Lexicology of the English Language
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BE AE BE
AE fringe bangs/of hair/ turn- ups cuffs tights pantyhose mackintosh raincoat ladder run/in a stocking/ braces suspenders poloneck turtleneck waistcoat vest
Some words denoting people:
BE AE BE
AE barrister, lawyer, staff /university/ faculty post-graduate graduate chap, fellow guy caretaker janitor constable patrolman shopassistant shopperson bobby cop
If we speak about cars there are also some differences:
BE AE BE
AE boot trunk bumpers fenders a car, an auto, to hire a car to rent a car
Differences in the organization of education lead to different terms. BE
«public school» is in fact a private school. It is a fee-paying school not
controlled by the local education authorities. AE «public school» is a
free local authority school. BE «elementary school» is AE «grade school» BE
«secondary school» is AE «high school». In BE « a pupil leaves a secondary
school», in AE «a student graduates from a high school» In BE you can
graduate from a university or college of education, graduating entails
getting a degree.
A British university student takes three years known as the first, the second and the third years. An American student takes four years, known as freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years. While studying a British student takes a main and subsidiary subjects. An American student majors in a subject and also takes electives. A British student specializes in one main subject, with one subsidiary to get his honours degree. An American student earns credits for successfully completing a number of courses in studies, and has to reach the total of 36 credits to receive a degree.
Differences of spelling.
The reform in the English spelling for American English was introduced
by the famous American lexicographer Noah Webster who published his first
dictionary in 1806. Those of his proposals which were adopted in the
English spelling are as follows: a) the delition of the letter «u» in words ending in «our», e.g. honor, favor; b) the delition of the second consonant in words with double consonants, e.g. traveler, wagon, c) the replacement of «re» by «er» in words of French origin, e.g.
theater, center, d) the delition of unpronounced endings in words of Romanic origin, e.g. catalog, program, e) the replacement of «ce» by «se» in words of Romanic origin, e.g.
defense, offense, d) delition of unpronounced endings in native words, e.g. tho, thro.
Differences in pronunciation
In American English we have r-coloured fully articulated vowels, in the
combinations: ar, er, ir, or, ur, our etc. In BE the sound / /
corresponds to the AE /^/, e.g. «not». In BE before fricatives and
combinations with fricatives «a» is pronounced as /a:/, in AE it is
pronounced / / e.g. class, dance, answer, fast etc.
There are some differences in the position of the stress:
BE AE BE
AE add`ress adress la`boratory
`laboratory re`cess `recess re`search
`research in`quiry `inquiry ex`cess
`excess
Some words in BE and AE have different pronunciation, e.g.
BE AE BE
AE
/`fju:tail/ /`fju:t l/ /`dousail /
/dos l/
/kla:k/ /kl rk/ /`fig /
/figyer/
/ `le3 / / li:3 r/ /lef`ten nt/
/lu:tenant/
/ nai / /ni: r/ /shedju:l/
/skedyu:l/
But these differences in pronunciation do not prevent Englishmen and
American from communicating with each other easily and cannot serve as a
proof that British and American are different languages.
Words can be classified according to the period of their life in the language. The number of new words in a language is always larger than the number of words which come out of active usage. Accordingly we can have archaisms, that is words which have come out of active usage, and neologisms, that is words which have recently appeared in the language.
ARCHAISMS
Archaisms are words which are no longer used in everyday speech, which
have been ousted by their synonyms. Archaisms remain in the language, but
they are used as stylistic devices to express solemnity.
Most of these words are lexical archaisms and they are stylistic synonyms
of words which ousted them from the neutral style. Some of them are: steed
/horse/, slay /kill/, behold /see/, perchance /perhaps/, woe /sorrow/ etc.
Sometimes a lexical archaism begins a new life, getting a new meaning, then the old meaning becomes a semantic archaism, e.g. «fair» in the meaning «beautiful» is a semantic archaism, but in the meaning «blond» it belongs to the neutral style.
Sometimes the root of the word remains and the affix is changed, then
the old affix is considered to be a morphemic archaism, e.g. «beautious»
/»ous» was substituted by «ful»/, «bepaint» / «be» was dropped/, «darksome»
/»some» was dropped/, «oft» / «en» was added/. etc.
NEOLOGISMS
At the present moment English is developing very swiftly and there is so
called «neology blowup». R. Berchfield who worked at compiling a four-
volume supplement to NED says that averagely 800 neologisms appear every
year in Modern English. It has also become a language-giver recently, especially with the development of computerization.
