Minstry of higher and secondary specialized education of the republic of uzbekistan

The object of the study is the process of borrowing French vocabulary into English, while the subject of the study is French borrowings in English.
The purpose of this course work is to identify French borrowings in the works of English literature of the XIX-XX centuries.
To achieve the goal, we need to solve the following tasks:
Investigate the process of borrowing French vocabulary into English;
study the types of loans;
The following research methods can be distinguished:
Literature analysis;
use of these dictionaries.
The practical significance of the work: the material of this term paper can be used at the university, in home reading lessons, to analyze works and identify French borrowings.
The structure of the course work. This course work consists of introduction, 2 chapters, conclusion. The introduction reveals the relevance of the topic, contains goals, objectives, methods used in writing this course work. In the first chapter, we consider the following aspects: how the process of borrowing French vocabulary into English took place, types of borrowing. In the second chapter, we conducted a study of some works by W. Thackeray, R. Aldington and O. Huxley, where French borrowings were used. In conclusion, conclusions were drawn from the study. The bibliography contains a list of primary sources used in the study and writing of our term paper.

Chapter I.

1.1 Meaning of borrowing and its types
Semantic borrowing occurs especially easily in closely related languages. A number of examples can be found among Scandinavian loanwords. So, for example, OE. the verb dwellan wander, linger, under the influence of other scand. dveljawun, developed in modern English into dwell to live. Thus, in sound terms, dwell goes back to English, and in semantic terms, to a Scandinavian verb.
There are more cases of semantic borrowing among nouns than among verbs. Noun gift in OE meant not a gift, but a ransom for a wife and then, as a result of an association¹ by adjacency, a wedding. The Scandinavian word gift meant a gift, a gift, and this was reflected in the meaning of the original word. Words derived from Scandinavian have their modern meanings: bread (in OE a piece of bread), dream (in OE joy), holm (in OE ocean, sea), plough (in OE - English measure of the earth).
Not only the word can be borrowed, but also separate meaningful parts of the word. Morphemes are borrowed, of course, not in isolation, but in words: if some foreign morphemes are included in a large number of borrowed words, then the morphological structure of these words begins to be realized, and the morphemes themselves are included in the number of word-formation means of the receiving language. Many Greek and Latin words have become international prefixes. For example, anti-, counter-, inter-, sub-, ultra-, etc.
Greek suffixes are widely used in all languages: -ist, -ism, -isk.
Not all borrowed words are assimilated as fully as the travel and sport discussed above.
Therefore, according to the degree of their assimilation, borrowings can be divided into:
1. Fully assimilated, i.e. corresponding to all morphological, phonetic and spelling norms of the borrowed language and perceived by speakers as English, not foreign words. Some of them can be attributed to the main vocabulary: travel, street
others to the rest of the vocabulary: operate, trail
2. Partially assimilated, i.e. remaining foreign in their pronunciation, spelling or grammatical forms:
analysis, pi. analyses, bacillus, pi. bacilli formula, pi. formulas & formulae, bacterium, pi. bacteria boulevard ['bu:liwa:], canal [ka'nsi], travail [trae'veil] restaurant ['rest9ra:n], corps [ka:].
These words are often characterized by unstable pronunciation: the last syllable in the word restaurant is pronounced differently.
3. Partially assimilated and denoting concepts related to other countries and not having an English equivalent. For example:
From Russian: rouble, verst. From Spanish: duenna, matador, real (coin).
This group of words includes the names of concepts associated with foreign national culture, for example, the names of various national clothes, dwellings, musical instruments, titles, professions, utensils, etc., and with foreign nature: i.e., the names of animals, plants .
Borrowed words in the vocabulary of the language can be classified: by the source of the borrowing, by what aspect of the word is borrowed, and by the degree of assimilation².
According to the source and era of borrowing in the vocabulary of the English language, there are:
1) Celtic borrowings.
2) Latin borrowings of the first centuries of our era, i.e., which came to the British Isles even before the arrival of the Angles and Saxons (the so-called 1st layer of Latin borrowings).
