LEXICOLOGY

• Structure of the lexicon

• What do we mean by lexicon?

• In what sense can we say that the lexicon has structure?

• What do we understand by lexical structure?

Definitions of LEXICON (I):

LDCE: LEXICON= a dictionary, especially of an ancient language

COD: LEXICON= a dictionary, especially of Greek, Hebrew or Arabic;

(fig.) = vocabulary of e person, language of a branch of knowledge.

LEXICON= A POOL OF WORDS THAT FORMS THE BASIS OF ANY LANGUAGE

(etymology: Gk lexis = word, lexicon= inventory of words)

Two senses attributed to the term LEXICON:

a) Lexicon – a metalinguistic level, a sub-component in a linguistic model S. Ullmann’s structuralist model

(1957)

The diagram is a possible representation of various disciplines of linguistics and their inter-relations
b) Lexicon = vocabulary as seen from a synchronic point of view

FOCUS ON:

(1) Etymological heterogenity of the English vocabulary

(2) The problem of mixing of languages with its causes and consequences
-positive: richness of the vocabulary – international character of English – lingua franca
-negative: dissociation = phenomenon according to which words are not associated with each other like in
other Germanic languages;
e.g. German: Mund – mundlich English: mouth – oral
hard words = words of Gk and Lat. Origin that pose problems to those unfamiliar with these languages;
e.g. epithet vs. epitaph, allegory vs. alligator

(3) The stratification of the English vocabulary

Definition of LEXICON (II)

LEXICON = the vocabulary of a language, an accumulation of words; these are not unconnected
THE LEXICON HAS STRUCTURE

(a) Structure of the lexicon (external to the word): paradigmatic (oppositional)

syntagmatic (combinatorial)

(E. Coseriu’s model, 1970)

(b) Structure of the lexical items (internal to the word):

- simple items
- complex items
 Early studies in lexicology

• 19th century – R. Chavenix Trench (1807 – 1866) – lectures to students – 2 volumes:

- On the study of words (1850)
- English past and present (1855)

Interest in the semantic evolution of words Basic idea: words often embody facts of history

Relationship of lexicology to other branches of linguistics

• Lexicology and phonetics – word stress e.g. the ‘White House vs. the white ‘house

• Lexicology and grammar

- the plural can serve to form special lexical meanings: e.g. damage vs. damages; custom vs. customs
- the lexical meaning of the DO may change the meaning of the verb: e.g. to do homework vs. to do time; to
grow potatoes vs. to grow a beard
- the syntactic position of a word may change both its function and its lexical meaning: e.g. girls’ school vs.
school-girls, shop window vs. window-shop

• Lexicology and stylistics – selection of lexical units adapted to style: e.g. The knight mounted his
stallion (historical writings)
The child climbed his gee-gee (children’s narratives) * The knight mounted his gee-gee.
 Methods of linguistic analysis

Distributional analysis: helps in classifying linguistic units on the basis of the possible variants of the
immediate lexical, grammatical and phonetic environments;

– Makes use of symbols for syntactic categories: N, V, Adj;

– The potential capacity of words to occur in different environments is given by the distributional formulae;
e.g. make + N1 +N2: He made his son a toy. make + N + Adj: He made his wife happy.
make + N + V: He made her cry.
Transformational analysis: used to account for the transformations of linguistic units according to
corresponding patterns:
e.g. blotting paper = paper that blots ink boy-friend = the friend is a boy

The immediate constituents analysis (L. Blomfield): used mainly in grammatical analysis to refer to the
major divisions that can be made within a construction, at any level
e.g. [The beautiful girl] (1) [is walking very slowly] (2).

The componential analysis: a semantic theory developed from the technique of analysing the kinship
vocabulary; based on semantic features.
e.g. to run – The clock is running – internal movement/movement of parts;
-- The office runs well – general functioning; She ran for presidency – events related to
election.
Substitution: process of replacing one item with another at a particular place in a structure:

Substitution frame: the ………. is beautiful Substitution class : the set of items which can be used
paradigmatically at a given place.

The theory of oppositions: focus on linguistically important differences between units

The field theory: organizes vocabulary of a language on the basis of common semantic concepts
 Lecture 2

LEXICAL UNITS: STRUCTURE AND CLASSIFICATION

WORD IDENTIFICATION AND DEFINITION
- Difficulties in arriving at a consistent use of the term WORD:

a) Due to word identification – decisions over word boundaries: e.g. bee sting – 1 word or 2
words?
b) - decisions over the status: e.g. is the/a a word in the same sense as mother?

c) Due to word definition – a major problem of linguistic theory

Definitions of the term word

• A unit of expression which has universal intuitive recognition by native speakers;

• A linguistic form that can meaningfully be spoken in isolation;
• An element of human speech, to which meaning is attached, apt to be used grammatically; it can be
understood by a human collectivity constituted in a historical community.
 Three main senses of the term word

(a) Word – a physically definable unit encountered

-in a stretch of writing (separated by space) – orthographic word
- in a stretch of speech (bounded by pauses) – phonological word
A neutral term that covers both: WORD FORM

(b) Word (in a more abstract sense) – the common factor underlying a set of forms (i.e. variants of the same unit)

e.g. talk, talk, talking, talked, talker have TALK as a common factor or lexeme = an abstract entity found in a
dictionary that has a certain meaning

(c) Word: an abstract unit to be set up to show how words work in GRAMMAR. Thus, word = a grammatical
unit of the same kind as the morpheme.

Morpheme= the smallest unit that has meaning or that serves a grammatical function

TALK (lexeme)
talks, talking, talker, talked (word forms of TALK) {talk}, {-s}, {-ing}, {-er}, {-ed} (morphemes)

Classification of morphemes (I)

• Lexical • Grammatical
(semantic/derivational) (functional/inflectional)
-denote grammatical functions and syntactic
-denote extralinguistic objects -open set
relations
-precede grammatical morphemes (in Gm. lgs) -closed set
-combination with other lexical morphemes -follow lexical morphemes
often restricted -combination with other morphemes relatively
-result of combination=new lexemes unrestricted
-change either the word-class or meaning of -result of combination=new word forms
the root they are attached to -they don’t change the meaning or the word-class of
the root

WORD FORMATION
INFLECTION
Classification of morphemes (II)

• Free • Bound
Content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives) Suffixes
vs. Prefixes Infixes
Function words (prepositions, conjunctions, Bound bases (-ceive, -duce, -sist, -tain)
articles) Bound roots (sanct-, tox-)
Blocked morphemes (Fri -, cran-)
Roots, stems, bases, and affixes

• Root = basic part of a lexeme; can not be further analysed either in terms of derivational or inflectional
morphology; part of a word-form that remains when all inflectional and derivational affixes have been
removed
e.g. underprivileged

Stem: of concern only when dealing with inflectional morphology; it is that part of the word-form which remains
when all inflectional affixes have been removed

e.g. (the) undefeatables

Base: any form to which affixes of any kind can be added Both roots and stems can be bases, but not all bases
are roots and stems;
e.g. undefeatables

Affixes: bound morphs that always appear with a base: prefixes and suffixes

Lecture 3
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: THE DIACHRONIC APPROACH

English: an Indo-European language

• Indo-European = language spoken about 5,000 years ago by people(s) living in a relatively limited
geographical area, probably the central or the south-eastern part of Europe

• Branches of the I.E. family: Indian, Iranian, Slavic, Baltic, Germanic, Celtic, Italic, Helenic, Albanian,
Armenian, Hittite, and Tocharian
Common characteristics of the IE languages

• An inflectional structure
• Common word stock
– Family relations – Parts of the body
– Natural phenomena – Animals
– Numerals from 1 to 10

Periods in the development of English

• Old English (OE): 450/700 – 1100 – period of ‘full endings’;

• Middle English (MidE): 1100 – 1500 – period of ‘levelled endings’;

• Modern English: 1500 to the present – period of ‘lost endings’

– Early Modern English (16th – 17th cent.) – Late Modern English (17th -18th cent.)
– Modern English Proper (from the 18th cent. onwards)
OLD ENGLISH

• Main historical events of the period:

th th
– 5 , 6 cent. – settlement in the island of Jutes, Saxons and Angles;

– 597 – the coming of St. Augustine and the subsequent conversion of England to Latin Christianity;

th th th
– 8 , 9 , 10 cent. – the Scandinavian invasions;

th
– 11 . Cent. – the Norman conquest

Invaders – called initially SAXONS, later on ANGLES / ANGLI

Around 1000 AD, the nation is called ANGLECYNN (Angle race), later ENGLALAND (land of Angles)

Language – always called ENGLISC

The Old English vocabulary

• Words also existing in other languages: mother, father, night;

• Words found only in the Germanic branch of the IE lgs: earth, land, sand, sea, word, sleep;

• Specifically English words (not to be found in any other languages): clipian (‘to call’) sellan (‘to give’),
blican (‘shine’)

These three categories form the group of OE native words.

Means of enriching the vocabulary of OE

I. WORD BUILDING A. Derivation

1. Suffixes:

-noun-forming suffixes: -ere : fiscere (fisher); -estre: spinnestre (woman who spins);
-adjective-forming sufixes: -iƷ: mistiƷ (misty); -en: Ʒylden (golden); -full: carfull (careful); -lic: freondlic
(friendly);
-verb-forming suffixes:-sian: clensian (to clean, to purify); -lӕcan: gerichtlӕcan (to justify); -ettan: cohhettan
(to cough)
WORD BUILDING A. Derivation

2. Prefixes
- ā- ‘out of, from’: āberan (to bear), ārisan (to arise); - be- ‘by, near, about’: bewerian (to protect from,
to
defend against’)
- for- indicating destruction: fordõn (to kill, to destroy)

B. Composition
folcricht (folk’s right, common law), MonandӕƷ (Monday), crӕftsprӕc (craft speech, scientific language)

II. BORROWINGS

• Three main sources of loan words in Old English:

A. Celtic B. Latin
C. Scandinavian
A. Celtic loan words

Place names: in the present southern and eastern England:

Kent, Winchester, Salisbury, Exeter;
- Cwm (cumb = deep valley)- Cumberland, Duncombe, Morecombe;
- Torr (high rock, peak’) – Torrcross, Torr; - Pen (‘top’) – Pendle, Penrith, Pendleton;
- Mor (‘great’) – Morecombe (‘great valley’), Benmore (‘great mountain’), Kilmore (‘great church’)
- Mull (‘headland’) – Mull of Cantyre, Mull of Galloway
River names: Avon, Exe, Usk, Dover, Ouse, Calder (‘violent’), Cam (‘crooked’), Dee (‘holy)

B. Latin loand words

B.1. The first period of Latin borrowings (due to the contact between the Germanic tribes and the
Romans)
– a. military life: camp (‘battle’), pil (‘pointed stick, javelin’), pytt ‘pit’ (from Lat ‘puteus’), stræt ‘
paved road, street’ (Lat. [via] strāta), weall ‘wall’ (Lat. vallum), etc.
– b. trade: cēap (‘bargain’), pund ‘pound’ (Lat. pondō ‘measure of weight’), mynet (‘coin’ from Lat.
‘moneta’), ynce ‘inch’ (Lat. uncia) etc.
– c. domestic life, clothing, food: cytel ‘kettle’ (Lat. catillus ‘little pot’) cycene ‘kitchen’ (Lat. coquīna),
scamol (‘stool, bench’), pyle (‘pillow’), cēese ‘cheese’ (Lat. cāseus), cisten (‘chestnut-tree’), win (‘wine’),
butere ‘butter’ (Lat.butyrum), pise (‘pea’), disc ‘dish’ (Lat. discus) etc.
– d. building arts: cealc ‘chalk’ (Lat. calc), copor ‘copper’ (Lat. ‘cuprum’), tiele ‘tile’ (Lat. ‘tegula’).
B.2. The second period of Latin borrowings (due to
Christianization)
¨ Ecclesiastical terms: abbot, alms, altar, angel, apostle (Lat. ‘apostolus’), bishop (from ‘episcopus’), candle
(Lat. candela), canon, cedar, chalice, cleric, creed, deacon, dēmon (Lat. ‘daemon’), disciple, hymn, idol, litany,
martyr, mass (from ‘Missa’), monk (from ‘monachus’), nun (from ‘nunna’), pope (from ‘papa’), priest (from
‘presbyter’), prophet, psalm, shrine, temple (from Lat templum).

