Лексикологія (методичні рекомендації для студентів педколеджу)
Методичні рекомендації містять теоретичний матеріал і практичні завдання спрямовані на засвоєння студентами ключових понять та визначень з розділів морфологія, словотворення, семантика, фразеологія та ін. У матеріалах запропоновано достатня кількість вправ, які мають на меті застосувати теоретичні знання на практиці. Додаток містить підсумковий тест з курсу та список слів для порівняння British and American English.
Комунальний заклад Львівської обласної ради
«Бродівський педагогічнийколедж
імені Маркіяна Шашкевича»
Н. Р. Пришляк
ЛЕКСИКОЛОГІЯ
Методичні рекомендації для студентів IV курсу
спеціальностей 5.01010201 «Початкова освіта»,
5.01010101 «Дошкільна освіта»
Броди 2018
Лексикологія. Методичні рекомендації для студентів IV курсу спеціальностей 5.01010201 «Початкова освіта», 5.01010101 «Дошкільна освіта». – Броди, 2018. – 89с.
Укладач: Пришляк Н.Р., викладач вищої категорії, старший викладач Бродівського педагогічного коледжу імені Маркіяна Шашкевича.
Рецензент: Степа С.М., викладач-методист, спеціаліст вищої категорії Бродівського педагогічного коледжу імені Маркіяна Шашкевича.
Обговорено і схвалено цикловою комісією викладачів іноземних мов КЗ ЛОР «Бродівський педагогічний коледж імені Маркіяна Шашкевича».
Протокол № 2 від 17.11.2017 р.
Методичні рекомендації обговорено і затверджено на засіданні методичної ради КЗ ЛОР «Бродівський педагогічний коледж імені Маркіяна Шашкевича».
Протокол № 2 від 10.01.2018 р.
Методичні рекомендації містять теоретичний матеріал і практичні завдання з курсу «Лексикологія» та спрямовані на засвоєння студентами ключових понять та визначень з розділів морфологія, словотворення, семантика, етимологія, фразеологія, лексикографія та ін.
У матеріалах методичних рекомендацій запропоновано достатня кількість вправ, які мають на меті застосувати теоретичні знання на практиці.
Додаток містить підсумковий тест з курсу та список слів для порівняння British and American English.
CONTENTS
UNIT 1. LEXICOLOGY AS A BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS
UNIT 2. MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH WORDS
Lexical meaning and semantic structure of English words
Transferance of names resulting from tropes
The Etymological Background of the English Vocabulary
Borrowings in the English Vocabulary
Classificaton of phraseological units
Semantic classification of phraseological units
Structural classifications of phraseological units
Syntactical classification of phraseological units
Classification of phraseological units according to their origin
UNIT 7. STYLISTIC DIFFERENTIATION OF ENGLISH WORDS
UNIT 8. DIALECTS AND VARIANTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Main types of English dictionaries
Some Basic Problems of Dictionary-Compiling
LITERATURE..............................................
PREFACE
This manual is intended for students of Primary and Preschool departments at Pedagogical College (4th year of studies) taking the optional course of English lexicology and fully meets the requirements of the curriculum.
It соnsists of nine units. Each unit includes the theoretical material on the problem under consideration and the exercises for seminars and independent work.
Its main purpose is to introduce the students to some major lexicological problems connected with the general theory of the word and the main problems associated with English vocabulary, its characteristics and subdivisions, the stylistic peculiarities of English vocabulary, the complex nature of the word's meaning, English idioms and some other aspects of English. The manual includes the lectures on the following topics: the Morphological and Semantic Structure of English Words, Word-formation and Phraseology in Modern English, the Etymology of Words, Lexicography, etc.
The aim of the lectures is to lead the students to a deeper understanding of the Modern English lexical system, to be word-conscious, to be able to guess the meaning of words they come across from the meanings of morphemes, to be able to recognise the origin of a lexical unit.
The additional material includes tests aimed at checking up the comprehension of the theoretical material and the ability to apply it in practice and the list of words of English and American spelling peculiarities.
UNIT 1. LEXICOLOGY AS A BRANCH
OF LINGUISTICS
Lexicology (from Gr lexis ‘word’ and logos ‘learning’) is the part of linguistics dealing with the vocabulary of the language and the properties of words as the main units of the language. The literal meaning of the term ‘lexicology' is “the science of the word”.
The term vосabularу is used to denote the system of words and word equivalents that the language possesses.
The term word denotes the basic unit of a given language resulting from the association of a particular meaning with a particular group of sounds. A word therefore is simultaneously a semantic, grammatical and phonological unit.
The general study of words and vocabulary, irrespective of the specific features of any particular language, is known as general lexicology. Linguistic phenomena and properties common to all languages are generally referred to language universals. Special lexiсоlоgу devotes its attention to the description of the characteristic peculiarities in the vocabulary of a given language (Ukrainian, French, etc.).
Historical lexicology or etymology discusses the origin of various words, their change and development, and investigates the linguistic and extra-linguistic forces modifying their structure, meaning and usage. Descriptive lexicology deals with the vocabulary of a given language at a given stage of its development. It studies the functions of words and their specific structure as a characteristic inherent of the s у s t e m.
Lexicology also studies all kinds of semantic groups and semantic relations: synonymy, antonymy, homonymy, semantic fields, etc.
The branch of linguistics, dealing with causal relations between the way the language works and develops, on the one hand, and the facts of social life, on the other, is termed sociolinguistics.
The importance of English lexicology is based not on the size of its vocabulary, however big it is, but on the fact that at present it is the world’s most widely used language.
So, lexicology as a branch of linguistics has its own aims and methods of scientific research, its basic task is the study and systematic description of the vocabulary of some particular language in respect to its origin, development and current use. Hence, lexicology investigates words, word-groups, word-equivalents and morphemes which make up words.
Lexicology is inseparable from phonetics, grammar, stylistics, sociolinguistics and linguostylistics
Modern English Lexicology aims at giving a systematic description of the word-stock of Modern English. It investigates the problems of word structure and word formation, the classification of vocabulary units, replenishment of the vocabulary, the relations between different lexical layers of the English vocabulary. Lexicology meets the demands of different branches of applied linguistic (e.g. lexicography – a science and art of compiling dictionaries).
Questions
- What is lexicology?
- What Greek morphemes is the term ‘lexicology’ composed of?
- What are the terms ‘vocabulary’ and ‘word’ used to denote?
- What is the object of study of: General Lexicology, Special Lexicology, Historical Lexicology, Descriptive Lexicology?
- What branches of linguistics is lexicology connected with?
- What does Modern English Lexicology aim at?
- What is lexicography?
UNIT 2. MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
OF ENGLISH WORDS
If we describe a word as an autonomous unit of language in which a particular meaning is associated with a particular sound complex and which is capable of a particular grammatical employment and able to form a sentence by itself, we have the possibility to distinguish it from the other fundamental language unit, namely, the morpheme.
A morpheme is also an association of a given meaning with a given sound pattern. But unlike a word it is not autonomous. Morphemes occur in speech only as constituent parts of words, not independently, although a word may consist of a single morpheme. That is why the morpheme may be defined as the minimum meaningful language unit.
From the semantic point of view morphemes are subdivided into roots (root morphemes) and affixes (affixational morphemes).
Root morphemes (roots) The root is the lexical nucleus of a word. The root-morpheme is isolated as the morpheme common to a set of words making up a word-cluster. e.g. the morpheme teach- in to teach, teacher, teaching. There exist many words which coincide with root-words, e.g. desk, son, tree, man, red see, look, etc.
Affixational morphemes (affixes) Affixes are divided into prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes precede the root (pronounce – mispronounce, safe – unsafe). Suffixes follow the root (homeless, worker, peaceful, calmly, etc.).
The part of a word which remains unchanged in all the forms is called a stem: girl in girls, darken in darkens, darkened, darkening.
Stems that coincide with roots are known as simple stems: boy’s, trees, reads.
Stems that contain one or more affixes are derived stems: teacher’s, governments, misfires.
Binary stems comprising two simple or derived stems are called compound stems: ex-film-star, school-boyish, machine-gunner’s.
Structurally morphemes fall into three types: free, bound and semi-bound morphemes.
A free morpheme is defined as one that coincides with the stem or a word-form. For example, the root-morpheme friend- of the noun friendship is naturally qualified as a free morpheme because it coincides with one of the forms of the word friend.
A bound morpheme occurs only as a constituent part of a word. Affixes are bound morphemes for they always make part of a word. For example, the suffixes -ness. -ship. -ize in the words darkness, friendship, to activize: the prefixes im-, dis-, de- in the words impolite, to disregard, to demobilize.
Semi-bound morphemes are morphemes that can function in a morphemic sequence both as an affix and as a free morpheme. For example, the morphemes well and half on the one hand occur as free morphemes that coincide with the stem and the word-form in the utterances to sleep well, half an hour. On the other hand well and half occur as bound morphemes in the words well-known, half- done.
Positional variants of a morpheme are known as allomorphs. Thus the prefix in (intransitive, involuntary) can be represented by allomorph il- (illegal, illiteracy), im- (immortal, impatience).
Practical assignment
1. a) Make the morphemic analysis of the following words: 1) words consisting of two or more roots with no affixational morphemes; 2) words containing two roots and one or more affixational morphemes. b) Translate the words into Ukrainian.
Act, air, chairman, house, uncover, dark-brown, disappointment. effective, black, historian, book-keeper, cry, mistrust, unanswerable, home-sick. good, ex-wife, laughter-filled, go, unfortunately, age-long, manageability, short-sightedness.
2. Classify the stems of the given words into 1) simple, derived and compound; 2) free, bound, semi-bound.
Babylike, bluebell, blue-eyed, book, busload, cameraman, colour-blindness, crossing, document, dusty, enrich, fishmonger, foresee, playwright, reddish, rewrite, small, snow-whiteness, unbutton, unpleasantness.
3. Translate the following words into Ukrainian. Pay attention to the lexical meaning of the root and affixational morphemes.
Model: weekly The lexical meaning of the root-morpheme week- is ‘a period of seven days'. The lexical meaning of the affixational morpheme -ly is ‘frequency’. The word weekly is translated into Ukrainian by the word “щотижня”.
Eyelet, dehouse, neurosis, hostess, betrayal, antipathy, briefly, horsemanship, prewar, famous.
4. Classify the following words according to the part-of-speech meaning of their affixational morphemes.
Model: criticism The affix -ism indicates that the derived word is a noun.
Suitability, hatless, accordingly, combination, befriend, sideways, hospitalize, boyhood, congratulatory, enlarge, northwards, spacious, bureaucracy, quarrelsome, clarify, breakage, drinkable, weaken.
UNIT 3
. WORD-FORMATION
Word-formation (word-building) is the process of creating new words from the material available in the word-stock according to certain
structural and semantic patterns.
Word-formation is one of the main ways of enriching vocabulary. In word-formation of the English language derivation and compounding are known to occupy a very important place.
There are three main ways of word-building in modern English: affixation (derivation), composition (compounding), conversion. There are also secondary ways of word-building: shortening (clipping, abbreviation), sound interchange, stress interchange, sound imitation, blends, and back formation.
Questions
- What is word-formation?
- What are the main types of word-formation?
- What types of forming words are known to occupy a very important place?
- What are the secondary ways of word-formation?
Affixation
Affixation is one of the most productive ways of word-building throughout the history of English. It consists in adding an affix to the stem of a definite part of speech. Affixation is divided into suffixation and prefixation.
Suffixation is the formation of words with the help of suffixes. Suffixes usually modify the lexical meaning of the base and transfer words to a different part of speech. There are suffixes, however, which do not shift words from one part of speech into another.
The main function of suffixes in Modern English is to form one part of speech from another, the secondary function is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech. (e.g. «educate» is a verb, «educatee» is a noun, and « music» is a noun, «musicdom» is also a noun).
Suffixes may be classified proceeding from different criteria. According to the part of speech classification they fall into:
a) suffixes forming nouns -dom (freedom, kingdom);
b) suffixes forming adjectives -able/-ible/-uble (unbearable, audible, soluble);
c) suffixes forming verbs -ize (equalize, harmonize); -ish (establish):
d) adverb-suffixes -ly (quickly, coldly); -ward/-wards (upward, northwards).