3) Latin borrowings of the 6th-7th centuries, i.e. the era of the introduction of Christianity in England (the so-called 2nd layer of Latin borrowings).
4) Scandinavian borrowings from the era of the Scandinavian raids (VIII-IX centuries) and especially the Scandinavian conquest (X century).
5) Old French borrowings (XII-XV centuries), due to the Norman conquest.
6) Latin borrowings of the 15th-16th centuries, i.e. associated with the Renaissance (the so-called 3rd layer of Latin borrowings).
7) New French borrowings after the 16th century.
8) Borrowings from Greek, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, German and other languages, due to economic, political, cultural, etc. ties with the respective peoples³.
9) Sovietisms, i.e. borrowings from the Russian language of the post-October period, reflecting the influence of the advanced social system and advanced ideology of our country.
Classification according to the source of borrowing has been developed most fully, but, as already indicated, is not the only possible one. Borrowings can also be classified according to which aspect of the word is new to the receiving language. According to this principle, borrowings are divided into phonetic, tracing-loans, semantic and borrowings of word-forming elements.
The first of these types, i.e. phonetic borrowings make up the main and most numerous group. They are characterized by the fact that their common sound complex turns out to be new for the borrowing language, although each of the sounds that make up them, with rare exceptions, is replaced by the sound of the language into which they fall. The sports, labor, travel, people, castle, fortress, etc. discussed above. are just phonetic borrowings.
Tracing papers are borrowings in the form of a literal translation of a foreign word or expression, i.e. accurate reproduction of it by means of the receiving language with the preservation of the morphological structure and motivation.
Such tracing papers are, for example, many borrowings from the Indian language that have become international: pale-face, pipe of peace, pipe of peace. There are many cripples among Sovietisms: palace of culture, house of rest.
Semantic borrowing is understood as the borrowing of a new meaning, often figurative, to a word already in the language. The words pioneer and brigade existed in the English language even before the Sovietisms penetrated into it, but they received the meanings: a member of a children's communist organization and a labor collective under the influence of the Russian language of the post-October period.

1.2 Importance of borrowing words

Many Latin names have been preserved in toponymy. Yes, lat. castrum fortification, fort, had a plural, castra with a grammatically related meaning camp, whence OE. ceaster and modern - caster, Chester in different geographical names. For example: Lancaster, Dorchester, Manchester, Winchester.
All the words of this group are borrowed orally, completely assimilated and included in the main vocabulary of the English language. At the same time, they obeyed the grammatical structure of the English language, having lost those grammatical forms that were characteristic of them in the Latin language, and also obeyed all those regular phonetic changes that occurred in the words of the English language throughout its history.
The second layer of Latin borrowings includes words that entered the Old English language after the adoption of Christianity, which began in 596. Just like the words of the first layer, these are predominantly monosyllabic words, borrowed orally and for the most part denoting specific concepts.
It is important to pay attention to the fact that, in general, the vocabulary of the Old English language is less permeable compared to the New English period. Its vocabulary is much more homogeneous and borrowings are limited to the sphere of nouns. Only three verbs can be added to the list above: to offer, to spend, to shrive⁴.
All of these early Latin borrowings subsequently underwent a significant evolution both in their form and in their meaning.
The influence of the Scandinavian languages ​​had a fundamentally different character, due to the raids of the Scandinavians on the British Isles that began in the 8th century and the subsequent subordination of England to the Danish king (1017). Both the conquering people and the defeated people in this case stood at approximately the same socio-economic and cultural stage of development, spoke closely related languages. Their languages ​​stood, as it were, in the position of dialects interacting in communication. Therefore, during the period of the Scandinavian conquest, borrowings are not only numerous, and subsequently very stable, but also very diverse both in the semantic sphere and in parts of speech, and are observed even in the least permeable of these latter. So, from the Scandinavian borrowed: pronouns: they they, with all their forms, and the same one; conjunctions: till not yet, and though though; adverb fro back. The number of adjectives borrowed from Scandinavian is quite significant, and all of them are used in speech very often. These are adjectives such as happy, low, loose, ill, odd, ugly, weak.
