Contextual Analysis

Representatives of this approach consider that it is the context that determines the contextual meaning of the word. Context is the minimal stretch of speech in which each individual meaning is realized. According to this approach the difference in meaning of a word is indicated by its environment. (prof Kolshanskiy).

3. General problems of the theory of the word.

The definition of the word is a difficult problem in Lexicology because even the simpliest word has many different aspects, e.g. sound form, morphological structure. The word is a central element of any language system. Many definitions of the word are based on different philosophical approaches.

A word (Beresin) is an arrangement of sounds conveying a certain concept, idea or meaning which has general acceptance in a social group of people speaking the same language and historically connected.

Words are used in combination with other words in our speech according to their lexical and grammatical valency.

The lexical valency is the aptness of a word to appear in various combinations with other words: e.g. question – difficult, problematic, urging, important, delicate, etc., a question of great importance, to raise a question.

The grammatical valency is the aptness of a word to appear in specific grammatical structures of a language. The grammatical valency of correlated words is not identical in different languages: Мені не хочеться щось робити – I don’t feel like doing something.

The English vocabulary should be studied in the light of the economic, political and cultural history of the English people. Vocabulary is the most changeable aspect of the language. New words appear in the vocabulary and old ones drop out of use, already existing words develop new meanings. It is due to the fact that vocabulary develops together with the development of human society. It reflects all the changes in human society. Elements within the vocabulary are interdependent and interrelated. They make up the system of signs. LECTURE 2Etymological characteristics of Modern English vocabulary 1. Native words in English.2. Borrowings in English vocabulary. Classification of borrowings.3. Etymological dublets. 1. Native words in English. All the words in English are divided as to their origin into · native words · loan words (borrowings, loans) Native words are those which are known from Old English period. Loan words are words taken over from other languages and changed in their sound form, spelling, paradigm or meaning according to the standards of English. Etymology – the study of the origin and history of words and chahges in their meaning.(e.g. the etymology of the modern English noun fish can be traced back to Old English fisc. In some cases there is a change in meaning. For example the word meat which now means “animal flesh used as food” is from the Old English word mete which meant “food in general”)The native words are diachronically subdivided into the words of Endo-European Origin and Common Germanic Origin. Words of Indo-European origin have cognates in the vocabularies of different Indo-European languages.Words of Indo-European origin fall into fallowing lexico-semantic groups:(Lexico-semantic groups – are sets of words grouped according to their meaning or close in their meaning.) 1. terms of kinship: father, mother, brother, son, daughter 2. words that denote natural phenomena, the most important everyday life things: moon, star, night, water, snow, tree, wood, fire, stone 3. those denoting animals and birds: wolf, mouse, bear, hare, crow, cat, fish, hound, goose, bull4. parts of the human body: arm, leg, eye, ear, heart, mouth, nose,ankle, breast, knee, foot, tongueLexico-grammatical groups – groups of words united on the basis of their common part-of-speech meaning. Here belong:I. Verbs that are frequently used: to sit, to stand, to come, to work, to sow, to know, to lie, to tear,etc. II. Adjectives that denote physical properties: high, low, hard, light, quick, right, red, slow, raw, thin, white III. The numerals: one, three, five, six Words of common Germanic origin 1) nouns: ground, winter, storm, coal, iron, house, life, hope, need, rest, grass 2) verbs: keep, buy, burn, drive, hear, learn, live, meet, see, shut, spread, draw, follow. 3) adjectives: broad, deaf, dead, dear,left, little 4) adverbs: along, again, near, forward 5) pronouns: all, each, he, self, such The words of Indo-European origin and the words of Common Germanic origin form the Etymological background of the English vocabulary. Words of the native stock are characterised by the following features:· their being stylistically neutral· their common usage· their being highly polisemantic· their denoting the most important things (they form the most important lexico-semantic groups)· new words are formed on the basis of native ones· thei wide lexical and grammatical valency· the native elements are mostly monosyllabic. It has been approximately estimated that more than 60% of the English vocabulary are borrowings and about 40% are words native in origin. 2. Borrowings in English vocabulary. Classification of borrowings. Borrowing words from other languages is characteristic of English throughout its history. More than two thirds of the English vocabulary are borrowings. Mostly they are words of Romanic origin (Latin, French, Italian, Spanish). Borrowed words are different from native ones by their phonetic structure, by their morphological structure and also by their grammatical forms. 