Файл: lekcii_po_istorii_yazika.doc

1. General characteristics

The English vocabulary of present-day English reflects as no other aspect of the language the many changes in the history of the people and various contacts which the English people had with many nations and the countries. The long and controversial history of the people is reflected in its vocabulary and especially in the number of loan words in it, different in origin and time of their entering the language and the circumstance under which the acquisition of the foreign element took place. So large is the number of foreign words in English that it might at first be supposed that the vocabulary has lost its Germanic nature.

However, the functional role of the native element: the nations expressed by native words, their regularity and frequency of occurrence, lack of restrictions to their use in written and oral speech of different functional styles, proves that the Germanic element still holds a fundamental place, and the English vocabulary should be called Germanic.

2. Native element in Modern English

English native words form two etymological strata: the Common Indo-European stratum and the Common Germanic stratum.

2.1. Common indo-European stratum

The words forming this stratum are the oldest in the vocabulary. They existed thousands of years B.C., at the time when it was yet impossible to speak about separate Indo-European languages, as well as about various nations in Europe. Words of the Common Indo-European vocabulary have been inherited by many modern Indo-European languages, not only Germanic, which is often a possible proof of these words belonging to the Common Indo-European stratum. Compare:

English Latin Russian

mother mater мать

brother frater брат

night nox ночь

be fieri быть

stand stare стоять

two duo два

three tres три

ten decem десять

2.2. Common Germanic stratum

There are also words inherited from Common Germanic. Common Germanic is supposed to exist before it began splitting into various subgroups around the 1^st century B.C. – 1^st A.D. these words can be found in various Germanic languages, but not in Indo-European languages other than Germanic.

English Germanic Swedish

man Mann man

earth Erde jord

harm Harm harm

green grün grőn

grey grau grā

The occurrence or non-occurrence of corresponding words in related languages is often a proof of their common origin. But, certainly, the word could be borrowed from the same source into different languages, especially if we speak about languages in modern times.

3. Foreign element in Modern English (borrowings)

As we know, borrowed words comprise more than half the vocabulary of the language. These borrowings entered the language from many sources, forming consequently various etymological strata. The principal ones here are as follows:

• the Latin element

• the Scandinavian element

• the French element

3.1. Latin element

The first Latin words entered the language of the forefathers of the English nation before they came to Britain. It happened during a direct intercourse and trade relations with the peoples of the Roman Empire. They mainly names of household items and products:

Apple, pear, plum, cheese, pepper, dish, kettle, etc.

Already on the Isles from the Romanized Celts they borrowed such words as:

Street, wall, mill, tile, port, caster (camp – in such words as Lancaster, Winchester).

Words of this kind denoted objects of Latin material culture. Latin words such as:

Alter, bishop, candle, church, devil, martyr, monk, nun, pope, psalm, etc.

were borrowed after the introduction of the Christian religion (7^th century), which is reflected in their meaning.

The number of these words inherited from Old English is almost two hundred.

We mentioned these words as Latin borrowings in the sense that they entered English from Latin, but many of them were Greek borrowings into Latin, such as:

Bishop, church, devil

and many others.

Another major group of Latin borrowings entered English with the revival of learning (15^th – 16^th centuries). Latin was drawn upon for scientific nomenclature, as at the time the language was understood by scientists all over the world, it was considered the common name-language for science. These words were mainly borrowed through books, by people who knew Latin well and tried to preserve the Latin form of the world as much as possible. Hence such words as:

Antenna – antennae, index – indices, datum – data, stratum – strata, phenomenon – phenomena, axis – axes, formula – formulae, etc.

Very many of them have suffixes which clearly mark them as Latin borrowings of the time:

• verbs ending in –ate, - ute: aggravate, prosecute

• adjectives ending in –ant, -ent, -ior, -al: reluctant, evident, superior, cordial.

These word-building elements together with the stylistic sphere of the language where such words are used are generally sufficient for the word attribution.

3.2. Scandinavian element

Chronologically words of Scandinavian origin entered the language in the period between the 8^th and the 10^th centuries due to the Scandinavian invasions and settlement of Scandinavians on the British Isles, with subsequent though temporary union of two important divisions of the Germanic race. It is generally thought that the amount of words borrowed from this source was about 5000, though some linguists surmise that the number could have been even greater, but due to the similarity of the languages and scarcity of written records of the time it is not always possible to say whether the word is a borrowed one or native, inherited from the same Common Germanic source.

