umk_leksikologia.pdf

ГОУ ВПО «Дагестанский
государственный
институт народного
хозяйства Правительства РД»
Рамазанова Индира Рамазановна

Алибекова Назиля Басировна
Кафедра иностранных языков
Учебно-методический комплекс
по дисциплине
«Лексикология»
для специальности
«Перевод и переводоведение»
Махачкала – 2007
2
УДК 811.111ё373 (075.8)
ББК 81.3
Составители: Рамазанова Индира Рамазановна, преподаватель кафедры тео-

рии и практики перевода ДГИНХ, Алибекова Назиля Басировна, преподаватель
кафедры иностранных языков ДГИНХ
Внутренний рецензент: Буяло Татьяна Георгиевна, начальник департа-

мента факультета иностранных языков ДГИНХ
Внешний рецензент: Абдулжалилов Инквач Гитинамагомедович, канди-

дат филологических наук, доцент кафедры арабского языка Дагестанского го-
сударственного педагогического университета
Учебно-методический комплекс разработан с учетом п.41 Типового

положения об образовательном учреждении высшего профессионального
образования (высшем учебном заведении) РФ, утвержденного постановле-
нием Правительства РФ от 5 апреля 2001 г. № 204, а также в соответст-
вии с письмом Министерства образования и науки РФ от 19.05.2000г. № 14-
52-357 ин/13 «о порядке формирования основных образовательных программ
высшего учебного заведения на основе государственных образовательных
стандартов».
Рамазанова И.Р., Алибекова Н.Б. Учебно-методический комплекс «Лек-

сикология английского языка» для специальности «Перевод и переводоведе-
ние». – Махачкала: издательство «Формат», 2007. – 142с.
РЕКОМЕНДОВАНО ОДОБРЕНО
К УТВЕРЖДЕНИЮ Советом факультета
Начальник департамента иностранных языков
по учебной работе, председатель ме- Председатель Совета
тодического совета ДГИНХ, Буяло Т.Г.
д.э.н., профессор Казаватова Н.Ю. 5 июня 2007г.
28 августа 2007г.
ОДОБРЕНО
кафедрой иностранных языков,
зав. кафедрой Рамазанова Л.А.
15 мая 2007г.
3
Содержание
1 Цели преподавания дисциплины 5
2 Задачи преподавания дисциплины 5
3 Рекомендации по изучению дисциплины 6
4 Требования к минимуму содержания дисциплины 7
5 Содержание теоретического материала (лекций) по 8
дисциплине
6 Содержание семинарских занятий по дисциплине 13
7 Лекционный материал по дисциплине 16
8 Задания для текущего контроля усвоения материала 70
8.1. Тесты
8.2. Упражнения для практических занятий
9 Задания для итогового контроля усвоения мате- 114
риала
9.1. Перечень экзаменационных вопросов по
дисциплине
9.2. Материалы итогового тестирования по дис-
циплине
10. Задания для самостоятельной работы студентов 118
10.1. Перечень вопросов по дисциплине для са-
мостоятельного изучения
10.2. Тематика рефератов и творческих работ сту-
дентов
11 . Информационное обеспечение дисциплины 120
11.1. Обеспеченность основной учебной литерату-
рой
11.2. Обеспеченность учебно-методической литера-
турой
4
Аннотация
Предлагаемый учебно-методический комплекс предназначен

для студентов 2 курса лингвистических ВУЗов. Оно построено в соот-
ветствии с программой лекционного курса «Лексикология английско-
го языка». Материалы пособия имеют, прежде всего, методическую
направленность. Они должны помочь студенту, приступающему к
изучению языковедческих дисциплин, войти в круг лингвистических
проблем и овладеть основами теоретических знаний по лексиколо-
гии.
Учебный комплекс включает разделы: предмет и задачи курса,
этимологический состав и стилевые слои словарного состава англий-
ского языка, словообразование, семантология, фразеология, синони-
мия и омонимия современного английского языка. Теоретический ма-
териал тесно связан с материалом для практической самостоятельной
работы и работы на семинарах, а также с текстами и упражнениями
для лексического анализа, что в свою очередь, делает процесс усвое-
ния материала интересным и эффективным.
При составлении учебного комплекса были использованы рабо-
ты таких авторов, как Антрушина Г.Б., Афанасьева О.В., Морозова
Н.Н., Виноградов В.В., Арнольд И.В., Ахманова И.С.
Курс рассчитан на один учебный год и сопровождается семинар-
скими занятиями. На него отводится 180 часов, что составляет 38 часа
лекций, 38 часа практических занятий и 104 часов самостоятельной
работы студентов.
5
Учебный комплекс составлен в полном соответствии с требова-

ниями Государственных образовательных стандартов по специально-
сти 031202 «Перевод и переводоведение».
Объем дисциплины и виды учебной работы
Виды учебной работы Всего часов Семестр
Общая трудоемкость
180 4
дисциплины
Лекции 38 38
Семинары 38 38
Самостоятельная работа 104 104
Вид итогового контроля Экзамен
УМК составлен Рамазановой Индирой Рамазановной, препода-

вателем кафедры теории и практики перевода, и Алибековой Назилей
Басировной, преподавателем кафедры иностранных языков.
Учебный комплекс обсужден на заседании кафедры 15 мая
2007г., протокол № 9 и рекомендован к изданию и использованию
студентами в учебном процессе.
1. Цели преподавания дисциплины
Курс лексикологии ставит своей целью ознакомить студентов с

современными представлениями об основных структурных единицах
английского языка, их специфических свойствах и закономерностями
функционирования в английском дискурсе, а также с математически-
ми методами их исследования.
6
2. Задачи преподавания дисциплины

Курс предполагает развитие у студентов умения пользоваться
соответствующим понятийным аппаратом частных дисциплин языко-
знания, методиками анализа основных структурных единиц, умение
применять полученные знания на практике. Важной задачей курса
является формирование у студентов умения работать с научной лите-
ратурой, аналитически осмысливать и обобщать теоретические поло-
жения.
Материал курса дает студентам возможность овладеть фунда-
ментальными теоретическими знаниями для успешного написания
рефератов, курсовых и дипломных работ по актуальным направлени-
ям лингвистики.
В результате изучения курса студенты должны
Знать:
- основные положения теории лексикологи английского языка,
составляющие основу теоретической и практической профессиональ-
ной подготовки преподавателей английского языка;
- специфические особенности организации и функционирования
англоязычного дискурса;
- особенности языковых средств, используемых в разных типах
дискурса для достижения определенных коммуникативных задач;
Уметь:
- применять полученные теоретические знания на практике в
процессе межкультурной коммуникации;
- уметь работать с научной литературой;
7
- на основе полученных знаний самостоятельно ставить иссле-

довательские задачи и находить адекватные методы их решения;
Быть ознакомленными:
- с новейшими публикациями по актуальным проблемам лекси-

кологии английского языка.
3. Рекомендации по изучению дисциплины
Лучшему пониманию основных положений данного курса бу-

дут способствовать знания о таких понятиях, как «слово», «словосо-
четание», «фразеология», «заимствованные слова» и т.д., изучаемые в
курсе прохождения следующих дисциплин: «Введение в языкозна-
ние», «Теоретическая фонетика», «Теоретическая грамматика». Так-
же рекомендуется параллельное изучение дисциплины «Введение в
языкознание», которая ставит своей целью ознакомить студентов с
основами теоретических знаний по лингвистике.
4. Требования к минимуму содержания дисциплины согласно

Государственному образовательному стандарту по специальности
031202 «Перевод и переводоведение», утвержденному заместите-
лем министра образования В.Д. Шадриковым 17 марта 2000г.
Теоретическая и прикладная лексикология. Связь лексикологии
с другими разделами языкознания.
Слово как основная единица лексической системы. Основные
способы номинации в языке. Этимологические основы лексикона.
Семасиология. Семантика лексических единиц. Значение слова в
функциональном аспекте. Методы разграничения значения и выявле-
ния компонентов значения. Национально- культурная специфика
смысловой структуры соотносительных слов в русском и изучаемых
8
иностранных языках. Историческая изменчивость смысловой струк-

туры слова. Семантические группировки в лексической системе язы-
ка.
Омонимия и ее место в лексической системе языка. Источники
омонимии.
Словообразование. Морфологическое деривационное строение
слова. Историческая изменчивость структуры слова.
Принципы и методы морфемного словообразовательного анали-
за структуры слова в языке. Понятие словообразовательной модели.
Основные и комплексные единицы системы словообразования.
Функциональный аспект в системе словообразования. Способы сло-
вообразования в языке. Национально-культурная специфика словооб-
разования.
Сочетаемость лексических единиц. Понятие валентности. Сво-
бодные и устойчивые словосочетания. Фразеологические единицы.
Соотнесенность фразеологической единицы и слова. Классификация
фразеологических единиц.
Социальная и территориальная дифференциация словарного со-
става.
Основы лексикографии.
5. Содержание теоретического материала (лекций) по дисци-

плине
№ Колич-во
Тема и план лекций
п/п часов
9
2
Lexicology as a science
1. 1. Lexicology as a science
2. The main lexicological problems
II Functional stylistics
1. Informal style 2
2.
2. Formal style
III Semasiology
1. Word meaning
3.
2. Lexical meaning. Notion
IV Homonyms
2
1. General information on
4 homonyms
2. Sources of homonyms
3. Classification of homonyms
V Synonyms 2
1.General information on
5 synonymy
2.Types of synonyms
3.Types of connotation
6 VI Antonyms 2
VII Polysemy
1. Lexical meaning and semantic structure of Eng-
7. 2
lish words
2. Meaning and context
10
3. Development of new meanings

4. Transference based on resemblance
5. Transference based on contiguity

2
VIII Word- building
8. 1. Affixation. Suffixation
2.Prefixation
IX Conversion
1. Conversion as a type of word building
9.
2. Substantivization of adjectives
3. «STONE WALL» COMBINATIONS.
X Composition 2
1. Ways of forming
10.
2. Compound words
3. Classifications of English compounds
2
XI Abbreviation
1.Graphical abbreviation
11.
2.Initial abbreviation
3.Abbreviation of word
XII Secondary ways of word-building 2

1Stress interchange
12.
2.Sound imitation
3.Back formation
11
13. XIII Neologisms 4

4
XIV Phraseological units
1.Ways of forming phraseological units
14. 2.Semantic classification of phraseological units
3.Structural classification of phraseological units
4.Syntactical classification of phraseological units
XV Borrowings
1. Classification of borrowings according to degree
of assimilation
15. 2
2. Classification of borrowings according to the lan-
guage they were borrowed Romanic borrowings
3. Germanic borrowings
XVI Do Americans speak English or American?
1. General information on American English
16 2
2. Differences of spelling
3. Differences in pronunciation
XVII Lexicography
17 1. The main problems of lexicography 2
2. Classification of dictionaries
6.Содержание семинарских занятий по дисциплине

№ Тема и план семинарских занятий Количество часов
п/п Всего В том числе
В ау- Само-
дито стоя-
рии тель-
ная
работа
12
сту-
дентов
1. I Lexicology as a science 8 2 6
1) Дискуссионные вопросы:
1. Lexicology as a science
2) Контрольные вопросы
2. II Functional stylistics 8 2 6
1. Informal style
2. Formal style
3. III Semasiology 8 2 6
1. Word meaning
4. IV Homonyms 8 2 6
1. General information on
homonyms
5. V Synonyms 8 2 6
1.General information on
synonymy
2.Types of synonyms
3.Types of connotation
6. VI Antonyms 8 2 6
1 General information on
antonyms
2 Classification of antonyms
13
7. VII Polysemy 8 2 6
1. Lexical meaning and semantic structure of Eng-
lish words
8. VIII Word- building 12 4 8
1. Affixation. Suffixation
2.Prefixation
9. IX Conversion 8 2 6
3. «STONE WALL» COMBINATIONS
10. X Composition 8 2 6
1. Ways of forming
2. Compound words
11. XI Abbreviation 12 4 8
1.Graphical abbreviation
2.Initial abbreviation
12. XII Secondary ways of word-building 8 2 6
1.Stress interchange
2.Sound imitation
3.Back formation
14
13. XIII Phraseological units 12 4 8

1.Ways of forming phraseological units
2.Semantic classification of phraseological units
3.Structural classification of phraseological units
4.Syntactical classification of phraseological units
14. XIV Borrowings 10 2 8
1. Classification of borrowings according to degree
of assimilation
2. Classification of borrowings according to the
language they were borrowed Romanic borrowings
15. XV Do Americans speak English or American? 8 2 6
16. XVI Lexicography 8 2 6

1. The main problems of lexicography
7. Лекционный материал по дисциплине

Lecture 1
Lexicology as a science

15
The term «lexicology» is of Greek origin from «lexis» - «word» and

«logos» - «science».
Lexicology can study the development of the vocabulary, the origin
of words and word-groups, their semantic relations and the development of
their sound form and meaning. In this case it is called historical lexicology.
There are many definitions of the word as a linguistic phenomenon.
Yet, none of them can be considered totally satisfactory in all aspects.
Word can be regarded as a unit of speech which serves the purposes
of human communication. So, word can be defined as a unit of communi-
cation. Then word can be perceived as the total of the sounds, possessing
meaning. The modern approach to word- studies is based on difference be-
tween external and internal structures of the word. External structure of the
word is its morphological structure. Internal structure of the word is its
meaning. It’s also called word’s semantic structure. It’s certainly the
word’s main aspect.
Words can serve the purposes of human communication only due to
their meanings. The area of Lexicology specializing in the semantic stud-
ies of the word is called Semantics. Another structural aspect of the word
is its unity. The word possesses both formal unity and semantic unity. The
formal unity of the word can be illustrated by comparing a word and a
word- group, having identical constituents.
The difference between blackboard and black board is best explained
by their relationship with the grammatical system of the language.
The word blackboard possesses a single grammatical form:
blackboard – blackboards
In the word- group black board each component can have its own
grammatical forms.
The blackest board I have ever seen. Besides, other components can
be inserted between these components:
A black large board.
The same example can be used to illustrate what we mean by seman-
tic unity. In the word- group a black board each word conveys a separate
concept: Black- is a colour
Board- is a flat piece of wood.
The word blackboard possesses only one meaning: word used in
schools for writing.
16
It’s one of the main features of any word: it always conveys one con-
cept, no matter how many components it possesses.
All that we discussed about the word can be summed up as follows:
Word- is a speech unit, used for the purposes of human communica-
tion, materially representing a group of sounds, possessing meaning and
characterized by formal and semantic unity.
The problem of word- building is associated with morphological

word- structures and processes of making new words. Semantics is the
study of meaning.
Modern approaches to this problem are characterized by two differ-
ent levels of study:
· Syntagmatic;
· Paradigmatic.
On the syntagmatic level the semantic structure of the word is ana-
lysed in its linear relationships with neighboring words in connected
speech. In other words the semantic structures of the word are observed,
described and studied on the basis of its typical contexts.
On the paradigmatic level the word is studied in its relationship with
other words in the vocabulary system.
So, a word can be studied in its relationships with other words of
similar meaning:
work- labour
to refuse- to reject
Besides it can be studied in comparison with words of opposite
meaning:
busy- idle
accept- reject
So, the main problems of paradigmatic study are synonymy, antonymy and
functional styles.
Phraseology is the branch of lexicology, specializing on word-
groups, which are characterized by stability of structure and transferred
meaning.
to take the bull by the horns
to see red
birds of a feather
17
One of the important objectives of lexicology is the study of the vo-

cabulary as a system. The vocabulary can be studied synchronically and
diachronically. Synchronically means at a given stage of its development.
Diachronically means in the context of processes through which it grew
and developed.
Lexicology as a science is in connection with such branches of lin-
guistics as: phonetics, grammar, the history of language, etc.
Synopsis
Lexicology can study the development of the vocabulary, the origin
of words and word-groups, their semantic relations and the development
of their sound form and meaning. In this case it is called historical lexicol-
ogy.
Word- is a speech unit, used for the purposes of human communica-
tion, materially representing a group of sounds, possessing meaning and
characterized by formal and semantic unity.
One of the important objectives of lexicology is the study of the vo-
cabulary as a system. The vocabulary can be studied synchronically and
diachronically.
Terms: lexicology, word, sound, meaning, speech, semantic unity,

formal unity, vocabulary, synchronic study, diachronic study, syntagmatic
study, paradigmatic study, linguistics.
Additional points for self-study
1. Lexicology branches
2. Links of Lexicology with other branches of linguistics
Sources for self-study reference:

1. Akhmanova O.S. Lexicology: Theory and Method. M. 1972
2. Arnold I.V. The English Word . M. 1986.
3. Burchfield R.W. The English Language. Lnd. ,1985
4. Арнольд И.В. Лексикология современного английского языка.
М. 1959.
18
Lecture 2
Functional stylistics.
1. Informal style
2. Informal style
Functional style is defined as a system of expressive means, peculiar
to a specific sphere of communication. By the sphere of communication
we mean the circumstances attending the process of speech in each par-
ticular case: professional communication, a lecture, an informal talk, a
formal letter, an intimate letter, a speech in court, etc.
All these situations can be classified into two types:
-formal (lecture, speech in court)
-informal (an informal talk)
1. Informal style
Informal vocabulary is used in one’s close circle: family, relatives
and friends. One uses informal words at home or when he feels at home.
Informal style is free, easy, relaxed and familiar. But it should be pointed
out that informal talk of well- educated person differs from that of an igno-
rant or semi- educated one. Choice of words of adults differs from that of
teenagers; people from provinces use certain regional words and expres-
sions.
Consequently, the choice of words is determined not only by formal
or informal situation, but also by speaker’s educational and cultural back-
ground, age, occupation and regional characteristics.
Informal words are divided into 3 types:
· colloquial
· slang
· dialect words.
a) colloquial words
Colloquialisms are used by everybody and the sphere of their usage

is rather wide. These are informal words which are used in everyday
speech both by cultivated and uneducated people of all ages.
Bite, snack (meal)
Hi, hello
To have a crush on smb (to be in love with smb)
19
Some shortenings belong here, too:

Exam, fridge, prop, movie, etc.
Verbs with post- positional adverbs also belong to colloquial:
Put up (упаковать, огласить)
Make up (закончить, сделать)
Turn up (повернуть)
Literary colloquial words must be distinguished from familiar collo-
quial and low colloquial. The borderline between literary and familiar col-
loquial is not always clearly outlined.
Familiar colloquial is used by young and semi- educated people:
Doc (doctor)
Hi (how do you do)
Goings-on (behaviour)
Go on with you (let me alone)
Shut up (keep silent).
b) slang
Slang words are opposite to standard literary vocabulary. Slang

words are expressive, ironical, vulgar, cynical and harsh.
Beans, brass, chink, oof (money)
Attic, brain- pan, nut (head)
Boozy, cock-eyed, soaked (drunk)
There are many slang words for food, drinks, law, death, madness,
drug use, etc.
Slang can be divided into:
-general
-special.
General slang includes words common for any social group. Special
slang is often used by some special groups. So, there exist teenager slang,
university slang, football slang, sea slang, etc.
Why do people use slang?
People use it to be picturesque, interesting and different from others,
besides to demonstrate one’s spiritual independence and to be modern and
up-to-date. The circle of slang-users is narrower than colloquial users. It’s
mostly used by young and uneducated people.
c) Dialect words
20
H. Fowler defines a dialect as «a variety of language in a definite dis-

trict with local peculiarities of vocabulary and pronunciation».
So, dialects are regional forms of a language. Standard English is a
language, written and spoken by literary people. It’s the official language
of Great Britain, used by the press, radio and TV.
One of the best-known Southern dialects is Cockney, the regional
dialect of London.
vell- well nivver-never
baccy- to-
fing- thing
bacco
wery-very mich- much
farver- far-
ay(e)- eye
ther
Pronunciation of some words is also different in Cockney:
Day /dai/
Rain /rain/
Face /fais/
Way /wai/
2. Formal style
Formal words fall into 2 main groups:
-words connected with professional communication
- learned words.
Learned words
These words are associated with the printed page. The term
«learned» includes words, used in scientific prose and official language.
To assist (to help)
To proceed (to go)
Approximately (about)
Inquire (ask)
Sufficient (enough)
The most interesting subdivision of learned words is words of fiction.
These words may be called «literary»:
Solitude (одиночество)
Sentiment (чувство)
Fascination (очарование)
21
Felicity (счастье)
Cordial (сердечный).
There is another subdivision of learned words- poetic words. They
stand close to words of fiction and have high, lofty and sometimes archaic
colouring:
Alas (увы)
Wroth (разгневанный)
Doth.
So, on the one hand, educated people in real life and modern fiction
use learned words, and their speech is quite rich. On the other hand, usage
of learned words in everyday speech seems ridiculous and absurd.
You are authorized to acquire the work in question by purchase

through the ordinary trade channels. (We advise you to buy the book in a
shop.)
Archaic words
These words stand close to words of poetic fiction. Both, learned

words and archaisms are connected with the printed page.
Archaic words are not used in Modern English; they just remain in
historical novels.
Thy (your)
Nay (no)
Morn (morning)
Eve (evening)
Damsel (girl)
Errant (wandering) E.g. errant knights
There are also other archaic words, called historisms. By this we
mean words, denoting things which don’t exist any longer.
Phaeton, sword, arrow, etc.
Synopsis
Functional style is defined as a system of expressive means, peculiar
to a specific sphere of communication. By the sphere of communication we
mean the circumstances attending the process of speech in each particular
case: professional communication, a lecture, an informal talk, a formal
letter, an intimate letter, a speech in court. All these situations can be clas-
sified into two types: formal and informal. Informal words are divided into
22
3 types: colloquial, slang, dialect words. Formal words fall into 2 main
groups: words connected with professional communication and learned
word.
Terms: style, functional style, formal style, informal style, dialect

words, colloquial words, slang, learned words, archaisms, historisms.
Additional points for self-study:
1. Vulgarisms
2. Jargonisms

2. Arnold I.V. The English Word. M. 1986.
3. Burchfield R.W. The English Language. Lnd., 1985
4. Canon G. Historical Changes and English Wordformation: New
Vocabulary items. N.Y., 1986.
5. Jespersen ,Otto. Growth and Structure of the English Language.
Oxford, 1982.
6. Potter S. Modern Linguistics. Lnd., 1957.
Lecture 3
Neologisms
At the present moment English is developing very swiftly and there

is so called «neology blowup». R. Burchfield who worked at compiling a
four-volume supplement to NED says that averagely 800 neologisms ap-
pear every year in Modern English. It has also become a language-giver
recently, especially with the development of computerization.
New words, as a rule, appear in speech of an individual person who
wants to express his idea in some original way. This person is called
«originator». New lexical units are primarily used by university teachers,
newspaper reporters, by those who are connected with mass media.
Neologisms can develop in three main ways: a lexical unit existing in
the language can change its meaning to denote a new object or phenome-
non. In such cases we have semantic neologisms, e.g. the word «umbrella»
23
developed the meanings: «авиационное прикрытие», »политическое

