken into sm aller m ea n in g fu l elem ents. T he analysis is com pleted w hen w e a rriv e at constituents incapable o f fu rth er d iv isio n , i.e. m orphem es. T hese are referred to U ltim ate C onstituents. ^ 1 A sam ple an alysis w h ich has becom e alm ost classical, being' fep e a te d m an y tim es by m any authors, is L. B lo o m fie ld s analysis o f the w ord ungentlem anly. A t th e first sight w e obtain the folio*vi.v iiu'.ucdiatc c o n stitu e n ts:!) un gentlem anly, 2} gen tlem an - + ly, 3} gentle 4) gent- +le. A s a p a tte rn show ing the interdependence o f all th e co n stitu en ts segregated at various stages w e o b ta in th e follow ing form ula: U n- + { [ ( gent- + -le) + -m an] + -ly} T he IC s un-, -le, -m an, -ly cannot be broken into any s m a lle r elem en ts possessing both sound-form and m ean in g . U n-, gent-, le-, -m an and - l y are u ltim ate c o n stitu e n ts o f the word. M o ip h em ic a n a ly sis under the m ethod o f ultim ate c o n stitu en ts m ay be carried out on the basis o f tw o p rin cip les: th e so-called root principle and affix p rin c ip le . A ccording to the affix p rinciple w e have th e identification o f the suffix - e r in the w o rd s teach er, singer, leader into the derivational m o rp h em e - e r and the roots teach-, sing-, lead-. A c c o rd in g to the root-principle, the segm entation o f the w ord is based on the identification ofd the ro o t-m o rp h e m e in a w ord-clusler, e.g. the iden tificatio n o f the root-m orphem e agree- in the w ords a g re e a b le , agreem ent, disagree. .'imuiiuicj not o a iy iiic soeiiteiitaiiuu ui w oids into m o rp h e m es, but tiie recognition oi certain so u n d -c lu ste rsas m orphem es becom es doubtful w hich n a tu ra lly affects the classification o f w ords. In w o rd s lik e retain, detain, contain o r receive, d eceiv e, c o n ceive, p erc e iv e the so u n d -clu sters [ri-], [di-] seem to be singled q u ite easily, on the other hand, they u n d o u b ted ly h a v e n o thing in com m on w ith the p h o n etically id entical prefixes re-, de- as found in w o rd s re-w rite , re-organize, de-organize, de-co d e.M o reo v er, n e ith e r the sound-cluster [ri-] o r [di-], n o r [-tein] o r [-si:v] possess any lexical or fu n ctio n al m ean in g o f their ow n.Y et, these so u n d -clu sters are felt as having a certain m eaning b ecau se [ri-] distinguishes retain from detain and [-tein] distin g u ish es retain from receive. T hey are n e ith e r affixes n o r roots. They are set apart from, all o th e r types o f m orphem es and are know n in lin g u istic literature as pseudo m orphem es. 3.4* D erivational L evel o f A nalysis. Stem s. Types o f S tem s T h e m orphem ic an alysis o f w ords only defines the co n stitu en t m o rp h em es, determ ining their j ynes ni>d the'!but not reveJ the h ierarchv o f ih ? m o rp h em es c o tn n ^ b .c th<r w ord. M orphem es are arranged according to certain rules, the a rra n g in g differing in various types o f w ords and p a rtic u la r groups w ithin the sam e types. T h e rela tio n s w ithin the word and the in terrelatio n s b e tw e en different types and classes o f w ords a re k n o w n as derivative or wordform atiorl relations. T h e basic unit at the derivational level is the stem . T he stem is defined as the part o f the w ord w hich rem ain s un ch an g ed throughout the paradigm . T hus, the stem w hich appears in the paradigm To ask, ask s, asked, asking is ask. Stem s can be sim p le and derived. Sim ple stem s are sem an tically n o n-m otivated and do not Constitute a p a tte rn on analogy w ith w hich new stem s m ay be m o d eled . S im ple stem s are generally m o n o m o rp h ic and phonetically identical w ith the ro o t-m o rp h e m e F o r exam ple, for the w ord hearty a n d fo r th e paradigm heart - hearts the stem m ay be rep resen ted as heart-. It is a

D eriv ed stem s are m otivated, i.e. they are understood on the b asis o f the derivative relations betw een th eir IC s and the correlated stem s T he d e lv e d stem s are m o stly polym orphic, i.e. th e y . consist o f a ro o t m o rp h em e and an affix. T he stem o f the p aradigm hearty - h e a rtie r (the) heartiest, for exam ple, is a derived stem : hearty-. Q uestions and T asks 1. G ive th e d efinition o f the sm allest language unit. 2. P o in t o u t different types o f m orphem es. 3. W h at is a root m orphem e and w hat is its function? 4. W h at is a -w o rd -fam ily ? M ake up w ord-fam ilies for the fo llow ing roots: dog, hand, system , resist, trust. 5. W h at is the d ifference betw een inflectional and derivational affixed? G ive examples. 6. H o w are derivational affixes classified according to their p o sition? 7. W h at is the m ain function Q fprefixes/'suffixes in ? w ord? 8. W h at is the d ifference betw een free and bound m orphem es? Speak about free and bound m orphem es from the w ords: alliteration, incredible, ladybird, disrespectable, light-hearted. 9. W hat are allom orphs? 10. H ow do we call the m ethod used in carrying oul the m o rp h em ic segm entation o f woi'ds? W hat does it consist in? 11. M ak e the m orphem ic analysis o f the w ord unlaw fully, applying the m ethod o f Im m ed iate and U ltim ate Constituents. 12. W hat is a stem ? W hat is the difference betw een sim ple and derived stem s? a

4. W ord M eaning *\ 4 .1. W ord M eaning as the Subject o f S em asiology S e m a sio lo g y (or sem antics) is the branch o f linguistics concerned w ith the m eaning o f w ords and w ord equivalents. The nam e com es from the G reek sem asia - siguifica, tio n { from sem a - sign, sem antikos significant and lo g o s - learning). Se m asiology is singled out as an independent branch o f lexicology alongside etym ology, phraseology, lexicography and w ordform ation. A t the sam e tim e it is often referred to as the central b ran ch o f lexicology. The im portance o f lexicology m ay b e accounted for by three m ain considerations: 1. L anguage is the basic hum an com m unication system , the sem antic side form s the back b o n e o f com m unication. 2. B y d efinition lexicology deals w ith w ords, m orphem es and word-groups. All these lin g u istic units have both form and m eaning. 3. S em asio lo g y underlines all other branches o f lexicology. M eaning is the object o f sem asiological study. T he lin g u istic science at present cannot put forw ard a d e fin itio n o f m eaning w hich is conclusive. T h e very function o f the w ord as a unit o f co m m unication is m ade possible by its possessing a m eaning. T herefore, am ong the w ords various characteristics, m eaning is certainly the m ost im portant. T he com plex relationships betw een referent (object denoted by th e w ord), concept and w ord are/traditionally represented by a triangle: Concept

W ord ............................ , Referent They are connected directly that m eans that if we hear a so u n d -fo rm a certain idea arises in our m ind and the idea brings out a certain referent that exists in the reality.B ut thegound-form and the referent are connected indirectly because there are no o bjects o r phenom ena in the reality

that p redict a certain so'und-forni. that n e e d /to be nam ed by a certain sequence o f sounds. T he doted line suggests that there is no im m ediate relation betw een w ord arid referent : it is established only th rough the concept. T his tria n g u la r schem e was suggested by the G erm an m ath em atician and philosopher G otlieb F re g e (1848 -1925). W ell-know n E n g lish scholars C .K .O g d en and I.A .R ichards adopted dais th ree-co rn ered pattern w ith considerable m odifications. It is K now n u n d e r sev eral nam es: the sem antic triangle, triangle o f sig n ificatio n , F rege sem iotic triangle, O gden and R ichards basic triangle or sim ply basic triangle. T he m o d ern ap p ro ach to sem antics is based on the assu m p tio n that the inner form o f the w ord (id est its m eaning) presents a structure w hich is called the s e m a n t ic structure o f the w ord. M odern ap p ro ach es to this problem are characterized by tw o d ifferent levels o f study: syntagm atic and paradigm atic. O n the syntagm atic level, the sem antic structure o f the w ord is analysed in its lin ear relatio n sh ip s w ith its neighbouring w ords in connected speech. O n th e parad ig m atic level, the w ord is studied in its relationships w ith o th er w ords in the vocabulary system . So, a word m ay b e studied in co m p ariso n w ith other w ords o f sim ilar m eaning (e.g. w ork, n. - labour, n .; to refuse, v. - to reject, v. - to decline, v.), o f o p p o site m ean in g (e.g. busy, adj. - idle, ad j. ; tc^iccept, v. - to reject, v.), o f different stylistic ch aracteristics (e.g. m an, n. *- chap, n. - bloke, n. - guy, n.). C o n seq u en tly , the m ain p roblem s o f p aradigm atic studies are syn o n y m y , antonym y, functional styles. 4.2. T ypes o f M eaning .T h e tw o m ain types o f m eaning that are really o b served are th e gram m atical and the lexical m eanings to be found in w ords and w ord-form s. G ram m atical m eaning. W e can notice that w ord-form s, such a s boys, parents, books, days, etc. th o u g h den o tin g w idely different o b jects o f reality h av e so m eth in g in com m on. T his com m on e le m en t is the gram m atical m eaning o f plu rality w hich can be found in all o f them. T he elem en ts o f the gram m atical m eaning can be identified by the p o sitio n o f the E in g u istic u n it in relation to other linguistic units, i.e. by its d istrib u tio n .T h e w ord-form sreads,'' speaks, w rites have one and the sam e gram m atical m eaning a s they can all b e fo u n d in identical d istrib u tio n , e.g. o n ly after the pronouns he, she, it and before ad v erb s like w ell, badly, today, etc. It fo llo w s th at a certain com ponent o f the m eaning o f the w ord is d escrib ed w hen you id en tify it as a p art o f speech, since d iffe re n t parts o f speech are d istrib u tio n ally different (cf. m y w ork and I w ork). L ex ical m eaning. C om paring w ord-form s o f on e and th e sam e w o rd w e o b serv e th at besides the g ram m atical m ea n in g , there is another c o m p o n e n t o f m ean in g to b e fo u n d in them .T he w ordform s go, goes, w ent, going, g o n e possess d iffe re n t gram m atical m ea n in g s o f tense, person and so on, b u t in each o f these form s w e find one a n d the sam e sem an tic c o m p o n e n t denoting the pro cess o f m o v em en t. T his is the lexical m ea n in g o f the w ord. T h e d iffe re n c e betw een the gram m atical and lexical co m p o n en ts o f th e m ean in g is the w ay they are co n v ey ed . T he concept o f plurality, e.g. m ay be ex p ressed by th e lexical m eaning o f the w ord p lu ra lity ; it m ay also be expressed in the form s o f various w o rd s irresp ectiv e o f the lexical m ean in g , e.g. parents, countries, books,etc. It fo llo w s th at by the lexical m eaning w e d esig n ate the m eaning p ro p er to the g iv en linguistic unit in all its form s and d istributions, w hile by the gram m atical m eaning w e designate the m ean in g p ro p e r to sets o f w ord-form s com m on to all w ords o f a ce rtain class. B oth the lexical and th e g ram m atic a l m ean in g m ake up the w o rd-m eaning, as n e ith e r can e x ist w ith o u t the other. P a rt-o f-S p e e c h M eaning. W e classify lexical item s into m a jo r w o rd -cla sse s (nouns, verbs, ad jectiv es and ad v e rb s) and m inor w o rd ;d a s s e s (articles, p rep o sitio n s, co n ju n ctio n s, etc.) A ll m em b ers o f a m a jo r w ord-class share a d istin g u ish in g sem an tic c o m p o n e n t o f a part-of-speech m eaning. F o r e x a m p le , the m eaning o f su b sta n tia lity m ay be fo u n d in all the nouns, e.g. books, boy, su g a r, th o u g h th ey p o ssess different gram m a-

tical m eanings o i n u m b e r, case, etc. ^ The gram m atical a sp e c t o f the part-oi-speech m ean in g s is conveyed as ajrule by a s e t o f forms. I f w e d escrib e the w ord as a noun we m ean to say th a t it is bound to possess a set o f fo rm s expressing the g ram m atic a l m eaning o f num ber (cf. book - books), case (cf,. boy - b o y 's \ an d so on. A verb is understood to p o ssess se ts o f form s e x p re s s in g ^ .g . te n s e m eaning (w orked, w o rk s ), m ood-m eaning (work! - 1 w ork), etc. T he part-ofspeech m eaning o f the w o rd s that possess only one form ,e.g. p rep o sitio n s, som e adverbs, e tc . is observed only in th eir d istrib u tio n (cf. to com e in / here / th ere and in / on / under the table). The lexical m e a n in g o f w ords is not hom ogenious and m ay be analysed as in c lu d in g denotative and c o n n o ta tiv e com ponents. D enotative M e an in g . It is its literal m eaning - the d e fin itio n from a dictionary. F o r exam ple, the d e n o ta tio n o f the w ord cat i s a sm all a n im al w ith so ft fur that people o ften k e e p as a pet , W hen you talk ab o u t a cat, m ost people will u n d erstan d w h at you are referring to. C onnotative M ean in g . C onnotation is the range o f fu rth e r asso ciatio n s that a word o r p h ra s e suggests in a d d itio n to its straightforw ard dictionary m ean in g . W o rd s connotations can u su a lly be form ulated as a s e rie s o f qualities, contexts, and e m o tio n a l responses com m only a sso c ia te d w ith its referent. W h ich o f these w ill be activated by th e w ord w ill depend on the c o n te x t in w hich it is used, an d to so m e degree on the reader o r hearer. L e ts take the e x a m p le o f the w ord cat . Tw o p eo p le m ay u n d erstan d w hat the w ord c a t denotes. O ne person m ay have grow n up around cats a n d learn ed to enjoy their com pany. T h e other, how ever, m ay h a v e been attacked by a cat w h en y o u n g , and so s/he associates the w o rd ^cat w ith very u n p le a sa n t em otions and judgem ents. S o, the m eaning o f the w ord c a t (in term s o f its asso c ia tio n s) is different for each o f those p eople. T he em otions and feelings th at a w ord creates are c alled its c o n n o tativ e m eaning. P ersonal c o n n o ta tio n is w hat w as described above w ith the w ord cat . It is the em otions o r feelings c re a te d by a w ord in any individual. G en eral co n n otation is different it is w hat a w ord m eans to a large group o f people; a m ind p ic tu re th at is shared.T ake a m an s b eard , for exam ple. In V ic to ria n tim es, the im age o f a b e a rd e d m an w as th at o f a proper o ld e r gentlem an - a g ra n d fa th e r, perhaps. B ut in the 1960s a b e a rd e d m a n cam e to m ean u n sh av en hippie . G eneral c o n n o ta tio n d o e sn t m ean that e v e ry b o d y in th e w orld thinks the sam e- w a y about so m eth in g , ju s t th a t large groups o f people do.

4.3. W ord M eaning and M otivation. T he term m o tiv a tio n is used to denote the rela tio n sh ip ex istin g betw een the p h onem ic o r m o rp h em ic c o m p o sitio n and structural pattern o f the w o rd o n th e o n e hand, and its m eaning o n the other. T h ere are th re e m a in types o f m otivation; p h o n e tic , m orphological and sem an tic m otivation. W hen there is a d ire c t co n nection betw een the p h o n e tic stru ctu re o f the w ord an d its m eaning, th e m o tiv a tio n is phonetic, for exam ple, b ang, b o o m , splash, sw ish, w histle, etc. P honetically m o tiv ate d w o rd s are denoting noises p ro d u ce d by b ird s and anim als as m o st o f them are sound im ita tiv e : cu ck o o , quack, buzz, m eow , m o o , etc. T he so u n d -c lu ste r [in] is im itative o f sound or sw ift m o v e m e n t, as can be seen in w ords rin g , sw ing, sing, fling, e tc. T h e initial [gl] is associated w ith lig h t a n d fire: glare, glitter, glow , glim m er, etc. T h u s, p h o n e tic a lly such w ords m ay be c o n sid e re d m o tiv ated . T he re la tio n sh ip b e tw e e n m orphem ic structure and m ea n in g is term ed m orphological m otivation. T he p refix ex - m eans fo rm er w hen ad d ed to h u m an nouns: ex-w ife, ex-president. A longside w ith th ese c a se s there is a m ore general use o f ex-: in borrow ed w ords it is un stressed and m o tiv atio n is fad e d : ex p ect, export, etc. The d eriv ed w o rd reth in k is m otivated as its m o rp hological stru c tu re su g g e sts the idea o f thinking again. R e- is one o f the m ost prefixes o f the E n g lish lan g u ag e, it m ean s ag a in and back and is ad d ed to verbal stem s, as in rebuild, resell, rese ttlem e n t, etc. T he th ird type o f m o tiv a tio n is called sem antic m o tiv atio n . It is based on the coexistence o f direct a n d fig u ra tiv e m e a n in g s o f the sam e word w ithin the sa m e sy n ch ro n o u s system . M o u th

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continues to denote a p art o f the hum an face, and at the sam e tim e it c a n m etaphorically a p p ly to any opening or outlet: the m o u th o f a river, o f a Cave, etc. Jacket is a sh o rt c o a t and also a protective cover for a book. In their direct m e a n in g neither m outh nor ja c k e t is m otivated. W hen the connection b etw een the m eaning o f the w ord and its form is conventional i.e. th ere is no reason for the w ord h a v in g this particular phonem ic and m o rp h e m ic com position, the w o rd is said to be no n-m otivated. Som etim es the sp eak ers c h an g e the form o f a w ord so as to g iv e it a connection w ith so m e w ell-know n w ord to find a m o tiv atio n for a borrow ed w ord. T h is is fo lk etyM ology. T his p h en o m en o n is not very frequent, for exam ple, a n ig h tm are is not a sh e-h o rse that appears at n ig h t but a terrify in g dream personified in fo lk lo re a s a fem ale m onster (O E m a r a - an evil sp irit). T he international radiotelephone signal m a y -d a y C orresponding to the teleg rap h ic SOS used by aiq^lanes and sh ip s in distress has nothing to do w ith the First o f M ay but is a phonetic rendering o f F ren ch m aid es - help m e. Q u e stio n T a s k s 1. W hat is sem asio lo g y a n d w hat does it study? 2. W hat are the m ain d iffe re n c es betw een studying w ords sy n ta g m a tic a lly and parad ig m atically ? 3. W hat is m eant by the lexical and the gram m atical m e a n in g s in a w ord? H ow is a w o rd s gram m atical m ea n in g ex p ressed ? H ow is a w o rd s lex ical m e a n in g expressed? 4. W hat is the d iffe re n c e b etw een the m eaning o f a w ord as a p a rt-o f-sp ee c h and its ow n . individual m w an in g ? 5. W hat are the d e n o ta tiv e m eanings o f the w ords: mother, home, heart ? W hat are the connotative m ea n in g s o f these w ords? 6. T he w ords strong-willed and pig-headed have the sam e literal m eaning: stubborn . 'W hat about th eir c o n n o ta tiv e m eanings? 7. C om m ent on the m ea n in g s o f the w ord fox in the fo llo w in g sen ten ces: A fo x was seen

prowling around the chicken coop. Mary doesn 't trust John, because h e s such a fox.

8. W hat is m ean t by the m o tiv atio n o f the w ord? W hat are th e m a in ty p es o f m otivation o f
w ords?

9. W hen do w e say a w o rd is phonetically? W hich o f the fo llo w in g w ords are phonetically m otivated: babble, fine, flimflam, giggle, hiss, king, murmur, purr, swing, thing?
10. H ow can you d e scrib e the sem antic m otivation o f w ords? 5. Sem antic C hange W o rd-m eaning is liab le to change in the course o f th e h isto ric a l developm ent o f the language. T h e w ord fo n d used to m ean foolish , fo o lish ly c re d u lo u s ; glad had the m eaning o f b rig h t s h in in g and so on. T he study o f se m a n tic ch an g e only dates back to the 1900s. T h e pioneering work w as carried o ut by the F re n ch lin g u ist M ichel B re a k w ho p u b lish e d h is b o o k E ssai de sem antique in 1899. B real w as so o n fo llo w e d by m ost linguists, w ho d e fin e d m echanism s o f sem antic change in h arm ony w ith h is findings. A ccordingly, in 1921 th e G e rm a n linguist-H erm ann H irt classified sem an tic c h a n g es u n d e r six categories: narrow ing, p e io ra tio n , am elioration, extension, m etaphor and m eto n y m y . A few years later, Jost T rier, a G e rm a n linguist, who presented his findings in 1934, w as the first one to point out the im p o rtan ce o f lex ical/sem an tic fields. In his studies he show ed how th e stru ctu re o f the G erm an language h ad ch an g ed betw een 1200 and 1300. 5.1. T ypes o f S em antic C h a n g e S em antic ch an g es h av e, been classified by different sc ie n tists. B u t the m ost com plete classificatio n w as su g g e ste d by the G erm an scientist H erm an P au l in his w ork Prinzipien des S p rach g esch ih te . It is th e se m a n tic change on the logical p rin c ip le . H e distinguishes two m ain w ays w here the se m a n tic ch a n g e is gradual (specialization a n d g e n e ra liz a tio n ), two m om entary

The above sch em e suggests that m eaning {1 ) holds a kind o f dom inance over the other m eanings conveying the concept in the m ost general w ay w hereas m eanings (2)-(5) are associated w ith special circum stances, aspects and instances o f the sam e phenom enon. M eaning (1), generally referred to as the m ain m eaning, presents the centre o f the sem antic stru ctu re o f the word holding it together. It is m ainly through m eaning ( I ) that m eanings (2)-(5 ) (they are called secondary m eanings) can be associated w ith one another, so m e o f them exclusively through m eaning (1), as, for instance, m eanings (4) and (5).N ot e v e ry polysem antic w ord can have such a center. Som e sem antic structures are arranged on a d ifferent principle.In the follow ing list o f m eanings o f the adjective dull one can h ard ly hope to find a generalized m eaning covering and holding together the rest o f the sem an tic structure:

f.e.

Dull, adj.