Lat. Castrum – caster (N and E of England), chester (W and S of England), cester (the Midlands): Lancaster,
Doncaster, Leicester, Gloucester, Manchester, Chesterfield.

C. Scandinavian loan words

-the Viking (Norwegians and Danes) raids on Britain began in AD 787 and continued at intervals until the
beginning of the eleventh century.
-large number of settlements with Scandinavian names –by, the Danish word for ‘farm’, or ‘town’. There are
over 600 places ending in –by: Derby, Grimbsby, Rugby, Whitby, Selby, and Thoresby : –thorpmeaning
‘village’: Althorp, Linthorpe, Cleethorpes, Gawthorpe, Northorpe, Scunthorpe, Thorpe; –thwaite (‘clearing,
piece of land’): Applethwaite, Bassenthwaite Braithwaite, Cowperthwaite, Langthwaite, etc.
Other place-names end or start with:
• -toft (‘a piece of ground’): Brimtoft, Eastoft, Langtoft, Lowestoft, and Nortoft; • -beck (‘brook’):
Beckford, Birkbeck, Holbeck, Troutbeckl, Wansbeck;
• -brack, breck, brick (‘slope’): Haverbrack, Norbreck, and Scarisbreck; • -dal (‘dale’, 'valley'):
Avondale, Scarsdale, Danesdale;
• -fell (‘hill’): Scafell, Snafell Whinfell;
• -garth (‘yard’): Applegarth, Arkengarthdale; • -gill (‘ravine’): Gaisgill, Garrigill;
• -keld (‘spring’): Hallikeld, Trinkeld; • -kirk (‘church’): Kirkby, Kelkirk etc.
Other examples:
-husband (hus-bonda ‘dweller of the house, irrespective of marrital status); -fellow (felaga/felagi ‘person that
lays down fe (money)’ = partner)
-husting (hus Бing = gathering/meeting in the house)
-names of parts of the human body: calf, leg, skin, knee; -names of animals: bull, kid, rein(deer).

OE cluster sc turned into sk in Scandinavian words – skyrta = skirt; into sh in Anglo-Saxon words – skyrte =
shirt
 Lecture 4

MIDDLE ENGLISH 1100 1500

Historical background

1066 – the beginning of a new social and linguistic era in Britain, but not the actual boundary between Old
English and Middle English. Middle English runs from the middle of the 12th century until the middle of the
15th century, with manuscripts at both ends of this period showing the language in a state of change.
Norman invasion culminated with the battle of Hastings in 1066. The Normans were mostly Norsemen who
had conquered France long before they came to Britain.
French became the language used in administration, parliament, schools. Latin was the language used in
church.
In the 14th century the situation started changing: little by little people started using English more than
French.
French borrowings

• Administration: bailiff, baron, castle, chancellor, coroner, council, court, domicile, duke, estate,
exchequer, government, liberty, majesty, manor, mayor, minister, noble, parliament, peasant, prince, revenue,
residence, royal, sir, sovereign, squire, tax, traitor, treasurer, treaty, tyrant, village.
• Religion: abbey, baptism, cardinal, cathedral, chant, charity, clergy, cloister, communion, confess,
convent, creator, crucifix, friar (from ‘frere’), heresy, mercy, miracle, novice, ordain, prayer, religion, saint,
salvation, sermon, solemn, trinity, vicar.
• Law: accuse, adultery, arrest, arson, assize, attorney, bail, blame, convict, crime, decree, depose,
evidence, felon, gaol, heir, inquest, judge, jury, justice, legacy, pardon, plaintiff, plea, prison, punishment,
sue, summons, verdict, warrant are French.
• Army and military life: army, ambush, archer, battle, besiege, captain, combat, defend, enemy,
garrison, guard, lance, lieutenant, moat, navy, peace, retreat, regiment, sergeant, siege, soldier, spy.
• Food and drink: pork, veal, mutton, beef, biscuit, fruit, mustard, peach, to boil, to broil, to fry, to grill,
to roast, to toast, to mince. The names of meals dinner and supper are French (though breakfast is English).
• Trades: carpenter, draper, joiner, haberdasher, jeweler, mason, painter, tailor

Fashion: garment, robe, gown, attire, cape, coat, cloak, collar, veil, lace, button, garter, boot.

Leisure: recreation, dance, dice (from ‘dees’), juggler (from ‘jongleur’) Learning and art: art, beauty,
sculpture, colour, figure, image, poet, prose, medicine, music, painting, romance, story, poison, ointment.

Alongside of French words, many French wordbuilding elements entered the English language
French suffixes. ignorance, arrogance, entrance, obedience contained the suffix –ance, ence, which
English people soon came to realize as a means of deriving abstract nouns from adjectives and verbs. This
accounts for the later formation of hybrids such as hindrance.–ment which appeared in words such as
government, parliament, treatment gave birth to the hybrids fulfilment, bereavement, amazement,
bewilderment, etc.;–ess, which entered the English language in words like princess, countess, baroness,
combines with English stems, e.g. in shepherdess, goddess, etc.

French prefixes: dis, des disdain, destroy, and it came to form new words with English roots, e.g. disown,
disburden, dislike, etc.; en, which appeared in words such as enclose, enjoy, encircle, gave birth to hybrids
like endear, enshroud, embed, embody.
Outcomes of the borrowing

The French word reduplicated a word that already existed in English from the Anglo Saxon times:
OE replaced by French
leod people
wlitig beautiful
luft air
Both the AS and the Fr words coexisted, their meanings being slightly different;

AS Fr
hearty cordial
house mansion
wish desire

Sometimes the borrowed (Fr.) word makes its English equivalent pass into another sphere of meaning:
OE MidE
(AS) (Fr)
hӕrfest autumn

harvest
Latin borrowings

Historical background

th th
In the 14 and 15 cent., Latin was the language of theology and learning.

Latin words were learned words that penetrated into English through literature.

1384 – translation of the Bible by John Wyclif; about 1,000 Latin words entered the English vocabulary.

Latin borrowings: abject, adjacent, conspiracy, contempt, custody, distract, genius, history, immune,
incarnate, include, incredible, incumbent, index, infancy, inferior, infinite, intellect, interrupt, legal, lucrative,
lunatic, magnify, mechanical, minor, missal, moderate, necessary, nervous, ornate, picture, polite, private,
prosecute, pulpit, quiet, rosary, scripture, solar, spacious, substitute, temperate, testimony, ulcer.

suffixes and prefixes able, -ible, -ent, -al, -ous, -ive; ab-, ad-, con-, im-, in-, pro-, re-, sub
- synonyms - due to the mingling of English, French and Latin elements

Old/Middle English French Latin

rise mount ascend
ask question interrogate
kingly royal regal
fast firm secure
holy sacred consecrated
time age epoch
fire flame conflagration
Greek borrowings

Greek – the language of Athens, which once led the world in art, science, and philosophy;

Greek words were borrowed: through Latin by way of French; through Latin;
directly from Greek

Greek loan words:

alphabet, drama, theatre, amphitheatre, comedy, tragedy, catastrophe, climax, episode, scene, dialogue,
prologue epilogue, academy, atom, chorus, basis, epic, irony, theory, dilemma, etc.

Greek suffixes (denoting deseases):–îtis and –ōsis: arthrîtis (nósos) ‘disease of the joints’, nephrîtis (nósos)
‘disease of the kidneys’, appendicitis ‘inflammation of the vermiform appendix’, bronchitis of the mucous
membrane of the bronchial tubes’, etc,. halitosis ‘foul breath’, neurosis ‘functional disorder of the nerves’,
psychosis ‘mental anxiety’ and tuberculosis ‘disease caused by the tubercle bacillus’
Flemish, Dutch and LowGerman borrowings

Due to economic intercourse with the Low Countries. Examples of borrowings:

to botch (‘to patch, to mend’), brake (‘machine for breaking hemp’), to curl (‘to press textiles into small
folds or waves’), to lash (‘to join a piece and make a seam’), duck (strong linen or cotton fabric) pack,
scour, spool, tuck (‘fold’), freight, guilder (‘Dutch silver coin’), hawker, huckster, nap (‘surface of cloth’),
peg, prop, deck, dock, lighter, rover (‘pirate’), skipper etc.

Arabic borrowings

Due to the Crusades Examples of borrowings:

• assassin from the Arabic hashāshīn ‘eaters of hashish’,
• bedouin from the Arabic badāwi ÞFrench bédouin ‘desert dweller, person wandering in the desert’;
• mattress from the Arabic matrah, ‘anything hastily thrown down, something to lie upon, bed’;
• caravan from the Persian kārwān;
• orange through French, Italian, Arabic from Persian nārang.

Others: alkali, almanac, alembic, alcove, alfalfa, alchemy, alcohol (al – kuhl, meaning ‘the kohl, i.e. the
powder of antimony for staining the eyelids’), amber, camphor, cotton, lute, saffron, caliber, candy, carat,
fakir, magazine, minaret.
 Lecture 5

MODERN ENGLISH 1500 – up to the present

Historical background

The beginnings of ModE are at the same time the beginnings of the Renaissance in England.
Many characteristics of ModE had already appeared in the second half of the 15th century.

William Caxton (a merchant) introduced the technology of printing in England in 1476. This new
invention provided people with more opportunities to write and gave their work much wider
circulation. Within the following 150 years, nearly 20,000 books appeared.

The main factor promoting the flood of new publications in the 16th cent. was the renewed interest in the
classical languages and literatures, and in the rapidly developing fields of science, medicine and the arts –
a period lasting from the time of Caxton until around 1650 which came to be called the Renaissance.

The period of worldwide explorations was well under way; words from over 50 languages, including
several American Indian languages and languages from Asia and Africa. Some words came into English
directly; others came by intermediary languages.
Two stands concerning borrowings:
(a) The purists objected against the influx of foreign words in English. They considered them ‘inkhorn’ terms and
condemned them for their obscurity and for the way they interfered with the development of the English
vocabulary. They tried to revive obsolete terms (‘Chaucerisms’) and to use words from the English dialects.

(b) The defendants of borrowings pointed out that English had already borrowed extensively in the past, and that
all other languages, including Latin and Greek had enriched themselves in this way.

16th cent. – compromise: to borrow only in cases where it is absolutely necessary.

