LECTURE 2 STYLISTIC CLASSIFICATION OF THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY

LECTURE 2. STYLISTIC CLASSIFICATION OF THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY

Distinctive properties of the LITERARY VOCABULARY 1) Bookish character 2) Relative stability Distinctive properties of the COLLOQUIAL LAYER Lively spoken character and relative instability, changeability Typical aspect of the NEUTRAL LAYER Universality, wide range of usage

NEUTRAL, COMMON LITERARY AND COMMON COLLOQUIAL VOCABULARY. infant Neutral kid Literary Colloquial The following synonyms illustrate the relations that exist between the neutral, literary and colloquial layers: child

q Both literary and colloquial words have their upper and lower ranges. The lower range of literary words approaches the neutral layer and passes into it. The same happens to the upper range of the colloquial layer. Changes happen so fast that very often scholars fail to catch up with them. In this case you may see the word “teenager” being classified as colloquial though it has long passed into the neutral layer with a tendency to go upward to the literary layer. q The upward movement goes on continuously, but the opposite happens rarely. Literary words rarely become colloquial.

SPECIAL LITERARY VOCABULARY Terms A term is easily coined and easily accepted by a certain group of people. You should mark its highly conventional character. The peculiar feature of a term is that it uses a familiar form, but with absolutely different meaning attached to it. § Example: conductor (n) 1) one who leads 2) orchestra leader 3) smth that transmits heat, electricity or sound

Ø Terms are generally associated with a definite field of science. The point of using a term is to avoid misunderstanding. So in one branch of science any term should have only one meaning. In another branch the same word form can have a radically different meaning. Ø Terms pertain to scientific styles, but sometimes they pass to colloquial layers and become commonly used. It mostly happened when the notion they denote becomes part of our lives. It generally refers to computer or financial terminology (input, output, feed-back, interest rate, mortgage). They can appear in other styles as well. In the belles-lettres style they are used to describe the occupation of the character more vividly, though authors should be cautious not to overuse them.

Poetic and highly literary words Ø They are used primarily in poetry. The poetic vocabulary has a tendency to detach itself from the common literary word stock and assume a special significance. Examples: hall=house, oft=often, valor=courage. Ø When we read poetry it requires a great deal of effort to understand its meaning. In modern poetry poetic and highly literary words are completely out of use and their presence in modern verse would be regarded as a parody. To capture the spirit of poetry it requires not only the knowledge of literary but of historical context of culture as well.

Archaic words The development of a language resembles constant growth of a living organism. Some words go obsolete and die, others are born and replace them. Some words are retained in dictionaries as relics of the past. There exist three stages of going out of use: 1) words become obsolescent – gradually passing of general use, but sometimes being used for stylistic purposes (thou, thee, thy - archaic or dialect form of you , thine - archaic form of yours, art=are, wilt=will etc. ) Ex: art - форма употреблялась в сочетании с местоимением thou Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. (Bible)

2) words become obsolete – recognized but not used (nay=no отрицание, синоним слова “No”. Сохранилось в этом значении только при голосовании. Означает также лицо, проголосовавшее против), methinks=it seems to me) 3) archaic words proper – no longer recognized except by scholars (troth=faith=верность, честность) The borderline between the groups is not distinct, especially between obsolescent and obsolete words

Historical words Another class represents historical words (goblet=бокал, кубок, coat-of-mail=кольчуга, coat-of-arms=герб) which never become obsolete as they refer to certain items, people or events which are history. Such words help create realistic background to historical novels. Certainly, the text should not be overburdened with historical words to such an extent as to make it unintelligible to the modern reader.

Barbarisms and foreign words Barbarisms are words of foreign origin which have not entirely been assimilated and are alien to the native tongue. Ex. : chic = stylishness and elegance, from French; déjà vu = French [deʒa vy]: a feeling of having already experienced the present situation, origin: early 20 th cent. : French, literally ‘already seen’, cum laude = [kʌm 'lɔːdi, kʊm 'laʊdeɪ] with distinction = с отличием (with reference to university degrees and diplomas); origin: Latin, literally ‘with praise’ ). They became facts of the language and are registered in dictionaries. Foreign words, though used for stylistic purposes, do not belong to the English vocabulary and are generally italicized in books.

SPECIAL COLLOQUIAL VOCABULARY Slang Its three main functions are to form 1) the language of thieves 2) shoptalk 3) colloquial language outside of conventional usage. An additional function is to find fresh, colourful expression for old notions. They are usually indicated in dictionaries with asterisks or marks (sl. ).

THE MAIN USAGES OF SLANG ARE THE FOLLOWING: Ø thieves’ cant (жаргон, арго; тайный язык, профессиональный жаргон) that usually deals with crime, drugs, alcohol. For example, the word “drugged” can be expressed in the following ways – blown away, coked, dopey, floating, flying, high, junked-up, loaded, on a trip, out of it, smashed, spaced out, stoned, strung out. Ø colloquial words and phrases: “for good” = forever, “fishy = сомнительный, подозрительный”, “shady = подозрительный, нечистый” Ø figurative words and phrases termed “slang”: shark – pickpocket Ø conversion: mother – to mother Ø abbreviations: rep, lab, ma, sis Ø set expressions: to cut off with a shilling = лишать наследства, in a way = в некотором смысле Ø improprieties (неправильность, неуместность): how come, long time no see = Origin: in humorous imitation of broken English spoken by an American Indian]

Jargon This layer of the vocabulary is aimed to preserve secrecy within some social groups (thieves, jazz people, the army, athletes). Unlike slang, where the meaning can be figured out, jargon needs translation Ex. : brass hat – high ranking military official: a top-ranking official, esp. a military officer Etymology: from the gold leaf decoration on the peaks of caps worn by officers of high rank; "медная фуражка", начальство (генерал, старший начальник; по золотому галуну). When jargon becomes common, it passes into slang or colloquial.

Professionalisms These words are correlated to terms as they are used by people from definite trade or occupation, they are monosemantic, they designate some working process or action. The difference between professionalisms and terms is that the former are meant for quicker understanding in shoptalk. Their semantic structure is clear for professional people. They do not aim at secrecy, and they facilitate the quick grasp of the message. For example, “rabbit” is a professionalism for “container for specimen” in nuclear power industry.

Dialectical words Dialect is a form of a language spoken by people in a particular region or group. Dialects differ from one another in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Ex. : “Lass”, “lad” - Scottish. Such words are mainly used in emotive prose, otherwise they would disappear with the development of SE

Vulgarisms They are of coarse and unrefined character. They cannot be found in dictionaries though abound in modern prose. Ex. : “damn”, “bloody”, “hell”. The function of such words is to express strong emotions: anger, vexation

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