1) N ot in terestin g , boring; e.g. a dull book 2) Slow in understan d in g , stupid; e.g. a dull pupil 3) N ot brig h t o r shiny; e.g. a dull colour 4 ) N ot clear o r loud; e.g. a dull sound 5) N ot sh arp , b lunt; e.g. a dull knife 6) N ot activ e, slo w ; e.g. a dull market Y et, o n e d istin ctly feels that there is som ething th a t all these seem ingly m iscellaneous m eanings h a v e in com m on, and that is the im plication o f deficiency, be it o f colour (3), w it (2), in terest (1), sharpness (5), etc. T he im p licatio n o f insufficient quality, o f som ething lack in g , can be clearly distinguished in each separate m eaning. In fact, each m ea n in g definition in the given sch em e can be subjected to a tran sfo rm atio n al operatio n to prove the point:

Dull, adj.
1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) N o t in te restin g S tu p id N o t b rig h t N o t loud N o t sharp N o t a c tiv e > deficient in interest > deficient in intellect > deficient in brightness o r b rillian ce > deficient in sound > deficient in sharpness > deficient in activity

T h e tra n sfo rm e d schem e o f th e sem antic stru ctu re o f dull clearly show s th a t th e cen tre h o ld in g to g e th e r th e com plex sem antic stru c tu re o f th is w o rd is n o t one o f the m ea n in g s b u t a certain com ponent th a t can b e e asily singled out w ith in each sep arate m ean in g . T h is b rin g s us to the second level o f a n a ly sis o f the s e m a n tic stru c tu re o f a w ord. T h e tra n sfo rm atio n a l operation w ith th e m ean in g d efin itio n s o f dull reveals so m e th in g v e ry sig n ifican t: the sem an tic stru ctu re o f th e w ord is d iv isib le n o t o n ly at the level o f d iffe re n t m eanings but, also, a t a d eep er level. In term s o f com ponential a n aly sis, o n e o f th e m o d em m ethods o f sem antic research , the m ea n in g o f a w o rd is d e fin e d as a se t o f elem ents o f m ean in g w h ich a re n o t p a rt o f th e v o c a b u la ry o f th e

language itself, but rather theoretical elem ents, postulated in order to describe the sem antic rela tio n s betw een the lexical elem ents o f a given language. The sch em e o f the sem antic structure o f dull show s that the sem antic structure o f a word is not a m ere system o f m eanings, for each separate m eaning is subject to further su b d iv isio n and possesses an inner structure o f its ow n. T herefore, th e sem antic structure o f a w ord sh o u ld be investigated at both these levels: (a) o f d iffe re n t m eanings and (b) o f sem antic com ponents w ithin each separate m eaning. F o r a m onosem antic w ord (i.e. a w ord w ith one m eaning) the first level is naturally excluded^___ 5.2 T ypes o f S em an tic C om ponents The leading sem an tic com ponent in the sem antic structure o f a w ord is usually term ed denotative co m p o n en t. T he denotative com ponent ex p re sse s the conceptual content o f a word. T he fo llo w in g list presents denotative co m p o n en ts o f som e E nglish adjectives and verbs: D e n o ta tiv e Lonely > To glare > To glance > To shiver > To shudder > c o m p o n e n ts alo n e to look to look to trem ble to trem ble

T i e d e fin itio n s given in the right colum n o n ly p artially and incom pletely describe the m eanings o f th eir corresponding w ords. It is n ecessary to include in the schem e o f analysis a d d itio n a l sem antic com ponents w hich are term ed co nnotations or co n notative co m p o n en ts.

D en otative C om ponents
lonely to glare to g lance to sh iv er to sh u d d e r > a lo n e > to lo o k > to lo o k > to trem b le > to tre m b le

C onnotative com ponents

> sad, unhappy > steadily, angrily > hastily o r briefly > slightly, as form cold o f fear > suddenly and v io len tly , as fro m h orror, aversion, etc

T he a b o v e e x a m p le s show how by singling o u t d e n o ta tiv e and connotative c o m p o n en ts o n e c a n g et a sufficiently clear p ic tu re o f w h a t th e w ord realty m eans.

O n e o f th e m o st im portant draw backs o f p o ly se m a n tic w o rd s is th at there is, so m etim es a c h a n c e o f m isunderstanding w hen a w o rd is u sed in a certain m eaning but a c ce p ted b y a listen e r o r read er in another, f.e. C u sto m e r: ^ v o i d d like a book, please.

B ookseller: Som ething light? C ustom er: That doesn 'tmatter. I have m y car w ith me. In this conversation the custom er is honestly m isled by the polysem y o f the adjective light taking it in the literal sense w hereas the bookseller uses the word in its figurative m eaning not serious; entertaining . G enerally speaking, it is com m on know ledge th at context is a pow erful preventative ag ain st any m isunderstanding o f m eanings. For instance, the adjective dull, i f used out o f context, w ould m ean different things to different people or nothing at all. It is only in com bination w ith other w ords that it reveals its actual m eaning: a dull pupil, a dull book, a dull razor, dull w eather, etc. Som etim es, how ever, such a m inim um c o n te x t fails to reveal the m eaning o f the w ord, and it m ay be correctly interpreted only through w hat Professor N. A m osova term ed a second-degree context, as in the fo llo w in g exam ple: T he man w as large, but his w ife w as even fatter. The w ord fatter here serves as a kind o f indicator pointing th at large describes a stout man and not a big one. Scholars have estabilished that the sem antics o f w ords characterized by com m on occurrences (i.e. w ords w hich regularly appear in com m on contexts) are correlated and, therefore, one o f the w ords w ithin such a pair can be studied through the other. For instance, a study o f typical contexts o f the adjective bright in the first pattern will give us the fo llo w in g sets: a) bright colour (flow er, d ress, silk, etc.). b) bright m etal (gold, je w e ls, arm our, etc.), c) bright student (pupil, boy, fellow , etc.), d) bright face (sm ile, eyes, etc.) and som e others. T hese sets w ill lead us to singling out the m eanings o f the ad jective related to each set o f com binations: a) intensive in colour, b) shining, c) cap ab le, d) gay, etc. T he negative evaluative connotation o f the adjective n o to rio u s is linked w ith the negative connotation o f th e nou n s w ith w hich it is reg u larly asso ciated : a notorious crim inal, thief, gangster, g am bler, gossip, liar, etc. A ll th is leads us to the conclusion that context is a good and reliable key to the m ean in g o f th e w ord. Q u e s tio n s a n d T a s k s 1. W h at is a p o ly sem an tic w ord? Is polysem y an advantage or a disadvantage in a lan g u ag e? E x p lain y our answ er. 2. D e sc rib e th e tw o levels o f analysis th e sem antic stru ctu re o f a w o rd should be in v estig ated at. 3. W h a t k in d s o f m ean in g s can w e discern in th e sem an tic stru ctu re o f a p o ly se m a n tic w ord? 4. W h at a re th e,tw o ty p es o f sem an tic com ponents in the sem an tic structure o f a w o rd a n d w h a t do th ey ex p ress? 5. H o w are lex ical m eanings o f polysem antic w ords estab ilish ed ? 6. W h a t is m e a n t by co m binability? 7. E s ta b ilish th e m ean in g o f th e w ord black in th e fo llo w in g sets o f com binations: b la c k g lo v es; b lac k th o ughts; b lack people; b lac k p eriod; b lac k n ight; black m ark et; b la c k h u m our; b lac k look; black coffee; b lac k hands.

a)days o f the w eek, e.g. M on. - M onday, Sun. -Sunday; b) nam es o f m onths, e.g. Apr. - A pril, N ov. - Novem ber; c) nam es o f counties in the Uk, e.g. Yorks. - Yorkshire. Berks. - B erkshire; d) nam es o f states in the U SA, e.g. Aia. - Alabama, Minn. - M innesota; e) nam es o f address, e.g. M r., M rs., Dr.; 0 m ilitary ranks, e.g. Capt. - captain, Sgt. - sergeant; g)scientific degrees, e.g. B.A. - B achelor o f A rts, D.Sc. - D octor o f Science; h) units o f time, length, w eight, e.g. sec. - second, kg - kilogram . The reading o f som e graphical abbreviations depends on the context, for exam ple the abbreviation m. can be read as: m ale, m arried, m asculine, m inute; av. C an be read as

HPxav.erage.

.. ------ r

-.... ~ .........

/A cronym s, initialism s, and alphabetism s are abbreviations, such as N A T O , laser, ABC and N .A .S.A written as tlieTmTTaTlerter or letters o f words, and pronounced on the basis o f this abbreviated w ritten form. N ote that all acronyms are abbreviations, but not all abbreviations are acronym s. Initialism s originally referred to abbreviations formed from initials, w ithout reference to pronunciation, but during the m iddle portion o f the twentieth century, w hen they saw m ore use than ever before, the w ord acronym was coined for abbreviations that are pronounced as words, like N ato or ATDS. O f the words, acronym s is the m uch m ore frequently used and know n; and many use it to describe any abbreviation form ed from initial letters. This is a contentious point, how ever, and other sources differentiate between the two term s, restricting acronym to pronounceable words form ed from the letters o f each o f the constituent w ords, and using initialism or aiphabetism for abbreviations pronounced as the nam es o f the individual letters. Exam ples o f proper acronym s would be N ato [neiiau], and radar [reida:], while exam ples o f mere initialism s w ould include FBI [efbhai] and DNA [di:enei]. T here is no agreem ent as to w hat to call abbreviations that contain both separately pronounced letters and sequences o f letters pronounced as a word, such as CD-ROM [si:di:rom] or M S-D O S [E M E S D O S], These abbreviations are som etim es referred to as acronym -initialism hybrids, although they are grouped by m ost under the broad m eaning o f acronym .

O ne should not confuse the productivity o f affixes with they- frequency o f occurrence. T here are quite a num ber o f high- frequency affixes. They are no longer used in w ord-derivation (e.g. the adjective-form ing native suffixes -fu l, -ly; the adjectiveform ing suffixes o f Latin origin-ant, -ent, -al which are quite frequent).

^Shortening. G raphical A bbreviations. A cronym s In th e process o f com m unication w ords and word-groups can be shortened. T he causes o f sho rten in g can be linguistic and extraiinguistic. By extralinguistic causes we mean ch an g es in the life o f people. In M odern English m any new abbreviations, acronym s, initialism s, blends are formed because the tem po o f life is increasing and it becomes necessary to give m ore and m ore inform ation in the shortest possible time. T h ere are also linguistic causes o f abbreviating words and w ord-groups, such as the dem and o f rhythm , w hich is satisfied in English by m onosyllabic w ords. When b o rro w in g s from other languages are assim ilated in English they are shortened. Here we have m odification o f form on the basis o f analogy, e.g. the Latin borrow ing fanaticus is sh ortened to fan on the analogy with native words man, pan, tan, etc. Shortenings are produced in tw o different ways. T he first is to m ake a new' word from a sy llab le (rarely, tw o) o f the original word. The Phone m ade from telephone; fence from defence )~its ending^(as in vac Trom v a c atio n ; ad from adverticem ent) or both the beginning and ending (as in flftfrom influenza; fridge from refrigerator). This type o f shortening is called clipping or cu rtailm ent. T h e second w ay o f shortening is to m ake a new word from the initial letters o f a wordgroup: e.g. U.N.O. from the U nited N ations O rganisation, B.B.C. from the British Broad c astin g C orporation, M .P. from M em ber o f Parliam ent or M edical Practitioner. T his type is c alled initial abbreviation. N e w ly shortened w ords appear continuously; this is testified by num erous neologisms, such as d u b from double; frig or fridge from refrigerator ; m ike from m icrophone; telly o r T V from television ; trank from tranquilizer ; vac from vacuum cleaner, etc. S h o rten in g m ay be regarded as a type o f root creation because the resulting new m o rp h em es are capable o f being used as free forms and com bine with bound form s. They can tak e functional suffixes: e.g. bike -b ik e s; to vac -v ack in g - vacked. M ost o f these by co nversion produce verbs: to phone, to vac, to vet, etc. T hey also serve as basis for fu rth e r w ord-form ation by derivation or com position: e.g. fancy (from fantasy): fancier, fanciful, fancifully, fancifulness, fancy-ball, fancy-dress, fancy-w ork, etc. T h e correlation o f a curtailed word with its prototype is o f great interest. Tw o possible d e v e lo p m en ts should be noted: a )T h e curtailed form m ay be regarded as a variant o r a synonym differing from the full form quantitatively, stylistically and som etim es em otionally, the prototype being sty listic a lly and em otionally neutral, e.g. doc - doctor, exam - exam ination, B ecky - Re b ecca, Ja p s - the Japanese, etc. b) In th e opposite extrem e case the connection can be established only etim ologically. T h e d en otative or^exico-gram m atical m eaning or both may be changed so m uch that the c lip p in g becom e^a separate word. C onsequently a pair o f etym ological doublets comes into being: chap (a m an or boy) - chapm an (a pediar); fan (an enthusiastic devotee)

arian, -ee, -er, -ician , -ist, -or, and a few others. Fem inine suffixes m ay be classed as a subgroup o f personal noun suffixes. They are few and not frequent: -ess, -ine, -ette. C ollectivity, for instance, m ay be signaled by such suffixes as -d o m , -ery, -hood, -ship. Certain suffixes m ay be derogatory: -ard, -ling, -ster, -ton. Em otionally coloured dim inutive suffixes differ from the derogatory suffixes in that they are used to name not only presons but th in g s as well. This point m ay be illustrated by the suffixes: -ette, -kin, * let, -ock, -y/-ie/-ey. A nother essential feature o f affixes that should not be overlooked is their com bining pow er o r valence: not every affix is capable o f com bining with any given stem. Noun stem s can be follow ed by the noun-form ing suffixes: -ag e, -dom , -ess, -hood, -ian, -ics, let, - s h ip ,; by the adjective-form ing suffixes: -al, -an, -ary, -ed, -ful, -ic (al), -ish, -like, ly, -ous, -som e, -y; verb-form ing suffixes: -ate, -en, -(i)fy, -ize. Verbal stem s com bine with the follow ing noun-form ing suffixes: -age, -al, -ance/-ence, -ant/-ent,-ee, -er/-or,ing, -ion/-tion/-ation,-m ent. The adjective-form ing suffixes used with verbal stem s are: abe/-ible,-ive/-sive/-tive, -som e. A djective stem s furnish a shorter list:-dom , -ism, -(i)ty, ness, -ish, -ly, -ate, -en, -(i)fy. The sem antic effect o f a prefix m ay be termed adverbial because it m odifies the idea suggested by the stem for m anner, tim e, place, degree and so on. A few exam ples will prove the point: th e prefix m is-m odifies the corresponding verbs for m anner; the prefixes pre- and post - re fe r to tim e and order (e.g. historic- prehistoric, view - preview ); the prefixes in-,a-,ab-,super-,sub-,trans-m odify the stem for place (e.g. subw ay, transatlantic); out-, over- and u nder- serve to m odify the m eaning o f the stem for degree and size (e.g. underfeed, overestim ate). N egative prefixes are very num erous in English: de-, dis-, in/il-/im -/ir-, non-, un-. A very frequent prefix with a great com bining pow er is re-denoting repetition o f the action expressed by the stem. It m ay be prefixed to alm ost any verb or verbal noun: rearrange, rem arriage, etc. From the p oint o f view o f etym ology affixes are subdivided into tw o main classes: native affixes and borrow ed affixes. By native affixes w e mean those that existed in English in the O ld E nglish period o r were form ed from O ld English w ords. The most im portant native affix es are the suffixes: -dom, -ed, -en, -er, -fold, -ful, -hood, -ing, -ish, less, -let, -like, -lo ck , -ly, -ness, -red, -ship, -som e, -teen, -th, -w ard, -w ise, -y, and the prefixes: be-, fore-, m is-, out-, over-, step-, un-, under-, etc.Borro\ved affixes are num erous in the E nglish vocabulary. They are classified according to their source into Latin (-able, -al, -ant, -ar, -ary, -ate, -ct, -ent, -fy, -ial, -ible, -ine, -ive, -ion, -ise, -ize, -ive, -or, -ory, -tion, -ty, -ty; ante-, bi-> com -, dis-, ex-, extra-, uni-), French (-age, -ance, -ancy, -ard, -ence, -ery, -ess, -esque, -ette, -ment, -ous,; en-), G reek (-cracy, -ics, -ism , -ist, -ite, phobe, -phone; hyper-, m ega-, neo-, poly-, pro-, syn-), etc. A ffixes can also b e classified according to their productivity into productive and non productive. B y p ro d u ctiv e affixes w e mean the ones, w hich take part in deriving new w ords in this p a rticu la r period o f language developm ent. Som e productive affixes are: the noun-form ing su ffix es - e r , -ing, -ness, -ism, -ist, -ance, the adjective- form ing su ffix e sy, -ish, -ed, -able, -less, the verb-form ing suffixes -iz e /-is e , -ate, the adverb-form ing suffix-ly and the prefix es anti-, dis-, non-, pre-, post-, re-, un-, etc. T he suffixes - th hood, -som e, -en, -ous are classified as non-productive.

- fanatic (a person w hose enthusiasm for something is extrem e or beyond normal lim its ), etc. In both types the clipped form s exist in the language alongside their respective prototypes. The difference, how ever, is that whereas words belonging to the first group can be replaced by their prototypes being interchangeable, the doublets are never eq u iv alen t lexically as there are no contexts where the prototype can replace the shortened w ord w ithout a change o f m eaning. U nlike conversion, shortening produces new words in the sam e part o f speech. The b u lk o f curtailed w ords is constituted by nouns. Verbs are hardly ever shortened in presen t-d ay English. Rev from revolve and tab from tabulate m ay be considered ex ceptions. Such clipped verbs as to phone, to taxi, to vac: to vet and m any others are form ed by m eans o f conversion from abbreviated nouns. Shortened adjectives are very few and mostly reveal a com bined effect o f shortening and suffixation, e.g. com fy (from com fortable), dilly (from delightful ), im poss ( from im possible), m izzy (from m iserable). The generally accepted classification o f shortened words is based on the position o f the clipped part. A ccording to the clipped part we distinguish: 1) B ack clipping (or apocope), in which the beginning o f the prototype is retained, e.g. gym (from gym nastics), lab (from laboratory), mac (from m ackintosh). Here w e can m ention a group o f w ords ending in o, such as disco (from discotheque), e x p o (from exposition), intro (from introduction), etc. On the analogy w ith these words there developed in M odern E nglish a num ber o f words where o is^dded as a kind o f a suffix to the shortened form o f the word, e.g. combo (from com bination), A fro (from A frican ), etc. 2) F ore-clipping (or aphaeresis),^n which the final type o f the prototype is retained, e.g. chute (from parachute), vjirsity (from university), copter (from helicopter), cello (from violoncello), etc. 3) M iddle clipping (or syncope), in which the middle part o f the word is left out, e.g. m art (from m arket), m aths (from m athem atics), spechs (from spectacles),etc. Som etim es w e have a com bination o f apocope with aphaeresis, w hen the beginning and the end o f the word are clipped, e.g. tec (from detective), van (from avanguard), flu (from influenza), fridge (from refrigerator), etc. G r a p h ic a l a b b re v ia tio n s are the result o f shortening o f words and w ord-groups only in w ritten speech w hile orally the corresponding full forms are used. T hey are used for the e c o n o m y o f space and effort in w riting. T he oldest group o f graphical abbreviations in English is represented by Latin abbrev iatio n s w hich som etim es are not read as Latin words but substituted by their E n g lish equivalents. A few o f th e m ost important cases are listed below : a.m. (Lat. Ante m erid ie m ) - in the m orning; cf, (Lat. Conferre) - com pare; e.g. (Lat. Exem pli g ratia) for exam ple ; ibid. (Lat. Ibidem ) - in the sam e place ; i.e. (Lat. Id est) th a t is ; loc.cit. (Lat. L ocus citato) - in the passage cited; p.m . (Lat. P ost m eridiem ) in th e afternoon ; q.v. (Lat. Q uod vide) - which see viz. (Lat. V idelicet) - nam ely . A ctu al letters are also read in the follow ing cases: a.m. [e iem ], e.g.,q.v.,p.m . T h ere are also graphical abbreviations o f native origin, w here in the spelling w e have ab b rev iatio n s o f w ords and w ord-groups o f the corresponding English equivalents in the full form . W e have several sem antic groups o f them:

Word Formation There are som e w ays o f word building (word form ation). T hey are: affixation, com position, con v ersio n , shortening and m inor ty p e rs o f word building. If view ed structurally, words appear to be divisible into sm aller units called m orphem es. All m orphem es are subdivided into tw o large classes; roots and affixes. The latter, in th eir turn, fall into prefixes which precede the root in the structure o f the word and suffixes w hich follow the root. W ords w hich co n sist o f a root and an affix (or several affixes) are called derived w ords o r derivatives and are produced by the process o f w ord-building known as a ff ix a tio n (or derivation). D erived w ords a re extrem ely num erous in the English vocabulary. Successfully com peting w ith th is structural type is the so-catled root w ord w hich has only a root m orphem e in its structure. This type is widely represented by a great num ber o f words belonging to the original English stock or to earlier borrow ings (e.g. house, book, table, e tc .) , and, in m odern English, has been gratly enlarged by the type o f word-building called conversion (e.g. to hand, to pale, a find, etc.). A nother w ide-spread w ord-structure is a com pound w ord consisting o f two or more stem s (e.g. bedroom , sunflow er, m other-in-law , etc.). W ords o f this structural type are produced by the w ord-building process called com position. The som ew hat odd-looking w ords like flu, lab , BBC , etc. are called shortenings, co n tractio n s, abbreviations or curtailed w ords and are produced by the way o f w ord-building called shortening (contraction, abbreviation o r curtailm ent). T he four types (ro o t words, derived words, com pounds, shortenings) represent the m ain structural ty p es o f M odern English words, and conversion, derivation and compo sition th e m ost productive w ays o f w ord-building. 1. A ffixation. C lassification o f Affixes T he process o f affixation consists in coining a new word by adding an affix or several affixes to som e ro o t m orphem e. The role o f the affix in this procedure is very important and therefore it is necessary to consider certain facts about the m ain types o f affixation. A ffixes are classified into prefixes and suffixes. Suffixes have been classified according to their origin, parts o f speech they served to form, their frequency, productivity and other characteristics. W ithin the p a rts o f speech suffixes have been classified sem antically according to lexico-gram m atical groups and sem antic fields, and according to the types o f stems they are added to. A ccording to the part o f speech they form , suffixes are classified into: noun-form ing suffixes (-age, -ance, -dom , -ee, -er, -ess, -hood, -ing, -ion, -ism , -ist, -m ent, -ness, -ship, ty), adjectiv e-fo rm in g suffixes (-able, -al, - ic ,- c a l,- a r y ,- a te ,- e d ,- f u ll, -ian ,-ish , - iv e ,less, -like, -ous, -som e, -y), verb-form ing suffixes (-ate, -er, -en, -fy, -ify ize), adverbform ing suffixes (-ly, -w ards, -w ise)). N um eral-form ing suffixes (-teen, -th, -ty). T aking up nou n s w e can subdivide them into proper and com m on nouns. Am ong com m on nouns w e distinguish personal nam es, nam es o f other anim ate beings, collective nouns,t m aterial n o u n s, abstract nouns, etc. A bstract nouns are signaled by the following suffixes: -age, -ance/-ence, -ancy/-ency, -dom , -hood, -ion/-tion/-ation, -ing, -ism, -m ent, -ness, -ship, -th, -ty. Personal nouns occur w ith the follow ing suffixes: -an, -ant/-ent, -

o f lexical/sem antic f i e l d ^ l n his studies he showed how the structure o f the German language had changed betwee'ir l? 0 0 and 1300. 5.1. Types o f Sem antic Change Sem antic changes have been classified by different scientists. B ut the most com plete classification was suggested by the G erm an scientist Herman Paul in his w ork Prinzipien des Sprachgeschihte . It is the sem antic change on the logical principle. He distinguishes two main ways w here the sem an tic change is gradual (specialization and generalization), two m om entary conscious sem antic changes(m etaphor and m etonym y) and also secondary ways: gradual (elevation and degradation), m om entary (hyperbole and litotes). Passing from general usage into som e special sphere o f com m unication a word as a rule undergoes som e sort o f specialization or narrow ing o f its m eaning. T he word case for instance alongside its general m eaning o f circum stances in w hich a person or a thing is possesses special m eanings: in law (a law suit), in gram m ar (a form in the paradigm o f a noun), in m edicine (a p atien t , an illness ). The w ord cell is used with different m eanings by a biologist, an electrician , a nun or a representative o f the law; o r the word gas as understood by a chem ist,a soldier, a housewife, a m otorist o r a m iner. The m eaning o f a w ord can specialize when it rem ains in the general usage. It happens in the case o f a conflict betw een tw o absolute synonym s w hen o n e o f them m ust specialize in its m eaning to rem ain in the l a n g u a g e , ^ . the native w ord m eat had the m eaning food(the earlier m eaning is still noticeable in the com pound sw eetm eat . The m eaning edible flesh w as form ed w hen the w ord food, its absolute sy n o n y m , w on in the conflict o f absolute synonym s (both w o rd s are native). A s a special group b elo n g in g to the sam e type one can m ention th e form ation o f proper nouns chiefly in toponym y, e.g.: th e C ity - the business p art o f L o n d o n ; the Highlands the m ountainous part o f S cotland; the O xford - U niversity tow n in England: the T ow er (o f L ondon) - originally a fortress and palace, later a state prison, n o w a m useum . The process reverse to specialization is term ed generalization o r w id en in g o f m eaning. In this case the scope o f the n ew notion is w ider than that o f the original one, w hereas the content o f the notion is poorer. T h u s,'rea d y (a derivative o f the v erb ridan- to ride) meant prepared for a ride ; n o w its m eaning is prepared for an y th in g . Jo u rn ey w as borrow ed from French w ith the m eaning one day trip, now it m eans a trip o f any duration . The verbrfto arrive,f(French b o rro w in g ) beg an its life in English in the n a rro w m eaning to com e to shore, to land . In M odern E nglish it has greatly w idened its com binability and developed the general m ea n in g to com e . A ll auxiliary v erb s are c ases o f generalization o f their lex ical m ean in g because they developed a gram m atical m ean in g : have, be, do, shall, w ill w h e n u sed as auxiliary verbs are devoid o f th eir lex ical m ea n in g w hich they have w hen used as n o tio n a l verbs o r mo^idal verbs, e.g. I ha v e several boo k s b y this w riter and I have read so m e b o o k s by this author. A m etaphor (G .r. m eta -c h a n g e and phero- bear) is a tra n sfe r o f nam e based on the association, o f sim ilarity and th u s is actually a hidden com parison. It p rese n ts a m ethod o f descrip tio n , w hich links o n e th in g to another by referring to it as i f it w e re som e other one. A cu n n in g person, for instance, is referred to as a fox; a w om an m ay b e c alled a p each , a lem o n , a cat , a lio n e ss , etc. M etap h o rs m ay b e b ased u p o n v e ry different types o f sim ilarity, fo r in stan ce, sim ilarity o f shape (h ead o f a cabbage, tee th o f a saw ), sim ilarity o f fu n ctio n (h e a d o f a com pany, the k ey t o a m ystery),, sim ilarity o f p o sition (foot o f a page, o f a m o u n ta in ). M any m etaphors are based o n p a rts o f a h u m an b o d y (anthropom orphic m eta p h o rs), e.g . e y e o f a needle, arm s and m outh o f a river, head o f an arm y, foot o f a hill, to n g u e o f a bell, e tc .