These words, as well as the verbs given below, do not introduce any new concepts, but replace and displace words that have already existed before.
The influence of Scandinavian on Old English was reflected not only in the replacement and displacement of some original words, but also in a number of significant phonetic and semantic changes in a number of words in the main vocabulary.
The proximity of both languages ​​contributes to the so-called semantic borrowings, in which native words changed their meaning under the influence of related Scandinavian words. Preserving the combination sk at the beginning of a word before vowels without changing to [J] is a phonetic criterion for recognizing Scandinavian borrowings from native words.
The combination [sk] occurs only in loanwords, not necessarily Scandinavian ones. Wed borrowings from French squire and from the Greek. skeptic.
After the Battle of Hastings in 1066, there was a crossover with Norman-French, which was spoken by the Normans who established their dominion in England⁵.
The bulk of the population of England continued to use their native language, although many, of course, knew both languages. All this caused the penetration into the vocabulary of the English language of words denoting a range of concepts related to the life, customs and occupations of the feudal Norman nobility. Later, when English supplanted French from all public life, a lot of French political terms merged into English⁶.
Borrowings in the English vocabulary represent the sphere of vocabulary that most closely and directly reflects the history of England, showing the influence of external non-linguistic causes on the language. Therefore, it is advisable to trace them in chronological order, linking them with the history of the English people⁷.
When the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes moved into Britain in the 5th century AD, they found there a Celtic population of the Britons and Gauls, whom they pushed west (Wales and Cornwall) and north (Scotland). In the clash of languages, the victory went to the language of the aliens. The development of their language and gave modern English.
Borrowings from the language of the Celts turned out to be very few and relate mainly to toponymy, i.e. to geographical names.
There are very few such Celtic words that would have been known to us already in Old English and would have survived in the language to this day. Among them: bannock tortilla, down, dune hill, dun brown and maybe cradle. Much more numerous are later borrowings from Scottish (slogan, whiskey, clan), Irish (bard, fun, Tory) and other dialects containing Celticisms, as well as borrowings through French (beak, budget, career, gravel, harness, tunnel) .
There are two layers of Latin borrowings in Old English.
Words that belong to the first layer (before 800) could have come through the Celtic language and be associated with the Roman dominion in Britain that lasted the first four centuries of our era, or they could have entered the language of the Angles and Saxons on the Continent.
Be that as it may, they testify to a higher material culture of the Romans than that of the Celtic and Germanic tribes of that time and mean specific things and concepts previously unknown to the Anglo-Saxons.
For example:
port - lat. portus port
wall-measure. wall, lat. Vallum shaft
wine-OE win, lat. wine wine
mile -OE mil, lat. milia (passuum) a thousand steps.
Thus, the French borrowings of this period penetrate mainly not into the main vocabulary, but into certain layers of the vocabulary. These strata are determined by the historical conditions of borrowing. First of all, these are words associated with feudal relations: feudal, baron, vassal, liege, chivalry.
Some of these words, at that time reflecting the feudal ideology in their meaning, later received a general meaning. These are: command, obey, serve, noble, glory, danger.
The development of the meaning of the last word is curious; originally it meant the power of the feudal lord and was borrowed in this sense. It acquired the meaning of danger in France, and so it was borrowed a second time. Almost all titles, with the exception of king, queen, earl, lord and lady, are of Norman-French origin.
Words related to government people, nation, government, power, authority, court, crown, etc.
Money-related words: money, property.
Words denoting family relationships: parent, spouse, cousin, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece.
A large number of military terms and words related to the war. All names of military ranks.
There are very numerous words meaning pleasure and entertainment: feast, leisure, pleasure, delight, ease, comfort, chase and many card terms: trump, ace, cards.
Legal terms: accuse, court, crime, felony, plaintiff, defendant, attorney, etc.
The French words were called the professions of artisans who served the feudal lords: tailor, butcher, painter, carpenter, joiner.
Along with words belonging to more or less special areas of vocabulary, among the French words of this period there are many that mean the most common concepts, are constantly used in communication and should be attributed to the main vocabulary fund. These are: face, place, large, change; hour, minute, second; river, mountain, soil, air, flower, fruit⁸.
