Branches of linguistics. Synchronic

1. Lexicology as a branch of linguistics, its aims and significance. Links with other branches of linguistics. Synchronic vs diachronic approaches to the language study.

Lexicology – ‘the science of the word’

Lexicon (syn. vocabulary, word-stock, lexis; Ukr.словниковий склад мови) is the total number of words that make up a language.

Studies of Lexicon

lexicon formation

lexicon stratification

lexicon organisation (studied by Lexicography)

Studies of Word-Groups

proper names (studied by Onomastics)

terms (studied by Terminology)

phraseological units (studied by Phraseology)

Studies relevant to words, word-groups, and lexicon

-functions of lexical units in speech (studied by Functional Lexicology)

-the meaning of lexical units (studied by Lexical Semantics)

Theoretical and Practical Value

-a systematic description of Modern English lexicon;

-a thorough study of the relations existing between various lexical layers of the English vocabulary;

-an in depth analysis of the specific laws and regulations that govern word-stock development at the present time;

-a comprehensive survey of the sources of the lexicon growth and the changes it has undergone;

-an introduction to the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries.

Approaches to the Study of Language

synchronic (Gr. syn — ‘together, with’, chronos — ‘time’) or descriptive

diachronic (Gr. dia — ‘through’, chronos — ‘time) or historical

to beg – a beggar

a beggar > to beg
2. Words of native origin and their distinctive features.

the native stock of words (25-30%) – words known from the earliest available manuscripts of the Old English period; they were brought to the British Isles from the continent in the 5th century AD by the Germanic tribes of the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes.

high frequency value – 80% of the 500 most frequent words;

monosyllabic structure: eye, red, head, sun, door, help etc;

a wide range of lexical and grammatical valency: to raise / bend / bow / shake / bury one’s head; clear / cool / level head; above one’s head; in one’s head etc.

developed polysemy: head, n. 1) the part of the body; 2) the mind or brain; 3) ability; 4) a leader; 5) side of the coin etc.

great word-building power: headed, heading, headache, header, headline, to behead etc;

enter a number of set expressions: heads or tails; head over heels, to keep one’s head above water, from head to toe etc.

Words of Indo-European stock have cognates in the vocabularies of different Indo-European languages:

-terms of kinship: mother, father, son, brother, daughter etc.;

-parts of the human body: foot, nose, eye, heart etc.;

-names of animals and birds: bull, swine, goose, fish, wolf, cat etc;

-names of plants: tree, birch, corn etc.;

-names of celestial bodies: sun, star, moon etc.;

-calendar terms: day, year, month etc.;

-names of domestic objects: home, house, door, stool, floor etc.;

-common verbs: be, go, do, have, see, sit, think, help, love, kiss, drink, bear, eat, ask etc.;

-common adjectives: hard, slow, wide, long, dark, red, white etc.;

-numerals: 1 .. 100;

-pronouns: I, my, that etc.

The evolution of I

O.E. ic (1st p. Sg. Nom.) < Pr.G. *ekan (cf. O.Fris. ik, O.N. ek, Norw. eg, Dan. jeg, O.H.G. ih, Ger. ich, Goth. ik) < PIE *ego(m) (cf. Skt. aham, Hitt. uk, L. ego, Gk. ego, Rus. ja);

the dot on the ‘small’ letter -i- began to appear in the 11th c. Latin manuscripts, to distinguish the letter from the stroke of another letter (such as -m- or -n-);

ic was reduced to i by 1137;

I became capitalised since 1250.

Words of Common Germanic stock have cognates only in other Germanic languages, e.g. Norwegian, Dutch, Icelandic, etc. Their areal distribution reflects the contacts between the Germanic tribes at the beginning of their migration:

-common nouns: hand, sand, earth, sheep, fox, bath, child, winter, rain, ice, house, life, bridge, rest etc.;

-common verbs: make, starve, sing, come, send, learn, can, buy, drive, burn, bake, keep, meet etc.;

-common adjectives: green, brown, cold, dead, deaf, deep, damp, thick, high, old, small etc.;

-adverbs: behind, much, still, well, yet etc.;

-Words of proper English stock do not occur in other Germanic or non-Germanic languages:

-words whose roots have not been found outside English, e.g. bird;

-compounds and derived words formed from the Germanic roots in England, e.g.

woman (O.E. wifman) < wife + man;

lord (O.E. hlāford) < loaf + weard (‘keeper’);

lady (O.E. hlāfdiʒe) < loaf + knead (‘bread-kneading’);

sheriff (O.E. scirʒerefa ‘chief of the shire’).

pronouns: we, he, you, it, self etc.
3. The borrowed element in the English vocabulary. The distinction between the terms origin of borrowing and source of borrowing. Translation loans. Semantic loans.

the borrowed stock of words (70-75%) – words taken over from other languages and modified in phonetic shape, spelling, paradigm or / and meaning according to the standards of the English language.