Prefixation is the formation of words by means of adding a prefix to the stem. In English it is characteristic for forming verbs. Prefixes are more independent than suffixes. Prefixes can be classified according to the nature of words in which they are used:
a) prefixes used in notional words;
b) prefixes used in functional words.
According to the class of words they form:
a) verb-forming be- (befriend); de- (dethrone);
b) noun-forming prefixes non- (non-smoker); ex- (ex-husband);
c) adjective-forming un- (unfair), il- (illiterate);
d) adverb-forming un- (unfortunately), up- (uphill).
The word-forming activity of affixes may change in the course of time. Productivity of derivational affixes is the ability of being used to form new occasional or potential words, which can be readily understood by the language-speakers.
Prefixes
We add prefixes before the base or stem of a word.
|
examples |
prefixes |
|
monorail, monolingual |
mono- means ‘one’ |
|
multipurpose, multicultural |
multi- means ‘many’ |
|
post-war, postgraduate |
post- means ‘after’ |
|
unusual, undemocratic |
un- means ‘not’ or ‘opposite to’ |
Suffixes
We add suffixes after the base or stem of a word. The main purpose of a suffix is to show what class of word it is (e.g. noun or adjective).
|
examples |
suffixes |
|
terrorism, sexism |
-ism and -dom are used to form nouns |
|
employer, actor |
-er and -or are used to form nouns to describe people who do things |
|
widen, simplify |
-en and -ify are used to form verbs |
|
reasonable, unprofitable |
-able is used to form adjectives |
|
unhappily, naturally |
-ly is a common suffix used to form adverbs |
Practical assignment
1. Form words with the following prefixes. State to what part of speech they belong. Give their Ukrainian equivalents.
dis-, il-, non-, ir-, un-, im-, in-, de-, a-
Legal, relevant, mature, regulate, moral, ability, payment, happy, responsible, patient, stabilize, honour, smoker, learn, formally, typical, logical, rational, possible, classify, agreement, verbal, lock, practical, dependently, mystify, resistible, sensual, literate, obedience, academic, tie, adequately, septic, clean.
2. Form adjectives from the words given in brackets.
1. She smiled a slightly (ironic...) smile. 2. He felt very (protect...) towards her and loved her dearly. 3. The newspapers printed a shocking and (shame...) story. 4. She slept on a (collapse...) bed with rough, (prickle...) sheets. 5. He filled the frequent silences with (comic...) anecdotes. 6. There were two letters from Michael, warm, (humour...), and full of information. 7. Mr and Mrs Bixby lived in a (small...) apartment. 8. His voice was cold and (dead...). 9. I have extra French lessons with a (retire...) schoolmaster. 10. Judy was very (compliment...) about my work. 11. There is the danger of an (accident...) explosion that could be caused by a gas leak. 12. I understood that it was (permit...) to ask a question. 13. She thought how (fool...) he’d been and was not angry any more. 14. It’s time you chose between the two (alternate...) lifestyles.
3. Add appropriate suffixes to the verbal bases to form words.
1. He made himself ... by handing round the coffee cups. (use) 2. He felt strongly that schools did not provide the kind of ... needed for the development of good leadership qualities which should be instilled from early childhood. (encourage) 3. The photos made him look quite ... . (attract) 4. He explained that he would like to become ... in industry (manage) 5. Mr Smith told me a lot about ... of printing in the 15th century. (invent) 6. Deaths caused by reckless driving are ... . (avoid) 7. Her ... on staying in the best hotel was very ... and ... . (insist, tire, annoy) 8. She is suing the company for unfair ... . (dismiss) 9. My little daughter has an ... friend. (imagine) 10. I did not want to encounter other ... to the post. (appoint).
4. Complete the sentences with the correct form of the words in capitals.
I am grateful for your 
help. (VALUE)
Single mothers get little for the hard work they do (RECOGNISE)
A lot of research is being done into gene manipulation (SCIENCE)
The organisation I work for deals with the of wildlife (PROTECT)
My wife has a special 
of animals (UNDERSTAND).
Your shop has an window display (IMPRESS)
The magazine has a
of interesting articles on food (VARY)
His greatest was winning a gold medal at the Olympics. (ACHIEVE)
Everyone has been so since I lost my job (SYMPATHY)
There is a slight that you'll get the job (POSSIBLE)
The teacher asked the students to write a of the text (SUMMARISE)
Writing speeches for is his speciality. (POLITICS)
5. Use the words in capitals to form a word that fits in the space in the same line.
|
1. Detroit is renowned for the |
PRODUCE |
|
2. If you make a good |
IMPRESS |
|
3. Teaching and medicine are more than |
OCCUPY |
|
4. My history teacher has a vast |
KNOW |
|
5. You are never too old to go to college and gain some |
QUALIFY |
|
6. My greatest |
ACHIEVE |
|
7. The weatherman said there is a strong |
POSSIBLE |
|
8. Some old laws are no longer |
EFFECT |
|
9. Athens is |
FAME |
|
10. He was caught shoplifting so now he has a |
CRIME |
|
11. Despite her severe |
DISABLE |
|
12. Being |
EMPLOY |
|
13. If you buy presents in the summer your |
SAVE |
|
14. Due to the pilot's |
GUIDE |
|
15. It's important to also see the less |
DESIRE |
|
16. I was surprised at his |
REFUSE |
|
17. Children are by nature |
AWARE |
|
18. She is always |
RESPECT |
|
19. The hospital has the best medical |
EQUIP |
|
20. You can relax in the comfortable |
SURROUND |
|
21. The |
ENTER |
6. Classify suffixes forming the given nouns according to their generalizing meaning into three groups: 1) suffixes denoting people of different professions or of different kinds of activity; 2) suffixes denoting collectivity or collection of; 3) suffixes denoting diminutiveness.
Membership, assistant, lecturette, trainee, sisterhood, actress, piglet, painter, machinery, aunty, yuppiedom, historian, duckling, finery, scientist, readership, supervisor, nightie, aristocracy.
Conversion
Conversion, also called Zero Derivation, involves the change of a word from one word class to another. Conversion is one of the principal ways of forming words in Modem English. It is highly productive in replenishing the English word-stock with new words. The morphemic shape of the original word remains unchanged. Most cases of conversion are from noun to verb and from verb to noun. Conversion from adjective to verb is also common, but it has a lower ratio.
For example, the verbs to email and to microwave are formed from the nouns email and microwave:
Can you text her? (verb from noun text, meaning to send a text-message)
They are always jetting somewhere. (verb from noun jet)
If you’re not careful, some downloads can damage your computer. (noun from verb download)
OK, so the meeting’s on Tuesday. That’s a definite. (noun from adjective)
It’s a very big if and I’m not at all sure we can afford it. (noun from conjunction, meaning ‘it’s not at all certain’)
All companies have their ups and downs. (nouns from prepositions)
We also use conversion when we change a proper noun into a common noun:
Has anybody seen my Dickens? (copy of a book by Dickens)
Practical assignment
1. Say each sentence out loud. The italicized words are examples of commonly used "converted" words. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. Don't talk the talk if you can't walk the walk. 2. Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. 3. Gary showed no sign of pain or remorse. 4. Bush once said, "Families is where our nation takes hope, where wings take dream". 5. You'd have domestic production falling, whole cities blacked out, whole industries threatened. 6. I get distracted whenever mobile phones begin to buzz and beep.
2. Comment on the examples of converted words in the sentences below. State to what part of speech they belong.
1. Miss Watlins was a nobody. No family, no close friends. 2. It stood up as they neared my table. 3. He turned his head on the pillow. The nurse shooed us from the room then. 4. Caroline put the palms of her hands out to the sun to get them browned. 5. The paper lay on the work table already greyed with one night’s duet. 6. George signalled for the check. The waiter brought it and he paid him. 7. The talk reverted to the subject which had been tabooed before.
3. State the direction of derivation in the following conversion pairs.
A wireless – to wireless, a chain – to chain, a wave – to wave, a try – to try, a swim – to swim, a cover – to cover, a taste – to taste, a stand – to stand, make – to make, a bore – to bore, a shoulder – to shoulder, a bite – to bite, a show – to show.
4. Define the part of speech of the italicized words. State what parts of speech they are derived from and what word-formation means is applied here. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. That fellow really whatevers me. 2. She made a two-part documentary about the war in Kosovo. 3. Local politicians were found to pocket the money of fund-raisers. 4. This video is a must for everyone. 5 The story was in all the dailies. 6. Will you holiday in Switzerland? 7. He busied himself with plans for the future. 8. There is a great deal of difference between before and after. 9. I asked him to modem this information tomorrow. 10. It was a good buy. 11.1 don’t like a chemistry practical. 12. His skin was weathered almost black by his long outdoor life. 13. The path is steep and dangerous in the wet. 14. I won’t join your plan. There are too many ifs and buts in it. 15. The army’s actions dirtied its reputation.
Compounding (Composition)
The English language has a genius for the formation of expressive compound words. Compouns are words produces by combining two or more stems which occur in the language as free forms. Common examples include sun-stroke, pick-pocket, elbow-room, land-lord, humming-bird etc. The two parts of a compound word are usually separated by a hyphen. However, in the case of many common compound words, the component parts have become so closely connected that they are now written as one word without any hyphen between them. Examples are: sunstroke, landlord, pickpocket, overload, etc.
In the case of some other compound words, complete integration has been achieved by modifying one or both of the component parts. For example, pass time is now written as pastime. In the same way, holy day has become holiday and prime rose has become primrose.
There are different types of compound words
Noun + noun: master-piece, table-cloth, maid-servant, bread-winner, shoe-maker, etc.
Noun + gerund: wool-gathering, snake-charming, bull-baiting, sooth-saying, etc.
Noun + adjective: court-martial, knight-errant, etc.
Gerund + noun: piping-hot, walking-stick, drawing-room, laughing-stock, skipping-rope, etc.
Adverb + noun: out-patient, over-load, fore-sight, under-tone, in-sigh, etc.
Verb + noun
Examples are: dare-devil, cut-throat, break-fast, spend-thrift, pass-port, etc.
Adjective + noun: short-hand, free-thinker, lay-man, hard-ware, strong-hold, etc.
Present participle + noun: humming-bird, flying-fish, loving-kindness, etc.
Pronoun + noun: he-goat, etc.
Possessive noun + noun (In this case, the apostrophe is usually omitted).
According to the means of composition compound words are classified into:
juxtapositional (neutral) compounds composed without connecting elements, e.g. heartache, dog-house, timetable, grey-green.
morphological compounds composed with the help of a vowel or a consonant as a linking element, e.g. handicraft, speedometer, statesman;
syntactic compounds composed with the help of linking elements represented by preposition or conjunction stems, e.g. son-in-law, pepper-and-salt, up-to-date, forget-me-not.
Practical assignment
1. Distribute the given compound words according to the part of speech they represent into five groups: 1) compound nouns; 2) compound adjectives; 3) compound pronouns; 4) compound adverbs; 5) compound verbs.
Nation-wide, everyone, elsewhere, sleeping-car, to honeymoon, sweet-smelling, to vacuumclean, sunbeam, anybody, to finger-print, time-server, upright, housekeeping, to care-take, something, sick-making, to nickname, maidservant, to sightsee, reddish-brown, outside, to whitewash, nobody, to type-write, dog-tired, to week-end, downhill, broadway, to fortune-hunt, everything, to hunger-strike, knee-deep, indoors, to merry-make.
2. Classify the given compound words according to the means of composition into three groups: 1) compounds composed without connecting elements; 2) compounds composed with the help of vowels or consonants as linking elements; 3) compounds composed with the help of prepositions or conjunctions as linking elements.