A m etonym y (Gr. M eta-change and onom a - nam e ) is a transfer o f th e m eaning on the basis o f contiguity. The tw o objects m ay be associated together because they often appear in com m on situations, and so the im age o f one is easily accom panied by the im age o f the other; or they m ay be associated on the principle o f cause and effect, o f com m on function, o f som e m aterial and an object w hich is made o f it, etc. T he chair m ay mean the chairm an", the bar-the law yers, the word ^townl'm ay denote the inhabitants o f a to w n . There are also w ell-know n instances o f symbol for thing sym bolized:;,the crownw for m onarchy; thefinstrum ent for the'product^ 'hand1for hand-w riting . C om m on nam es m ay be m etonym ically derived from proper nam es as in% iacadam -a type o f pavem ent nam ed after its inventor John Me Adam. M any international physical and technical units are nam ed after g reat scientists, as for instance am pere - the unit o f electrical current nam ed after A ndre M arie Am pere. Com pare also: roentgen, ohm , volt, w att, etc. Exam ples o f geographical nam es, turning into com m on nouns to nam e th e goods exported o r originating there, are also num erous: astrakhan (fur), china (porcelain), Holland (linen), m orocco (leather).A m elioration o r elevation is a sem antic shift undergone by w ords due to th eir referents com ing up the social scale, i.e. words lose their n egative connotations o r gain positive ones. For exam ple, th e w ord'knight*originally m eant a b o y , then a y o u n g servant , then a m ilitary servant, then a noble m an . N ow it is a title o f nobility given to outstanding people; to a r s h a f o rig in ally m eant a horse m an , now it is th e highest m ilitary rank, etc. T he reverse process is called pejoration o r degradation. - Pejoration occurs as a word develops negative connotations o r loses p o sitive ones. For e x am p le,n o to rio u s1initially m eant w id ely know n . Yet it has gone through th e process o f ex ten sio n V ^ o w meank w idely and unfavorably know/t? The French b o rro w in g "villain" from farm servant g r a d u a lly passed to its present m eaning scoundrel H y p erb o le (G .r hyperbole - excess) is an exaggerated statem ent n ot m ean t to be und erstood literally but expressing an intensely em otional attitude o f the sp eak er to w hat he is sp eak in g about. E .g.: Its ab so lu tely m addening; Y o u ll be the d e a th o f m e; |ia te tro u b lin g you; Ife-abs^krteiy-^iiadJcifin'g r 'Y u ull bo4 hc death o f m c ; -ijhat tr lr a t tb ling youj Its m onstrous; Its a nightm are; A th o u san d pardons; Litotes (G r. L itos - sm all) is a tra n sfe r o f the m eaning w hen th e sp eak er expresses the affirm ative by th e n eg ation o f its c o n trary , e .g /n o t bad1 o r not h a lf bacf for good,''not sm all^for g reat / n o t co w ard '3 for b rav e . S om e understatem ents do n o t co n tain negations, e.g. rather decent. Iro n y is the expression o f o n e s m eaning by w ords o f opposite sense, especially a sim u la te d adoption o f the opposite p o in t o f view for the purp o se o f ridicule or d isp arag em en t. O ne o f the m eanings o f the adjective,'nicev is bad , u n satisfacto ry ; it is m ark e d o f f as ironical and illustrated b y the exam ple: Y ouve got us into a nice mess! A p retty m ess y o u ve m ad e o f it! Afeuphem ism (G r. E uphem ism os, from eu - good, pleasant and p h e m e - sp eech ) is th e u se o f a substitute w ord in an attem p t to replace or m ask the neg ativ e co n n o tatio n s o f th e n o rm a l w ord for a certain object o r action. T he adjective1 *drunk? for in stan ce, has a great n u m b er o f eu phem ism s: intoxicated, u n d er the influence, m erry, p ickled, etc. T h e verbto diesis substituted by: to pass aw ay, to be taken, to breathe o n e s last, to c lo se o n e s eyes, e tc . M en tal diseases also cause th e fre q u e n t u se o f euphem ism s. A m ad p e rso n m ay be d e scrib ed as insane, m entally unstable, unbalanced , etc. 5 .2 C au ses o fS e m a n tic C hange T h e c a u se s o f se m a n tic ch an g es m ay be grouped under tw o m ain h e a d in g s; linguistic and e x tra -lin g u istic ones.

Linguistic causes influencing the process o f vocabulary adaptation may be o f paradigm atic and syntagm atic character; in dealing with them w e have to do with the constant interaction and interdependence o f vocabulary units in language and speech, such as differentiation between synonym s, changes taking place in connection with ellipsis and with fixed contexts, changes resu ltin g from ambiguity in certain contexts, and som e other causes. Differentiation o f sy n o n y m s is a gradual change observed in the course o f language history, som etim es, but not necessarily^ involving the sem antic assim ilation o f loan words. The w o rd 'b e a st 'w as borrow ed from French into M iddle English. Before it appeared the general w ord for an im al was ,deer',w hich after the w ord 'b e a s t'w a s introduced becam e narrowed to its p rese n t m eaning a hoofed anim al o f w hich the m ales have antler . Som ew hat later th e Latin w o rd 'a n im a l'w a s also borrow ed, then the w ord beast w as restricted, and its m eaning served to separate the four-footed kind from all the o ther m em bers o f the an im al kingdom . Thus,"beast" d isp la c e d 'd e e r and w as in its turn itself displaced by the g en eric A anim all' Fixed context has influence not only in phrases but in com pound w ords as w ell. O E :m ete!im eant food, its descendant m eat 'refers only to flesh food except in the set expression"m eat and drinkand the com pound "sweetmeats: Due to ellipsis. T h e qualifying w ords o f a frequent phrase m ay be om itted: sale 'comes to be used for c u t-p ric e sale, propose" forto propose m arria g e '/\o be expecting for to be expecting a baby'/m edia'for'V nass m ediaf O r vice versa, the kernel word o f the phrase m ay seem redundant: 'm inerals* forV iineral waters* summit* for^sum m it m eeting. D ue to ellipsis 1 1starvew hich o rig in a lly m eant to die cam e to substitute th e w hole phrase"die o f hunger, and also began to m ean suffer from lack o f food and even in colloquial use to feel hungry. T he e x tra -lin g u istic causes are determ ined by the social nature o f the language: Extralinguistic causes o f sem an tic change are connected w ith th e developm ent o f the hum an m ind as it m o u ld s rea lity to conform w ith its needs. Languages are p o w e rfu lly affected by social, political, econom ic, cultural and technical change. T he in flu e n ce o f those factors upon linguistic phenom ena is studied by sociolinguisticiVThe h isto ry o f the social, econom ic and p o litical life o f people, the progress o f culture and s c ie n c e brin g about changes in notions and things influiencing the sem antic aspect o f lan g u ag e. F o r instance, O E eorde m eant the ground under p eo p les feet, the soil and the w o rld o f m an as opposed to heaven that w as su p p o sed to be inhabited first by G ods and later o n , w ith the spread o f C hristianity, by G o d , his saints and the souls o f the dead. W ith th e p ro g re ss o f science^earth cam e to m ean th e third planet from the sun . The w ord f/space"from th e m eanings o f extent o f tim e or d istan ce o r intervening distance c am e to m ean th e lim itless expanse in w hich everything e x ists and m ore recently cam e to be used e sp ec ially in th e m ean in g o f outer space . E uphem ism s m a y be dictated by social usage, etiq u ette, advertising, tact, diplom atic considerations a n d p o litic a l propaganda. It is decidedly less em otional to call countries with a low stan d ard o f liv in g ''underdeveloped,9 b u t it seem ed m ore tactful to call them developing? O th e r e u p h e m ism s are dictated by a w ish to give m ore dignity to a profession. Som e barbers c a lle d th em selv es hair stylists, airline stew ard s a n d stew ardesses becom e flight atten d an ts, m a id s b ecom e house w orkers, forem en b e c o m e supervisors, etc. T he c o n sta n t d e v e lo p m e n t o f industry, agriculture, tra d e and tran sp o rt bring into being new o bjects and n e w n o tio n s. It often happens that n ew m ean in g s are th u s acquired by old Words. Q uestions and T a s k s

40

5 r '"

A Guide to English Lexicology

SEMANTIC STRUCTURi OF WORDS

S.l The Semantic Structure of Polysemantic Words llThe semantic structure of the word does not present an indisso iuble unity (that is, actually, why it is referred to as structure), nor does it necessarily stand for one concept Jit is generally known that most words convey several concepts and thus possess the corresponding number of meanings. Aword having several meanings is called polysemantic,/' and the ability of words to have more than one meaning is described! by the term polysemy^] /Polysemy is characteristic of most words in many languages] however differentthey may be.jBut it is more characteristic of the English vocabulary as compared with other ianguages, due to the monosyllabic character of English and the predominance of root words^The greater the relative frequency of word, the greater the number of variants that constitute its semantic structure, i.e. the more polysemantic it is. This regularity is of course a statistical, not a rigid one. fit should be noted that the wealth of expressive resources of a language largely depends on the degree to which polysemy has developed in the language) Sometimes people who are not very well informed in linguistic matters claim that a language is lacking in words if the need arises for the same word to be applied to several different phenomena. In actual fact, it is exactly the opposite: if each word is found to be capable of conveying, let us say, at least two concepts instead of one, the expressive potential of the whole vocabulary increases twofold. Hence, a well-developed polysemy is not a drawback but a great advantage in a language}

O lg a B U R E A O n the other hand, it sh o u ld be pointed o u t th a t lb sound com binations th at h u m an speech organs can p ro d u ce is

o{

T herefore at a certain stage o f lan g u ag e d e v e lo p m e n t the p ro d u ctio n Or n ew w o rd s by m o rphological m ean s b eco m es lim ited , a n a pojysftynw becom es increasingly im p o rtan t in p ro v id in g th e m ea n s for emich>n# the vocabulary. From this, it sh o u ld be cle a r that the p ro ce ss o 4 enriching th e vocabulary d oes n o t co n sist m ere ly in ad d in g n ew \x/ord$ to it, but, also, in the co n stan t d e v e lo p m en t o f polysem y. T h e system o f m ea n in g s o f any p o ly se m a n tic w ord dtV t& O S gradually, m ostly over the c en tu ries, as m ore and m o re new are either added to old ones, o r ou st som e o f them . So processes o f polysem y d e v e lo p m en t involve both the appgoJgXWX 0'\ new m ea n in g s and the loss o f old ones. Yet, th e g en eral ten d en cy vuHi English vocabulary at the m o d e rn stage o f its h isto ry is to in c re a s e -m t total n u m b er o f its m eanings an d in th is w ay to p ro v id e for a q u a r r ^ 'f e tf I and qualitativ e grow th o f th e la n g u a g e s e x p re ssiv e resources. W h en analysing the se m a n tic stru c tu re o f a poly sem an tic it is n ecessary to d istinguish b e tw e en tw o levels o f analysis. O n the first level, the sem an tic stru ctu re o f a w ord is t& U tk d : ix\ U system o f m eanings. F or e x am p le, the sem antic stru c tu re yiQlli 1 fire co u ld be roughly p resen ted by this schem e:

T h e ab o v e schem e su g g ests that m eaning ( ! ) holds a kind o f d o m in an ce o v er the o th er m ean in g s conveying the co ncept in the m ost general w a y w h ereas m ea n in g s (2) - (5) are associated w ith special circu m stan ces, aspects an d instances o f the sam e phenom enon. M e an in g ( 1), generally referred to as the main m eaning , presents the centre o f the sem antic stru ctu re o f the w ord holding it together. It is m ain ly th ro u g h m eaning (1) th at m eanings (2) - (5) (they are called secondary m eanings ) can be associated w ith one another, som e o f them ex clu siv ely th rough m eaning (1), as, for instance, m eanings (4) and (5). ; ....... Yet, it is n o t in every poly sem an tic w ord that such a centre can be found. S om e sem an tic stru ctu res are arranged on a different principle. In the fo llo w in g list o f m ean in g s o f the adjective dull one can hardly hope to find a generalised m ean in g covering and holding together the rest o f th e sem antic structure:

Dull, adj.
1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) N o t interesting, b o ring; e.g. a dull book S low in u n d erstan d in g , stupid; e.g. a dull pupil N o t brig h t o r shiny; e.g. a dull colour N o t cle a r or loud; e.g. a dull sound N o t sharp, blunt ; e.g. a dull knife N o t active, slow ; e.g. a dull market

Yet, one distinctly feels that there is som ething that all these seem ingly m iscellan eo u s m ean in g s have in com m on, and that, is the im plication o f deficiency, be it o f colour (3), w it (2), interest (I), sharpness (5), etc. T he im plication o f insufficient quality, o f som ething lacking, can be clearly distin g u ish ed in each separate m eaning, In fact, each m eaning definition in the given schem e can be su b jected to a tran sfo rm atio n al operation to prove the point:

Dull, adj.
1) N o t interesting 2) S tupid > deficient in interest > deficient in intellect

3) Mot bright

> deficient, in b rig h tn e ss or b rillia n ce > deficient in sound > deficient in sh arp n ess

4) N o t loud
5) N o t sharp

6) N o t active

> deficient in activ ity T he tran sfo rm ed schem e o f th e se m a n tic stru c tu re o f dull c le a rly show s that th e centre h o ld in g to g e th e r the c o m p le x se m a n tic stru c tu re o f this w ord is not one o f th e m ean in g s b ut a c e rta in c o m p o n e n t th a t can be easily singled out w ith in e ach sep arate m ea n in g . T h is b rin g s us to the second level o f an a ly sis o f the sem an tic stru ctu re o f a w o rd . T he transform ational operatio n w ith th e m ea n in g d efin itio n s o f dull reveals so m ething very significant: the sem an tic stru c tu re o f th e w o rd is divisible not only at the level o f d iffe re n t m e a n in g s b u t, also , at a deeper level. E ach separate m eaning seem s to be su b je c t to stru c tu ra l an a ly sis in w h ich it m ay be rep resen ted as sets o f se m a n tic co m p o n e n ts. In term s o f co m ponential analysis, one o f th e m o d e rn m eth o d s o f se m a n tic research, the m ean in g o f a w o rd is defined as a se t o f ele m en ts o f m eaning w h ich are not part o f the v o c a b u la ry o f th e lan g u ag e itself, but rather theoretical elem ents, p o stu la te d in o rd er to d e scrib e th e sem antic relations betw een the lexical elem en ts o f a g iv en lan g u ag e. T he schem e o f the sem an tic stru ctu re o f dull sh o w s th a t th e sem antic structure o f a w ord is n o t a m ere sy stem o f m ea n in g s, for each separate m eaning is su b ject to furth er su b d iv isio n and p o sse sse s an inner structure o f its ow n. T herefore, th e sem antic stru ctu re o f a w o rd sh o u ld be in v estig a ted at both th ese levels: (a) o f d ifferent m ea n in g s a n d (b) o f se m a n tic co m p o n en ts w ithin each sep arate m ean in g . F o r a m o n o se m a n tic w o rd (i.e. a w ord w ith one m eaning) th e first level is n a tu ra lly e x c lu d e d / 5.2 T y p es o f S e m a n tic C o m p o n e n ts Jhe leading sem antic c o m p o n e n t in th e se m a n tic stru ctu re o f a w ord is usually term ed d e n o ta tiv e component. T h e d en o tativ e co m p o n e n t ex p resses the conceptual c o n te n t o f a w o rd ,.'

PHRASEOLOGY I. Free-W ord G ro u p s versus Phraseological Units v ersu s W ords 1.1. Structural Criterion 1.2. S em antic C riterio n 1.3. S yntactic C riterio n 2 W ays o f Form ing Phraseological Units. Sem antic S tru ctu re o f Phraseological Units Types o f T ransference o f Phraseological Units. 3 C lassification o f Phraseological Units. 4. Proverbs, S ayings, F am iliar Q uotations and Cliches.

I. Free-W ord G roups v e rsu s Phraseological Units versus W ords A phraseological u n it can be defined as a reproduced and no n -m o tiv ated or partially m otivated unit built up a cco rd in g to the m odel o f free w ord -g ro u p s (or sentences) and sem antically and sy n ta c tic a lly brought into correlation w ith w o rd s. T here is a need for criteria exposing the d e g re e o f sim ilarity/difference betw een p hraseological units and free w ord-groups, p h raseological units and words. M ost R ussian sc h o la rs to d a ^ ic c e p t the sem antic criterion o f distinguishing phraseological units from free w ord-groups as the m ajor one a n d base their research w ork in the field o f p h rase o lo g y on the definition o f a phraseological unit offered by Professor A .V .K oonin: A phraseological unit is a stable w o rd -g ro u p characterized by a com pletely o r partially tran sferred m eaning. A ctually the se m a n tic change m ay affect either the w hole w o rd -g ro u p o r only one o f its com ponents. The follow ing p h raseo lo g ical units represent the first case: to skate on thin ice (tojjut o n e self in a d an g e ro u s position; to take risks); to have o n e s heart in o n es boots (to B e deeply d ep ressed , an x io u s about som ething); a w o lf in a s h ip s clothing (a dangerous enem y w ho p lau sib ly poses as a friend). The second ty p e is rep resen ted by phraseological units in w h ich one o f the com ponents preserves its cu rren t m eaning and the other is used in a transferred m eaning: to fall in love; to keep o n e s prom ise; to draw a conclusion. The structural c riterio n also brings forth pronounced d istin ctiv e features characterizing p h rase o lo g ic a l units and contrasting them to free w o rd-groups. Structural . invariability o f p h raseo lo g ical units finds expression in a n u m b er o f restrictions. T he first is the restric tio n in substitution, for exam ple, w e c a n n o t say to carry coals to M anchester instead o f to carry coals to N ew castle. The second ty p e o f restriction is the restriction in in troducing any additional com poN ents into the structure o f a phraseological unit. In a free w o rd -g ro u p such changes can be m ade w ithout a ffe c tin g th e general m eaning o f the utterance: th is b ig ship is carrying a large cargo to the p ort o f L iverpool. In the phraseological u n it to c arry coals to N ew castle no ad d itio n al com p o n en ts can be introduced. The third ty p e o f stru ctu ral restrictions in phraseological u n its is gram m atical invariability, for e x a m p le, a sm allest or dangerous fam ily secret is d escrib ed as a skeleton in the c u p b o a rd , th e first substantive com ponent b ein g frequently used in the plural form , as in: I m su re th ey have skeletons in every c u p b o a rd . Y o u c a n t cl\ange T he num ber o f th e n o u n or th e tense o f the verb although th ere are c ases w hen w3ie can do som e changes as in the last exam ple w e did.

