Lecture 11 Stylistic Differentiation of the English Vocabulary

Lecture 11. Stylistic Differentiation of the English Vocabulary 1. The basic word-stock of the English language 2. English vocabulary as a system 2. 1. Stylistically neutral words 2. 2. Literary words 2. 3. Conversational words 3. Neologisms

1. Basic stock (general vocabulary) – frequently used words indispensable in ordinary communication among people and have been such for a long period of time: • names of things and phenomena of the surrounding nature (sun, moon, water, fire) • names of human beings and places, parts of human body (man, woman, father, mother, house, head) • names of the main colours (red, green) • the processes of life activity (go, come, drive, live, make) • structural elements of the language (in, or, to, and, but).

1. Most of these words are old native words. 2. These words are known to all English speaking people. 3. Their meanings are general and they contain the notions directly. For instance, the verb to walk means merely to move from place to place on foot whereas in the meanings of its synonyms to stride, to stroll, to trot, to stagger and others, some additional information is encoded as they each describe a different manner of walking, a different gait, tempo, purposefulness or lack of purpose and even length of paces. 4. These words are stylistically neutral which makes it possible to use them in all kinds of situations, both formal and informal, in verbal and written communication.

The English Vocabulary • Neutral words and expressions • Literary words and expressions • Conversational words and expressions

Stylistically neutral words include the most vital part of the vocabulary. Etymologically the words of this layer are mostly native, or borrowed long ago and assimilated. Thus, among the lexical units of this layer we find: Latin borrowings and words of Greek origin borrowed through Latin: e. g. copper, wall, church, street early French borrowings: e. g. pleasure, army, judge, mutton the bulk of early Scandinavian borrowings e. g. husband, sky

Features of Stylistically Neutral Words • are often root words. • since they are devoid of emotional colouring, their frequency value is very high and therefore they are often polysemantic. • words of this layer are the most general words in groups of synonyms easily replacing the other members of the group. In the group of synonyms: girl, maiden, lass, young female, girl is the most general, though not the most expressive. Stylistically neutral words can enter several groups of synonyms because they are often polysemantic and their meaning is not general.

Stylistically marked layers of the English Vocabulary Literary words and expressions 1. General literary words / learned / bookish / high-flown 2. Special literary words 2. 1. Archaisms (archaic words proper, historisms, poetic words) 2. 2. Terms Conversational words and expressions 1. Colloquial words (literary, familiar, low colloquial) 2. Slang 3. Professionalisms 4. Jargonisms 5. Dialectal words

Literary words and expressions 1. General literary words can be used in all functional styles of speech of its written type. They comprise words: • used in poetry, fiction (solitude, sentiment, fascination, meditation, felicity, cordial, illusionary) • scientific prose (experimental, heterogeneous, homogeneous, conclusive, divergent, etc. ). They are mostly polysyllabic words drawn from the Romance languages and, though fully adapted to the English phonetic system, some of

2. Special literary words 2. 1. Archaisms 2. 1. 1. Archaic words proper are words which are no longer used in everyday speech, which have been ousted by their synonyms, e. g. fair /beautiful/, to deem /to think/, brethren /brothers/. 2. 1. 2. Historisms are words denoting objects of Historisms material culture and phenomena of the past, e. g. the names of ancient transport (brougham /a horse-drawn carriage with a roof, four wheels, and an open driver's seat in front/, phaeton /a light, open four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage/), types of weapons (crossbow, blunderbuss).

2. 1. 3. Poetic words – used in poetry in the XVII – XIX cc. , e. g. steed /horse/, slay /kill/, behold /see/, perchance /perhaps/, woe /sorrow/ etc. 2. 2. Terms are words or phrases with a fixed meaning, denoting a thing or a process in some branch of science, production or in some other field of human activity. It is usually monosemantic, has only one denotative meaning, possesses no synonyms, e. g. stratosphere (1908), gene (1909), quantum (1910), vitamin (1912), behaviourism (1914), penicillin (1929), radar (1942), beam weapon (1977).

