Changes in English Vocabulary

LECTURE 2

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ENGLISH VOCABULARY

The Volume of English Vocabulary and Its Use

English vocabulary is remarkable for its richness and variety of the means of expression. The number of words has increased by more than 10 times since the Old English period: from 30.000 words used in OE manuscripts to about 417.000 words entered in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). But the actual word-stock of English is much greater, as the OED does not include special terms, latest neologisms, dialectisms and some other categories of words. According to certain data, English vocabulary has about 490.000 words, not counting 300.000 special technical terms. The famous American lexicographer Stuart Flexner suggests that since Shakespeare English vocabulary has increased four-fold and now contains 600.000 words (not counting terms). In other words, about 450.000 words have been added up since that time. But the number of words in actual use is rather limited. So, the minimum everyday vocabulary is about 500 words, the functional (active) vocabulary of an educated person is 4 – 5 thousand words; the recognition (passive) vocabulary of an educated person is 30 to 40 thousand words. S. Flexner claims that Americans use in their speech 10 to 20 thousand words. By the way, the functional vocabulary of a foreign languages department graduate must be 4.500 words.

The word stock in actual use differs from speaker to speaker in accordance with their education, age, social standing, occupation; the same speaker uses different words in different situations of communication, e.g., in a talk with a friend, with a baby, with a superior official, a colleague, etc.).

Characteristic Features of English Vocabulary

Like any other developed language, English has a vocabulary suited to satisfy all the needs of expression, communication and cognition. Like other languages, it has words to name objects (e.g., student, chalk), to express notions (e.g., to win, beauty) and emotions (e.g., dear, darling, damn you), attitudes (e.g., coward, hero) and relations (e.g., here, before). A lot of words express emotions, attitudes and concepts simultaneously (e.g., What a sight!). These features are characteristic of all languages.

But English word-stock has certain peculiarities of its own. It is marked by:

• Abundance of borrowed words (70-75 % of the general word-stock), e.g., mill, street, wine, consume, cup, death, sport, etc.

• Rich synonymic resources with synonyms of different origin, e.g., hearty – cordial, freedom – liberty, rise – mount – ascend, kill – slay – assassinate – murder.

• Mono- and disyllabic root words as the prevailing structural type, e.g., love, work, active, become.

• Highly developed polysemy. The first thousand of most frequent English words expresses about 20 or 25 thousand meanings, e.g., go has 31 meanings, make – 28, take – 18; the noun set has 58 uses, the verb set has 128 uses. According to N. McWhirler, set is the most overused word in English.

• Abnormal growth of homonymy, especially among words of different parts of speech, e.g., silence (n) – silence (v); try (v) – try (n); dry (adj) – dry (v).

• Abundance of phrasal verbs, e.g., give up, tell off, look out, bear out, and give in.

• A greater role of context in rendering precise meanings in English as compared, e.g., with Russian (Cf. to wash one's face, hands, clothes, dishes – умыть, вымыть, постирать, помыть; to come – прийти, приехать, прилететь, приплыть).

Changes in English Vocabulary

Vocabulary immediately reacts to all the changes in the life of people, to the progress of science, culture, technology, etc. All this is reflected in the growth and development of vocabulary. Whenever a new notion comes into being, a new meaning is developed in an existing word (e.g., web), or a new expression is formed (e.g., Internet, hacker, space shuttle, cybernetics), or a new word is borrowed from another language (e.g., sputnik).

There are four ways of enlarging and enriching vocabulary: 1) borrowing, 2) word-building, 3) semantic change, 4) phraseologisation.

But changes in vocabulary do not only mean adding up new words and expressions. Words are not only being born, they can also grow old and disappear (e.g., OE hap meaning «chance» is now non-existent). Some of the meanings of polysemantic words can drop out, too (e.g., the meaning «reap» of the verb to earn has died out), while other meanings survive throughout centuries (e.g., the meaning of «part of the body» of the noun hand). Some words have changed their meanings beyond recognition (e.g., marshal in OE meant «a servant in charge of horses»). Many words, remaining part of the lexico-semantic system, have been shifted to very limited spheres of usage (e.g., dale, morn, thou are now archaisms which can be used in poetry or in historical novels.)

So, changes in the lexico-semantic system of language have both qualitative and quantitative character and are marked by two opposed tendencies – to add up and to drop out its elements. The interplay between new elements of the vocabulary and its outdated ones is seen in the contrast between neologisms and archaisms.

a) Neologisms

A neologism is a newly coined word, or a phrase, or a new meaning for an existing word, or a word borrowed from another language, which is felt by the speakers as something new. The criterion of novelty is rather vague (are the terms multi-media and on-line new?). But, conventionally, a lexical unit is considered to be a neologism until it is entered into general dictionaries. From this viewpoint, subsatellite («a small satellite launched from a large one») is a neologism while booster («a carrier rocket») is not any longer. But it is certainly very subjective, as it often depends on how promptly lexicographers work.

For extralinguistic reasons, neologisms are the most frequent in terminological systems, e.g., that of computer technology (computerize, computerizable, computerman, computernik, computerite, computery, etc.); medicine (AIDS, HIV, ARC). Here also belong socio-political terms naming the realities of political life, e.g., summit (with summitology, summitry), soft-liner, superwar. Many of political terms are rather short-lived and pass out of general use together with changes in political situations, e.g., Reaganomics, Reagangate, perestroika, glasnost.

In colloquial English, especially in the sphere of slang tending to novelty and freshness of expression, neologisms appear in great numbers, e.g., subteens («children of 10-12»), smoking gun («direct evidence»). Neologisms are numerous in slang in such semantic groups as names of persons (yuppie, yeepie, dockney, mockney, dinky), drugs (wheels, mule, acid, to do «to take drugs»), music (house, beach music, speed metal), style of life (taste maker, upscale, downscale), crime and police, cars, money, love, etc.

The ways of forming neologisms are as follows:

I. Word-building

1) affixation (e.g., cagey, fattyism);

2) conversion (e.g., a burn, to air);

3) composition (e.g., cancer-stick «a cigarette», moneyman);

4) shortening (e.g., muso, demo);

5) blending (e.g., transceiver, clothesaholic, agitpop);

6) back formation (e.g., to automate).

II. Semantic change (e.g., box «TV set», mule «drug trafficker», light up «destroy a target»).

III. Borrowing (e.g., perestroika, jihad, intifada)

IV. Phraseology, (e.g., a bedroom community «part of the city whose residents work wholly in another part of it or in a different city»).

b) Archaisms

Some of the words can grow old and drop out of language. It may happen due to both extra-linguistic and linguistic causes.

The extra-linguistic factor is the disappearance of certain things and notions having no more value for the nation. Words denoting notions pass out of general use and become historisms. In modern English they may be used to describe the mode of life of the corresponding epoch. Here belong, for example, the following names of ancient weapons: bodkin, bow, halberd, sword, sabre, shield.

Among the linguistic factors, synonymic competition of words expressing the same notion is among the most important. As a result, one of these words gradually turns into an archaism. It is usually an older native word which has to compete with a newer borrowing and which little by little acquires a lofty, poetic coloring due to its association with the past. Here belong dale, ere, morn, brine, slay, maiden, etc. Some archaic grammatical forms belong here, too: thou, thee, thy; quoth; asketh. All these words and word-forms comprise the group of archaisms.

Turning into an archaism includes three stages:

1. Obsolescent words. These words are felt as old-fashioned but are still in use in the speech of the older generation arid in literary works, e.g., fraught with «filled with», kin «relatives», to swoon «to faint», to tarry «to linger»;

2. Archaisms proper. These words are recognizable for most of the speakers, they are not used anywhere except in literary works. Here belong methinks «It seems to me», nay «no», verily «truly», nether «lower», etc.;

3. Obsolete words which are hardly understandable for any of the speakers, e.g., lozel «a worthless fellow».