New words, as a rule, appear in speech of an individual person who wants
to express his idea in some original way. This person is called
«originater». New lexical units are primarily used by university teachers, newspaper reporters, by those who are connected with mass media.
Neologisms can develop in three main ways: a lexical unit existing in the
language can change its meaning to denote a new object or phenomenon. In
such cases we have semantic neologisms, e.g. the word «umbrella» developed
the meanings: «авиационное прикрытие», »политическое прикрытие». A new
lexical unit can develop in the language to denote an object or phenomenon
which already has some lexical unit to denote it. In such cases we have
transnomination, e.g. the word «slum» was first substituted by the word
«ghetto» then by the word-group «inner town». A new lexical unit can be
introduced to denote a new object or phenomenon. In this case we have «a
proper neologism», many of them are cases of new terminology.
Here we can point out several semantic groups when we analize the group
of neologisms connected with computerization, and here we can mention words
used: a) to denote different types of computers, e.g. PC, super-computer, multi-
user, neurocomputer / analogue of a human brain/; b) to denote parts of computers, e.g. hardware, software, monitor, screen, data, vapourware / experimental samples of computers for
exhibition, not for production/; c) to denote computer languages, e.g. BASIC, Algol FORTRAN etc; d) to denote notions connected with work on computers, e.g. computerman, computerization, computerize, to troubleshoot, to blitz out / to ruin
data in a computer’s memory/.
There are also different types of activities performed with the help of
computers, many of them are formed with the help of the morpheme «tele», e.g. to telework, to telecommute / to work at home having a computer which
is connected with the enterprise for which one works/. There are also such
words as telebanking, telemarketing, teleshopping / when you can perform
different operations with the help of your computer without leaving your
home, all operations are registered by the computer at your bank/, videobank /computerized telephone which registers all information which is
received in your absence/.
In the sphere of lingusitics we have such neologisms as: machine
translation, interlingual / an artificial language for machine translation
into several languages / and many others.
In the sphere of biometrics we have computerized machines which can
recognize characteristic features of people seeking entrance : finger-print
scanner / finger prints/, biometric eye-scanner / blood-vessel arrangements
in eyes/, voice verification /voice patterns/. These are types of
biometric locks. Here we can also mention computerized cards with the help
of which we can open the door without a key.
In the sphere of medicine computors are also used and we have the
following neologisms: telemonitory unit / a telemonitory system for
treating patience at a distance/.
With the development of social activities neologisms appeared as well, e.g. youthquake - волнения среди молодежи, pussy-footer - политик, идущий
на компромисы, Euromarket, Eurodollar, Europarliament, Europol etc.
In the modern English society there is a tendency to social
stratification, as a result there are neologisms in this sphere as well, e.g. belonger - представитель среднего класса, приверженец консервативных
взглядов. To this group we can also refer abbreviations of the type
yuppie /young urban professional people/, such as: muppie, gruppie, rumpie, bluppie etc. People belonging to the lowest layer of the society are
called survivers, a little bit more prosperous are called sustainers, and
those who try to prosper in life and imitate those, they want to belong
to, are called emulaters. Those who have prospered but are not belongers
are called achievers. All these layers of socety are called VAL /Value
and Lifestyles/ .
The rich belong also to jet set that is those who can afford to travel by
jet planes all over the world enjoying their life. Sometimes they are
called «jet plane travellers».
During Margaret Thatcher’s rule the abbreviation PLU appeared which means
«People like us» by which snobbistic circles of society call themselves.
Nowadays /since 1989/ PLU was substituted by «one of us».
There are a lot of immigrants now in UK , in connection with which
neologisms partial and non-partial were formed /имеющие право жить в
стране и его антоним/.
The word-group «welfare mother» was formed to denote a non-working single
mother living on benefit.
In connection with criminalization of towns in UK volantary groups of
assisting the police were formed where dwellers of the neighbourhood are
joined. These groups are called «neighbourhood watch», «home watch».
Criminals wear «stocking masks» not to be recognized.
The higher society has neologisms in their speech, such as : dial-a-meal, dial-a-taxi.
In the language of teen-agers there are such words as : Drugs! /OK/, sweat /бег на длинные дистанции/, task /home composition /, brunch etc.
With the development of professional jargons a lot of words ending in
«speak» appeared in English, e.g. artspeak, sportspeak, medspeak, education-
speak, video-speak, cable-speak etc.