Conversational words and expressions are used in one’s immediate circle: family, relatives or friends. One uses them when at home or when feeling at home. Conversational words and word-groups are traditionally divided into three types: 1. Colloquial 2. Slang 3. Professionalisms 4. Jargonisms 5. Dialect words and word-groups

1. Colloquial words are informal words that are used in everyday conversational speech both by cultivated and uneducated people of all age groups. There are three groups of colloquial words: 1. 1. literary colloquial words 1. 2. familiar colloquial words 1. 3. low colloquial words

1. 1. Literary colloquial words are used by educated people in everyday communication and also by British and American writers of the 20 th-21 st centuries, e. g. pal, chum /friend/, girl /a woman of any age/, bite, snack /meal/, hi, /hello/, to have a crush on somebody /to be in love/, a bit of, a lot of etc. A considerable number of shortenings are found among words of this type, e. g. teen, celeb, exam, fridge, flu, movie.

1. 2. Familiar colloquial words are more emotional, free and careless; they are characterized by a great number of ironical and jocular expressions, e. g. doc /doctor/, ta-ta /good-bye/, to kid smb. /tease/, go on with you /let me alone/, beat it /go away/. 1. 3. Low colloquial words is a term used for illiterate popular speech, it contains vulgar words / vulgarisms: • expletives and swear words of abusive character, like damn, goddam, bloody • obscene / taboo / four-letter words which are highly indecent.

"Slang sets things in their proper place with a smile. So, to call a hat 'a lid' and a head 'a nut' is amusing because it puts a hat and a pot-lid in the same class". (Henry Bradley) 2. Slang comprises highly informal words, not accepted for dignified use. It consists either of newly coined words and phrases or of current words employed in special meaning. As a rule, their meanings are based on metaphor and have a jocular or ironic colouring, e. g. school slang, sport slang, newspaper slang, e. g. money – beans, brass, dibs, dough, chink, oof; head – attic, brain-pan, hat peg, nut, upper storey, drunk

3. Professionalisms are sub-standard colloquial words used by people of a definite trade or profession. Such words are informal substitutes for coresponding terms. Professionalisms are understood only by a certain professional group, e. g. : nuke /nuclear/, identikit /photorobot/, anchors /brakes/, smash-up /accident/, washer /washing machine/.

4. Jargonisms are words and expressions created by various social and professional groups and classes. They are usually motivated and, like slang words, have metaphoric character, e. g. bird /rocket/ (astronauts’ jargon), to grab /to make an impression on smb. (newspaper jargon), to pump iron (sport). Among social jargons cant or argot (thieves’ jargon) is singled out. It is a sort of secret code invented with special “agreed upon” meaning or distorted to look strange and not understandable for others, e. g. , book /life sentence/, splosh /money/, to rap /to kill/.

5. Dialectal words reflect the geographical background of the speaker. Dialect is a language variety peculiar to one region of the country in which the language is spoken. Add examples

Neologisms are newly coined words or words that have acquired a new meaning because of social, economic, political or cultural changes in human society. The intense development of science, industry, means of communication has called forth the development of new words and phrases, e. g. hardware, microsurgical, weapons of mass destruction.

There are different types of neologisms: • scientific – words or phrases created to describe new scientific discoveries or inventions (black hole, laser) • political - words or phrases created to make some kind of political point (political correctness, big brother /a person, organization, etc. , that exercises total dictatorial control/) • imported – words or phrases originating in another language to express ideas that have no equivalent term in the native language: tycoon, potato

• There are different semantic groups of neologisms belonging to everyday life: 1) food, e. g longlife milk, clingfilm, microwave stove, hamburgers /beef-, cheese-, fish-, vege/; 2) clothing, e. g. hipsters /trousers or skirt with the belt on hips/; 3) footwear, e. g. winklepickers /shoes with long pointed toes/, thongs /open sandals/, backsters /beach sandals with thick soles/; 4) bags, e. g. bumbag / a small bag worn on waist/, sling bag /a bag with a long belt/.

Neologisms belong conversational layers. to both literary and Literary: Nominee /a person who is nominated as a candidate for election or for an honour or award/, de-ice /remove ice from/, pre-plan /plan in advance/ Conversational: Hungup /in a state of confusion; emotionally disturbed/, buck passer / a person who shifts responsibility/, job-hopper /a person who often changes jobs/, tube /TV/