Make-and-break, saleswoman, up-to-date, heart-beat, down-and-out, electromotive, pale-blue, tragicomic, matter-of-fact, day-time, handiwork, up-and-coming, wind-driven, mother-in-law, oil-rich, craftsmanship, spokesman, sit-at-home, play-acting, good-for-nothing, Anglo-Saxon, blacklist, bridesmaid, one-to-one, water-mark, step-by-step, politico-military, sunflower, Anglo-Catholic, door-handle, out-of-town.
Reduplication
Reduplication is a morphological process which marks a grammatical or semantic contrast by repeating all or a part of the base to which it applies. Repetition of the whole base is called a full reduplication, and repetition of a part of the base is called partial reduplication. New words are made by doubling a stem, either without any phonetic changes as in bye-bye (coll, for good-bye) or with a variation of the root-vowel or consonant as in ping-pong, chit-chat. Most words made by reduplication represent informal groups: colloquialisms and slang. E. g. walkie-talkie ("a portable radio"), riff-raff ("the worthless or disreputable element of society"; "the dregs of society"), chi-chi (sl. for chic as in a chi-chi girl).
In a modern novel an angry father accuses his teenager son of doing nothing but dilly-dallying all over the town. (Dilly-dallying – wasting time, doing nothing, loitering). Another example of a word made by reduplication may be found in the following quotation from The Importance of Being Earnest by O. Wilde. Lady Bracknell: ‘I think it is high time that Mr. Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or to die. This shilly-shallying with the question is absurd’. (Shilly-shallying – irresolution, indecision).
Reduplicative compounds fall into three main subgroups:
- proper (stems are identical in their form): bye-bye, blah-blah, pooh-pooh, goody-goody, etc.
- gradational (stems have different root-vowels): ping-pong, dilly-dally, chit-chat, riff-raff, etc.
- rhyme compounds (stems are joint to rhymes): willy-nilly, walkie-talkie, namby-pamby, hoity-toity, etc.
Practical assignment
1. Pick out reduplicative compounds. Comment on their stems. Translate the sentences into English.
1) Mr. Sloan murmured something close to her ear. 2) Burke launched into British social chitchat. 3) ‘Let’s have coffee outside. We’ll finish our powpow in the lounge’. 4) I was sick and tired of all this flimflam. Why didn’t he talk strait? 5) He didn’t like me calling him ‘sir’ – we were supposed to be buddy-bddies. 6) The photo depicted an airport, easily identified by its criss-crossed runway lines. 7) The other chair was occupied by lovely slender creature, a really tip-top Ambrose McAvoy. 8) The young wife and mother should sedulously avoid the cowsiewowsie type of humour. 9) He is a nice boy – not so highty-flighty as he seems. 10) James zigzagged one way, then another as if he did not know what direction he was going.
2. Group the given reduplicative compounds.
Blah-blah, ticky-tacky, chi-chi, wrist-watch, ping-pong, ha-ha, riff-raff, willy-willy, rugger-bugger, easy-peasy, boy-friend, hush-hush, hob-nob, willy-nilly.
3. Translate into Ukrainian.
1. blah-blah – used to refer to something which is boring or without meaningful content; 2. ticky-tacky – (especially of a building or housing development) made of cheap material or in poor taste; 3. chi-chi – attempting stylish elegance but achieving only an over-elaborate affectedness; 4. ha-ha – a ditch with a wall on its inner side below ground level, forming a boundary to park or garden without interrupting the view; 5. riff-raff – disreputable or undesirable people; 6. willy-willy – a whirlwind or dust storm; 7. rugger-bugger – a boorish, aggressively masculine young man who is devoted to sport; 8. easy-peasy – (inf) very straightforward and easy (used by or as if by children); 9. hush-hush – (especially of an official plan or project) highly secret or confidential;
10. hob-nob – to mix socially, especially with those of perceived higher social status.
Phrasal verbs
Phrasal verbs are a common verb form in the English language (also called verb-particle constructions). The simplest definition of phrasal verbs is a verb plus one or more p-words. Other common definitions of the English phrasal verb include the following descriptions:
- an English verb followed by one or more particles;
- a verb and one or more additional words, having the function of a verb;
- a verb plus a preposition or adverb which creates a meaning different from the original verb;
- idiomatic expressions, combining verbs and prepositions to make new verbs.
English phrasal verbs additionally fall into four different categories based on transitivity and separability:
- intransitive;
- nonseparable transitive;
- optionally separable transitive;
- obligatorily separable transitive.
Intransitive Phrasal Verb is a phrasal verb that cannot or does not take an object. The p-word functioning as a particle must directly follow the verb. Examples of intransitive phrasal verbs include:
break down (malfunction)
die down (subside)
get up (arise)
let up (diminish, lessen)
run away (escape)
show up (arrive)
throw up (vomit)
My car broke down on the way to work. (malfunction)
What time did you get up this morning? (arise)
The storm finally let up enough for the snowplows to get out. (lessen)
His great aunt recently passed away. (die)
Nonseparable Transitive Phrasal Verb is a phrasal verb that takes an object but in which the p-word functioning as a particle must directly follow the verb. Examples of nonseparable transitive phrasal verbs include:
come across (discover)
get in (enter)
get on (mount)
keep at (persevere)
lay in on (criticize)
run into (encounter)
settle on (decide)
The cowgirl got on her horse. (mount)
Most children look forward to Christmas morning. (anticipate)
The class boned up on grammar. (review)
She ran into an old friend. (encounter)
Optionally Separable Transitive Phrasal Verb is a phrasal verb that takes an object and in which the p-word functioning as a particle can follow either the verb or the object. Examples of optionally separable transitive phrasal verbs include:
call off (cancel)
feel up (grope)
hand in (submit)
jack up (raise)
pass on (transmit)
rule out (eliminate)
work out (solve)
The child handed in the assignment. (submit)
The writer looked up the word in the dictionary. (research)
The Dean called the meeting off due to the weather. (cancel)
I need to take my wet socks off. (remove)
The boss called off the meeting. (correct)
The boss called the meeting off. (correct)
All students must hand in their essays. (correct)
All students must hand their essays in. (correct)
Obligatorily Separable Transitive Phrasal Verb is a phrasal verb that takes an object and in which the p-word functioning as a particle must directly follow the object. When the direct object is in the form of a pronoun, the p-word must follow the pronoun, not the verb. In other words, optionally separable transitive phrasal verbs become obligatorily separable when a pronoun functions as the object. Examples of obligatorily separable transitive phrasal verbs include:
The student looked up the word. (correct)
The student looked the word up. (correct)
The patron checked out the book. (correct)
The patron checked the book out. (correct)
The children wore out the toy. (correct)
The children wore the toy out. (correct)
Practical assignment
1. Comment on the category of phrasal verbs. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. My car broke down on the way to work. (malfunction)
2. What time did you get up this morning? (arise)
3. The storm finally let up enough for the snowplows to get out. (lessen)
4. His great aunt recently passed away. (die)
5. The dog threw up on the carpet. (vomit)
6. My classmate nodded off during the lecture. (doze)
2. Give English equivalents for the following phrasal verbs.
Be behind, be up to, call off, feel up, hand in, jack up, pass away, pass on, rule out, work out, come across, come into, get in, get on, keep at, lay in on, run into, settle on, break down, break off, die down, get up, let up, run away, show up, throw up, give in, give up, look around, nod off, go out with, go out of, mess about, nose about.
3. Pick out the sentences with incorrect word order. Analyse the category of the phrasal verbs. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. The dog threw up on the carpet. 2. The dog threw on the carpet up. 3. My classmate nodded off during the lecture. 4. My classmate nodded during the lecture off. 5. The librarian came across the missing book. 6. The librarian came the missing book across. 7. The manager really laid in on the lazy employee. 8. The manager really laid the lazy employee in on. 9. The painter settled on the large canvas. 10. The painter settled the large canvas on. 11 The student looked up it. 12. The student looked it up. 13. The actress ruled out both movies. 14. The actress ruled both movies out. 15. The boss called off the meeting. 16. The boss called the meeting off.
Substantivation
Substantivation is a type of word-building in English (relatives, sweets, natives, hand-mades, two-year-olds, etc.). Substantivation is a type of word-building in which an adjective or participle stem functions as a noun, i.e. acquires features of a noun: an article, plural form and the form of the possessive case, syntactical functions and environment peculiar to a noun, e.g. in the sentence He is a relative the adjective relative functions as a noun. It is used with the indefinite article, has the syntactical function of a predicative.
All cases of substantivation in English can show various degrees of this word-forming process:
complete (substutivuzed adjectives have the full paradigm of a noun) substantivation (an official, the official, officials, the officials, official’s, officials’, our officials, etc.);
partial (acquires only some features of a noun) substantivation. It falls into several groups:
- SA which are singular in form but plural in meaning, denoting groups of people: the blind, the dead, the rich, the poor, etc.;
- SA used mostly in the plural and denoting a group or a class of people: reds, greens, blues, etc.;
- SA presenting properties: the good, the evil, the singular, the beautiful, etc.;
- SA used mostly in the plural and denoting inanimate things: sweets, ancients, eatables, etc.;
- SA denoting languages: English, German, Italian, Ukrainian, etc.
Practical assignment
1. Pick out all the substantivized adjectives from the following sentences. Comment on their structural-semantic features and the degree of substantivation. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. Her father, a native of that island, practised as a veterinary surgeon (W.S. Maugham). 2. And they do say to the pure all things are pure (Id.). 3. The real criminals of our present time are not those who can be detected, or if so detected, seized (Th. Dreiser). 4. I turned towards the office and the five letters in Spanish and the three in Turkish which lay on my desk (G. Greene). 5. Doctor Fischer and the Divisionnaire were the only Swiss nationals in the group (Id.). 6. “He’d play parts in amateur theatricals” (Id.). 7.1 had found my employment to augment my pension and the little which I had inherited from my parents (Id.). 8. I left him walking across the yard in the dark (R. P. Warren). 9. I went to the Mason City Cafe… and sampled the washed potatoes and fried ham and greens (Id.). 10. I think of the poor, the unemployed, the elderly, the handicapped, the helpless and the sad, and they need us more than ever (W. Mondale). 11. “And suppose he’s a terrible fought” (A. Christie). 12. She was a capital girl, a senior nurse, due to take her finals in a month or so (Ch. Barnard, S. Stander). 13. At every corner miniature golf shouted its temptations, with the same water traps, bridges, arches and tunnels and decorative gnomes in rival crimsons, yellows and bright blues (I. Montagu). 14. “Oh a pretty! A little pretty! Oh a cold little pretty, come in a railway-train!” (D. H. Lawrence). 15. I am by disposition one of life’s neutrals, a human Switzerland,” says Jack Broderick (Time).
Shortening
There exist two main ways of shortening: contraction (clipping) and abbreviation (initial shortening).
Contraction
One should distinguish between four types of contraction:
Final clipping (apocope), i.e. omission of the final part of the word, e.g. doc (< doctor), lab (< laboratory), mag (< magazine), prefab (< prefabricated), vegs (< vegetables), A1 (< Albert), Nick (< Nickolas), Phil (< Philip), etc.
Initial clipping (apheresis), i.e. omission of the fore part of the word, e.g.: phone (< telephone), plane (< aeroplane), story (< history), van (< caravan), drome (< airdrome), Dora (< Theodora), Fred (< Alfred), etc.
Medial clipping (syncope), i.e. omission of the middle part of the word, e.g.: maths (< mathematics), fancy (< fantasy), specs (< spectacles), binocs (< binoculars), through (< thorough), etc.
Mixed clipping, where the fore and the final parts of the word are clipped e.g.: tec (< detective), flu (< influenza), fridge (< refrigerator), stach (< moustache), Liz (< Elisabeth), etc.
Abbreviation
Abbreviations (initial shortenings) are words produced by shortening the words to their initial letters. Abbreviations are subdivided into 5 groups:
1) Acronyms which are read in accordance with the rules of orthoepy as though they were ordinary words, e.g.: UNO /’ju:nou/ (< United Nations Organization), UNESCO /’ju: ’neskou/ (< United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization/, NATO /’neitou/ (< North Atlantic Treaty Organization), SALT /so:lt/ (< Strategic Arms Limitation Talks), STEM /stem/ (< scanning transmission electrone microscope), radar /’reida/ (< radio detecting and ranging), etc.