1.1. Structural Criterion T he structural criterion u n d erlines the pronounced features w hich on th e one hand state a certain structural sim ilarity betw een phraseological units and free w ordcom binations at the sam e tim e o p p osing them to single w ords a), And on the other hand specify their structural distinctions b). a) A feature proper both to free phrases and phraseological units is the divisibility o f their structure, i.e. they consist o f separate structural elem ents. T his fact pu ts them in opposition to w ords as structurally integral units.The structural integrity o f a w ord is defined by the presence o f a com m on gram m atical form for all the co n stitu en t elem ents o f this word. For exam ple, the gram m atical change in the w ord shipw reck im plies that inflections are added to both elem ents o f the word sim ultaneously - shipw recks, while in the w ordgroup * the w reck o f a sh ip each elem ent can change its g ram m atical form independently from the other - (the) w reck o f the ships, (the) w reck s o f the sh ip s.Like in w ord-groups, in phraseological units potentially any c o m p o n en t m ay be changed gram m atically, but these changes are rather few, lim ited and occasio n al and usually serve for a stylistic effect, e.g. A B lack M aria a van used by p o lice fo r bringing suspected crim inals to the police station: * the Blackest M a ria , B lack M a ria s. b)The principal difference betw een phraseological units and free w ord-groups m anifests itself in the structural invariability o f the form er w hich suggests no (or rather limited) substitutions o f com ponents. For exam ple, to give som ebody th e cold shoulder m eans to treat som ebody coldly, to ignore or cut him /her but a w arm sh o u ld e r or a cold elb o w m akes no sense. T here are also strict restrictions on the com ponental extension and gram m atical changes o f com ponents o f phraseological units. T he use o f the w ords b ig g reat in a w hite e le fa n t m eaning an expensive but useless th in g can change or even destroy the m eaning o f the phraseological unit. T he sam e is true if the plural form feet in the p hraseological unit 'fro m head to foot is used in stead o f the singular form . In a free w ord-group all these changes are possible. 1.2. Sem antic Criterion T he sem antic criterion is o f great help in stating the sem antic d iffe re n c e/ sim ilarity betw een free w ord-groups and phraseological units, (a), and betw een phraseological units and w ords (b). a) T he m eaning in phraseological units is created by m utual interaction o f elem ents and conveys a single concept. T he actual m eaning o f a phraseological u n it is figurative (transferred) and is opposed to the literal m eaning o f a w ord-com bi nation from w hich it is derived,. T he tran sferen ce o f the initial w ord-group can be based on sim ile, m etaphor, m etonym y and synecdoche. T he degree o f transference varies and m ay affe c t either the w hole unit or only one o f its co n stitu en ts, f. e.: to skate on thin ice - to ta k e risk s; the sm all h o u rs - the early hours o f the m orning. B esides, in the form ation o f the sem antic structure o f phraseological units a cultural com ponent plays a special and v ery im portant role show ing the unique ex perience o f the nation. For exam ple, the phraseological unit red ta p e originates in the old custom o f G overnm ent officials and law yers tying up their papers w ith red ta p e , H ead s or ta ils com es from the old custom o f deciding a dispute o r settling w hich o f tw o p o ssib le alternatives shall be follow ed by to ssin g a coin ( heads refers to the so v ereig n s head on one side o f the coin, and ta ils m eans the reverse side).

In a free phrase each elem ent has a m uch greater sem antic independence and stands for a sep arate concept, e.g. to cut bread, to cut ch eese, to eat bread. Every word in ajfree p hrase can form additional ^ s y n ta c tic ties w ith other w ords outside the expression retaining its individual m eaning. b) T he sem antic unity, how ever, m akes phraseological units sim ilar to w ords., f.e. kick the b u c k e t w hose m eaning is understood as a w hole and not related to the m eaning o f individual w ords can be replaced w ithin co n tex t by the w ord to d ie , the phraseological unit in a brow n stu d y - by the w ord g loom y. 1.3. Syntactic C riterion T he syntactic criterion reveals the close ties betw een single w ords and phraseological units as w ell as free w ord-groups. L ike w ords, phraseological units m ay have d ifferent syntactic functions in the sentence, e.g. the subject ( narrow escape, first night, b a k e rs d o z e n ), the p re d ic a te ( to have a good m ind to play R ussian rou lette, to m ake a v irtue o f necessity ), an attribute ( high and m ighty, quick on the trig g e r, as ugly as s in ), an adverbial ( in ful sw in g , on second tho u g h ts, o f f the record)d n accordance w ith the function they perform in the sentence phraseological units can be classified into: substantive (or nom inal), verbal, adjectival, adverbial, prepositional, interjectional. L ike free w ord-groups phraseological units can be divided into coordinative (i.e. the life and soul o f som ething, free and easy, neck and crop) and subordinative (e.g. long in the tooth, a big fish in a little pond, the villain o f the pfefce). T hus, the characteristic features o f phraseological units are: ready-m ade reproduction, structural divisibility, m orphological stability, perm anence o f lexical com position, sem antic unity, syntactic fixity. 2. W ays o f F orm ing P hraseological Units. S em antic Structure o f Phraseological U nits A .V .K o o n in classified phraseological units according to the w ay they are form ed. H e p o in te d out p rim ary and secondary w ays o f form ing phraseological units. P rim ary w ays o f form ing phraseological units are those w hen a unit is form ed on the basis o f a free w ord-group by: a) T ran sferrin g the m eaning o f term inological w ord-groups, for exam ple, in cosm ic technique w e can p o in t o u t the phrase launching p a d w hich in its term inological m eaning is p latfo rm from w hich a spacecraft is launched, but in its transferred m ean ing - an e ffectiv e starting point for a career, en terprise or cam p aig n T he verb to link u p ( to jo in /c o n n e c t tw o spacecrafts) in its transferred m eaning m eans to get/becom e acquainted w ith so m e b o d y '. T h e sem an tic structure o f phraseological units is form ed by sem antic ultim ate constituents called m acrocom ponents o f m eaning. T here are the follow ing principal m acro co m p o n en ts in the sem antic structure o f phraseological units: 1.D en otational (descriptive) m acrocom ponent that contains the inform ation about the ob jectiv e reality , b)F rom free w o rd groups by transform ing their m eaning, e.g. granny farm ( hording house for aged p e o p le ), T royan horse (a kind o f co m p u ter virus).

c) By m eans o f alliteration, e.g. a sad sack ( a clum sy person w ho m akes m istakes despite good in ten tio n s), culture vulture (a person considered to be excessively interested in the a rts ). d) By m eans o f expressiveness; it is m ost characteristic for form ing interjections, e.g. My aunt! (an e x c la m a tio n o f surprise o r am azem ent); H ear, hear! (an exclam ation used to show approval o f so m eth in g said). e) By m ean s o f d isto rtin g a w ord group, e.g. od d s and ends (sm all item s that are not valuable) w as form ed from odd ends . f) By using a rc h a ism s, e.g. in brow n study m eans in glom y m editation w here both com ponents p reserv e th e ir archaic m eanings. f g) By u sin g a se n te n c e in a different sphere o f life. For exam ple, that cock w ont fight can be a free w o rd - g roup w hen used in sports (cock fighting), but it becom es a phraseological u n it w hen used m etaphorically in everyday life (an expression o f refusal or rejection). f h) B y using so m e unreal im age, e.g.*to have butterflies in the stomach*(to have a nervous feeling ) / t o h av e green finghers^considerable talen t or ability to grow plants). i) By using e x p re ssio n o f w riters or politicians in everyday life, e .g /c o rrid o rs o f p o w e r' (Snow), the w in d s o f c h a n g e^ M c M illan). Secondary w ay s o f form ing phraseological units are th o se w hen a phraseological unit is form ed on the b a sis o f another phraseological unit. T hey are: a) C o n v e ^ iio n , e .g /to vote w ith ones feet'w as converted into v o te w ith ones feet; b) C h anging th e gram m ar f|o m , e.g.*Make hay w hile the sun s h in e /is transferred into a verb al p hrase - 't o m ake hay w hile the sun shines1 ; f c) A nalogy, e .g /C u rio s ity killed the c a t W s transferred into t a r e killed the cat; d) C ontrast, e .g /th in cat1 - a poor person w as form ed by contrasting it w ith fat cat; e) S h o rten in g o f proverbs or sayings, e.g. from the proverb Y ou can t m ake a silk p u rse o u t o f a s o w s ear! by m eans o f clipping the m iddle o f it, w as form ed the ph raseological unit*to m ake a sow s'ear; f) B o rro w in g phraseological units from other languages, e.g. livind space (G erm an); to take the bull by the horns (L atin). 3.P rinciples o f C lassification o f Phraseological U nits A p h raseo lo g ical u n it is a com plex phenom enon w ith a num ber o f im portant features, w hich can b e a p p ro ach ed from different points o f view . T here e x ist a considerable num ber o f d iffe re n t classification system s devised by differen t scholars and based on different p rin c ip le s. T he tra d itio n al and oldest principle for classify in g phraseological units is based on th eir o rig in a l con tent (them atic principle). O n th is principle, idiom s are classified according to th e ir sources o f origin, source referrin g to the pa rticu la r sphere o f hum an a c tiv ity , o f life, o f nature, o f natural ph en o m en a, etc. L .P. Sm ith gives in his classification groups o f idioms used by sailors, fisherm an, soldiers, hunters and associated w ith the realia. phenomena and conditions o f their occupations. In S m ith s classifications w e also find groups o f idioms associated w ith dom estic and w ild animals and birds, agriculture and cooking. There are also num erous idiom s draw n from sports, arts. etc. Smith points out that idioms associated with the sea and the life o f seamen are especially n u m e ro u s in English vocabulary. Here are som e examples: to be all at sea (to be u n ab le to u n derstand), to sink or sw im (to fail or su cceed ), in deep w ater ( in trouble o r d an g er ), to be in the sam e boat w ith som ebody (to be in a situation in w hich p e o p le share the sam e difficulties and d a n g e rs), to sail under false colours ( to pretend to be w h at one is not), to w eather the storm (to overcom e difficu lties),e tc .

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Compound words

Compound words are words consisting of at least two stems which occur in the language as free forms. They function in a sentence as a separate lexical nnit. The structural cohesion and integrity of a compound may depend upon unity of stress, solid or hyphenated spelling, semantic unity, unity of morphological and syntactic functioning or, more often, upon the combined effectpf several of these, or similar phonetic, graphic, semantic, morphological or syntactic factors. The integrity of a compound is manifested in its indivisibility, the impossibility of including another word or word-group between its elements. If, i.e., speaking about a sm them n we can insert some other word between the article a" and the noun. f. e. a bright sunbeam, a bright and unexpected sunbeam, because the article a is a separate word, so such insertion is possible between the stems sisiT and beam, for they are not words but morphemes. In describing the structure of a compound one should examine three types of relations: 1) the relations of the members to each other. 2) the relation of the whole to its members, 3) correlation with equivalent free phrases. Some compounds are made up of a detenuining and a determined part, which jnay be called determinant and the determinatum. (H. Marehand, The Categories and Types of Present-Day English Word-Formation, Wiesbaden, 1960, p.II), The second stemx is our case beam, is the basic part, the detenninatum. The determinant sun serves to differentiate it from other beams. The determinatum is the grammatically most important pari which undergoes inflection; c.f. sunbeams, b ro tkers-in 4a w, p a sse rs-by. There are non-idiomatic compounds with a perfectly clear motivation: the meanings of the constituents add in creating the meaning of the whole and name the referent either directly of-figuratively, i.e., the word "seaman was not difficult to understand at first, it meant a man professionally connected with the sea. The word differentiated in this way a sailor from the rest of mankind. When aviation came into being the same formula with the same kind of motivation was used to coin the compound airman and also aircraft and airship to name the machines designed for air-travel, differentiating them from seagoing craft. Spaceman, spacecraft and spaceship built on the model of airman, aircraft' and airship are well understood even when heard for the first time. The semantic integrity of the compounds seaman, airman, spaceman, aircraft, spacecraft, airship and spaceship is based on the fact that, as the conquest of sea, air mid outer space advanced, new notions were created, notions possessing enough relevant distinctive features to ensure their separate existence. The logical integrity of the combinations is supported by solid spelling and by the unity of stress. Such transparent compounds can be transformed into free phrases: air-mail = mail conveyed by air. The semantic integrity of a pom pound is on the other hand very often idiomatic in its character, so that the meaning of the whole is not a-mere sum of its elements. A compound is very different in meaning from a corresponding syntactic group. Thus, a blackboard is very different from lia black board Its essential feature is being a teaching aid: not every board of a black colour is a blackboard. A blackboard may be not a board at all but a piece of linoleum or some other material, its colour is not

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necessarily black jit may be brown or somewhat else. Thus, | lack board = a board which is biac|. A; chatterbox'1 is not a box, it is a person ^ho talks a great deal without sayinjg anything important: the combination is u p ^ ^ n ly figuratively. The same m etaphfric|| character is observed in the compound!: Ijo wcoack - a person who acts and (thinks slowly (not a vehicle); a fiiss-pot 4 a p|rson easily - excited and nervous aboi$ trifles; blackleg - a strike breaker*; hlaclm aiF - getting money or soile other profit from a person by threats ; Ifitieitocking - a woman affecting literary tastes and {earning. t \ The analysis of the semantic relationship existing between the constituents of a compound presents many difficulties. Many compounds may be explained in different ways: tiius spacecraft may be analysed as a craft travelling in space (place) or a craft designed for traveliing in space (purpose). , j Often different relations are expressed by the same determinant: ear-ache (place) - an ache in the ear; earm ark (comparison) - a mark like an ear, ear lobe (part) - a lobe of the ear; eardrop (purpose) - ?a drop for the ear (medicine); uear-ring (place or purpose). Compare alp : lip-reading* interpretation of-the motion of the lips (instrumental relations); lip-service superficial service from the lips only (comparison);rlipstick - a stick of cosmetics for rouging lips (purpose). J
S p ecific F ea tu res

ofEnglish Compounds

There are two important peculiarities distinguishing compounding in English from compounding in other languages. Firstly, both immediate constituents of an English compound are free forms, i.e. they can be used as ^independent words with a distinct meaning of their own. This point may be illustrated by a brief list of the most frequently used compounds studied in every elementary course o f English: afternoon, anyway, anybody, anything, birthday, day-off, downstairs! everybody, fountain-pen, grown-up, inkstand, large-scale, looking-glass, mankind, moth#-in-law, motherland, note-book, nwhere, post-card, rail-way, schoolboy, skating-rink, somebody, stair case, Sunday. The combining elements in Russian are bound |orras (pysosoflCTBo), but in English combinations like Anglo-Saxon, Indo-European are rarely. / The second feature is that the regular pattern for the English language is a twostem compound. An exception to this rule is observed when theicombining element is represented by a form-word stem, as is mother-in-law, bread-and-butter, whisky-andsoda, deaf-and-dumb, good-for-nothing, man-of-war, mo|her%f-pearl, stick-in-themud. i i I But ther are compound words consisting of m ore than t\yo words, f.e. aircraftcarrier, wastepaperbascket, etc. i ) The predominance of two-stem structures in Eiglish compounding distinguishes tit from the German language which can coin Monstrosities like the anecdotal Vjerwaldstatterse eschrau b en dampfsch iffg ese Ifs ch aft or Feuer-undUnfallversicherungsgesellschaft. f It often happens that elements of a phrase united by their attributive syntactic function can play, an important role in forming a compound,! f.e. we've done last minute changes before..., common sense advice; old age and djd-agepensioner; the records are out ofdate and out-of-date records; the let-sleeping-dogs-lie approach;
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i*

As English compounds consist of free forms, it is difficult to distinguish them from phrase^ f,e. top-dog - a person occupying^ a |oremost place, the combination m ccerdog - a person who has the worst o f an encounter, the first expression is a phrase, the second is a word (a derivative). j

The criteria for the compounds are: 1) the graphic criterion as a logical consequence (if the definition of a written word is the part of the text from blank to blank). But this criterion may be argued, because different dictionaries give different spelling; headmaster, head master and head-master; loudspeaker, loud speaker and loud-speaker. But compounds that appear to be constructed on. the same pattern and have similar semantic relations between the constituents may. be spelt differently: textbook, phrase-book, reference book. Yet if we take into consideration the comparative frequency of solid or hyphenated spelling of the combinations in question, the criterion is fairly reliable. This lack of uniformity in spelling is the chief reason why many authors consider this criterion insufficient. All the compound nouns are stressed on the first syllable. This rule does not hold; with the adjectives. Compound adjectives are double stressed like 'gray-'greea; 'easy-'going; 'new-bom. According to E.Nida the criteria to determine the word-units injtfae English language are: 2) phonological, 3) morphological, 4) syntactic. \ Stress may be phonological and help to differentiate the meaning of compounds. i 'overwork - "extra work? ............... .......... s 'over 'work - hard work injuring ones health; ? * 'bookcase - apiece of furniture with shelves for books;' 1>ook case - a paper cover for books; ! maii'kind - thehuman race; 'mankind - men (contrasted with women). Morphological criteria are many: the plural number, f-i still-life - still-lifes and not still lives; the connecting letters - s (craftsman), - 'o (Anglo-Saxon), - i (handiwork); - s as a distinction from -s in the plural (salesman goods-train / savings - bank). i The syntactical criterion is the- more promising. L. Bloom field points out that '"the word black in the phrase black birds can be modified by very" (very black birds) but not so the com pound-member black in blackbirds, "the same situation we have in black market or black lis t (of persons under suspicion),* * .blackbirds is a compound word but black market is a phrase. ; i. Classification o f Compounds Compound words may be classified according I) to the type of-composition and the linking element a) by juxtaposition without connecting elements: heart-beat, heart-break\ heart breaking, heart-broken., heart-felt, etc. I > b) composition with a- vowel or a consonant as a linking element: electromotive, speedometer, Afro-Asian', handicraft, statesman.

c) compounds with linking elements represented by preposition or conjunction: dom -and-outy matter-of-fact, son-in-law, up-to-date, . ) I) according to th structure o f immediate constituents: v a) compounds consisting o f simple stems: film-star; b) compounds wifli one derived stem: chain-smoker, 1 x c) compounds with a clipped stem: maths-mistress (BE) and math-mistress (AE); Hbag (handfbdjt), X-mas {Christmasj, whodunit { .mystery nm& s); d) compounds with one o f the constituents as a compound stemi mstepaper-bascket. Almost all nftional parts of speech may be formed by composition: A. Compound nouns, f.e. searchlight greengrocer. B. Compound Adjectives, f.e. heartfree, penny wise, stone-deaf, blood-red, kneedeep, etc. C. Compound verbs, f.e. blackmail, honeymoon, nickname, house-keep, proof read, stage-manage.

Bibliography

64

A Guide to English Lexicology

(into, within), com pound num erals (fifty-five, eighty-nine). Within the class o f compound nouns we distinguish endocentric and exocentric. compounds. An endoceotric com pound consists o f a
head, i.e. the categorical part that contains the basic meaning o f the whole compound, and modifiers, which restrict this meaning. For example, the English compound doghouse, where house is the head and dog.is the modifier, is understood as a house intended for a dog. Obviously, an endocentric compound lends to be o f the same part o f speech (word class) as its head. Exocentric com pounds do not have a head, and their meaning often cannot be transparently guessed from its constituent parts. For example, the compound white-collar is neither a kind of collar nor a white thing. In an exocentric compound,, the word class is determined lexically, disregarding the class of the constituents, e.g. a must-have is not a verb but a noun. In the Sanskrit tradition, the type o f exocentric compound exemplified by white-collar is called a bahuvrihi com pound. The meaning of this type of compound can be glossed as (one) whose B is A, where B is the second element o f the compound and A the firsts Thus a white-collar person is one whose collar is white (as a metaphor for socioeconomic status). Other English examples include bigwig ( an important person), black-shirt (a fascist), lazy-bones (a lazy person), etc. Semantically, compounds are subdivided into idiomatic and nonidiomatic (or motivated). Noil-idiom atic com pounds are compounds whose meanings can really be described as the sum of their constituent meanings (the meaning of the constituents can be either direct or figurative). The compounds classroom, working-man, dancing-hall, seaman, air mail are readily understood even when heard for the first time. The compounds whose meanings do not correspond to the separate meanings o f their constituent parts are called idiom atic com pounds. Thus, a blackboard is very different from a black board. Its essential feature is being a teaching aid: not eveiy board o f a black

Olga BUREA
%

65

colour is a blackboard. Other examples o f idiomatic compounds are: lady-killer, chatterbox, bluebottle, ladybird, bluestocking, etc. A further theoretical aspect o f composition is the criteria for distinguishing between a compound and a word-combination. This question has a direct bearing on the specific feature o f the structure of most English compounds which has already been mentioned: with the exception of the rare morphological type, they originate directly from word-combinations and are often homonymous to them: cf. a tall boy

- a tallboy.
In this case the graphic criterion o f distinguishing between a word and a word-group seems to be sufficiently convincing, yet in many cases it cannot wholly be relied on. The spelling of many compounds, tallboy among them, can be varied even within the same book. In the case o f tallboy the semantic criterion seems more reliable, for the striking difference in the meanings o f the word and the wordgroup certainly points to the highest degree o f semantic cohesion in the word: tallboy does not even denote a person, but a piece o f furniture, a chest o f drawers supported by a low stand. Moreover, the word-group a tall boy conveys two concepts (1. a young male person; 2. big in size), whereas the word tallboy expresses one concept. Yet the semantic criterion alone cannot prove anything as phraseological units also convey a single concept and some o f them are characterised by a high degree o f semantic cohesion. 'Hie phonetic criterion for compounds may be treated as that of a single stress. The criterion is convincingly applicable to many compound nouns, yet does not work with compound adjectives: cf. 'blackbird, 'tallboy, but: 'blue-'eyed, 'absent-'minded, 'ill-'mannered. Still, it is true that the morphological structure o f these adjectives and their hyphenated spelling leave no doubt about their status as words and not word-groups. Morphological and syntactic criteria can also be applied to compound words in order to distinguish them from word-groups. In the word-group a tall hoy each o f the constituents is independently

48Conversion.

Introductory Remarks. The Historical Development of Conversion.

The process of coming a new word in a different part of speech and with a different distribution characteristic without any adding^ofVa derivative element, so that the basic form of the original and the basic i^dfn^xhe derived words are homonymous, is called variously: conversion, zero derivation, root formation, transposition or functional change. The essence of this phenomenon may be illustrated by the following examples: His voice silenced everyone else. (Snow'). ,.t? t,LA , There wa^cideep silence. The difference between silence (n) and semantic. Diachronic Approach of Conversion. Origin ME vocabulary is rich in conversion pairs. As a W ay of forming words conversion is extremely productive and new conversion pairs make their appearance in fiction, newspaper articles and in the process of oral communication in all spheres of human activity gradually forcing their way jbito the..existing vocabulary and into the dictionary as well. New conversion^j^are* created on the analogy of those already in the word - stock. Conversion is highly productive in the formation of verbs, travel by car; to phone - "use especially from compound nouns: to motor the telephone"; to wire = send a telegram; to microfilm produce a microfilm ; to teargas = to use teargas ; to fire-bomb = 'drop firebombs ; to spear-head = act as a spearheadfor"; to blueprint "workout, outline , etc. Some of the pairs arose as a result of the disappearance of inflections in the course of the historical development of the English language due to which two words of different parts of speech, f. e. a verb and a noun: love (n) - love (v); work (n) - work (v); answer (n) - answer (v); doctor (n) - doctor (v), which are regarded as cases of homonymy. Other linguists share Prof. Smimitskys views concerning discrimination between conversion as a derivational means and as a type of word-building relations between words in Modern English. It should be emphatically stressed that the present-day derivative correlations within conversion pairs do not necessarily coincide with the etymological relationship. F. e., in the word-pair awe (n) - awe (v) the noun is the source of derivation both diachronically and synchronically, but it is quite different with the pair mould (n) - mould (v), historically the verb is the derived member, whereas it is the other way round from the angle of Modem English (f. e. the derivatives mouldable, moulding, moulder which have suffixes added to verb-base). A diachronic semantic analysis of a conversion pair reveals that in the course of time the semantic structure of the base may acquire a new meaning or several meanings under the influence of the meanings of the converted word. This semantic process has been termed reconversion in linguistic literature.