прикрытие». A new lexical unit can develop in the language to denote an
object or phenomenon which already has some lexical unit to denote it. In
such cases we have transnomination, e.g. the word «slum» was first substi-
tuted by the word «ghetto» then by the word-group «inner town». A new
lexical unit can be introduced to denote a new object or phenomenon. In
this case we have «a proper neologism», many of them are cases of new
terminology.
Here we can point out several semantic groups when we analyze the
group of neologisms connected with computerization, and here we can
mention words used:
a) to denote different types of computers, e.g. PC, super-computer,
multi-user, neurocomputer / analogue of a human brain/;
b) to denote parts of computers, e.g. hardware, software, monitor,
screen, data, vapourware / experimental samples of computers for exhibi-
tion, not for production/;
c) to denote computer languages, e.g. BASIC, Algol FORTRAN etc;
d) to denote notions connected with work on computers, e.g. com-
puter man, computerization, computerize, to troubleshoot, to blitz out / to
ruin data in a computer’s memory/.
There are also different types of activities performed with the help of
computers, many of them are formed with the help of the morpheme
«tele», e.g. to telework, to telecommute / to work at home having a com-
puter which is connected with the enterprise for which one works/. There
are also such words as telebanking, telemarketing, teleshopping / when
you can perform different operations with the help of your computer with-
out leaving your home, all operations are registered by the computer at
your bank/, videobank /computerized telephone which registers all infor-
mation which is received in your absence/.
In the sphere of linguistics we have such neologisms as: machine
translation, interlingual / an artificial language for machine translation into
several languages / and many others.
In the sphere of biometrics we have computerized machines which
can recognize characteristic features of people seeking entrance: finger-
print scanner / finger prints/, biometric eye-scanner / blood-vessel ar-
rangements in eyes/, voice verification /voice patterns/. These are types of
biometric locks. Here we can also mention computerized cards with the
help of which we can open the door without a key.
24
In the sphere of medicine computers are also used and we have the
following neologisms: telemonitory unit / a telemonitory system for treat-
ing patience at a distance/.
With the development of social activities neologisms appeared as
well, e.g. youthquake - волнения среди молодежи, pussy-footer -
политик, идущий на компромисы, Euromarket, Eurodollar, Europarlia-
ment, Europol etc.
In the modern English society there is a tendency to social stratifica-
tion, as a result there are neologisms in this sphere as well, e.g. belonger -
представитель среднего класса, приверженец консервативных
взглядов. To this group we can also refer abbreviations of the type yuppie
/young urban professional people/, such as: muppie, gruppie, rumpie,
bluppie etc. People belonging to the lowest layer of the society are called
survivers, a little bit more prosperous are called sustainers, and those who
try to prosper in life and imitate those, they want to belong to, are called
emulators. Those who have prospered but are not belongers are called
achievers. All these layers of society are called VAL /Value and Life-
styles/.
The rich belong also to jet set that is those who can afford to travel
by jet planes all over the world enjoying their life. Sometimes they are
called «jet plane travellers».
During Margaret Thatcher’s rule the abbreviation PLU appeared
which means «People like us» by which snobbistic circles of society call
themselves. Nowadays /since 1989/ PLU was substituted by «one of us».
There are a lot of immigrants now in UK, in connection with which
neologisms partial and non-partial were formed. The word-group «welfare
mother» was formed to denote a non-working single mother living on
benefit.
In connection with criminalization of towns in UK voluntary groups
of assisting the police were formed where dwellers of the neighbourhood
are joined. These groups are called «neighbourhood watch», «home
watch». Criminals wear «stocking masks» not to be recognized.
The higher society has neologisms in their speech, such as: dial-a-
meal, dial-a-taxi.
In the language of teen-agers there are such words as: Drugs! /OK/,
task /home composition /, brunch etc.
With the development of professional jargons a lot of words ending
in «speak» appeared in English, e.g. artspeak, sportspeak, medspeak, edu-
cation-speak, video-speak, cable-speak etc.
25
There are different semantic groups of neologisms belonging to eve-

ryday life:
a) food e.g. «starter»/ instead of «hors d’oevres»/, macrobiotics / raw
vegetables, crude rice/ , longlife milk, clingfilm, microwave stove, con-
sumer electronics, fridge-freezer, hamburgers /beef-, cheese-, fish-, veg- /.
b) clothing, e.g. catsuit /one-piece clinging suit/, slimster , string /
miniscule bikini/, hipster / trousers or skirt with the belt on hips/, complet-
enik / a long sweater for trousers/, sweatnik /a long jacket/, pants-skirt,
bloomers / lady’s sports trousers/.
c) footwear e.g. winklepickers /shoes with long pointed toes/, thongs
/open sandals/, backsters /beech sandals with thick soles/.
d) bags, e.g. bumbag /a small bag worn on the waist/, sling bag /a bag
with a long belt/, maitre / a small bag for cosmetics/.
There are also such words as: dangledolly / a dolly-talisman dangling
in the car before the windscreen/, boot-sale /selling from the boot of the
car/, touch-tone /a telephone with press-button/.
Neologisms can be also classified according to the ways they are
formed. They are subdivided into: phonological neologisms, borrowings,
semantic neologisms and syntactical neologisms. Syntactical neologisms
are divided into morphological /word-building/ and phraseological
/forming word-groups/.
Phonological neologisms are formed by combining unique combina-
tions of sounds, they are called artificial, e.g. rah-rah /a short skirt which is
worn by girls during parades/, «yeck» /»yuck» which are interjections to
express repulsion produced the adjective yucky/ yecky. These are strong
neologisms.
Strong neologisms include also phonetic borrowings, such as «pere-
stroika» /Russian/, «solidarnosc» /Polish/, Berufsverbot / German /, dolce
vita /Italian/ etc.
Morphological and syntactical neologisms are usually built on pat-
terns existing in the language; therefore they do not belong to the group of
strong neologisms.
Among morphological neologisms there are a lot of compound words
of different types, such as «free-fall»-»резкое падение курса акций» ap-
peared in 1987 with the stock market crash in October 1987 /on the anal-
ogy with free-fall of parachutists, which is the period between jumping and
opening the chute/. Here also belong: call-and-recall - вызов на
диспансеризацию, bioastronomy -search for life on other planets, rat-out -
betrayal in danger , zero-zero (double zero) - ban of longer and shorter
26
range weapon, x-rated /about films terribly vulgar and cruel/, Ameringlish
/American English/, tycoonography - a biography of a business tycoon.
There are also abbreviations of different types, such as resto, teen
/teenager/, dinky /dual income no kids yet/, ARC /AIDS-related condition,
infection with AIDS/, HIV / human immuno-deficiency virus/.
Quite a number of neologisms appear on the analogy with lexical
units existing in the language, e.g. snowmobile /automobile/, danceaholic
/alcoholic/, airtel /hotel/, cheeseburger /hamburger/, autocade / cavalcade/.
There are many neologisms formed by means of affixation, such as:
decompress, to disimprove, overhoused, educationalist, etc. Phraseological
neologisms can be subdivided into phraseological units with transferred
meanings, e.g. to buy into/ to become involved/, fudge and dudge
/avoidance of definite decisions/, and set non-idiomatic expressions, e.g.
electronic virus, Rubik’s cube, retail park, acid rain , etc.
Synopsis
New words, as a rule, appear in speech of an individual person who
wants to express his idea in some original way. This person is called
«originator». New lexical units are primarily used by university teachers,
newspaper reporters, by those who are connected with mass media.
Neologisms can be phonological, morphological and syntactic.
Terms: neologisms, belonger, achiever, phonological neologism,

semantic neologism, syntactical neologism, borrowing, affixation.
1. Professional terminology
2. Basic vocabulary
1. Заботкина В.И. Новая лексика современного английского

языка. М., 1989.
2. Иванов А.Н. Английская неология. Сб. науч. тр. МГПИИЯ
1984.Вып. 227.
3. Кубрякова Е.С. Роль словообразования в формировании язы-
ковой картины мира. М. 1988.
Lecture 4
27
Semasiology
1. Word meaning
1. Word meaning
The branch of lexicology which deals with the meaning is called se-
masiology.
Every word has two aspects: the outer aspect (its sound form) and the
inner aspect (its meaning). Sound and meaning do not always constitute a
constant unit even in the same language. E.g. the word «temple» may de-
note «a part of a human head» and «a large church» In such cases we have
homonyms. One and the same word in different syntactical relations can
develop different meanings, e.g. the verb «treat» in sentences:
a) He treated my words as a joke.
b) The book treats of poetry.
c) They treated me to sweets.
d) He treats his son cruelly.
In all these sentences the verb «treat» has different meanings and we
can speak about polysemy.
On the other hand, one and the same meaning can be expressed by
different sound forms, e.g. «pilot», and «airman», «horror» and «terror».
In such cases we have synonyms.
Both the meaning and the sound can develop in the course of time
independently. E.g. the Old English /luvian/ is pronounced /l^v / (love) in
Modern English. On the other hand, «board» primarily means « a piece of
wood sawn thin» It has developed the meanings: a table, a board of a ship,
a stage, a council etc.
The lexical meaning of a word is the realization of a notion by means

of a definite language system. A word is a language unit, while a notion is
a unit of thinking. A notion cannot exist without a word expressing it in
the language, but there are words which do not express any notion but
have a lexical meaning. Interjections express emotions but not notions, but
they have lexical meanings, e.g. Alas! /disappointment/, Oh, my buttons!
/surprise/ etc. There are also words which express both, notions and emo-
tions, e.g. girlie, a pig /when used metaphorically/.
28
The term «notion» was introduced into lexicology from logics. A no-
tion denotes the reflection in the mind of real objects and phenomena in
their relations. Notions, as a rule, are international, especially with the na-
tions of the same cultural level, while meanings can be nationally limited.
Grouping of meanings in the semantic structure of a word is determined by
the whole system of every language. E.g. the English verbs «go» and its
Russian equivalent «идти» has some meanings which coincide: to move
from place to place, to extend /the road goes to London/, to work /Is your
watch going? /. On the other hand, they have different meanings: in Rus-
sian we say: »Вот он идет», in English we use the verb «come» in this
case. In English we use the verb «go» in the combinations: «to go by bus»,
«to go by train» etc. In Russian in these cases we use the verb «ехать».
The number of meanings does not correspond to the number of
words; neither does the number of notions. Their distribution in relation to
words is peculiar in every language. The Russian has two words for the
English «man»: « мужчина» and «человек». In English, however, «man»
cannot be applied to a female person. We say in Russian: «Она- хороший
человек». In English we use the word «person»/ She is a good person»/
Development of lexical meanings in any language is influenced by
the whole network of ties and relations between words and other aspects of
the language.
Synopsis
The branch of lexicology which deals with the meaning is called se-
masiology.
Every word has two aspects: the outer aspect (its sound form) and
the inner aspect (its meaning). Sound and meaning do not always consti-
tute a constant unit even in the same language. The lexical meaning of a
word is the realization of a notion by means of a definite language system.
A word is a language unit, while a notion is a unit of thinking. A notion
cannot exist without a word expressing it in the language, but there are
words which do not express any notion but have a lexical meaning. Inter-
jections express emotions but not notions.
Terms: semasiology, meaning, notion, outer aspect, inner aspect,

language system, interjection, logics, international, verb, noun.
29
Additional sources for self-study

3. Burchfield R.W. The English Language. Lnd., 1985
Lecture 5
Polysemy
1. Lexical meaning and semantic structure of English words

The word «polysemy» means «plurality of meanings» it exists only
in the language, not in speech. A word which has more than one meaning
is called polysemantic.
Different meanings of a polysemantic word may come together due
to the proximity of notions which they express. E.g. the word «blanket»
has the following meanings: a woolen covering used on beds, a covering
for keeping a horse warm, a covering of any kind /a blanket of snow/, cov-
ering all or most cases /used attributively/, e.g. we can say «a blanket in-
surance policy».
There are some words in the language which are monosemantic, such
as most terms, /synonym, molecule, bronchites/, some pronouns /this, my,
both/, numerals.
In most cases in the semantic development of a word both ways of
semantic development are combined.
1. Lexical meaning and semantic structure of English words

The branch of linguistics connected with the meaning of words is
called semasiology. The main problems of semasiology are: semantic de-
velopment of words, its classification, main features and types of lexical
meaning, polysemy, synonyms, antonyms, terminological systems, etc.
30
Lexical meaning is the realization of concept or emotion by means of

a language system. The word meaning is a complex one. Its complexity
divides into 4 main types:
1) Every word combines lexical and grammatical meanings.
E.g. father (noun)
2) Words not only refer to some objects, but also show speaker’s atti-
tude. So, words have denotational and connotational meanings.
E.g. daddy (shows close attitude of children.)
3) Denotational meaning is divided into semantic components.
E.g. father- is a male parent
4) Word can be polysemantic.
E.g. father may mean: «male parent», «a leader», « a priest».
The grammatical meaning is more abstract and more general than the
lexical meaning. It unites words into big groups, such as parts of speech,
lexico-grammatical classes etc.
The meaning of the word can be denotative and connotative.
Denotative meaning expresses the conceptual context of a word or its
main idea.
Connotative meaning is optional, it expresses speaker’s attitude.
E.g. mummy (mother)
Polysemy studies variety of meanings of the word.
E.g. birth has 2 meanings: - the act or time of being born
- an origin, beginning.
Most English words are polysemantic. The wealth of a language de-
pends on the development of polysemy.

One of the main minuses of polysemantic word is a chance of misun-
derstanding when a word is used in one meaning and understood in an-
other.
E.g. In a shop:
- I would like a book. Please.
- Something light?
- That does not matter. I have a car with me.
Here one used the word «light» in the meaning of «entertaining, not
serious» and another got it as «not heavy».
There are some words the meaning of which can be understood only
in combination with other words.
E.g. dull (dull story, dull pupil, dull razor- blade).
31
3. The development of new meanings.

It’s a well- known fact that words develop their meanings. There are
several groups of causes of their development.
The first group of causes is called historical or extra-linguistic.
Different kinds of changes in social life of a nation, its culture, art,
technology lead to appearing of new meanings. Besides, newly created
things must be named.
There are 3 ways of doing it:
1) making new words
2) borrowing new foreign words
3) applying a new meaning to an old word.
E.g. carriage meant a vehicle drawn by horses. With the appearance
of railways it got a new meaning- «a railway car».
Mill meant «a building where corn turns into flour». But when first
textile factories appeared in London mill got a new meaning «textile fac-
tory».
The second group of causes is linguistic factors.
The development of new meanings and a complete change of mean-
ings may be caused through the influence of other words, mostly of syno-
nyms.
E.g. the Old- English verb steorfan meant «to perish» . When the
verb to die was borrowed from the Scandinavian these 2 synonyms be-
came different: «to starve» means now «to die with hunger».
The same is true with the word «deer». In Old- English it had a
meaning of any
beast. But when appeared a word «animal» its meaning changed.
The process of development of a new meaning is called transference.
There are 2 types of transference:
- transference based on resemblance
- transference based on contiguity.
4. Transference based on resemblance (similarity)
This type of transference is also called linguistic metaphor. A new

meaning appears as a result of associating 2 objects due to their similarity.
E.g. «eye» has the second meaning- «hole in the end of a needle».
The same is true with the example «the neck of a bottle».
The main meaning of a noun «branch» is «a bush of a tree». On the
basis of this one it developed several more.
32
E.g. a field of science or art.

The noun «star» on the basis of the meaning «heavenly body» devel-
oped meaning «famous actor, actress».
Now this meaning became wider: E.g. football star, pop- star, sport
star.
The meanings formed through this type of transference are found in
informal speech, especially in slang.
5. Transference based on contiguity.

This type of transference is also called linguistic metonymy. The as-
sociation is based on psychological links between objects.
The Old English adjective glad meant bright, shining (applied to
sun). The meaning joyful developed on the basis of association of light
with joy (светлое настроение).
The foot of a bed is the place where feet rest when one lies in bed,
but the foot of a mountain is its the lowest part.
By the arms of an armchair we mean the place where the arms lie
when one is sitting in the chair.
Meaning produced through transference based on contiguity some-
times originate from geographical and proper names.
E.g. Oxford (University, town in England)
Shakespeare (an author, a book)
I’ve read Shakespeare two times.
Picasso is a very expensive picture.
Synopsis
Different meanings of a polysemantic word may come together due to
the proximity of notions which they express.
The branch of linguistics connected with the meaning of words is
called semasiology. The main problems of semasiology are: semantic de-
velopment of words, its classification, main features and types of lexical
meaning, polysemy, synonyms, antonyms, terminological systems. There
are 3 ways of development of new meanings: making new words, borrow-
ing new foreign words, applying a new meaning to an old word.
Terms: polysemy, polysemantic word, notion, linguistics, semasiol-

ogy, synonyms, antonyms, terminological system, borrowing, transference,
resemblance, contiguity, metaphor, metonymy.
33
1. Polysemy and homonyms
1.Akhmanova O.S. Lexicology: Theory and Method. M. 1972

2.Arnold I.V. The English Word . M. 1986.
3. Aпресян Ю.Д.Лексическая семантика. Синонимические сред-
ства языка. М.1974.
4. Арнольд И.В. Лексикология современного английского язы-
ка.М. 1959.
Lecture 6
Homonyms
1. General information on homonyms

1. General information on homonyms
Homonyms- are words identical in sound and spelling, but different

in their meanings.
E.g. bank- bank
ball- ball
English vocabulary is rich in homonyms. Homonyms are very incon-
venient sometimes, as they lead to confusion and misunderstanding.
Homonyms which are the same in sound and spelling are called
homonyms proper.
E.g. ball- ball
board- board
Homonyms which are the same in sound but different in spelling are
called homophones.
E.g. night- knight
piece- peace
write - right
see - sea
Words the same in spelling, but different in sound are called homo-
graphs.
34
E.g.
Lead - lead
Tear - tear
The first source of homonyms is phonetic changes of words.
E.g. Knight and night were not homonyms in Old- English, because
the sound K was pronounced.
The second source of homonyms is borrowings.
E.g. Bank in the meaning of shore is a native English word, and bank
as a building where people keep money is an Italian borrowing.
The third source of homonyms is word-building, and the most impor-
tant type of it is conversion.
E.g. pale- to pale
Make- to make
Such homonyms which are the same in sound and spelling, but refer
to different parts of speech are called lexico-grammatical homonyms.
One more source of homonyms is shortenings.
E.g. fan (fanatic) - fan (веер)
Words which are made by sound- imitation can also form homo-
nyms:
E.g. bang (бах)-bang (челка)
Mew (мяу) - mews (дома в Лондоне с террасами)
There is also another source of homonyms, called split polysemy.
When a word breaks into several parts, two different meanings can
form homonyms.
E.g. board (доска) - board (группа, кружок)
Spring (весна)-spring (родник)
The subdivision of homonyms into homonyms proper, homophones
and homographs is not all.
Professor Smirnitsky classified them into two large classes:
1) Full homonyms
2) Partial homonyms.
Full lexical homonyms are words of the same part of speech, identi-
cal in sound and spelling.
E.g. match (матч) – match (спички)
Ball (мяч) – ball (бал)
35
Bank (берег) – bank (банк)

Partial homonyms are subdivided into three groups:
1. Simple lexico- grammatical partial homonyms –are words which
belong to the same part of speech, but they are common only in one form.
E.g. found (основываться) – found (Past Simple от find)
Lay (класть) – lay (Past Simple от lie)
2. Complex lexico- grammatical partial homonyms- are words of dif-
ferent parts of speech, not the same in spelling.
E.g. rose (n) – rose (Past Simple от rise)
Left (adj) – left (Past Simple от leave)
Bean (n)-been (to be)
One (numeral) – won (to win)
3. Partial lexical homonyms- are words of the same part of speech,
which are identical only in their main forms:
E.g. to lie (lay, lain) – to lie (lied, lied)
To hang (hung, hang)-to hang (hanged, hanged)
Can (could) – to can (canned, canned)
Synopsis
Homonyms- are words identical in sound and spelling, but different
in their meanings. Homonyms which are the same in sound and spelling,
but refer to different parts of speech are called lexico-grammatical homo-
nyms.
Full lexical homonyms are words of the same part of speech, identi-
cal in sound and spelling. Simple lexico- grammatical partial homonyms –
are words which belong to the same part of speech, but they are common
only in one form. Complex lexico- grammatical partial homonyms- are
words of different parts of speech, not the same in spelling. 3. Partial lexi-
cal homonyms- are words of the same part of speech, which are identical
only in their main forms
Terms: homonyms, full homonyms, partial homonyms, lexical

homonyms, grammatical homonyms, lexico-grammatical homonyms,
homophones, homographs, homonyms proper, meaning, sound, spelling.
1. Distinction between homonymy and polysemy

2. Homonymic nests, groups and series
36

1. Aпресян Ю.Д.Лексическая семантика. Синонимические сред-
ства языка. М.1974.
2. Арнольд И.В. Лексикология современного английского языка.
М. 1959.
3. Беляева Т.М., Потапова И.А. Английский язык за пределами
Англии. Л. 1971.
4.Беляева Т.М. Словообразовательная валентность глагольных
основ в английском языке. М., 1979.
Lecture 7
Synonyms
1. General information on synonymy

2. Types of synonyms
3. Types of connotation
1. General information on synonymy

Synonymy is one of the main problems of modern linguistics. Lin-
guists still dispute the existence of synonyms and their value and role.
Synonyms are words of the same meaning.
Kill- murder- slay
Beautiful- pretty
But it should be mentioned that they differ in aspects.
I always liked you; I admire your talent,
but I don’t love you as a man.
To like means to have warm feelings, to love- to have strong feel-
ings.
Think you play Romeo? Romeo should smile not grin,
walk not swagger, speak his lines not mumble them.
2. Types of synonyms
Academician Vinogradov suggests the following classification of
synonyms:
1. Ideographic (synonyms, having the same meaning, different in as-
pects).
To like- to love
37
2. Stylistic (synonyms, differing in styles).

To kill- to slay
3. Absolute (synonyms which are the same in all aspects).
Beautiful- pretty
3. Types of connotation.
1. The connotation of degree or intensity:
To surprise- to amaze- to astound
To satisfy- to please- to content
To shout- to roar
To like- to admire- to adore- to worship
2. The connotation of duration:
To stare- to glare- to gaze-
To glance - to peep - to peer.
3. The emotive connotation:
Alone- single- lonely- solitary
4. The evaluative connotation (it conveys speaker’s attitude):
Well-known- famous- notorious- celebrated
Sparkle- glitter
Her eyes sparkled with happiness.
His eyes glittered with anger.
5. The causative connotation:
To shiver (with cold, frost, chill).
To shudder (with fear, horror).
6. The connotation of manner:
To walk- to swagger- to stagger
(Different ways of walking).
To like- to admire- to love – to adore
(Different intensity of loving).
7. The connotation of attendant circumstances:
To peep at smb - to peer at smb.
To peep means to look through the hole, from half-closed door,
curtain, etc.
To peer means to look at smb in darkness, through the fog,
from great distance.
8. The connotation of attendant features:
Beautiful- pretty- handsome
Beautiful is associated with classical features and perfect fig-
ure.
38
Pretty means small, delicate features and fresh complexion.

Handsome means tall, with fine proportions.
9. Stylistic connotation.
Meal: snack, bite (coll.), snap (dial.), repast, refreshment (for-
mal).
Girl: girlie (coll.), lass, lassie (dial.), birdie, skirt (slang),
maiden (poetic), damsel (archaic).
To leave: to be off, to clear out (coll.), to beat it, to take the air
(slang), to depart, to retire, to withdraw (formal).
Synopsis
Synonymy is one of the main problems of modern linguistics. Lin-
guists still dispute the existence of synonyms and their value and role.
Academician Vinogradov suggests the following classification of syno-
nyms:
1. Ideographic (synonyms, having the same meaning, different in as-
pects).
2. Stylistic (synonyms, differing in styles).
3. Absolute
Terms: synonyms, ideographic synonyms, stylistic synonyms, abso-

lute synonyms, connotation, meaning, linguistics, style, aspect.
1. Synonymic nests
2. Synonymic groups
3. Synonymic series
1 Akhmanova O.S. Lexicology: Theory and Method. M. 1972

3.Апресян Ю.Д.Лексическая семантика. Синонимические сред-
ства языка.
4. Апресян Ю.Д. Англо-русский синонимический словарь. M.
1979.
Lecture 8
39
Word building
1. Affixation. Suffixation
2. Prefixation
Word-building is one of the main ways of enriching vocabulary.

