Lexicology of the English Language
p> LOCAL VARIETIES OF ENGLISH ON THE BRITISH ISLES On the British Isles there are some local varieties of English which
developed from Old English local dialects. There are six groups of them:
Lowland /Scottish/ , Northern, Western, Midland, Eastern, Southern. These
varieties are used in oral speech by the local population. Only the
Scottish dialect has its own literature /R. Berns/. One of the best known dialects of British English is the dialect of
London - Cockney. Some peculiarities of this dialect can be seen in the
first act of «Pigmalion» by B. Shaw, such as : interchange of /v/ and /w/
e.g. wery vell; interchange of /f/ and /0/ , /v/ and / /, e. g/ fing
/thing/ and fa:ve / father/; interchange of /h/ and /-/ , e.g. «’eart» for
«heart» and «hart» for «art; substituting the diphthong /ai/ by /ei/ e.g.
«day» is pronounced /dai/; substituting /au/ by /a:/ , e.g. «house» is
pronounced /ha:s/,«now« /na:/ ; substituting /ou/ by /o:/ e.g. «don’t» is
pronounced /do:nt/ or substituting it by / / in unstressed positions, e.g.
«window» is pronounced /wind /. Another feature of Cockney is rhyming slang: «hat» is «tit for tat»,
«wife» is «trouble and strife», «head» is «loaf of bread» etc. There are
also such words as «tanner» /sixpence/, «peckish»/hungry/. Peter Wain in the «Education Guardian» writes about accents spoken by
University teachers: «It is a variety of Southern English RP which is
different from Daniel Jones’s description. The English, public school
leavers speak, is called «marked RP», it has some characteristic features :
the vowels are more central than in English taught abroad, e.g. «bleck
het»/for «black hat»/, some diphthongs are also different, e.g. «house» is
pronounced /hais/. There is less aspiration in /p/, /b/, /t/ /d/. The American English is practically uniform all over the country, because
of the constant transfer of people from one part of the country to the
other. However, some peculiarities in New York dialect can be pointed out,
such as: there is no distinction between / / and /a: / in words: «ask»,
«dance» «sand» «bad», both phonemes are possible. The combination «ir» in
the words: «bird», «girl» «ear» in the word «learn» is pronoinced as /oi/
e.g. /boid/, /goil/, /loin/.In the words «duty’, «tune» /j/ is not
pronounced /du:ti/, /tu:n/. BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH British and American English are two main variants of English. Besides
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 people
living 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,
criticized 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/,
«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/, »bananza» /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 Amsterdam, 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: «delicatessen», «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 language due to
the new poitical system, liberation of America from the British
colonialism, its independence. The following lexical units appeared due to
these events: the United States of America , assembly, caucus, congress,
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 demoralize,
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
someting». There are also units of vocabulary which are different while denoting the
same notions, e.g. BE - «trousers», AE -«pants»; in BE «pants» are «òðóñû»
which in AE is «shorts». While in BE «shorts» are outwear. This can lead to
misunderstanding. There are some differences in names of places: BE AE BE AE passage hall cross-roads intersection pillar box mail-box the cinema the movies studio, bed-sitter one-room appartment flyover overpass zebra crossing Pxing pavement sidewalk tube, uderground subway tram streetcar flat apartment surgery doctor’s office lift elevator Some names of useful objects: BE AE BE AE biro ballpoint rubber eraser tap faucet torch
flashlight parcel package elastic rubber
band carrier bag shopping bag reel of cotton spool of thread Some words connected with food: BE AE BE AE tin can sweets candy sweet biscuit cookie dry biscuit
crackers 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 ladder run/in a stocking/ braces suspenders poloneck turtleneck waistcoat
vest Some words denoting people: BE AE BE AE barrister, lawyer, staff /university/
faculty post-graduate graduate chap, fellow guy caretaker janitor constable
patrolman shopassistant shopperson bobby cop 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 secondary
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. Differences of spelling. The reform in the English spelling for American English was introduced
by the famous American lexicographer Noah Webster who published his first
dictionary in 1806. Those of his proposals which were adopted in the
English spelling are as follows: a) the delition of the letter «u» in words ending in «our», e.g. honor,
favor; b) the delition of the second consonant in words with double consonants,
e.g. traveler, wagon, c) the replacement of «re» by «er» in words of French origin, e.g.