2) Alphabetic abbreviations in which letters get their full alphabetic pronunciation and a full stress, e.g.: USA /’ju:es’ei/ (< the United States of America), B.B.C. /’bi:’bi:’si:/ (< the British Broadcasting Corporation), M.P. / ’em’pi:/ (< Member of Parliament), G.I. /’d3i: ‘ai/ (< Government Issue), FBI / ’ef’bi:‘ai/ (< Federal Bureau of Investigation), etc.
Alphabetic abbreviations are sometimes used for famous persons’ names, e.g.: F.D.R. (< Franklin Delano Roosevelt), G.B.S. (< George Bernard Shaw), B.B. (< Brigitte Bardot), etc.
3) Compound abbreviations in which the first part is a letter (letters) and the second a complete word, e.g. A-bomb (< atomic bomb), V-day (< Victory day), Z-hour (< zero hour), L-driver (learner-driver), etc.
4) Graphic abbreviations which are used in texts for economy of space. They are pronounced as the corresponding unabbreviated words, e.g.: Mr (< Mister), m. (< mile), ft. (< foot/feet), v. (< verb), ltd. (< limited), govt. (< government), usu. (< usually), pp. (< pages), Co (< Company), X-mas (< Christmas), etc.
5) Latin abbreviations which sometimes are not read as Latin words but as separate letters or are substituted by their English equivalents, e.g.: i.e. /ai ‘i:/ – that is; a.m. /ei ‘em/ – before midday, in the morning; e.g. – for example; Id. – in the same place; cf. – compare, etc.
Practical assignment
1. Arrange the following words in four columns according to the type of clipping. Translate the words into Ukrainian.
ad, amp, bus, cab, chute, combi, deli, disco, divi, dub, exam, fan, fancy, fence, fladge, flu, fridge, gas, hols, lab, limo, mike, math, mayo, mob, nuke, para, perm, phone, plane, pop, prefab, props, retro, specs, tec, tech, teeny, frank, trannie, vamp, veggies, Becky, Bella, Bess, Kate, Tony.
2. Comment on the formation of the clipped words given in bold type. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. At that hour the express bus no longer ran, and I spent twelve bucks in cab fare to avoid the local, which made thirty stops (S. Bellow). 2. The traffic cop made me circle, because near medical buildings there’s always a crowded hack stand (Id.). 3. He’s taking lab tests because a fatal disease is suspected (Id.). 4. She was at the airport, waiting for the plane to Greece (M. Spark). 5.1 wrapped my hanky round my thumb (Id.). 6. “I loved maths. But it wasn’t well taught” (Id.). 7. “I still keep that photo” (Id.). 8. “Put the mac over your head, do” (Id.). 9. Bach man checked his black combat jump suit for ammo, hand grenades and the other necessities of hand-to-hand combat (M. Maloney). 10. In fairness, Tom Clancy should not be dismissed as merely another book-biz commodity (Time). 11. It was his sister’s voice from the stairs. “Oh, Matthew, you promised.” “I know, sis. But I can’t” (A. Christie). 12. He made the phone call for the taxi (B. Deal). 13. Updike looked enquiringly at Chuckles, who was still glued to the telly and still abdicating from the role of hostess (D. Francis). 14. Michael got himself demobbed the moment the war was finished (W. S. Maugham). 15. “We made that demo against the fascist meeting in the Albert Hall” (J. Lindsay). 16. Mandie had had a new perm (Id.). 17. “Hey, Dick, sit you down,” he called... “In a mo,” said Dick (Id.). 18. The ship continued to slow, coming in on a spiral, adjusting her speed to that of the satellite. The gyros started up to give stability (J. Wyndham). 19. “I do nearly all shopping and most of the cooking since my old ms’s had her op” (J. Cary). 20.1 came down here, and put up at a pub just outside Kerrith (D. du Maurier).
3. Pick out all the abbreviations from the sentences given below. Comment on their formation. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. “Mind you, you have to remember that T.B. is a most unpredictable disease, most unpredictable” (D. Cusack). 2. “Well, he said the ray shows that the lesion is definitely smaller, the A.P. is working beautifully, and my pulse is getting slower” (Id.). 3. Her candid eyes stared at them from a photograph other in her A.W. A.S. uniform (Id.). 4. “I’m going to be a candidate,” said Mor. “Whether I’ll be M.P. depends on the electorate” (I. Murdoch). 5. He had fought the North African campaign as an infantry officer and gained the MC (J. Fowles). 6. He said, “Where were you?” “Leeds. For my Dip AD. Then two terms at the RCA” (Id.). 7. “Fetch me an A.B.C., will you?” (A. Christie). 8. That night Inspector Coota was again on TV, announcing that he had solid leads and would solve the crime (J. Fletcher & D. Bain). 9. The UV rays from the sun attack the nucleus of the skin cell (New Idea). 10. I also had nice letters of introduction from both H.G. Wells and G.B.S. to the Fairbanks and Pickford manage and Charlie Chaplin (I. Montagu). 12. It was only mid-March, but already winter coats had been shed (H. Robbins). 13. The man wore khakis, a T-shirt, and basketball sneakers (P. Benchley). 14. “She’s nice enough, but she’s got the IQ of an artichoke” (Id). 15. Matilda spent weeks taking notes for Ph.D. thesis (Id).
4. Abbreviate the following nouns to the first syllable.
Mitten, doctor, grandmother, cabriolet, public, house, gymnasium, proprietor, fraternity, laboratory, margarine, sister, mathematics, trigonometry, veterinary, gladiolus.
Acronymy
Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations, such as NATO, laser, and IBM, that are formed by using the initial letters of words or word parts in a phrase or name. Acronyms and initialisms are usually pronounced in a way that is distinct from that of the full forms for which they stand: as the names of the individual letters (as in IBM), as a word (as in NATO), or as a combination (as in IUPAC). Another term, alphabetism, is sometimes used to describe abbreviations pronounced as the names of letters.
Examples:
- pronounced as a word, containing only initial letters:
FNMA: (Fannie Mae) Federal National Mortgage Association
laser: light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation
NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
- pronounced as a word, containing non-initial letters:
Gestapo: Geheime Staatspolizei ("secret state police")
Interpol: International Criminal Police Organization
radar: radio detection and ranging
- pronounced only as the names of letters:
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation
DNA: deoxyribonucleic acid
- shortcut incorporated into name:
3M: (three em) originally Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
E³: (e three) Electronic Entertainment Exposition
W3C: (double-u three cee) World Wide Web Consortium
- pseudo-acronyms are used because, when pronounced as intended, they resemble the sounds of other words:
ICQ: "I seek you"
IOU: "I owe you".
Minor types of word-formation
1) Back-formation (reversion) refers to the process of creating a new lexeme (less precisely, a new "word") by removing actual or supposed affixes. The resulting neologism is called a back-formation. Back-formations are shortened words created from longer words, thus back-formations may be viewed as a sub-type of clipping, e.g.: butle < butler, greed < greedy, sculp < sculptor, to babysit < baby-sitter, to forceland < forced landing, to blood-transfuse < blood-transfuing, etc.
2) Blending is the process of combining parts of two words to form one word. Blends (blended words, blendings, fusions) are formations, that combine two words, and include the letters or sounds they have in common as a connecting element, e.g.: smog = smoke + fog, brunch = breakfast + lunch, cyborg = cybernetic + organism, guesstimate = guess + estimate, etc.
3) Sound-imitation (onomatopoeia) is formation of words from sounds that resemble those associated with the object or action to be named or that seem suggestive of its qualities.
The words of this group are made by imitating different types of sounds that may be produced by animals, birds, human beings and inanimate objects, e.g.: babble, bang, buzz, crash, giggle, hiss, cock-a-doodle-doo; mew, miaow; moo, low; croak; quack, etc.
4) Sound-interchange (gradation) is a change of a phoneme in a morpheme resulting in a new lexical meaning. The process is not active in the language at present, e.g.: song – to sing, food – feed, gold – gild, etc.
5) Change of stress Some nouns and verbs of Romanic origin have a distinctive stress pattern. The stress distinction is neither productive nor regular, e.g.: ‘accent (n) – ac’cent (v), ‘record (n) – re’cord (v), ‘conduct (n) (behavior) – con’duct (v) (to lead or guide in a formal way).
6) New words Some prefixes are commonly used to create new words. In modern English the prefix e- is used to create new words that are connected with the Internet and the use of the Internet, e.g.: e-bank, e-cards, e-commerce, e-learning, etc.
REVISION EXERCISES
1. Consider the following words in respect of the particular type of word-formation. State what part of speech these words are.
Afro-Asian, also-ran, baby-sit, bleed, blood-transfuse, breath, buzz, dilly-dally, dryclean, dumbfound, foolproof, footballer, frequent, fruice, H-bag, hob-nob, holiday-make, homelike, hot-beaded, humanities, I.O.U, leg-pulling, do-it-yourself, merry-go-round, metrop, mike, necklace, old-fashioned, pick-up, red-hot, riff-raff, schoolgirlish, shortage, sizzle, straight-haired, straphang, tallboy, teck, telly, torchlight, twitter, waistcoat, zigzag.
2. Read, pay attention to the pronunciation of the words, the word stress, and translate the sentences.
1.The farm was used to produce produce. 2. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. 3. The soldier decided to desert in the desert. 4. This was a good time to present the present. 5. I didn't object to the object. 6. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests. 7. The drug addict was addicted. 8. His conduct was awful. We hope he'll conduct himself better in the future. 9. They signed a two-year contract. They contracted to do 3 jobs. 10 The convict was finally caught and convicted.
3. Match the English words with their Ukrainian equivalents.
1) giggle, 2) moo, 3) croak, 4) whiz, 5) bang, 6) mumble, 7) fizz, 8) boo, 9) cackle, 10) buzz, 11) cuckoo, 12) grumble, 13) hush, 14) pop (pop-pop!), 15) thump-thump, 16) cheep, 17) babble, 18) quack, 19) neigh, 20) mew; 21) (chit)-chat; 22) hushaby, 23) hiss, 24) bow-wow, 25) plod-plod, 26) cock-a-doodle-doo!
а) кукати, b) нявкати, c) тихше! тс! шикати, d) гудіти, дзижчати, e) лепетати, белькотати, f) ляскати (хлоп-хлоп!), g) крякати, квакати, h) бубоніти, бурмотати, i) шипіти, j) кудкудахати, k) іржати, l) пищати, m) хихотіти, n) мукати, o) бурчати, p) бах-бабах, бац! q) освистувати, r) сичати, s) базікання, t) люлі-лю, u) тук-тук! v) каркати, w) свист, посвистувати, x) кукуріку! w) гав-гав! z) туп-туп!
4. Analyse the word-formative means the words in bold type are made by. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. He took out his handkerchief and wiped his forehead again (H. Robbins). 2. Rocco pushed the wheelchair into a small walk on the far end of the grouns (Id.). 3. Stanley darted a quick look at his brother-in-law. It was a sort of I-told-you-so kind of look (Id.). 4. “I missed the fast train down from school and had to take the local,” she explained (Id.). 5. When we gave the handouts to the newspapers, we “suggested” what headlines to use (W. Tenn). 6. He was a long-legged kid with a freckled face and red hair (A. Saxton). 7. “Come to me and I’ll make you the greatest actress in England. Are you a quick study?” (W.S. Maugham). 8. Larry Vaughan was a handsome man, in his early fifties, with a full head of salt-and-pepper hair and a body kept trim by exercise (R Benchley). 9. Normally during the summer, the midnight-to-eight shift was manned by three officers (Id.). 10. “I... watched her get into her car, a new-looking convertible, a great big cream-colored one” (E. Queen). 11. The little girls... entertained their mother with the demure sort of small-girl chatter for which she often hungered (K. Norris). 12. “Who but the famous Hawker Hunter could make heads or tails of all this computer mumbo- jumbo?” (M. Meloney). 13. Andrew Trevayne ran the twin hulls of the catamaran before the wind, catching the fast current into the shore... The cat was within a hundred yards of the Connecticut shoreline when the wind abruptly shifted (R. Ludlum).