There are four main ways of word-building in modern English: affixation,
composition, conversion, abbreviation. There are also secondary ways of
word-building: sound interchange, stress interchange, sound imitation,
blends, back formation.
1. Affixation.
Affixation is one of the most productive ways of word-building

throughout the history of English. It consists in adding an affix to the stem
of a definite part of speech. Affixation is divided into suffixation and pre-
fixation.
Suffixation.
The main function of suffixes in Modern English is to form one part

of speech from another, the secondary function is to change the lexical
meaning of the same part of speech. ( e.g. «educate» is a verb, «educatee»
is a noun, and « music» is a noun, «musicdom» is also a noun) .
There are different classifications of suffixes:
1. Part-of-speech classification. Suffixes which can form different
parts of speech are given here :
a) noun-forming suffixes, such as: -er (criticizer), -dom (kingdom), -
ism (communism),
b) adjective-forming suffixes, such as: -able (breathable), less (symp-
tomless), -ous (prestigious)
c) verb-forming suffixes, such as -ize (computerize), -ify (micrify),
d) adverb-forming suffixes, such as: -ly (singly), -ward (tableward),
e) numeral-forming suffixes, such as -teen (sixteen), -ty (seventy).
2. Semantic classification. Suffixes changing the lexical meaning of
the stem can be subdivided into groups, e.g. noun-forming suffixes can de-
note:
a) the agent of the action, e.g. -er (experimenter), -ist (taxist), -ent
(student),
b) nationality, e.g. -ian (Russian), -ese (Japanese), -ish (English),
40
c) collectivity, e.g. -dom (moviedom), -ry (peasantry, -ship (reader-

ship), -ati ( literati),
d) diminutiveness, e.g. -ie (horsie), -let (booklet), -ling (gooseling), -
ette (kitchenette),
e) quality, e.g. -ness (copelessness), -ity (answerability).
3. Lexico-grammatical character of the stem. Suffixes which can be
added to certain groups of stems are subdivided into:
a) suffixes added to verbal stems, such as : -er (commuter), -ing
(suffering), - able (flyable), -ment (involvement), -ation (computerization),
b) suffixes added to noun stems, such as : -less (smogless), ful
(roomful), -ism (adventurism), -ster (pollster), -nik (filmnik), -ish (child-
ish),
c) suffixes added to adjective stems, such as : -en (weaken), -ly
(pinkly), -ish (longish), -ness (clannishness).
4. Origin of suffixes. Here we can point out the following groups:
a) native (Germanic), such as -er,-ful, -less, -ly.
b) Romanic, such as: -tion, -ment, -able, -eer.
c) Greek, such as: -ist, -ism, -ize.
d) Russian, such as -nik.
5. Productivity. Here we can point out the following groups:
a) productive, such as: -er, -ize, --ly, -ness.
b) semi-productive, such as: -eer, -ette, -ward.
c) non-productive , such as: -ard (drunkard), -th (length).
Suffixes can be polysemantic, such as: -er can form nouns with the
following meanings : agent,doer of the action expressed by the stem
(speaker), profession, occupation (teacher), a device, a tool (transmitter).
While speaking about suffixes we should also mention compound suffixes
which are added to the stem at the same time, such as -ably, -ibly, (terribly,
reasonably), -ation (adaptation from adapt).
There are also disputable cases whether we have a suffix or a root
morpheme in the structure of a word, in such cases we call such mor-
phemes semi-suffixes, and words with such suffixes can be classified ei-
ther as derived words or as compound words, e.g. -gate (Irangate), -burger
(cheeseburger), -aholic (workaholic) etc.
2. Prefixation
Prefixation is the formation of words by means of adding a prefix to
the stem. In English it is characteristic for forming verbs. Prefixes are
more independent than suffixes. Prefixes can be classified according to the
41
nature of words in which they are used: prefixes used in notional words
and prefixes used in functional words. Prefixes used in notional words are
proper prefixes which are bound morphemes, e.g. un- (unhappy). Prefixes
used in functional words are semi-bound morphemes because they are met
in the language as words, e.g. over- (overhead) (cf over the table).
The main function of prefixes in English is to change the lexical
meaning of the same part of speech. But the recent research showed that
about twenty-five prefixes in Modern English form one part of speech
from another (bebutton, interfamily, postcollege etc).
Prefixes can be classified according to different principles :
1. Semantic classificatio:
a) prefixes of negative meaning, such as : in- (invaluable), non- (non-
formals), un- (unfree) etc,
b) prefixes denoting repetition or reversal actions, such as: de- (de-
colonize), re- (revegetation), dis- (disconnect),
c) prefixes denoting time, space, degree relations, such as : inter- (in-
terplanetary) , hyper- (hypertension), ex- (ex-student), pre- (pre-election),
over- (overdrugging) etc.
2. Origin of prefixes:
a) native (Germanic), such as: un-, over-, under- etc.
b) Romanic, such as: in-, de-, ex-, re- etc.
c) Greek, such as: sym-, hyper- etc.
When we analyze such words as : adverb, accompany where we can
find the root of the word (verb, company) we may treat ad-, ac- as prefixes
though they were never used as prefixes to form new words in English and
were borrowed from Romanic languages together with words. In such
cases we can treat them as derived words. But some scientists treat them as
simple words. Another group of words with a disputable structure are such
as: contain, retain, detain and conceive, receive, deceive where we can see
that re-, de-, con- act as prefixes and -tain, -ceive can be understood as
roots. But in English these combinations of sounds have no lexical mean-
ing and are called pseudo-morphemes. Some scientists treat such words as
simple words, others as derived ones.
There are some prefixes which can be treated as root morphemes by
some scientists, e.g. after- in the word afternoon. American lexicographers
working on Webster dictionaries treat such words as compound words.
British lexicographers treat such words as derived ones.
Synopsis
42
Word-building is one of the main ways of enriching vocabulary.

There are four main ways of word-building in modern English: affixation,
composition, conversion, abbreviation. There are also secondary ways of
word-building: sound interchange, stress interchange, sound imitation,
blends, and back – formation. Affixation is one of the most productive
ways of word-building throughout the history of English. It consists in
adding an affix to the stem of a definite part of speech. Affixation is di-
vided into suffixation and prefixation. Prefixation is the formation of
words by means of adding a prefix to the stem. In English it is characteris-
tic for forming verbs. Prefixes are more independent than suffixes.
Terms: word-building, vocabulary, affixation, composition, conver-

sion, abbreviation, sound-interchange, stress interchange, sound imitation,
affix, stem, prefix, suffix, verb, part of speech.
1. Conversion as a way of word-building

2. Composition

4. Заботкина В.И. Новая лексика современного английского языка.
М., 1989
1984.Вып. 227.
Lecture 9
Composition
1. Ways of forming
2. Compound words
1. Ways of forming
43
Composition is the way of word building when a word is formed by

joining two or more stems to form one word. The structural unity of a
compound word depends upon: a) the unity of stress, b) solid or hyphen-
ated spelling, c) semantic unity, d) unity of morphological and syntactical
functioning. These are characteristic features of compound words in all
languages. For English compounds some of these factors are not very reli-
able. As a rule English compounds have one uniting stress (usually on the
first component), e.g. hard-cover, best-seller. We can also have a double
stress in an English compound, with the main stress on the first component
and with a secondary stress on the second component, e.g. blood-vessel.
The third pattern of stresses is two level stresses, e.g. snow-white, sky-
blue. The third pattern is easily mixed up with word-groups unless they
have solid or hyphenated spelling.
Spelling in English compounds is not very reliable as well because
they can have different spelling even in the same text, e.g. war-ship, blood-
vessel can be spelt through a hyphen and also with a break, underfoot can
be spelt solidly and with a break. All the more so that there has appeared in
Modern English a special type of compound words which are called block
compounds, they have one uniting stress but are spelt with a break, e.g. air
piracy, cargo module, coin change, penguin suit etc.
The semantic unity of a compound word is often very strong. In such
cases we have idiomatic compounds where the meaning of the whole is not
a sum of meanings of its components, e.g. to ghost-write, skinhead, brain-
drain etc. In nonidiomatic compounds semantic unity is not strong, e. g.,
airbus, to bloodtransfuse, astrodynamics etc.
English compounds have the unity of morphological and syntactical
functioning. They are used in a sentence as one part of it and only one
component changes grammatically, e.g. these girls are chatter-boxes.
«Chatter-boxes» is a predicative in the sentence and only the second com-
ponent changes grammatically.
There are two characteristic features of English compounds:
a) Both components in an English compound are free stems that are
they can be used as words with a distinctive meaning of their own. The
sound pattern will be the same except for the stresses, e.g. «a green-house»
and «a green house». Whereas, for example in Russian compounds the
stems are bound morphemes, as a rule.
b) English compounds have a two-stem pattern, with the exception of
compound words which have form-word stems in their structure, e.g. mid-
44
dle-of-the-road, off-the-record, up-and-doing etc. The two-stem pattern

distinguishes English compounds from German ones.
2. Compound words.
Compound words in English can be formed not only by means of
composition but also by means of:
a) reduplication, e.g. too-too, and also by means of reduplication
combined with sound interchange , e.g. rope-ripe,
b) conversion from word-groups, e.g. to Mickey-mouse, can-do,
makeup etc,
c) back formation from compound nouns or word-groups, e.g. to
bloodtransfuse, to fingerprint etc ,
d) analogy, e.g. lie-in ( on the analogy with sit-in) and also phone-in.

1. According to the parts of speech compounds are subdivided into:
a) nouns, such as : baby-moon, globe-trotter,
b) adjectives, such as : free-for-all, power-happy,
c) verbs, such as : to honey-moon, to baby-sit, to henpeck,
d) adverbs, such as: downdeep, headfirst,
e) prepositions, such as: into, within,
f) numerals, such as : fifty-five.
2. According to the way components are joined together compounds
are divided into:
a) neutral, which are formed by joining together two stems without
any joining morpheme, e.g. ball-point, to window-shop,
b) morphological where components are joined by a linking element :
vowels «o» or «i» or the consonant «s», e.g. {«astrospace», «handicraft»,
«sportsman»),
c) syntactical where the components are joined by means of form-
word stems, e.g. here-and-now, free-for-all., do-or-die .
3. According to their structure compounds are subdivided into:
a) compound words proper which consist of two stems, e.g. to job-
hunt, train-sick, go-go, tip-top ,
b) derivational compounds, where besides the stems we have affixes,
e.g. ear-minded, hydro-skimmer,
c) compound words consisting of three or more stems, e.g. corn-
flower-blue, eggshell-thin, singer-songwriter,
45
d) compound-shortened words, e.g. boatel, tourmobile, VJ-day, mo-

tocross, intervision, Eurodollar, Camford.
4. According to the relations between the components compound
words are subdivided into:
a) subordinative compounds where one of the components is the se-
mantic and the structural centre and the second component is subordinate;
these subordinative relations can be different:
With comparative relations, e.g. honey-sweet, eggshell-thin, with
limiting relations, e.g. breast-high, knee-deep, with emphatic relations, e.g.
dog-cheap, with objective relations, e.g. gold-rich, with cause relations,
e.g. love-sick, with space relations, e.g. top-heavy, with time relations, e.g.
spring-fresh, with subjective relations, e.g. foot-sore etc
b) Coordinative compounds where both components are semantically
independent. Here belong such compounds when one person (object) has
two functions, e.g. secretary-stenographer, woman-doctor, Oxbridge etc.
Such compounds are called additive. This group includes also compounds
formed by means of reduplication, e.g. fifty-fifty, no-no, and also com-
pounds formed with the help of rhythmic stems (reduplication combined
with sound interchange) e.g. criss-cross, walkie-talkie.
5. According to the order of the components compounds are divided
into compounds with direct order, e.g. kill-joy, and compounds with indi-
rect order, e.g. nuclear-free, rope-ripe.
Synopsis
Composition is the way of word building when a word is formed by
joining two or more stems to form one word. The structural unity of a
compound word depends upon: a) the unity of stress, b) solid or hyphen-
ated spelling, c) semantic unity, d) unity of morphological and syntactical
functioning. English compounds have the unity of morphological and syn-
tactical functioning. According to different aspects there are different clas-
sifications of compound words in Modern English.
Terms: composition, word-building, stem, structural unity, com-

pound word, stress, spelling, semantic unity, morphological functioning,
syntactical functioning, subordinative compound, coordinative compound,
verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs.
Additional points for self- study:

46
Composition in Russian language
Composition in English language

4. Заботкина В.И. Новая лексика современного английского языка.
М., 1989
1984.Вып. 227.
Lecture 10
Conversion

3. «STONE WALL» COMBINATIONS.

Conversion is a characteristic feature of the English word-building
system. It is also called affixless derivation or zero-suffixation. The term
«conversion» first appeared in the book by Henry Sweet «New English
Grammar» in 1891. Conversion is treated differently by different scien-
tists, e.g. prof. A.I. Smirntitsky treats conversion as a morphological way
of forming words when one part of speech is formed from another part of
speech by changing its paradigm, e.g. to form the verb «to dial» from the
noun «dial» we change the paradigm of the noun (a dial,dials) for the
paradigm of a regular verb (I dial, he dials, dialed, dialing Conversion is
the main way of forming verbs in Modern English. Verbs can be formed
from nouns of different semantic groups and have different meanings be-
cause of that, e.g.
a) verbs have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns
denoting parts of a human body e.g. to eye, to finger, to elbow, to shoulder
etc. They have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns denot-
ing tools, machines, instruments, weapons, e.g. to hammer, to machine-
gun, to rifle, to nail,
47
b) verbs can denote an action characteristic of the living being de-

noted by the noun from which they have been converted, e.g. to crowd, to
wolf, to ape,
c) verbs can denote acquisition, addition or deprivation if they are
formed from nouns denoting an object, e.g. to fish, to dust, to peel, to pa-
per,
d) verbs can denote an action performed at the place denoted by the
noun from which they have been converted, e.g. to park, to garage, to bot-
tle, to corner, to pocket,
e) verbs can denote an action performed at the time denoted by the
noun from which they have been converted e.g. to winter, to week-end .
Verbs can be also converted from adjectives, in such cases they de-
note the change of the state, e.g. to tame (to become or make tame) , to
clean, to slim etc.
Nouns can also be formed by means of conversion from verbs. Con-
verted nouns can denote:
a) instant of an action e.g. a jump, a move,
b) process or state e.g. sleep, walk,
c) agent of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has
been converted, e.g. a help, a flirt, a scold ,
d) object or result of the action expressed by the verb from which the
noun has been converted, e.g. a burn, a find, a purchase,
e) place of the action expressed by the verb from which the noun has
been converted, e.g. a drive, a stop, a walk.
Many nouns converted from verbs can be used only in the Singular
form and denote momentaneous actions. In such cases we have partial
conversion. Such deverbal nouns are often used with such verbs as: to
have, to get, to take etc., e.g. to have a try, to give a push, to take a swim.
Some scientists (Yespersen,) refer substantivization of adjectives to
conversion. But most scientists disagree with them because in cases of
substantivization of adjectives we have quite different changes in the lan-
guage. Substantivization is the result of ellipsis (syntactical shortening)
when a word combination with a semantically strong attribute loses its se-
mantically weak noun (man, person etc), e.g. «a grown-up person» is
shortened to «a grown-up». In cases of perfect substantivization the attrib-
ute takes the paradigm of a countable noun, e.g. a criminal, criminals, a
criminal’s (mistake) , criminals’ (mistakes). Such words are used in a sen-
48
tence in the same function as nouns, e.g. I am fond of musicals. ( Musical

comedies).
There are also two types of partly substantivized adjectives:
those which have only the plural form and have the meaning of col-
lective nouns, such as: sweets, news, empties, finals, greens,
those which have only the singular form and are used with the defi-
nite article. They also have the meaning of collective nouns and denote a
class, a nationality, a group of people, e.g. the rich, the English, the dead.
3. «STONE WALL» combinations.

The problem whether adjectives can be formed by means of conver-
sion from nouns is the subject of many discussions. In Modern English
there are a lot of word combinations of the type, e.g. price rise, wage
freeze, steel helmet, sand castle etc.
If the first component of such units is an adjective converted from a
noun, combinations of this type are free word-groups typical of English
(adjective + noun). This point of view is proved by O. Yespersen by the
following facts:
1. «Stone» denotes some quality of the noun «wall».
2. «Stone» stands before the word it modifies, as adjectives in the
function of an attribute do in English.
3. «Stone» is used in the Singular though its meaning in most cases is
plural, and adjectives in English have no plural form.
4. There are some cases when the first component is used in the
Comparative or the Superlative degree, e.g. the bottomest end of the scale.
5. The first component can have an adverb which characterizes it,
and adjectives are characterized by adverbs, e.g. a purely family gathering.
6. The first component can be used in the same syntactical function
with a proper adjective to characterize the same noun, e.g. lonely bare
stone houses.
7. After the first component the pronoun «one» can be used instead
of a noun, e.g. I shall not put on a silk dress; I shall put on a cotton one.
However Henry Sweet and some other scientists say that these crite-
ria are not characteristic of the majority of such units.
They consider the first component of such units to be a noun in the
function of an attribute because in Modern English almost all parts of
speech and even word-groups and sentences can be used in the function of
an attribute, e.g. the then president (an adverb), out-of-the-way villages (a
word-group), a devil-may-care speed (a sentence).
49
There are different semantic relations between the components of

«stone wall» combinations. E.I. Chapnik classified them into the following
groups:
1. time relations, e.g. evening paper,
2. space relations, e.g. top floor,
3. relations between the object and the material of which it is made,
e.g. steel helmet,
4. cause relations, e.g. war orphan,
5. relations between a part and the whole, e.g. a crew member,
6. relations between the object and an action, e.g. arms production,
7. relations between the agent and an action e.g. government threat,
price rise,
8. relations between the object and its designation, e.g. reception hall,
9. the first component denotes the head, organizer of the character-
ized object, e.g. Clinton government, Forsyte family,
10. the first component denotes the field of activity of the second
component, e.g. language teacher, psychiatry doctor,
11. comparative relations, e.g. moon face,
12. qualitative relations, e.g. winter apples.
Synopsis
Conversion is a characteristic feature of the English word-building
system. It is also called affixless derivation or zero-suffixation. Conversion
is the main way of forming verbs in Modern English. Verbs can be formed
from nouns of different semantic groups and have different meanings be-
cause of that. Nouns can also be formed by means of conversion from
verbs. Substantivization is the result of ellipsis (syntactical shortening)
when a word combination with a semantically strong attribute loses its
semantically weak noun. The problem whether adjectives can be formed by
means of conversion from nouns is the subject of many discussions. In
Modern English there are a lot of word combinations of the type.
Terms: conversion, word-building, derivation, affixless derivation,

verb, zero-suffixation, noun, substantivization, ellipsis, attribute, adjective,
word-combination.
1. Nouns formed by means of conversion and their functions

50
2. Conversion and homonyms

языка. М., 1989
1984.Вып. 227.
Lecture 11
Abbreviation
1. Graphical abbreviation
2. Initial abbreviation
3. Abbreviation of words
In the process of communication words and word-groups can be

shortened. The causes of shortening can be linguistic and extra-linguistic.
By extra-linguistic causes changes in the life of people are meant. In Mod-
ern English many new abbreviations, acronyms, initials, blends are formed
because the tempo of life is increasing and it becomes necessary to give
more and more information in the shortest possible time.
There are also linguistic causes of abbreviating words and word-
groups, such as the demand of rhythm, which is satisfied in English by
monosyllabic words. When borrowings from other languages are assimi-
lated in English they are shortened. Here we have modification of form on
the basis of analogy, e.g. the Latin borrowing «fanaticus» is shortened to
«fan» on the analogy with native words: man, pan, tan etc.
There are two main types of shortenings: graphical and lexical.
1. Graphical abbreviations
Graphical abbreviations are the result of shortening of words and
word-groups only in written speech while orally the corresponding full
forms are used. They are used for the economy of space and effort in writ-
ing.
51
The oldest group of graphical abbreviations in English is of Latin

origin. In Russian this type of abbreviation is not typical. In these abbre-
viations in the spelling Latin words are shortened, while orally the corre-
sponding English equivalents are pronounced in the full form, e.g. for ex-
ample (Latin exampli gratia), a.m. - in the morning (ante meridiem), No -
number (numero), p.a. - a year (per annum), i. e. - that is (id est) etc.
Some graphical abbreviations of Latin origin have different English
equivalents in different contexts, e.g. p.m. can be pronounced «in the af-
ternoon» (post meridiem) and «after death» (post mortem).
There are also graphical abbreviations of native origin, where in the
spelling we have abbreviations of words and word-groups of the corre-
sponding English equivalents in the full form. We have several semantic
groups of them:
a) days of the week, e.g. Mon - Monday, Tue - Tuesday etc
b) names of months, e.g. Apr - April, Aug - August etc.
c) names of counties in UK, e.g. Yorks - Yorkshire, Berks -Berkshire
etc
d) names of states in USA, e.g. Ala - Alabama, Alas - Alaska etc.
e) names of address, e.g. Mr., Mrs., Ms., Dr. etc.
f) military ranks, e.g. capt. -captain, col. - colonel, sgt - sergeant etc.
g) scientific degrees, e.g. B.A. - Bachelor of Arts, D.M. - Doctor of
Medicine . (Sometimes in scientific degrees we have abbreviations of
Latin origin, e.g., M.B. - Medicinae Baccalaurus).
h) units of time, length, weight, e.g. f. / ft -foot/feet, sec. - second, in.
-inch, mg. - milligram etc.
The reading of some graphical abbreviations depends on the context,
e.g. «m» can be read as: male, married, masculine, metre, mile, million,
minute, «l.p.» can be read as long-playing, low pressure.
2. Initial abbreviations
Initialisms are the bordering case between graphical and lexical ab-
breviations. When they appear in the language, as a rule, to denote some
new offices they are closer to graphical abbreviations because orally full
forms are used, e.g. J.V. - joint venture. When they are used for some du-
ration of time they acquire the shortened form of pronouncing and become
closer to lexical abbreviations, e.g. BBC is as a rule pronounced in the
shortened form.
In some cases the translation of initialisms is next to impossible
without using special dictionaries. Initialisms are denoted in different
52
ways. Very often they are expressed in the way they are pronounced in the
language of their origin, e.g. ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand, United
States) is given in Russian as АНЗУС, SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation
Talks) was for a long time used in Russian as СОЛТ, now a translation
variant is used (ОСВ -Договор об ограничении стратегических
вооружений). This type of initialisms borrowed into other languages is
preferable, e.g. UFO - НЛО.
There are three types of initialisms in English:
a) initialisms with alphabetical reading, such as UK, BUP, CND etc
b) initialisms which are read as if they are words, e.g. UNESCO,
UNO, NATO etc.
c) initialisms which coincide with English words in their sound form,
such initialisms are called acronyms, e.g. CLASS (Computer-based Labo-
ratory for Automated School System).
Some scientists unite groups b) and c) into one group which they call
acronyms.
3. Abbreviations of words
Abbreviation of words consists in clipping a part of a word. As a re-
sult we get a new lexical unit where either the lexical meaning or the style
is different form the full form of the word. In such cases as »fantasy» and
«fancy», «fence» and «defence» we have different lexical meanings. In
such cases as «laboratory» and «lab», we have different styles.
Abbreviation does not change the part-of-speech meaning, as we
have it in the case of conversion or affixation, it produces words belonging
to the same part of speech as the primary word, e.g. prof is a noun and pro-
fessor is also a noun. Mostly nouns undergo abbreviation, but we can also
meet abbreviation of verbs, such as to rev from to revolve, to tab from to
tabulate etc. But mostly abbreviated forms of verbs are formed by means
of conversion from abbreviated nouns, e.g. to taxi, to vac etc. Adjectives
can be abbreviated but they are mostly used in school slang and are com-
bined with suffixation, e.g. comfy, dilly, etc. As a rule pronouns, numerals,
interjections. conjunctions are not abbreviated. The exceptions are: fif (fif-
teen), teen-ager, in one’s teens (aphaeresis from numerals from 13 to 19).
Lexical abbreviations are classified according to the part of the word
which is clipped. Mostly the end of the word is clipped, because the be-
ginning of the word in most cases is the root and expresses the lexical
meaning of the word. This type of abbreviation is called apocope. Here we
can mention a group of words ending in «o», such as disco (discotheque),
53
expo (exposition), intro (introduction) and many others. On the analogy

with these words there developed in Modern English a number of words
where «o» is added as a kind of a suffix to the shortened form of the word,
e.g. combo (combination) - небольшой эстрадный ансамбль, Afro (Afri-
can) -прическа под африканца etc. In other cases the beginning of the
word is clipped. In such cases we have aphaeresis , e.g. chute (parachute),
varsity (university), copter (helicopter) etc. Sometimes the middle of the
word is clipped, e.g. mart (market), fanzine (fan magazine) maths (mathe-
matics). Such abbreviations are called syncope. Sometimes we have a
combination of apocope with aphaeresis,when the beginning and the end
of the word are clipped, e.g. tec (detective), van (avanguard) etc.
Sometimes shortening influences the spelling of the word, e.g. «c»
can be substituted by «k» before «e» to preserve pronunciation, e.g. mike
(microphone), Coke (coca-cola) etc. The same rule is observed in the fol-
lowing cases: fax( facsimile), teck (technical college), trank (tranquilizer)
etc. The final consonants in the shortened forms are substituded by letters
characteristic of native English words.
Synopsis
In the process of communication words and word-groups can be

shortened. The causes of shortening can be linguistic and extra-linguistic.
By extra-linguistic causes changes in the life of people are meant. In Mod-
ern English many new abbreviations, acronyms, initials, blends are formed
because the tempo of life is increasing and it becomes necessary to give
more and more information in the shortest possible time. Graphical ab-
breviations are the result of shortening of words and word-groups only in
written speech while orally the corresponding full forms are used. They
are used for the economy of space and effort in writing. Initialisms are the
bordering case between graphical and lexical abbreviations. When they
appear in the language, as a rule, to denote some new offices they are
closer to graphical abbreviations because orally full forms are used.
Terms: communication, shortening, linguistic causes, extra-

linguistic causes, abbreviation, acronym, initial, blend, written speech, oral
speech, graphical abbreviation, initial abbreviation, lexical abbreviation,
spelling.