Such words may be mentioned here, as:

They, then, their, husband, fellow, knife, law, leg, wing, give, get, forgive, forget, take, call, ugly, wrong.

As we said, words of Scandinavian origin penetrated into the English language so deeply that their determination is by no means easy. However, there are some phonetic/spelling features of the words which in many cases make this attribution authentic enough. These are as follows:

• words with the sk/sc combination in the spelling, as:

sky, skin, skill, scare, score, scald, busk, bask

(but not some Old French borrowings as task, scan, escape)

• words with the sound [g] or [k] before front vowels [i], [e], [ei], in the spelling I, e, ue, ai, a (open syllable) or at the end of the word:

give, get, forgive, forget, again, gate, game, keg, kid, kilt, egg, drag, dregs, flag, hug, leg, log, rig.

There are also personal names of the same origin, ending in –son:

Jefferson, Johnson

Or place names ending in –ly, thorp, -toft (originally meaning “village”, “hamlet”):

Whitly, Althorp, Lowestoft

These places are mainly found in the north-east of England, where the Scandinavian influence was stronger than in other parts of England.

3.3. French element

The French element in the English language is a large and important one. Words of this origin entered the language in the Middle and New English periods.

Among Middle English borrowings we generally mention earlier borrowings, their source being Norman French – the dialect of William Conqueror and his followers. They entered the language in the period beginning with the time of Edward the Confessor and continued up to the loss of Normandy in 1204.

Later Middle English borrowings have as their source Parisian French. The time of these borrowings may be estimated as end of the 13^th century up to 15000.

These words are generally fully assimilated in English and felt as its integral part:

Government, parliament, justice, peace, prison, court, crime, etc.

Many of these words (though by no means all of them) are terms used in reference to government and courts of law.

Later Middle English borrowings are more colloquial words:

Air, river, mountain, branch, cage, calm, cost, table, chair.

The amount of these Middle English borrowings is as estimated as much as 3,500.

French borrowings of the New English period entered the language beginning with the 17^th century – the time of the Restoration of monarchy in Britain, which began with the accession to the throne of Charles II, who had long lived in exile at the French court:

Aggressor, apartment, brunette, campaign, caprice, caress, console, coquette, caravat, billet-doux, carte blanche, etc.

Later also such words appeared in the language as:

Garage, magazine, policy, machine.

It is interesting to note that the phonetics of French borrowings always helps us to prove their origin.

These phonetic features are at least two: stress and special sound/letter features. Concerning the first (stress), words which do not have stress on the first syllable is a prefix are almost always French borrowings of the New English period. Words containing the sounds [∫] spelled not sh, [dз] – not dg, [t∫] – not ch and practically all words with the sound [З] are sure to be of French origin:

Aviation, social, Asia, soldier, jury, literature, pleasure, treasure.

4. Word-hybrids

The extensive borrowing form various languages and assimilation of loan words gave rise to the formation in English of a large number of words the elements of which are of different origin – they are generally termed word-hybrids.

English French

be- - cause because

a- - round around

a- curse accurse

out cry outcry

over power overpower

fore front forefront

salt cell(ar) saltcellar

false hood falsehood

French English

hobby horse hobbyhorse

scape goat scapegoat

trouble some troublesome

plenty -ful plentiful

aim -less aimless

re- take retake

English Scandinavian

par- take partake

bandy leg bandy-legged

French Scandinavian

re- call recall

Latin French

juxta- position juxtaposition

5. Etymological doublets

Etymological doublets are words developing from the same word or root, but which entered the given language, in our case English, at different times of through different channels. Classifying them according to the ultimate source of the doublets we shall receive the following:

