Stylistic Lexicology Outline Most

Stylistic Lexicology

Outline • • • Most Frequent English Words Classification Problems Aesthetic Classification of the Vocabulary Superneutral Words Subneutral Words Stylistically Heterogeneous Words

Most Frequent English Words 9 words – AND, BE, HAVE, IT, OF, THE, TO, WILL, YOU - 25% of everyday communication. + 34 words – ABOUT, ALL, AS, AT, BUT, CAN, COME, DAY, DEAR, FOUR, GET, GO, HEAR, HER, IF, IN, ME, MUCH, NOT, ONE, SAY, SHE, SO, THAT, THESE, THEY, THIS, THOUGH, TIME, WITH, WRITE, YOUR – 50 % of everyday communication. George Mc. Knight (English Words and their Background)

Classification Problems • Classification is to be established on the same dividing principle. Archaic Bookish Euphemisms Colloquial words Native words • A word should only belong to one class. To perspire – bookish borrowed euphemism.

Aesthetic Classification • Positive (elevated) – superneutral words • Negative (degraded) – subneutral words

Degrees of Elevation/ Degradation • Elevation/degradation is a result of evaluating at least 3 factors: the subject of speech, the character of the communicative sphere, the participants of communication.

Degrees of Elevation/ Degradation (2) • The minimal degree presupposes absence of purpose. (activity, prevail) • The medial degree suggests it that the speaker chooses words deliberately to achieve a certain stylistic effect. (somnolent, expurgate, big gun. . ) • The maximal degree are highly expressive words possessing either very special aesthetic value or inadmissible ethically.

Superneutral Words • Poetic words (poetic diction) demonstrate the maximum of aesthetic value. (sylvan, morn, albeit) • Official words of business and legal correspondence – the medial level of elevation (spouse, thereinto, hereto) • Special terms – the medial level of elevation (extraction, recovery, leaching)

Superneutral Words (2) • Barbarisms – medial/ minimal level of elevation if they are from prestigious languages (French, Latin, Greek) • Archaic words (which are not completely out of use) – medial degree of elevation (thou, thee, knight, main))

Superneutral Words (3) • Special terms – popular terms are of minimal or medial degree of elevation. (evaporation, collider) • Bookish words – all levels of elevation: either formal (sometimes high-flown) synonyms of neutral words (commence, respond, individual) or express notions that can only be described in neutral and subneutral styles (to hibernate).

Bookish Words A young lady home from school was explaining: “Take, an egg, ” she said, ” and make a perforation in the base and a corresponding one in the apex. Then apply the lips to the aperture, and by forcibly inhaling the breath the shell is entirely discharged of its contents. ” an old lady who was listening exclaimed: “it beats all how folks do things nowadays. When I was a girl they made a hole in each end and sucked. ”

Bookish Words (training) • A vast concourse was assembled to witness. • Disastrous conflagration • The individual was precipitated. • He commenced his rejoinder. • They called into requisition the services of the physician.

Subneutral Words • Minimal degree – colloquialisms • Medial degree- slang, jargon, dialectisms, archaic words (which are out of use), barbarisms (aliens from languages of no prestige), nonce-words and neologisms • Maximal degree – stylistic vulgarisms and vulgarisms proper

Colloquialisms • Colloquial words proper: a) colloquial synonyms of neutral words (chap, chunk) b) words which have no neutral equivalents (drifter, molly-coddle) c) nursery words (mummy, tummy, pussy, gee-gee)

Colloquialisms (2) • Phonetic variants of neutral words (gaffer, feller, baccy, don’t, shan’t. . ) • Diminutives of neutral or colloquial words (granny, lassie, piggy, Bobby, Johny) • Colloquial meanings of polysemantic words (spoon, pretty bad, awfully sorry) • Interjections (except Oh)

Jargon Words • Informal, often humorous replacements of neutral or superneutral words, used in professional or social groups. mil. To be put in a bag, big gun, a bird, an egg, picture show cant Ain’t a lifer, not him! Got a stretch for pulling a leather up in Chi.

Slang • Commonly understood and widely used words and expressions of humorous or derogatory character – intentional substitutes for neutral or elevated words and expressions. Food: chuck, chow, grub, hash Money: jack, tin, brass, oof, slippery stuff

Neologisms and Nonce-words • Newly coined words are not easily accepted by the linguistic community, hence any new words are of low stylistic value. • Nonce-words are individual creations used for the given occasion. Georgessness, balconyful, two husbands ago Her nose was red and dew-droppy. She was too Jack-in-the boxy.

Vulgar Words • Words too offensive for polite usage. They can be divided into 2 groups: a) Vulgarisms proper- express ideas unmentionable in civilized society. c—t, f—k b) Stylistic vulgarisms express derogatory attitude of the speaker towards the object of speech. smeller, ol’ bean