54
1. Functions of abbreviations
2. Types of abbreviations

1984.Вып. 227.
Lecture 12
Secondary ways of word-building. Sound interchange
1. Stress interchange
2. Sound imitation
3. Back formation
Sound interchange is the way of word-building when some sounds
are changed to form a new word. It is non-productive in Modern English,
it was productive in Old English and can be met in other Indo-European
languages.
The causes of sound interchange can be different. It can be the result
of Ancient Ablaut which cannot be explained by the phonetic laws during
the period of the language development known to scientists. E.g. to strike -
stroke, to sing - song etc. It can be also the result of Ancient Umlaut or
vowel mutation which is the result of palatalizing the root vowel because
of the front vowel in the syllable coming after the root (regressive assimi-
lation), e.g. hot - to heat (hotian), blood - to bleed (blodian) etc.
In many cases we have vowel and consonant interchange. In nouns
we have voiceless consonants and in verbs we have corresponding voiced
consonants because in Old English these consonants in nouns were at the
end of the word and in verbs in the intervocal position, e.g. bath - to bathe,
life - to live, breath - to breathe etc.
1. Stress interchange
Stress interchange can be mostly met in verbs and nouns of Romanic

origin : nouns have the stress on the first syllable and verbs on the last syl-
55
lable, e.g. àccent - to ac`cent. This phenomenon is explained in the fol-

lowing way: French verbs and nouns had different structure when they
were borrowed into English, verbs had one syllable more than the corre-
sponding nouns. When these borrowings were assimilated in English the
stress in them was shifted to the previous syllable (the second from the
end) . Later on the last unstressed syllable in verbs borrowed from French
was dropped (the same as in native verbs) and after that the stress in verbs
was on the last syllable while in nouns it was on the first syllable. As a re-
sult of it we have such pairs in English as : to af`’fix -àffix, to con`flict-
`conflict, to ex`port -èxport, to ex`tract - èxtract etc. As a result of stress
interchange we have also vowel interchange in such words because vowels
are pronounced differently in stressed and unstressed positions.
2. Sound imitation
It is the way of word-building when a word is formed by imitating
different sounds. There are some semantic groups of words formed by
means of sound imitation
a) sounds produced by human beings, such as : to whisper, to giggle,
to mumble, to sneeze, to whistle etc.
b) sounds produced by animals, birds, insects, such as : to hiss, to
buzz, to bark, to moo, to twitter etc.
c) sounds produced by nature and objects, such as : to splash, to rus-
tle, to clatter, to bubble, to ding-dong, to tinkle etc.
The corresponding nouns are formed by means of conversion, e.g.
clang (of a bell), chatter (of children) etc.
3. Back formation
It is the way of word-building when a word is formed by dropping
the final morpheme to form a new word. It is opposite to suffixation that is
why it is called back formation. At first it appeared in the language as a re-
sult of misunderstanding the structure of a borrowed word. Prof. Yartseva
explains this mistake by the influence of the whole system of the language
on separate words. E.g. it is typical of English to form nouns denoting the
agent of the action by adding the suffix -er to a verb stem (speak- speaker).
So when the French word «beggar» was borrowed into English the final
syllable «ar» was pronounced in the same way as the English -er and Eng-
lishmen formed the verb «to beg» by dropping the end of the noun. Other
examples of back formation are : to accreditate (from accreditation), to
56
bach (from bachelor), to collocate (from collocation), to enthuse (from en-

thusiasm), to compute (from computer), to emote (from emotion) to remi-
nisce ( from reminiscence) , to televise (from television) etc.
As we can notice in cases of back formation the part-of-speech

meaning of the primary word is changed, verbs are formed from nouns.
Synopsis
Sound interchange is the way of word-building when some sounds
are changed to form a new word. It is non-productive in Modern English,
it was productive in Old English and can be met in other Indo-European
languages. Stress interchange can be mostly met in verbs and nouns of
Romanic origin : nouns have the stress on the first syllable and verbs on
the last syllable. Sound imitation is the way of word-building when a word
is formed by imitating different sounds. It is the way of word-building
when a word is formed by dropping the final morpheme to form a new
word. It is opposite to suffixation that is why it is called back formation.
Terms: word-building, sound interchange, productive/ non-

productive way of word-building, stress interchange, verb, noun, syllable,
sound, morpheme, suffixation, back formation,
1. Reduplication
Sources for self-study references:

1984.Вып. 227.
Lecture 13
Phraseology
57
1. Ways of forming phraseological units

2. Semantic classification of phraseological units
3. Structural classification of phraseological units
4. Syntactical classification of phraseological units
The vocabulary of a language is enriched not only by words but also
by phraseological units. Phraseological units are word-groups that cannot
be made in the process of speech; they exist in the language as ready-made
units. They are compiled in special dictionaries. The same as words phra-
seological units express a single notion and are used in a sentence as one
part of it. American and British lexicographers call such units «idioms».
We can mention such dictionaries as: L.Smith «Words and Idioms»,
V.Collins «A Book of English Idioms» etc. In these dictionaries we can
find words, peculiar in their semantics (idiomatic), side by side with word-
groups and sentences. In these dictionaries they are arranged, as a rule,
into different semantic groups.
Phraseological units can be classified according to the ways they are
formed, according to the degree of the motivation of their meaning, ac-
cording to their structure and according to their part-of-speech meaning.
1. Ways of forming phraseological units

A.V. Koonin classified phraseological units according to the way
they are formed. He pointed out primary and secondary ways of forming
phraseological units.
Primary ways of forming phraseological units are those when a unit
is formed on the basis of a free word-group:
a) Most productive in Modern English is the formation of phrase-
ological units by means of transferring the meaning of terminological
word-groups, e.g. in cosmic technique we can point out the following
phrases: «launching pad» in its terminological meaning is «стартовая
площадка» , in its transferred meaning - «отправной пункт», «to link up»
- «cтыковаться, стыковать космические корабли» in its tranformed
meaning it means -«знакомиться»;
b) a large group of phraseological units was formed from free word
groups by transforming their meaning, e.g. «granny farm» - «пансионат
для престарелых», «Troyan horse» - «компьюторная программа,
преднамеренно составленная для повреждения компьютера»;
c) phraseological units can be formed by means of alliteration , e.g.
«a sad sack» - «несчастный случай», «culture vulture» - «человек,
интересующийся искусством», «fudge and nudge» - «уклончивость».
58
d) they can be formed by means of expressiveness, especially it is

characteristic for forming interjections, e.g. «My aunt!», « Hear, hear !»
etc
e) they can be formed by means of distorting a word group, e.g.
«odds and ends» was formed from «odd ends»,
f) they can be formed by using archaisms, e.g. «in brown study»
means «in gloomy meditation» where both components preserve their ar-
chaic meanings,
g) they can be formed by using a sentence in a different sphere of
life, e.g. «that cock won’t fight» can be used as a free word-group when it
is used in sports (cock fighting ), it becomes a phraseological unit when it
is used in everyday life, because it is used metaphorically,
h) they can be formed when we use some unreal image, e.g. «to have
butterflies in the stomach» - «испытывать волнение», «to have green fin-
gers» - »преуспевать как садовод-любитель» etc.
i) they can be formed by using expressions of writers or polititions in
everyday life, e.g. «corridors of power» (Snow), «American dream»
(Alby) «locust years» (Churchill) , «the winds of change» (Mc Milan).
Secondary ways of forming phraseological units are those when a
phraseological unit is formed on the basis of another phraseological unit;
they are:
a) conversion, e.g. «to vote with one’s feet» was converted into «vote
with one’s feet»;
b) changing the grammar form, e.g. «Make hay while the sun shines»
is transferred into a verbal phrase - «to make hay while the sun shines»;
c) analogy, e.g. «Curiosity killed the cat» was transferred into «Care
killed the cat»;
d) contrast, e.g. «cold surgery» - «a planned before operation» was
formed by contrasting it with «acute surgery», «thin cat» - «a poor person»
was formed by contrasting it with «fat cat»;
e) shortening of proverbs or sayings e.g. from the proverb «You can’t
make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear» by means of clipping the middle of it
the phraseological unit «to make a sow’s ear» was formed with the mean-
ing «ошибаться».
f) borrowing phraseological units from other languages, either as
translation loans, e.g. « living space» (German), « to take the bull by the
horns» ( Latin) or by means of phonetic borrowings «meche blanche»
(French), «corpse d’elite» (French), «sotto voce» (Italian) etc.
59
Phonetic borrowings among phraseological units refer to the bookish

style and are not used very often.
2. Semantic classification of phraseological units

Phraseological units can be classified according to the degree of mo-
tivation of their meaning. This classification was suggested by acad. V.V.
Vinogradov for Russian phraseological units. He pointed out three types of
phraseological units:
a) fusions where the degree of motivation is very low, we cannot
guess the meaning of the whole from the meanings of its components, they
are highly idiomatic and cannot be translated word for word into other lan-
guages, e.g. on Shank’s mare - (on foot), at sixes and sevens - (in a mess)
etc;
b) unities where the meaning of the whole can be guessed from the
meanings of its components, but it is transferred (metaphorical or meto-
nymical), e.g. to play the first fiddle ( to be a leader in something), old salt
(experienced sailor) etc;
c) collocations where words are combined in their original meaning
but their combinations are different in different languages, e.g. cash and
carry - (self-service shop), in a big way (in great degree) etc.
3. Structural classification of phraseological units
Prof. A.I. Smirnitsky worked out structural classification of phrase-

ological units, comparing them with words. He points out one-top units
which he compares with derived words because derived words have only
one root morpheme. He points out two-top units which he compares with
compound words because in compound words we usually have two root
morphemes.
Among one-top units he points out three structural types;
a) units of the type «to give up» (verb + postposition type), e.g. to art
up, to back up, to drop out, to nose out, to buy into, to sandwich in etc.;
b) units of the type «to be tired» . Some of these units remind the
Passive Voice in their structure but they have different prepositions with
them, while in the Passive Voice we can have only prepositions «by» or
«with», e.g. to be tired of, to be interested in, to be surprised at etc. There
are also units in this type which remind free word-groups of the type «to
be young», e.g. to be akin to, to be aware of etc. The difference between
them is that the adjective «young» can be used as an attribute and as a
60
predicative in a sentence, while the nominal component in such units can

act only as a predicative. In these units the verb is the grammar centre and
the second component is the semantic centre;
c) prepositional- nominal phraseological units. These units are
equivalents of unchangeable words: prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs ,
that is why they have no grammar centre, their semantic centre is the
nominal part, e.g. on the doorstep (quite near), on the nose (exactly), in the
course of, on the stroke of, in time, on the point of etc. In the course of
time such units can become words, e.g. tomorrow, instead etc.
Among two-top units A.I. Smirnitsky points out the following struc-
tural types:
a) attributive-nominal such as: a month of Sundays, grey matter, a
millstone round one’s neck and many others. Units of this type are noun
equivalents and can be partly or perfectly idiomatic. In partly idiomatic
units (phrasisms) sometimes the first component is idiomatic, e.g. high
road, in other cases the second component is idiomatic, e.g. first night. In
many cases both components are idiomatic, e.g. red tape, blind alley, bed
of nail, shot in the arm and many others.
b) verb-nominal phraseological units, e.g. to read between the lines,
to speak BBC, to sweep under the carpet etc. The grammar centre of such
units is the verb, the semantic centre in many cases is the nominal compo-
nent, e.g. to fall in love. In some units the verb is both the grammar and the
semantic centre, e.g. not to know the ropes. These units can be perfectly
idiomatic as well, e.g. to burn one’s boats, to vote with one’s feet, to take
to the cleaners’ etc.
Very close to such units are word-groups of the type to have a
glance, to have a smoke. These units are not idiomatic and are treated in
grammar as a special syntactical combination, a kind of aspect.
c) phraseological repetitions, such as : now or never, part and parcel ,
country and western etc. Such units can be built on antonyms, e.g. ups and
downs , back and forth; often they are formed by means of alliteration, e.g
cakes and ale, as busy as a bee. Components in repetitions are joined by
means of conjunctions. These units are equivalents of adverbs or adjec-
tives and have no grammar centre. They can also be partly or perfectly
idiomatic, e.g. cool as a cucumber (partly), bread and butter (perfectly).
Phraseological units the same as compound words can have more
than two tops (stems in compound words), e.g. to take a back seat, a peg to
hang a thing on, lock, stock and barrel, to be a shadow of one’s own self,
at one’s own sweet will.
61
4. Syntactical classification of phraseological units

Phraseological units can be classified as parts of speech. This classi-
fication was suggested by I.V. Arnold. Here we have the following groups:
a) noun phraseologisms denoting an object, a person, a living being,
e.g. bullet train, latchkey child, redbrick university, Green Berets,
b) verb phraseologisms denoting an action, a state, a feeling, e.g. to
break the log-jam, to get on somebody’s coattails, to be on the beam, to
nose out , to make headlines,
c) adjective phraseologisms denoting a quality, e.g. loose as a goose,
dull as lead ,
d) adverb phraseological units, such as : with a bump, in the soup,
like a dream , like a dog with two tails,
e) preposition phraseological units, e.g. in the course of, on the stroke
of ,
f) interjection phraseological units, e.g. «Catch me!», «Well, I
never!» etc.
In I.V.Arnold’s classification there are also sentence equivalents,
proverbs, sayings and quotations, e.g. «The sky is the limit», «What makes
him tick», » I am easy». Proverbs are usually metaphorical, e.g. «Too
many cooks spoil the broth», while sayings are as a rule non-metaphorical,
e.g. «Where there is a will there is a way».
Synopsis
Phraseological units are word-groups that cannot be made in the
process of speech; they exist in the language as ready-made units. They
are compiled in special dictionaries. The same as words phraseological
units express a single notion and are used in a sentence as one part of it.
American and British lexicographers call such units «idioms». Phrase-
ological units can be classified according to the degree of motivation of
their meaning. This classification was suggested by acad. V.V. Vinogradov
for Russian phraseological units. He pointed out three types of phrase-
ological units: fusions, combinations and unities.
Terms: phraseologism, phraseological unit, speech, ready-made unit,

dictionary, notion, sentence, motivation, meaning, idiom, fusion, combina-
tion, collocation, unity, noun phraseologisms, verb phraseologisms, adjec-
tive phraseologisms, adverb phraseological units, preposition phraseologi-
cal units, interjection phraseological units.
62
Additional points for self- study:
1. Phraseological synonyms
2. Phraseological antonyms

2. Arnold I.V. The English Word. M. 1986.
3. Амосова Н. Н. Основы английской фразеологии Л. 1963.
4. Виноградов В.В. Об основных типах фразеологических еди-
ниц в русском языке.
5. Кунин А.В. Англо-русский фразеологический словарь. М.
1967.
Lecture 14
Borrowings
1. Classification of borrowings according to degree of assimilation

2. Classification of borrowings according to the language they were
borrowed. Romanic borrowings.
Borrowing words from other languages is characteristic of English
throughout its history. More than two thirds of the English vocabulary are
borrowings. Mostly they are words of Romanic origin (Latin, French, Ital-
ian, and Spanish). Borrowed words are different from native ones by their
phonetic structure, by their morphological structure and also by their
grammatical forms. It is also characteristic of borrowings to be non-
motivated semantically.
English history is very rich in different types of contacts with other
countries, that is why it is very rich in borrowings. The Roman invasion,
the adoption of Christianity, Scandinavian and Norman conquests of the
British Isles, the development of British colonialism and trade and cultural
relations served to increase immensely the English vocabulary. The major-
ity of these borrowings are fully assimilated in English in their pronuncia-
tion, grammar, spelling and can be hardly distinguished from native words.
English continues to take in foreign words , but now the quantity of
borrowings is not so abundant as it was before. All the more so, English
now has become a «giving» language, it has become Lingva franca of the
twentieth century.
63
Borrowings can be classified according to different criteria:

a) according to the aspect which is borrowed,
b) according to the degree of assimilation,
c) according to the language from which the word was borrowed.
(In this classification only the main languages from which words
were borrowed into English are described, such as Latin, French, Italian.
Spanish, German and Russian.)
1. Classification of borrowings according to degree of assimila-

tion
The degree of assimilation of borrowings depends on the following

factors: a) from what group of languages the word was borrowed, if the
word belongs to the same group of languages to which the borrowing lan-
guage belongs it is assimilated easier, b) in what way the word is bor-
rowed: orally or in the written form, words borrowed orally are assimilated
quicker, c) how often the borrowing is used in the language, the greater the
frequency of its usage, the quicker it is assimilated, d) how long the word
lives in the language, the longer it lives, the more assimilated it is.
Accordingly borrowings are subdivided into: completely assimilated,
partly assimilated and non-assimilated (barbarisms).
Completely assimilated borrowings are not felt as foreign words in
the language, cf the French word «sport» and the native word «start».
Completely assimilated verbs belong to regular verbs, e.g. correct -
corrected. Completely assimilated nouns form their plural by means of s-
inflexion, e.g. gate- gates. In completely assimilated French words the
stress has been shifted from the last syllable to the last but one.
Semantic assimilation of borrowed words depends on the words ex-
isting in the borrowing language, as a rule, a borrowed word does not
bring all its meanings into the borrowing language, if it is polysemantic,
e.g. the Russian borrowing «sputnik» is used in English only in one of its
meanings.
Partly assimilated borrowings are subdivided into the following
groups: a) borrowings non-assimilated semantically, because they denote
objects and notions peculiar to the country from the language of which
they were borrowed, e.g. sari, sombrero, taiga, kvass etc.
b) borrowings non-assimilated grammatically, e.g. nouns borrowed
from Latin and Greek retain their plural forms (bacillus - bacilli, phe-
nomenon - phenomena, datum -data, genius - genii etc.
64
c) borrowings non-assimilated phonetically. Here belong words with

the initial sounds /v/ and /z/, e.g. voice, zero. In native words these voiced
consonants are used only in the intervocal position as allophones of sounds
/f/ and /s/ (loss - lose, life - live). Some Scandinavian borrowings have
consonants and combinations of consonants which were not palatalized,
e.g. /sk/ in the words: sky, skate, ski etc (in native words we have the pala-
talized sounds denoted by the digraph «sh», e.g. shirt); sounds /k/ and /g/
before front vowels are not palatalized e.g. girl, get, give, kid, kill, kettle.
In native words we have palatalization, e.g. German, child.
Some French borrowings have retained their stress on the last sylla-
ble, e.g. police, cartoon. Some French borrowings retain special combina-
tions of sounds, e.g. /a:3/ in the words : camouflage, bourgeois, some of
them retain the combination of sounds /wa:/ in the words: memoir, boule-
vard.
d) borrowings can be partly assimilated graphically, e.g. in Greak
borrowings «y» can be spelled in the middle of the word (symbol, syno-
nym), «ph» denotes the sound /f/ (phoneme, morpheme), «ch» denotes the
sound /k/(chemistry, chaos),«ps» denotes the sound /s/ (psychology).
Latin borrowings retain their polisyllabic structure, have double con-
sonants, as a rule, the final consonant of the prefix is assimilated with the
initial consonant of the stem, (accompany, affirmative).
French borrowings which came into English after 1650 retain their
spelling, e.g. consonants «p», «t», «s» are not pronounced at the end of the
word (buffet, coup, debris), Specifically French combination of letters
«eau» /ou/ can be found in the borrowings: beau, chateau, troussaeu. Some
of digraphs retain their French pronunciation: ‘ch’ is pronounced as /sh/,
e.g. chic, parachute, ‘qu’ is pronounced as /k/ e.g. bouquet, «ou» is pro-
nounced as /u:/, e.g. rouge; some letters retain their French pronunciation,
e.g. «i» is pronounced as /i:/, e,g, chic, machine; «g» is pronounced as /3/,
e.g. rouge.
Modern German borrowings also have some peculiarities in their
spelling: common nouns are spelled with a capital letter e.g. Autobahn,
Lebensraum; some vowels and digraphs retain their German pronuncia-
tion, e.g. «a» is pronounced as /a:/ (Dictat), «u» is pronounced as /u:/ (Ku-
chen), «au» is pronounced as /au/ (Hausfrau), «ei» is pronounced as /ai/
(Reich); some consonants are also pronounced in the German way, e.g. «s»
before a vowel is pronounced as /z/ (Sitskrieg), «v» is pronounced as /f/
(Volkswagen), «w» is pronounced as /v/, «ch» is pronounced as /h/ (Ku-
chen).
65
Non-assimilated borrowings (barbarisms) are borrowings which are

used by Englishmen rather seldom and are non-assimilated, e.g. addio
(Italian), tete-a-tete (French), dolce vita (Italian), duende (Spanish), an
homme a femme (French), gonzo (Italian) etc.
2. Classification of borrowings according to the language from

which they were borrowed. Romanic borrowings
Latin borrowings.
Among words of Romanic origin borrowed from Latin during the pe-
riod when the British Isles were a part of the Roman Empire, there are
such words as: street, port, wall etc. Many Latin and Greek words came
into English during the Adoption of Christianity in the 6-th century. At this
time the Latin alphabet was borrowed which ousted the Runic alphabet.
These borrowings are usually called classical borrowings. Here belong
Latin words: alter, cross, dean, and Greek words: church, angel, devil.
Latin and Greek borrowings appeared in English during the Middle
English period due to the Great Revival of Learning. These are mostly sci-
entific words because Latin was the language of science at the time. These
words were not used as frequently as the words of the Old English period,
therefore some of them were partly assimilated grammatically, e.g. for-
mula - formulae. Here also belong such words as: memorandum, mini-
mum, maximum, veto etc.
Classical borrowings continue to appear in Modern English as well.
Mostly they are words formed with the help of Latin and Greek mor-
phemes. There are quite a lot of them in medicine (appendicitis, aspirin),
in chemistry (acid, valency, alkali), in technique (engine, antenna, biplane,
airdrome), in politics (socialism, militarism), names of sciences (zoology,
physics). In philology most of terms are of Greek origin (homonym, archa-
ism, lexicography).
French borrowings
The influence of French on the English spelling.
The largest group of borrowings is French borrowings. Most of them
came into English during the Norman Conquest. French influenced not
only the vocabulary of English but also its spelling, because documents
were written by French scribes as the local population was mainly illiter-
ate, and the ruling class was French.
66
There are the following semantic groups of French borrowings:

a) words relating to government : administer, empire, state, govern-
ment;
b) words relating to military affairs: army, war, banner, soldier, bat-
tle;
c) words relating to jury: advocate, petition, inquest, sentence, barris-
ter;
d) words relating to fashion: luxury, coat, collar, lace, pleat, embroi-
dery;
e) words relating to jewellery: topaz, emerald, ruby, pearl ;
f) words relating to food and cooking: lunch, dinner, appetite, to
roast, to stew.
Words were borrowed from French into English after 1650, mainly
through French literature, but they were not as numerous and many of
them are not completely assimilated. There are the following semantic
groups of these borrowings:
a) words relating to literature and music: belle-lettres, conservatorie,
brochure, nuance, pirouette, vaudeville;
b) words relating to military affairs: corps, echelon, fuselage,
manouvre;
c) words relating to buildings and furniture: entresol, chateau, bu-
reau;
d) words relating to food and cooking: ragout, cuisine.
Italian borrowings.
Cultural and trade relations between Italy and England brought many
Italian words into English. The earliest Italian borrowing came into Eng-
lish in the 14-th century, it was the word «bank» /from the Italian «banko»
- «bench»/. Italian money-lenders and money-changers sat in the streets on
benches. When they suffered losses they turned over their benches, it was
called «banco rotta» from which the English word «bankrupt» originated.
In the 17-th century some geological terms were borrowed : volcano, gran-
ite, bronze, lava. At the same time some political terms were borrowed:
manifesto, bulletin.
But mostly Italian is famous by its influence in music and in all Indo-
European languages musical terms were borrowed from Italian : alto, bari-
tone, basso, tenor, falsetto, solo, duet, trio, quartet, quintet, opera, operette,
libretto, piano, violin.
67
Among the 20-th century Italian borrowings we can mention : ga-

zette, incognitto, autostrada, fiasco, fascist, diletante, grotesque, graffitto
etc.
Spanish borrowings.
Spanish borrowings came into English mainly through its American

variant. There are the following semantic groups of them:
a) trade terms: cargo, embargo;
b) names of dances and musical instruments: tango, rumba, habanera,
guitar;
c) names of vegetables and fruit: tomato, potato, tobbaco, cocoa, ba-
nana, ananas, apricot etc.
English belongs to the Germanic group of languages and there are

borrowings from Scandinavian, German and Holland languages, though
their number is much less than borrowings from Romanic languages.
Scandinavian borrowings.
By the end of the Old English period English underwent a strong in-
fluence of Scandinavian due to the Scandinavian conquest of the British
Isles. Scandinavians belonged to the same group of peoples as Englishmen
and their languages had much in common. As the result of this conquest
there are about 700 borrowings from Scandinavian into English.
Scandinavians and Englishmen had the same way of life, their cul-
tural level was the same, they had much in common in their literature
therefore there were many words in these languages which were almost
identical, e.g.
ON OE Modern E
syster sweoster sister
fiscr fisc fish
felagi felawe fellow
However there were also many words in the two languages which
were different, and some of them were borrowed into English , such nouns
as: bull, cake, egg, kid, knife, skirt, window etc, such adjectives as: flat, ill,
happy, low, odd, ugly, wrong, such verbs as : call, die, guess, get, give,
scream and many others.
68
Even some pronouns and connective words were borrowed which

happens very seldom, such as: same, both, till, fro, though, and pronominal
forms with «th»: they, them, their.
Scandinavian influenced the development of phrasal verbs which did
not exist in Old English, at the same time some prefixed verbs came out of
usage, e.g. ofniman, beniman. Phrasal verbs are now highly productive in
English /take off, give in etc/.
German borrowings.
There are some 800 words borrowed from German into English.
Some of them have classical roots, e.g. in some geological terms, such as:
cobalt, bismuth, zink, quarts, gneiss, wolfram. There were also words de-
noting objects used in everyday life which were borrowed from German:
iceberg, lobby, rucksack, Kindergarten etc.
In the period of the Second World War the following words were
borrowed: Volkssturm, Luftwaffe, SS-man, Bundeswehr, gestapo, gas
chamber and many others. After the Second World War the following
words were borrowed: Berufsverbot, Volkswagen etc.
Holland borrowings.
Holland and England have constant interrelations for many centuries
and more than 2000 Holland borrowings were borrowed into English.
Most of them are nautical terms and were mainly borrowed in the 14-th
century, such as: freight, skipper, pump, keel, dock, reef, deck, leak and
many others.
Besides two main groups of borrowings (Romanic and Germanic)

there are also borrowings from a lot of other languages. We shall speak
about Russian borrowings, borrowings from the language which belongs to
Slavoninc languages.
Russian borrowings.
There were constant contacts between England and Russia and they
borrowed words from one language into the other. Among early Russian
borrowings there are mainly words connected with trade relations, such as:
rouble, copeck, pood, sterlet, vodka, sable, and also words relating to na-
ture, such as: taiga, tundra, steppe etc.
69
There is also a large group of Russian borrowings which came into

