Lecture 2 stylistic lexicology stylistic Classification of the English vocabulary

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LECTURE 2 
STYLISTIC LEXICOLOGY 
 
Stylistic Classification of the English vocabulary 
1. 
Stylistic classification of the English language vocabulary. The problem of 
taxonomy and classification criteria 
2. 
Standard English vocabulary and its constituents. Neutral words, their aspect and 
etimology. 
3. 
Specific literary vocabulary: its layers and their functions
. 
Terms, poetic and 
archaic words, obsolete and obsolescent words, literary coinages and neologisms, 
foreignisms and barbarisms 
4. 
Specific colloquial vocabulary , its layers and their functions. Professionalisms, 
jargon and slang, vulgarisms and nonce-words, dialectisms. 
5. 
Development of the English Standard. 
Literature: 
Galperin – pp 70-119 
Мороховский – сс.93-128 
Арнольд – сс.105-131 
Stylistic classification of the English language vocabulary.
It is important to classify the English vocabulary from a stylistic point of view because some SDs 
are based on the interplay of different lexical components and aspects of a word.
The word stock of any language may be presented as a system elements of which are 
interconnected, interrelated and yet interdependent. Lexicology suggests many ways of classifying 
any vocabulary but for the purpose of stylistic analysis we may represent the whole word stock of 
English language as the domain divided into two major layers: the literary layer, the neutral layer 
and the colloquial layer. 
The literary and the colloquial layer contain a number of subgroups, all of which have a certain 
property, characteristic of the layer on the whole, that is called an aspect. Thus we say ‘the aspect of 
the literary layer is its markedly bookish character, the aspect of the colloquial layer is its lively 
spoken character. Both peculiarities make the first layer more or less stable and the latter – 
unstable, fleeting. The aspect of the neutral layer is its universal character which means that it is 
unrestricted in use. 
The literary vocabulary consists of the following groups of words: 

Terms 

Poetical words 

Archaic words 

Foreignisms and barbarisms 

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
Literary nonce-words or neologisms 
Colloquial vocabulary falls into the following
groups: 
- professionalisms 
- slang 
- jargonisms
- dialectisms 
- vulgarisms 
- colloquial nonce-words 
The literary layer consists of the words accepted 
as 
legitimate 
members 
of 
the 
English 
vocabulary, without local or dialectal character. 
While the colloquial layer is often limited to a 
definite language community or confined to a 
specific locality where it circulates. 
The literary stratum of English vocabulary is 
used in both oral and written speech. Most 
literary words are neutral. But there are certain 
groups of literary words whose bookish 
character imbues them with a distinct coloring. 
Hence, they are frequently called “learned 
words”. For example: emolument, joyance, 
gladsome, bellicose, judicial, etc. 
The common literary, neutral and common 
colloquial words are grouped under the term: 
“standard English vocabulary”. 
Other groups are regarded as consequently 
special 
literary 
and 
special 
colloquial 
vocabularies. 
Neutral words, which form the bulk of the 
English vocabulary, are used both in literary and 
the colloquial language. Neutral words are the 
main source of synonymy and polysemy, they 
are very prolific in production of a new meaning 
and in generating new stylistic variations.
Neutral words are characterized by the following points: 
- they can be used in any style of speech without causing a special stylistic effect 
- they can be used not only in written speech which abounds in literary words but also in colloquial 
speech without causing any stylistic effect 
- they are generally devoid of any emotional meaning, unless special means are employed for this 
purpose. 
Neutral words have a monosyllabic character as in the progress of development from Old English to 
Modern English most of the parts of speech lost their distinguishing suffixes. This phenomenon has 
led to the development of conversion as the most productive means of word-building or word-
derivation where a word is formed because of a shift in the part of speech.
Unlike all other groups of words the neutral words have NO SPECIAL STYLISTIC COLORING. 
Common literary words are chiefly used in writing and in polished speech. One can always tell a 
literary word from a colloquial one. The reason for this lies in certain objective features of the 
Special Literary 
Vocabulary 
terms 
Nonce
-words 
Foreignisms 
Barbarisms 
Archaic 
words 
Poetic 
words 
Neutral words 
Common Literary
Vocabulary 
Special
colloquial 
vocabulary 
Common literary 
vocabulary 
Common colloquial
vocabulary
Professio
nalisms 
slang 
Nonce
-words 
jargon 
vulgarisms 
dialectisms 

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literary layer of words, that is why literary unite always stand in opposition to colloquial units, 
forming pairs of synonyms. 
COLLOQUIAL NEUTRAL LITERARY 
Kid child infant 
Daddy father parent 
Chap fellow associate 
Go on continue proceed 
Teenager boy/girl youth/maiden 
Make a move begin commence 
It goes without saying that these synonyms are not absolute, there is always a slight semantic 
difference in a synonymous pair but the main distinction between synonyms remains stylistic. 
And it may be of different types- it may lie in the emotional tension (small-little-tiny) connoted in a 
word, or in the degree of the quality (fear-terror-awe) denoted, or in the sphere of its