It must be recalled that the Franks, Goths and Burgundians, who conquered the Romanized Gauls and adopted their language, brought many Germanic words into popular Latin. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the fact that among French borrowings there are many words of German, ultimately, origin: banner, blank, blanket, blue, choice, coat, dance, garden, gay, pocket, ticket, war.
French borrowings are sometimes difficult to distinguish from Latin ones, i.e. more precisely, it is difficult to distinguish direct Latin borrowings from indirect ones. For example, the word figure could come directly from the Latin. figura and from French. figures
The period of the collapse of the foundations of feudal society and the emergence of capitalist relations corresponds to the process of formation of modern bourgeois nations. The formation of national languages ​​is inextricably linked with the formation of nations. In England at the end of the 13th-beginning of the 14th century, with the increase in trade relations and the growth of cities and industry, the struggle for the English language as the basis of the national language becomes of great importance.
The New English language takes shape during the Renaissance. Scientific writings of this period are already written in English, but since before that, in the Middle Ages, the language of science was Latin and since the Renaissance is characterized by interest in the monuments of ancient culture, the use of style, rhetorical techniques of building Greek and Roman authors, it is completely naturally, both the replenishment of the dictionary and the creation of new scientific terminology proceeded to a large extent due to borrowings from Latin, as well as from Greek. This is how, for example, the terminology of philosophy, law, medicine, etc. was created.
The features of the so-called 3rd layer of Latin borrowings are that they are not oral, but bookish, and denote mainly abstract concepts: basis, area, crisis, idea, ratio, stimulus. There are many verbs and adjectives among them: operate, cultivate, demonstrate, evolve, educate, admit, permit, complete, accept, affect, locate, separate, senior, junior, minor, inferior, exterior, superior, dependant⁹.
In the written form of modern English, letter abbreviations from such expressions are very common, which are replaced by an English translation in reading.
The most important features of words of Latin-Romance origin are as follows: the predominance of disyllabic and polysyllabic stems with prefixes, and the prefixes end in a consonant: ab-, ad-, corn-, dis-, ex-, in-, im-, il-, sub-; consonant doubling: bb, cc, ft, 11, mm, nn, pp, rr, ss, tt.
A significant proportion of the Latin element in English is not, however, direct borrowing from Latin into English. Among them are many words that came through French.
Greek words and word-formation elements are widely used in the terminology of science in all countries and, like Latin ones, have become largely international.
Along with borrowings from classical languages, in the XV-XVI centuries. there were also borrowings from living languages, mainly Italian, Spanish and Dutch.
A few borrowings from Italian, Dutch and Spanish testify to cultural and trade ties with these countries. Most of the words borrowed in connection with the colonial and trading activities of the British are used only when it comes to the country from which the word is borrowed; outside this realm, they are not used and feel foreign.
A large group of poorly assimilated borrowings are the so-called late French borrowings, i.e. French words that entered the English language after the revolution of 1640-60. during the Stuart Restoration. These words were mainly associated with the life of the aristocracy, its pastime:
restaurant, ballet, rendez-vous, billet-doux, coquette, banquet, as well as police, regime, etc. All these words have retained the peculiarities of the French language in stress, spelling and pronunciation.
Somewhat later, and especially in the 19th century, mainly technical terms were borrowed from French: parachute, chassis, chauffeur, fuselage, etc.
The terms of science and technology were also borrowed mainly from the German language.
As for the Russian language, in the pre-October period, mainly words were borrowed related to the peculiarities of Russian nature and life and trade items with Russia: sable sable; astrakhan astrakhan; sterlet; steppe steppe; verst; izba hut, etc.
There are many so-called Sovietisms in the English language.
Among them there are phonetic borrowings, where a new sound complex is also borrowed for a new concept:
Soviet, sputnik, bolshevik, kolkhoz, activist, agitprop and the so-called tracing papers, i.e. literal translation of elements of Russian words and expressions with the preservation of the morphological structure: house of rest or translations, sometimes even explanatory translations: shock-worker, five-year-plan. Semantic borrowings (brigade, pioneer) have already been discussed above.