Ultimate source Modern doublets Period and channel

Common Indo-European

٭pater fatherly native

Common Germanic

٭gher- yard native

garden M.E. French borrowing

6. Sources of the new words in modern English

As it is to be expected in the light of the English disposition to borrow words from other languages in the past, many of the new words have been taken over ready-made from French, Italian, Spanish, and many other languages. It should be noted that the wholesale borrowing of words from other languages did not meet with universal favour in the past. The strongest objection to the new words was on the score of their obscurity. The opposition to obscure new words was at its height in the middle of the 16^th с. but at the end of this century it had largely spent its force. By this time borrowing had gone so far that the attack was rather directed at the abuse of the process of borrowing than at borrowing itself. The use of unfamiliar words could easily be overdone. The attitude of most men seems to have been one of compromise. Indeed the surprising thing about the movement is the number of words that seem now to be indispensable. Many of such borrowings are in such "common use today that it is hard for us to realize that some hundred years ago they were so strange and obscure as to be a subject of controversy.

In entering the language, some words retained their original forms and others underwent changes. Sometimes the same word has been borrowed more than once in the course of time. А word when introduced а second time often carries а different meaning. There are some things about language that we cannot explain. One of them is why certain words survive while others, apparently as good, do not. For instance, in Shakespeare's day no one could have told whether one should sау "effectuous, effectfu1, effectuating, effective, or effectual". Two of these five options have survived. It was necessary for time to do the sifting

Sixteenth-century purists objected to three classes of strange words, which they characterized as "ink horn terms, oversea language, and Chaucerisms″. For the foreign borrowings in this period were by no means confined to learned words from Latin and Greek. The English vocabulary at this time shows words taken from more than fifty languages, the most important of which (besides Latin and Greek) were French, Italian, and Spanish. In order to appreciate the importance of the Renaissance in enriching the English vocabulary it is worth to form some idea of the number of new words added, at this time. А calculation gives а figure somewhat above 12,000. About half of the total number has become а permanent part of the language.

In 1755 Samuel Johnson published his famous dictionary in two volumes. It exhibited the English vocabulary much more fully than had ever been done before. It offered а spelling that could be accepted as standard, it supplied thousands of quotations illustrating the use of words. In the latter half of the 18^th century we find the beginning of the modern doctrine that "every language has its peculiarities; they are established by usage, and whether right or strong, they must be complied with" (Chesterfield). At the same time we see strong attempts to reform the vocabulary and further objections to foreign borrowings in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Most of the words criticized are still in use, and. these misguided efforts to ban them show the futility of trying to interfere with the natural course of linguistic history. The expansion of the British empire which began towards the end of the 16^th century and reached its height in the end of the last century is to be seen in the vocabulary New colonies mean new experiences, new activities, new products, all of which are in time reflected in the language. Thus, one of the reasons for the cosmopolitan character of the English vocabulary today is seen to be the multitude of contacts the English language has had other languages in widely scattered parts of the world.

The most striking thing about our present-day civilization is probably the part, which science and technology have played in bringing it to pass. In every field of science, pure and applied, there has been need in the last hundred years for thousands of new terms. The great majorities of these are technical words known only to specialist, but а certain number of them in time become familiar and pass into general use.

А second source of new words is represented in the practice of making self-explaining соmpounds, one of the oldest methods of word-format1on in the Engl1sh language. Of recent origin are "teenage, teen-ager, know-how, lipstick, speedboat, searchl1ght", etc' The same method may be employed in forming words from elements derived from Lat1n and Greek, and this has long been а favourite source of scientific terms. А few minutes spent in looking up recent scientific words in any dictionary will supply а lot of illustrations of th1s common method of English word-formation.

Another method of enlarging the vocabulary is by appending familiar prefixes and suffixes to existing words on the pattern of similar words in the language, Thus in the period under discussion there have appeared "transcontinental, trans-Siberian, transliterate, transformer" etc.

А considerable number of new words must be attributed to invention or coinage, Thus а trade mark like "Kodak" seems to be pure invention, while "nylon" contains recognizable elements "New York" and "London". Another source from where many English words have been derived in the past the names of persons and places. Cf. such words as "sandwich, boycott, lynch, raglan, quisling" etc.

It is necessary to say something about the way in which words gradually change their meaning. Words can undergo extension of meaning, narrowing of meaning, degeneration and regeneration. By extension of meaning it meant the widening of а word's signification until it covers much more that the idea originally conveyed. The tendency 1s sometimes called generalization. The opposite tendency is for а word gradually to acquire а more restricted sense or to be chiefly used in one special connection. Degeneration of meaning may take several forms; the opposite process is known as regeneration. Thus the word "lovely" (worthy to be loved) is now an example of extension of meaning; "doctor", "thank" and "to park" are cases of narrowing of meaning; cases of degeneration of meaning are words for а woman's under-clothes (degraded euphemisms: "smock" (18^th century), "shift, chemise" (19^th century), "combinations, step-ins" etc (20^th century); examples of regeneration are "smock" (an outer garment) in the 20^th century, "snob" and "sham" (former slang words) in the 19^th century.

The greatest dictionary of any language in the world - The Oxford English Dictionary - (the first volume appeared in 1884 and the last one in 1933) - treats more 250,000 main words of the English language embracing the Old, Middle and Modern periods and exhibiting the history of each word — its forms, its various spellings, and all its uses and meanings, past and present. The last-named feature is shown by а full selection of quotations from the whole range of English writings. The influence of this great publication has been far-reaching and its authority is recognized throughout the world. Another great dictionary meeting the requirements of the English-speaking world is Webster's New International Dictionary, which contains 600,000 entries.

We have seen, then, how Modern English has developed а vocabulary of great extent and richness, drawn from many languages of the world. The Renaissance period is noted for its great influx of vocabulary, making the vocabulary of English perhaps the largest of and language. Thus English has extensive resources to satisfy various kinds of users and various goals.

It goes without saying, that the frontiers of language advance more precipitously in vocabulary than in any other area, and the introduction of new words – and of new meanings for old ones - reflects developments and innovations in the world at large and in society.

In the late 1980s on the wider international scene it was the era of 'perestroika'. М.Gorbachev's reforms so captured the Western imagination that the two key Russian terms (glasnost and perestroika) developed wider metaphorical meanings in English and were used with English adjectival endings (glasnostian and perestroikan).

Reflecting its continuing vigour, the financial sector remains а prodigal coiner of neologisms (circuit breaking, fan clubs, foothold buying, rocket scientists, tin parachutes, etc.). Nor far behind wealth as а word-creator comes computing (electronic virus, phantom bug, earcon, exput, etc.). AIDS has а strong impact, lexically as well as socially (condomania, homophobia, Lyme disease). The verbal turnover in the pop scene is as frentic as ever (beach music, goth, sceed-metal, psychobilly, etc.) Crime is as innovative ever (death star, survivalist, home pаrо1е, receiver-dialler, etc.).

The perennial urge to euphemism is as marked as ever. Weapons of unparalleled destructive capacity have become "assets", spying on one's business rivals is "competitor analysis", and if something gets worse is "disimproves", (cf. also downsizing, physically different, etc.).

The bread-and-butter routes to the formation of new words in Modern English are compounding and the addition of prefixes and suffixes, and especially blending, in which parts of two distinct words are joined together to form а third (e.g. affluence + influenza = affluenza, fertilize + irrigation = fertigation, magazine + catalogue = magalog). Next in popularity to blends is the omnipresent acronym (Erops, Hero, NIC, PINC, etc.). Conversion - the reallocation of а word to а different part of speech - continues vigorously, producing mainly verbs, from nouns and adjectives (feeder, flan, gender, office, rear-end, silicone, source, stiff, wide) but also transforming verbs into nouns (spend). А related phenomenon, typically originating in American English, is the reversal of а verb from transitivity to intransitivity and vice versa (air, commit, lag). Currently thriving affixes include -aholic (clothesahc1ic, milkaholic), -ati (jiazzerati, numerati), cross- (cross-marketing, cross-selling), -eur (arbitrageur. conplomerateur), -ie, 'an obsessive enthusiast (Cuppie, winie), -ism/

-ist (fattyism, genderist), must-(must-buy, must-see), and -nomies (Reaganomics). Backformation ( words coined by removing an affix from an existing word) includes "accreditate", "bezzle", "flake", "gram" and "tack".

English continues to borrow words from other languages.

This does not happen only between different languages, but also between varieties of the same language. The best known instance of this is the borrowing of American English words and meanings into British English (cf. advance man, gofer, honcho, off-limits, patsy, preschooler).