There is an essential difference between conversion and reconversion: being a way of forming words conversion leads to a numerical enlargement of the English vocabulary, whereas reconversion only brings about a new meaning correlated with one of the meanings of the converted word. Research has shown that reconversion only operates with denominal verbs and deverbal nouns. As an illustration the conversion pair smoke (n) - smoke (v) may be cited. . Conversion is not an absolutely productive way of forming words because it is restricted both semantically and morphologically. These 5 terms given above for the type of the word - formation process itself Mve their drawbacks, the best term is conversion according to the opinion of the S^fvlerimguists. As a type of word - formation conversion exists in many languages, English especially because of the absence of morphological elements, serving as classifying signals.

words

parts of speech in which they occur noun verb adj adv + + + +

+

back home silence round

+
4*
-

other parts of speech +

-

+ + +

+
-

+ +

Many affixes are homonymous and therefore the general sound pattern does not contain any information as to the possible part of speech, f. e.:
noun verb adjective adverb

maiden finger

whiten linger

wooden longer

often longer

Compare also such homophones as Finnish (a) - finish (v); principle (n) principal (a; n). The problem of conversion may prove a pitfall because of possible confusion of the synchronic and diachronic approaches The causes that made conversion so widely spread are to be approached diachronically, nouns and verbs have become identical in form firstly as a result of the loss of endings. M0re rarely it is the prefix that is dropped: mind < OE zemynd ; carian (v) OE = care (n; v); ME drincan (v) OE = drink (v; n) ME. Conversion is a type of word -building, being of paramount importance and interest. Synchronically both types sleep (n) - sleep (v) must be treated together as cases of patterned homonymy.

I I
Recent research suggests that this regular or patterned or modelled homonymy has some characteristic features: it regularly involves monosyllabic words of a simple morphological structure. Conversion is considered to be the predominant method of English verbformation. Prof. Smimitsky and his school consider the paradigm to be the only wordforming means of conversion. He sees conversion as a case where a word is transferred from one paradigm to another, the paradigm being the only means at work: to down, to encore, to pooh-pooh. This is the way of forming neologisms: to chair = to preside over a meeting to cmpaisn = to organise a ct&ipaign; to microfilm = to make a photographic film of a document or a book, which can be enlarged in projection; to stars to appear, or to present as an actorf to wireless = to send a message by wirefe^; to orbit - to travel in orbit, to put into orbit.

Substantiation.
The question now arises whether such cases when words with an adjective stem having the paradigm of a noun should also be classified as conversion, f. e. a private, the privates uniform, a group of priv^f; captive, conservative, criminal, female, fugitive, grown-up, intellectual, male, mild, native, neutral, radical, red, relative. The process of conversion is impossible outside the context. Isolated words cant be formed by conversjon^The degree of substantivation may be different: com pleted d partial je. the privates]} the blind\ the dead, the English, the poor, the accused, the condemned, the living, the unemployed, the wounded, the lowerpaid. These words are partially substantivized because they undergo no morphological changes, do not acquire a new paradigm and are used with a collective meaning and the definite article: the good, the evil, the Plural, the Singular, the Present, the Past. Less frequent but also quite possible is conversion fromXwords to nouns, f. e. He liked to know the ins and outs. / Shan t go into the whys and tf&herefores. He was familiar witfrups and downs o f life. Even affixes may bevfcrmed by . " ' . " T . .... , , , conversion/!, e.freudism, existentialism and all the other isms. Phrases or even sentences are sometimes turned into nouns and adjectives by a combination of conversion and composition: Old man what-do-you-callhim s book is on sale.

djuuu-u -12-

ETY M O LO G Y OF TH E ENGLISH W O R D -STO C K Origin o f the English W ords A ccording to their origin English w ords m ay be subdivided into tw o m ain sets. T he elem ents o f one are native w ords, the elem ents o f the other are borrow ed words. A native w ord is a w ord w hich belongs to the original English w ord stock. A borrow ed w ord or a borrow ing is a w ord taken over from another language and m odified in phonem ic shape, spelling, paradigm or m eaning according to the standards o f the English language. 1.1. W ords o f N ative Origin D iacronically native w ords are subdivided into three m ain layers. 1. W ords o f the Indo-European origin. These words have cognates in the vocabularies o f different Indo- European languages and from the oldest layer. W ords belonging to this layer fall into definite sem antic groups and express the m ost vitai, im portant and frequently used concepts: - kinship term s, e.g. father, m other, son, daughter, brother; - words nam ing the m ost im portant objects and phenom ena o f nature, e.g. sun, m oon, star, w ind, water, w ood, hill, stone; - nam es o f anim als and plants, e.g. goose, wolf, cow, tree, corn; -words denoting parts o f the hum an body, e.g. ear, tooth, eye, foot, heart, lip; - words nam ing concrete physical properties and qualities (including som e adjectives denoting colour), e.g. hard, quick, slow , red, white, new; - num erals from one to a hundred, e.g. one, two, twenty, eighty; - pronouns (personal, dem onstrative, interrogative), e.g. I, you, he, my, that, who; except theywhich is Scandinavian. - some o f the m ost frequent verbs, e.g. bear, do, be, sit, stand and others. 2. W ords o f C om m on G erm anic origin. The Com m on G erm anic stock includes words having parallels in G erm an, N orw egian, Dutch, Icelandic. It contains a great num ber o f sem antic groups som e o f w hich are the same as in the Indo-European group o f native words: - nouns denoting parts o f the human body, e.g. head, arm, finger; - nouns denoting periods o f tim e, e.g. sum m er, winter, tim e, w eek; - words nam ing natural phenom ena, e.g. storm , rain, flood, ice, ground, sea, earth;- words denoting artefacts and m aterials, e.g. bridge, house, shop, room, coal, iron, lead, cloth; - w ords nam ing different kinds o f garm ent, e.g. hat, shirt, shoe; - words denoting abstract notions, e.g. care, evil, hope, life, need; - - nam es o f anim als, birds and plants, e,g. sheep, fox, horse, crow , oak, grass; - various notional verbs, e.g. bake, bum , buy, drive, hear, keep, learn, m ake, m eet, rise, see, send, shoot; - adjectives denoting colours, size and other properties, e.g. broad, dead, deaf, deep, grey, blue; - adverbs, e.g. dow n, out, before. 3. English w ords proper. They do not have cognat 'in other languages. N ative words for the m ost part are characterized by:

1) a w ide range o f lexical and gram m atical valency and high frequency, e.g. the verb w atch can be used in different sentence patterns, can be com bined with different classes o f w ords. Do you m ind if I w atch? ...1 feel like I am being w atched. 2 )a developed polysem y, e.g. the noun w atch has the follow ing m eanings:a small clock to be w orn on the w rist, or carried; the act o f w atching; a person or people ordered to w atch a place or a person; a fixed period o f duty on a ship, usually lasting four hours; a film o r program m e considered in term s o f its appeal to the public, etc. 3) a great w ord-building pow er, w atch is the centre o f a num erous w ord-fam ily, e.g. w atch-dog, w atcher, w atchful, watchfulness,^ w atch-out, w atchw ord, w atchable, w atchfire, etc. 4) the capacity o f form ing phraseological units: to be on the w atch, to keep w atch, to watch o n es back, t^Watch o n es step.
B orrow ed W ords Borrow ings enter the language in two ways: through oral speech and through written speech.W ords borrow ed orally are usually short and they undergo considerable changes during the act o f adoption. W ritten borrow ings preserve their spelling and some peculiarities o f their sound form , their assim ilation is a long process. B orrow ings m ay be direct or indirect, i.e. through another language. Such languagesinterm ediaries w ere, f.e., Latin through which m any G reek w ords cam e into the English language and French by m eans o f which m any Latin words w ere borrow ed. D istinction should be m ade betw een the term source o f borrow ing and the term origin o f borrow ing. The fact that different languages served as sources o f borrow ing at different periods o f the developm ent o f the English language is accounted for by purely historical causes: the Rom an invasion, the introduction o f Christianity, the D anish and N orm an conquests and, in m odern tim es, direct linguistic contacts and political, econom ical and cultural re lationships with other nations. So English during its historical developm ent borrowed w ords from: 1)Celtic: 5-th - 6-th c. A .D .; 2) Latin : 1-st group: 1 - s t c. B.C.; 2-nd group: 7-th c. A .D .;3-rd group: the R enaissance period (14-th - 16-th c.) f.e. introvert, radioactive, relativity, cup, candle, plant, wall, interior, sociology,;

3) Scandinavian: 8-th - 11-th c. A.D.; to cast, fellow , anger, to take, law; 4) French: N orm an borrow ings: 11-th - 13-th c. A.D.; Parisian borrow ings: the Re naissance period:governm ent, prom enade, power, lieutenant, restaurant, ball, cortege, caf, coquette, hotel, picnic, ballet, m enu, soup; 5) G reek: the R enaissance period: philanthropy, agronom y, oligarchy, com edy, scene, anem ia, criterion, horm one, eponym , anam nesis; 6) Italian: the R enaissance period and later: violin, um brella, m otto, bandit, gondo la; 7) Spanish: the Renaissance period and later: banana, arm ada, m osquito, guerilla, tornado; 8) Russian: the R enaissance period and later. Balalaika, B olshevik, cosm onaut, sputnik, vodka, troika, steppe, intelligentia, sam ovar, verst, kvass, tundra; 10) A rab, f.e. arsenal, alcohol, alm anac, etc. 9) G erm an, f.e. kindergarten, halt, waltz, nickel, poodle;

We can distinguish translation borrow ings and sem antic borrow ings. The form er are words and expressions form ed from the m aterial already existing in the English language but according to patterns taken from another language, by w ay o f m orphem e-tom orphem e translation, f.e. wall new spaper from Russian. The sem antic borrow ing is understood as the developm ent in an English word o f a new m eaning under the influence o f the related word in. another language, f.e. the English word p ioneer m eant explorer and one who is am ong the first in new fields o f activity. U nder the influence o f the Russian w ord it has com e to m ean a m em ber o f the Young P ioneers O rganization. The English w ord-stock was replenished by international w ords, i.e. w ords o f identical origin that occur in several languages as a result o f sim ultaneous or successive borrow ing from one ultim ate source, e.g. antenna, m usic, radio. International w ords are often confused w ith other w ords which ultim ately com e from the sam e source but have diverged in m eaning. Such w ords are called false friends or false cognates, i.e. accurate and , conserves and . A ssim ilation o f B orrow ings The term 'assim ilation o f borrow ings is used to denote a partial or total conform ation to the phonetical, graphical and m orphological standards o f the English language and its sem antic system. 1. C om pletely assim ilated borrowed w ords follow all m orphological, phonetical and orthographic standards. They take an active part in w ordform ation.C om pletely assim ilated w ords are: cheese (Latin), husband (Scandinavian), face (French), anim al (Latin). It is im portant to m ention that a loan word never brings into the receiving language the whole o f its sem antic structure if it is polysem antic in the original language,f.e. the word sport had a much w ider scope in Old French denoting pleasures, m aking m erry and entertainm ents in general. Being borrow ed into M iddle English in this character it gradually acquired the m eaning o f outdoor gam es and exercise. 2. Partially assim ilated borrow ed w ords m ay be subdivided depending on the aspect that rem ains unaltered into: a) borrow ings not com pletely assim ilated graphically, balet, buffet. Som e may keep a diacritic m ark: caf, clich. Specifically French diagraphs (ch, qu, ou, etc.) may be retained in spelling: bouquet, brioche. b) borrow ings not com pletely assim ilated phonetically. For exam ple, som e o f French borrow ings keep the accent on the final syllable: m achine, cartoon, police. O thers, alongside the peculiarities in stress, contain sounds or com binations o f sounds that are not standard for the English language and do not occur in the native w ords, e.g. [3] - bourgeois, prestige, regime; c) borrow ings not assim ilated gram m atically, for exam ple, nouns borrow ed from Latin or G reek have kept their original plural forms: crisis:: crises, phenom enon :: p h e n o m e n a , index : : indices ( an alphabetical list o f nam es, subjects, etc. at the back o f a book, with the num bers o f the pages w here they can be found) index : : indexes ( a standard by which the level o f som ething can be ju d g ed or m easured); d) borrow ings not assim ilated sem antically because they denote objects and notions peculiar to the country from which they come. They m ay denote foreign clothing ( e.g. sari, som brero); foreign titles and professions (e.g. shah, rajah, toreador); foreign vehicles (e.g. rickshaw (Chinese)); foreign food and drinks (e.g. pilau (Persian), sherbet (A rabian)); etc.

3. U nassim ilated borrow ings or barbarism s. T here are corresponding English equivalents, for such w ords, e.g. the Italian addio, ciao - * good-bye. The changes a borrow ed w ord has had to undergo depending on the date o f its pentration are the m ain cause for the existence o f the so-called etym ological doublets. For exam ple, the w ords w hole (originally m eant healthy, free from d isease) and hale both com e from OE hal: one by the norm al developm ent o f OE a into o, the other from a northern dialect in which this m odification did not take place. O nly the latter has survived in its original m eaning. 3. Influence o f borrow ings The role o f borrow ings w as so great that they exerted m uch influence on the developm ent o f English and brought about different changes or innovations practically on all the levels o f the language system. 1. The influence o f borrow ings on the phonetic structure o f English w ords and the sound system resulted in: 1) the appearance o f a num ber o f w ords o f new phonetic structure w ith strange sounds or fam iliar sounds in unusual positions, e.g. w altz, psychology, souffl. 2) T he influence o f borrow ings on the w ord-structure and the system o f w ordbuilding resulted in: 1) the appearance o f a num ber o f new structural types in w hich som e highlyproductive borrow ed affixes (e.g. re-, inter-, -er, -ism ) can com bine with native and borrow ed bases. O ther borrow ed affixes, not so productive (e.g. co-, de-, -ant, -ic), com bine only with Latinate bases, i.e. bases o f Latin, G reek o r French origin, e.g. inform -ant (inform -< Old French < Latin).

3.The influence o f borrowings on the semantic structure o f English words resulted in: 1)the differentiation o f borrow ed words and synonym ous native w ords in m eaning and use, cf.: feed (native) - nourish (L); 2 ) the narrow ing o f m eaning o f native words due to the differentiation o f synonym s. For instance, the word stool o f native origin in Old English denoted any article o f furniture designed for sitting o n . U nder the influence o f the French borrow ing chair the word stool cam e to be used as the nam e for only one kind o f furniture, i.e. a seat that has three or four legs, but no back or arm s; 3. the extension o f m eaning o f native English words or the acquisition o f additional or new m eanings, e.g. the political m eanings o f shock and deviation have com e from the Russian u g arnii and u k lo n . 4. The influence or borrow ings on the lexical territorial divergence resulted in. 1) the enlargem ent o f the w ord-stock o f different dialects and national variants o f English in the UK. For exam ple, Irish English has the follow ing w ords o f Celtic origin: sham rock- trilistnik, dun-holm , colleen - devushka, etc. In the N orthern and Eastern dialects there are m any Scandinavian borrow ings, e.g. b u sk - get ready; m un-m outh;
Q uestions 1.W hat sets o f English w ords can be singled out according to their origin? 2. W hat w ord is called nativ e? 3. W hat does the term a borrow ed w ord/a borrow ing mean? 4. W hat sem antic groups are words belonging to the Indo-European stock divided into? 5. W hat sem antic groups does the Com m on G erm anic stock contain? 6 . W hat w ords refer to the English words proper?

STYLISTIC CLASSIFICA TION OF THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY

1. T h e opposition o f Stylistically M arked and Stylistically N eu tral WordiS

I

In a highly developed language like English the same idea may be differently expressed in different situations. On various occasions a speaker makes use o f different combinations open to him in the vocabulary. Part o f the words he uses will be independent o f the sphere of comm unication. There are words equally fit to be used in a lecture, a poem, or when speaking to a child. These are said to be stylistically n eutral and constitute the common core o f the vocabulary. They are characterized by high frequency and cover the great portion o f every utterance. The rest may consist o f stylistically coloured words. Not only does the speakers entire experience determine the words he knows and uses but also his knowledge o f his audience and the relationship in which he stands to them governs hifchotce o f words. He says: perhaps, jolly good and I've half a mind to... when speaking to people he knows well, but probably, very well and I intend to... in conversation with a stranger. The English nouns horse, steed, gee-gee have the same denotative meaning in the sense that they all refer to the same animal, but the stylistic colouring is different in each case. Hone is stylistically neutral and may be used in any situation. Steed is dignified and lofty and belongs to poetic diction, while gee-gee is a nursery word neutral in a childs speech, and out of place in aduit conversation. Stylistically coloured, therefore, are words suitable only on certain definite occasions in specific spheres and suggestive o f specific conditions of communications. The word-stock o f the English language may be divided into three main layers: the literary layer, the neutral layer and the colloquial layer. The literary and the colloquial layers contain a number o f subgroups each o f which has a property, which unites the different groups o f words within the layer, may be called its aspect. The aspect o f the literary layer is its markedly bookish character. The aspect o f the colloquial layer of words is its lively spoken character. The aspect o f the neutral layer is its universal character. That means it is unrestricted in its use. It can be empi^ed in all styles o f language and in all spheres o f human activity. The literary vocabulary consists o f the following groups o f words: common literary, terms and learned words, archaic words, barbarisms and foreign words, literary coinages including noncewords. The colloquial vocabulary falls into the following groups: common colloquial words, slang, jargonism s, professionalism s and dialect words.

2, L ite ra ry vo cab u lary

2.1 T e rm s
Term inology constitutes the greatest part of every language vocabulary. Every field o f m odern activity has its specialized vocabulary. There is a special medical vocabulary, and sim ilarly special terminologies for psychology, botany, music, linguistics, teaching m ethods and many others. So, bilingual, labialization, palatalization, glottal stop, descending scale are term s o f theoretical phonetics. A term is, in many respects, a very peculiar type o f word. An ideal term should be m onosem antic and, when used within its own sphere, does not depend upon the micro-context

provided it is not expressed by a figurative variant of a polysemantic word. Its meaning remains constant until some new discovery or invention changes the referent or the notion. The only meaning possible is a denotative free meaning. No emotional colouring or evaluation is possible when the term is used within its proper sphere. A term can obtain a figurative or emotionally coloured meaning only when taken out o f its sphere and used in literary or colloquial speech. But in that case it ceases to be a term and its denotative meaning may also become very vague. It turns into an ordinary word. The origin o f terms shows several main channels, three of which are specific for terminology. -Formation o f tenninological phrases with subsequent clipping, ellipsis, blending, abbreviations: transistor, receiver transistor *. trannie; television text teletext; ecological architecture ecotecture; extremely lowfrequency * ELF. -The use o f combining forms from Latin and Greek like aerodrome, aerodynamics, cyclotron,

microfilm, telegraph, thermonuclear, supersonic.

-Borrowing from another terminological system within the same language whenever there is any affinity between the respective fields. In linguistics, for instance, we can come across many terms borrowed from rhetoric: metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and others. The remaining two methods are common with other layers o f the vocabulary. These are wordformation in which composition, semantic shift and derivation take the leading part, and borrowing from other languages. Many words that were once terms have gradually lost their qualities as terms and have passed into the common literary vocabulary. With radio and television sets in every home maoy radio terms - antenna, teletype, transistor, short waves - are well known to everybody ancRmen used in everyday conversation. 2.2 L earned W ords and Official V ocabulary In addition to terms, a text on some special problems usually contains a considerable proportion o f so-called learned words, such as approximate, commence, compute, exclude, indicate, initial, respectively, etc. The learned layer of vocabulary is characterized by a phenomenon which may be appropriatelycalled lexical suppletion. This term is used for pairs like: father - paternal home - domestic, lip labial, mind-mental, son-filial, etc. in all these cases a stylistically neutral noun o f native origin is correlated with a borrowed relative adjective. The semantic relation between them is quite regular. The learned vocabulary comprises some archaic connectives not used elsewhere: hereby, thereafter, hereupon, herein, herewith, etc. |t also contains double conjunctions like moreover, furthermore, however, such as, and group conjunctions: in consequence of, inasmuch as, etc. The term learned includes several subdivisions of words. W e find here numerous words that are used in scientific prose, e.g. comprise, compile, experimental, heterogeneous, homogeneous, conclusive, divergent, etc. To this group also belongs the so-called officialese. These are the words o f the official, bureaucratic language, e.g. assist (for help), endeavour (for try), proceed (for go), inquire (for

ask), approximately (for about), sufficient (for enough).

Probably the most interesting subdivision of learned words is represented by the words found in descriptive passages o f fiction. They sound foreign. Here are some examples: solitude,

sentiment, fascination, delusion, meditation, felicity, elusive, cardial, illusionary.

There is one further subdivision o f learned words: inodes of poetic diction. Yet, poetic words have a further characteristic - a lofty, high-flown, sometimes archaic* colouring: alas!, realm, wroth, whilom, wight, etc.

2.3 Archaic Words

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The word-stock o f a language is in an increasing state of change. W ords change their m eaning and sometim es drop out o f the language altogether. New words spring up and replace the old ones. It is possible to distinguish three stages in the aging process o f words: - The beginning o f the aging process when the word becomes rarely used. Such words are called obsolescent, i.e., they are in the stage of gradually passing out o f general use. In the English language these are the pronouns thou and its forms thee, thy and thine; the corresponding verbal ending -est and the verb forms: art, wilt (thou makest, thou wilt); the ending ~(e)th instead o f -(e)s (he maketh) and the pronoun ye. To the category o f obsolescent words belong\m any French borrowings, e.g. pallet (a straw mattress), palfrey (a light saddle horse, esp. ridden by women), garniture (furniture), etc. - The second group o f archaic words are those that have already gone completely out o f use but are still recognized by the English speaking community, e.g. rneihinfa (it seems to me), nay (no). These words arc called obsolete. - The third group, which may be called archaic proper, are words which are no longer recognizable in m odem English, words that were in use in Old English and which have either dropped out o f the language entirely or have changed in their appearance so much that they become unrecognizable, e.g. troth (faith), lose! (a worthless person), etc. There is still another class o f words which is erroneously classed as archaic, viz. historical w ords, for example: thane, yeoman, goblet, baldric, mace. Words o f this type never disappear from the language. They are historical terms and remain as terms referring to definite stages in the development o f society and cannot therefore be dispensed with, though the things and phenomena to which they refer have long passed into oblivion. * Historical words have no synonyms, whereas archaic words have been replaced by modern synonyms. Some exam ples will illustrate this statement: aught (anything whatever), behold (see), billow (wave), damsel (a young unmarried woman; maiden), ere (before), hapless (unlucky), hark (listen), perchance (perhaps), steed (horse), woe (sorrow), etc. most o f these words are lexical archaism s and they are stylistic synonyms of words which ousted them from the neutral style. Som etim es a lexical archaism begins a new life, getting a new m eaning, then the old meaning becomes a sem antic arch aism , e.g .fair in the meaning beautiful is a semantic archaism, but in the m eaning blond it belongs to neutral style. Som etim es the root'of the word remains and the affix is changed, then (he old affix is considered to be a m orphem ic archaism , e.g. beauteous (-ous was substituted by -fut), bepainl (be was dropped), darksome {-some was dropped), oft (-en was added), lone (-ly was added), morn (-ing was added), etc. 2.4 U a rb a risn ^ a n d Foreign W ords There are words o f foreign origin which have not entirely been assimilated into the English language. They bear the appearance o f a borrowing and are felt as som ething alien to the native tongue. These words, which are called barbarism s, are, like archaisms, also considered to be on the outskirts o f the literary language. Most o f them have corresponding English synonyms, e.g. chic (= stylish); bon mot (= a clever w itty saying); en passant (~ in passing); ad infinitum (- to infinity) and many others words and phrases. However, there are foreign words in the English vocabulary which should not be regarded as barbarism s, though they still retain their foreign appearance. Such words as ukase, soviet, kolkhoz and the like denote certain concepts which reflect an objective reality not familiar to Englishspeaking communities. There are no names for them in English and so they have to be explained. New concepts o f this type are generally given the names they have in the language o f the people whose reality they reflect.