Thus, throughout its centuries-old history, the English language has encountered many other languages ​​and enriched itself at their expense. But the importance of borrowing should not be exaggerated. This is just one of the many ways in which language is enriched¹⁰.
The abundance of borrowings in English led to the formation of a large number of doublets.
Doublets are two or more words that have a common root and common origin, but which, developing in different ways, receive slightly different sound design and meaning¹¹.
Such, for example, are the words travel and travail discussed above, as well as: fact fact, reality, something done, and feat feat, an action that characterizes exceptional courage and courage. Both. these words go back to the Latin verb facere to do, but the first was borrowed directly from Latin and therefore changed less than the word feat passed through French (French fait < factum).
Other derivatives of the verb facere are: factor, factory, faculty, defect, defeat, etc.

Chapter II.

2.1 English borrowings from Latin
The penetration of French words into English did not begin immediately after the Norman Conquest, but only in the 12th century. It reached its special power in the XIII-XV centuries. The Norman Conquest had a profound effect on the vocabulary of the English language. During its long struggle with the French language, which lasted almost two and a half centuries, the English language was significantly replenished at the expense of the defeated French language. This replenishment was slow. The replenishment of the vocabulary of the language occurred not only due to the penetration of words from the conquered language, which is common in cases of assimilation of one language by another, but also due to the fact that with the advent of the Normans in England there appeared new features of life, new activities unknown to the ancient English.
The Norman invasion put French on the level of the state language, the language of the ruling minority. All official documents were written in French, which was taught in schools, and it seemed that it would become the universally recognized language of the country. But the stubborn Anglo-Saxons did not want to learn French, and the vast majority of the inhabitants continued to speak Old English. The English language was not limited in its development by writing, so it changed and simplified very quickly over the centuries of the conquest of England by the Normans.
The following situation arose: in order for the lower strata of the population to understand the nobility, they had to learn French words; and the nobility, on the contrary, had to use English words in their speech in order to communicate with ordinary people. Under these conditions, significant sections of the English population became bilingual. This bilingualism has become the main reason for the penetration of a large number of French words into the English language.
And so, he absorbed a huge amount of French words, which were mainly considered more polite and delicate versions of the common Anglo-Saxon counterparts. So now there are Anglo-Saxon swine, sheep and belly and French pork, mutton and stomach.
So, as a result of borrowing in English, pairs of synonyms were created, between which a struggle then took place. The outcome of this struggle was not the same in different cases. There are three main types of borrowing:
1. The struggle between the English and French word ends in favor of the latter, the English word disappears from the language.
In the struggle between borrowed and native words in the language, the French word often completely replaced the word of English origin. For example, the Old English word here -army has been completely superseded by the word army ; Old English earm - poor - French poor ....
Some words of French origin have forced even the most common words out of English. So, for example, the French word rivière "river" replaced the word for; the French word montagne "mountain" is the word beorz. In some cases, special conditions may have contributed to such displacement; for example, the Old English name of the river za acquired the sound form and in Middle English ; the word, which consisted of one sound, obviously weakly resisted the penetration of the much stronger sounding French word¹².
2. The winner is the English word. The French word, having existed in English for some time, is forced out of it.
So, for example, the word amity "friendship" was supplanted by the English friendship, having existed in the English language for some time.
3. Both words are preserved in the language, but at the same time there is a more or less distinct differentiation of their meanings, sometimes of a purely semantic, sometimes more of a stylistic nature.
Sometimes an intruding French word pushes its original English synonym into another sphere of meaning. So, for example, the Old English word hzhrfest , which meant "autumn", was supplanted in this meaning by the noun autumn from the French a utumne , but was preserved in English as harvest in the meaning of "harvest".¹³
The language has preserved the memory of those times when the peasants called their animals in English, and the butchers in the city called the meat of these animals in French. For example: cow-beef, pork-pork ... . French words borrowed in that era denoted objects and concepts related to the life and life of the Norman nobility, reflected various spheres of human activity and touched almost all aspects of material, socio-political and cultural life. Along with them, many everyday French words penetrated into the English language, denoting concepts that already had a designation in English.