Motivation for borrowing a word:

-to fill a gap in the vocabulary, e.g. butter (Latin), yogurt (Turkish), whisky (Scottish Gaelic), tomato (Nahuatl /’na: watl/ - the Aztec language), sauna ( /’so:nə/ Finnish) etc.;

-to represent the same concept in a new aspect, supplying a new shade of meaning or a different emotional colouring, e.g. cordial (Latin), a desire (French), to admire (Latin) etc.;

-prestige, e.g. picture, courage, army, treasure, language, female, face, fool, beef (Norman French); in many cases these fashionable words simply displaced their native English equivalents, which dropped out of use.

The term source of borrowing is applied to the language from which the loan word was taken into English.

The term origin of borrowing refers to the language to which the word may be traced.

paper < Fr papier < Gr papyros ‘paper made of papyrus stalks’

umbrella < It ombrella < L umbra ‘shade, shadow’ (cf. Ukr. парасоля).

Translation loans (calques) are compound words or expressions formed from the elements existing in the English language according to the patterns of the source language; such loans came in handy when original words were hard to reproduce.

G Umgebung – E environment

Modern English names of the days of the week were also created on the pattern of Latin words as their literal translations and are the earliest examples of calques; have become regularly capitalised since the 17th c .

Monday (O.E. mōnan-dæʒ) < L. Lunae dies ‘day of the moon’;

Tuesday (O.E. tiwes-dæʒ) < L. Martis dies (Tiw – a Teutonic God corresponding to Roman Mars);

The term semantic loans is used to denote the development in an English word of a new meaning due to the influence of a related word in another language.

pioneer ‘one who goes before’ ← ‘a member of the young communist organisation’;

dream ‘joy, music’ (O.E.) ← ‘a vision during sleep’ (Sc.);
4. Types of borrowed elements in the English vocabulary. Etymological doublets, hybrids, international words, and folk etymology.

Etymological doublets are pairs of words of the same language which share the same etymological basis but have entered the language through different routes; often diverge in current meaning and usage. They may result from:

-shortening: defence – fence, appeal – peal; history – story;

-stressed and unstressed position of one and the same word: of – off, to – too;

-borrowing the word from the same language twice, but in different periods: jail (Par. Fr.) – goal (Norm. Fr.);

-development of the word in different dialects or languages that are historically descended from the same root: to chase (Northern Fr) – to catch (Central Fr); chart – card; channel (Fr) – canal (L); senior (L) – sir (Fr).

Hybrids are words made up of elements from two or more different languages.

Patterns of hybrids:

native affix (prefix or suffix) + borrowed stem: befool, besiege, beguile; graceful, falsehood, rapidly;

borrowed affix + native stem: drinkable, starvation, wordage; recall, embody, mishandle;

borrowed affix + borrowed stem + native affix: discovering;

native affix + native stem + borrowed affix: unbreakable.

The term folk (false, popular, etymythology) etymology (from German Volksetymologie) refers to erroneous beliefs about derivation and the consequent changes to words.

Sources of folk etymology:

reasonable interpretations of the evidence that happen to be false, e.g. cockroach (as if from cock + roach or caca ‘excrement’) < Sp. cucaracha ‘chafer, beetle’ < cuca ‘kind of caterpillar’;

urban legends, e.g. a rule of thumb ‘rough measurement’ is mistakenly thought to refer to an old English law under which a man could legally beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb (though no such law ever existed);

racism and slavery, e.g. picnic as a shortening for pick a nigger is erroneously thought to refer to an outdoor community gathering during which families ate from box lunches while a randomly-chosen Afro-American was hanged for the diners’ entertainment.
5. Assimilation of borrowings. Types and degrees of assimilation.

The term assimilation of a loan word is used to denote a partial or total conformation to the phonetical, graphical, and morphological standards of the receiving language and its semantic system.

The term type of assimilation refers to the changes an adopted word may undergo:

phonetic assimilation;

graphical assimilation;

grammatical assimilation;

semantic assimilation.

The degree of assimilation depends upon the period of time during which the word has been used in the receiving language, its communicative importance and frequency:

Completely assimilated loan-words are found at all the layers of older borrowings: cheese, street, wall, wine; gate, wing, die, take, happy, ill, low, odd, wrong.

Partially assimilated loan-words:

not assimilated semantically: sheik, sherbet;

not assimilated grammatically: crisis – crises, formula – formulae;

not assimilated phonetically: the final syllable is stressed (machine, cartoon, police); /ʒ/ - beige, prestige, regime; /wα:/ – memoir;

not assimilated graphically: last consonant is not pronounced (ballet, buffet, debut); a diacritic mark (café, cliché); have specific diagraphs (bouquet, brioche).