14. At last they were getting somewhere. He would be in the trenches that night, and take his chance with the rest. No more fiddle-faddle (R. Aldington). 15. Manson drew a long breath (A. J. Cronin). 16. In his wallet Lieutenant Cross carried two photographs of Martha. The first was a Kodacolor snapshot signed Love (T. O’Brien).17. They stripped off Lavender’s canteens and ammo, all the heavy things, and Rat Kiley said the obvious, the guy’s dead, and Mitchell Sanders used his radio to report one U.S. KIA and to request a chopper (Id.). 18. They felt the rush oftakeoff. Gone! they yelled (Id.). 19. He could see Martha playing volleyball in her white gym shorts and yellow T-shirt (Id.). 20. He would not tolerate laxity. He would show strength, distancing himself (Id.).
UNIT 4. SEMASIOLOGY
Lexical meaning and semantic structure of English words
Semasiology is the branch of linguistics which studies the meaning of linguistic units, first of all, that of words and word equivalents. Lexical meaning reflects the concept expressed by the given word.
One should distinguish three main types of the lexical meaning of words:
Nominative meaning which is the direct meaning of the word, immediately referring to objects in extralinguistic reality. The nominative meaning includes denotational and connotational components.
Denotation is the expression of the direct meaning proper of the word without any emotive evaluation or stylistic colouring, e.g. father, friend, girl, dog, begin, great, love.
Connotation is the supplementary expressive meaning presented either by emotive charge (e.g. girlie, doggy, tremendous, worship, sheepish or by stylistic reference (cf. girl (neutral denotation) :: maiden (poet.):: lass (folk.):: chic (slang); father (neutr.):: parent (book.):: dad (col.):: governor (slang); friend (neutr.):: chum (col.); begin (neutr.):: commence (book.); great/pleasure/ (neutr.):: terrific/pleasure/(col.).
Syntactically conditioned meaning which manifests itself in different colligations: ask smth.:: ask smb. about (after, for) smth.:: ask for smb.:: ask for smth.:: ask smb. to smth.; consist in smth.:: consist of smth.:: consist with smth.
Phraseologically bound meaning which is idiomatic and manifests itself only in certain phraseological units, e.g. tall story, buy smth. for a song, catch a cold, etc.
There are three main semantic structures of words: monosemy, polysemy and semantic diffusion.
Monosemy is the existence within one word of only one meaning. Monosemantic words are comparatively few in number. They are mainly scientific terms, e.g. biochemistry, cybernetics, molecule, radar, tungsten, etc.
Polysemy is the existence within one word of several connected meanings. One of them is the main (central) meaning, whereas the rest are associate (marginal) meanings. Associated meanings of the word become evident in certain lexical and grammatical contexts, e.g. face (n.) 1. the front of the head /the main meaning; 2. the expression of the countenance; 3. the main or front surface; 4. the surface that is marked, as of a clock; 5. appearance; outward aspect; 6. dignity, self-respect /associated meanings/ /After Webster’s New World Dictionary/.
Semantic diffusion is observed in words with a very wide conceptual volume. Such words denote, in fact, one concept, but can name an indefinitely large number of objects (referents). For instance, the word thing denotes “any object of our thought”. Hence it can name various inanimate objects, living beings, facts, affairs, problems, possessions, pieces of writing, composition, etc.
Practical assignment
1. Comment on the lexical meaning of the words in bold type. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. “No shop talk, now. You’re on vacation, remember” (Sh. Jackson). 2. “Should I drop you home?” “All right” (E. Hemingway). 3. “So, Sergeant, where’s the ladder?”... Velie’s mouth hung open. “Shut the flytrap, Velie, and go get it,” said the Inspector mildly (E. Queen). 4. “I suppose you were tight” (E. Waugh). 5. Sophie was apologetic. “I will try, but I am afraid I…” (S. Sheldon). 6. She blew him a kiss, she was gone (J. Fowles). 7. He tried to thaw her with a smile (Id.). 8. “You’re a menace. You’re mentally unbalanced. You’re a nut” (R. Ludlum). 9. “My auntie told me not to run,” he explained, “on account of my asthma” (W. Golding). 10. “Shut up, Fatty”. Laughter arose. “He’s not Fatty,” cried Ralf, “his real name’s Piggy!” (Id.). 11. Now the antagonism was audible (Id.). 12. “Like kids!” he said scornfully. “Acting like a crowd of kids!” (Id.). 13. He was happy to see her fishing for compliments, and happy to give them to her (P. Benchley). 14. “Hello,” she said, turning her head so Brody could plant a kiss on her cheek (Id.). 15. “I love to see you at my table? Nick” (P. S. Fitzgerald). 16. “If you want anything just ask for it, old sport,” he urged me (Id.). 17. She had few friends and bore a reputation of having a sharp tongue (Sh. Anderson). 18. He pottered about the room a bit, babbling at intervals. The boy seemed cuckoo” (P.G. Wodehouse). 19. “If he cut off Times New Roman my allowance, I should be very much in the soup” (Id.). 20. The man was goggling. His entire map was suffused with a rich blush (Id.). 21. He put her coat across her shoulders. “I’ll walk you back to the hotel,” he said (H. Robbins). 22. He fished out a cigarette and put it in his mouth (Id.). 23. She threw her arms around him and kissed him (Id.). 24. “I’m sorry, Johnny,” he said softly. “It wasn’t my idea. I tried to talk him out of it” (Id.). 25. His face broke into a guilty smile (Id.). 26. He’ll work himself up till he gets that pain in the tummy, and then he won’t be able to eat his supper (A. Christie). 27. “I say, what a beastly thing to happen!” (Id.). 28. “Well, so long. Thanks very much... It’s awfully good of you” (Id.). 29. “Life was not then extinct?” asked the coroner. “No, deceased was still breathing” (Id.). 30. “It seems to me you’re absolutely batty.” said Frankie crossly (Id.).
2. Analyze the sentences and explain the meaning of the emphasized words.
1. He bought a chair. 2. He was condemned to the chair. 3. He will chair the meeting. 4. He was appointed to the chair of philosophy. 5. My father came. 6. Father Murphy came. 7. He was the father of the idea. 8. The horse runs. 9. The water runs. 10. He ran the water into the tub. 11. He ran his business well.
Change of meaning
The word, as a rule, retains its original meaning, but at the same time acquires several new ones.
Hence one should distinguish the following meanings of the word:
the direct meaning, subdivided into:
the primary (etymological) meaning, e.g. wall (n.) < L. vallum – “rampart”, “fortification”;
the derived meaning: wall – “upright structure, forming part of a room or building”.
the secondary meaning, subdivided into:
the secondary denotative meaning: wall – “inside surface of cavity or vessel”, e.g. walls of the heart; reactor wall;
the figurative meaning, e.g. wall of partition /between persons/; wall of fire; wall of hostility.
Transferance of names resulting from tropes
The word may be transferred from one referent onto another thus acquiring a new meaning. This type of transference results from tropes: metaphor, simile, metonymy and some others.
One should distinguish between linguistic tropes and contextual poetic tropes used as stylistic devices.
Linguistic metaphor is associating two referents which resemble each other. Metaphors may be based on various types of similarity, for example, similarity of shape, function, position, colour, temperature, etc. E.g. the teeth of a saw, the key to a test, the foot of a mountain, cold reason, black ingratitude, to catch an idea, etc.
Metaphoric epithets, denoting human qualities, are often applied to inanimate objects: cruel heat, a sorrowful bush, a sullen sky, etc.
Simile which is closely related to metaphor is a comparison of two referents. Lexicology deals with two main types of linguistic similes: 1) idiomatic similes, for instance, /as/ merry as a cricket, /as/ thin as a pole, like a bolt from the blue and 2) comparative nominal –>: the catlike creature the creature is like a cat; the inky water –> the water is like ink; an apple-cheeked girl –> the girl with cheeks like apples, etc.
Linguistic metonymy is associating two referents which are in some way or other connected in reality. The simplest case of metonymy is synecdoche, - the name of a part is applied to the whole, e.g. a fleet of twenty sail; to earn one’s bread; I don’t want to provoke the police (a single policeman is meant)
; from the cradle to the grave; the kettle is boiling, etc.
In metonymic (transferred) epithets certain properties of the whole are ascribed to the part, e.g. clever fingers (i.e. the person is clever); threatening eyes (it is the person who is threatening), etc.
Practical assignment
1. Using an etymological dictionary, define the type of meaning of the words in bold type. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. Dr. Nicholson seemed content with mere bolts and bars... Bobby felt certain that this little door should not have been left open. As the villain of the piece Dr. Nicholson seemed regrettably careless (A. Christie). 2. She shot him a started glance (J. Cope). 3. In the Cotswolds... the towns are small and sweet and the inns snug (A.E. Coppard). 4. “He makes delicious hot buttered toast” (A.A. Cronin). 5. Mrs. Page sat at the head of the table with her back to the fire (Id.). 6. A faint mustache of perspiration appeared on her upper lip (P.S. Fitzgerald). 7. He orders the city gates closed and the people up on the walls, bows and other weapons at the ready (J. Fowles). 8. Michael sandwiched Pauline’s hand between both of his (B. Lowry). 9. The key fit but would not turn. He jiggled it, rattled the knob... Finally the lock gave (Id.). 10. “Oh, honey, you know I can’t stand to sit still more than a minute” (Id.). 11. Pauline had two choices, to feed her mother a sugared lie or to throw truth in her face (B. Lowry). 12. He stacked some pages and turned them face down (Id.). 13. Cradling the spine of Will Hand’s book, Michael turned pages by delicately running his hand down the length of each one (Id.). 14. “It made a great splash, you know,” I said. “It was the party of the season. Did you enjoy it?” (W. S. Maugham). 15. Kastellan was a big, red-faced fellow with sleek black hair (Id.).
2. Explain the meaning of the emphasized words.
1. He has superficial knowledge of the subject. 2. His wounds are superficial. 3. He is a superficial writer. 4. He knows five languages. 5. He uses strong language. 6. They are deaf and numb and use sigh language. 7. He struck me. 8. He struck me as being very clever. 9. His words struck home.
3. Explain the logic of metaphoric transference in the following collocations. Give their Ukrainian equivalents.
A branch of linguistics, a dull fellow, a film star, a night of imagination, a fruitless effort, a green youth, a pack of lies, a ray of hope, a sour smile, a sweet temper, a thin excuse, a vehicle of propaganda, bitter thoughts, blooming health, faded beauty, fruitful work, hot rage, mint drops, naked truth, on wings of joy, pricks of conscience, seeds of evil, the eye of a needle, the foot of a hill, the head of a cabbage, the head of the firm, the heart of the country, the legs of a table, the mouth of the river, the neck of a bottle, the root of the word, the wings of a plane, to burn with impatience, to hatch a plot, to meet smb.’s interest, rogues of flame, to shower smb. with questions, to stumble through the text, to swim in bliss, warm sympathy.
4. Pick up and comment on the metaphors in the following sentences. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. He told himself repeatedly that it was absurd to jump to conclusions (A. Christie). 2. Her small hands were trembling, and closed and unclosed themselves on the arm of the chair (Id.). 3. Her brows furrowed as she tried to think. (Id.). 4. Bobby set his teeth and went bravely to the heart of the matter (Id.). 5. She had lingered at Merroway Court through her intense desire to get to the bottom of the mystery (Id.). 6. “Sorry for my incredulity – but the facts do take a bit of swallowing, don’t they?” (Id.). 7. He gazed at Andrew. Then his interest seemed to fade (A. J. Cronin). 8. Curiosity sharpened in their faces. They were hooked (D. Francis). 9. Lady Alison fell into a train of thought. The new generation. Did she want her own girls to be of it? (J. Galsworthy). 10. He blinked several times and gracefully massaged the bridge of his patrician nose (R. Ludlum).