Latin borrowings:
consolation, gravity, infernal, infidel, position might have come into English via French; expressions like abacus,
abecedarium, arbitrator, abdomen, area, compensate, data, denominate, explicit, folio, gradual, gratis, index,
item, medium, memento, memorandum, notorious, proviso, ignoramus (‘we do not know’), series, strict,
transient, ultimate, urban were taken straight from Latin without major changes.

synonymous: in meaning, as in form, they are no longer associated in the mind of the speaker: chapter –
capital, frail – fragile, poor – pauper, ray – radius, reason – ration, brotherhood – fraternity, end – terminus,
daily – diurnal, heaven – celestial
nouns and adjectives that are related to one another in meaning are not of the same origin, e.g. egg – oval, eye –
ocular, house – domestic, land – agrarian, mouth – oral, moon – lunar, nose – nasal, side – lateral, son – filial,
sun – solar, ( Noun = Germanic, Adj. =Latin)

Latin words that had already existed in English in their NormanFrench form were reintroduced in their Latin
form, but with a different meaning from that of the NormanFrench words. Here are a few examples of such
doublets:

Latin word Form derived from Reintroduced form

Norman-French
abbreviare abridge abbreviate
exemplum sample example
fragilem frail fragile
moneta money mint
persecutem pursue persecute
statum estate state

-Latin abbreviations : a.m. (L. ante meridian) – ‘before noon’; e.g. (L. exempli gratia) – ‘for example; i.e. (L.
id est) – ‘that is to say’; p.m. (L. post meridian) – ‘after noon’; viz. (L. videlicet) – ‘namely, to wit’; etc. (L. et
cetera) ‘and so on’ (this is one of the few Latin abbreviations used unchanged in English).
-Latin technical terms and phrases: a fortiori (for a still stronger reason), ad hoc (for this special purpose
only), ad libitum (at pleasure, to any extent), corpus delicti (the basic element of a crime), de facto (actually
existing, especially when without lawful authority), editio princeps (first printed edition of a book), ex
cathedra, honoris causa, in absentia, in memoriam, in toto (in the whole), infra dignitatem (beneath one’s
dignity), ipso facto (by the fact itself), non compos mentis (not master of one’s mind, mad), per anum, per
diem, per se (by or in itself, intrinsically), pro forma, pro tanto (so far to that extent), pro tempore (for the
time).

Some Latin words retained their original meaning in Elizabethan English. e.g. enormous = out of the
norm, abnormal
extravagant = wandering beyond the path premises = things
mentioned previously

On entering the English language, some Latin words maintained their original form:
e.g. Climax, appendix, delirium, index, medium, vertebra

Other words lost their endings:

e.g. to consult(are), to permit(ere), exotic(us), port(us)
Greek borrowings:

Most terms of Greek origin belonged to the spheres of science, mythology, and political life. They have
generally acquired an international character.
cases of Greek doublets, such as the following (most of them coming through French and Latin):

Greek word Older English form Later English form

blasphēmein blame blaspheme
phantasma phantom phantasm
phantasia fancy phantasy
paralysis palsy paralysis
French borrowings

-aristocratic life: ball, ballet, beau, billet, intrigue, miniature, serenade, suite.
culture: belles lettres, brochure, connoisseur, critique, editor, memoir, novelist, tableau, etc;
military life: brigadier, bombard, cannonade, espionage, parade; commercial activity: capital, discount,
dividend, insurance, investment, manufacture, currency;
-politics: administration (‘management of public affairs, government’), budget (‘annual estimate of revenue and
expenditure of a state’), minister (in the sense of ‘political agent accredited by one state to another’), premier
(‘prime minister’).

Italian loan words

terms relating to literature and arts: cameo, carnival, inferno, lottery, motto, opera, piazza, sonnet,
stanza.
terms related to music: alto, allegro, adagio, andante, aria, baritone, basso, cantata, concerto, contralto,
crescendo, diminuendo, duet, fugue, falsetto, forte, intermezzo, libretto, madrigal, maestro, operetta,
oratorio, rallentando, rondo, staccato, prima donna, solo, sonata, soprano tempo, tenor, trio, violin,
violoncello, etc.
more recent borrowings: balcony, balloon, bravo, broccoli, casino, gondola, incognito, influenza,
lagoon, lasagna, lava, malaria, motto, macaroni, pergola, portico, pasta, pizza, ravioli, regatta, scope,
studio, umbrella, vendetta, volcano, cupola, design, fresco, giraffe, grotto

Spanish and Portuguese borrowings

 alligator, anchovy, apricot, armada, banana, barricade, bilbo, bravado, cannibal, cargo, canoe, cocoa,
condor, cockroach (which is the English adaptation of the Spanish cuccaracha), corral, embargo, guitar,
hammock, hurricane, maize, marmalade, mosquito, mulatto, potato (from Haiti), port (wine), sombrero,
sherry (named after Jeréz in Andalusia), tank, tobacco, tomato, (from Mexican), chili (‘red pepper’) and
coyote from Mexican, papaw (‘tropical tree and its fruit’), iguana (‘large South American treelizard’),
savannah, yucca (whiteflowered American plant) guava ('tropical tree) from Cuban, alpaca, coca (a shrub
from whose leaves cocaine is obtained), llama, pampas, puma, quinine from Peruvian, and jaguar, petunia,
poncho from Brazilian Portuguese.

Dutch borrowings

cruise, hoist, yacht, buoy, monsoon, reef, slop (‘onemasted ship’), to swab (‘to clean the deck of a vessel’),
aloof, boor (boer), boss, hop (plant), jeer, landscape, easel, frolic, kit (originally a vessel for carrying a
soldier’s equipment), onslaught, pickle, sketch, smuggle, tattoo ‘drum signal, military entertainment’, toy,
trick, wagon, wiseacre (‘sententious, slowwitted person’), snuff (‘powdered tobacco taken by sniffing’)
brandy (Dutch brandewijn), dope (Dutch doop), bouse, now spelt booze, gin (short for ginger –borrowed by
the Dutch from Old French, ultimately Latin juniperus ‘juniper’)

suffix –kin comes from Dutch, e.g. as in manikin (Dutch ‘mannekin’ –dwarf, pigmey),
lambkin, pip kin (‘a small earthenware jar or pot’).

German borrowings

mineralogy: bismuth, cobalt, gneiss, meerschaum, nickel (originally Kupfernickel) quartz, zinc, etc.
-Others: edelweiss, ersatz, hinterland, leitmotiv, poltergeist, rucksack, yodel, plunder, switch, iceberg,
master, zigzag, Zeitgeist, Bildungsroman, waltz, etc.

Indian borrowings

bandanna (‘richly coloured handkerchief’), bangle, bungalow, calico, cashmere, coolie, cot, curry (from
Tamil), dungaree (from dungri, ‘a coarse cloth’), dinghy (‘small boat’ in Bengalese), jungle, jute, khaki
(‘dust coloured’), loot, mongoose (from Marathi), nirvana, nabob, pariah, polo, punch (‘drink’), pundit
(Hindi ‘learned Hindu’, authority’), pajamas (from Hindi), yoga (from Hindi), shampoo (from the Hindi
word champo ‘massage’), rajah, rupee, sahib, sari, sepoy (‘Indian soldier’), topi (‘hat’), thug (‘robber,
strangler’; it comes from the name of a fraternity of professional murderers who terrorised parts of India
during the 1820s).

Borrowings from other languages

►MALAY :amok (‘furious’), bamboo, cockatoo, gingham, gong, mango (tree and fruit), mangrove (‘tree’),
orangutan (literally ‘wild man of the forest’), paddy (‘rice in the husk’), rattan (‘kind of palmtree’), sago (‘sort
of starch’). ►ARABIC (Persian): check mate (from Al-shah mat ‘the King is dead’), caravanserai (a place
where travellers could put up for the night), shawl, tulip (comes from a word meaning ‘turban’), bazaar, divan,
cotton, calibre, gazelle, harem (literally ‘forbidden’), syrup, baksheesh (meant simply ‘a present’ without
implication of “greasing the palm”), jasmine (in Arabic 'yasmin' became the name of a scent, and hence
presumably a name given to girls), whore (Persian houri, literally meaning ‘a gazellelike woman of Paradise’),
bint (from saida bint –‘goodday girl’/prostitute)
► TURKISH: bēy, caftan, afghan, yoghurt, kiosk, fez, caviar, coffee (Turkish kahvé, which is said to have
meant some kind of wine).
► From HEBREW, English borrowed words such as: cherub, kosher, seraph, ► CHINESE borrowings: tea,
china, kowtow (Chinese custom of kneeling with the forehead touching the ground), ketchup, typhoon, pidgin
(for the quaint jargon so called; the Chinese found difficulty in pronouncing ‘business’)
► AUSTRALIAN: boomerang, kangaroo, wallaby (‘small kangaroo’), wombat (‘kind of opossum’), dingo,
budgerigar [‘a kind of parrot’. In England this word is often clipped to budgie).
► NORTH AMERICAN: tomahawk, wigwam, totem, moccasin, hominy, toboggan
►JAPANESE: kimono, jujitsu (literally ‘pliant art’), the geisha girl (originally a ‘dancing person’), the
ceremonial form of suicide, hara-kiri (a ‘bellyslitting’, generally by its owner), rickshaw, karaoke, kimono,
sake, samurai
►HUNGARIAN has enriched the English hotchpotch with the words goulash, paprika, possibly coach
(from the town of Kocs where such carriages were first made), vampire, hussar.
►RUSSIAN: czar, troika, steppe, mammoth. More recent Russian borrowings are Bolshevik, muzhik,
pogrom, soviet, kolkhoz, sputnik, vodka, samovar.
►NORWEGIAN: ski, saga, troll, fjord.
 Lecture 6

The synchronic approach to the English vocabulary

OE +MidE+ModE = Contemporary English Contemporary English – ‘variety-within-unity’ case -temporal

dimension
-geographic dimension

Every speaker has at his/her disposal several variants of language

Idiolect Dialect
Sociolect (social dialect) Accent
Variety
Classification of varieties of English as given by Quirk/Greenbaum (1973) (quoted in Lipka, 1990:17) in A
University Grammar of English. The varieties co-existing within the linguistic aggregate of
Contemporary English are the following:
1. Region (geographical variation) AmE, AusE, CanE
2. Education and social standing lit, colloq./sl

3. Subject matter register/field law, med

4. Medium mode lit, poet
5. Attitude ‘style’ fml, humour,derrog.
6. Interference Fr, Ger, It, Rom
REGION
For geographical or regional variation the term dialect is traditionally used: dialect is the language form of a
particular group of speakers. Dialect is currently often used in a broad sense, i.e. both for a regional,
geographical variety, as well as for a social subclass of a speech community.
Variety (neutral term) frequently preferred today since it lacks the negative connotations, or shades of meaning,
of dialect.

Some examples of differences between British and American English. AmE: railroad, conductor, baggage,
package, gas(oline),
truck, sidewalk as opposed to
BrE: railway, guard, luggage, parcel, petrol, lorry, pavement.

REGION -Irish:
blarney (‘flattering, cajoling talk’), brogue, galore (abundance, sufficiency’), colleen (name for a girl),
shamrock (trefoil, clover), Tory (originally ‘an Irish robber’), banshee (Gaelic bean sidhe, ‘fairy woman’),
boreen (a narrow rural road in Ireland), keening (to lament, to wail mournfully), shebeen (unlicensed house
selling alcohol), leprechaun, Hooligan (from the name of a wild Irish family that became notorious in London
during the 1890s).