Non-assimilated (Barbarisms) are words not assimilated in any way and for which there are corresponding English equivalents: It. addio, ciao; Fr. tête-à-tête.
6. Latin borrowings. Features of Latin borrowings. Periods of borrowings from Latin.

Periodisation:

-Early Latin loans, e.g. cup, kettle, dish, plum, butter, wall etc.;

-Later Latin loans (Christianity), e.g. lily, pearl, palm, choir, library, fiddle, peach, marble etc.;

-Latin loans in Middle English (the Norman conquest+the Renaissance), e.g. animal, legal, simile, gesture, spacious, interest etc.;

-The latest Latin influence, e.g. cf., i.e., ib., viz., etc.

Features of Latin loans:

-polysyllabic words with prefixes: commission, induction, accelerate;

-prefixes with final consonants: ad-, ab-, com-, dis-, ex-, in-, ob-: admix, abnormal, compare, disclose, inattention;

-reduplicated consonants: abbreviation, occasion, illumination, immobility, difference, opportunity, resurrection, assimilation;

-suffixes –ate, -ute in verbs: locate, irritate, abbreviate, execute;

-suffixes –ant, -ent, -ior in adjectives: reluctant, evident, superior;

-Latin plural endings are preserved: memorandum – memoranda; datum – data; formula – formulae, formulas; focus – focuses or foci.
7. Celtic elements (5-6 c. AD) in the English vocabulary.

-place-names: Kent ‘coastal district’ or ‘land of the hosts or armies’, London ‘hill surrounded with water’, Carlisle (caer ‘fortified place’), Dover ‘water’, York ‘Yew-Tree Estate’ (тисове дерево) etc.;

-river-names: Thames ‘the dark one’, Avon ‘river’ etc.;

-elements: -comb ‘deep valley’ as in Batcombe, -torr ‘high rock’ as in Torcross, -llan ‘church’ as in Llandaff;

-hybrids:

Celtic + Latin: Manchester, Glouchester, Lancaster etc.;

Celtic + Germanic: Yorkshire, Canterbury ‘the fortified town of Kentish people’, Salisbury, Cornwall ‘peninsula people’, in O.E. the name Wealhas (Mod.E. Wales, Welsh) was a common noun meaning ‘strangers’ given by the newcomers to the unfamiliar Celtic tribes.

-common nouns survived in regional dialects:

bard (Gael.& Ir.) ‘poet, minstrel’, loch (Gael.& Ir.) ‘lake’, plaid (Gael.) ‘blanket’, corgi (Welsh cor ‘dwarf’ + gi/ci ‘dog’), whiskey  ‘water of life’, dunn ‘grey’, cross;

-via Romanic languages:

car < Norm.Fr. carre < L. carrum, carrus, orig. ‘two-wheeled Celtic war chariot’ < Gaulish *karros;
8. Scandinavian loan-words(8-11 c.AD) in Modern English.

-Total number – appr. 900 words; about 700 belong to Stand. E.

-Features:

/k/ and /g/ before e and i, e.g. give, kid, get, gift;

/sk/ in the initial position, e.g. sky, skill, score, skin, skirt;

-nouns: anger, bag, band, bank, bull, calf, cake, dirt, egg, fellow, fog, knife, leg, loan, law, neck, root, ransack, sister, wing, window;

-adjectives: awkward, flat, happy, ill, low, loose, odd, rotten, scant, sly, silver, tight, ugly, wrong;

-verbs: cast, call, clip, die, gasp, get, give, guess, raise, seem, scare, scowl, seem, smile, take, thrive, want;

-pronouns: they, their, them, themselves, though, both, same.

-Legal terms (together with military terms reflecting the relations during the Danish raids and Danish rule represent the earliest loan-words):husband – originally ‘a house holder’, one who owns a house; fellow – originally ‘one who lays down a fee, as a partner or shareholder’;

-Place-names:

-thorp ‘village’ as in Althorp;

-by ‘farm / town’ as in Derby, Rugby;

-toft ‘piece of land’ as in Sandtoft;

-ness ‘cape’ as in Inverness, Loch Ness;

-Forming elements:

are (pr. tense pl. to be), -s (pr. tense, 3rd p. sg)
9. French elements in the English vocabulary. Features of French borrowings. Periods of borrowings from French.

-Norman French (XI- XIII c.) – a northern dialect of French: calange, warrant, warden, reward, prisun, gaol

-Parisian French (XIII-XVI c.) – the prestige dialect:

challenge, guarantee, guardian, regard, prison, jail

Features of French loans:

-the accent on the last syllable: finance, finesse, supreme;

-ch /ʃ/, e.g. avalanche, chandelier, chauffeur, charlatan, chic;

-g before e and i /ʒ/, e.g. beige, bourgeois, camouflage, massage;

-ou /u:/: coup, rouge;

-eau /ou/ château;

-silent final consonant p, s, t: coup, debris, ragoût, trait, ballet, debut.