Further, such words as solo, tenor, concerto, blitzkrieg and the like should also be distinguished from barbarisms. They are terms. Terminological borrowings have no synonyms; barbarisms, on the contrary, may have almost exact synonyms. It is evident that barbarisms are a historical category. Many foreign words and phrases which were once ju st foreign words used in literary English reality, have little by little entered the class o f words named barbarisms and many o f these barbarisms have gradually lost their foreign peculiarities, become more or less naturalized and have merged with the native English stock o f words. Conscious, retrograde, penetrate, figurative, obscure, and many others, are words which were once barbarisms, but which are now lawful members of the common literary word slock o f the language.

2.5 Neologisms
Every period in the development of a language produces an enormous number o f new words and expressions or neologism s. A neologism (GR. neos - new, logos - word) is a word term, o r phrase which has been recently created (or coined'). The first type o f newly coined words, i.e. those which designate new bom concepts, may be named terminological coinages or terminological neologisms. The second type, i.e. words coined because their creators seek expressive utterance may be named stylistic coinages or stylistic neologisms. Another type o f neologism is the nonce-w ord, i.e. a word coined to suit one particular occasion. Nonce-words are created to designate some insignificant subjective idea or evaluation o f - a thing or phenom enon and generally become moribund. They rarely pass into the language as legitimate units o f the vocabulary. The development o f science gives rise to a lot o f neologisms. New words and phrases are created to describe new scientific discoveries or inventions, e.g.: black hole, laser, prion, ctc. A large number o f new words appear due to the development o f computerization, e.g.: PC,

multi-user, hardw are, software, monitor, screen, computerization, to telework, telebanking, telemarketing, etc. N ew words appear in the sphere o f commerce and advertising: aspirin, laundromat, linoleum,
etc. In the sphere o f linguistics we have such neologisms as: machine translation, Interlingua,

backronym, protologism, etc.

Here are some examples o f neologisms with the suffix -ize: moisturize, accessorize, deglamorize, etc. The prefix anti- has given us the following new words: anti/lash, antihero, antivirus, antitheft, antiradar, and the like. The fate o f neologisms is hardly predictable: some of them are short-lived, others, on the contrary, become durable as they are liked and accepted.

3. Colloquial Vocabulary
Colloquial vocabulary is traditionally subdivided into several subgroups:

3.1 Colloquialisms
These are words that are used both by cultivated and uneducated people o f all age groups in the course o f ordinary conversation or when writing letters to intimate friends. The sphere o f com m unication of literary colloquial words also includes the printed page. The author creates an intimate, w ann, informal atmosphere, meeting his reader, as it were, on the level o f a friendly talk, especially when the narrative verges upon non-personal direct speech.

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Some examples are: pram, exam, fridge, flu, zip, etc. Verbs with post-positional adverbs are also numerous among colloquialisms: pul up, put over, make up, do away, turn up, turn in, etc. The borderline betw een the literary and familiar colloquial is not always clearly marked. Yet the circle o f speakers using familiar colloquial is more limited: these words are used mostly by the young and the semi-educated. Familiar colloquial is more emotional and much more free and careless than literary colloquial. The examples are: doc (for doctor), hi (for how do you do), ia-ta (for good-bye), go on with you (for let me alone), shut up (for keep silent), beat it (for go away), etc. Low colloquial is a term used for illiterate popular speech. The chief peculiarities o f low colloquial concern gram m ar and pronunciation; as to the vocabulary, it is different from familiar colloquial in that it contains more vulgar words, and sometimes also elem ents o f dialect. All the groups o f colloquialism contain a large number o f intensifiers (absolutely, fabulous, lovely, superb, terrific) and lexical expressions of modality (definitely, up to a point, in a way,

exactly, by all means, rather).

3.2 Slang
The Oxford English Dictionary defines slang as very informal words and expressions that are more comm on in spoken language, especially used by a particular group o f people. People use slang in order to sound m odem and up-to-date. The circle o f users o f slang is narrower than that o f colloquialisms. It is mainly used by young and uneducated. A ^ a result many words formerly labeled as slang have become legitimate units of Standard English. Kid (child), is now a legitimate colloquial unit o f the English literary language. Other slang words that were accepted into literary vocabulary are: chap, donkey, fun, odd, snob, trip, etc. 3.3 Jarg o n ism s J a rg o n is a recognized term for a group of words that exists in almost every language and whose aim is to preserve secrecy within one or another social group. Jargosnisms are generally old words with entirely new meanings imposed on them. Most o f the jargonism s o f nay language are absolutely incom prehensible to those outside the social group which has invented them. Jargonism s are social in character. They are not regional. In England and in the USA almost any social group o f people has its own jargon. The following jargons are well known in the English language: the jargon o f thieves, and vagabonds, generally known as cant; the jargon o f jazz people; the jargon o f the army, known as military slang; the jargon o f sportsmen and many other varieties. It is difficult to draw a hard and fast line between slang and jargon. Thus the words queer, bluff humbug, formerly slang words or jargonisms, are now considered common colloquial.

3.4 Professionalisms
P rofessionalism s are the words used in a definite trade, profession or calling by people connected by common interests both at work and at home. They commonly designate some working process or implement o f labour. Professionalisms are correlated to terms. Professional words name anew already existing concepts, tools or instruments, and have the typical properties of a special code. The main feature of a professionalism is its technicality. Professionalism s are special words in the non-literary layer o f the English vocabulary, whereas terms are specialized group belonging to the literary layer of words. Professionalisms generally remain in circulation within a definite community, as they are linked to a common occupation and

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common social interests. Like terms, professionalisms do not allow any polysemy, they are monosemantic. 4. Basic V ocabulary These words are stylistically neutral, and, in this respect, opposed to formal and informal words described above. Their stylistic neutrality makes it possible to use them in all kind^of situations, both formal and informal, in verbal and written communication. Professional terminology is used mostly by representatives o f the profession; dialects are regional; slang i f favoured mostly by the young and the uneducated. These words are used every day, everywhere and by everybody, regardless o f profession, occupation, educational level, age group or geographical location. These are words without which no human communication would be possible as they denote objects and phenomena of everyday importance (e.g. house, summer, winter, child, mother, difficult, to go, to stand, etc.). The basic vocabulary is the central group of the vocabulary, its historical foundation and living core. That is why w ord'bf this stratum show a considerably greater stability in comparison with words o f the other strata, especially informal. For instance, the verb to walk means merely to move from place to place on foot whereas ? ; the m eaning o f its synonym s to stride, to stroll, to trot, to stagger and others, some additional information is encoded as they each describe a different manner o f walking. Thus, to walk, with its direct broad meaning, is a typical basic vocabulary word, and its synonyms, with their additional information encoded in their meanings, belong to the periphery o f the vocabulary. - The basic vocabulary and the stylistically marked strata of the vocabulary do not exist independently but are closely interrelated. Most stylistically marked words have their neutral counterparts in the basic vocabulary. The following synonym s illustrate the relations that exist between the neutral, literary and colloquial words in the English language:

C o l l o q u ia l kid daddy flapper comfy go ahead end

N e u tra l child father young girl comfortable continue finish

'L i t e r a r y infant parent maiden commodious proceed terminate

HOMONYMS
Two or m ore words identical in sound and spelling but different in m eaning, distribution and origin are called hom onyms . The term is derived from Greek hom onym ous ( hom os = the sam e, onym a = name) and thus expresses very well the sameness o f nam e com bined w ith the difference in meaning. Homonymy exists in m any languages, but in English it is particularly frequent, especially in m onosyllabic words. In the list o f 2540 hom onym s given in the Oxford English Dictionary 89% are m onosyllabic words and only 9,1% are words o f two syllables. C L A S S IF IC A T IO N O F H Q M O N Y M S Homonym s are classified into 3 groups : homonyms proper, homophones and

homographs. Homonyms proper are words identically pronounced and spelled, e.g. fast - quick;
fast = firm; liver + that who lives and liver = the organ that secrets bile; back, n = part o f the body; back, adv = away from the front;back, v = go back, return; ball, n = a round object; ball, n = gathering o f people for dancing; bark, v = to utter sharp explosive cries , bark,n = the skin o f the trees, bark,n = a sailing ship; base, n = bottom , base, v = build or place upon, base, a = m ean and so on.

Homophones are w ords o f the same sound but o f different spelling and m eaning :
e.g., air / heir; arm s / alms; buy / by; him / hym n; knight / night; not /knot; or / oar; piece / peace; rain /reign; scent /cent; steel /steal; storey /story; w rite /right and so on.

Homographs are w ords different in sound and in m eaning but identical in s p e llin g ;
bow [bou]= bow= [bauj; lead [li:d] = lead [led]; row [rou] = row [rau]; sewer [soue] =sew er [sjue]; tear [tie] - tear [tea]; wind [wind]-wind [waind].

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SY N O N Y M S Synonyms are words only sim ilar but not identical in meaning. Synonym s can be defined as two or m ore words o f the same language, belonging to the sam e part o f speech and possessing one or more identical meanings, e.g., to experience, undergo^ sustain, suffer. Som etim es synonym s are interchangeable , e.g., The French language has undergone considerable and m ore recent changes since the date w hen the

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Norm ans brought it into England ( here undergo m ay be substituted by suffer or experience ). Som e words are called generic, e.g., hope (anticipate, expect, look forward to), animal ( wolf, dog,m ouse). H yponym s - specific w ords included into a group o f w o rd s , i.e., pup ( for a small dog), (hypo - under). The synonym s are classified into 3 groups : total, relative and contextual or contextdependent synonyms. Total synonym s are very rare, for example : noun and substantive, functional affix, flection and inflection. Relative synonym s : ask, beg, implore; love, like,adore,be fond of; gift, talent, genius. Contextual synonym s are words sim ilar in meaning only under som e specific distributional conditions (buy and get; Ill go to the shop and buy som e bread or T i l go to the shop and get some bread ; For example, bear, suffer and stand , they are sem antically different and are not interchangeable except when used in the negative form. I ve sw allow ed too much o f the beastly stuff. I cant stand it any longer. A great part o f English synonym s are borrowed from other languages ( freedom , liberty; heaven, sky), O.Espersen and other linguists used to say that the English language is particularly rich in synonym s because B rito n s, Romans, Saxons, Danes and N orm ans fighting and s e ttin g upon the soil o f the British Isles could not but influence each others speech. British scholars studied Greeek and Latin and for centfnes used G reeek and Latin as a m edium for com m unication on scholarly topics. Its peculiar feature in English is the contrast betw een sim ple native w ords stylistically neutral, literary w ords borrow ed from French and learned words o f G reco- Latin origin.

English
To ask Belly To gather Em pty To end To rise Teaching

French
to question stom ach to assem ble devoid to finish to m ount guidance

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to interroger"" abdom en to collect vacuous to com plete to ascend instruction

English also uses m any pairs o f synonymous derivatives, the one H ellenic and the other Rom ance, e.g., periphery, circumference; hypothesisf'supposition; sym pathy, compassion; synthesis, composition. In poem s we have stylistical synonyms (e.g., dale- valley; deed, act; fair, beautiful).

Language as well as other adaptable systems, better studied in other branches o f science, is capable o f obtaining information from the extra-linguistic w orld and with the help o f feedback m akes use o f it for its optimization. I f the variation proves useful, it rem ains in the vocabulary. The process m ay be observed by its results that is by studying new w ords or neologisms. A neologism is a new ly coined word or phrase a new m eaning for an existing word, or a word borrow ed from another language. The intense developm ent o f science and industry has called forth the invention and introduction o f an immense num ber o f new words and changed the m eanings o f old ones, for example, aerobic, black hole, computer,isotope, feedback, penicillin, pulsar, quasar, tape-recorder, supermarket, mini-market. W hen radio location was invented it was defined as radio detection and ranging w hich is long and so a convenient abbreviation out o f the first letter or letters o f each word: Radar. The lexical system may adapt itself to new functions by com bining several wordbuilding processes , for example, fall- o u t-th e radioactive dust descending through the air after an atom ic explosion( com position and conversion), ad-lib (means "to im provise from Latin ad libitum), admass, in J.B. Priestleys w o rk - m ass advertising in its harm ful effect on society, for example, teach-in^ a students conference or a series o f seminars on some burning questions, m eaning som e dem onstration or protest. There are m any such words: lie-in. sleep-in, pray-in, laugh-in. The intense developm ent o f shortening aimed at economy o f tim e and effort but keeping the sense com plete is manifested not only by acronym s or abbreviations but also in blends,for example, bionics (bio-ff electronics), slim nastics (slim+ gymnastics), sem iaffixes evolve into a separate set: - m an (now "person" is used), for example, chairperson; policeperson;workaholic= a person w ith a com pulsive desire to work was patterned on ballaholic, bookaholic, which can be easily explained; for example, washeteria= a self-service laundry. W hen som e words becom e a frequent elem ent in compounds, for exam ple, mad, happy: pow er-m ad, money-mad, speed-mad, m ovie -m a d , auto-happy,trigger-happy, footlight-happy.. These new additions are collected in explanatory dictionaries, The Dictionary o f New English referred to as Barnhart Dictionaries(Clarence Barnhart, a distinguished Am erican lexicographer). N ew words can be form ed w ith the prefix re- the most p roductivel^m ix, for example, rebuild, reread, rewrite; others are: anti-, de-, un- the sem i-affixes self-, super-, mini-, for example, anti-flash, anti-matter, anti-pollution; anti-novel. Neologism s are: brain-drain, brains-trust- a group o f experts, to brain-drain, braindrainer, quiz-m aster- chairman in competitions, designed to test the know ledge o f the participants ; backroom boys-m en engaged in secret research, redbrick(universities), paperback(books), ban-the-bom b( dem onstration), net-work- a num ber o f broadcasting stations, connected for a sim ultaneous broadcast o f the same program m e, cybernetics- study o f systems o f control and com m unication in living beings and m an-m ade devices coined by N .W iener, boffin- a scientist engaged in research w ork ; gim m ick- a trick)' device (American slang used in BE). Some o f the neologism s are short-lived , others, on the contrary, becom e durable as they are liked and accepted,zip ( a certain type o f fastener) is hardly felt as new, its derivatives are new ( to zip- zip from one place to another; zipper, zippy).

There are synonym s that came from the USA, e.g., gim m ick= trick; dues=subscription; longdistance call^trunk call; radio= w ireless; Irish: clover= shamrock; liquor= whiskey; Scottish: g irH a ss, lassie; charm =glamour. There are pairs o f synonyms: to rest=to have a rest, to smoke= to have a smoke; to look= to have a look; to laugh=to give a laugh; to sigh=to give a sigh; to w alk-to take a w alk... Quite frequently synonym s , m ostly stylistical are due to shortening, e.g., m em orandum- m em o; vegetables- vegs; m argarine-m arge; m icrophone-m ike; popular (song)- pop (song). Conversion also m ay be a source o f synonymy, e.g., com m am dm ent- comm and, laughter-laugh. They are considered lexical variants. Synonyms m ay be form ed due to different ways o f affixation: anxiety- anxiousness; effectivity-effectiveness; amongsamong; await-wait. A source o f synonymy are the so-called euphemisms, a word or m ore or less pleasant or at least inoffensive connotation becomes synonymous to one that is harsh,indelicate, unpleasant ( to be merry= to be drunken; naked=in ones birthday suit; pregnant=in the family way; drunkenness=intoxication; sweat=perspiration. Interjections or swearings addressed to God are also synonymic (for goodness sake! Goodness gracious; goodness knows! By ^sove? Good Lord! By gum. Paronyms- hard words, difficult to distinguish, e.g., ingenious(clever)/ ingenious (frank, artless); affect (influence) / effect (produce).

ANTONYMS
They are two or m ore words o f the same language belonging to the sam e part o f speech and to the sam e semantic field, identical in style and nearly identical in distribution, rendering contradictory or contrary notions. I a) Contradictory notions are m utually opposed and denying one a n o th e r, e.g., alive / not dead Irrpitient / not patient b) Contrary notions are also m utually opposed but they are gradable, e.g., old / young; hot / cold; cool / warm. II A nother classification o f antonyms is based on a m orphological approach: Root words formLabsolute antonyms ( right / wrong), love / hate 2) derivational antonym s ( happy / unhappy), known / unknown The opposition o f such words is obvious and they may be called antonym ic pairs. Antonym s have traditionally been defined as words o f opposite meaning. The difference betw een absolute and derivational antonyms is not only morphological but sem antic as well. Absolute antonyms are polar mem bers o f a gradual opposition which m ay have intermediary elem en ts, for example, b e a u tifu l:: pretty "goodlooking ::plain :: ugly. Many antonym s m ay be explained by means o f the negative particle : clean - not dirty; shallow - not deep. This is a syntactic negation, it is w eaker than the lexical antonymy , for example, not happy- unhappy, not polite :: impolite; not regularirregular; not to believe- to disbelieve.

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4

171

12.'ENGLISH VARIANTS M m DIALECTS 1

12 |l Standard English Variants and Dialects Standard English - the official language o f G reat B ritain taught at schools and universities, used by the press, the radio and the television and spoken by educated people m ay be defined as that form o f English w hich is current and literary, substantially uniform and recognized as acceptable w herever English is spoken or understood. Its vocabulary is contrasted to dialect w ords or dialectism s. L o c a l dialects are varieties o f the English language peculiar to som e districts and having no norm alized literary form. R egional varieties possessing a literary form are called variants. In G reat Britain there are tw o variants, Scottish and Irish English, and five m ain groups o f dialects: Northern, Midland, Eastern, Western and Southern. Every group contains several dialects. [Southern English, for instance, engages in r-dropping, that is, r is not pronounced after vowels, unless follow ed by another vow el. Instead, vow els are lengthened or have an off-glide, so fire becom es'{fai],y a r becom es [fa:],/and so on. rOne o f the best know n Southern dialects is C ockney, the regional dialect o f London. A ccording to E. Partridge and H. C. W ylde, this dialect exists on two levels. A s spoken by the educated low er m iddle classes it is a regional dialect m arked by som e deviations in pronunciation but few in vocabulary and syntax. As spoken by the uneducated, Cockney differs from Standard English not only in pronunciation but also in vocabulary, m orphology and syntax/} TCockney is phonetically characterized by the replacem ent o f the

172

A G uide to E nglish L exicology

dental fricatives [0] and [6] by labiodentals [fj and [v] respectively: fing for thing and farver for father (inserting the letter r indicates vowel length). (This variation is not exclusively characteristic o f Cockney and may be'found in several dialects.fAnother trait not lim ited to Cockney is the interchange o f the aspirated and non-aspirated initial vowels: hart for art and eart for heart. The most m arked feature in vowel sounds is the substitution o f the diphthong [ai] for standard [ei] in such w ords as day, face, rain, way pronounced: [dai], [fais], [rain], [wai]. There are some specifically Cockney w ords and set expressions such as leave it out (stop it), up the pole (drunk), to grass up (to inform .on), to suss out (to find out), guv (boss), e t c . '! ( Cockney is also characterized by]\ts ow n sp e cia l vocabulary and usage in the form of| cockney rhyming slang ,) in which som e words are substituted by other w ords rhyming w ith 'th em .(Boots, for instance, are called daisy roots", stairs are "apples and pears, feet are called p lates o f meat , ears - jugs o f beers " and mouth - "north and south , / Features which can be found in East Anglian English (especially in Norfolk) include: yod-dropping after all consonants so that [}u:] becom es [u:], e.g. beautiful, new and tune are pronounced ['bu:tiful], [mi:] and [tu:n]; the diphthong [ai] in words such as right, buy, pie and sky sounds more like the diphthong [oi] giving [roit], [boi], [poi] and [skoi]; the spelling thr becom es like tr so three sounds the same as tree; any w ord beginning w ith [v] has the first letter changed to and pronounced like a [w], so you have winegar instead o f vinegar and w illage instead o f village .7 [The specific features o f W est C o u n try dialects are: the f in a ls is pronounced [ei], e.g. party - ['pa.tei], silly - ['silei]; initial fricative consonants can be voiced, so that [s] is pronounced as [z], e.g. singer - ['zigajjjand [f] as [v]: finger - ['firjgafrilong a vow els in w ords such as grass, ask and bath are represented by the sound [as] and not [a:]. W estern dialects are also characterized by their own specific vocabulary: chump ( log for the fire), daps (sport shoes), to mang (to m ix), somewhen (at som e tim e), zat (soft), etc.\

O lg a B U R E A

173

Brummie, the version o f West Midlands spoken in B irm ingham , is characterized by: diphthong [ai] can be pronounced [oi], e.g. Jive m ay sound like [foiv]; the vow el o f face {ei] can be [ai] or sim ilar; [su] is replaced by [au], so that goat sounds like gout, etc. T raditional expressions include: A bit black over Bill's m other s (Likely to rain soon), bab (used by older generation to refer to a spouse or fem ale), bostin (excellent, brilliant), etc. I /T h e Northern dialect clo'sely resem bles the southern-m ost Scottish dialects. It retains m any old Scandinavian words, su ch as bairn (child), bonny (pretty), cuddy (horse) o r gan (go). T he m ost outstanding version is Geordie, the dialect o f the N ew castle area!/U nlike m any English dialects, initial h is not dropped from the beginning w ords, but word-final -ing is usually pronounced as [in]. L ike other northern dialects, the u vow els tend to be short, so th at the vow el sounds in the w ords fo o t and bus are the same. Probably the m ost noticeable feature o f G eordie gram m ar is a confusing difference in pronoun forms. The term us is used to indicate a singular m e, w hile the plural form for us is wu or even wuz. So give us it m eans give m e it and give wu it m eans give us it . Som e typical G eordie w ords are: aye (yes), gob (m outh), chuffed (happy), nowt (nothing), marra ( friend, m ate), bait ( food), etc [ Dialects are now chiefly preserved in rural com m unities, in the speech o f elderly p e o p le .T h e ir boundaries have becom e less stable than they used to be; the distinctive features are tending to disappear w ith the shifting o f population due to the m igration-of w orking-class fam ilies in search o f em ploym ent and the grow ing influence o f urban life over the countryside. D ialects are said to undergo rapid changes u nder the pressure o f Standard English taught at schools and the speech habits cultivated by radio, television and c in e m aj A fter this b rie f review o f dialects we shall now proceed to th e discussion o f variants. Scottish and Irish English have a special linguistic status as com pared w ith dialects because o f the literature com posed in them. The nam e o f R obert Burns, the great national poet o f Scotland, is know n all over the world. The poetic features o f Anglo-

174

A Guide to English Lexicology

Irish m ay be seen in the plays by J. M. Synge and Sean O Casey. Scottish English is the spoken English variety o f Scotland, also called Scottish Standard English. The standard spelling, gram m ar, and punctuation o f Scottish English tend to follow the style o f the Oxford English Dictionary. However, there are som e unique characteristics, m ainly in the phonological and phonetic systems. Scottish English has a num ber o f lexical items which are rare in Southern British English. General items are outwith, m eaning outside o f ; wee, the Scots w ord for sm all ; pinkie for little finger and ja n ito r for caretaker . Exam ples o f culturally specific items are caber, haggis and ingle. There is a wide range o f legal and adm inistrative vocabulary inherited from Scots, e.g., depute for deputy, proven for proved , interdict for injunction and s h e riff substitute for acting sh e riff. Often, lexical differences between Scottish English and Southern Standard English are sim ply differences in the distribution o f shared lexis, such as stay for live (as in: Where do yo u stay?)] doubt for think the worst {Idoubt it w ill rain m eaning I fear that it will rain); correct is often preferred to right, etc/; W hile pronunciation features vary am ong speakers (depending on region and social status), there are a num ber o f phonological aspects characteristic o f Scottish English.fScottish Englisn\*s a rhotic accent, i.e. postvocalic r is pronounced. In m ost varieties, there is no [ae] and [a:] distinction; therefore, bath , trap, and p a lm have the same vow el; cat and cart are distinguished only by m eans o f the r; and m arry rhym es w ith starry. [0s] is often used in plural nouns w here southern English has [5z] (baths, youths, etc); with is pronounced w ith [8]. Syntactical differences are few though the progressive verb forms are used rather m ore frequently than in other varieties o f Standard English, for exam ple w ith some stative verbs ( I m w anting a drink). The negative o f m any auxiliary verbs is form ed w ith -na: am > amna, hae (have) > hinna, dae (do) > dinna, can > canna, etc. Prepositions are often used differently. The com pound preposition o ff o f is often used parallel to English into (Take that o f f o f the table).