-Welsh: bard, coracle (‘a kind of boat used on the Dee’), flannel, crag, eisteddfod, flummery, tref (hamlet,
town), menhir (long stone), penguin (white head), iechyd da (cheers, or literally "good health") .

-Scottish Gaelic: loch (lake), bog (wet spongy ground), cairn (mound of stones as a monument or landmark),
clan, glen (narrow valley). The word whisky is an Anglicised version of uisgebeatha, ‘water of life’; reek
(smoke), shank (stalk), stock (chap, bloke), tweed, Tam o’ Shanter
Australian terms: - Aboriginal terms
Budgerigar, bunyip (large mythical creature in Aboriginal mythology), coolibah, currawong (black bird), dingo,
koala, kookaburra, wallaby, billabong

bring a plate, give me a tick

Australian words

-English terms with different forms/meanings:

Grog (alcohol), amber fluid, Aussie/Strine, bickie (biscuit), chook (cheap wine), chokkie, Chrissie,
bushranger, pissed, whorfie, back of beyond, station, tucker, dunny, jumbuck, woolgrower, chalkie, billy

Kiwi words and phrases

Banger (sausage), blow me down (expression of surprise, as in; "Well! Blow me down, I didn't know that.“),
brassed off (disappointed, annoyed), buggered (exhausted), cackhanded (left handed), candyfloss (cotton
candy), choice (very good), chuffed (pleased; "he was dead chuffed“), chunder (to vomit), crook (sick, unwell),
doing the ton (driving really, really fast!), flicks (movies, picture theatre), flog (steal, nick), footpath
(pavement / sidewalk), gas guzzler (large car, usually associated with older USA imports) hooray (the Kiwi
"Goodbye“), jandal (thongs, flip-flops), naff off (get lost!) pakeha (non-Maori person), plod (friendly term for
local policeman).
EDUCATION AND SOCIAL STANDING

-considerable variation depending on education and social standing = referred to as sociolect or social dialect.
A speaker may show more similarity in his language to people from the same social group in a different area
than to people from a different social group in the same area.
-the so-called sub-phonemic differences can be said to be socially meaningful.
-e.g. the pronunciation of a glottal stop between vowels as an allophone of /t/ (e.g. little /li/l/) - a characteristic of
many urban accents of England and Scotland;
-‘aitch-dropping’ at the beginning of words (e.g. give him his hat /giv im iz hQt/).

Cockney rhyming slang

Cockney rhyming slang is an amusing and much under-estimated part of the English language. Originating in
London's East End in the mid-19th century, Cockney rhyming slang uses substitute words, usually two, as a
coded alternative for another word. The final word of the substitute phrase rhymes with the word it replaces (e.g.
'butcher's hook‘ = 'look‘).
Rhyming slang began 200 years ago among the London east-end docks builders. Cockney rhyming slang then
developed as a secret language of the London underworld from the 1850s, when villains used the coded speech
to confuse police and eavesdroppers.
Many original cockney rhyming slang words have now entered the language and many users are largely
oblivious as to their beginnings.
Examples

Adam and Eve - believe ('would you adam and eve it?'), boat (boat race) – face, bowler hat – cat, Brahms
(Brahms and Liszt) – pissed, Bristols (Bristol Cities) - titties (breasts), bull and cow - row (argument), cloud
seven – heaven, daisy roots – boots, dustbin lids – kids, half inch - pinch (steal), Holy ghost – toast,
raspberry (raspberry tart) - fart (evolved to include 'blowing a raspberry' with the tongue), sausage and mash –
cash, trouble (trouble and strife) – wife, jam jar – car, elephant’s trunk – drunk, china plate – mate.

SUBJECT MATTER

Varieties according to subject matter = registers.

-registers = speech adaptations that depend upon the social and communicative demands of the situation
(Andersen, 1978, quoted in Berko Gleason, 1989:330).
-registers = differences observable within speakers, across situations.
Most of speakers : a single language and often a single dialect, but several registers in order to be socially
acceptable.
-register - 'varieties according to use', in contrast with dialects, defined as 'varieties according to user' (Halliday,
McIntosh & Stevens, 1964 quoted in Hudson, R.A. 1991:48).

Slight oversimplification: one’s dialect shows who (or what) you are, whilst one’s register shows what you are
doing.
Examples

1) The second approach to studying communicative behaviour is sociolinguistic. This method is concerned with
discovering patterns of linguistic variation. Variation in language use is derived from differences in speech
situations and from social distinctions within a community that are reflected in communicative performance.
Although some speech differences are idiosyncratic, it is possible to study intracommunity variables by
recording and analysing actual speech behaviour of members of distinct sectors of population’.

2) No code or policy can anticipate every situation that may arise. Accordingly, this Code is intended to serve
as a source of guiding principles for directors, officers and employees. If any aspect of this Code is unclear to
you as an employee, or if you have any questions or face dilemmas that are not addressed, you should confer
with your supervisor.
The Company reserves the right to amend or rescind this Code or any portion of it at any time and to adopt
different policies and procedures at any time. In the event of any conflict or inconsistency between this Code and
any other materials distributed by the Company, this Code shall govern. If a law conflicts with a policy in this
Code, you must comply with the law.
•

-
-

-
ATTITUDE

-linguistic form may be determined by the speaker’s attitude to the hearer or reader (the addressee), to the
subject matter, or to the purpose of the message. This variety is often marked by the ambiguous label style.

-The University Grammar of English (UGE) distinguishes five variants of attitude along the following scale:
rigid / FORMAL / neutral / INFORMAL / familiar (of which only the two in capitals are explicitly marked).

-Lexicon: finer distinctions are usually drawn in many dictionaries→ different kinds and different degrees of
formality and informality

-Etymology: formal words are normally of classical or Romance origin, while informal words usually derive
from Anglo-Saxon.

Leech (1981):
horse (general), steed (poetic), nag (slang) But
COD: nag = small riding horse: (colloq) horse

LDCE: nag (not fml)= 1)a horse that is old or in bad condition; 2) (infml, esp. derog) a horse, esp. one that races.
AussieE: plod (humour) a local policemen

Prince Harry jumps to rival's rescue after horror polo fall

The selfless prince jumped from his steed after US businessman Bash Kazi was knocked unconscious after a
violent collision.
Polo whizz Harry, 27, put Mr Kazi into the recovery position while other riders taking part in the charity match
in Campinas last month looked on.
The British Red Cross said the prince's valiant actions could have saved Mr Kazi's life.
The businessman said: "Prince Harry was the first one off his horse, doing the right thing, turning me over to
make sure I regained consciousness."
The amateur polo player was taking part in the match organised by the prince when he was thrown from his
mount when it collided with another horse.
He said: "I remember waking up with these piercing blue eyes looking at me." He called the royal "a fabulous
person" and "such a gentleman" for helping him.
Mr Kazi is thought to have had minor concussion, but was later given the all clear after a CT scan.
The 41-year-old had been recruited for the star-studded match — to raise money for Prince Harry's Lesotho-
based charity Sentabale — by Ralph Lauren model and professional polo player Nachos Figueras.
Harry's team won the match 6-3.
Queen Elizabeth II in Public and Private

Since then, Elizabeth has reigned but not ruled. As head of state, she has presided over British involvement in a
string of military conflicts, from Korea to Afghanistan. She has also received weekly briefings from successive
British prime ministers: David Cameron is the 12th. But she is allowed to express no political opinion that has
not been authorized by the government. Rather, her role is to personify orderly continuity from a majestic height.
She has traveled the globe tirelessly. At home, she holds garden parties, hands out medals and honors, visits
hospitals and goes to the races. This doesn’t always make for exciting reading. Time and again, Smith writes of
Elizabeth’s “rounds of official duties” and “her familiar routines,” her “morning obligations.”

‘INTERFERENCE‘

= the contact of L1 with a foreign language; it includes varieties caused by the traces left by a speaker’s native
language when speaking English. Thus, speakers of English as a foreign language make unaware attempts to
force English into the grammatical patterns of their mother tongue. This tendency is the source of further
varieties of English, such as the English spoken by French, vs. that spoken by a Russian/ German/ Romanian.

-Interference – at the phonological, grammatical and lexical level.

-on the lexical level, interference is probably more important than on the phonological and grammatical levels.
In this respect loan words and loan translations must be mentioned as the result of interference. The so-called
‘false-friends’ also belong here. For example, the German words sensibel ‘sensitive’, brav ‘good’ are identified
with the English sensible ‘reasonable’ and brave ‘courageous’. The English library (R. bibliotecă) is identified
with the Romanian librărie, magazine (R. revistă) with magazin, and compass (R. busolă) with compas, E lentil
vs. R lentila.
CONCLUSION

• Dear dustbin lids, your chalkie says to you now, hooray!

Lecture 7

WORD-F0RMATION RULES
 (ways of enriching the vocabulary on the basis of internal means)

AFFIXATION

• Affixation represents the use of prefixes and suffixes with the roots/stems of various words to form
new words

1.1. PREFIXES
1.1.1. Class changing prefixes
a- /«/. forms adjectives, used in predicative position: the house is ablaze vs. *the ablaze house
be . forms transitive verbs from adjectives, verbs or, most frequently, nouns., e.g.., bewitch, bejewel, en.:
endanger, encircle, enlarge,

Other prefixes in this class are: de ‘to remove the thing denoted by the noun’ (debark, de-ice, debug, defrost),
dis (disbar), un (unhorse).

1.1.2. Class maintaining prefixes (classified acc. to semantic principles)

a) Negative prefixes (the opposite of): un a prefix of Germanic origin; e.g. unfair, unexpected, non e.g. non-
smoker, non-profit, non-resident, in (with the allomorphic variants il-, ir-, im-) e.g. inactivate, insane,
illogical, improper, irrecoverable, dis- e.g. disobey, disloyal, dislike, a, /ei/ amoral, apolitical
b) Reversative prefixes (to reverse the action:)de.e.g. decode, deactivate, dis- e.g. disconnect, disorder,
disinherit, une.g. undo, unwrap,
c) Pejorative prefixes: mis – (meaning bad, improper, wrongly):, misconduct, misdirect, misprint, mistreat.
mal (meaning badly, inadequate): malformed, maladjustment, maltreat, maladjusted, pseudo (meaning
false): pseudonym, pseudomycelial.
d) Prefixes of degree /size: arch: archbishop, archduchess, hyper
hyperventilate, hyperactive, hypo– hypotension, hypochondria; macro. macrobiotic, macrocosm; micro.
microcosm, microscopic, microsurgery; out outgrow, outrun, outlive; over. overdo, overeat, super.
supernatural, superabundant, sur. surcharge, surreal, surplus; submeaning ‘inferior to': subadult, subagency,
under.. undercooked, underestimate, ultra (‘beyond, excessive’): ultramodern, ultrahigh,

e) Prefixes of attitude: anti anti-abortion, anti-Catholic; co (variants: com , con, col, cor ) co-author,
communicate, conference, contra( contro) contravene, controversy, propro-allies, pro-democracy, pro-feminist,
pro-union

f) Locative prefixes: cata (‘down’): catastrophe, cataract, catapult; circum circumnavigate, circumcise, dia
(‘across, through’): diagonal, diameter, inter international, inter-city, inter-departmental; super ‘over, above’:
superstructure, superscript; sub ‘under’ subway, subcontract; trans transatlantic, transcontinental

g) Prefixes of time and order: ante ‘before’ antecedent, , ante-nuptial, ex, ‘former’ ex-accountant, ex-boxer;
fore ‘before’ forearm, forebear; pre‘before’ preamplifier, pre-arrange; post‘after’ postpone, post-budget, post-
impressionism, prim ‘first’ primordial, primrose, proto. prototype, proto-horse, protohuman, re ‘again’ rebuild,
resettlement, rename.