Semantic groups of French borrowings:

administration: crown, country, people, office, nation, government;

titles and ranks of nobility: baron, duke, duchess, prince, peer,

but lord, lady, king, queen, earl, knight – native;

jurisdiction: case, heir, poor, justice, marriage, jury, prove;

the Church and religion: abbey, altar, Bible, grace, pray, saint;

military terms: army, battle, escape, soldier, navy, aid;

entertainment: dance, chase, partner, sport, tournament, cards;

fashion: dress, lace, embroidery, garment, mitten, frock;

food and drink: dinner, supper, appetite, spice, taste, vinegar, fruit;

the domestic life: chair, blanket, lantern, chandelier, couch, towel;

Words related to different aspects of the life of the upper classes and of the town life:

-forms of address (French): sir, madam, mister, mistress, master, servant;

-the names of the animals (native) vs the meat (French): cow – beef; calf – veal, swine – pork; deer – venison; sheep – mutton;

-the names of country occupations (native) vs town trades (French): miller, shepherd, shoemaker, smith – butcher, carpenter, grocer, tailor;

10. Greek borrowings. Features of Greek borrowings.

Features of Greek loans:

ch [k]: chemistry, character;

ph [f]: phenomenon, physics, phonetics;

th [θ]: theme, theatre, myth;

ps [s]: pseudonym, psychic;

rh [r]: rhythm, rhetor;

y /i/ in interconsonantal and final positions: system, physics, comedy;

ae: encyclopaedia ‘training in a circle,’ i.e. the ‘circle’ of arts and sciences, the essentials of a liberal education; from enkyklios ‘circular,’ also ‘general’ (from en ‘in’ + kyklos ‘circle’) + paideia ‘education, child-rearing’;
11. The morphemic structure of English words. Typology of morphemes. Structural and semantic classifications of morphemes.

Morphology is a branch of linguistics which studies the form, inner structure, function, and patterns of occurrence of a morpheme as the smallest meaningful unit of language.

The term morphology (Gr. morphé ‘form, shape’ and lógos ‘study’) was borrowed from biology by the German writer J. W. von Goethe in the 19th century; it was taken up by linguistics to designate the study of form and structure of living organisms as a cover term for inflection and word formation.

Theoretical foundations of morphology were laid in Aristotle’s grammars and Stoics’ works, who were the first to define four parts of speech (the noun, the verb, the conjunction, and the link), introduced the notions of case, gender system of nouns, the system of verbal tenses.

The fundamental principles of modern European grammars were established by Aristotle’s disciple Dionysus from Fracia (II c. BC), who singled out eight parts of speech (the noun, the verb, the participle, the link, the pronoun, the preposition, the adverb, and the conjunction).

In the 19th c. interest in morphology was stimulated by the development of approaches to world languages classification resulting in the study of general laws of structure and significant elements such as prefixes and inflections.

In the 20th c. the field of morphology has been narrowed to the study of the internal structure of words.

The structure of English words:

A morpheme (Gr. morphé ‘form, shape’) is one of the fundamental units of a language, a minimum sign that is an association of a given meaning with a given form (sound and graphic), e.g. old, un+happy, grow+th, blue+colour+ed.

Depending on the number of morphemes, words are divided into:

monomorphic are root-words consisting of only one root-morpheme, i.e. simple words, e.g. to grow, a book, white, fast etc.

polymorphic are words consisting of at least one root-morpheme and a number of derivational affixes, i.e. derivatives, compounds, e.g. good-looking, employee, blue-eyed etc.

Types of morphemes:

An allomorph (a morphemic variant) (Gr. állos ‘different’ and morphé ‘form, shape’) is a phonetically conditioned positional variant of the same derivational or functional morpheme identical in meaning and function and differing in sound only insomuch, as their complementary distribution produces various phonetic assimilation effects, e.g. please /pli:z/ pleasure /pleʒ/ pleasant /plez/.

Complementary distribution takes place when two linguistic variants cannot appear in the same environment, e.g. in-competent, il-logical, ir-responsible, im-possible; cat-s, box-es; organis-ation, corrup-tion.

Contastive distribution characterises different morphemes occurring in the same linguistic environment, but signaling different meanings, e.g. –able in measurable and –ed in measured.

A pseudo-morpheme (a quasi-morpheme) is a morpheme which has a differential meaning and a distributional meaning but does not possess any lexical or functional (part-of-speech) meaning, e.g. re- and -tain in retain, con- and –ceive in conceive etc.

A unique morpheme is an isolated pseudo-morpheme which does not occur in other words but is understood as meaningful because the constituent morphemes display a more or less clear denotational meaning, e.g. ham- in hamlet (cf. booklet, ringlet), cran- in cranberry (журавлина), mul- in mulberry (шовковиця), -et in pocket etc.