Second edition

§ 13. Intrinsic Heterogeneity of Modern English

Modern English vocabulary is not homogeneous, and contains a number of lexical units which may be considered “non-English” and “not modern". It follows that in estimating the size of vocabulary very much depends on our understanding of the terms modern and English. Let us begin with the analysis of the term English vocabulary units. If we compare words of the type Luftwaffe, regime, garage, sputnik, we shall see that the borderline between ‘non-assimilated’ borrowings which make up part of English vocabulary and foreign or alien words is not always sharp and distinct.^5
1 See ‘Semasiology’, §§ 32-34, pp. 39 — 42.
² Compare the different approaches to this word in the Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1957 and the Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, 1956.
³ For illustrative examples see ‘Various Aspects...’, § 8, p. 184 — 187.
⁴ See C. Barnhart, op. cit., Explanatory Notes, p. 15.
⁵ See ‘Etymological Survey ...’, §§ 1, 6, 11, pp. 160, 165, 171.
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For example, it was already pointed out that the Second World War and fascist aggression gave currency to a number of new lexical items such as Luftwaffe, Blitzkrieg and others. Words of that type are distinguished from other neologisms by their peculiar graphic and sound-form. They are felt as “alien” elements in the English word-stock and are used more or less in the same way as words of a foreign language may be used by English speakers.
This also applies to barbarisms. As a rule barbarisms, e.g. mutatis mutandis (L.), faux pas (Fr.) and others, are included even in the comparatively concise dictionaries alongside with English words ^l although it is rather doubtful whether they are really part of the English vocabulary.
The criterion which serves to describe lexical units as belonging to Modern English vocabulary is also rather vague. The point is that profound modifications in the vocabulary of a language are occasioned not only by the appearance and creation of new lexical items but also by the disappearance of certain lexical units.² Some words seem gradually to lose their vitality, become obsolete and may eventually drop out of the language altogether. This was the case with the OE. niman — ‘take’; ambith — ’servant’ and a number of others. The process being slow and gradual, the border-line between “dead” and “living” words in the English word-stock is not always clearly defined. Such words, e.g., as welkin, iclept are scarcely ever used in present-day English but may be found in poetical works of outstanding English poets of the nineteenth century. Can we consider them as non-existing in the Mоdern English vocabulary? The answer to the question as to the number of lexical units in modern English word-stock will naturally vary depending on the answer given to this particular question.
According to the recent estimates the OED contained 414,825 lexical units out of which 52,464 are obsolete words, 9,733 alien words, 67,105 obsolete and variant forms of main words.³