h) Number prefixes : ambi; ‘both’ ambidextrous, bi/ di means ‘two’, bicycle, dichotomy, dilemma. mono, uni
‘one’ monarchy, monotheism
1.2. SUFFIXES (classified acc. to the class of the word they form)

1.2.1. Noun-forming suffixes

• Nouns from nouns a)

Occupational
eer: pamphleteer, engineer, pioneer. er: ‘maker of’; glover, potter b) Diminutive and female
-ette: ‘small’; kitchenette, cigarette; ‘feminine’: usherette, majorette, ess: waitress, actress. let: ‘small,
unimportant’
booklet, starlet, piglet, y (ie): daddy, auntie, Johnny. c) Status, domain
cracy: ‘system of government’ democracy, plutocracy; dom: kingdom, stardom ery: e.g. slavery,
machinery; hood: boyhood, brotherhood, ship: friendship, membership;

•Nouns (adjectives) from nouns

ese: ‘nationality’ Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese. (i)an: ‘belonging to, nationality’; Indonesian, republican;
ism: ‘doctrine’ Calvinism, Buddhism, idealism; ist: ‘member of, occupation’ Buddhist, stylist, manicurist -
ite: ‘member of’ Labourite, Wagnerite;

•Nouns from verbs

-ation: lexicalization, computerization, flirtation, formation, containerization, Finlandization, fracturation.
-al: denotes action (derived from dynamic verbs): arrival, refusal, denial; -ant: inhabitant, lubricant,
contestant, -ee: addressee, assignee, deportee, cohabitee, divorcee; -er: actor, lecturer, player, producer,
-ing: driving, painting, earnings. -ment: arrangement, commitment, entertainment, improvement,
retirement. -ure: closure, failure, departure,
•Nouns from adjectives
-cy:. accuracy, efficiency, Excellency, illiteracy, intimacy; -ity; absurdity, brutality, complexity,
formality,
-ness: awkwardness, boldness, effectiveness; -th : warmth, length, youth, width.

1.2.2. Verbforming suffixes

ize: apologize, characterize, symbolize, publicize, pedestrianize, structurize, Vietnamize.
-ify: amplify, beautify, clarify, , metrify, fishify (=to supply with fish), testify, specify.
en: blacken, dampen, deepen, flatten, harden, loosen;

1.2.3. Adjectiveforming suffixes •Adjectives from

nouns
al. accidental, additional, conventional, ed bearded, patterned, pointed, esque: Dantesque, Haydnesque,
Rembrandtesque, picturesque, grotesque,
less, brainless, endless, ish British, English, Jewish, boyish, childish, like
animal-like, childlike, daisy-like; ly beastly, earthly, fatherly, heavenly, manly, -ous: ambitious, courteous, y:
e.g., creamy, silky.

Other suffixes which form adjectives from nouns are:

ate: e.g. passionate, affectionate, compassionate en: e.g. woolen, golden: -ese: e.g. Chinese, Japanese,
Portuguese.ful: e.g. useful, delightful, successful; ic: e.g. algebraic, atomic, heroic, specific.
• Adjectives from verbs
able: e.g. acceptable, comparable, manageable, less: countless, tireless; ive active, attractive,
competitive, destructive, effective;- ant/ent: absorbent, brilliant, constant, -atory: affirmatory, derogatory

•Adjectives from adjectives

ish biggish, blackish, dampish, darkish; ly: e.g. lowly, sickly. -some: e.g. queersome, wearisome

COMPOSITION (COMPOUNDING) 1. COMPOUND NOUNS

- bée sting (cf: the bee stings), snake-bite, rainfall, plain crash, sunshine, toothache
- cleaning lady, dancing girl, falling star, laughing stock, - callboy, hangman, glow-
worm, playboy
- demolition squad
.- chewing-gum (cf: Mary chews the gum), drinking-water, - flashlight, ripcord, stopwatch
- brick-layer, cheese-cutter
- fuel oil, gear wheel, houseboat, killer shark, ejector seat
-bull's eye, death’s head, crow’s nest, lion’s shoe, no-man’s land, cat’s cradle, devil’s advocate
-blotting paper, carving knife, darning needle,
-landing strip, swimming pool, bake-house, call-box, checkpoint, show-room, watch-tower.
2. COMPOUND VERBS

2.1. Compound verbs obtained by back-formation: to globe-trot,: to brainwash, to sleep-walk,. to air-

condition, to book-keep, to gift-wrap,

2. 2. Compound verbs formed by derivation to court-martial, to hand-cuff, to machine-gun,

3. CONVERSION (zero derivation)

3.1. Verbal zero-derivation

• Derived from SIMPLE NOUNS
-asphalt - to asphalt, butter - to butter, paper - to paper; fence - to fence, hedge - to hedge, cream - to
cream, curry - to curry, comb -to comb, hammer - to hammer, bottle - to bottle, elbow - to elbow, finger -
to finger;

•Very often derived from COMPOUND NOUNS:

-N + N: sandpaper - to sandpaper, handcuff -to handcuff;
-Adj + N: wet-nurse - to wet-nurse (to act as a wet-nurse, i.e. as a woman employed to suckle
another’s child),

• Derived from ADJECTIVES: dirty - to dirty, calm - to calm;

3.1.2. Nominal zero-derivation
• Derived from VERBS: to call - a call, to command - a command, to guess - a guess;

•Derived from ADJECTIVES (relatively rare and frequently restricted in their syntactic occurrence): comic -
a comic, bitter - bitter, final - the finals, regular - regulars;

3.1.3. Adjectival zero-derivation

• Derived from ADVERBS (adverbs may appear as attributive modifiers): down – a down line, a down train,
off – an off day, the off side of the wall.

5.4. CLIPPING/CONTRACTION

Clipping is the process by which a word of two or more syllables (usually a noun) is shortened without a change
in its function and meaning taking place (e.g. advertisement > advert, ad, examination > exam). The
unpredictability concerns the way in which the base lexeme is shortened.

a) Aphaeresis (foreclipping) represents the reduction of the fore part of a word. This can be seen in such
examples as (tele) phone, (air) plane, (omni) bus, (violon) cello, (heli) copter;

b) Syncope (midclipping) consists in the reduction of the middle part of a word: e.g. fancy< fan(ta)sy,
celebs < celeb(ritie)s, veg(etari)an;
c) Apocope (backclipping) is the most productive of the three types and consists in the omission of the last
part of a word. Here are some examples: memo(randum), cable(gram) cab(riolet) chap(man), miss(tress),
fax (from facsimile)

5.5. BLENDING

Blends are also called ‘telescoped words’, ‘disguised compounds’ or ‘portmanteau words’. Defined as new
lexemes formed from parts of two (or possibly more) other words in such a way that a transparent analysis into
morphs is not possible. As a rule, blends take the first part of one word and the last part of another, rather than
mixing phonemes at random, or inserting part of one word into the middle of another. In blending, the coiner is
apparently free to take as much or as little from either base as is felt to be necessary. One restriction: the splitting
up of consonant clusters from either of the original words is not allowed.
- examples of blends: blotch = blot + botch, blurt = blare + spurt, chump = chunk + lump, flurry =fly +
hurry, grumble = growl + rumble, splutter = splash + sputter, twirl = twist + whirl, flubber = flying +
rubber, cablegram = cable + telegram, sportcast = sport + broadcast, to Amerind = American + Indian,
Velcro = velours croché (in French),
- Paddict? Amazome? Chairdrobe/Floordrobe? Internesting?
- Irrightional?. Passfusion?
 Blending (cont.)

• heliport, claymation, viducate, litcrit, kissathon, galvanneal, breathalyse, alphameric, Bollywood, Franglais,
slanguage, beermare, chunnel, tinute, slangtionary, Smorche/Smerari/Smorvette.
• Problems:
-spelling: botel/boatel, swellegant/swelegant
-pronunciation: hurricoon (‘hurricane + ba’lloon)

6. ABBREVIATIONS/ACRONYMS

- if a word like Value Added Tax is pronounced as /vi ei ti/, that is an abbreviation (alphabetism), but if we
pronounce it as /vQt/, it has become an acronym.
Examples of alphabetisms: hifi, FBI, UFO, NATO and BA. There are large numbers of new technical terms
such as VHS (the video home system), PC;

Examples of acronyms: AIDS (Anti-Immunitary Deficient System), LEM (Lunar Excursion Module), FOBS
(Fractional Orbital Bombardment System) and all the terms for computerspeak: (personal computer), RAM
(Random Access Memory), ROM (Read Only Memory), BASIC (Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Instruction
Code) Laser?

Scuba? UNESCO?
Abbreviation
• MADD, DAMM • JAL
• ChiLDES
• GHOST (Global Horizontal Sounding Technique)
• Tacsatcom (TACtile SATellite COMmunication)

7. REDUPLICATION

-the word-formation rule which brings together two or more elements which are identical or only slightly
different. The outcome of this WFR are the reduplicated words.

a) reduplicated words based on internal vowel alternations: chit-chat, drip-drop, knick-knack, tip-top, zig-zag,
tick-tock, dilly-dally.

b) reduplicated words based on rhyme: boogie-woogie, willy-nilly, hocus-pocus, hanky-panky, bow-wow, hob-
nob, higgledy-piggledy, hugger-mugger (confusion, disorder), miminy-piminy

c) Exact reduplication: goo-goo (eyes) (amorous eyes), poo-poo, gee-gee, bling-bling.

8. COMMONIZATION (eponymous words)
Common words derived from proper names, i.e. from names of people and from names of places.

8.1. Words from people.

-macadam, after John McAdam, a Scottish engineer who was the first to pave streets with small blocks of stone;
-mackintosh, after Charles Mackintosh who owned a factory producing raincoats;
-guy, after Guy Fawks (1570 –1606) who led the conspiracy known as the ‘Gun Powder Plot’, meant to kill
the king;
-bobby (a policemen in England), after Sir Robert Peel, who reorganized the police;
-boycott, after Captain Charles S. Boycott, agent in 1880 for the estates of Lord Erne in County Mayo.
-lynch, after Captain William Lynch of Virginia, in the 18th century; -shrapnel (fragmented shell), after
General Henry Shrapnel (1761-1842);
-sandwich, after Earl of Sandwich.

• Plimsolls
• Wellingtons • Derrick
• Tam-o-Shanter • Hoover
The Whigs (Scottland, 1620) – ‘whiggamaire’ – a horse thief
The Tories (Ireland, 1640) – ‘toraidhe’-pursuer
8.2. Words from places

-champagne, an effervescent wine, takes its name from a famous region in France where this drink is produced;
-holland, linen or cotton cloth, first made in Holland; -damask, cloth produced in Damascus;
-calico comes from Calicut on the Malabar coast of India; -muslin comes from Mosul in Mesopotamia;
-the duffel coat, which the Navy made so popular, gets its name from a coarse woolen cloth spun at Duffel near
Antwerp;
-bikini, a style of beachwear, takes its name from an atoll in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific.