English through Russian literature of the 19-th century, such as : Narodnik,
moujik, duma, zemstvo., ukase etc, and also words which were formed in
Russian with Latin roots, such as: nihilist, intelligenzia, Decembrist etc.
After the Great October Revolution many new words appeared in
Russian connected with the new political system, new culture, and many
of them were borrowed into English, such as: collectivization. udarnik,
Komsomol etc and also translation loans, such as: shock worker, collective
farm, five-year plan etc.
One more group of Russian borrowings is connected with pere-
stroika, such as: glasnost, nomenklatura, apparatchik etc.
Synopsis
Borrowing words from other languages is characteristic of English
throughout its history. More than two thirds of the English vocabulary is
borrowings. Mostly they are words of Romanic origin (Latin, French, Ital-
ian, and Spanish).
The degree of assimilation of borrowings depends on the following
factors: a) from what group of languages the word was borrowed, if the
word belongs to the same group of languages to which the borrowing lan-
guage belongs it is assimilated easier, b) in what way the word is bor-
rowed: orally or in the written form, words borrowed orally are assimi-
lated quicker, c) how often the borrowing is used in the language, the
greater the frequency of its usage, the quicker it is assimilated, d) how
long the word lives in the language, the longer it lives, the more assimi-
lated it is.
Terms: borrowing, vocabulary, origin, assimilation, group of lan-

guage, spelling, sound.
1. Types of assimilation of borrowings:

a) phonetic
b) semantic
c) syntactic
d) morphological

70

3. Амосова Н.Н. Этимологические основы словарного состава
современного английского языка. М. 1956.
Lecture 15
Do Americans speak English or American?

British and American English are two main variants of English. Be-
sides them there are: Canadian, Australian, Indian, New Zealand and other
variants. They have some peculiarities in pronunciation, grammar and vo-
cabulary, but they are easily used for communication between people liv-
ing in these countries. As far as the American English is concerned, some
scientists H.N. Menken, for example tried to prove that there is a separate
American language. In 1919 H.N. Menken published a book called «The
American Language». But most scientists, American ones including, criti-
cized his point of view because differences between the two variants are
not systematic.
American English begins its history at the beginning of the 17-th
century when first English-speaking settlers began to settle on the Atlantic
coast of the American continent. The language which they brought from
England was the language spoken in England during the reign of Elizabeth
the First.
In the earliest period the task of Englishmen was to find names for
places, animals, plants, customs which they came across on the American
continent. They took some of names from languages spoken by the local
population - Indians, such as :»chipmuck»an American squirrel, «igloo»
Escimo dome-shaped hut, «skunk» a black and white striped animal with a
bushy tail, «squaw» an Indian woman, »wigwam» an American Indian
tent made of skins and bark etc.
Besides Englishmen, settlers from other countries came to America,
and English-speaking settlers mixed with them and borrowed some words
from their languages, e.g. from French the words «bureau»a writing desk,
71
«cache» a hiding place for treasure, provision, «depot’ a store-house,

«pumpkin»a plant bearing large edible fruit. From Spanish such words as:
»adobe» unburnt sun-dried brick, »bonanza» prosperity, «cockroach» a
beetle-like insect, «lasso» a noosed rope for catching cattle were borrowed.
Present-day New York stems from the Dutch colony New Amster-
dam, and Dutch also influenced English. Such words as: «boss», «dope»,
«sleigh» were borrowed.
The second period of American English history begins in the 19-th
century. Immigrants continued to come from Europe to America. When
large groups of immigrants from the same country came to America some
of their words were borrowed into English. Italians brought with them a
style of cooking which became widely spread and such words as: «pizza»,
«spaghetti» came into English. From the great number of German-
speaking settlers the following words were borrowed into English: «delica-
tessen», «lager», «hamburger», «noodle», «schnitzel» and many others.
During the second period of American English history there appeared
quite a number of words and word-groups which were formed in the lan-
guage due to the new political system, liberation of America from the Brit-
ish colonialism, its independence. The following lexical units appeared
due to these events: the United States of America, assembly, caucus, con-
gress, Senate, congressman, President, senator, precinct, Vice-President
and many others. Besides these political terms many other words were
coined in American English in the 19-th century: to antagonize, to demor-
alize, influential, department store, telegram, telephone and many others.
There are some differences between British and American English in
the usage of prepositions, such as prepositions with dates, days of the week
BE requres «on» I start my holiday on Friday, in American English there is
no preposition I start my vacation Friday. In BE we use «by day», «by
night» »at night», in AE the corresponding forms are «days» and «nights».
In BE we say «at home», in AE - «home» is used. In BE we say «a quarter
to five», in AE «a quarter of five». In BE we say «in the street», in AE -
«on the street». In BE we say «to chat to somebody», in AE «to chat with
somebody». In BE we say «different to something», in AE - «different
from something».
There are some differences in names of places:
BE AE BE AE
passage hall cross-roads intersection
72
pillar box mail-box the cinema the movies

studio bed-sitter one-room Apartment
pavement sidewalk underground Subway
tram streetcar flat apartment
doctor’s of-
surgery lift Elevator
fice
Some names of useful objects:
BE AE BE AE
parcel package elastic rubber band
reel of cot- spool of
carrier bag shopping bag
ton thread
Some words connected with food:
BE AE BE AE
tin can sweets candy
sweet bis-
cookie dry biscuit crackers
cuit
sweet dessert chips french fries
minced meat ground beef
Some words denoting personal items:
BE AE BE AE
fringe bangs/of hair/ turn- ups cuffs
tights pantyhose mackintosh raincoat
run/in a stock-
ladder braces suspenders
ing/
poloneck turtleneck waistcoat vest
Some words denoting people:
BE AE BE AE
staff
barrister lawyer faculty
/university/
post-
graduate chap, fellow guy
graduate
73
caretaker janitor constable patrolman

shop assis-
shop person bobby cop
tant
If we speak about cars there are also some differences:
BE AE BE AE
boot trunk bumpers fenders
a car an auto to hire a car to rent a car
Differences in the organization of education lead to different terms.

BE «public school» is in fact a private school. It is a fee-paying school not
controlled by the local education authorities. AE «public school» is a free
local authority school. BE «elementary school» is AE «grade school» BE
«secondary school» is AE «high school». In BE « a pupil leaves a secon-
dary school», in AE «a student graduates from a high school» In BE you
can graduate from a university or college of education, graduating entails
getting a degree.
A British university student takes three years known as the first, the
second and the third years. An American student takes four years, known
as freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years. While studying a British
student takes a main and subsidiary subjects. An American student majors
in a subject and also takes electives. A British student specializes in one
main subject, with one subsidiary to get his honours degree. An American
student earns credits for successfully completing a number of courses in
studies, and has to reach the total of 36 credits to receive a degree.
2. Differences of spelling.
The reform in the English spelling for American English was intro-
duced by the famous American lexicographer Noah Webster who pub-
lished his first dictionary in 1806. Those of his proposals which were
adopted in the English spelling are as follows:
a) the deletion of the letter «u» in words ending in «our», e.g. honor,
favor;
b) the deletion of the second consonant in words with double conso-
nants, e.g. traveller, wagon,
74
c) the replacement of «re» by «er» in words of French origin, e.g.

theater, center,
d) the deletion of unpronounced endings in words of Romanic origin,
e.g.
catalog, program,
e) the replacement of «ce» by «se» in words of Romanic origin, e.g.
defense, offense,
d) deletion of unpronounced endings in native words, e.g. tho, thro.
In American English we have r-coloured fully articulated vowels, in
the combinations: ar, er, ir, or, ur, our etc. In BE before fricatives and
combinations with fricatives «a» is pronounced as /a:/, in AE it is pro-
nounced / / e.g. class, dance, answer, fast etc.
There are some differences in the position of the stress:
BE AE BE AE
add`ress adress la`boratory `laboratory
re`cess `recess re`search `research
in`quiry ìnquiry ex`cess èxcess
But these differences in pronunciation do not prevent Englishmen

and American from communicating with each other easily and cannot
serve as a proof that British and American are different languages.
Words can be classified according to the period of their life in the

language. The number of new words in a language is always larger than
the number of words which come out of active usage. Accordingly we can
have archaisms that are words which have come out of active usage, and
neologisms, that are words which have recently appeared in the language.
Synopsis
British and American English are two main variants of English. Be-
sides them there are: Canadian, Australian, Indian, New Zealand and
other variants. They have some peculiarities in pronunciation, grammar
and vocabulary, but they are easily used for communication between peo-
ple living in these countries.
Some scientists, H.N. Menken, for example tried to prove that there is
a separate American language. In 1919 H.N. Menken published a book
75
called «The American Language». But most scientists, American ones in-
cluding, criticized his point of view because differences between the two
variants are not systematic.
Terms: American English, British English, variants of English lan-

guage, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, borrowing, communication,
systematic difference, dialect.
1. Peculiarities of American vocabulary

2. Distinctive features of American grammar

4. Беляева Т.М., Потапова И.А. Английский язык за пределами
Англии. Л. 1971.
Lecture 16
Lexicography

The theory and practice of compiling dictionaries is called lexicogra-

phy. The history of compiling dictionaries for English comes as far back as
the Old English period, where we can find glosses of religious books inter-
linear translations from Latin into English. Regular bilingual dictionaries
began to appear in the 15-th century Anglo-Latin, Anglo-French , Anglo-
German.
The first unilingual dictionary explaining difficult words appeared in
1604, the author was Robert Cawdry, a schoolmaster. He compiled his dic-
tionary for schoolchildren. In 1721 an English scientist and writer Nathan
Bailey published the first etymological dictionary which explained the ori-
76
gin of English words. It was the first scientific dictionary, it was compiled
for philologists.
In 1775 an English scientist compiled a famous explanatory diction-
ary. Its author was Samuel Johnson. Every word in his dictionary was il-
lustrated by examples from English literature; the meanings of words were
clear from the contexts in which they were used. The dictionary was a
great success and it influenced the development of lexicography in all
countries. The dictionary influenced normalization of the English vocabu-
lary. But at the same time it helped to preserve the English spelling in its
conservative form.
In 1858 one of the members of the English philological society Dr.
Trench raised the question of compiling a dictionary including all the
words existing in the language. The philological society adopted the deci-
sion to compile the dictionary and the work started. More than a thousand
people took part in collecting examples, and 26 years later in 1884 the first
volume was published. It contained words beginning with «A» and «B».
The last volume was published in 1928 that is 70 years after the decision to
compile it was adopted. The dictionary was called NED and contained 12
volumes.
In 1933 the dictionary was republished under the title «The Oxford
English Dictionary», because the work on the dictionary was conducted in
Oxford. This dictionary contained 13 volumes. As the dictionary was very
large and terribly expensive scientists continued their work and compiled
shorter editions of the dictionary: «A Shorter Oxford Dictionary» consist-
ing of two volumes. It had the same number of entries, but far less exam-
ples from literature. They also compiled «A Concise Oxford Dictionary»
consisting of one volume and including only modern words and no exam-
ples from literature.
The American lexicography began to develop much later, at the end
of the 18-th century. The most famous American English dictionary was
compiled by Noah Webster. He was an active statesman and public man
and he published his first dictionary in 1806. He went on with his work on
the dictionary and in 1828 he published a two-volume dictionary. He tried
to simplify the English spelling and transcription. He introduced the al-
phabetical system of transcription where he used letters and combinations
of letters instead of transcription signs. He denoted vowels in closed sylla-
bles by the corresponding vowels, e.g. / a/, /e/, / i/, / o/, /u/. He denoted
vowels in the open syllable by the same letters, but with a dash above
them, e.g. / a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/. He denoted vowels in the position before /r/
77
as the same letters with two dots above them, e.g. / a/, /o/ and by the l etter
«e» with two dots above it for the combinations «er», «ir», «ur» because
they are pronounced identically. The same tendency is preserved for other
sounds: /u:/ is denoted by /oo/, /y/ is used for the sound /j/ etc.
All dictionaries are divided into linguistic and encyclopaedic diction-
aries. Encyclopaedic dictionaries describe different objects, phenomena,
people and give some data about them. Linguistic dictionaries describe vo-
cabulary units, their semantic structure, their origin, their usage. Words are
usually given in the alphabetical order.
Linguistic dictionaries are divided into general and specialized . To
general dictionaries two most widely used dictionaries belong: explanatory
and translation dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include dictionaries of
synonyms, antonyms, collocations, word-frequency, neologisms, slang,
pronouncing, etymological, phrase logical and others.
All types of dictionaries can be unilingual (excepting translation
ones) if the explanation is given in the same language, bilingual if the ex-
planation is given in another language and also they can be polylingual.
There are a lot of explanatory dictionaries (NED, SOD, COD, NID,
N.G. Wyld’s «Universal Dictionary» and others). In explanatory dictionar-
ies the entry consists of the spelling, transcription, grammatical forms,
meanings, examples, phraseology. Pronunciation is given either by means
of the International Transcription System or in British Phonetic Notation
which is different in each large dictionary, e.g. /o:/ can be indicated as /
aw/, /or/, /oh/, /o/, etc.
Translation dictionaries give words and their equivalents in the other
language. There are English-Russian dictionaries by I.R. Galperin, by
Y.Apresyan and others. Among general dictionaries we can also mention
Learner’s dictionaries. They began to appear in the second half of the 20-
th century. The most famous is «The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary» by
A.S. Hornby. It is a unilingual dictionary based on COD, for advanced for-
eign learners and language teachers. It gives data about grammatical and
lexical valency of words. Specialized dictionaries of synonyms are also
widely used; one of them is «A Dictionary of English Synonyms and Syn-
onymous Expressions» by R.Soule. Another famous one is «Webster’s
Dictionary of Synonyms». These are unilingual dictionaries. The best
known bilingual dictionary of synonyms is «English Synonyms» compiled
by Y. Apresyan.
78
In 1981 «The Longman Lexicon of Contemporary English» was

compiled, where words are given in 14 semantic groups of everyday na-
ture. Each word is defined in detail, its usage is explained and illustrated,
synonyms, and antonyms are presented also. It describes 15000 items, and
can be referred to dictionaries of synonyms and to explanatory dictionar-
ies.
Phraseological dictionaries describe idioms and colloquial phrases,
proverbs. Some of them have examples from literature. Some lexicogra-
phers include not only word-groups but also anomalies among words. In
«The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs» each proverb is illustrated
by a lot of examples, there are stylistic references as well. The dictionary
by Vizetelli gives definitions and illustrations, but different meanings of
polysemantic units are not given. The most famous bilingual dictionary of
phraseology was compiled by A.V. Koonin. It is one of the best phrase-
ological dictionaries.
Etymological dictionaries trace present-day words to the oldest forms
of these words and forms of these words in other languages. One of the
best etymological dictionaries was compiled by W. Skeat.
Pronouncing dictionaries record only pronunciation. The most fa-
mous is D. Jones’s «Pronouncing Dictionary».
Dictionaries of neologisms are: a four-volume «Supplement to NED»
by Burchfield, «The Longman Register of New Words»/1990/, «Bloom-
sury Dictionary of New Words» /1996/.
Synopsis
The theory and practice of compiling dictionaries is called lexicog-
raphy.
All dictionaries are divided into linguistic and encyclopaedic dic-
tionaries. Encyclopaedic dictionaries describe different objects, phenom-
ena, people and give some data about them. Linguistic dictionaries de-
scribe vocabulary units, their semantic structure, their origin, their usage.
Words are usually given in the alphabetical order.
Linguistic dictionaries are divided into general and specialized. To
general dictionaries two most widely used dictionaries belong: explana-
tory and translation dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include diction-
aries of synonyms, antonyms, collocations, word-frequency, neologisms,
slang, pronouncing, etymological, phrase logical and others.
79
Terms: dictionary, encyclopedia, vocabulary, vocabulary unit, lin-

guistic dictionary, explanatory/ translation dictionaries, synonyms, anto-
nyms, collocations, word-frequency, neologisms, slang, pronouncing,
etymological, phraseological dictionaries.
Additional points for self-study
1. Principles of classification of dictionaries

3. Виноградов В. В. Лексикология и лексикография. Избранные
труды. М.
1977.
4. Hornby. The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English.
Lnd. 1974.
5. Longman Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs. M. 1986.
6. Webster’s New World Dictionary of American English. N.Y.
1978.
8. Задания для текущего контроля усвоения материала

8.1. Тесты
Входное тестирование (выявление фоновых знаний)
Выберите правильный вариант ответа.
1. Языкознание- это:
а) наука о языке, его происхождении, его свойствах
б) наука, изучающая словарный состав языка
80
с) наука, изучающая культуру других народов

2. Филология – это:
а) наука, изучающая культуру другого народа, выраженную в языке и
литературном творчестве
б) наука о жизнедеятельности целостного организма
с) наука, изучающая культуру других народов по вещественным па-
мятникам
3.Раздел языкознания, занимающийся изучением диалектов, наречий
и говоров какого-либо другого языка - это:
а) Этнография
б) Этимология
с) герменевтика
д) диалектология
4. Синонимы – это слова:
а) одинаковые по значению
б) разные по значению
с) одинаковые по звучанию
5. Язык – это:
а) средство общения
б) средство передвижения
с) средство связи
6. Лексикология – это наука:
а) изучающая слово и словарный состав языка
б) изучающая происхождение и историю отдельных слов и морфем
с) изучающая тексты, их построение и толкование
7. Минимальной единицей языка является:
81
а) фонема
б) слово
с) морфема
д) предложение
8. Раздел языкознания, изучающий звуковую сторону языка называ-
ется:
а) фонология
б) фонетика
с) морфология
д) фонематика
9. Наука о слове – это:
а) грамматика
б) лексикология
с) языкознание
д) лексикография
10. что такое «билингвизм»
а) способность человека использовать два языка
б) способность человека использовать два языка
с) способность человека использовать много языков
11. Раздел языкознания, описывающий процессы порождения речи,
способы соединения слов в словосочетания и предложения – это:
а) синтаксис
б) морфология
с) словообразование
12. «полисемия» - это:
а) Наличие у одного и того же слова нескольких значений
82
б) Наличие у одного и того же слова одного значения

13. Разновидность общенародного языка, употребляемая ограничен-
ным числом людей, связанных общностью территориальной и соци-
альной - это:
а) говор
б) Диалект
с) идиолект
д) литературный язык
Промежуточное тестирование
I. Выберите правильный вариант ответа.
1. The term “Lexicology” is of:
a) Greek origin
b) Latin origin
c) Russian origin
2. Unit of speech which serves the purposes of human communication is:
a) word combination
b) word
c) sentence
3. Informal words are divided into:
a) colloquial, slang, dialect words
b) neologisms, archaic words.
4. The branch of lexicology which deals with the meaning of word is
called:
a) semaseology
b) phraseology
c) lexicography
83
5. “Notion” is a unit of:

a) speech
b) language
c) thinking
6. Words identical in sounds, but different in their meaning are called:
a) homonyms
b) synonyms
c) neologisms
7. Professor Smirnitsky classified homonyms into:
a) Full homonyms, partial homonyms
b) Homonyms proper, homophones, homographs
8. A word which has more than one meaning is called:
a) Monosemantic
b) Polysemantic
II. Ответьте на вопросы
1.What are the structural aspects of the word?
2.What are the main problems of lexicology?
3.What are the main differences between studying words syntagmati-
cally and
paradigmatically?
4.In what situations are informal words used?
5.What is the difference between colloquialisms and slang? What are
their common features? Illustrate your answer with examples.
6.What are the main features of dialect words?
7.Are learned words used only in books? Which type of learned
words, do you think, is especially suitable for verbal communication?
84
Which is least suitable and even undesirable?