Olga BUREA
N um erals differ, too: ane, twa, three, fower, five, sax, seeven, aucht, nine, ten , etc.J H iberno-English - know n m ore com m only as Irish English is spoken in Ireland and is the result o f the interaction o f the E n g lish and Irish languages. |T he standard spelling and gram m ar o f Irish E nglish are largely the sam e as U K English. However, som e u n iq u e characteristics exist, especially in the spoken language. H iberno-English retains m any phonem ic differentiations^ w ith som e local exceptions, Irish E nglish is a rhotic dialect./Tn so m e varieties, the dental fricatives [0] and [5] becom e dentaj stops, m ak in g thin and tin, and then and den, near-hom ophones. The vowels in w o rd s like boat and cane are m onophthongs: [bo:t], and [ke:n] respectively . } The syntax o f the Irish language is quite different from th a t o f E n g lis h .H iberno-English uses y es and no less frequently th an other E nglish dialects as speakers can repeat the verb, positively or negatively, instead o f using yes or no . E.g. Are you coming home

soon?" "lam.
It is com m on for H iberno-English speakers to use the w ord aye as a w eak form o f yes : e.g. Is that okay with you? Aye. IAm n t is used as an abbreviation o f am not, by analogy w ith isn t and aren t . This can be used as a tag question ( " I m making a mistake, amn't I? ), or as an alternative to Im not ( "Iam n t jo k in g ), an d the double negative is also used ( " I m not late, am n t I not? ). To is often om itted from sentences w here it would exist in B ritish English. For exam ple, la m not allowed go out tonight, instead o f "7

am not allowed to go out tonight In E nglish one takes from here to there, and brings it to here from there . But, in Irish, a person takes only when accepting a transfer o f possession o f the object from som eone else - and a person brings at all other tim es, irrespective o f direction (to or from), e.g. " D on t forget to bring your umbrella with you when you go. I Come here to me now or Come here and I ll tellya something is
used to m ean Listen to this or I have som ething to tell y o u . H iberno-English vocabulary is largely the same as B ritish

176

A Guide to English Lexicology

( 'f ir .

English, though there are variances.'exam ples that would com e into everyday conversation includ e\[ghiseler ( child), craic ( fun " ),fe e n (man), footpath (pavem ent), dingen ( very good), etoj5> /W ords from dialects and variants may penetrate into Standard English. The Irish English gave, for instance, blarney (flattery), bog (a spongy, usually peaty ground o f marsh), sham rock (a trifoliate plant, the national em blem o f Ireland), whiskey , etc. The contribution o f the Scottish dialect is very considerable. / Some o f the most Scotticism s are; bairn (chifd), bonny (handsom e), bm gue (a stout shoe), lassie (a little girl), etc .j
\
y f '"

12,i2 American English

Am erican English (AE), also known as United States English or U.S. English, is a set o f dialects o f the English language used m ostly in the United States. The use o f English in the United States w as inherited from British colonization. The first w ave o f English-speaking settlers arrived in North Am erica in the 17,h century. During that time, there w ere also speakers in North A m erica o f Dutch, French, Germ an, N orw egian, Spanish, Swedish, Scots, Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Finnish, as well as num erous N ative A m erican languages,] [The process o f coining new lexical items started as soon as the colonists began borrow ing nam es for unfam iliar flora, fauna, and topography from the N ative A m erican languages. Exam ples names are; chipmunk, raccoon, skunk, squash, and moose. O ther N ative Am erican loanwords, such as wigwam or moccasin, describe artificial objects in common use am ong N ative Am ericans. The languages o f the other colonizing nations also added to the A m erican vocabulary; for instance, cookie, cruller, and sleigh from Dutch; depot, portage, pum pkin from French; barbecue, bonanza, cockroach from S p a n ish j ; The second period o f A m erican English history begins in the i9 th century. Immigrants continued to com e from Europe to AmericaT)When

O lga B U R E A

177

large groups o f im m igrants from the sam e country carqe to A m e ric a som e o f their words w ere borrow ed into E nglish./Italians b ro u g h t w ith them a style o f cooking w hich becam e w idely spread a n d such w ords as: pizza, spaghetti cam e into E nglish. From the great n u m b e r o f G erm an-speaking settlers the follow ing w ords w ere b o rro w ed into English: delicatessen, lager, hamburger, noodle, schnitzel and m any others. I During the second period o f A m erican English history there appeared a num ber o f w ords and w ord-groups which w ere fo rm ed in the language due to the new political system , liberation o f A m e ric a from the British colonialism , its independence. /The follow ing lexical units appeared due to these events: assembly, caucus, congress, Senate, congressman, President, senator, Vice-President and m any-others:/ With the new continent developed new form s o f dw ellin g , and hence a large num ber o f w ords designating real estate c o n c ep ts (lot, outlands, waterfront) and types o f property ( log cabin, apartment, shanty, townhouse, mobile home). / The rise o f capitalism , the developm ent o f industry, and m aterial innovations throughout the 19U l and 20* centuries were the so u rce o f a m assive stock o f new w ords and phrases./Typical exam ples a re from the vocabulary o f transportation: expressways, parkways, parking lot, overpass, rest area, double-decker, etc. Trades o f various kinds have provided A m erican E nglish w ith household words describing jo b s and occupations (bartender,

patrolman, bellhop, white collar, blue collar, employee, boss, busboy), businesses and workplaces (department store, supermarket, gift shop, drugstore, motel, main street, gas station), as well as general concepts and innovations (smart card, cash register, dishwasher, reservation, movie, blood bank). 1
The investigation presented above o f some o f the basic facts o f early Am erican history and the various factors that influenced the form o f the English language spoken in A m erica throw s som e light upon the sources o f the presently existing differences betw een the B ritish and A m erican varieties o f English.

178

A Guide to English Lexicology

/ A considerable num ber o f divergences betw een B E a n d AE can be detected in the area o f p ro n u n c ia tio n . In British English sound [r] is pronounced only if a vow el sound follows directly at the beginning o f the next word, as in f a r aw ay, otherwise the [r] is omitted. For A m erican English, all the [r] sounds should be pronounced. The sound [o] does not occur in AE, and words which have this vow el in British pronunciation will instead have [a:] or [3:] in AE. For instance, got is [got] in BE, but [ga:t] in AE, while dog is British [dug], A m erican [d3:g]. A nother characteristic A m erican feature is that o f using the m onophthong [u] instead o f the diphthong jju]. This is true m ost often after the sounds o f [d, t, n, s], for example: due, news, suit, duty, su it able, Tuesday, student, numerous, etc.7 The three diphthongs [ea, ia, us] are found only in British English. In corresponding places/A m erican English has a sim ple vowel follow ed by [r], so near is [nir], hair is [her], and pure is [pjur]. There is a considerable num ber o f words which differ in their phonetic shape, e.g.: AE BE [ad'vatism ant] [dva'taizm ant] advertisement [klark] clerk [kla:k] either f'i:a] ['aids] [lu:'tenant] lieutenant [leftenant] neither ['naia] [nWto] schedule ['sk ed |p u :l] r e d ju :!] [ta'm a:tou] tomato [ta'meftou] vase [va:z] [veis] which differ in stress in BE and AE are like following: dictate research aristocrat AE ['dikteitl {'ri:s3:tM] [ari:st3Krt] BE [dik'teitl [ri'S9:tOT f'ristakrt]

O lg a B U R E A cafe fro n tie r laboratory [k'fei] [frS ln'tia] ['l bf3D :ri] ['kfei] {'ftontia] [b 'b ara tri]

179

The m ost significant sp ellin g differen ces which can be d e te c te d in present-day A m erican and B ritish English can be classified u n d e r the follow ing headings: 1) A m erican -or versus British -our, e.g.: AE honor color fla v o r labor behavior hum or neighbor BE honour colour fla v o u r labour behaviour hum our neighbour

2) A m erican z versus British s. This divergence is conspicuous in prim arily two w ord groups: a) M any AE verbs ending in -ize correspond to B E verbs ending in -ise, e.g.: AE em phasize organize analyze criticize b) BE em phasise organise analyse criticise correspond

Similarly, AE nouns ending in -ization to BE nouns ending in -isation. Exam ples: AE organization characterization generalization BE organisation characterisation generalisation

180 3)

A G uide to E nglish L exicology Am erican -er versus B ritish -re. Exam ples: AE BE

theater center meter liter

theatre centre metre litre

4) Am erican single consonant versus British double consonants before a suffix in unstressed syllables, e.g.: AE BE

traveler woolen marvelous dialed focused

5)

traveller woollen marvellous dialled focussed

A m erican -se versus B ritish -ce. Exam ples: AE BE

defense license offense practise

6)

defence licence offence practice

Am erican / versus B ritish y. Exam ples: AE BE

tire siphon

tyre syphon

7) In AE the spelling o f w ords o f foreign origin is very often simplified, e.g.: dialogue, catalogue, monologue are som etim es rendered in AE as dialog, catalog, monolog. Also, AE gram and program versus BE gramme and programme serve as good exam ples o f simplification. In words o f Greek and Latin origin other ways o f sim plification can be perceived. Am erican e is used w here British has oe or ae, for example:

O lga B U R E A AE anesthesia encyclopedia paleontology

8)

181 BE anaesthesia encyclopaedia palaeontology

A m erican in- versus British en-. Exam ples: AE inquiry inclose incase BE enquiry enclose encase

9)

A m e ric a n ^ versus British i, e.g.: AE gypsy gayety BE g ipsy gaiety

In addition to the above-m entioned m ore or less re g u la r differences, there are som e words w hich do not fall w ithin any o f the groups already discussed. Some o f these isolated differences are: AE i ax cozy> bank check draft ja il ju d g m e n t pajam as p lo w BE axe cosy ba n k cheque draught gaol ju d g e m e n t p yja m a s p lo u g h

T he vast corpus o f vocabulary differences between BE and A E are conveniently classified into: 1) C ases, w here there are no equivalents in British English: e.g.: drive-in (a cinem a w here you can see the film w ithout getting out o f

182

A G uide to E nglish L exicology

your c a r or a shop where m otorists buy things staying in the car); dude ranch (a sham ranch used as a sum m er residence for holiday makers from the cities'). 2) Cases where different words are used for the same denotatum , such as: AE BE

apartment baggage can candy cookie elevator eraser fall flashlight French fries intersection ladvbug lawyer line mailman movie package raincoat rooster shop soccer truck vacation yard

flat luggage tin sweets biscuit lift rubber autumn torch chips crossroads ladybird barrister queue postman cinema parcel mackintosh cock store football lorry holiday garden

3) Cases where the sem antic structure o f a partially equivalent word is different. A bill in the USA is m oney ow ed for goods or services supplied , w hile in Great Britain it is an account for food and drink in a restaurant, hotel, etc. In AE a billion is one thousand m illion , w hile

Olga BUREA

183

in BE it is one m illion m illion. Homely m eans in the first place plain o r ugly, w hile in the second - warm and dom esticated in m a n n e r or appearance . A purse in A m erica is a w o m an s handbag, w h ile in England it is a small bag or pouch, often m ade o f soft leather, for carrying m oney . Pavement in Britain is w hat m ost A m ericans re fe r to as the sidewalk, for m any A m ericans pavement is the surface o f a road. 4) Cases w here otherw ise equivalent w ords are d ifferen t in distribution. The verb ride in Standard English is m ostly co m b in ed w ith such nouns as a horse, a bicycle, m ore seldom they say ride on a bus . In A m erican English com binations like a ride on the train, ride in a boat are quite usual. '

Differences in grammar are relatively minor. Some exam ples show that AE uses the infinitive w ith or w ithout to whereas B E only with to. For instance, AE: Let's go see him versus BE: Let s go to see him or L et s go and see him. The Am erican variety sounds to Englishm en archaic. In AE the subjunctive is formed merely by m eans ofthe uninflected form o f the verb. In BE, however, a com bination o f should and the infinitive is the m ost natural E.g., AE; I suggest that you go back to America', BE: I suggest that you should go back to America. In AE the Past Simple is often used instead o f Present Perfect, e.g., He ju st came instead o f He has ju st come. The verbs burn, learn, smell, spoil, etc. are normally regular in AE: burned, learned, smelled, spoiled, etc. A definite difference is that o f gotten w hich as an independent verb form is exclusively AE] AE gotten is used instead o f BE got as a past participle o f get in sentences like:/AE: She has already gotten up\ BE: She has already got up. In som e cases AE takes i/ze-article whereas BE takes zeroarticle. A classical example is that o f AE: in the hospital, versus BE: in hospital. Also, in names o f diseases A E m ay take the definite article the, whereas B E has no article. E.g., AE: He has the pneumonia-, BE: He has pneumonia.

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A G uide to E nglish L exicology

here are various constructions which show that the distribution o f prepositions in A E and B E is different. For instance, in some constructions in AE by m ay be used instead o f to. E.g.: We went by the station to get a reservation instead o f We went to the station to get a reservation. In BE only the latter sentence is correct. in AE in is often used where into in BE. In AE more often Tom ran in the kitchen, in BE m ore often Tom ran into the kitchen.) American on m ay be replaced in BE by at, e.g., AE: knock on the door ; BE: knock at the door. In AE through occurs in sentences like: Monday through Friday, meaning, from Monday until Friday. Through is never used in BE in that sense. In AE as opposed to BE some prepositions in certain word combinations may be dropped: A classical exam ple is that aflsimday, Monday, etc., versus BE on Sunday, on Monday, etc. E.g., AE: I met him Tuesday will be BE: / met him on Tuesday. ! AE may use any place, some place, every place and no place instead o f anywhere, somewhere, everywhere and nowhere, respectively. For instance, AE: Let s meet some place tomorrow evening. Finally, it should be pointed out that British backwards, forwards, westwards, etc., are often realized in AE as backward, forward, westward, etc., the s elem ent being d ropped/

12.3 Canadian, Australian and Indian EnglishJ

It should o f course be noted that Am erican English is not the only existing variant. There are several other variants where difference from the British standard is normalized. Besides the Irish and Scottish variants, there are Canadian English, Australian English, Indian English. Each o f these has developed a l iterature o f its own, and is characterized by peculiarities in phonetics, spelling, gram m ar and vocabulary. Canadian English is the variety o f N orth American English used in Canada. Canadian English shares a num ber o f phonological

Olga BUREA
"properties with Standard Am erican English. Am ong these are sy llablefinal rhoticity and alveolar flapping. Canadian English can be c a lle d rhotic because, like in Standard A m erican and Irish English, syllablefinal r is pronounced in words like car and farm ./' [ Flapping is the process o f replacing an intervocalic t or d w ith a quick voiced tap o f the tongue against the alveolar ridge. In b o th Canadian and Am erican English, it can only occur if the t or d is betw een two vowels, and as long as the second vowel is not stressed. As a resu lt, the alveolar stops in waiting, wading, seated, seeded, and capital a re all flapped. Flapping can also occur if there is an r between.,the first v o w el and the alveolar stop, as in words like barter and party jperhaps the m ost recognizable feature o f Canadian E nglish is Canadian raising, in which diphthongs [ai] and [au] are raised b efo re voiceless consonants and become [oei] and [oeu], respectively. Thus, the Canadian pronunciation o f about m ay sound like a boat,J C anadian spelling o f the English language combines British and A m erican rules. M ost notably, French-derived words that in A m erican English end with -or and -er, such as color ox center, usually retain B ritish spellings (colour, honour and centre), although A m erican spellings are not uncom m on. Also, .while the U.S. uses the Anglo-French spelling defense (noun), C anada uses the British spelling defence. In other cases, Canadians and Am ericans stand at odds w ith British spelling, such a s in the case o f nouns like tire and curb, which in British English are spelled tyre and kerb. Words such as realize and recognize are usually spelled w ith -fze rather than -ise. j Am ong the lexical units o f the Canadian English can be distinguished a group o f words and word combinations, specific only for the Canadian users. These w ords are called Canadianisms. Uniquely Canadian English words include: click (Canadian slang for kilom eter), humidex (a term referring to the combined effect o f heat and hum idity on tem perature), utilidor (short for utility corridor), beer parlour (a room in a tavern, hotel, etc. in which beer is served), fire hall (a fire station), parkade (a building used as a car park), double-double (a cup o f coffee served with two helpings o f cream and

186

A G uide to E nglish L exicology

sugar), mickey (a liquor bottle o f 0.375 litre capacity), two-four (a box containing 24 bottles o f beer), etc. / Like other dialects o f English that exist in proxim ity to francophones, French loanwords have entered Canadian English, such as: poutine (a kind o f a dish), dpanneur (a convenience store), toque (a knitted woollen cap), serviette (napkin), etc. "When writing, Canadians will start a sentence w ith e s well, in the sense o f in addition ; this construction is a Canadianism , too. One o f the m ost distinctive Canadian phrases is the spoken interjection eh, used for ascertaining the comprehension, continued interest, agreement, etc., o f the person or persons addressed, as in: It's four kilometres away, eh, so I have to go by bike. In that case, eh is used to confirm the attention o f the listener and to invite a supportive noise such as mm or oh or okay. ! Australian English/is the form o f the English language used in Australia./Australian English is predom inantly British English, and especially from the London area. s are dropped after vowels, but are often inserted between two words ending and beginning with vowels. The vowels reflect a strong Cockney influence: the long a ([ei]) tends towards a long i ([ai]), so pay sounds like pie. The long i ([ai]), in turn, tends towards [oi], so cry sounds like [kroi]. Even some rhyming slang has survived into Australian English: Butcher's means look {butcher s hook); loaf m eans head {loaf o f bread)] Noah s ark m eans shark , and so on. Australian English has m any w ords that som e consider unique to the language. One o f the best known is outback, m eaning a remote, sparsely populated area . Other peculiarly Australian words and expressions are: g'day (good day), no worries ( no problem ), Oz (Australia), pavlova (a cake topped with w hipped cream and fruit) and Vegemite (a vegetable extract used as a spread, flavouring, etc.)?) Like American English has absorbed num erous A m erican Indian words, ) Australian English has absorbed m any Aboriginal words: coolabah (a type o f tree), corroboree (a cerem ony), nulla-nulla (a wooden club), wallaby (small kangaroo), wombat (a small

Olga BUREA

187

m arsupial), dingo (native dog), etc. A nother characteristic o f Australian English is abbreviated w ords, often ending in -y, -ie, or -o : arvo (afternoon), Aussie (A ustralian), barbie (barbecue), chalky (teacher), chewie (chewing g u m ), chockie (chocolate), coldie (a cold beer), footy ( football), lippie ( lipstick ), mossie (m osquito), mushies (m ushroom s), oldies (ones parents), sunnies ( sunglasses), etc. They also use litotes such as you 're not wrong (= youre rig h t). Colourful expressions also abound: like a dog s breakfast (a m ess), up a gum tree (. in trouble), happy as a bastard on Fathers Day (very happy), e t c ., [ Indian English is a distinct variety o f the English language. It has a lot o f distinguishing pronunciations, som e distinctive syntax, and quite a bit o f lexical variation. In term s o f pronunciation, m any speakers do not differentiate between the sounds [v] and [w] (e.g. [wain] for both wine and vine). They m ight also replace th in w ords like think and this with a [t] a n d [d] sound, as no Indian languages contain these consonants, ( One o f the most indicative signs o f Indian English gram m ar is the use o f the progressive aspect w ith habitual actions, com pleted actions, and stative verbs. This produces sentences such as, I am doing it often or

She was having many sarees. 7

T he w ord order o f questions/is often unique in Indian English. Sentences such as( What you would like to eat? and Who you will come with?' show the absence o f subject-verb inversion in direct questions. O ther distinguishing features are the use o f isn't it as a ubiquitous question tag (We are meeting tomorrow, isn t it?) and the reduplication used for em phasis and to indicate a distributive meaning (1 bought some

small small things', Why you don't give them one one piece o f cake?).] i Indians will often ask What is your good name? which is used
as a polite way o f asking for som eones full name. W hen Indians ask Where are you put up? they m ean Where do you live? If an Indian English speaker says "I have some doubts, he m eans "I have some questions ]

188

A G uide to E nglish Lexicology

Indians also shorten m any words to create com m only used terms. For instance, enthu is a short form for enthusiasm or enthusiastic ; despo is a shortening o f desperate ; senti - a shortened form o f sentimental, etc.7 The Indian English lexicon has/ m any distinct term s which are commonly used by its speakers, for example (words from indigenous languages, such as Hindi and Bengali. jSom e are earlier and more Anglicized in their spelling:;/w/iga/ow, cheetah, pice, pukka , pundit, rupee, sahib, etc.lSome are later and less orthographically Anglicized: basmati (a kind o f rice), chapatti (a flat, pancake-like piece o f unleavened bread), crore (ten million rupees), jawan (a soldier in the present-day Indian A rm y), masala (a mixture o f spices ground into a paste), paisa (a m onetary unit worth one hundredth o f a rupee), etc. ' . When Indians use English, it is often a mixture o f English, Hindi, and other languages. This phenom enon, know n as code-mixing, gives rise to a great number o f hybrids :icoconut paysam (a dish m ade o f coconut), grameen bank (a village bank ), kaccha road (a dirt road), swadeshi cloth (hom e-m ade cloth), etc."? jit'h a s been noticed that the vocabulary o f all the variants is characterized by a high percentage o f borrowings from the language o f the people who inhabited the land before the English colonisers cam e.j Many o f them denote som e specific realia o f the new country: local animals, plants or weather conditions, new social relations, new trades and conditions o f labour. The local words for new notions penetrate into the English language and later on m ay become international, if they are o f sufficient interest and importance for people speaking other languages. : International words com ing through the English o f India are for instance: bungalow, jungle, jute, mango, nabob, pyjamas, sahib, sari. Similar examples, though perhaps fewer in number, such as boomerang, dingo, kangaroo, are all adopted into the English language through its Australian variant and becam e international.'