• Denim
• Cashmere
• Gauze (Gaza) • Cheddar
• Madeira • Panama
• To shanghai • Balaclava
• Jersey (Channel Islands)
 Deliberate coinages
• Aroint!
• Coystril Shakespeare
• Orgulous

Kodak, nylon, xerox,

Recent coinages

• Phub Burkini

• Snail mail Busking

• To sofalize Chillaxing
• Webminar Click bait
• Affluenza Cot potatoe
• Applepick Cronut
• Baggravation Droolworthy (car/dress)
• Bromance Frostjacking
• Glad rags
Jumbrella
 Lecture 8

MEANING

Models of the linguistic sign

I. Saussure’s approach
-language is a system of signs, sign and system are mutually conditioning, since a sign only derives its value
from within the system on the basis of its relation to other signs.
-the linguistic sign itself has two sides: a given notion (concept) that is associated in the brain with a certain
phonic image (acoustic image).
-the linguistic sign is binary, since it consists of two parts.
-meaning (content) = a concept and therefore a mental entity.
 concept sign - flower
----------- ----------- --------------
acoustic FLOWER FLOWER
image
 II.Ogden and Richards’ ‘Semiotic Triangle’

THOUGHT (‘reference’)

SYMBOL (‘word’) (‘thing’) REFERENT

Figure 2. Ogden and Richards’ ‘triangle of signification’

4
THE MEANING OF SIGNS

-Ogden and Richards' book entitled The Meaning of Meaning (published in 1949) where a list of 22
definitions of meaning is given.
-John Lyons (1977, quoted in Lipka, 1990:46) distinguishes three kinds of meaning, namely descriptive
meaning, social meaning and expressive meaning. For him, these are correlated with the descriptive,
social and expressive functions of language.
- Geoffrey Leech (1981) (quoted in Lipka, 1990:46) identifies meaning in the widest sense with communicative
value. This comprehensive notion can be split up into three groups: 1. sense 2. associative meaning and 3.
thematic meaning. The second category may itself be further divided into a number of subgroups, as shown
in the following diagram:
1. conceptual meaning (sense)
MEANING = a. connotative m.
communicative value 2. associative meaning b. stylistic m.
c. affective m.
d. reflected m.
e. collocative m.

3. thematic meaning

Figure 3. Leech's classification of meaning

5
CAUSES OF CHANGING OF MEANING

a) The influence of context: irrespective of its length, a new combination of words would exercise and spread
an influence over the neighbouring words. Words are not isolated in human speech; they are connected and
interconnected within the framework of sentences, i.e. organised lexical – phonetical – grammatical
structures expressing our thoughts and feelings.
Context:
- general sense→ extralinguistic factors such as gestures, concrete situations, the social background of the
speaker, etc.;
- strict linguistic sense →a determiner, phrase, sentence, passage or paragraph, which is so closely connected to
a word as to affect its meaning.
WORK = muncă, efort fizic
a. He gets good money for his work. b. His work is
strenuous. (muncă)
c. A woman’s work is never done. (trebăluială) d. What sort of
work do you do?
e. He went out to look for work. (lucru) f. Is he at
home or at work? (serviciu) g. Get down to work!
(treabă, lucru)
h. Shakespeare’s work is known all over the world. (operă)

6
b) Stress
By placing stress on different syllables of identical strings of sounds we can get different meanings of
words belonging to different word classes. Thus, stress will differentiate
-verbs from nouns, as in:
im`port (vb) vs. `import (n) re`bel vs. `rebel
miscon`duct vs. mis`conduct pro`ject vs. `project
-nouns from adjectives, as in:
`August (n) `minute vs. au`gust (adj) vs. mi`nute.
c) The process of passing from concrete to abstract

CONCRETE a.TO GO: to proceed, to pass along, to move, to leave, to depart

b.TO GO: to fail, to collapse, to give way

ABSTRACT c.TO GO: to harmonize

 d) The process of passing from particular to general

FAMILY: - parents and children PARTICULAR

-a group of persons connected by blood or marriage
-a group of persons forming a household
- any class or group of similar
or related things

GENERAL

9
e) Analogy (association)

stage I: originally, a word has a certain form (n) and a certain meaning (S):
S (sense/meaning)

n (name)

stage II: in the course of time, the linguistic item acquires a second meaning:
S + S1 S S1

n n
(polysemous word) (change of meaning)

10
DIRECTIONS IN WHICH CHANGES OF MEANING OCCUR

• Range: a) extension (generalization, widening) of meaning;

b) narrowing (specialization).

• Evaluation: c) elevation (amelioration):

d) degradation (pejoration) of meaning.

a) Extension of meaning = the sense may expand to include more referents than it formerly had
Contemporary ='belonging to the same time or period’; modern, fashionable, up-to-date.

Place (Latin ‘platea’), originally meant broad street → a part of space → any locality.

Fee : Anglo-Saxon feoh (‘cattle’)= one of the main means of making payments – fees – such as those to
physicians, lawyers, etc.

to escape = ‘to get out of one’s clothing, to lose one’s cape while fleeing’; nowadays → to get oneself free from
confinement or control’.

12
b) Narrowing of meaning = the process by which a word of extensive usage is restricted to a special object (it
becomes 'specialized').The referential scope of the word is reduced.

- Channel =
The Channel = the English Channel if used by English people.

- River = ‘a large amount of water that flows towards the sea’; the River = the Thames (if in London), the
Dimbovita (if in Bucharest)
- Garage =‘any safe place’; nowadays = the place where cars are kept.
d) Degradation of meaning = the process according to which neutral words acquire deprecatory meaning.
• Hussy was once a perfectly respectable housewife, and 'wench' just meant 'young woman', but both terms
now connote a woman of loose morals.
• Villain =‘a peasant’ ←French term 'villein' ← Latin villa, meaning ‘farm-house’; →‘a slave attached to
one’s toiling place’ →a term of contempt and was used in connection with a person who did not belong to the
gentry →a low fellow .
• Silly (derived from the German selig or the Anglo-Saxon soelig) = ‘happy, poor, innocent’; at present =
‘foolish, stupid’.

• Tart was a term of endearment: the girl was sweet like a jam-tart. Among the Cockneys in the 1860s it was
‘a term of approval applied to a woman’. Little ones were called ‘tartlets’. Australia = a sweetheart; pejorative
meaning around 1900.

d) Elevation of meaning = the process by which a word acquires a higher status than it initially had

• Knight (Old English ‘cniht’) originally meant ‘boy’; nowadays it refers to 'man awarded a non-hereditary title
(Sir) by a sovereign'.
• Minister was used initially to refer to a servant, whereas now it means ‘an important public official’.
• Nice ise derived from the Latin nescius meaning ‘ignorant’. The Old French nice meant ‘foolish/simple’.
Nowadays the word means ‘agreeable, delightful’.
 Lecture 9

FIGURES OF SPEECH THAT CAN ENRICH/CHANGE THE MEANINGS

OF WORDS

Classification of figures of speech

three categories:
1. the metaphorical group;
2. the metonymical group;
3. the mixed group.

1. The metaphorical group

A. simile (Latin similis ‘like’) = a formal expression of likeness said to exist between two unlike things.
a simile compares notions essentially dissimilar, which can have one common characteristic; the names of the
two objects are connected by as or like; e.g. cheeks like roses; as fresh as a rose; as hungry as a wolf.

• standardized similes: as fat as a pig, as proud as a peacock, to fit like a glove, to drink like a fish.

• non-standardized similes: creations of poets/ writers, used in a particular context with a special
(stylistic) purpose.
 e.g. Look at the moon. How strange the moon seems; she is like a woman rising from a tomb. She is like
a dead woman.
She was as distant as a remote tropical island, uncivilized, unspoiled. I have seen old ships sail like swans
asleep.
She goes all so softly like a shadow on the hill, a faint wind at twilight.

The metaphorical group

B. Metaphor (Greek metaphora ‘to carry over, to transfer’) = ‘an informal or implied simile’, Nesfield (1903).
metaphor = a simile in which the particles like and as are omitted.

Words: a literal sense & a metaphorical one:

e.g. light by the light of the moon - literal sense;
The article throws new light upon the spelling in English metaphorical meaning
(‘perspective’).

- The sleep of reason begets monsters.

v metaphors classified into three subgroups: live, degraded, and dead.

4
a) Live metaphors a very short life; they either die very quickly out of the language or they become idiomatic
lexical units; characterized by freshness and novelty.
e.g. The singing masons building roofs of gold (the masons = the bees).
I'm dying to meet her.
We'll travel down that road (of conversation) another time.
Personification = a kind of live metaphor: the attributes of a person are transferred on an inanimate/
abstract thing.
e.g. The pot calls the kettle black
The wolf asked Little Red Riding Hood: ‘Where are you going, little girl?’
b) Degraded (fading) metaphors still preserve some of their initial connection with their concrete
meaning though their freshness of live metaphors is lost; are commonly used in the language, as is the case
of the legs of the table, the depth of the night, the ship of the desert, etc.

Zoosemy = a particular kind of degraded metaphor; based on attributing names of animals to human beings in
order to stress certain characteristics in people:
e.g. She is a fox a cunning person a bear = a ? person,
a cat - a ? person,
a goose – a ? person, a lion/big bug ?
Degraded metaphors have a long life as idioms: to break the ice, to give a helping hand, on the other hand.

6
c) Dead metaphors have lost all metaphorical connotations for the present day speaker of the language due to
extensive, repetitive, and popular usage;

e.g. daisy (Old English deagesēage = ‘the day’s eye’), window (Old English windesēage = ‘the wind’s eye
to fall in love
to kick the bucket

The metonymical group

A. Metonymy (Greek meta ‘change’, onoma ‘name’, i.e. ‘change of name’) = figure of speech in which the
name of one object is used for that of another object to which it is related.

e.g. city ˃ the inhabitants, kettle ˃ the tea, and skirt ˃ woman;
appendicitis = a disease & a patient suffering from this disease (The appendicitis in room no.7 doesn’t
feel very well.)
- Moscow and Washington have agreed on further co-operation, (names of the capitals ˃ governments
residing in them).
- You’ll have to ask a zero.

8
The metonymical group

B. Synecdoche (from the Greek synekdochē) = figure of speech by which:

part is put for the whole (as fifty sails for fifty ships),

bread can be used to represent food in general or money (e.g. he is the breadwinner of the family);

hired hands – workmen; wheels – ?

All hands on deck? Head?
Brains ?

the whole for the part:

the smiling year (spring),
Romania won the gold medal (one team)
vthe species for the genus (as cutthroat or butcher for assassin),
vthe genus for the species (as a creature for a man) or
vthe name of the material for the thing
made (as willow = bat, plastic= card, ivories= piano keys, lead = bullets, marble= statue).

10
The mixed group

contains figures of speech based both on metaphorical and metonymical changes of meaning.

A. Allegory (Greek allēgoria ‘to speak figuratively’) = the description of one thing under the image of another;
aim to enforce some moral truth of a story.
• Proverbs = also a kind of simple form of allegory (The proof of the pudding is the eating; Still waters run
deep; All is not gold that glitters). Your examples of proverbs?
The mixed group

B. Antonomasia (Greek antonomazo ‘name instead’) = the carry over from proper nouns to common
nouns.

name of a mythological personality used to characterize a person:

e.g. He is the Napoleon of our time.

name of the artist used instead of the painting itself: e.g. I bought a Rembrandt.