8.What are the principal characteristics of archaic words?
9.When and under what circumstances did England become a bi-
lingual country? What imprint features were left in English vocabulary by
this period?
10. What are the characteristic features of Scandinavian borrowings?
11. What suffixes and prefixes can help you to recognize words of
Latin and French origin?
12. What are the main ways of enriching the English vocabulary?
13. What do we mean by derivation?
14. What is understood by composition? What do we call words
made by this type of word-building?
15.What is understood by "semantics"? Explain the term "polysemy".
16.What causes the development of new meanings? Give examples.
17.What is the basis of development or change of meaning? Explain
what we mean by the term transference.
18.Which words do we call homonyms?
19.What is the traditional classification of homonyms? Illustrate your
answer with examples.
20.In what respect does split polysemy stand apart from other
sources of homonyms?
21.The meanings of two apparent synonyms may be in a way op-
posed to each other. Why are such words still regarded as synonyms? Give
examples.
22.How synonyms are traditionally defined? On what criterion is this
definition based? Which aspects of this definition are open to criticism?
85
23.Which word in a synonymic group is considered to be the domi-

nant synonym? What are its characteristic features?
24.Which words do we usually classify as antonyms? Give your own
examples of such words.
25.Which words are called euphemisms? What are their two main
types? What function do they perform in speech? What is the effect of
overusing euphemisms in speech?
8.2. Упражнения для практических занятий
Functional stylistics.
I. The italicized words and word-groups in the following extracts are

informal. Write them out in two columns and explain in each case why
you consider the word slang/colloquial. Look up any words you do not
know in your dictionary.
1.T h e Flower Girl.... Now you are talking! I thought you'd come off
it when you saw a chance of getting back a bit of what you chucked at me
last night.1 (Confidentially.) You'd had a drop in, hadn't you?
2.L i z a. What call would a woman with that strength in her have to
die of influenza? What become of her new straw hat that should have
come to me? Somebody pinched it; and what I say is, them as pinched it
done her in.
Mrs. Eynsfordhill. What does doing her in mean?
H i g g i n s (hastily). Oh, that’s the new small talk. To do a person in
means to kill them.
3. Higgins. I've picked up a girl. Mrs. Higgins. Does that mean that
some girl has picked you up?
86
Higgins. Not at all. I don't mean a love affair. Mrs. Higgins. What a
pity!
(From Pygmalion by B. Shaw)
II. a. Read the following extract.
A young man, Freddie by name, had invited a pretty young girl April
to a riverside picnic. April could not come and sent her little sister to keep
Freddie company.
It was naturally with something of a pang that Fred die tied the boat
up at their destination. ... The only living thing for miles around appeared
to be an elderly horse which was taking a snack on the river-bank. In other
words, if only April had been there and the kid hadn't, they would have
been alone together with no human eye to intrude upon their sacred soli-
tude. They could have read Tennyson to each other till they were blue in
the face, and not a squawk from a soul.
b. Write out the informal words and word-groups which occur in the
above passage and explain why you think the author uses so many of them.
III. Read the following jokes. Write out the informal words and word-
groups and say whether they are colloquial, slang or dialect.
1, A Yankee passenger in an English train was be guiling his fellow

passengers with tall stories1 and re marked: "We can start with a twenty-
story apartment house this month, and have if finished by next."
This was too much for the burly Yorkshireman, who sat next to him.
"Man, that's nowt", he said. "I've seen 'em in Yorkshire when I've been go-
87
ing to work just laying the foundation stone and when I've been coming
home at neet they've been putting the folk out for back rent."
2. A driver and his family had gathered bluebells, primrose roots,
budding twigs and so on from a country lane. Just before they piled into
the car to move off Father approached a farmer who was standing nearby
and asked: "Can we take this road to Sheffield?" The farmer eyed the car
and its contents sourly, then: "Aye, you mun as well, you've takken nigh
everything else around here."
IV. Make up a list of literary learned words selected from the follow-
ing.
1. Absent, he was still inescapably with her, like a guilty conscience.

Her solitudes were endless meditations on the theme of him. Sometimes
the longing for his tangible presence was too achingly painful to be borne.
Disobeying all his injunctions, breaking all her promises, she would drive
off in search of him. Once, at about midnight, Tonino was called down
from his room at the hotel by a message that a lady wanted to speak to
him. He found her sitting in the car. "But I couldn't help it, I simply could-
n't help it," she cried, to excuse herself and to mollify his anger. Tonino re-
fused to be propitiated. Coming like this in the middle of the night! It was
madness, it was scandalous!..
(From Brief Candles by A. Huxley)
2. To one who has been long in city pent, 'Tis very sweet to look into
the fair And open face of heaven, — to breathe a prayer Full in the smile
of the blue firmament. Who is more happy, when, with heart's content, Fa-
88
tigued he sinks into some pleasant lair of wavy grass, and reads a debonair
And gentle tale of love and languishment?
(J. Keats)
V. Read the following jokes. Look up the italicized words in the dic-
tionary (unless you know their meanings) and prove that they are pro-
fessional terms. State to which sphere of human activity they belong.
On what is the humour based in each of the jokes?
1. A sailor was called into the witness-box to give evidence.
"Well, sir," said the lawyer, "do you know the plain tiff and defen-
dant?"
"I don't know the drift of them words," answered the sailor.
"What! Not know the meaning of "plaintiff" and "defendant?" con-
tinued the lawyer. "A pretty fellow you to come here as a witness! Can you
tell me where on board the ship the man struck the other?"
"Abaft the binnacle," said the sailor.
"Abaft the binnacle?" said the lawyer. "What do you mean by that?"
"A pretty fellow you," responded the sailor, "to come here as a law-
yer, and don't know what "abaft the binnacle" means!"
2. "Where did the car hit him?" asked the coroner. "At the junction of
the dorsal and cervical verte brae," replied the medical witness.
The burly foreman rose from his seat.
"Man and boy, I've lived in these parts for fifty years," he protested
ponderously, "and I have never heard of the place."
3. The doctor's new secretary, a conscientious girl, was puzzled by an
entry in the doctor's notes on an emergency case: "Shot in the lumbar re-
89
gion," it read. After a moment she brightened and, in the interest of clarity,
typed into the record: "Shot in the woods".
English borrowings
I. Subdivide all the following words of native origin into: a) Indo-

European, b) Germanic, c) English proper.
Daughter, woman, room, land, cow, moon, sea, red, spring, three, I,
lady, always, goose, bear, fox, lord, tree, nose, birch, grey, old, glad, daisy,
heart, hand, night, to eat, to see, to make.
II. Read the following jokes. Explain the etymology of the italicized
words. If necessary consult a dictionary.
1. He dropped around to the girl's house and as he ran up the steps he

was confronted by her little brother.
"Hi, Billy."
"Hi," said the brat.
"Is your sister expecting me?"
"Yeah."
"How do you know that?"
"She's gone out."
2. A man was at a theatre. He was sitting behind two women whose
continuous chatter became more than he could bear. Leaning forward, he
tapped one of them on the shoulder.
90
"Pardon me, madam," he said, "but I can't hear." "You are not sup-
posed to — this is a private conversation," she hit back.
3. Sonny: Father, what do they make asphalt roads of?
Father: That makes a thousand question you've asked today. Do give
me a little peace. What do you think would happen if I had asked my father
so many questions?
Sonny: You might have learnt how to answer some of mine.
III. Identify the period of the following Latin borrowings; point out
the structural and semantic peculiarities of the words from each pe-
riod.
Wall, cheese, intelligent, candle, major, moderate, priest, school,

street, cherry, music, phenomenon, nun, kitchen, plum, pear, pepper, da-
tum, cup, status, wine, philosophy, method.
IV. Explain the etymology of the following words.
Sputnik, kindergarten, opera, piano, potato, tomato, droshky, czar,

violin, coffee, cocoa, colonel, alarm, cargo, blitzkrieg, steppe, komsomol,
banana, balalaika.
V. Explain the etymology of the following words. Write them out in

three columns: a) fully assimilated words; b) partially assimilated
words; c) unassimilated words. Explain the reasons for your choice in
each case.
Pen, hors d'oeuvre, ballet, beet, butter, skin, take, cup, police, dis-
tance, monk, garage, phenomenon, wine, large, justice, lesson, criterion,
91
nice, coup d'etat, sequence, gay, port, river, loose, autumn, low, uncle, law,
convenient, lunar, experiment, skirt, bishop, regime, eau-de-Cologne.
VI. Explain the etymology of the italicized words; identify the stage of
assimilation.
1. Obviously, chere madame, the thief would take care to recover the
money before he returned the dog.
2. Heyward went to the kitchen for a glass of milk.
3. It was a commercial coup d'etat which sent Suprana tional (bank)
shares soaring on the New York and Lodon marketsIV. State the origin of
the following etymological doublets. Compare their meanings and explain
why they are called "etymological doublets".
1.captain— chief tan, canal— channel, cart — chart.
2.shirt — skirt, shriek — screech, shrew — screw.
3.gaol — jail, corpse — corps, travel — travail.
4.shadow — shade, off — of, dike — ditch.
VII. In the following sentences find one of a pair of etymological dou-

blets and name the missing member of the pair.
1.1 led Mars (a dog) into the shadow of the building and looked
around me. 2. "Unreliable", he said, "those fancy locks. Always getting
jammed, aren't they?" 3. The children hung on to her skirts and asked to
play with them. 4. Nurse Lawson had been sent to the hostel to clean
aprons for all of us. 5. When the four o'clock race at Nottingham was won
by Hal Adair, cool channels of sweat ran down my back and sides. 6. The
lunch was late because Steven had had an extra big clinic at his London
92
hospital. 7. He was attached to the ward which specialized in head injuries

and was called 'Corelli'. 8. A story was sometimes told about a tear-down
crew which, as a practical joke, worked in spare time to disassemble a car,
belonging to one of their members. 9. Why, isn't he in jail? 10. Canvas
sacks containing cash were being delivered from an armored truck outside,
the money accompanied by two armed guards.
VIII. Classify the following borrowings according to the sphere of

human activity they represent. What type of borrowings are these?
Television, progress, football, grapefruit, drama, philosophy, rugby,

sputnik, tragedy, coca-cola, biology, medicine, atom, primadonna, ballet,
cricket, hockey, chocolate, communism, democracy.
IX. What is the difference between the words in the following pairs?
Analyze the examples and prove that etymological and stylistic char-
acteristics of words are closely inter related.
Motherly — maternal, fatherly — paternal, childish — infantile,

daughterly — filial, womanly — feminine, brotherly — fraternal, to begin
— to commence, to wish — to desire, to love — to adore, to build — to
construct, to go on — to proceed, to take part in — to participate.
Word - building
I. The italicized words in the following jokes and extracts are formed
by derivation. Write them out in two columns:
A. Those formed with the help of productive affixes.

93
B. Those formed with the help of non-productive affixes. Explain the

etymology of each borrowed affix.
1. Willie was invited to a party, where refreshments were bountifully
served.
"Won't you have something more, Willie?" the hostess said.
"No, thank you," replied Willie, with an expression of great satisfac-
tion. "I'm full."
"Well, then," smiled the hostess, "put some delicious fruit and cakes
in your pocket to eat on the way home."
"No, thank you," came the rather startling response of Willie,
"they're full too."
2. The scene was a tiny wayside railway platform and the sun was
going down behind the distant hills. It was a glorious sight. An intending
passenger was chat ting with one of the porters.
"Fine sight, the sun tipping the hills with gold," said the poetic pas-
senger.
"Yes," reported the porter; "and to think that there was a time when I
was often as lucky as them 'ills."
3.A lady who was a very uncertain driver stopped her car at traffic
signals which were against her. As the green flashed on, her engine stalled,
and when she restarted it the colour was again red. This flurried her so
much that when green returned she again stalled her engine and the cars
behind began to hoot. While she was waiting for the green the third time
the constable on duty stepped across and with a smile said: "Those are the
only colours, showing today, ma'am."
4."You have an admirable cook, yet you are always growling about
94
her to your friends."

"Do you suppose I want her lured away?"
5.Patient: Do you extract teeth painlessly^ Dentist: Not always — the
other day I nearly dislocated my wrist.
II. Explain the etymology and productivity of the affixes given below.
Say what parts of speech can be formed with their help.
-ness, -ous, -ly, -y, -dom, -ish, -tion, -ed, -en, -ess, -or, -er, -hood, -
less, -ate, -ing, -al, -ful, un-, re-, im (in)-, dis-, over-, ab-
III. Write out from the book you are reading all the words with the
adjective-forming suffix -ly and not less than 20 words with the ho-
monymous adverb-forming suffix. Say what these suffixes have in
common and in what way they are differentiated.
IV. Deduce the meanings of the following derivatives from the mean-
ings of their constituents. Explain your deduction. What are the mean-
ings of the affixes in the words under examination?
Reddish, adj.; overwrite, v.; irregular, adj.; illegal, adj.; retype, v.;
old-womanish, adj.; disrespectable, adj.; inexpensive, adj.; unladylike,
adj.; disorganize, v.; renew, v.; eatable, adj.; overdress, v.; disinfection, п.;
snobbish, adj.; handful, n.; tallish, adj.; sandy, adj.; breakable, adj.; under-
fed, adj.
V. In the following examples the italicized words are formed from the
same root by means of different affixes. Translate these derivatives
into Russian and explain the difference in meaning.
95
l. a)Sallie is the most amusing person in the world — and Julia Pen-
dleton the least so. b) Ann was wary, but amused. 2. a) He had a charming
smile, al most womanish in sweetness, b) I have kept up with you through
Miss Pittypat but she gave me no information that you had developed
womanly sweetness. 3. a) I have been having a delightful and entertaining
conversation with my old chum, Lord Wisbeach. b) Thanks for your invi-
tation. I'd be delighted to come. 4. a) Sally thinks everything is funny —
even flunking — and Julia is bored at everything. She never makes the
slightest effort to be pleasant, b) — Why are you going to America? — To
make my fortune, I hope. — How pleased your father will be if you do. 5.
a) Long before he reached the brownstone house... the first fine care less
rapture of his mad outbreak had passed from Jerry Mitchell, leaving nerv-
ous apprehension in its place, b) If your nephew has really succeeded in
his experiments you should be awfully careful.
VI. Explain the difference between the meanings of the following

words produced from the same root by means of different affixes.
Translate the words into Russian.
Watery — waterish, embarrassed — embarrassing, manly — man-

nish, colourful — coloured, distressed — distressing, respected — respect-
ful — respectable, exhaustive — exhausting — exhausted, bored — bor-
ing, touchy — touched — touching.
VII. Find cases of conversion in the following sentences.
1. The clerk was eyeing him expectantly. 2. Under the cover of that
protective din he was able to toy with a steaming dish which his waiter had
96
brought. 3. An aggressive man battled his way to Stout's side. 4. Just a few
yards from the front door of the bar there was an elderly woman comforta-
bly seated on a chair, holding a hose linked to a tap and watering the
pavement. 5. What are you doing here? — I'm tidying your room. 6. My
seat was in the middle of a row. I could not leave without inconveniencing
a great many people, so I remained. 7. How on earth do you remember to
milk the cows and give pigs their dinner? 8. In a few minutes Papa stalked
off, correctly booted and well mufflered. 9. "Then it's practically impossi-
ble to steal any diamonds?" asked Mrs. Blair with as keen an air of disap-
pointment as though she had been journeying there for the express pur-
pose. 10. Ten minutes later I was speeding along in the direction of Cape
Town.
VIII. Which of the two words in the following pairs is made by con-
version? Deduce the meanings and use them in constructing sentences
of your own.
star, n. — to star, v. age, n. — to age, v.

picture, n. — to picture, v. touch, n. — to touch, v.
colour, n. — to colour, v. make, n. — to make, v.
blush, п. — to blush, v. finger, n. — to finger, v.
key, n. — to key, u. empty, adj. — to empty, v.
fool, n. — to fool, v. poor, adj. — the poor, n. breakfast, n. — to
breakfast, v. pale, adj. — to pale, v.
house, n. — to house, v. dry, adj. — to dry, v.
monkey, n. — to monkey, v. nurse, n. — to nurse, v.
fork, n. — to fork, v. dress, n. — to dress, v.
97
slice, n. — to slice, v. floor, n. — to floor, v.
IX. Read the following joke, explain the type of word- building in the
italicized words and say everything you can about the way they were
made.
A successful old lawyer tells the following story about the beginning
of his professional life:
"I had just installed myself in my office, had put in a phone, when,
through the glass of my door I saw a shadow. It was doubtless my first cli-
ent to see me. Picture me, then, grabbing the nice, shiny receiver of my
new phone and plunging into an imaginary conversation. It ran something
like this:
'Yes, Mr. S!' I was saying as the stranger entered the office. 'I'll at-
tend to that corporation matter for you. Mr. J. had me on the phone this
morning and wanted me to settle a damage suit, but I had to put him off, as
I was too busy with other cases. But I'll manage to sand which your case in
between the others somehow. Yes. Yes. All right. Goodbye.'
Being sure, then, that I had duly impressed my prospective client, I
hung up the receiver and turned to him.
'Excuse me, sir,' the man said, 'but I'm from the telephone company.
I've come to connect your instrument.'"
Composition
I. Find compounds in the following jokes and extracts and write them
out in three columns: A. Neutral compounds. B. Morphological com-
pounds. C. Syntactic compounds.
98
1. Pat and Jack were in London for the first time. During a tour of the
shops in the West End they came to an expensive-looking barber's. "Ra-
zors!" exclaimed Pat. "You want one, don't you? There's a beauty there for
twenty-five bob,1 and there's another for thirty bob. Which would you
sooner have?" "A beard," said Jack, walking off.
2. The children were in the midst of a free-for-all.2 "Richard, who
started this?" asked the father as he came into the room. "Well, it all
started when David hit me back."
3. That night, as they cold-suppered together, Barmy cleared his
throat and looked across at Pongo with a sad sweet smile. "I mean to say,
it's no good worrying and trying to look ahead and plan and scheme and
weigh your every action, because you never can tell when doing such-and-
such won't make so-and-so happen — while, on the other hand, if you do
so-and-so it may just as easily lead to such-and-such."
4. When Conan Doyle arrived in Boston, he was at once recognized
by the cabman whose cab he engaged. When he was about to pay his fare,
the cabman said:
"If you please, sir, I should prefer a ticket to your lecture."
Conan Doyle laughed. "Tell me," he said, "how you knew who I was
and I'll give you tickets for your whole family."
"Thank you, sir," was the answer. "On the side of your traveling-bag
is your name."
5. An old tramp sailed up to the back door of a little English tavern
called The George and Dragon and beckoned to the landlady.
"I've had nothing to eat for three days," he said. "Would you spare an
old man a bite of dinner?"
99
"I should say not, you good-for-nothing loafer," said the landlady and
slammed the door in his face.
The tramp's face reappeared at the kitchen window. "I was just won-
derin'," he said, "if I could 'ave a word or two with George."
II. Identify the neutral compounds in the word combinations given be-
low and write them out in 3 columns: A. Simple neutral compounds.
B. Neutral derived com pounds. С Neutral contracted compounds.
An air-conditioned hall; a glass-walled room; to fight against H-

bomb; a loud revolver-shot; a high-pitched voice; a heavy topcoat; a car's
windshield; a snow-white handkerchief; big A. A. guns; a radio-equipped
car; thousands of gold-seekers; a big hunting-knife; a lightish-coloured
man; to howl long and wolf-like; to go into frantic U-turns;1 to fix M-
Day2.
III. Arrange the italicized compounds in the following ex tracts into

two groups: A. Idiomatic compounds. B. Non-idiomatic compounds.
Define the structural type of the compounds under study.
1. The mammal1 husband originates from a man in love. Love is only

a temporary transient state, which is lost altogether when the man in love
turns into a husband. All this is very much the same as the spring love-
singing with blackbirds. In the morning, scarcely out of bed, the husband
is surprised at being served very hot tea. This proves that his knowledge of
the elementary laws of physics is very poor, for he is obviously unaware of
the fact that water boils at 100 °C, irrespective of one's being or not being,
in a hurry to get to work. Then he shows his annoyance if he has not got a
100
fresh hand kerchief. At such moments he is venomous, and it is better to

keep out of his way. 2. We've some plain, blunt things to say and we ex-
pect the same kind of answers, not a lot of double-talk. 3. Picture the din-
ing-room of the John Grier Home with its oil-cloth-covered tables, and
wooden-handed knives and forks. 4. Being a matchmaker is one thing. A
match-breaker is something other. 5. She could imagine the polite, disin-
terested tone, the closed-down, non-giving thin expression on the thin,
handsome lady-killer face, still tan with the mountain sun.
IV. Arrange the compounds given below into two groups: A. Idio-
matic. B. Non-idiomatic. Say whether the semantic change within
idiomatic compounds is partial or total. Consult the dictionary if nec-
essary.
Light-hearted, adj.; butterfly, п.; homebody, п.; cabman, п.; me-

dium-sized, adj.; blackberry, п.; blue bell, п.; good-for-nothing, adj.;
wolf-dog, n.; highway, n.; dragon-fly, n.; looking-glass, п.; greengrocer,
n.; bluestocking, n.; gooseberry, п.; necklace, n.; earth quake, п.; lazy-
bones, n.
V. Identify the compounds in the word-groups below. Say as much as

you can about their structure and semantics.
Emily, our late maid-of-all-work; a heavy snowfall; an automobile

salesman; corn-coloured chiffon; vehicle searchlights, little tidbit1 in The
Afro-American;2 German A. A. fire;3 a born troubleshooter; to disembark a
stowaway,4 an old schoolmate; a cagelike crate; a slightly stoop-
shouldered man; a somewhat matter-of-fact manner; a fur-lined boot; to
101
pick forget-me-nots and lilies-of-the-valley; a small T-shirt; a sportscar

agency.
VI. Say whether the following lexical units are word- groups or com-
pounds. Apply the criteria outlined in the foregoing text to motivate
your answer.
Railway platform, snowman, light dress, traffic light, railway station,

landing field, film star, white man, hungry dog, medical man, landing
plane, top hat, distant star, small house, green light, evening dress, top stu-
dent, bluecoat,1 roughhouse,2 booby trap,3 black skirt, medical student, hot
dog, blue dress, U-shaped trap, black shirt4.
Two training planes piloted by air cadets collided in mid-air. The pi-
lots who had safely tailed out were interrogated about the accident:
"Why didn't you take any evasive action to avoid hitting the other
plane?"
"I did," the first pilot explained, "I tried to zigzag. But he was zig-
zagging, too, and zagged when I thought he was going to zig."
Polysemy.
I. Define the meanings of the words in the following sentences. Say

how the meanings of the same word are associated one with another.
1.1 walked into Hyde Park, fell flat upon the grass and almost imme-
diately fell asleep. 2. a) 'Hello', I said, and thrust my hand through the bars,
whereon the dog became silent and licked me prodigiously, b) At the end
of the long bar, leaning against the counter was a slim pale individual
wearing a red bow-tie. 3. a) I began to search the flat, looking in drawers
102
and boxes to see if I could find a key. b) I tumbled with a sort of splash
upon the keys of a ghostly piano, c) Now the orchestra is playing yellow
cocktail music and the opera of voices pitches a key higher, d) Someone
with a positive manner, perhaps a detective, used the expression 'madman'
as he bent over Welson's body that afternoon, and the authority of his
voice set the key for the newspaper re port next morning. 4. a) Her mouth
opened crookedly half an inch, and she shot a few words at one like peb-
bles, b) Would you like me to come to the mouth of the river with you? 5.
a) I sat down for a few minutes with my head in my hands, until I heard
the phone taken up inside and the butler's voice calling a taxi, b) The min-
ute hand of the electric clock jumped on to figure twelve, and, simultane-
ously, the steeple of St. Mary's whose vicar always kept his clock by the
wireless began its feeble imitation of Big Ben.
III. Copy out the following pairs of words grouping together the
ones which represent the same meaning of each word. Explain the dif-
ferent meanings and the different us ages, giving reasons for your an-
swer. Use dictionaries if necessary.
smart, adj.
smart clothes, a smart answer, a smart house, a smart garden, a smart
repartee, a smart officer, a smart blow, a smart punishment
stubborn, adj.
a stubborn child, a stubborn look, a stubborn horse, stubborn resis-
tance, a stubborn fighting, a stubborn cough, stubborn depression
sound, adj.
103
sound lungs, a sound scholar, a sound tennis-player, sound views,

sound advice, sound criticism, a sound ship, a sound whipping
root, n.
edible roots, the root of the tooth, the root of the matter, the root of
all evil, square root, cube root
perform, v.
to perform one's duty, to perform an operation, to perform a dance, to
perform a play
kick, v.
to kick the ball, to kick the dog, to kick off one's slippers, to kick
smb. downstairs
II. The verb "to take" is highly polysemantic in Modern English. On

which meanings of the verb are the following jokes based? Give your
own examples to illustrate the other meanings of the word.
1. "Where have you been for the last four years?" "At college taking
medicine."
"And did you finally get well?"
2. "Doctor, what should a woman take when she is run down?"
"The license number, madame, the license number."
3.Proctor (exceedingly angry): So you confess that this unfortunate
Freshman was carried to this frog pond and drenched. Now what part did
you take in this disgraceful affair?
Sophomore (meekly): The right leg, sir.
III. Explain the basis for the following jokes. Use the dictionary when
in doubt.
104
1. С a 11 e r: I wonder if I can see your mother, little boy. Is she en-