Olga BUREA
* Questions and Tasks

189

\.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
8.

9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

Define the concepts o f Standard English, local dialects a n d variants. N am e the m ain groups o f dialects o f G reat B ritain and characterize them briefly. W hat is the regional dialect o f London? H ow does it differ fro m Standard English? G ive exam ples. Speak about the unique characteristics o f Scottish English. Point out the peculiarities o f Irish English. D escribe the circum stances that influenced the form o f E nglish language spoken in Am erica. Does Am erican English differ from B ritish English in p ro n u n cia tion? Bring argum ents. G ive a b rie f account o f the m ost significant spelling divergences betw een A m erican E nglish and B ritish English. Classify the vocabulary peculiarities o f A m erican English. Give exam ples o f differences in gram m ar betw een B ritish E nglish and Am erican English. W hat can you say about English language in Canada? W hat are Canadianism s? Exem plify your answer. C haracterize the English language on the A ustralian continent. Point out som e distinctive features o f Indian English.

Exercises
1. Identify the Cockney rhym ing slang expressions in the sentences below and translate them into ordinary English. a) Feel like going to the rub-a-dub-dub? b) The trouble and strife's at home looking after the Gawd

forbids. c) You ve left your titfer on the Cain and Abel in the bedroom. d) L et s have a butcher s at the lean and lurch while we re in the village?

English Lexicography Lexicography, th e science o f dictionary-com piling, is closely connected w ith lexicology, both dealing with the samefroblems - the form, m eaning, usage and origin o f vocabulary units and m aking use o f each others achievem ents. The principles o f dictionary-m aking are always based on linguistic fundam entals, and each individual entry is m ade up in accordance with the current knowledge and findings o f scholars in the various fields o f language study.

'I, Main Types o f English Dictionaries The term dictionary is used to denote a book listing words o f a language w ith their m eanings and often with data reguarding pronunciation, usage and/or origin. There are m any different types o f English dictionaries. First o f all they m ay all be roughly divided into tw o groups - encyclopedic and linguistic. The encyclopedic dictionaries, the biggest o f which are som etim es called sim ply encyclopedias, are books that give information about the extra-linguistic w orld, they deal with concepts (objects and phenom ena), their relations to other objects and phenom ena, etc. The encyclopaedic dictionaries will enter items such as nam es for substances, diseases, plants and anim als, institutions, terms o f science, som e important events in history and also geographical and biographical entries. Som e o f the item s included in the encyclopaedic and linguistic dictionaries coincide, such as the names o f som e diseases, the information presented in them is altogether different. The form er givim uch m ore extensive information on these subjects. For exam ple, the entry influenza in a linguistic dictionary presents the w ords spelling and pronunciation, gram m ar characteristics, synonym s, etc. In an encyclopedia the entry influenza discloses the causes, symptom s, characteristics and varieties o f this disease, various treatm ents o f and rem edies for it, ways o f infection, etc. T he m ost w ell-know n encyclopaedias in English are The Encyclopaedea Britanica and The Encyclopaedia A m ericana. Very popular in Great Britain and the USA are also C olliers E ncyclopaedia intended for students and school teachers, C ham bers Encyclopaedia5 1 w hich is a fam ily type reference book, and Everym ans Encyclopaedia designed for all-round use. Besides the general encyclopaedic dictionaries there are reference books that are confined to definite fields o f knowledge, such as The Oxford Companion to English L iterature, O xford Com panion to Theatre, C assells Encyclopaedia o f World L iterature, etc. There are also num erous dictionaries presenting information about notable persons (scientists, w riters, kings, presidents,etc.) often called W hos W ho D ictionaries. Encyclopaedias som etim es indicate the origin o f the word, which belongs to the dom ain o f linguistics. On the other hand, there are elem ents o f encyclopaedic character in m any linguistic dictionaries. Som e o f these are unavoidable.

S om e dictionary-com pilere i ^ l u d e in their w orld-lists such elem ents o f purely encyclopaedic n atu re as nam es o f fam ous^opstner w ith their birth and death dates or th e nam es o f m ajor cities and tow ns, giving n o t only th eir correct spelling and p ronunciation, but also a b rie f description o f th eir population, location, etc. A linguistic dictionary is a b o o k o f w ords in a language, usually listed alphabetically, w ith definitions, pronunciations, etym ologies and other linguistic inform ation or w ith their equivalents in another language (or other languages). F o r dictionaries in w hich the w ords and their definitions belong to the sam e language the term monolingual o r explanatory is used, w hereas bilingual or translation dictionaries are those th at explain w ords by giving th eir equivalents in another language. M ultilingual o r polyglot dictionaries are n o t num erous; they serve chiefly the purpose o f com paring synonym s and term inology in various languages. M onolingual dictionaries are further subdivided. Diachronic dictionaries, o f w hich The O xford English D ictionary is the m ain exam ple, reflect the developm ent o f the English vocabulary by recording the history o f form and m eaning for every w ord registered. They m ay be contrasted to synchronic o r descriptive dictionaries o f current E nglish concerned w ith p resent-day m eaning and usage o f w ords. Som e synchronic dictionaries are a t the same tim e histo rical w hen th ey rep resent the state o f vocabulary at som e p a st stage o f its developm ent. A ccording to th e nature o f their w ord-list, linguistic dictionaries m ay be divided into general and specialized dictionaries. General dictionaries represent the vocabulary as a w hole w ith a degree o f com pleteness dep en d in g upon the scope and b u lk o f the book in question. T he group includes, for instance, all the volum es o f The Oxford English Dictionary alongside w ith an y m iniature pocket dictionary. S om e general dictionaries m ay have very specific aim s a n d still be considered general due to their coverage. T hey include frequency dictionaries, i.e. lists o f w ords, each o f w hich is follow ed by a record o f its frequency o f occurrence in one o r several sets o f reading m atter. A rhym ing dictionary is also a general dictionary, though arranged in inverse order, a n d so is a thesaurus in spite o f its unusual arrangem ent. T hey are contrasted to specialized dictionaries w hose stated aim is to c o v e r only a certain specific p a rt o f the depending on w hether the w ords are chosen according to the sphere o f hum an activity in w hich they are used (e.g. technical dictionaries, phraseological dictionaries, dictionaries o f synonym s, etc). T he first subgroup em braces highly specialized dictionaries o f lim ited scope. They register and ex p lain technical term s for various branches o f know ledge, art and trade: linguistic, m edical, technical, econom ical term s, etc. M onolingual books o f this type giving definitions o f term s are called glossaries. T h e second subgroup deals w ith specific language units, i.e. w ith phraseology, abbreviations, n eologism s, borrow ings, surnam es, proverbs and sayings, etc. T he th ird subgroup contains different synonym ic dictionaries o f A m ericanism s, dialect and slang. Electronic Dictionaries. H ie n eed to store, sort, and retrieve huge am ounts o f linguistic inform ation drew publishers to electronic m ethods. Thus, in the 1980s various publishers have issued dictionaries in C D -R O M form at (and later in D V D form at), taking advantage o f this technology to increase th e speed o f lookup and cross-reference, to extend m ethods o f searching for inform ation, and to include recordings o f pronunciations, so th at users can h ear w ords o r phrases spoken aloud. In the late 1990s dictionaries, old and new , have m ade their w ay into th e internet, and this form o f publication is likely to becom e m ore and m ore usual. T he online versions typically include all the tex t o f the p rin t and electronic disc versions, as w ell as m uch o f the m ultim edia. T he n e w system frees readers from having to install the products from C D -R O M s o r DVDs and also allow s dictionary ed ito rs update their products m uch m ore frequently th an th ey could w hen p u b lishing on p ap er o r o n electronic disc.

T he Internet w as essential to the creation o f the E ncarta W orld E nglish D ictionary (1999), w h ich is th e m o st recently created dictionary o f English. B ased in L ondon it involves m ore th$n 300 lexicographers around the world. In the 21st century a n e w type o f online encyclopedia, know n as W ikipedia, enabled readers to create a n d edit encyclopedia articles. A wild is a type o f server softw are th at enables users to create o r alter content on a W eb page. W ikipedia w as closely associated w ith the open source softw are m o vem ent and rapidly expanded to include hundreds o f thousands o f articles, m any o n p o p u lar culture topics, in a num ber o f languages.

2. Some Basic Problems of Dictionary-Compiling

T he w ork at a dictionary consists o f the follow ing m ain stages: the collection o f m aterial, the selection o f entries and th e ir arrangem ent, the setting o f each entry. A t different stages o f h is w ork the lexicographer is confronted w ith different problem s. The choice of lexical units for inclusion in the prospective dictionary is one o f the first problem s the lexicographer faces. First o f all the type o f lexical units to be chosen for inclusion is to be decided upon. Then the n u m b er o f item s to be recorded m ust be determ ined. T hen there is the basic problem o f w hat to select and w hat to leave out the dictionary. W hich form o f the language, spoken o r w ritten or both, is the dictionary to reflect? Should the dictionary contain obsolete and archaic units, technical term s, dialectism s, colloquialism s, and so forth? T here is no general reply to any o f these questions. T he choice am ong the different possible answ ers depends upon the type, th e aim , the size, the linguistic conceptions o f th e dictionarym akers. E xplanatory and translation dictionaries usually record w ords and phraseological units, som e o f them also include affixes as separate entries. Synonym -books, pronouncing, etym ological dictionaries and som e others deal only w ith words. G eneral explanatory dictionaries, for exam ple, diachronic and synchronic w ord-books differ greatly in their approach to the problem . T he diachronic em brace not only vocabulary o f oral and w ritten E nglish o f th e p resent day, but also a considerable proportion o f obsolete, archaic and dialectal w ords and uses. Synchronic explanatory dictionaries include m ainly com m on words in ordinary present-day use w ith only som e m ore im portant archaic and technical w ords. The order of a rr a n g e m e n t of the e n trie s to be included is different in different types o f dictionaries and ev en in the w ord-books o f the sam e type. In m ost dictionaries o f various types entries are given in a single alphabetical listing. In m any others the units entered are arranged in nests, based on th is o r that principle. In som e explanatory and translation dictionaries, for exam ple, entries are grouped in fam ilies o f w ords o f the sam e root. In synonym -books w ords are arranged in synonym ic sets and its dom inant m em ber serves as the head-w ord o f th e entry. In so m e phraseological dictionaries the phrases are arranged in accordance w ith their pivotal w ords w hich are defined as constant non-interchangeable elem ents or phrases. In frequency dictionaries the item s included are not arranged alphabetically. In such dictionaries the entries follow each other in the descending order o f their frequency, item s o f the sam e frequency value grouped together. Each o f the tw o m odes o f presentation, the alphabetical and the cluster-type, has its ow n advantage, T he form er provides for an easy finding o f any word and establishing its m eaning, frequency value, etc. T he latter requires less space and presents a clearer picture o f the relations o f each unit u n d er consideration w ith som e other units in the language system , since words o f the sam e root, the sam e denotative m eaning or close in their frequency value are grouped together.

O ne o f th e m ost difficult problem s nearly all lexicographers face is recording the wordmeanings and arranging them in the m ost rational w ay th a t is su p p o sed to be o f m ost help to th o se w ho w ill use the dictionary. I f one com pares the general num ber o f m eanings o f a w ord in d ifferent dictionaries, even th o se o f the sam e type, one w ill easily see that their n u m b er varies considerably. T his depends, m ainly on tw o factors: 1) o n w hat aim the com pilers se t them selves and 2) w h at decisions th ey m ake concerning the extend to w hich obsolete, archaic, dialectal o r h ig h ly specialized m eanings should be recorded, how th e problem o f polysem y and hom onym y is solved, how cases o f conversion are treated, h o w the segm entation o f different m eanings o f a polysem antic w ord is m ade, etc. D iachronic dictionaries list m any m ore m eanings th an synchronic dictionaries o f current E nglish, as they record n o t only the m eanings in present-day use, but also those that have already b ecom e archaic o r gone out o f use. Definition of meanings constitutes another problem in com piling dictionaries. M eanings o f w ords m ay b e defined in different ways: b y m eans o f definitions that are characterized as encyclopaedic, by m eans o f descriptive definitions o r paraphrases, w ith the help o f synonym ous w ords and expressions by m eans o f cross-references. E ncyclopaedic definitions as distinct from descriptive definitions determ ine n o t only the w ordm eaning, b u t also the underlying concept. Synonym ous definitions consist o f w ords o f w ord-groups w ith nearly equivalent m eaning, a s distin ct from descriptive definitions w hich are explanations w ith the help o f w ords not synonym ous w ith the w ord to be defined. E ncyclopaedic definitions are typical o f nouns, especially proper nouns and term s. Synonym s are used m o st often to define verbs and adjectives. R eference to other w ords is resorted to define som e derivatives, abbreviations and variant forms. F requency dictionaries, spelling books, etym ological, pronouncing, ideographic or reverse dictionaries, provide illu s tra tiv e ex am ples. T he purpose o f these exam ples depends on the type o f the dictionary and o n the aim the com pilers set them selves. They can illustrate the first and the last know n occurrences o f the entry w ord, the successive changes in its graphic and phonetic form s, as w ell as in its m eaning, the typical patterns and collocations, the difference betw een synonym ous w ords, th ey place w ords in a co n tex t to clarify their m eanings and usage. H ow m uch space should be devoted to illustrative exam ples? W hich exam ples should be chosen as typical? T h o se are som e o f the questions to be considered by the com pilers. It is natural that the bigger the dictionary the m ore exam ples it usually contains. O nly very sm all dictionaries, usually o f low quality, do not include exam ples at all. T he form o f the illustrative quotations can differ in different dictionaries; the m ain variation can b e o b served in the len g th o f the quotations and in the precision o f the citation. S om e dictionaries indicate the author, the work, the page, vase, or line, and (in diachronic dictionaries) the precise date o f the publication, som e indicates only th e author, because it gives a t least basic orientation about the tim e w hen the w ord occurs a n d the type o f text. O ne o f the m ajor problem s in com piling translation dictionaries and other bilingual w ord-book is to p rovide adequate translation of vocabulary items or rather to choose a n adequate equivalent in the target language. C onveying the m eaning o f a lexical unit in the target language is no easy task as the sem antic structures o f related w ords in different languages are never identical, w h ich is observable in any p air o f languages. The lack o f isom orphism is not lim ited to the so-called culture-bound words only b u t also the m ost o ther lexical units. T he dictionary m aker is to give the m ost exact equivalent in the target language. V ery often en u m eratio n o f equivalents alone does not supply a com plete picture o f the sem antic volum e o f this o r th at w ord, so a com bination o f different m eans o f sem antization is necessary.

D ifferen t ty p es o f dictionaries differ in their aim , in th e inform ation they provide, in their size, in

the structure and context of the entry.

T he m o st com plicated ty p e o f entry is that found in explanatory dictionaries. In explanatory d ictionaries o f the synchronic type the entry usually presents the follow ing data: accep ted spelling a n d pronunciation; gram m atical characteristics including the indication o f th e p art o f speech o f entry w ord, the transitivity and intransitivity o f verbs and irregular gram m atical form s; defin itio n s o f m eanings; m odem currency; illustrative exam ples; derivatives; phraseology; etym ology; som etim es also synonym s and antonym s. A typical entry in diach ro n ic explanatory dictionaries w ill have so m e specific features, w ord m eaning and q uotation th a t indicate th e tim e o f its first registration or, i f the w ord or one o f its m eanings is obsolete, th e tim e o f its last registration. S om etim es th e entries fo r the sam e w ord look like quite different, depending upon the practical needs o f the intended users. Som e w ord-books enum erate synonym s to each m eaning o f th e head-w ord to help th e u ser recall w ords close in m eaning that m ay have been forgotten. O ther w ord-books provide discrim inating synonym ies, i.e. they explain the difference in sem antic structure, use an d style, and show how each synonym is related to, yet differs from all th e others in the sam e group. In spite o f th e great variety o f linguistic dictionaries their com position has m any features in com m on. N early all o f th em m ay b e roughly divided into three unequal parts. A part from the d ictionary proper, that m ake up the b ilk o f the w ord-book, every reference b o o k contains som e separate sections w hich are to help the user in handling it - an Introduction and G uide to the use o f the dictionary. T he prefatory m atter usually explains all the peculiarities o f the w ord-book; but also contains a key to pronunciation, the list o f abbreviations used and the like. In explanatory diction aries the appendixes o f the first kind usually include addenda or/and various w ord-lists: geographical nam es, foreign w ords and expressions, forenam es, etc., record n ew m eanings o f w ords already entered and w ords that have com e into existence since the com pilation o f the w ord-book. T ranslation d ictionaries supplem entary m aterial contains rules o f pronunciation as well as b rie f outlines o f gram m ar.

3. Learners Dictionaries and Some Problems of Their Compilation

N ow adays practical an d theoretical learners lexicography is given great attention to. L exicographers, linguists an d m ethods specialists discuss such problem s as the classification o f learn ers dictionaries, th e scope o f the w ord-list for learners at different stages o f advancem ent, the principles o f w ord selection, etc. In the b o ard sense o f th e w ord the term learners dictionaries m ig h t be applied to any w ord b o o k desig ned as an aid to various users, both native and foreign, studying a language from various angles. T hus, w e m ig h t refer to this group o f w ord-books su ch reference books as S tu d e n ts D ictionary o f A nglo-Saxon by H. Sweet, the num erous school-level or college-level dictionaries fo r native speakers, th e num erous spelling-books, etc. B y tradition the term is confined to dictionaries specially com piled to m eet the dem ands o f th e learners for w hom E nglish is n o t th eir m o th er tongue. T hese dictionaries d iffer essentially from ordinary academ ic dictionaries, on the one hand, m d from w ord-books com piled specially for E nglish and A m erican schoolchildren and college students, on the other hand. T he needs and problem s o f the tw o groups o f dictionary users are altogether different. A foreign adult student o f E nglish even at a m oderately advanced stage o f learning w ill have pitfalls and needs o f his ow n: am ong the other things he m ay have difficulties w ith the use o f the m ost sim ple w ords, he m ay not know th e nam es fo r com m onest things in everyday life and he w ill experience in th is o r th at degree interference o f his m other tongue.

The w ord-lists and the sort o f directions for u se for the b en efit o f the foreign adult learners o f E nglish m ust differ very w idely from those given to English or A m erican schoolchildren. H ence the w ord-books o f this group are characterized by the follow ing features: - by their strictly lim ited w ord-list, the selection o f w h ich is based on carefully thought over scientific principles; - the great attention given to the functioning o f lexical units in speech; - a strong prescriptive, norm ative character; - by th eir com pilation w ith the native linguistic background in view . L earners dictionaries m ay b e classified in accordance w ith different principles, the m ain o f w hich are the scope o f the w ord-list and the nature o f the inform ation afforded. From the p oint o f view o f the scope (volum e) o f the w ord-list they fall into two groups. T hose o f the first group contain all lexical units that the prospective u ser m ay need, in the second group o n ly the m ost essential and im portant w ords are selected. T o the first group w e can refer C am bridge A d va n ced L e a r n e r s D ictionary (170,000 lexical units); to the second group - A G ram m ar o f E nglish W ords by H. Palm er (1,000 words). A s to the inform ation they provide they m ay be divided into two groups: those giving equal attention to the w o rd s sem antic characteristics and the w ay it is used in speech (these m ay be called learners dictionaries proper) and those concentrating on detailed treatm ent o f the w o rd s lexical and gram m atical valency (dictionaries of collocations). T o learners dictionaries p roper issued in E nglish-speaking countries w e m ay refer, for exam ple, The Progressive E nglish D ictionary and A n E nglish R e a d e r's D ictionary by A. S. H o rn b y and E. P am w ell designed for beginners, as w ell as O xford A d v a n c ed L e a rn e r s D ictio n a ry o f C urrent E nglish by A. S. H ornby fo r m ore advanced students. T o dictionaries o f th is kind w e can refer, for exam ple, A. R eu m s D ictionary o fE n g lish Style, d esigned for the G erm ans; K e n k y u d h a s N ew D ictionary o f E nglish Collocations, intended for th e Japanese; Verbal C ollocations in modern E nglish by R. G inzburg, designed for the R ussian people, etc. C om pilers o f learners dictionaries have to tackle the sam e cardinal problem s as those o f ordinary explanatory and translation dictionaries, but they often solve them in their own way. T he com m on purpose o f lea rn ers dictionaries is to give inform ation on w hat is currently accepted usage, besides m ost com pilers seek to choose the lexical units that foreign learners o f E n g lish are likely to n eed. C olloquial and slang w ords as w ell as foreign w ords o f com m on occurrence in E nglish are included only i f they are o f the sort likely to be m et by students either in reading or in conversation. M oreover som e o f th e com m on w ords m ay b e om itted i f they are n o t o ften encountered in books, new spapers, etc. or heard over the radio and in conversation. S pace is further saved by o m itting certain derivatives and com pounds the m eaning o f which can be easily inferred. A lternative spelling and pronunciations are avoided, only the m ore accepted form s are listed. In th e first place the selection o f w ords is based o n the frequency principle. Frequency value, an im portant characteristic o f lexical units, is closely connected w ith their other properties. T hat is w hy the w ord counts enable the com piler to choose the m ost important, th e m ost frequently u sed words. T he order o f arrangem ent o f m eanings follow ed in learners dictionaries is usually empiric, th e follow ing principles o f arrangem ent are considered p roper fo r language learners: literal uses b efo re figurative, general uses before special, com m on uses before rare and easily understandable uses before difficult. It w ould be w rong to th ink h ow ever that he definitions in learners dictionaries are always less com plete then in th e dictionaries designed for native users. In learn ers dictionaries cross-references are for the m ost p art reduced to a m inim um . In so m e learners dictionaries pictorial m aterial is w idely used as a m eans o f sem antization o f th e w o rd s listed. P ictures cannot only define the m eanings o f som e nouns, but som etim es also o f adjectives, verbs and adverbs. C h ie f am ong these is m arked attention to the w ays w ords are used in speech, e.g. Oxford A d v a n c ed L e a rn e rs D ictionary points out w hich nouns, and in w hich o f th eir m eanings, can be u sed w ith the indefinite articles (the sym bol [C] and [U] stand for "countable and uncountable). Sets o f w ords w ith w hich the head-w ord m ay com bine as well as illustrative exam ples taken from everyday language are given. F o r instance, O xford A d v a n c ed L e a rn e r s D ictionary includes not only lists o f irregular verbs, co m m o n abbreviations, geographical nam es, etc., but also com m on forenam es listed w ith their p et nam es, num erical expressions giving help in the reading, speaking and w riting o f numbers an d expressions w hich contain them , the works o f W illiam Shakespeare and even ranks in the
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