Note: Just like metaphors, all the other figures of speech mentioned here may be standardized and non
standardized (studied by stylistics).
 Lecture 10

Semantic (sense) relations

• Ferdinand de Saussure (1965) - existence of a network of associative fields within the

vocabulary of a language:

-etymological (based on resemblance in both their meaning and form);

-derivational (based on identity of suffixes);
-formal (based on accidental sound resemblance); -semantic (based on meaning
relations proper):
-syntagmatic: relations established between elements that coexist within the same
linguistic chain; “both...and” kind of relationship; items situated in contrast position; lexical items
belonging to different word classes – analysed by sentence syntax.
-paradigmatic: relations established among members of the same class of distribution
(traditionally called parts of speech); linguistic elements on the paradigmatic axis are mutually exclusive;
an “either ... or” kind of relationship; not directly observable within a linguistic chain.

2
Paradigmatic sense relations

-incompatibility,
-antonymy,
-synonymy,
-hyponymy
, -polysemy,
-homonymy.

1. Incompatibility
= a relation which characterizes all lexical elements;
-established on the basis of substitution of items in a given utterance.
- sentences with incompatible terms will thus contradict each other.

e.g. John owns a car/farm/house/shop, etc.

- the set car, house, farm, shop - terms are incompatible because the choice of one rejects the choice of
another, though there is a close semantic link between them, namely all denote things that can be
owned.
* sky, leaf, love, and rain.

e.g. Mary’s hat is orange / Mary’s hat is red. Red and orange =
incompatible terms
- useful for establishing semantic fields- Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases (1941):
vocabulary grouped under 990 heads or topics

2. Antonymy

= the contrasting relation between two lexemes, one of which denotes some positive property whereas the other
denotes the absence of that property.

- three groups: a) gradable antonyms (‘pairs that describe the opposite ends of a
continuous dimension’),
b) binary antonyms (‘pairs that exhaust all linguistic
possibilities along some dimension’),
c) converse antonyms (‘pairs that describe the relationship between
items from opposite perspectives’) (Parker and Riley, 2005:37).
2. Antonymy
a) Gradability - meaning oppositions which admit certain gradations with regard to the meaning
expressed: e.g. wide – narrow, old – young, big –small, good – bad, tough –tender, warm – cool.
- all of them adjectives, seen in terms of degrees of the quality involved: wide or very wide; sth may be
wider than sth else;
- graded against different norms according to the items being discussed: an old man ˂old dog ˂ old
piece of cake.
- Marked vs. unmarked elements:

2. Antonymy

b) Complementarity (binary opposites)

e.g. male - female, single-married, alive-dead ε to the set of incompatible terms, but with one specific
characteristic: they are members of two -term sets instead of the multiple term sets (hence the
denomination).
- Gradables vs. complementaries: the denial of one implies the assertion of the other and vice versa (does
not hold for gradables).
- male/female, married/single, alive/dead as gradable antonyms on occasions.

7
2. Antonymy

c) Reversibility (converseness - Lyons (1977) /relational opposition - Palmer (1976)

e.g. buy/sell, husband/wife, give/take, know/ignore, to rent/to let, give/receive, fiancé/fiancée,
parent/child, debtor/creditor,
if A is B's husband, B is A's wife. Complementaries vs. reversible antonyms

3. HYPONYMY (meaning inclusion)

= the linguistic equivalent of the logical concept of implication;

= a relation of asymmetrical implication of the type established between genus and species, as in flower -
rose, house -chalet, vegetable - tomato.

YPONYMY
 PLANT superordinate

flower tree

rose daisy pansy violet oak birch f ir

hyponyms

Hyponymy involves the logical relationship of entailment: This is a rose entails This is a flower.

4. SYNONYMY

Synonymy = ‘symmetrical hyponymy’ (Lyons,1977)

Levitchi (1970): ‘Synonyms are two or more lexical or grammatical units comparable through their content, but
reflecting in various degrees and in various senses (semantic, grammatical, stylistic) the essential notes of
the notion they denote’.
Types of synonyms: absolute vs. relative; stylistic

4. SYNONYMY
a) Absolute synonyms = restricted to mono-semantic terms, such as scientific or technical terms: e.g.
‘semi-vowels’ and ‘semi-consonants’ or ‘salt’ and ‘sodium chloride’.
b) Relative synonyms = the degree of semantic similarity between words depends to a great extent on the
number of semantic properties they share; e.g. sofa and couch; stool and chair.
- proof of the richness of a language, allowing for differentiation and specialization within the
lexicon. This differentiation is not only of semantic nature but also of a stylistic one.

4. SYNONYMY
c) Stylistic synonyms = express the same meaning but in various functional styles
Neutr. arrogant – cocky, Colloq. /slang violinist – fiddler,
spectacles – gig lamps, dupe – sucker

- disguised synonyms - based on figures of speech and characterize an object or a person in a certain way.
e.g. Shakespeare- the greatest English playright; - the sweet swan of Avon

13
4. SYNONYMY

- euphemisms (Greek eu = ‘well’ + phemi = ‘I say’) = lexical units considered less offensive or distasteful than
the units they replace;

e.g. He passed away (He died)

He has had a drink too much (He’s drunk) .

euphemisms
►parts of the body (‘forbidden territory’): to be in one’s birthday suit; boobs, cleavage, headlights = ?
bum, exhaust pipe? privates, one’s thing, the Crown jewels = the genitals.
►sickness: acutely visually handicapped, the big C, cut-and-paste job, to send for the green van, vocally
challenged, aurally inconvenienced;
►sex: action / enclosure; cash and carried; a French letter; to play on the other side;
►death: to rest in Abraham’s bosom, to be at rest, to go home in a box, to cash in one’s chips, to go West,
to dangle in the sheriff’s picture frame, to hang up one’s hat; the last summons, the last gateway =
death.
►crime: bracelets; a booster (shoplifter), a dip, Eliza smiles, client of the correctional system/guest, the
light-fingered gentry;

15
d) Contextual synonyms

= synonyms that are conditioned by a fixed context, out of which they are no longer synonymous;

- good vs kind: She is a good/kind person. BUT

That’s very kind [polite] of you vs.
She is good [talented, gifted for] at languages

Usefulness of synonymy

• essential factor for translation – selection of the appropriate equivalents from a possible synonymic series,
taking into account the stylistic level and the context;

• Figures of speech based on synonymy - the quantitative hendiadys = the association of two or more
synonyms by means of the conjunction and;
e.g. each and every, far and away, dust and ashes, wear and tear, soft and tender, with might and
main, sick and tired.
Usefulness of synonymy
• Lexicography – synonymy = the main device used by monolingual dictionaries, e.g. binoculars = field
glasses.
-advantage: great economy of space and conciseness;
-disadvantage: the given explanation is sometimes insufficient or misleading for people with lower
proficiency in language.

• Vehicle for humour

5. POLYSEMY AND HOMONYMY

Criteria for delimiting homonymy from polysemy: a) The criterion of etymology:
Ear1 'organ of hearing' and ear2 'head of corn' = homonyms, because they were formally distinct in Old English
and thus have a different etymology; two separate words/ lexemes in present-day English dictionaries.

Flower 'part of plant' and flour 'powder made by crushing grain' = polysemous word with two meanings; they
are etymologically identical, since both go back to the same Middle English word flour.

Other well-known pairs in the history of English are: catch -chase, mint - money, inch - ounce.
POLYSEMY AND HOMONYMY

b) The criterion of formal identity or distinctness: are 3 possible situations;

• absolute homonyms = words pronounced and spelt alike: count: (v) ‘a număra’, (n) ‘conte’; spring: (n)
‘izvor’; (n) ‘primăvară’; (v) ‘a sări’;

• homographs = words spelt alike but pronounced differently: lead pronounced /li:d/, meaning 'a
conduce', and pronounced /led/, 'plumb', minute pronounced /:minit/ is a noun meaning 'minut', whereas
pronounced /mai:nju:t/, it is an adjective meaning ‘minuscul’;

• Homophones = words pronounced alike but spelt differently: cereal - serial /'siri«l/, desert (v) - dessert (n)
/di'z«:t/

POLYSEMY AND HOMONYMY

c) Close semantic relatedness. If two or more senses are related we recognize a case of polysemy.

-historical - two meanings are historically related if they can be traced back to the same source, or if one
meaning can be derived from the other
e.g. mess 'dirty or untidy state of affairs' ˂ mess 'dish of food',
- psychological- two meanings are psychologically related if present-day users of the language feel intuitively
that they are related, and therefore tend to assume that they are different uses of the same word.
e.g. crane 'machine for lifting' ˂ crane 'type of long-necked bird'.
POLYSEMY AND HOMONYMY
• homonymy - source of some stylistic devices such as puns (play upon words), and syllepsis.

• Pun =humorous device consisting in the homonymic interpretation of the same word or phrase:
e.g. 'We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall hang separately' (Benjamin Franklin).
• Syllepsis = figure of speech implying the simultaneous use of the same lexical unit in two different senses
or functions of which one is proper and the other figurative:
e.g. He took his hat and his leave.
 Lecture 11

LEXICAL (STYLISTIC) STRATA IN CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH

The criteria of determining lexical strata are diachrony and synchrony.

Diachronic lexical strata -determined; archaisms & chronologically neologisms.

Synchronic lexical strata - the totality of lexical units subordinated to the linguistic phenomena manifestly
acting in a certain period; scientific terms, foreign words, archaisms, technical terms, slang terms,
dialecticisms, and vulgar terms.
Diachronic lexical strata

A. Archaisms - cover words, as well as meanings and pronunciations that have become old-fashioned or that
have been completely excluded from common usage.
a) grammatical archaisms:
-the ending –est in the second person singular of verbs in the present: thou speakest ‘you speak’; thou
hast spoken ‘you have spoken’;
-the use of two or even more than two negations in one and the same sentence: That cannot be so
neither (Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona); Thou hast spoken no word all this while - nor
understood none neither).
-the use of two relative pronouns: ‘Men shal wel knowe who that I am’. (Caxton, 1485, quoted in
Lightfoot, 1979:322)
 Archaisms

b) phonetic archaisms: words that have undergone changes in their spelling or/and pronunciation in the course
of time: hath ‘has’, tough/thee ‘you’, thy ‘your’.
c) lexical archaisms: words which have disappeared from the everyday language of the speakers, and which
can be still encountered in poetry or historical works, where they create a certain atmosphere, e.g. brow
‘forehead’, morn ‘morning’

Archaisms

According to the persistence in the language:

a. Absolute archaisms (archeologisms/obsolete words) – these are lexical, grammatical or phonetic units that
have disappeared from the language altogether:
e.g. ferne ˂ ‘remote’, thou/thee and the adjective thy disappeared completely from the language in
the 18th century, except in certain dialects and poetry.

b. Relative archaisms = words, meanings or constructions that have been excluded from common usage but are
still used occasionally in functional styles, dialects, etc:
-potential archaisms -historisms
Archaisms

• potential archaisms = words, meanings or constructions of limited currency at present; limitation

due to the replacement of their denominations by equivalents;

-they often occur in poetry - called ‘poetisms’:

e.g. brow ‘forehead’, ere ‘before’, foe ‘enemy’, morn ‘morning’

-The deliberate usage of archaisms is a distinctive feature of the English romantic poetry, represented by
Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley and Keats; also characteristic of fairy-tales, anecdotes and other
folklore productions.