Let us briefly dwell on borrowing in various spheres of human activity.
Note that the number of borrowed words reflecting one or another sphere of human life was different in different periods:
· in the XII-XV centuries, the undisputed leader in borrowings is the sphere associated with the description of human feelings, because. there is an increase in interest in a person: fatigu - tired, retenue - restrained, miserable - unhappy, tendre - tender feelings .... During this period, a large amount of vocabulary from the field of military affairs was also borrowed: general - general; lieutenan t- lieutenant; werre - war ...;
· The Norman Conquest was also reflected in the vocabulary associated with schooling, science and learning. Among the borrowed words in the XIV century, the following can be noted: lesson - lesson, library - library, pen - pen for writing, pupil - student, pencil - pencil ...;
New forms of domestic life that have developed in England also bear the stamp of French influence and are often denoted by French words: dinner - lunch, supper - dinner, table - table, plate - plate, napkin - napkin, sauser - saucer ...;
By the end of the 15th century, the number of words describing various phenomena from the field of industry increases: machine - machine, engine - motor; trade: fair - fair; market - market; money - money; political life: governement - government; parliament - parliament¹⁴.
In the XVIII-XX centuries. The rapid development of science and technology was accompanied by the appearance of tens of thousands of words expressing new concepts. Many of these terms have become commonplace. A significant part of scientific technical terminology in modern English is created from French and Latin roots: technique - technique ....
Over time, French borrowings have become so firmly rooted in the fabric of the English language that they themselves have changed under the influence of the phonetic habits of the English, have undergone, along with the main English words, numerous sound changes that took place in the XV-XVI and subsequent centuries.
The most striking change in the sound structure of these words was the transfer of stress from the end of the word, which is still characteristic of the French language, to the root syllable, i.e. at the beginning of the word, which is characteristic of the English language throughout its development. The process of stress transfer occurred gradually, with the main stress on the last syllables first being replaced by a secondary one, and then disappearing altogether.
Thus, we were convinced that during the Norman conquests, a huge number of words were borrowed into the English language. They belong to different spheres of human life, have different forms. Therefore, in the next chapter we will consider the possible types of French borrowings.

2.2 English borrowings from French

After considering the process of borrowing French words into English, we turn to the types of borrowings.
There are three types of French borrowings:
actually borrowed words;
tracing paper;
semantic borrowings.
A borrowed word or borrowing itself is spoken of only in those cases when both the meaning and the sound shell of the word are borrowed from a foreign language. For example, the English word " shivaree " - "cat's concert" is not an exact phonetic match of the imitated word " chaviary " , but it is so close to it that the origin of one from the other is beyond doubt.
All existing differences in sound can be explained as phenomena of phonological substitution found in most borrowed words. Such words are sometimes called hybrid borrowings, because they are formed partly from native, and partly from foreign material.
The type of borrowing, which in English is usually called " loan translation " - literally "borrowing-translation" or "tracing paper" is another step towards the definition of types of borrowings. Here only the general structure of the compound word is transferred, including its meaning. It differs from the previous type of "tracing paper" in that all foreign morphemes are preserved, and the sound shell of the word partially changes under the influence of the borrowing language. The meaning of the word is also preserved. For example, borrowings such as fruit, avenue, chair… retained their spelling, but changed their pronunciation under the influence of English¹⁵.
Semantic borrowing is a process in which a word acquires a new meaning due to its semantic and phonetic similarity with any word in a foreign language. Such borrowing is manifested only in the appearance of a new meaning in a previously known word. Calling it semantic borrowing, we mean that it is semantic borrowing. We can use the French word " gratte-ciel " and the English word " sky-scraper " as examples¹⁶ .
We have considered three main types of borrowings and identified differences between them that allow us to describe them more accurately.
