Lecture 3. Etymological composition of the English word-stock

I. Words of native origin and their characteristics

II. Ways of borrowing into English

III. Criteria and assimilation of borrowings

IV. Special type of borrowings

I. The native element of the English Vocabulary is composed of words of Anglo-Saxon origin brought to the British Isles from the continent in the fifth century by the Germanic tribes (племена): the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes, and some words coined (образован)in English later.

They are subdivided into:

1. Words of the Indo-European stock;

2. Words of the common Germanic stock;

3. English words proper

The words having parallels in the vocabularies of different Indo-European languages form the oldest layer (слой). Ex. English – star, German – Stern, Latin – Stella, Greek – Aster.

The words of Indo-European stock (IES) fall into definite semantic group:

1. Terms of kingship (родства): father, mother, daughter.

2. Natural phenomena (Sun, Moon, star, wind, storm)

3. Names of animals and birds (horse, goose)

4. Parts of human body (heart, eye)

5. Qualities and properties (old, young, cold)

6. Common actions (come, sit, stand)

A much bigger part of the native vocabulary is formed by words of the common Germanic stock, that is words having parallels in German, Norwegian, Dutch, and Icelandic. Ex. En: Summer and winter – Germ: Sommer/Winter)

The English elements proper is specifically English having no cognates (слова общего происхождения) in other languages. Ex. Lady, always, girl, lord, daisy, boy.

II. Ways of borrowing into English.

A loan word or a borrowing is a words taken over from another language and modified in phonemic shape, spelling paradigm or meaning according to the standards of the English language..

Borrowings can enter the languages in 2 ways:

1. Through oral speech (by immediate contact between peoples)

2. Through written speech (by indirect contact through books)

Oral borrowings took place mainly in the early periods of history (old borrowings from Latin: inch, mill, street) . They are usually short and undergo more changes in the act of adoption.

Written speech (French belles-lettres) – preserve their spelling, They are often rather long and their assimilation is a laborious process.

III. Criteria and assimilation of borrowings/

The criteria of borrowings are:

1. Certain pronunciation and spelling (psychology – Greek, machine – French)

2. Unusual morphological structure and grammatical forms (ex. Pl. bacteria Sg. Bacterium – Latin)

3. Specific lexical meaning (ex,. Pagoda, rickshaw – Chinese)

Borrowed words are assimilated in 3 main ways:

1. Phonetic assimilation comprising changes in the sound, form and stress (ударение). Ex. Germ. Spitz / English Spitz.

2. Grammatical assimilation causing the loss of former grammatical categories and affixes and the acquirement (приобретение) of new paradigmsю (ex. Latin – Botanicus was turned into English Botanical)

3. Semantic assimilation comprising adjustment (приспособление) to the system of meaning of the vocabulary (ex. Gay was borrowed from French with several meaning noble of birth, bright shining, multicolored. Now it means joyful or high-spirited.

According to the degree of assimilation loan words fall into 3 groups:

1. Completely assimilated words that follow all morphological, phonological and orthographical standards of the receiving language (French ‘pain’ is readily combined with native affixes ‘pained, painful, painless)

2. Partially assimilated words:

- Not assimilated semantically, because they denote objects and notions peculiar to a certain country (ex. Sombrero)

- Not assimilated grammatically (ex. Borrowings from Lating/Greek: formula/ae)

- Not assimilated phonetically (prestige, memoir – French)

- Not assimilated graphically (ex. The final silent ‘t’ in ballet – French)

3. Barbarisms – words from other languages used by English people in conversation or in writing but not assimilated in any way for which there a e corresponding English equivalents (ex. Chaos, adios).

IV. Special types of borrowings.

The changes which a loan word had to undergo depending on the date of its penetration are the main cause for the existence of the so-called etymological doublets.

Etymological doublets are pairs of words, which have on and the same original form, but which have acquired different forms and even different meaning during the course of linguistic development. (ex. The words shirt and skirt etymologically descend from the same root. Shirt is a native words, skirt is a Scandinavian borrowing. Their phonetic shape is different, and yet there is a certain resemblance (сходство), which reflects their common origin. Their meanings are also different but easily associated: they both denote articles of clothing.

Words of identical origin can accrue in several languages as the result of simultaneous or successive (последовательный) borrowings from one ultimate source, these words are called international words (ex., gene, antibiotic).

Alongside (наряду) loan words proper we distinguish translation loans and semantic loans.

Translation loans are words borrowed not in the same phonemic shape they have been functioned in their own language, but after undergoing the process of translation (ex., wall newspaper from Russian стенная газета)

The semantic loan denotes the development of a new meaning in an English word due to the influence of a related word in another language. (ex., English pioneer originally meant ‘explorer’. Under the influence of Russian word it has come to mean ‘a member of the young pioneer organization’.