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. CLASSIFICATION OF BORROWINGS ACCORDING TO THE BORROWED ASPECT There are the following groups: phonetic borrowings, translation loans, semantic borrowings, morphemic borrowings. Phonetic borrowings are most characteristic in all languages, they are called loan words proper. Words are borrowed with their spelling, pronunciation and meaning. Such words as: labour, travel, table, chair, people are phonetic borrowings from French; apparatchik, nomenklatura, sputnik are phonetic borrowings from Russian; bank, soprano, duet are phonetic borrowings from Italian etc. Translation loans are word-for-word (or morpheme-for-morpheme) translations of some foreign words or expressions: „ to take the bull by the horns ” (Latin), „ living space ” (German) etc. There are translation loans from the languages of Indians, such as: „ pipe of peace ”, „ pale-faced ”, from German „ masterpiece ”, „ homesickness ”, „ superman ”. Semantic borrowings are such units when a new meaning of the unit existing in the language is borrowed. It can happen when we have two relative languages which have common words with different meanings, e.g. there are semantic borrowings between Scandinavian and English, such as the meaning „ to live ” for the word „ to dwell’ which in Old English had the meaning „ to wander ”. Or else the meaning „дар”, „подарок” for the word „ gift ” which in Old English had the meaning „выкуп за жену”. Morphemic borrowings are borrowings of affixes which occur in the language when many words with identical affixes are borrowed from one language into another, so that the morphemic structure of borrowed words becomes familiar to the people speaking the borrowing language, e.g. we can find a lot of Romanic affixes in the English word-building system, that is why there are a lot of words - hybrids in English where different morphemes have different origin, e.g. „ goddess ”, „ beautiful ” etc. CLASSIFICATION OF BORROWINGS ACCORDING TO THE DEGREE OF ASSIMILATION The degree of assimilation of borrowings depends on the following factors: a) from what group of languages the word was borrowed, b) in what way the word is borrowed: orally or in the written form, c) how often the borrowing is used in the language, d) how long the word lives in the language.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. 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 phenomenon - phenomena, datum -data, genius - genii etc. 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). d) borrowings can be partly assimilated graphically, e.g. in Greak borrowings „ y ” can be spelled in the middle of the word (symbol, synonym), „ ph ” denotes the sound / f / (phoneme, morpheme), „ ch ” denotes the sound / k /(chemistry, chaos),” ps ” denotes the sound / s / (psychology).Latin borrowings retain their polysyllabic structure, have double consonants, 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 pronounced 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. 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. CLASSIFICATION OF BORROWINGS ACCORDING TO THE LANGUAGE FROM WHICH THEY WERE BORROWED Latin and Greek borrowings. Among words of Romanic origin borrowed from Latin during the period 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 6th century. These borrowings are usually called classical borrowings. Here belong Latin words: alter, cross, dean, and Greek words: church, angel, devil, anthem. Latin and Greek borrowings appeared in English during the Middle English period due to the Great Revival of Learning. These are mostly scientific 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. formula - formulae. Here also belong such words as: memorandum, minimum, 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 morphemes. 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, archaism, lexicography).How to recognize them:Latin: dis-, inter-, intra-, non-, v (velvet), g (gender, general), x (exist)Greek: ph-, ch-, pn-, -ism, -ous, -ize French borrowings There are the following semantic groups of French borrowings: a) words relating to government: administer, empire, state, government; b) words relating to military affairs: army, war, banner, soldier, battle; c) words relating to jury: advocate, petition, inquest, sentence, barrister; d) words relating to fashion: luxury, coat, collar, lace, pleat, embroidery; e) words relating to jewelry: 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. There are the following semantic groups of these borrowings: a) words relating to literature and music: belle-lettres, conservatorie, brochure, nuance, piruette, vaudeville; b) words relating to military affairs: corps, echelon, fuselage, manouvre; c) words relating to buildings and furniture: entresol, chateau, bureau; d) words relating to food and cooking: cuisine. Italian borrowings. Cultural and trade relations between Italy and England brought many Italian words into English. The earliest Italian borrowing came into English 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, granite, 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, baritone, basso, tenor, falsetto, solo, duet, trio, quartet, quintet, opera, operette, libretto, piano, violin. Among the 20-th century Italian borrowings we can mention: gazette, incognitto, autostrada, fiasco, fascist, diletante, grotesque, graffito 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, banana, ananas, apricot etc. GERMANIC BORROWINGS 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. 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 cultural level was the same, they had much in common in their literature therefore there were many words in these languages which were almost identical. 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.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. 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 denoting 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 there are also borrowings from a lot of other languages. We shall speak about Russian borrowings. Russian borrowings. 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 nature, such as: taiga, tundra, steppe etc. There is also a large group of Russian borrowings which came into English through Rushian literature of the 19-th century, such as: Narodnik, moujik, duma, zemstvo, volost, 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 perestroika, such as: glasnost, nomenklatura, apparatchik etc. 3. ETYMOLOGICAL DOUBLETS Sometimes a word is borrowed twice from the same language. As the result, we have two different words with different spellings and meanings but historically they come back to one and the same word. Such words are called etymological doublets.