A sound shell is transferred to a borrowed word from any foreign language, and phonological substitution also takes place to one degree or another. In hybrid borrowing, instead of a part of a foreign word, a morpheme of the native language is substituted, and the meaning of the word is also transferred. The morphemic structures of words, partly the sound shell and meaning are transferred to tracing paper from a foreign language. Semantic borrowing transfers only the meaning, the meaning of a foreign language.
All of the above allows us to distinguish borrowings depending on the scope of the substitution:
Borrowings with full or partial transfer of the phonetic shell of a foreign language: miserable, éclaricissment, écart…
· all other borrowings : blasé, encore, au revoir…
When defining these types of borrowings, we adhere to the classification proposed by E. Haugen. (16) We will call the first borrowings borrowed words, and the second - borrowed shifts, since in this case the borrowing manifests itself exclusively in a shift in the use of a certain word of the native language.
Borrowed words can be divided into pure borrowings and hybrid borrowings - depending on whether foreign morphemes are transferred in whole or in part. Shift borrowings can, in turn, be subdivided into extensions and creations , depending on whether they use some combination of elements of the native language that existed before the borrowing, or build a new one. Extensions correspond to semantic borrowings, that is, there is an expansion of the meanings of ready-made language units. Creations correspond to tracing papers and represent new units of the language¹⁷.
We would like to draw attention to the fact that some classes of linguistic units are borrowed much more readily than others. In 1881 W.D. Whitney built a scale on which various language units were arranged in order of their susceptibility to borrowing. It turned out that of all parts of speech, nouns are most freely borrowed, then verbs, and finally adjectives and adverbs.
Due to the fact that a huge number of lexical units were borrowed from French into English, many of which had a complex word-formation structure, the influence of the French language to a large extent affected the system of English word formation. Certain English suffixes and prefixes found in loanwords could be extracted from those words and used to form words from their original roots.
For example, a large number of French words were formed with the suffix -ance , -ence : ignorance, entrance, innocence. Hence, for the English, the meaning of this suffix became clear, by means of which abstract nouns are formed from the stems of adjectives and verbs¹⁸.
The suffix -ess , used to form nouns denoting women, entered the English language in the words: princess, baroness . Then they began to attach it to English roots : goddess, murderess.
The French suffix - able, -ible , forming adjectives with the meaning "able to undergo the action denoted by the verb", entered the English language in the words: admirable, tolerable, flexible.
Some French prefixes have also become productive in English.
So, for example, the prefix - dis-, -des- with a negative meaning, entered the English language as part of many French words ( disappoint, disdain ). And it began to be used to form new words from English roots: disown, disburden.
The question of the degree of influence of borrowings on the language has been repeatedly discussed and is being discussed. From the foregoing, it follows that the consequence of borrowing is a noticeable enrichment of the vocabulary of the language. But the strong and prolonged influence of one language on another can lead to such an influx of foreign vocabulary that the whole appearance of the borrowing language will undergo significant changes. Such was the influence exerted on English by the French of the Norman conquerors. A language can assimilate such a large number of foreign words belonging to structural types that these structural types will also be included in the borrowing language¹⁹.
Semantic classification gives us the opportunity not only to divide all borrowings into thematic groups and subgroups, but also to trace the transition of words from one thematic group to another under the influence of the French language.
We mean the following: the influence of French on English can be traced not only in various types of borrowings, but also in deeper semasiological processes. So, for example, the word "family" , according to the Oxford Dictionary, has been used since the 17th century in the meaning that it has in French, namely: "genus", "family", "family". Until that time, the word " family " meant in English the concept of "servants", "households".
Considering French borrowings from the point of view of assimilation gives us the opportunity to make sure that the English language did not perceive the borrowed words passively. The process of selection of words that penetrated from the French language was constantly going on in it. The English language fully assimilated only those words that turned out to be necessary and useful, displacing those that, being superfluous, did not contribute to the enrichment of the language.
When considering the degree of assimilation of borrowed words, we need to pay attention to the presence or absence of obvious signs of belonging to the French language. From this point of view, French borrowings can be conditionally divided into assimilated and not assimilated borrowings. Assimilated borrowings, having undergone semantic and morphological changes, partly changed their sound image and spelling.
For example: English. defend fr. defendre (defend)