gaged?
Willie: Engaged She's married.
2. Booking Clerk (at a small village station): You'll have to change
twice before you get to York.
Villager (unused to travelling): Goodness me! And I've only brought
the clothes I'm wearing.
3. The weather forecaster hadn't been right in three months, and his
resignation caused little surprise. His alibi, however, pleased the city
council.
"I can't stand this town any longer," read his note. "The climate does-
n't agree with me."
4. Professor: You missed my class yesterday, didn't you?
Unsubdued student: Not in the least, sir, not in the least.
5. "Papa, what kind of a robber is a page?" "A what?"
"It says here that two pages held up the bride's train."
IV. Read the following jokes. Analyze the collocability of the italicized
words and state its relationship with the meaning.
1. L a d у (at party): Where is that pretty maid who was passing our
cocktails a while ago?
Hostess: Oh, you are looking for a drink? Lady: No, I'm looking for
my husband.
2. P e g g у: I want to help you, Dad. I shall get the dress-maker to
teach me to cut out gowns.
105
Dad: I don't want you to go that far, Peg, but you might cut out ciga-
rettes, and taxi bills.
3. There are cynics who claim that movies would be better if they
shot less films and more actors.
II. Read the following extract and explain the semantic processes by
which the italicized words acquired their meanings
. An Earl of Spencer made a short overcoat fashionable for some

time. An Earl of Sandwich invented a form of light refreshment which en-
abled him to take a meal without leaving the card-table. Hence we have
such words as spencer and sandwich in English.
(From The Romance of Words by E. Weekley)
III. Read the following extract and criticize the author's treatment of
the examples. Provide your own explanations.
Words degenerate in meaning also. In the past villain meant "farm

labourer"; counterfeiter meant "imitator" without criminal connotations,
and sly meant "skilful". A knave meant a "boy" and immoral meant "not
customary", and hussy was a "housewife".
Other words improve in meanings. Governor meant "pilot" and con-
stable meant "stable attendant". Other elevations are enthusiasm which
formally meant "fanaticism", knight which used to mean "youth", angel
which simply meant "messenger" and pretty which meant "sly". No one
can predict the direction of change of meaning, but changes occur con-
stantly.
(From Teaching English Linguistically by J. Malmstrom, J. Lee)
106
IV. Explain the logical associations in the following groups of meaning

for the same words. Define the type of transference which has taken
place.
1.The wing of a bird — the wing of a building; the eye of a man —
the eye of a needle; the hand of a child — the hand of a clock; the heart of
a man — the heart of the matter; the bridge across-the-river — the bridge
of the nose; the tongue of a person — the tongue of a bell; the tooth of a
boy — the tooth of a comb; the coat of a girl — the coat of a dog.
2. Green grass — green years; black shoes — black despair; nickel
(metal) — a nickel (coin); glass — a glass; copper (metal) — a copper
(coin); Ford (proper name) — a Ford (car); Damascus (town in Syria) —
damask; Kashmir (town in North India) — cashmere.
V. Analyze the process of development of new meanings in the itali-
cized words in the examples given below.
1.1 put the letter well into the mouth of the box and let it go and it
fell turning over and over like an autumn leaf. 2. Those who had been the
head of the line paused momentarily on entry and looked around curiously.
3. A cheerful-looking girl in blue jeans came up to the stairs whistling. 4.
Seated behind a desk, he wore a light patterned suit, switch from his usual
tweeds. 5. Oh, Steven, I read a Dickens the other day. It was aw fully
funny. 6. They sat on the rug before the fireplace, savouring its warmth,
watching the rising tongues of flame. 7. He inspired universal confidence
and had an iron nerve. 8. A very small boy in a green jersey with light red
hair cut square across his forehead was peering at Steven between the elec-
tric fire and the side of the fireplace. 9. While the others were settling
down, Lucy saw Pearson take another bite from his sandwich. 10. As I
107
walked nonchalantly past Hugo's house on the other side they were already
carrying out the Renoirs.
Homonyms
I. Find the homonyms in the following extracts. Classify them into

homonyms proper, homographs and homophones.
1. "Mine is a long and a sad tale!" said the Mouse, turning to Alice,
and sighing. "It is a long tail, certainly," said Alice, looking down with
wonder at the Mouse's tail; "but why do you call it sad?" 2. a) My seat was
in the middle of a row. b) "I say, you haven't had a row with Corky, have
you?" 3. a) Our Institute football team got a challenge to a match from the
University team and we accepted it. b) Somebody struck a match so that
we could see each other. 4. a) It was nearly December but the California
sun made a summer morning of the season, b) On the way home Crane no
longer drove like a nervous old maid. 5. a) She loved to dance and had
every right to expect the boy she was seeing almost every night in the
week to take her dancing at least once on the weekend, b) "That's right,"
she said. 6. a) Do you always forget to wind up your watch? b) Crane had
an old Ford without a top and it rattled so much and the wind made so
much noise. 7. a) In Brittany there was once a knight called Eliduc. b) She
looked up through the window at the night. 8. a) He had a funny round
face, b) — How does your house face? — It faces the South. 9. a) So he
didn't shake his hand because he didn't shake cowards' hands, see, and
somebody else was elected captain, b) Mel's plane had been shot down
into the sea. 10. a) He was a lean, wiry Yankee who knew which side his
108
experimental bread was buttered on. b) He had a wife of excellent and in-
fluential family, as finely bred as she was faithful to him.
II. On what linguistic phenomenon is the joke in the following extracts

based? What causes the misunderstanding?
1. "Are your father and mother in?" asked the visitor of the small boy
who opened the door.
"They was in," said the child, "but they is out." "They was in. They is
out. Where's your grammar?" "She's gone upstairs," said the boy, "for a
nap."
2. "Yes, Miss Janes, it's true my husband has left his job. He thought
it was better for him to enlist rather than to be called up. Anyway, he has
burned his bridges behind him."
"Oh, well, I shouldn't worry about that. They'll pro vide him with a
uniform in the Army," commented the neighbour.
3. "I got sick last night eating eggs." "Too bad."
"No, only one."
4. Husband and wife were enjoying a quiet evening by their fireside,
he deep in a book and she in a cross word puzzle. Suddenly she questioned
him:'
"Darling, what is a female sheep?"
"Ewe [ju:]," he replied. His further explanation hard ly soothed her.
5. "I spent last summer in a very pretty city in Switzerland."
"Berne?"
"No, I almost froze."
109
III. a. Find the homonyms proper for the following words; give their
Russian equivalents.
1. band— a company of musicians. 2. seal— a warm-blooded, fish-

eating sea-animal, found chiefly in cold regions. 3. ear — the grain-
bearing spike of a cereal plant, as in corn. 4. cut — the result of cutting. 5.
to bore — to make a long round hole, esp. with a pointed tool that is
turned round. 6. corn — a hard, horny thickening of the skin, esp. on the
foot. 7. fall — the act of falling, dropping or coming down. 8. to hail — to
greet, salute, shout an expression of welcome. 9. ray — any of several car-
tilaginous fishes, as the stingray, skate, etc. 10. draw — something that at-
tracts attention.
b. Find the homophones to the following words, translate them into

Russian or explain their meanings in English.
Heir, dye, cent, tale, sea, week, peace, sun, meat, steel, knight, sum,
coarse, write, sight, hare.
с Find the homographs to the following words and transcribe both.
1. To bow — to bend the head or body. 2. wind — air in motion. 3. to

tear — to pull apart by force. 4. to desert — to go away from a person or
place. 5. row — a number of persons or things in a line.
IV. Classify the following italicized homonyms. Use Professor A. I.

Smirnitsky's classification system.
1. a) He should give the ball in your honour as the bride, b) The boy
was playing with a ball. 2. a) He wished he could explain about his left ear.
110
b) He left the sentence unfinished. 3. a) I wish you could stop lying. b) The
yellow mouse was still dead, lying as it had fallen in the crystal clear liq-
uid. 4. a) This time, he turned on the light, b) He wore $ 300 suits with
light ties and he was a man you would instinctively trust anywhere.
V. Provide homonyms for the italicized words in the following jokes

and extracts and classify them according to Professor A. I. Smirnit-
sky's classification system.
1.Teacher: Here is a map. Who can show us America?

Nick goes to the map and finds America on it.
Teacher: Now, tell me, boys, who found America?
Boys: Nick.
2.Father: I promised to buy you a car if you passed your examination,
and you have failed. What were you doing last term?
Son: I was learning to drive a car.
3. "What time do you get up in summer?"
"As soon as the first ray of the sun comes into my window."
"Isn't that rather early?" "No, my room faces west."
4. "Here, waiter, it seems to me that this fish is not so fresh as the
fish you served us last Sunday."
"Pardon, sir, it is the very same fish."
(From Dangerous Corner by J. B. Priestley)
VI. Explain how the following italicized words became homonyms.
1. a) Eliduc's overlord was the king of Brittany, who was very fond
of the knight, b) "I haven't slept a wink all night, my eyes just wouldn't
111
shut." 2. a) The tiger did not spring, and so I am still alive, b) It was in a
saloon in Savannah, on a hot night in spring. 3. a) She left her fan at home,
b) John is a football fan. 4. a) "My lady, ... send him a belt or a ribbon —
or a ring. So see if it pleases him." b) Eliduc rode to the sea. 5. a) The
Thames in London is now only beautiful from certain viewpoints — from
Waterloo Bridge at dawn and at night from Cardinal's Wharf on the South
Bank. b) Perhaps the most wide-spread pleasure is the spectacle of the City
itself, its people, the bank messengers in their pink frock coats and top
hats. 6. a) The young page gave her good advice: no need to give up hope
so soon, b) The verb to knead means to mix and make into a mass, with the
hands or by machinery, especially, mix flour and water into dough for
making bread. 7. a) Ads in America are ubiquitous. They fill the newspa-
pers and cover the walls, they are on menu cards and in your daily post, b)
"Is that enough?" asked Fortune. "Just a few more, add a few more," said
the man. 8. a) The teacher told her pupils to write a composition about the
last football match, b) Give me a match, please. 9. a) I can answer that
question, b) He had no answer. 10. a) Does he really love me? b) Never
trust a great man's love.
VII. Do the following italicized words represent homonyms or polyse-

mantic words? Explain reasons for your answers.
1. 26 letters of the ABC; to receive letters regularly. 2. no mean

scholar; to mean something. 3. to propose a toast; an underdone toast. 4. a
hand of the clock; to hold a pen in one's hand. 5. to be six foot long; at the
foot of the mountain. 6. the capital of a country; to have a big capital
(money). 7. to date back to year 1870; to have a date with somebody. 8. to
112
be engaged to Mr. N; to be engaged in conversation. 9. to make a fire; to

sit at the /ire(place). 10. to peel the bark off the branch; to bark loudly at
the stranger. 11. A waiter is a person who, instead of waiting on you at
once, makes you wait for him, so that you become a waiter too.
Synonyms
I. The sentences given below contain synonyms. Write them out in

groups and explain the difference where the words are familiar.
1. a) While Kitty chatted gaily with her neighbours she watched Wal-
ter, b) Ashenden knew that R. had not sent for him to talk about weather
and crops, c) As he spoke he rose from the bed. d) He is said to be honest,
e) He'll tell you all about himself, f) If you wish to con verse with me de-
fine your terms. 2. a) She felt on a sudden a cold chill pass through her
limbs and she shivered, b) Her lips trembled so that she could hardly frame
the words, c) I was shaking like a leaf when I came here, d) He shuddered
with disgust. 3. a) He gave his wrist-watch a glance, b) Tommy gave her a
look out of the corner of his eye. c) But her abstract gaze scarcely noticed
the blue sea and the crowded shipping in the harbour, d) Let me have just
one peep at the letter. 4. a) Bessie gets up and walks towards the window,
b) He did nothing from morning till night but wander at random, c) I saw a
man strolling along, d) The men sauntered over to the next room. 5. a) I
began to meditate upon writer's life, b) You had better reflect a little, c)
The more he thought of it the less he liked the idea, d) I'm sure that a little
walk will keep you from breeding. 6. a) The next witness was Dr. Burnett,
113
a thin middle-aged man. b) The woman was tall with reddish curly hair
and held a scarlet kimono round her slender figure, c) The girl was slim
and dark, d) Studying him, Mrs. Page saw a spare young man with high
cheekbones and blue eyes. 7. a) There was a fat woman, who gasped when
she talked, b) She came in like a ship at full sail, an imposing creature, tall
and stout, c) She was twenty-seven perhaps, plump, and in a coarse fash-
ion pretty, d) He was a person of perhaps forty, red-faced, cheerful, thick.
8. a) Strange, unstable woman. It was rather embarrassing that she would
cry in a public gallery. b) It was a life that perhaps formed queer charac-
ters. c) I thought it odd that they should allow her to dance quite quietly in
Berlin, d) it is a veritable picture of an old country inn with low, quaint
rooms and latticed windows.
II. Give as many synonyms for the italicized words in the following
jokes as you can. If you do not know any of them consult the diction-
aries.1 Revise Ch. 10.
"I hear there's a new baby over at your house, William," said the
teacher. "I don't think he's new," re plied William. "The way he cries
shows he's had lots of experience."
A little boy who had been used to receiving his old brother's old toys
and clothes remarked: "Ma, will I have to marry his widow when he dies?"
S m a 11 boy (to governess): Miss Smith, please excuse my speaking

to you with my mouth full, but my little sister has just fallen into the pond.
A celebrated lawyer once said that the three most troublesome clients
he ever had were a young lady who wanted to be married, a married
114
woman who wanted a divorce, and an old maid who didn't know what she
wanted.
В о s s: You are twenty minutes late again. Don't you know what
time we start to work at this office? New Employee: No, sir, they are al-
ways at it when I get here.
H e (as they drove along a lonely road): You look lovelier to me

every minute. Do you know what that's a sign of? She: Sure. You are about
to run out of gas.
Husband (shouting upstairs to his wife): For last time, Mary, are you
coming? Wife: Haven't I been telling you for the last hour that I'll be down
in a minute.
III. Carry out definitional and transformational analysis on the itali-

cized synonyms using the explanations of meanings given below. Ex-
amples of this type of analysis are given on p. 189. Draw diagrams and
define the types of con notations found in them.1
1.Old means having lived a long time, far advanced in years; elderly
means approaching old age, between middle and old age, past middle age,
but hardly old; aged is somewhat old, implies greater age than elderly; an-
cient is so old as to seem to belong to a past age.
2.To create means to make an object which was not previously in ex-
istence, to bring into existence by inspiration or the like; to manufacture is
to make by labour, often by machinery, especially on a large scale by some
industrial process; to produce is to work up from raw material and turn it
into economically useful and marketable goods.
115
3.To break is to separate into parts or fragments; to crack is to break

anything hard with a sudden sharp blow without separating, so that the
pieces remain together; to shatter is to break into fragments, particles and
in numerous directions; to smash is to destroy, to break thoroughly to
pieces with a crashing sound by some sudden act of violence.
IV. Consult the diagram on p. 189 and using the definitions of the fol-
lowing synonyms and the explanation given in the English-Russian
Synonymic Dictionary1 prove that synonyms possess a dual nature.
Draw the diagrams of meanings to illustrate your answer as in Exer-
cise IV.
1. to shake — to tremble — to shiver — to shudder. 2. smell — scent

— odour — aroma. 3. to walk — to stroll — to saunter — to wander. 4. to
want — to wish — to desire. 5. weak — feeble — frail — fragile. 6. large
— big — great. 7. to jump — to leap — to spring — to skip — to hop. 8.
pain — ache — pang — twinge. 9. to discuss — to argue — to debate —
to dispute. 10. dim — dusky — obscure.
V. Single out the denotative and connotative components of meanings

of the synonyms in the examples given below.
1. a)At the little lady's command they all three smiled, b) George, on
hearing the story grinned. 2. a) Forsyte — the best palate in London. The
palate that in a sense had made his fortune — the fortunes of the cele-
brated tea men, Forsyte and Treffry... b) June, of course, had not seen this,
but, though not yet nine teen, she was notorious. 3. a) Noticing that they
were no longer alone, he turned and again began examining the lustre, b)
116
June had gone. James had said he would be lonely. 4. a) The child was
shivering with cold, b) The man shuddered with disgust. 5. a) I am sur-
prised at you. b) He was astonished at the woman's determination. 6. a) It's
impolite to stare at people like that, b) The little boys stood glaring at each
other ready to start a fight, c) The lovers stood gazing into each other's
eyes. 7. a) They produce great amounts of wine but this is not all they pro-
duce in that part, b) The story was fabricated from beginning to end. 8. a)
On hearing from Bosinney that his limit of twelve thousand pounds would
be exceeded by something like four hundred, he had grown white with an-
ger, b) "It's a damned shame," Andrew burst out, forgetting himself in a
sudden rush of indignation. 9. a) He was an aged man, but not yet old. b)
He was an elderly man at the time of his marriage. 10. The distance be-
tween the Earth and the Sun may be said to be immense; the distance be-
tween the poles is vast.
VI. Look through Ch. 10 and, if necessary, through synonymic dic-

tionaries and prove that the rows of words given below are synonyms.
Use the semantic criterion to justify your opinion.
1. To shout — to yell — to roar. 2. angry — furious — enraged. 3.

alone — solitary — lonely. 4. to shudder — to shiver — to tremble. 5.
fear—terror— horror. 6. to cry — to weep — to sob. 7. to walk — to trot
— to stroll. 8. to stare — to gaze — to glare. 9. to desire — to wish — to
want. 10. to like — to admire — to worship.
VII. Say why the italicized synonyms in the examples given below are
not interchangeable.
117
1. a) The little boys stood glaring at each other ready to start a fight,
b) The Greek myth runs that Narcissus gazed at his own reflection in the
water until he fell in love with it and died. 2. a) She is a very pretty Ameri-
can girl of twenty-two, with fair hair and blue eyes. b) She was a tall,
blonde woman, slender, and stately and beautiful. 3. a) You don't know
what a shock it was, Constance. I was knocked endways. I'd been brooding
over it ever since till I was afraid I should go mad. b) She'd evidently had
time to reflect because when I came again she asked me quite calmly what
it was exactly that I proposed. 4. a) She began to sob hysterically, b)
Mortimer looks from Marie Louise who is quietly weeping to Constance
with the utmost bewilderment. 5. a) You only want a car so that you can be
independent of me. b) She longed with all her heart for him to take her in
his arms so that she could lay her head on his breast. 6. a) People turned in
the street and stared at her with open mouths, b) R. got up and strolled
slowly about the room and when he passed the windows as though in idle
curiosity, peeped through the heavy crep curtains that covered them, and
then returning to his chair once more comfortably put his feet up. 7. a) He
was puzzled at the letter, b) I was astonished at seeing him so changed.
VIII. Classify the following synonyms in two columns accord ing to: a)
degree (intensity) of the referent; b) brief or lengthy duration of the
referent.
1. Gratify, please, exalt, content, satisfy, delight. 2. Cry, weep, sob.

3. Glance, gaze, glare, stare. 4. Tremble, shiver, shudder, shake. 5. Wor-
ship, love, like, adore, admire. 6. Talk, say, tell, speak. 7. Roar, shout, cry,
118
bellow, yell. 8. Astound, surprise, amaze, astonish. 9. Cold, cool, chilly.

10. Want, long, yearn, desire, wish. 11. Vast, immense, large.
Dominant synonym. Taboos. Euphemisms. Antonyms
I. Find the dominant synonym in the following groups of synonyms.

Explain your choice.
1. to glimmer — to glisten — to blaze — to shine — to sparkle— to

flash— to gleam. 2. to glare— to gaze — to peep — to look — to stare —
to glance. 3. to astound — to surprise — to amaze — to puzzle — to as-
tonish. 4. strange — quaint — odd — queer. 5. to saunter — to stroll — to
wander — to walk — to roam. 6. scent — perfume — smell — odour —
aroma. 7. to brood — to reflect — to meditate — to think. 8. to fabricate
— to manufacture — to produce — to create — to make. 9. furious — en-
raged — angry. 10. to sob — to weep — to cry.
II. The following sentences and jokes contain members of groups of

synonyms. Provide as many synonyms as you can for each, explaining
the difference between them; single out their dominant synonyms giv-
ing reasons for your choice.
1."Why is it, Bob," asked George of a very stout friend, "that you fat
fellows are always good-natured?" "We have to be," answered Bob. "You
see, we can't either fight or run."
2.A teacher was giving a lesson on the weather idiosyncrasies of
March. "What is it," she asked, "that comes in like a lion and goes out like
a lamb?" And little Julia, in the back row, replied: "Father."
3."Just why do you want a married man to work for you, rather, than
119
a bachelor?" asked the curious chap. "Well," sighed the boss, "the married
men don't get so upset if I yell at them."
4.A kind-hearted English Vicar one day observed an old woman la-
boriously pushing a perambulator up a steep hill. He volunteered his assis-
tance and when they reached the top of the hill, said, in answer to her
thanks: "Oh, it's nothing at all. I'm delighted to do it. But as a little reward,
may I kiss the baby?" "Baby? Lord bless you, sir, it ain't no baby, it's the
old man's beer."
5."The cheek of that red cap! He glared at me as if I hadn't my pass."
"And what did you do?" "I glared back as if I had."
III. Find the dominant synonyms for the following italicized words
and prove that they can be used as substitutes. Are they interchange-
able? What is lost if we make the substitution?
1. Never for a moment did he interrupt or glance at his watch. 2. The

girl looked astonished at my ignorance. 3. Sometimes perhaps a tramp will
wander there, seeking shelter from a sudden shower of rain. 4.1 am very
different from that self who drove to Manderley for the first time filled
with an intense de sire to please. 5. The stony vineyards shimmer in the
sun. 6. The restaurant was filled now with people who chatted and
laughed. 7. I've got a sister and an ancient grandmother. 8. A bowl of roses
in a drawing-room had a depth of colour and scent they had not possessed
in the open. 9. He saw our newcomers, arms wound round each other, lit-
erally staggering from the bus.
IV. Find the euphemistic substitutes for the following words: die,
drunk, prison, mad, liar, devil, lavatory, god, eat, pregnant, stupid. Write
120
them out into two columns: A. euphemistic substitutes for social taboos. B.
euphemistic substitutes for superstitious taboos.
V. Find the euphemisms in the following sentences and jokes. Name

the words for which they serve as euphemistic substitutes.
1.Policeman (to intoxicated man who is trying to fit his key to a

lamp-post): I'm afraid there's nobody home there tonight. Man: Mus'be.
Mus'be. Theresh a light upstairsh. 2. "Johnny, where do you think God is
this morning?" asked the Sunday-school teacher. "In our bathroom," was
the reply. "What on earth makes you say that?" asked the amazed teacher.
"Because just before I left I heard pa say, "My Lord! How long are you go-
ing to be in there?" 3. The doctor had an inveterate punster and wit among
his patients. One day he was late in making his rounds, and explained to
the incorrigible humourist that he had stopped to attend a man who had
fallen down a well. With a groan of agony, the wit mustered up strength
enough to murmur: "Did he kick the bucket, doctor?" 4. A girl was to visit
her serviceman brother at a military hospital. While stopping at the desk of
the officer of the day for directions to the patient's ward she asked: "Would
you kindly tell me where the powder room is?" "Miss," the corpsman on
duty replied with dignity, "this is a hospital, not an arsenal."
5.FirstStudent: Great Scott! I've forgot ten who wrote Ivanhoe. Second
Ditto: I'll tell you if you tell me who the dickens wrote The Tale of Two
Cities.
VI. Find antonyms for the words given below.

121
Good, adj.; deep, adj.; narrow, adj., clever, adj.; young, adj.; to love,
v.; to reject, v.; to give, v.; strong, adj.; to laugh, v.; joy, п.; evil, п.; up,
adv., slowly, adj.; black, adj.; sad, adj.; to die, v.; to open, v.; clean, adj.;
darkness, п.; big, adj.
VII. Find antonyms in the following jokes and extracts and describe
the resultant stylistic effect.
Policeman (holding up his hand): Stop!