Semantic groups of words
Synonyms
Synonyms are two or more words belonging to the same part of speech, differing in sound form, and possessing one or more identical or nearly identical denotational meanings, e.g. look – to stare, to gaze, to glance, to peep; pretty – good-looking, handsome, beautiful.
Each group comprises a dominant element. Synonymic dominant – is the most general term of its kind potentially containing the specific features rendered by all the other members of the group.
Types of synonyms:
Ideographic – synonyms which differ in shades of meanng, e.g. to shake – to tremble – to shiver – to shudder – to quiver – to quake.
Stylistic – which differ in stylistic characteristics (all kinds of emotional, expressive and evaluative overtones), e.g. father – parent – dad (daddy) – papa – governor.
Absolute – which are quite alike in their meanings and stylistic colouring, interchangeable in all contexts, but very rare, e.g. fatherland – motherland – homeland; word-building – word-formatoin – compounding – composition.
The sources of synonyms: borrowings, shift of meaning, dialectical words, compounds, shortenings, conversion, euphemisms.
Euphemisms
Euphemisms are more “decent” synonymic substitutes used instead of indecent, impolite or too direct words.
Euphemisms may have various causes: superstition (devil – deuce, dickens), social and moral taboos (to copulate – to make love, make it), the need to express something in a more delicate, softened way (to die – to decease, drunk – mellow, stupid – unwise, to lie – to distort the facts), etc.
Practical assignment
1. Pick out synonyms from the sentences below. Comment on their shades of meaning and stylistic reference. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. a) The doctor glanced quickly at Eleanor and then away (Sh. Jackson). b) Mrs. Dudley stood below and watched them in silence (Id.). c) “You ever been here before? One of the family, maybe?” He looked at her now, peering through the bars (Id.). d) Our professor would stop, glare and drum the edge of the table (E. Bowen). e) I stared at him, and I suppose something in my face stopped him (R. Stout). f) “Like it?” he says, and eyes you expectantly... (L. Biggie). g) The seas’ ruler, he gazed southward over the bay (J. Joyce). h) Haines surveyed the tower and said at last: “Rather bleak in wintertime, I should say” (Id.).
2. a) They held hands across the table and talked about parents and childhood as if they had just met (I. McEwan). b) It wasn’t like Wolfe to babble when business was on hand (R. Stout). c) I had to ride back to New York in a bus with a delegation of schoolteachers coming back from a weekend in the mountains – chatter-chatter, blah-blah... (J. Kerouac). d) Avery always knew important persons at the adjoining tables; they would come over to chat with him (K. Norris).
3. a) She crossed to the window and looked down to where the pool sparkled in the early sunshine (J. Mortimer). b) In front of her the motorway shimmered in the sun like the sands of a desert (Id.). c) Denis woke up next morning to find the sun shining, the sky serene (A. Huxley), d) Haines stopped to take out a smooth silver case in whichtwinkled a green stone (J. Joyce). e) New York was not the great glittering unfriendly place it might have been (K. Norris). f) A fine day, a glowing day. O bright, sharp air! (A. Coppard). g) A sarcastic smile played upon Machiavelli’s thin lips and his eyes gleamed (W. S. Maugham). h) The green-gowned, yellow-haired girl wore gardenias on her left shoulder, four of them, and a flashing bracelet on each fragile wrist (K. Brush).
2. Find the synonymic dominant in the following groups of synonyms. Give analogous groups in Ukrainian.
Faint, feeble, frail, weak; lean, slender, slim, thin; odd, quaint, queer, strange; fat, fleshy, plump, stout; cheerful, gay, jolly, joyful, merry; affair, business, case, matter, thing; ask, enquire, demand, interrogate, question; brave, audacious, bold, daring, courageous, gallant; choose, elect, pick out, select; ache, pain, pang; coarse, rough, rude; amaze, astonish, surprise; sob, weep, cry; brood, reflect, mediate, think; glare, peep, look, to stare, glance.
3. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian. Find neutral stylistic synonyms to the colloquial and low-colloquial words in bold type.
1. Now that he was in his mid-seventies he signed his rare letters to her ‘Daddy’ or even ‘Pops’ (J. Mortimer). 2. “Either you believe or you don’t, isn’t it? Personally I couldn’t stomach that idea of a personal God” (J. Joyce). 3.1 began crying and swearing and socking myself on the head for being such a damn fool (J. Kerouac).4. “I told my uncle he was a sentimental romantic. He was.” She stopped... “I’m not. I’m hard-boiled” (R. Stout). 5. Eleanor was... awkward starting the car under his eye; perhaps he will keep popping out at me all along the drive, she thought (Sh. Jackson). 6. The boy... came running in great excitement. “We had smashing fun” (H. E. Bates). 7. Squeezing her arm, he said into her ear, “You’re some looker now, kid.” “Thanks” (A. Saxton). 8. Where is your pal Spotty now?” “In the cooler… Somebody cooled him good the other night. Stuck a shiv in his back while he was grabbing some shuteye” (E. Queen). 9. “He’s been seen in the company of a chick who always wears a violet veil” (Id.). 10. “You never give up, once you get something in your nut, do you?” (H. Robbins).
4. Give direct words to the following euphemisms.
abdomen, blooming, bosom, briefs, call girl, comfort station, consumption, the deceased, delinquent, the departed, deranged, expectorate, expire, gay, gents, ill-favoured, infirmary, intoxicated, ladies’, the late, memorial park, merry, necropolis, perspiration, privy, pro, retiring room, rounder, small clothes, T.B., tight, W.C.
5. State which words are replaced by euphemisms in the following sentences. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. Will and Wanda weren’t married then – Wanda had been unable to locate the sharpy salesman to get her divorce – but they were ‘going around together,’ as people called it (B. Lowry). 2. Anna began to realize that he was insane. She was terrified (S. Sheldon). 3. “So you drove here straight from Pisa?... Then you’ll want to use the facilities” (J. Mortimer). 4. “And where shall I be in August? Set out on the Great Package Tour of the Skies.” It was her father’s habit to refer to his approaching death as a sort of cosmic joke (Id).
Antonyms
Antonyms are words of the same part of speech which have contrasting meanings such as hot – cold, light – dark, happiness – sorrow.
Morphological classification:
Root words form absolute antonyms: long – short, right – wrong, love – hatred.
The presence of negative affixes creates derivational (affixal) antonyms: apper – disappear, happy – unhappy, hopeful – hopeless.
Homonyms
Homonyms are words different in meaning but identical in sound or spelling, or both in sound and spelling.
Classifications of homonyms
Homonyms are classified according to their spelling and sound forms:
perfect (absolute) homonyms, that is words identical in sound and spelling, such as: «school» – «косяк риби» and «школа»;
homographs, that is words with the same spelling but pronounced differently, e.g. «bow» – /bau/ – «поклон» and /bou/ – «лук»;
homophones, that is words pronounced identically but spelled differently, e.g. «night» – «ніч» and «knight» – «лицар».
Practical assignment
1. Find antonyms for the words given below. Translate the antonyms into Ukrainian.
A. alike, alive, big, black, clean, clever, darkness, to die, dry, enemy, evil, to give, good, joy, to laugh, life, light, to love, narrow, old, to open, poor, quick, to reject, right, sad, slowly, strong, ugly, wet, wide, young.
B. active, artless, attentive, careful, convenient, descend, disarrange, discord, downstairs, employed, fruitful, immature, impossible, misunderstand, order, outlet, painful, polite, pre-war, selfish, successful, underestimate, unknown, useless.
2. Translate the following sentences into Ukrainian. Classify the words in bold type into affixal and root antonyms.
1. This man Steuer fancied that he was dishonest, and that he, Mollenhauer, was honest (Th. Dreiser). 2. The love of a mother for her children is dominant, leonine, selfish and unselfish (Id.). 3. “I told you, I’m a walking man, but I’ve been heading in this direction for seven years. Walking all around this place. Upstate, downstate, east, west...” (T. Morrison). 4. He never got it right, but they ate those undercooked, overcooked, dried-out or raw potatoes anyway, laughing, spitting and giving him advice (Id.). 5. His vitality was absolute, not relative (J. Galsworthy). 6. On those walls, wherever the eye roved, were prints coloured and uncoloured, old and new, depicting the sports of racing and prizefighting (Id.). 7. To see both sides of a question vigorously was at once Jon’s strength and weakness (Id). 8. And behind this tangible dread there was always that intangible trouble, lurking in the background (Id.). 9. Emmy attracted and at the same time repelled him (A. J. Cronin). 10. He looked harder, both physically and mentally (J. Jones).
3. Find the absolute homonyms for the following words. Give the Ukrainian equivalents to these homonyms.
Band, bank, bear, blow, can, cape, club, corn, count, down, duck, ear, fair, fan, firm, fast, fit, hail, hide, lay, like, lime, long, march, may, mean, mess, mint, miss, mood, pawn, pen, port, race, row, scale, school, seal, sound, spoil, tap, tart, temple.
4. Find the homographs to the following words and transcribe both. Give the Ukrainian equivalents to these homographs.
Bass, bow, buffet, celt, close, compact, desert, house, housewife, invalid, minute, object, polish, row, slough, tear, wind.
5. Find the homophones to the following words. Give the
Ukrainian equivalents to these homophones.
Air, birth, coarse, core, cite, dessert, fare, fir, flower, hare, heal, key, knight, meat, oar, pair, paw, piece, pole, rain, right, sail, sea, sell, sole, son, sow, suite, whether, whole.
6. Find homonyms to the words given in bold type.
1. A school of bright blue-and-yellow sturgeonfish fluttered by (P. Benchley). 2. Fed by neither streams nor springs, the lake was often filthy (T. O’Brien). 3. As he sat, some effect of the firelight threw a bar of shadow across his face... (A. Christie). 4. “People who can’t help themselves always irritate me.” “Oh, but do be fair! What can she do? She’s no money and nowhere to go” (Id.). 5. “We suit each other and we’re going to be happy” (Id.). 6. Again Denny laughed. His laugh was an insult, which made Andrew long to hit him (A. J. Cronin). 7. Again there was a silence in the wooden shed, broken only by the drumming of the rain upon the tin roof (Id.). 8. He walked with an odd gait, a kind of shuffle... (R. L. Doctorow).
Paronyms
Paronyms are words with similar pronunciation but different in spelling and meaning. For example:
accept – verb – to take or receive that which is offered, except – preposition – excluding (My mom must accept that my brother likes all vegetables except for turnips);
collision – noun – crash, clash, conflict; collusion – noun – a secret agreement that is oftentimes illegal (The collision resulted from the collusion over traffic signs).
Oronyms
Oronyms are paronymic phrases with similar pronunciation but different in spelling and meaning. For example:
four candles - fork handles (The four candles dripped on the silver fork handles);
I scream - ice cream (I scream. You scream. We all scream for ice scream).
Practical assignment
1. Define the meanings of the following paronyms. Use them in constructing sentences of your own.
Anterior – interior; canal – channel; career – carrier; cause – course; complement – compliment; conscience – consciousness; draught – draughts – drought; physics – physique; popular – populous; preposition – proposition; prescription – proscription; price – prize; wander – wonder.
2. Deduce the meanings of the paronyms in bold type. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. a) “And now perhaps you had better leave me. The doctor made a point of quiet and repose” (P. G. Wodehouse). b) The drawings were pleasing enough, with quite a sense of atmosphere (J. Galsworthy).
2. a) Then the moon rose like a wonderful silver shield (O. Wilde). b) At a less anxious moment he might have been amused by the conflict his words aroused (J. Galsworthy). c) “Forgive me, old man, for asking you not to raise your voice” (P. G. Wodehouse). d) “Not dangerous!” “Yes, sir, when roused” (Id.).
3. a) “I remember before the war when Charles inspected the Corps on a white horse (J. Ie Carre). b) There were noises, and directions from Cramer, about removing the corpse, and in a couple of minutes heavy feet as they carried it out (R. Stout).
4. a) “Nuclear physics,” said Erik reflectively. “Maybe that’s for me... Did fox ever ask you why you wanted to be a physicist when you first came here?” (M. Wilson). b) “Hello, doc. You got a job here as a house physician?” (R. Stout).
UNIT 5. ETYMOLOGY
The Etymological Background of the English Vocabulary
Etymology – is a branch of Linguistics studying the origin of words, their change and development, their linguistic and extra-linguistic forces modifying their structure, meaning and usage. The term “Etymology” is derived from the Greek word – “etymon” – which means the true, original meaning of a word. According to the etymological principle the English vocabulary is usually divided into two uneven classes: native words which make up about 30% of the English vocabulary and borrowed words which make up about 70% of the English vocabulary.
Native Words in English
Native words are words which belong to the original word stock. Though native words constitute only about 30% of the English vocabulary they make up the greatest part of the basic word stock.
The Basic Word Stock – is the stable stork of the most frequently used three or four thousand of words which constitute the core of the vocabulary, preserving the national peculiarities of the language. The changes in the Basic Word Stork are very slow and not easily perceptible. Native words occur in any spoken or written speech forming the foundation and framework of the English language, e.g. words of native origin include most of the conjunctions, numerals, prepositions, pronouns and strong verbs, the definite and indefinite articles are also of native origin. Native words which belong to the original English stock are known from the earliest manuscripts of the Old English period. They are mostly words of Anglo-Saxon origin brought to the British Isles in the 5th century by Germanic tribes.
According to their origin native words may be divided into 3 groups: Indo-European, Common German, Specifically English or English words proper.
Borrowings in the English Vocabulary
Words adopted from foreign languages are known as borrowed words, or loan words, or borrowings. Borrowing words from other languages have always been one of the important means of replenishing of the English vocabulary. There are many words in English that are of foreign origin, e.g. biology, boxer, ozone from German; jacket, yoghurt, kiosk from Turkish; pistol, robot from Czech. Borrowing is just taking a word from another language. The borrowed words are called loan words.
A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort. Loanwords can also be called "borrowings".
The estimation for the origin of English words is as follows:
- French, including Old French and early Anglo-French: 28.3%
- Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24%
- Germanic languages, including Old and Middle English: 25%
- Greek: 5.32%
- No etymology given or unknown: 4.03%
- Derived from proper names: 3.28%
- All other languages contributed less than 1%
Practical assignment
1. State the etymology of the given words.
Torchère, wall, maharani, á la mode, datum, perestroika, gate, têtê-á- têtê, want, chalet, ad hoc, sheikh, parlando, parquet, matter, bagel, á la carte, kettle, chauffeur, formula, pari-mutuel, shaman, finish, corps, alcazar, commedia dell’arte, money, souvenir, bacillus, pas de deux, ill, spahi, stratum, nota bene, spaghetti, ménage á trios, odd, memoir, parenthesis, hibakusha, padrona, incognito, thesis, coup de maitre, tzatziki, sabotage, ad libitum, stimulus, Soyuz, alameda, street, boulevard, criterion, déjà vu, torero, yin, Übermensch, macaroni, tzigane, sensu lato, hypothesis, bagh, pousada, shiatsu, shapka.
2. Write out international words from the given sentences:
1. He gave a false address to the police. 2. I’ve seen so many good films lately. 3. Do you take sugar in your coffee? 4. Do you play tennis? 5. Arrange the words in alphabetical order. 6. Charlotte Bronte wrote under the pseudonym of Currer Bell. 7. He worked in radio for nearly 40 years. 8. Many people feel that their interests are not represented by mainstream politics. 9. We’ve visited the open-air theatre in London’s Regents Park. 10. I’m worried about my son’s lack of progress in English. 11. The government has promised to introduce reforms of the tax system. 12. He went on to study medicine at Edinburgh University.
3. Give the “false cognates” (false friends) in the Ukrainian language to the given English words. State the difference in their meanings.
Model: argument
The false cognate of the word argument is Ukrainian аргумент. The word argument means “an angry disagreement between people”, whereas the word аргумент has the meaning “reasoning”.
Baton, order, to reclaim, delicate, intelligent, artist, sympathetic, fabric, capital, to pretend, romance.
UNIT 6. PHRASEOLOGY
Phraseology is a branch of linguistics which studies different types of set expressions. They exist in the language as ready-made units.
A Phraseological unit (PU) can be defined as a non-motivated word-group that cannot be freely made up in speech, but is reproduced as a ready-made unit. It is a group of words which meaning cannot be deduced by examining the meaning of the constituent lexemes, e.g. a dark horse – a person about whom no one knows anything definite; a bull in a china shop – a clumsy person; a white elephant – a waste of money; the green-eyed monster – jealousy; to let the cat out of the bag – to let some secret become known.
Classificaton of phraseological units
Phraseological units are stable word-groups characterized by a completely or partially transferred meaning.
There exist several different classifications of phraseological units based on different principles. Phraseological units can be classified according to the semantic principle, structure, syntactical functions and according to their origin.
Semantic classification of phraseological units
According to the classification based on the semantic principle English phraseological units fall into the following classes: phraseological fusions, phraseological unities and phraseological combinations (collocations).
Phraseological fusion is a semantically indivisible phraseological unit which meaning is never influenced by the meaning of its components. It is completely absorbed by the meaning of the whole, by its expressiveness and emotional properties:
Once in a blue moon – very seldom; To cry for the moon – to demand unreal; Under the rose – quietly.
Sometimes phraseological fusions are called idioms under which linguists understand a complete loss of the inner form. To explain the meaning of idioms is a complicated etymological problem (tit to tat means “to revenge”, but no one can explain the meaning of the words tit and tat).
Phraseological unity is a semantically indivisible phraseological unit the whole meaning of which is motivated by the meanings of its components.
In general, phraseological unities are the phrases where the meaning of the whole unity is not the sum of the meanings of its components but is based upon them and may be understood from the components: To come to one’s sense – to change one’s mind; To come home – to hit the mark; To fall into a rage – to get angry.
Phraseological combination (collocation) is a construction or an expression in which every word has absolutely clear independent meaning. Phraseological combinations contain one component used in its direct meaning while the other is used figuratively: to make an attempt – to try; to make haste – to hurry; to offer an apology – to beg pardon.
Some linguists define the fourth types of phraseological units.
Phraseological expression is a stable by form and usage construction, which components are words with free meanings: East or West, home is best; Marriages are made in heaven; Still waters run deep.
Phraseological expressions are proverbs, sayings and aphorisms of famous politicians, writers, scientists and artists.
Practical assignment
1. Group the phfaseolosical units in bold type according to their classification based on the semantic principle. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. He went to the bed and sat on the edge but did not lie down. It was not in the cards for him to sleep that night. The phone rang (S. Bellow). 2. “You’re a very self-sufficient person, with a life plan of his own”. There she was right on the nail (Id.). 3. “Would you like her yourself, Reggie?” “My God, would I not! She’s terrific. A trifle long in the tooth, mark you, but she has style, real style” (J. Braine). 4. “Aren’t you clever?” said Tuppence. “Especially at drawing red herring across the track. Let’s go back to what we were talking about before” (A. Christie). 5. “Come, let us not beat about the bush” (Id.). 6. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. That’s been the Hemmingway motto for over a hundred years (A. J. Cronin). 7. He said: “Jimmy, for God’s sake don’t bring a hornet’s nest about your ears” (Id.). 8. He took good care of his heart by eating the boiled meats (J. P. Donleavy). 9. “You’re talking through your hat,” he said aimlessly and largely in order to get time (Th. Dreiser). 10. Junior was the apple of her eye, and she had big marital plans for him when that time came (D. Dunne). 11. Kay Kay was a very different cup of tea from Brenda and the Grenville sisters (Id.). 12. From the age of twelve she knew, that she could wrap men around her little finger, an expression her mother was fond of using (Id.). 13. “It’s raining cats and dogs.” said Billy finally. “My mantilla will be ruined,” said Ann (Id.). 14. Yes! Indeed! His affairs were in apple-pie order (J. Galsworthy). 15. “Oh! tell us about her, Auntie,” cried Imogen: “I can just remember her. She’s the skeleton in the family cupboard, isn’t she? And they are such fun” (Id.). 16. Her absence had been a relief. Out of sight, out of mind (Id.).
17. In the small hours he slipped out of bed, and passing into his dressing-room, leaned by the open window (Id.). 18. If she could not have her way and get John for good and all, she felt like dying of privation. By hook or by crook she must and would get him! (Id.). 19. “If I were a painter or a sculptor! But I’m an old chap. Make hay while the sun shines” (Id.). 20. “What did you want to see me about?” “Old Timothy. He might go off the hooks at any moment. I suppose he’s made his will” (Id.).
2. State the source of the following idioms. Give their Ukrainian equivalents.
Achilles’ heel, smb.’s cat’s paw, to cross the Rubicon, to cut the Gordian knot, Damocle’s sword, forbidden fruit, Judas’ kiss, a labour of Hercules, the lion’s share, the massacre of the innocents, to meet one’s Waterloo, Procrustes’ bed, Pyrric victory, the serpent in the tree, Sisyphean labour, Solomon judgement, sour grapes, thirty pieces of silver, the Trojan horse, to turn the other cheek, an ugly duckling, under the rose, a wolf in a sheep’s clothing.
3. Translate the following English proverbs into Ukrainian.
1. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. 2. A fault confessed is half redressed. 3. As the baker, so the buns. 4. As the father, so the sons. 5. As you sow, you shall mow. 6. Don’t cross your bridges before you come to them. 7. Don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs. 8. East or West, home is best. 9. Enough is as good as a feast. 10. First catch your hare, then cook him. 11. If ifs and ands were pots and pans. 12. It’s better late than never. 13. One good turn deserves another. 14. Second thoughts are best. 15. Two heads are better than one.
4. Give the proverbs from which the following phraseological units are developed.
A bee in one’s bonnet; beer and skittles; a bird in the bush; birds of a feather; a black sheep; to cast pearls before swine; to catch smb. with chaff; to cry over spilt milk; the early bird; to eat one’s cake and have it; the last straw; to lock the stable door; to make hay; a new broom; an old bird; to take care the pence; a velvet paw.
Structural classifications of phraseological units
According to their structural classification phraseological units fall into three types:
a) units of the type “to give up” (verb + postposition type): To back up – to support; To drop out – to miss, to omit;
b) units of the type “to be tired”: To be tired of; To be surprised at; To be aware of;
c) prepositional-nominal phraseological units: On the doorstep – quite near; On the nose – exactly.
These units are equivalents of unchangeable words: prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, that is why they have no grammar centre, their semantic centre is the nominal part.
Syntactical classification of phraseological units
Phraseological units can be classified as parts of speech:
a) nominal phrases or noun phraseologisms denoting an object, a person or a living being: Bullet train; The root of the trouble;
b) verbal phrases or verb phraseologisms denoting an action, a state or a feeling: To sing like a lark; To put one’s best foot forwar;
c) adjectival phrases or adjective phraseologisms denoting a quality: As good as gold; Red as a cherry;
d) adverbial phrases or adverb phraseological units, such as: From head to foot; Like a dog with two tails;
e) prepositional phrases or preposition phraseological units: In the course of; On the stroke of;
f) conjunctional phrases or conjunction phraseological units: As long as; On the other hand;
g) interjectional phrases or interjection phraseological units: Catch me!; Well, I never!
Practical assignment
1. Group the following phraseological units according to the classification based on the structural and syntactical principles. Give their Ukrainian equivalents.
To mind one’s p’s and q’s, as cool as a cucumber, cat-and-dog life, spick and span, strong language, to get the upper hand, as mad as a hatter, high and low, to look through one’s fingers, by heart, search me!, glad rags, in full blast, great guns!, horse opera, to make a song and dance about smth., when pigs fly, a big bug, a pretty kettle of fish!, a cool card, safe and sound, a smart Aleck, to fish in troubled waters, a dog in the manger, to take part, in cold blood, by Jove!, through thick and thin, lith and kin, sharp as a needle, like anything, to run for one’s dear life, neck and crop, as weak as a kitten, Dutch treat in the twinkling of an eye; to dance on a tight rope, on shank’s mare, hang it all!, as thick as thieves.