theater, center, d) the delition 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) delition of unpronounced endings in native words, e.g. tho, thro. Differences in pronunciation In American English we have r-coloured fully articulated vowels, in the
combinations: ar, er, ir, or, ur, our etc. In BE the sound / /
corresponds to the AE /^/, e.g. «not». In BE before fricatives and
combinations with fricatives «a» is pronounced as /a:/, in AE it is
pronounced / / 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 `inquiry ex`cess
`excess Some words in BE and AE have different pronunciation, e.g. BE AE BE AE /`fju:tail/ /`fju:t l/ /`dousail / /dos l/ /kla:k/ /kl rk/ /`fig / /figyer/ / `le3 / / li:3 r/ /lef`ten nt/
/lu:tenant/ / nai / /ni: r/ /shedju:l/
/skedyu:l/ 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 is words which have come out of active usage, and
neologisms, that is words which have recently appeared in the language. ARCHAISMS Archaisms are words which are no longer used in everyday speech, which
have been ousted by their synonyms. Archaisms remain in the language, but
they are used as stylistic devices to express solemnity. Most of these words are lexical archaisms and they are stylistic synonyms
of words which ousted them from the neutral style. Some of them are: steed
/horse/, slay /kill/, behold /see/, perchance /perhaps/, woe /sorrow/ etc. Sometimes a lexical archaism begins a new life, getting a new meaning,
then the old meaning becomes a semantic archaism, e.g. «fair» in the
meaning «beautiful» is a semantic archaism, but in the meaning «blond» it
belongs to the neutral style. Sometimes the root of the word remains and the affix is changed, then
the old affix is considered to be a morphemic archaism, e.g. «beautious»
/»ous» was substituted by «ful»/, «bepaint» / «be» was dropped/, «darksome»
/»some» was dropped/, «oft» / «en» was added/. etc. NEOLOGISMS At the present moment English is developing very swiftly and there is so
called «neology blowup». R. Berchfield who worked at compiling a four-
volume supplement to NED says that averagely 800 neologisms appear 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
«originater». 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 phenomenon. In
such cases we have semantic neologisms, e.g. the word «umbrella» developed
the meanings: «àâèàöèîííîå ïðèêðûòèå», »ïîëèòè÷åñêîå ïðèêðûòèå». 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 substituted 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 analize 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
exhibition, 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. computerman,
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 computer 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 without leaving your
home, all operations are registered by the computer at your bank/,
videobank /computerized telephone which registers all information which is
received in your absence/. In the sphere of lingusitics 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 arrangements
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. In the sphere of medicine computors are also used and we have the
following neologisms: telemonitory unit / a telemonitory system for
treating patience at a distance/. With the development of social activities neologisms appeared as well,
e.g. youthquake - âîëíåíèÿ ñðåäè ìîëîäåæè, pussy-footer - ïîëèòèê, èäóùèé
íà êîìïðîìèñû, Euromarket, Eurodollar, Europarliament, Europol etc. In the modern English society there is a tendency to social
stratification, as a result there are neologisms in this sphere as well,
e.g. belonger - ïðåäñòàâèòåëü ñðåäíåãî êëàññà, ïðèâåðæåíåö êîíñåðâàòèâíûõ
âçãëÿäîâ. 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 emulaters. Those who have prospered but are not belongers
are called achievers. All these layers of socety are called VAL /Value
and Lifestyles/ . 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 /èìåþùèå ïðàâî æèòü â
ñòðàíå è åãî àíòîíèì/. 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 volantary 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/,
sweat /áåã íà äëèííûå äèñòàíöèè/, 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, education-
speak, video-speak, cable-speak etc. There are different semantic groups of neologisms belonging to everyday
life: a) food e.g. «starter»/ instead of «hors d’oevres»/, macrobiotics / raw
vegetables, crude rice/ , longlife milk, clingfilm, microwave stove,
consumer 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/,
completenik / 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 combinations 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 «perestroika»
/Russian/, «solidarnosc» /Polish/, Berufsverbot / German /, dolce vita
/Italian/ etc. Morphological and syntactical neologisms are usually built on patterns
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»-»ðåçêîå ïàäåíèå êóðñà àêöèé» appeared
in 1987 with the stock market crash in October 1987 /on the analogy with
free-fall of parachutists, which is the period between jumping and opening
the chute/. Here also belong: call-and-recall - âûçîâ íà äèñïàíñåðèçàöèþ,
bioastronomy -search for life on other planets, rat-out - betrayal in
danger , zero-zero (double zero) - ban of longer and shorter 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, slimster, folknik
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, Rubic’s cube, retail park, acid rain ,
boot trade etc.
Ñòðàíèöû: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
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