Visitor: What's the matter?
P.: Why are you driving on the right side of the road?
V.: Do you want me to ride on the wrong side?
P.: You are driving on the wrong side.
V.: But you said that I was driving on the right side.
P.: That is right. You are on the right, and that's wrong.
V.: A strange country! If right is wrong, I'm right when I'm on the
wrong side. So why did you stop me?
P.: My dear sir, you must keep to the left. The right side is the left.
V.: It's like a looking-glass! I'll try to remember. Well, I want to go to
Bellwood. Will you kindly tell me the way?
P.: Certainly. At the end of this road, turn left.
V.: Now let me think. Turn left! In England left is right, and right is
wrong. Am I right?
P.: You'll be right if you turn left. But if you turn right, you'll be
wrong.
V.: Thank you. It's as clear as daylight.
(After G. С Thornley)1
122
Phraseological units
I. What is the source of the following idioms? If in doubt consult your

reference books.
The Trojan horse, Achilles heel, a labour of Hercules, an apple of

discord, forbidden fruit, the serpent in the tree, an ugly duckling, the fifth
column, to hide one's head in the sand.
II. Substitute phraseological units with the noun "heart" for the itali-
cized words. What is the difference between the two sentences?
1. He is not a man who shows his feelings openly. 2. She may seem
cold but she has true, kind feelings. 3.1 learned that piece of poetry by
memory. 4. When I think about my examination tomorrow I feel in de-
spair. 5. When I heard that strange cry in the darkness I was terribly
afraid. 6. It was the job I liked very much. 7.1 didn't win the prize but I'm
not discouraged.
III. Show that you understand the meaning of the follow ing phrase-
ological units by using each of them in a sentence.
1. Between the devil and the deep sea; 2. to have one's heart in one's
boots; 3. to have one's heart in the right place; 4. to wear one's heart on
one's sleeve; 5. in the blues; 6. once in a blue moon; 7. to swear black is
white; 8. out of the blue; 9. to talk till all is blue; 10. to talk oneself blue in
the face.
IV. Substitute phraseological units incorporating the names of colours

for the italicized words.
123
1. I'm feeling rather miserable today. 2. He spends all his time on bu-
reaucratic routine. 3. A thing like that happens very rarely. 4. You can
talk till you are tired of it but I shan't believe you. 5. The news was a great
shock to me. It came quite unexpectedly. 6.1 won't believe it unless I see it
in writing. 7. You can never believe what he says, he will swear anything
if it suits his purpose.
V. Read the following jokes. Why do little children often misunder-

stand phraseological units? Explain how the misunderstanding arises
in each case.
1."Now, my little boys and girls," said the teacher. "I want you to be
very still — so still that you can hear a pin drop." For a minute all was
still, and then a little boy shrieked out: "Let her drop."
2."You must be pretty strong," said Willie, aged six to the young
widow who had come to call on his mother.
"Strong? What makes you think so?" "Daddy said you can wrap any
man in town around your little finger."
3. T о m: What would you do if you were in my shoes?
Tim: Polish them!
4. Little Girl: Oh, Mr. Sprawler, do put on your skates and show me
the funny figures you can make.
Mr. Sprawler: My dear child, I'm only a begin ner. I can't make any
figures.
Little Girl: But Mother said you were skating yesterday and cut a ri-
diculous figure.
124
VI. Read the following jokes. Explain why the italicized groups of
words are not phraseological units.
Warning
The little boy whose father was absorbed in reading a newspaper on

the bench in the city park, exclaimed:
"Daddy, look, a plane!"
His father, still reading the paper, said: "All right, but don't touch it"
Great Discovery
A scientist rushed into the ops room of the space mission control cen-
tre: "You know that new gigantic computer which was to be the brain of
the project? We have just made a great discovery!"
"What discovery?"
"It doesn't work!"
VII. Explain whether the semantic changes in the following phrase-

ological units are complete or partial. Paraphrase them.
To wear one's heart on one's sleeve; a wolf in a sheep's clothing; to

fly into a temper; to stick to one's word; bosom friend; small talk; to cast
pearls before swine; to beat about the bush; to add fuel to the fire; to fall
ill; to fall in love; to sail under false colours; to be at sea.
VIII. Say what structural variations are possible in the following

phraseological units. If in doubt, consult the dictionaries.
125
To catch at a straw; a big bug; the last drop; to build a castle in the
air; to weather the storm; to get the up per hand; to run for one's life; to do
wonders; to run a risk; just the other way about.
IX. Read the following proverbs. Give their Russian equivalents or

explain their meanings.
A bargain is a bargain. A cat in gloves catches no mice. Those who

live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. A good beginning is half the
battle. A new broom sweeps clean. An hour in the morning is worth two in
the evening. It never rains but it pours. Don't look a gift horse in the
mouth. Make hay while the sun shines.
X. Give the English equivalents for the following Russian proverbs.
Нет худа без добра. В гостях хорошо, а дома лучше. С глаз до-
лой, из сердца вон. Дуракам закон не писан. Он пороху не выдумает.
Слезами горю не по можешь. Поспешишь — людей насмешишь.
Взялся за гуж, не говори, что не дюж.
XI. Give the proverbs from which the following phraseological units
have developed.
Birds of a feather; to catch at a straw; to put all one's eggs in one

basket; to cast pearls before swine; the first blow; a bird in the bush; to cry
over spilt milk; the last straw.
Classification of phraseological units.

126
I. Read the following text. Compile a list of the phraseological units

used in it. Translate them into Russian by phraseological units (if pos-
sible) or by free word-groups. On what principle are all these idioms
selected?
If you feel under the weather, you don't feel very well, and if you
make heavy weather of something, you make it more difficult than it needs
to be. Someone with a sunny disposition is always cheerful and happy, but
a person with his head in the clouds does not pay much attention to what is
going on around him. To have a place in the sun is to enjoy a favourable
position, and to go everywhere under the sun is to travel all over the world.
Someone who is under a cloud is in disgrace or under suspicion, and a per-
son who is snowed under with work is overwhelmed with it. When you
break the ice, you get to know someone better, but if you cut no ice with
someone, you have no effect on them. To keep something on ice or in cold
storage is to reserve it for the future, and to skate on thin ice is to be in a
dangerous or risky situation. If some thing is in the wind, it is being se-
cretly planned, and if you have the wind up, you became frightened. To
throw caution to the winds is to abandon it and act recklessly, but to see
how the wind blows is to find out how people are thinking before you act.
If you take the wind out of someone's sails, you gain the advantage over
him or her by saying or doing something first. To save something for a
rainy day is to put some money aside for when it is needed. To do some-
thing come rain or shine is to do it whatever the circumstances. Finally,
everyone knows that it never rains but it pours, that problems and difficul-
ties always come together. But every cloud has a silver lining — every
misfortune has a good side.
127
(Журнал Англия, 1973)
II. a. Read the following text. Compile a list of the phraseological units
used in it.1 Classify them according to Academician Vinogradov's clas-
sification system for phraseological units.
English has many colloquial expressions to do with parts of the hu-

man body — from head to toe! Here are some of the commonest ones.
To keep your head is to remain calm, but to lose it is to panic and do
something foolish. If something is above or over your head, it is too diffi-
cult for you to understand. An egg-head is an intellectual, and someone
who has their head screwed on, is very sensible. If you split hairs, you are
very pedantic, but if you don't turn a hair you are very calm.
To pay through the nose is to pay a very high price for something,
but if you turn up your nose at some thing you despise it. If you are all
ears, you listen very attentively, and if you keep your ear to the ground,
you listen and watch out for signs of future events. To see eye to eye with
someone is to agree with them, and if you don't bat an eyelid, you show no
surprise or excitement. // you are down in the mouth, you're rather de-
pressed. A stiff upper lip is the traditionally British quality of not showing
any emotions in times of trouble.
To have your tongue in your cheek is to say one thing and mean
something else. To have a sweet tooth is to have a taste for sweet food, and
to do something by the skin of your teeth is to just manage to do it.
b. Give at least fifteen examples of your own to illustrate the phrase-
ological units in your list.
128
III. Complete the following sentences, using the phraseological units

given in the list below. Translate them into Russian.
1. If I pay my rent, I won't have any money to buy food. I'm between.
2. It's no use grumbling about your problems — we're all . 3. He's sold his
house and his business to go to Australia, so he's really. 4. She prefers not
to rely on anyone else, she likes to 5. They didn't know whether to get
married or not, but they finally. 6. You can't expect everything to go right
all the time, you must learn to. to take the rough with the smooth; between
the devil and the deep sea; to take the plunge; in the same boat; to paddle
one's own canoe; to burn one's boats
IVComplete the following similes. Translate the phraseological units

into Russian. If necessary, use your dictionary.
A. as black as B. as a lion
as green as a lamb
as cold as a mouse
as white as a cat
as old as a kitten
as changeable as an eel
as safe as an owl
as brown as a wolf
as clean as a cricket
as dull as a bee
V. Complete the following sentences, using the words from the list be-
low. Translate the phraseological units into Russian.
129
1. She was so embarrassed that she went as red as a . 2.1 can carry
the suitcase easily, it's as light as a . 3. The room is as warm as . 4. My sis-
ter does so many things that she's always as busy as a . 5. He is as proud as
a of his new car. 6. It's as cold as in that office. 7. Once he's made up his
mind, he'll never change it, he's as stubborn as a . 8. She was so frightened
that her face went as white as a . 9. The postman always calls at 8 o'clock,
he's as regular as . 10. However much he eats, he's always as thin as a . ice,
beetroot, mule, feather, sheet, toast, clockwork, bee, rail, peacock
VI. In the examples given below identify the phraseological units and
classify them on the semantic principle.
1. The operation started badly and everyone was in i temper through-

out. 2.1 know a man who would love meeting you. The perfect nut for you
to crack your teeth on. 3.1 wish I had you for Maths (my favourite sub-
ject). But alas, we cannot have our cake and eat it too. 4. He said: "Well,
never mind, Nurse. Don't make such heavy weather about it." 5. Did you
know that 50% of the time I've been barking up all the wrong trees. 6.
However, while appreciating that the best way to deal with a bully is to
bully back, I never quite had the nerve. 7. What is it — First Aid? All you
need know is how to treat shock and how to stop hemorrhage, which I've
drummed into you till I'm blue in the face. 8. Don't let them (pupils) lead
you by the nose. 9. But I thought he was afraid I might take him at his
word. 10. Ruth made no bones about the time she was accustomed to have
her dinner.
American English.
130
I. Read the following extract and give more examples il lustrating the
same group of Americanisms. What do we call this group?
M: Well, now, homely is a very good word to illustrate Anglo-

American misunderstanding. At any rate, many funny stories depend on it,
like the one about the British lecturer visiting the United States; he faces
his American audience and very innocently tells them how nice it is to see
so many homely faces out in the audience.
Homely in Britain means, of course, something rather pleasant, but in
American English 'not very good looking'. This older sense is preserved in
some British dialects.
(From A Common Language by A. H. Marckwardt and R. Quirk')
II. Read the following extract. What are the three possible ways of
creating names for new species of plants and animals and new features
of the landscape? Give more examples of the same. What do we call
this group of Americanisms?
Q:... I think that this time we ought to give some attention to those
parts of the language where the differences in the vocabulary are much
more noticeable.
M: Yes, we should. First, there are what we might call the 'realia' —
the real things — the actual things between the American and British va-
rieties of English.
We refer to in the two varieties of the language. For ex ample, the
flora and fauna — that is to say the plants and animals of England and of
131
the United States are by no means the same, nor is the landscape, the to-
pography.
Q: All this must have created a big problem for those early settlers,
mustn't it?
M: It surely did. From the very moment they set foot on American
soil, they had to supply names for these new species of plants and animals,
the new features of landscape that they encountered. At times they made
up new words such as mockingbird, rattlesnake, egg plant. And then occa-
sionally they used perfectly familiar terms but to refer to different things.
In the United States, for example, the robin is a rather large bird, a type of
thrush.
Q: Yes, whereas with us it is a tiny little red-breasted bird.
M: And a warbler, isn't it?
Q: Yes.
M: It sings. Corn is what you call maize. We never use it for grain in
general, or for wheat in particular.
Q: Or oats. Well, wouldn't foreign borrowings also be important in a
situation like this?
M: Oh, they were indeed. A good many words, for ex ample, were
adopted from the American Indian languages — hickory, a kind of tree,
squash, a vegetable; moccasin, a kind of footwear. We got caribou and
prairie from the early French settlers. The Spanish gave us canyon and
bronco.
(From A Common Language by A. H. Marckwardt and R. Quirk)

132
III. Read the following passage. Draw up a list of terms de noting the
University teaching staff in Great Britain and in the USA. What are
the corresponding Russian terms?
Q: But speaking of universities, we've also got a different set of la-

bels for the teaching staff, haven't we?
M: Yes, in the United States, for example, our full time faculty,
which we call staff incidentally — is arranged in a series of steps which
goes from instructor through ranks of assistant professor, associate pro-
fessor to that of professor. But I wish you'd straighten me out on the Eng-
lish system. Don for example, is a completely mysterious word and I'm
never sure of the difference, say, between a lecturer and a reader.
Q: Well, readers say that lecturers should lecture and readers should
read! But seriously, I think there's more similarity here than one would
imagine. Let me say, first of all, that this word don is a very informal word
and that it is common really only in Oxford and Cambridge. But corre-
sponding to your instructor we've got the rank of assistant lecturer, usually
a beginner's post. The assistant lecturer who is successful is promoted, like
your instructor and he becomes a lecturer and this lecturer grade is the
main teaching grade throughout the university world. Above lecturer a
man may be promoted to senior lecturer or reader, and both of these —
there's little difference between them — correspond closely to your associ-
ate professor. And then finally he may get a chair, as we say — that is a
professorship, or, as you would say, a full professor ship. It's pretty much a
difference of labels rather than of organization, it seems to me.
(From A Common Language by A. H. Marckwardt and R. Quirk)

133
IV. Give the British equivalents for the following Americanism.
Apartment, store, baggage, street car, full, truck, elevator, candy,

corn.
V. Explain the differences in the meanings of the following words in

American and British English.
Corn, apartment, homely, guess, lunch.
VI. Identify the etymology of the following words.
Ohio, ranch, squash, mosquito, banjo, toboggan, pickaninny, Missis-

sippi, sombrero, prairie, wigwam.
VII. Comment on the formation of the following words.
Rattlesnake, foxberry, auto, Americanism, Colonist, addressee, ad,

copperhead, pipe of peace, fire-water.
VIII. Translate the following words giving both the British and
American variant.
Каникулы, бензин, осень, консервная банка, радио, трамвай.
IX. Give the synonyms for the following American shorten ings. De-
scribe the words from the stylistic point of view.
Gym, mo, circs, auto, perm, cert, n. g., b. f., g. m., dorm.
134
X. Look through the following list of words and state what spelling
norms are accepted in the USA and Great Britain so far as the given
words are concerned.
1. favour — favor 2. defence — defense honour — honor practice —
practice colour — color offence — offense 3. centre — center 4. marvel-
lous — marvelous metre — meter woollen — woolen fibre — fiber jewel-
lery — jewelry 5. to enfold — to infold 6. cheque — check to encrust —
to incrust catalogue-catalog to empanel — to impanel programme — pro-
gram 7. Judgement — judgment abridgement — abridgment acknowl-
edgement — acknowledgment
XI. Write the following words according to the British norms of spell-
ing.
Judgment, practice, instill, color, flavor, check, program, woolen,
humor, theater.
XII. Write the following words according to the American norms of
spelling.
Honour, labour, centre, metre, defence, offence, catalogue, abridge-
ment, gramm, enfold, marvellous.
9.Задания для итогового контроля усвоения материала

9.1. Перечень экзаменационных вопросов по дисциплине
1. Traditional classification of homonyms.
2. Conversion
4. Euphemisms
5. The semantic classification of phraseological units.
135
6. Phraseological units borrowed from French

7. Standard English. Variants and dialects. Canadian, Australian, In-
dian, English.
8. Phraseology.
9. Lexicography. Types of dictionaries.
10. American English.
11. Composion. The structure of compounds.
12. The study of lexicology. The main problems of lexicology.
13. Affixation. Classification of affixes.
14. Synonymy. Types of connotation.
16. What is a word? Internal/External structure of the word
17. Semantics of affixes
18. The distinctive features of American English.
19. Borrowings.
20. Homonyms. Sources of homonyms.
21. Synonymy. Types of synonyms.
22. Composition.
23. Shortenings.
24. The structural principle of classification for phraseological units
25. Polysemy.
26. The assimilation of borrowings.
27. Some minor types of modern word building.
28. Transference based on resemblance.
29. Antonyms.
30. Vinogradov`s classification of phraseological units.
136
31. Proverb (difference from phraseological units).

32. The Etymology of English Words.
33. The main lexicological problems.
34. Development of new meanings.
35. Substantivization of adjectives.
36. Graphical abbreviation.
37. Initial abbreviation.
38. Abbreviation of words.
39. Secondary ways of word building.
40. Sound Interchange.
41. Stress interchange.
42. Sound imitation.
43. Back formation.
44. Classification of borrowings according to degree of assimilation.
45. Romanic borrowings. Latin borrowings.
46. French borrowings.
47. Italian, Spanish borrowings.
48. Scandinavian, German borrowings.
49. Holland, Russian borrowings.
50. General Information on American English.
51. Differences in spelling. Differences in pronunciation.
52. Informal style.
53. Prefixation.
54. “Stone wall” combination.
55. Syntactical classification of phraseological units.
137
9.2. Материалы итогового тестирования по дисциплине

1.In what different ways might the language spoken in the USA be
viewed linguistically?
2.What are the peculiarities of the vocabulary of English spoken in
the USA?
3.Can we say that the vocabulary of the language spoken in the USA
supports the hypothesis that there is an "American language"? Give a de-
tailed answer.
4.What are the grammatical peculiarities of the American variety of
English?
5.Describe some of the phonetic divergences in both varieties of
English.
6.What other regional varieties of English do you know?
7.What is the basis of the traditional and oldest principle for classify-
ing phraseological units?
8.What other criteria can be used for the classification of phrase-
ological units?
9.What are the merits and disadvantages of the thematic principle of clas-
sification for phraseological units
10.Analyze Professor A. I. Smirnitsky's classification system for
phraseological units. What is it based on? Do you see any controversial
points in the classification system?
11.What is the basis of the structural principle of classification for
phraseological units?
12. Explain the semantic principle of classification for phraseological
units.
138
13.What are the two major criteria for distinguishing between phraseologi-
cal units and free word- groups?
14.How do proverbs differ from phraseological units?
15.Can proverbs be regarded as a subdivision of phraseological
units? Give reasons for your answer.
16.To which parts of speech do most antonyms be long? How do you
account for this?
17.Discuss the merits of Professor A. V. Koonin's system for the
classification of phraseological units. What is it based on? Do you find any
points in the classification system which are open to question?
18.Why can't homonyms be regarded as expressive means of the lan-
guage?
19.What are the distinctive features of the classification of homo-
nyms suggested by Professor A. I. Smirnitsky
20.What types of transference can you name?
21.What are the main sources of homonyms? Illustrate your answer
with examples.
22.What is the essential difference between homonymy and polysemy?
What do they have in common? Illustrate your answer with examples
23.What minor processes of word-building do you know? Describe
them and illustrate your answer with examples.
24.What are the two processes of making shortenings? Explain the
productivity of this way of word- building and stylistic characteristics of
shortened words. Give examples.
25. What types of synonyms were defined in Academician V. V. Vi-
nogradov's classification system? Which aspects of this classification are
139
open to question?
26.What is the modern approach to classifying synonyms? Illustrate
this classification with examples.
27. What are the principal productive ways of word- building in
English?
28. What are the main kinds of informal words? Give a brief de-
scription of each group.
29. Where are formal words used?
30. What are the principal characteristics of archaic words?
10. Задания для самостоятельной работы студентов

10.1. Перечень вопросов по дисциплине для самостоятель-
ного изучения
1. Lexicology branches
2. Links of Lexicology with other branches of linguistics
3. Vulgarisms
4. Jargonisms
6. Basic vocabulary
9. Distinction between homonymy and Polysemy
11. Synonymic nests
12. Synonymic groups
13. Synonymic series
140
14. Conversion as a way of word-building

15. Composition
16. Composition in Russian language
17. Composition in English language
18. Nouns formed by means of conversion and their functions
21. Types of abbreviations
22. Reduplication
25. Types of assimilation of borrowings:
e) phonetic
f) semantic
g) syntactic
h) morphological
26. Peculiarities of American vocabulary

28. Principles of classification of dictionaries
10.2. Тематика рефератов и творческих работ студентов
1.Lexicology branches
2.Links of Lexicology with other branches of linguistics
3. Vulgarisms
4. Jargonisms
141

8. Distinction between homonymy and Polysemy
10. Synonymic nests
11. Synonymic groups
12. Synonymic series
13. Composition in Russian language
14. Composition in English language
17. Reduplication
11. Информационное обеспечение дисциплины
11.1. Обеспеченность основной учебной литературой
№ Автор издания название
Место, год
п/п издания, из-
дательство
1 Арнольд И.В. Лексикология совре- Москва,
менного английского 1959
языка.
2 Akhmanova O.S. Lexicology: Theory and Москва,
method 1972
3 Arnold I.V. The English word Москва,
1973
4 Bloomfield L. Language N.Y. 1933
5 Ginzburg Course in modern Eng- Москва,
R.S.,Khidekel S.S., lish lexicology. 1966
Knyazeva G.Y.
6 Koonin A. English Lexicology Москва,
142
1940
7 Ogden C.K., Richards Meaning of meaning Ldn, 1980
L.E
8 Partridge E. The words of words Ldn, 1948
9 Pei M. The study of language Ldn, 1956
10 Rayevskaya N.M. English lexicology Kiev , 1957
11 Smith L.P. English idioms Ldn, 1922
11.2. Обеспеченность учебно-методической литературой

№ Автор издания название Место, коли-
п/п год изда- чест-
ния, из- во эк-
датель- земп-
ство ляров
в биб-
лио-
теке
ДГИН
Х
1 Рамазанова И.Р. Лексикология англий- Махачка- 40
ского языка ла, 2006
2 Гафурова Д.Ш. Введение в языкозна- Махачка- 40
ние ла, 2006

Язык

Добро пожаловать в Scribd!

umk_leksikologia.pdf

Загружено:

Сведения о документе

Дата загрузки

Авторское право

Доступные форматы

Поделиться этим документом

Поделиться или встроить документ

Параметры публикации

Этот документ был вам полезен?

Это неприемлемый материал?

Описание:

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

umk_leksikologia.pdf

Загружено:

Описание:

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

Похожие издания

ГОУ ВПО «Дагестанский

Рамазанова Индира Рамазановна

Кафедра иностранных языков

Составители: Рамазанова Индира Рамазановна, преподаватель кафедры тео-

Внутренний рецензент: Буяло Татьяна Георгиевна, начальник департа-

Внешний рецензент: Абдулжалилов Инквач Гитинамагомедович, канди-

Учебно-методический комплекс разработан с учетом п.41 Типового

Рамазанова И.Р., Алибекова Н.Б. Учебно-методический комплекс «Лек-

Предлагаемый учебно-методический комплекс предназначен

Учебный комплекс составлен в полном соответствии с требова-

УМК составлен Рамазановой Индирой Рамазановной, препода-

1. Цели преподавания дисциплины

Курс лексикологии ставит своей целью ознакомить студентов с

2. Задачи преподавания дисциплины

- на основе полученных знаний самостоятельно ставить иссле-

- с новейшими публикациями по актуальным проблемам лекси-

3. Рекомендации по изучению дисциплины

Лучшему пониманию основных положений данного курса бу-

4. Требования к минимуму содержания дисциплины согласно

иностранных языках. Историческая изменчивость смысловой струк-

5. Содержание теоретического материала (лекций) по дисци-

3. Development of new meanings

5. Transference based on contiguity

XII Secondary ways of word-building 2

13. XIII Neologisms 4

XIV Phraseological units

1.Ways of forming phraseological units

14. 2.Semantic classification of phraseological units

3.Structural classification of phraseological units

4.Syntactical classification of phraseological units

6.Содержание семинарских занятий по дисциплине

13. XIII Phraseological units 12 4 8

16. XVI Lexicography 8 2 6

7. Лекционный материал по дисциплине

2. The main lexicological problems

The term «lexicology» is of Greek origin from «lexis» - «word» and

2. The main lexicological problems

The problem of word- building is associated with morphological

One of the important objectives of lexicology is the study of the vo-

Terms: lexicology, word, sound, meaning, speech, semantic unity,

Additional points for self-study

Sources for self-study reference:

Colloquialisms are used by everybody and the sphere of their usage

Some shortenings belong here, too:

Slang words are opposite to standard literary vocabulary. Slang

H. Fowler defines a dialect as «a variety of language in a definite dis-

Pronunciation of some words is also different in Cockney:

You are authorized to acquire the work in question by purchase

These words stand close to words of poetic fiction. Both, learned

Terms: style, functional style, formal style, informal style, dialect

Additional points for self-study:

Sources for self-study reference:

At the present moment English is developing very swiftly and there

developed the meanings: «авиационное прикрытие», »политическое

There are different semantic groups of neologisms belonging to eve-

Terms: neologisms, belonger, achiever, phonological neologism,

Additional points for self-study:

Sources for self-study reference: