Neutral, common literary and common colloquial vocabulary

Neutral words, which form the bulk of the English vocab­ulary, are used in both literary and colloquial language. Neutral words are the main source of synonymy and polysemy, and prolific in the production of new meanings.

Most neutral English words are of monosyllabic character.

Common literary wordsare chiefly used in writing and in polished speech. Literary units stand in opposition to colloquial units. This is especially apparent when pairs of synonyms, literary and colloquial, can be formed which stand in contrasting relation:

Colloquial Neutral Literary

kid child infant

daddy father parent

The main distinction between synonyms re­mains stylistic. But stylistic difference may be of various kinds: it may lie in the emotional tension connoted in a word, or in the sphere of application, or in the degree of the quality denoted. Colloquial words are always more emotionally coloured than literary ones. The neutral stratum of words, as the term itself implies, has no degree of emotiveness, nor have they any distinctions in the sphere of usage.

Both literary and colloquial words have their upper and lower ranges. The lower range of literary words approaches the neutral layer and has a tendency to pass into that layer. The same may be said of the upper range of the colloquial layer: it can very easily pass into the neutral layer. The lines of demarcation between common colloquial and neutral, on the one hand, and common literary and neutral, on the other, are blurred.

The neutral vocabulary may be viewed as the invariant of the standard English vocabulary. The words of this stratum are generally deprived of any concrete associationsand refer to the concept more or less directly.Synonyms of neutral words, both colloquial and literary, assume a far greater degree of concreteness.

Common colloquial vocab­ularycan be considereda part ofthe standard English vocab­ulary. It lacks homogeneity too. Some of the lexical items belonging to this stratum are close to the non-standard colloquial groups such as jargonisms, professionalisms, etc.

The stylistic function of the different strata of the English vocabu­lary depends not so much on the inner qualities of each of the groups, as on their interaction when they are opposed to one another.

Special literary vocabulary

a) Terms

A term is generally very easily coined and easily accepted: and new coinages as easily replace out-dated ones. One of the most characte­ristic features of a term is its direct relevance to the system or set of terms used in a particular science, discipline or art, i.e. to its nomenclature. A term is directly connected with the concept it de­notes.

Terms belong to the style of language of science. They may as well appear in other styles — in newspa­per style, in publicistic and practically in all other existing styles of language. But their function in this case changes. When used in the belles-lettres style, for instance, a term may acquire a stylistic function and consequently become a (sporadical) SD. This happens when a term is used in such a way that two meanings are materialized simultaneously.

The following is an example where a term is used as an SD.

“What a fool Rawdon Crawley has been,” Clump replied, “to go and marry a governess. There was something about the girl too.”

“Green eyes, fair skin, pretty figure, famous frontal develop­ment,” Squill remarked. (W. M. Thackeray).

“I should like,” said young Jolyon, “to lecture on it: PROP­ERTY AND QUALITIES OF A FORSYTE. This little animal, disturbed by the ridicule (осмеяние, редк. - предмет насмешек) of his own sort, is unaffected (безучастный, не подвергающийся влиянию) in his motions by the laughter of strange creatures (you and I). Hered­itarily disposed to myopia/mai’oupiə/, he recognizes only the persons and habitats of his own species, among which he passes an existence of competitive tranquility (уравновешенность, безмятежность).” (Galsworthy)

In this connection it is interesting to analyse the stylistic effect of the medical terminology used by A. J. Cronin in his novel “The Citadel”. The frequent use of medical terms in the novel is explained by its subject­-matter—the life of a physician—and also by the fact that the writer himself is a physician and finds it natural to use medical terminology.

With the increase of general education and the expansion of technique to satisfy the ever growing needs and desires of mankind, many words that were once terms have gradually lost their quality as terms and have passed into the common literary or even neutral vocabulary. This process may be called “determinization”. Such words as ‘radio’, ‘television’ and the like have long been in common use and their terminological character is no longer evident.

Here is an example of a moderate use of special terminology bordering on common literary vocabulary.

“There was a long conversation—a long wait. His father came back to say it was doubtful whether they could make the loan. Eight percent, then being secured for money, was a small rate of interest, considering its need. For ten percent Mr. Kuzel might make a call-loan. Frank went back to his employer, whose commer­cial choler rose at the report.” (Theodore Dreiser, “The Financier”)

Whenever the terms used in the belles-lettres style set the reader at odds with the text, we can register a stylistic effect caused either by a specific use of terms in their proper meanings or by a simultaneous reali­zation of two meanings.

b) Poetic and highly literary words

Poetic words form a rather insignificant layer of the special literary vocabulary. They are mostly archaic or very rarely used highly literary words which aim at producing an elevated effect.

Poetical tradition has kept alive such archaic words and forms as y’clept (арх. шутл. – называемый, именуемый, нареченный) (p. p. of the old verb clipian—to call, name); quoth (1 и 3 л. прошед. времени) (p. t. of cwedan — to speak); eftsoons/eft’su:nz/ (eftsona,— again, soon after), which are used even by modern ballad-mongers:

Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage:

Deserted is my own good hall, its hearth is desolate /’desələt/.

The striving for the unusual—the characteristic feature of some kinds of poetry—is akin to the sensational and is therefore to be found not only in poetry, but in many other styles. A modern English literary critic has remarked that in journalese a policeman never goes to an appointed spot; he proceeds to it. The picturesque reporter seldom talks of a horse, it is a steed or a charger. The sky is the welkin; the valley is the vale; fire is the devouring element...

Poetical words and word-combinations can be likened to terms in that they do not easily yield to polysemy. They are said to evoke emotive meanings.

Poetic words are not freely built in contrast to neutral, colloquial and common literary words, or terms. The commonest means is by com­pounding, e.g. ‘young-eyed’, ‘rosy-fingered’.

Some writers make abundant use of this word-building means. Thus Arthur Hailey in his novel “In High Places” has ‘serious-faced’, ‘high-ceilinger!’, ‘beige-carpeted’, ‘tall-backed!’, ‘horn-rimmed’ in almost close proximity.

There is, however, one means of creating new poetic words still recognized as productive even in present-day English, viz. the use of a contracted form of a word instead of the full one, e. g. ‘drear’ instead of dreary, ‘scant’ (scanty).

Poetical words and set expressions make the utterance understandable only to a limited number of readers. It is mainly due to poeticisms that poetical language is sometimes called poetical jargon.

In modern English poetry there is a strong tendency to use words in strange combinations:

‘the sound of shape’; ‘night-long eyes’; ‘to utter ponds of dream’; ‘wings of because’; ‘to reap one’s same’; ‘goldenly whole, prodigiously keen star whom she—and he—, —like ifs of am perceive...’ (E. E. Cummings).

c) Archaic, Obsolescent and Obsolete Words

We shall distinguish three stages in the aging process of words:

The beginning of the aging process when the word becomes rarely used. Such words are called obsolescent (выходящие из употребления): thou /ðau/ and its forms thee /ði:/, thy and thine; the corresponding verbal ending -est and the verb-forms art(be , wilt (thou makest, thou wilt); the ending -(e)th instead of -(e)s (he maketh) and the pronoun ye/ji:/.

To the category of obsolescent words belong many French borrow­ings which have been kept in the literary language as a means of pre­serving the spirit of earlier periods, e. g. a pallet (= a straw mattress); a palfrey (=a small horse); garniture (=furniture); to emplume (=to adorn with feathers or plumes).

The second group: those that have already gone completely out of use but are still recognized by the English-speaking community: e.g. methinks (=it seems to me); nay (=no). These words are called obsolete.

The third group, archaic proper, are words which are no longer recognizable in modern English, words that were in use in Old English and which have either dropped out of the language entirely or have changed in their appearance so much that they have become unrecognizable, e. g. troth (= faith); a losel(=a worthless, lazy fellow).

The border lines between the groups are not distinct. In fact they interpenetrate. It is specially difficult to distinguish between obsolete and obsolescent words.

There is still another class of words which is erroneously classed as archaic, viz. historical words: thane (глава клана, шотландский лорд), yeoman (фермер средней руки, дворцовый страж), goblet(бокал, кубок), baldric (перевязь, портупея), mace (булава, жезл).

They are historical terms and remain as terms referring to definite stages in the development of society. Historical words have no synonyms, whereas archaic words have been replaced by modern synonyms.

Archaic words are used in the creation of a realistic background to historical novels, but these elements must not be archaic in the narrow sense. They must be recognizable to the native reader and not hinder his understanding of the communication.

Archaic words and phrases have other functions found in other styles:

1) in the style of official documents. In business letters, in legal language, in all kinds of statutes, in diplomatic documents and in all kinds of legal documents (aforesaid (вышеупомянутый, вышеизложенный), hereby, therewith, herein, afternamed).

The function of archaic words and constructions in official docu­ments is terminological in character. They are used here because they help to maintain that exactness of expression so necessary in this style.

2) in poetry.

Archaic words and particularly archaic forms of words are sometimes used for satirical purposes.

This is achieved through what is called Anticlimax (a sudden drop from the lofty or serious to the ridiculous: This war-like speech, received with many a cheer, Had filled them with desire of fame, and beer/Byron). The situation in which the archaism is used is not appropriate to the context. There appears a sort of discrepancy between the words actually used and the ordinary situation which excludes the possibility of such a usage.

Here is an example of such a use of an archaic form in Shaw’s play “How He Lied to Her Husband” a youth of eighteen, speaking of his feelings towards a “female of thirty-seven” expresses himself in a lan­guage which is not in conformity with the situation. His words are: “Perfect love casteth off fear.”

Archaic words, word-forms and word-combinations are also used to create an elevated effect.

The stylistic significance of archaic words in historical novels and in other works of fiction (emotive literature - belles-lettres) is different. In historical novels they maintain “local colour”, i.e. they perform the function of creating the atmosphere of the past.

Not so when archaic words are encountered in a depiction of events of present-day life. Here archaisms assume the function of an SD proper. They are perceived in a twofold function, the typical quality of an SD, viz. diachronically and synchronically.

On the other hand, the crowding of such obsolete units of the vocabulary may be interpreted as a ‘parody on the “domain of the few”, whose adherents considered that real poetry should avoid using “mean” words.

In American English many words and forms of words which are obsolete or obsolescent in British English have survived as admissible in literary usage (cf: “there’s a new barn a-building down the road”. The form ‘a-building’ is obsolete, the present form being building (There is a house building = A house is being built).

Stylistic functions of archaic words are based on the temporal per­ception of events described.

d) Barbarisms and Foreignisms

Barbarisms are words of foreign origin which have not entirely been assimilated into the English lan­guage. Most of them have corresponding English synonyms; e. g. chic (—stylish); bon mot (= a clever witty saying, острота); en passant (мимоходом, между прочим) (= in passing); ad infinitum (до бесконечности) (= to infinity) and many other words and phrases.

Barbarismsare words which have already become facts of the English language. They are, as it were, part and parcel of the English word-stock, though they remain on the outskirts of the literary vocabulary. Foreign words, though used for certain stylistic purposes, do not belong to the English vocabulary.

In printed works foreign words and phrases are generally italicized to indicate their alien nature or their stylistic value. Barbarisms, on the contrary, are not made conspicuous in the text unless they bear a special load of stylistic information.

There are foreign words in the English vocabulary which fulfill a terminological function. Therefore, though they still retain their foreign appearance, they should not be regarded as barbarisms. Such words as ukase, udarnik, soviet, kolkhoz and the like denote certain concepts which reflect an objective reality not familiar to English-speaking communities. There are no names for them in English and so they have to be explained.

Further, such words as solo, tenor, concerto, bltizkrieg, luftwaffe and the like should also be distinguished from barbarisms. They are different not only in their functions but in their nature as well. They are terms. Terminological borrowings have no synonyms; barbarisms, on the contrary, may have almost exact synonyms.

It is evident that barbarisms are a historical category. Many foreign words and phrases have little by little entered the class of words named barbarisms and many of these barbarisms have gradually lost their foreign peculiarities, become more or less naturalized and have merged with the native English stock of words. Conscious, retrograde, spurious (поддельный, подложный, иллюзорный) and strenuous (требующий силы, напряжения, энергичный, усердный) are word’s in Ben Jonson’s play “The Poetaster” which were made fun of in the author’s time as unnecessary borrowings from French.

Both foreign words and barbarisms are widely used in various styles of language.

One of these functions is to supply local colour.

In “Vanity Fair” Thackeray takes the reader to a small German town where a boy with a remarkable appetite is made the focus of attention. By introducing several German words into his ‘narrative, the author gives an indirect description of the peculia­rities of the German menu and the environment in general: “The little boy, too, we observed, had a famous appetite, and consumed schinken, and braten, and kartoffeln, and cranberry jam... with a gallantry that did honour to his nation.”

The function of the foreign words used in the context may be con­sidered to provide local colour as a background to the narrative: an example which is even more characteristic of the use of the local colour function of foreign words is the following stanza from Byron’s “Don Juan”:

... more than poet’s pen

Can point, - “Cost viaggino: Ricchi!”

(Excuse a foreign ‘slip-slop now and then,

If but to show I’ve travell’d: and what’s travel

Unless it teaches one to quote and cavil.

Another function of barbarisms and foreign words is to build-up the stylistic device of non-personal direct speech or represented speech. The use of a word, or a phrase, or a sentence in the reported speech of a local inhabitant helps to reproduce his actual words, manner of speech and the environment as well. Thus in James Aldridge’s “The Sea Eagle” – And the Cretans were very willing to feed and hide the Inglisi”-, the last word is intended to reproduce the actual speech of the local people by introducing a word actually spoken by them, a word which is very easily understood because of the root.

Barbarisms and foreign words are used in various styles of language, but are most often to be found in the style of belles-lettres and the publicistic style.

In the belles-lettres style, however, foreignisms are sometimes used not only as separate units incorporated in the English narrative. The author makes his character actually speak a foreign language, by putting a string of foreign words into his mouth, words which to many readers may be quite unfamiliar. These phrases or whole sentences are sometimes translated by the writer in a foot-note or by explaining the foreign utterance in English in the text. But this is seldom done.

Here is an example of the use of French by John Galsworthy:

“Revelation was alighting like a bird in his heart, singing: “Elle est ton rêve!” (“In Chancery”)

Foreign words and phrases may sometimes be used to exalt the expression of the idea, to elevate the language.

The same effect is sometimes achieved by the slight distortion of an English word, or a distortion of English grammar in such a way that the morphological aspect of the distortion will bear a resemblance to the morphology of the foreign tongue, for example: “He look at Miss Forsyte so funny sometimes. I tell him all my story; he so sympatisch.” (Galsworthy)

Barbarisms have still another function when used in the belles-lettres style. We may call it an “exactifying” function. Words of for­eign origin generally have a more or less monosemantic value. In other words, they do not tend to develop new meanings. The English So long, for example, clue to its conventional usage has lost its primary meaning. It has become a formal phrase of parting. Not so with the French “Au revoir”. When used in English as a formal sign of parting it will either carry the exact meaning of the words it is composed of, viz. ‘See you again soon’, or have another stylistic function.

Here is an example: “She had said ‘Au revoir!’ Not good-bye!” (Galsworthy) The formal and conventional salutation at parting has become a meaningful sentence set against another formal salutation at parting which, in its turn, is revived by the process to its former significance of “God be with you,” i.e. a salutation used when parting for some time.

In publicistic style the use of barbarisms and foreign words is mainly confined to colouring the passage on the problem in question with a touch of authority. A person who uses so many foreign words and phrases is obviously a very educated person, the reader thinks, and therefore a “man who knows.” Here are some examples of the use of barbarisms in the publicistic style:

“Yet en passant I would like to ask here (and answer) what did Rockefeller think of Labour...” (Dreiser, “Essays and Ar­ticles”).