1) They may enter the vocabulary by different routes. Some of these pairs, like shirt and skirt, consist of a native word and a borrowed word: shrew, n. (E.) — screw, n. (Sc.).

2) Others are represented by two borrowings from different lan­guages which are historically descended from the same root: senior (Lat.) — sir (Fr.); canal (Lat.) — channel (Fr.); captain (Lat.) — chieftain (Fr.).

3) Others were borrowed from the same language twice, but in different periods: corpse [ko:ps] (Norm. Fr.) — corps [ko:] (Par.Fr.); travel (Norm. Fr.) — travail (Par. Fr.); cavalry (Norm. Fr.) — chivalry (Par. Fr.); gaol (Norm. Fr.) —jail (Par. Fr.).

4) A doublet may also consist of a shortened word and the one from which it was derived: history — story; fanatic — fan; defence —fence; shadow — shade.

LECTURE 3Morphological structure of English words. Wordbuilding 1. Morphological structure of English words.2. Different ways of wordbuilding in English.3. Productive ways of word-building in English4. Non-productive ways of word-building in English. 1. Morphological structure of English words.

English words are constructed from two different types of morphemes -- Roots and Affixes. Each of these classes can be further subdivided: Roots can be divided into Free Roots and Bound Roots; Affixes can be divided into Prefixes and Suffixes.

MORPHEMES
ROOTS	AFFIXES
Free Roots	Bound Roots	Prefixes	Suffixes

Roots differ from affixes in two ways:

1) Roots usually have a rather specific meaning, and this meaning tends to be relatively constant across all the words that use the root. EVERY WORD HAS AT LEAST ONE ROOT.

For example, pter is a root meaning 'wing'. It appears in words like:

pterodactyl	'wing-fingers'
helicopter	'spiral wing'
apterous	'lacking wings'

The form pter always has the specific meaning 'wing' in each word.

Affixes are morphemes which are attached to roots and other affixes. Their main use is to modify the meaning conveyed by the root or roots.

Consider the affix pro - meaning 'before, for, forward'. Some examples are:

pronoun	'substituting for a noun'
prologue	'something spoken before (something else)'

2) Roots have freer distribution; they can occur almost anywhere in a word. Look back at the examples we just discussed. We find pter at the beginning, at the end, and in the middle of the word. On the other hand, affixes are restricted to certain positions within a word. In our examples, pro- is always at the beginning of the word. In fact, since it is a prefix, it must be in front of a root. Consequently, it will always occur at or near the beginning of the word.