Archaisms
• historisms = words that once denominated objects, phenomena, actions, relations which have lost in
time their reality, use or topicalization;

- Used by writers in historical novels to create an appropriate atmosphere (Walter Scott’s historical novels).

e.g. thegn (Anglo-Saxon ‘nobleman’), gleeman (Anglo-Saxon ‘wandering minstrel’), witan (Anglo -Saxon
‘the king’s council), tournament.
B. NEOLOGISMS

Greek neo ‘new’ & logos ‘word’ = new words of a language.

- There are two meanings attached to the term neologisms:

▪a broad one - all new words (borrowings, newly created words, words that existed in the
language but only recently received attention)
▪a restricted one - only those words which were recently borrowed.

- Factors that need to be taken into account in establishing the neologic character of a word: time and
frequency.

NEOLOGISMS Examples:
galvanoplasty (metallurgy), sonogram, CAT (computer axial tomography), cosmetic bonding, (medicine),
corticosterone, nitroglycerine, radium (chemistry), apocope (linguistics), schizophrenia, egocentric,
extrovert, psychoanalysis (psychology).
NEOLOGISMS

• military terms: as air raid, antiaircraft gun, tank and blimp, dud, slacker, trench foot, cootie, and war
bride.
-air raid terms: blackout, blitz, blockbuster, dive-bombing, flathat (Agnu –A word a day);

• film, radio and television we have such words as screen, reel, projector, close-up, fade-out, three-D (film),
aerial, lead-in, loud-speaker, stand-by, microphone (radio), cable TV, teleprompter, telethon, videotape, VCR
(television).
• personal computers: RAM (random-access memory), ROM (read-only memory), DOS (disk operating
system), byte, modem, software, hacker, download, spam, and vaccine; bogusware, phantom bug, earcon,
TwitchTV.

NEOLOGISMS

• financial sector: Archer (British slang)= ₤2,000; Placido (British slang) = ₤10; Seymour = a six-
figure salary.

- neologisms are accepted in the standard language only if they are felt as necessary. Otherwise they rapidly fall
into the category of absolute archaisms - nonce words (occurring, used, or made only once or for a special
occasion).
NEOLOGISMS

Neologisms obtained by means of stylistic derivation which may be effected:

-by means of reduction: e.g. ‘Then what’s the skeleton?’ (In Galsworthy’s The White Monkey) based on the
saying ‘to have a skeleton in the closet’;
-by paraphrase: ‘With an auspicious and a dropping eye’, (Hamlet) - from the old English saying ’to cry
with an eye and laugh with the other’;
-by mixed means: ‘...they were a very happy couple, riding side by side on their hobbies’ (from Marryat’s
Midshipman Easy), inspired by the proverb ‘Every man has his hobby-horse’ (‘everybody has a favourite
subject or idea’).

SYNCHRONIC LEXICAL STRATA

- layers of colloquial English: technical, slang, vulgar and dialectal.

a) Technical words
In English, the term technical does not refer strictly to ‘the language of technique’, but also encompasses
specialized words (with the exception of scientific words, which belong to the literary language). This
stratum contains the vocabulary belonging to the domains of reference which the specialists are concerned
with. Thus, we have the specialized language of chemists (containing such items as ‘inert gases’, ‘iodine’,
‘valence’), of soldiers, of sailors (containing such items as ’starboard, ‘clove-hitch’, ‘gybe’), of students, of
handicraft, economics and politics.
- On the one hand, these specialized phrases can be very 'distinct'; on the other hand, they can intermingle with
slang: Public School Slang, Navy Slang, Army Slang, R.A.F. Slang, etc.
- Problem in considering the difference between technical terms and slang. Leisi (1985:186): ‘it would be
better to reserve the term slang for the perky and cheerful elements of the specialized language’.

RAF terms

• People
Armorours = ground crew responsible for bombs, defensive ammunitions/ people responsible for
servicing the aircraft
Bomber-boy= member of a bomber aircrew Stationmaster = commanding officer

• Airplanes
Cricket, kite, flamer, taxi, bounce

SYNCHRONIC LEXICAL STRATA

b) Slang
• Paul Roberts (1958): slang = one of those things that everybody can recognize and nobody can define;
• The Oxford Dictionary : 'the language of a highly colloquial type, considered as below the level of standard
educated speech, and consisting either of new words or of current words employed in some special sense’.
• Greenough and Kittredge (1905) (quoted in Baugh & Cable, 1991:307); slang = ‘a peculiar kind of
vagabond language, always hanging on the outskirts of legitimate speech, but continually straying or
forcing its way into most respectable company’.
Sociolinguistic aspects of slang.
• Slang ˂ the special languages of subcultures, or ‘undercultures’: the criminal underworld, hoboes, gypsies,
soldiers and sailors, the police, business workers, gamblers, cowboys, all sorts of students, show-business
workers, jazz musicians, athletes and their fans, and immigrant or ethnic populations cutting across these
other subcultures.
• several centres of gravity have shifted greatly during the past fifty years. Terms from the drug scene have
multiplied astronomically. Sports also make a much larger contribution.

Examples of slang terms belonging to different areas

►drugs: yellow jacket (a capsule of narcotics), barbs (barbiturates), to get (to get relief or pleasure from a
dose of narcotics), to freak out (to have intense hallucinations and other reactions from drugs), blue cheer
(LSD), bogue (adj. –in need of narcotics), basuco (the residue that remains after refining cocaine, used as
a drug), bong (a pipe for smoking marijuana, hubba (a chip or pellet of crack);
a reefer, reefer weed, spliff
Smack (derived from the Yiddish ‘schmeck’) Gong
Gonged
►sex: to get one’s rocks off (to have an orgasm), boom-boom (sexual activity), bunny fuck (very quick sexual

act), chippy joint (a brothel), fairy (mail homosexual), American sock/gumboot (condom); right-handed

(heterosexual, straight), hard/heavy-breathing.

►army: bobtail (a dishonourable discharge), booby trap (WW2 –a hidden explosive charge designed to set off

by some ordinary act), chicken colonel (a full colonel)), eighty-four (WW II – a naval prison);

Examples of slang terms belonging to different areas

►sports: blind-side (v) (to tackle or block from an unseen quarter), bonehead play (an error, esp. one caused
by bad judgment);
►criminal’s world: bullpen (prison: a cell or secure area where prisoners are kept temporarily), fish (a new
prison inmate);
►music: blow (to play a musical instrument, esp. in jazz style and not necessarily a wind instrument), eighty-
eights (a piano), beach music (a style of American pop music based on black soul music and rhythm &
blues, and originating on the coast of South Carolina), chicken-dancing (a type of dancing to pop music in
which participants raise and lower their arms bent-elbowed, as if flapping their wings), hook (a repeated,
typically catchy melodic phrase in a popular musical composition); loot/gig (jazz musician)
►student’s language: blob (a mistake), bone (a diligent student), bogue (adj.) (disgusting, unattractive),

bogue (n) (a cigarette), chief cook/ chef/ messiah (T), fat cakes (simple courses), mega brains,

beans/chips/dust/mail/snaps (money)

►food and drinks: belly-bomber (a small, highly spiced burger), blush wine (rosé wine), fuzzy navel (a

cocktail made from peach schnapps and orange juice), huffer (a long roll or section of French bread with a

sandwich-style filling).

Medical slang

• Dying/Death
th
10 floor transfer; Celestial discharge/ transfer AST – assuming seasonal temperature
B & T – bagged and tagged C/C – cancel Christmas VAC –
vultures are cycling

• Medical students Acades vulgaris

Ghosts?
Medical slang

• Doctors Freud squad

Ax(e)/slasher Gassers
Baby catcher Lancelot N
Blinky the fish Neuroslavery
Blood suckers / vampires / leeches Molar masher
Fleas Cock Doc
Overpriced carpenter Pecker Checker
Knuckledragger
Stream team
Medical slang

• Tools • Treatment
Guessing tubes Deep fry
Meat hooks Eating in
Sucking the peace pipe
• Conditions
Chocolate hostage
Grapes
Jailitis Donorcycle & Organ Dono
VIP
Slang vs. proper English

• Abyssinia
th
• Leg-shackled (19 c slang)
• Birthday suit
• Decorate pavement
• Eggbeater
• Belch
• Pudding house
• Bone box
• Five bellies
• Gender-bender
Types of slang: cant, argot and jargon

1) CANT = ‘slang used by the underworld’; once defined as ‘the Sicilian

dialect of Italian’.
e.g. to two-finger (to pickpocket), snow (cocaine), lugger (con-
man – from ‘confidence man’)
- payolo (undercover or indirect payment for a commercial favour), C-note (a
$100 bill), to hang paper (to write ‘bum’ checks), sawbuck (a $10 bill).

Types of slang: cant, argot and jargon

2) ARGOT. Cant and argot are nearly synonyms. But the term argot may also
be applied to the specialized terminology of a profession or trade.
Linguistic argot consists of terms such as phoneme, morpheme, case,
lexical item, style and so on.

- The argot vocabulary is made up of common words and phrases with

changed meaning (usually metaphors, e.g. shades (eye-glasses), chick (young
woman), to split (to leave, to part).

Types of slang: cant, argot and jargon

3) JARGON, in one of its meanings, has the non-cant definition of argot.

Practically, every conceivable profession, trade, and occupation has its own
jargon: truck drivers, doctors, linguists, mechanics, schoolteachers, firemen,
lawyers all use special terms of their trade. Here are some examples:
►journalese: tail-coat politics (pejoratively, with no personality), snapper
(photographer taking snap-shots), hack (derived from hackney and used to
designate any journalist, but felt as pejorative if used by somebody who doesn’t
belong to the group);
►medical jargon: the big C (cancer), a cut and paste job, a summer
squash/a vegetable.

Many jargon terms pass into the standard language. Jargon spreads from a
narrow group until it is used and understood by a large segment of
population, similar to slang. Eventually it may lose its special status as
either jargon or slang and gain entrance into the respectable circle of
formal usage.
Synchronic lexical strata

c) Vulgar terms (‘four letter words’) = words that ought never to be used.
- Lots of people know these words (such as shit), but observe the convention
to the extent that from birth to death they never say them.
- Other people give these words extra value as symbols of protest, for
instance.
- a matter of convention: words with precisely the same meanings are not
taboo (though they may be unrestricted for use as technical terms, like
faeces, or with children, like poo-poo).

Synchronic lexical strata

d) Dialecticisms = words and phrases of current usage only in restricted
dialectal areas (but they sometimes penetrate into the common language
and even into the language of poetry and proverbs.
► Scottish: wee (small, tiny), bern/bairn (child), bony (beautiful); aye (yes),
burn (stream), dram (drink, usually of whisky), loch (lake), pinkie (little
finger), provost (mayor), to travel (to go on foot), flesher (butcher),
clachlan (small village), Hogmanay (New Year’s Eve);
► Irish: airy (light-hearted), blather (talk nonsense), bold (naughty), cog
(cheat), mannerly (well-mannered), shore (drain), yoke (thingummy),
banshee (ghost, female spirit warning of death in a house), beyond the
beyonds (incredible), if hardy comes to hardy (if the worst comes to the
worst) good scram to you (good luck to you).