There are different semantic groups of neologisms belonging to everyday
life: a) food e.g. «starter»/ instead of «hors d’oevres»/, macrobiotics / raw
vegetables, crude rice/ , longlife milk, clingfilm, microwave stove, consumer electronics, fridge-freezer, hamburgers /beef-, cheese-, fish-, veg- /. b) clothing, e.g. catsuit /one-piece clinging suit/, slimster , string /
miniscule bikini/, hipster / trousers or skirt with the belt on hips/, completenik / a long sweater for trousers/, sweatnik /a long jacket/, pants-skirt, bloomers / lady’s sports trousers/. c) footwear e.g. winklepickers /shoes with long pointed toes/, thongs
/open sandals/, backsters /beech sandals with thick soles/. d) bags, e.g. bumbag /a small bag worn on the waist/, sling bag /a bag
with a long belt/, maitre / a small bag for cosmetics/.
There are also such words as : dangledolly / a dolly-talisman dangling in
the car before the windscreen/, boot-sale /selling from the boot of the
car/, touch-tone /a telephone with press-button/.
Neologisms can be also classified according to the ways they are formed.
They are subdivided into : phonological neologisms, borrowings, semantic
neologisms and syntactical neologisms. Syntactical neologisms are divided
into morphological /word-building/ and phraseological /forming word-
groups/.
Phonological neologisms are formed by combining unique combinations of
sounds, they are called artificial, e.g. rah-rah /a short skirt which is
worn by girls during parades/, «yeck» /»yuck» which are interjections to
express repulsion produced the adjective yucky/ yecky. These are strong
neologisms.
Strong neologisms include also phonetic borrowings, such as «perestroika»
/Russian/, «solidarnosc» /Polish/, Berufsverbot / German /, dolce vita
/Italian/ etc.
Morphological and syntactical neologisms are usually built on patterns
existing in the language, therefore they do not belong to the group of
strong neologisms.
Among morphological neologisms there are a lot of compound words of
different types, such as «free-fall»-»резкое падение курса акций» appeared
in 1987 with the stock market crash in October 1987 /on the analogy with
free-fall of parachutists, which is the period between jumping and opening
the chute/. Here also belong: call-and-recall - вызов на диспансеризацию, bioastronomy -search for life on other planets, rat-out - betrayal in
danger , zero-zero (double zero) - ban of longer and shorter range weapon, x-rated /about films terribly vulgar and cruel/, Ameringlish /American
English/, tycoonography - a biography of a business tycoon.
There are also abbreviations of different types, such as resto, teen
/teenager/, dinky /dual income no kids yet/, ARC /AIDS-related condition, infection with AIDS/, HIV / human immuno-deficiency virus/.
Quite a number of neologisms appear on the analogy with lexical units
existing in the language, e.g. snowmobile /automobile/, danceaholic
/alcoholic/, airtel /hotel/, cheeseburger /hamburger/, autocade /
cavalcade/.
There are many neologisms formed by means of affixation, such as:
decompress, to disimprove, overhoused, educationalist, slimster, folknik
etc. Phraseological neologisms can be subdivided into phraseological units
with transferred meanings, e.g. to buy into/ to become involved/, fudge
and dudge /avoidance of definite decisions/, and set non-idiomatic
expressions, e.g. electronic virus, Rubic’s cube, retail park, acid rain , boot trade etc.
Changes in pronunciation.
In Modern British English there is a tendency to change pronunciation of
some sounds and combinations of sounds due to the influence of American
English and some other factors. These changes are most noticeable in the
speech of teachers and students of the universities in the Southern part of
England /Oxford, Cambridge, London/.
There are the following changes in pronouncing vowels: a) shortening of long vowels, especially at the end of the word and
before voiceless consonants, e.g. see, keep; b) lengthening of short vowels before voiced consonants, e.g. big, good, come, jam etc. In such adjectives which end in /d/ lengthening of the
vowel is observed all over England, e.g. bad, sad, glad, mad etc. c) drawling of stressed syllables and clipping of unstressed syllables. d) In unstressed syllables / / is pronounced instead of / i /, e.g. /b
`ko:z/, /`evid ns/ etc. e) In the words consisting of three or more syllables there is a tendency
to have two main stresses,e.g. /`nes `s ri/, /`int `restin/. f) The diphthong /ou/ is pronounced / u/,e.g. home /h um/, go /g u/. g) the diphthong / u / is pronounced /o:/, e.g. sure /sho:/.
Vowels can also change under the influence of consonants: a) after fricatives and consonants /n/ and /m/ /ju:/ is pronounced as
/u:/, e.g. resume, music, news, enthusiasm.
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