2. Give the English equivalents for the following Ukrainian proverbs and sayings.
Буде й на нашій вулиці свято; Вовків боятися – в ліс не ходити; Горбатого могила виправить; Дарованому коневі в зуби не дивляться; Друзі пізнаються в біді; З дурної голови та на здорову; Куй залізо, поки гаряче; Курчат восени лічать; Лихо не без добра; Лякана ворона куща боїться; М’яко стелить, та твердо спати; На безвідді і рак риба; На Юрія о цій порі, як рак свисне на оборі; Не все те золото, що блищить; Не спитавши броду, не лізь у воду; Порожня бочка гучить, а повна мовчить; По своєму ліжку простягай ніжку; Скажеш “гоп”, як перескочиш; Скрипливе дерево довго живе; Соловей піснями не ситий; Тринди-ринди коржі з маком; У багатьох няньок дитина без ока; У тихому болоті чорти водяться; Шила в мішку не сховаєш; Шкурка за вичинку не стане; Шоб рибу їсти, треба в воду лізти; Яка яблунька, такі й яблука; Якби та якби та виросли в роті гриби; Як посієш так і пожнеш.
Classification of phraseological units according to their origin
According to their origin all phraseological units may be divided into two big groups: native and borrowed.
The main sources of native phraseological units are:
1) terminological and professional lexics, e.g. physics: center of gravity (центр тяжіння), specific weight (питома вага); navigation: cut the painter (відрубати кінці) – 'to become independent';
2) British literature, e.g. the green-eyed monster – 'jealousy’; fall on evil days – 'live in poverty after having enjoyed better times';
3) British traditions and customs, e.g. baker's dozen – 'a group of thirteen'. In the past British merchants of bread received from bakers thirteen loaves instead of twelve and the thirteenth loaf was merchants' profit;
4) superstitions and legends, e.g. a black sheep – 'a less successful or more immoral person in a family or a group'. People believed that a black sheep was marked by the devil;
5) historical facts and events, personalities, e.g. to do a Thatcher – 'to stay in power as prime minister for three consecutive terms (from the former Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher);
6) phenomena and facts of everyday life, e.g. to get out of wood – 'to be saved from danger or difficulty'.
The main sources of borrowed phraseological units are:
1) the Holy Script, e. g. the kiss of Judas – 'any display of affection whose purpose is to conceal any act of treachery';
2) ancient legends and myths belonging to different religious or cultural traditions, e.g. to cut the Gordian knot – 'to deal with a difficult problem in a strong, simple and effective way' (from the legend);
3) facts and events of the world history, e.g. to cross the Rubicon – 'to do something which will have very important results and cannot be changed after’;
4) variants of the English language, e.g. a heavy hitter – 'someone who is powerful and has achieved a lot' (American); be home and hosed – 'to have completed something successfully' (Australian);
5) other languages (classical and modern), e.g. let the cat out of the bag – 'reveal a secret carelessly or by mistake' (from German: die Katze aus dem Sack lassen).
Practical assignment
1. Analyze the meaning of the given phraseological units. Group them into: 1) native; 2) borrowed phraseological units. State the sources of their origin.
1) to hang up one's boot – retire; 2) to bury the hatchet – come to friendly or peaceful terms with somebody else, usually arguments, disagreements; 3) a sacred cow – somebody/something that is greatly respected and revered, esp. by a particular nation or group so that attack or criticism is not tolerated; 4) a whipping boy – a person who is blamed or punished for the faults or incompetence; 5) an ugly duckling – a plain child born less attractive than his brothers and sisters who later grows into a beautiful person; 6) the law of the jungle – self-preservation, the survival of the strongest, or more unscrupulous; 7) to hide one's head in the sand – willfully to close one's eyes to danger, to refuse to face reality; 8) a blue stocking – an intellectual or literary woman; 9) the hot seat – the position of a person who carries full responsibility for something, including facing criticism or being answerable for decisions or actions; 10) a drop in the bucket/ocean – something of inconsiderable value, importance, esp. as compared with something larger in total or in kind; 11) blue blood – a person of noble birth; 12) a blue coat – a student at a charity school; 13) to die with one's boots on – to die while still at work; 14) to fiddle while Rome burns – behave frivolously in a situation that calls for concern; 15) penny wise and pound foolish – careful and economical in small matters while being wasteful or extravagant in large ones; 16) the iron curtain – the notional barrier between people, nations, countries, etc. leading to the political, economical, etc. isolation.
2. Choose the correct phraseological unit to fill in the gaps in the sentences below:
Dark horse, to work like a dog, sour grapes, to lord it over, Achilles heel, to put one’s cards on the table, red tape, to see smb. in the flesh, fat cats, around the clock.
1. Workers are losing their jobs while the … who run the company are getting richer. 2. Stuart’s getting married? He’s a … - I never even knew he had a girlfriend. 3. He was a gifted businessman, but greed was his … . 4. If I criticize her book, people will think it’s just… . 5. There’s so much … involved in getting a visa. 6. Doctors and nurses worked … to help people injured in the train crash. 7. She thought it was time … and tell him that she had no intention of marrying him. 8. He likes … the more junior stuff in the office. 9. I knew his face so well from the photos that it felt a bit strange when I finally … . 10. He … all day to finish the wallpapering.
UNIT 7. STYLISTIC DIFFERENTIATION
OF ENGLISH WORDS
Linguostylistics discerns the following lexico-stylistic layers of the English vocabulary: stylistically neutral words, literary-bookish words, colloquial words.
Sylistically neutral words
Stylistically neutral layer, which is the living core of the vocabulary, consists of words mostly of native origin though it also comprises fully assimilated borrowings. Such words are devoid of any emotive colouring and are used in their denotative meaning, e.g. man, sky, table, street, go, move, speak, easy, long, often, never, etc. In groups of synonyms neutral words fulfil the function of the synonymic dominant.
Literary-bookish words
Literary-bookish words belong to the formal style. The so-termed learned words are used in descriptive passages of fiction, scientific texts, radio and television announcements, official talks and documents, business correspondence, etc. As a rule, these words are mostly of foreign origin and have poly-morphemic structure, e.g. solitude, fascination, cordial, paternal, divergent, commence, assist, comprise, endeavour, exclude, heterogeneous, miscellaneous, hereby, thereby, herewith, wherein, etc.
Terms are words or nominal groups which convey specialized concepts used in science, technology, art, etc., e.g. gerontology, phoneme, radar, knee-joint, common denominator, periodic table, still life, choreography, etc.
Barbarisms are words or expressions borrowed without (or almost without) any change in form and not accepted by native speakers as current in the language, e.g. ad libitum, qui pro quo, entre nous, bon mot, table d’hote, coup d’Etat, etc.
Poetic words with elevated, “lofty” colouring are traditionally used only in poetry. Most of them are archaic and have stylistically neutral synonyms, e.g. lone (“lonely”), brow (“forehead”), gore (“blood”), woe (“sorrow”), array (“clothes”), hearken (“hear”), behold (“see”), oft (“often”), ere (“before”), etc.
Archaisms are obsolete names for existing things, actions, phenomena, etc. All of them can be replaced by neutral synonyms, e.g. hark (“listen”), deem (“think”), glee (“joy”), aught (“anything”). Among archaic words one should distinguish historical words that denote no-longer existing objects, e.g. yeoman, fletcher, gleeman, galleon.
Neologisms are words and word-groups that denote new concepts, e.g. teledish, roam-a-phone (“a portable telephone”), NIC (“newly-industrializing country”), etc.
Practical assignment
1. Pick out learned words from the extract below. Translate the extract into Ukrainian.
Like most sensitive people he was subject to moods, affected by the weather and the season of the year. He could pass very rapidly from a mood of exuberant gaiety almost to despair. A chance remark – as I myself found – was enough to effect that unfortunate change. He had a habit always of implying more or less than he said, of assuming that others would always jump with the implied, not with the expressed, thought. Similarly, he always expected the same sort of subtle obliquity of expression in others, and very seldom took remarks at their face value. He could never be convinced or convince himself that there were not implications under the most commonplace remark. I suppose he had very early developed this habit of irony as a protection and as a method of being scornful with seeming innocence. I never got rid of it (R. Aldington).
2. Compile a list of terms from the extracts below. Subdivide them into groups and state to what particular branch of science or technology they belong. Translate the extracts into Ukrainian.
1.You must have heard of newts. Those little sort of lizard things that charge about in ponds.” “Oh, yes, sir. The aquatic members of the family Salamandridae which constitute the genus Molge” (P. G. Wodehouse).
2. Pneumonia was the thing for which I was best known, and I made a big drama out of it. But it was not by any means my only weapon; I collected minor diseases also, including, in the space of a few short years, bouts of shingles, chicken-pox, mumps, measles, ring-worm, adenoids, nose-bleed, nits, ear-ache, stomachache, wobbles, bends, scarlet-fever, and catarrhal deafness. Then finally, as though to round the lot off, I suffered concussion of the brain. (L. Lee).
3. Comment on the historical words in bold type. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. The English kings in the south obeyed demands for payments to the Danes, called “Danegeld” (Id.). 2. King Alfred succeeded in keeping the Danes out of southern England for his lifetime, with a high level of military organization and a national army (fyrd), as well as the creation of fortified burgs which were in fact the first English towns (Id.). 3. Alfred’s successors became in practice kings of England, while the former kingdoms were now shires (later called counties) with local lords called earls (Id.). 4. An economic and social survey of the country was made by about 1086 in the Domesday Book. This showed that the population of England was about two million, most of them being unfree villeins or serfs (Id.). 5. With armed force well in evidence the barons made the king agree to their demands set out in Magna Carta (Id.). 6. The first Parliament was a new kind of assembly, including not only the lords but two knights to represent each county and two burgesses or citizens from each town (Id.). 7. The archers, whether hired professionals or temporary soldiers from English villages, used the longbow, a simple, popular weapon (Id.).
4. Comment on the meaning of the following neologisms. Define the types of word-formation by which these neologisms were made.
Adultify (v.), alffluenza (n.), Amerenglish (n.), arm-twist (v.), arrestee (n.), babynap (v.), bezzle (n.), can-do (a.), co-ims (n.), disimprove (v.), eyeprint (n.), gloomster (n.), gofer (n.), illiterature (n.), kissy (a.), mechatronics (n.), picturesome (a.), pol (n.), quietize (v.), reschedule (v).
Colloquial words
Colloquial words are characteristic of the informal style of spoken English. One should distinguish between literary (standard) colloquial words as units of Standard English and non-literary colloquialisms that belong to sub-standard English vocabulary.
Literary colloquial words are used in everyday conversations both by cultivated and uneducated people and are also met in written literary texts.
Literary colloquial words are closer to neutral words than to literary-bookish units, but, as a rule, have stronger emotional colouring. They are formed on standard word-formative patterns: granny, birdie, latish, touchy, perm, disco, baby-sit, chopper, put up, do away, turn in, let-down, make-up, hand-in-glove, etc.
The informal style of spoken English is also characterized by extensive use of occasional and potential words, qualifiers, phraseological units, evaluative attributes: e.g. Reaganomics, Oscarish, awfully glad, terribly sweet, dead right, you bet, there you are, it’s no go, smart kid, too New-York, etc.
Non-literary (sub-standard) colloquial words include slang, jargonisms, professionalisms and vulgarisms.
Slang comprises highly informal words not accepted for dignified use. Such words are expressive sub-standard substitutes for current words of standard vocabulary. As a rule, their meanings have a jocular or ironic colouring, e.g. attic (“head”), beans (“money”), governor (“father”), saucers (“eyes”), soaked (“drunk”), to leg /it/ (“to walk”), etc. Slang words are easily understood by all native speakers (cf. with Ukrainian, e.g. баньки (очі), макітра (голова), поцупити (вкрасти), etc.)
Jargonisms are informal words peculiar for a certain social or professional group, e.g. bird (“rocket”, “spacecraft”); garment (“pressure space suit”) /astronauts’ jargon/; to grab (“to make an impression on smb.”) / newspaper jargon/; Mae West (“pneumatic vest”) /military jargon/; grass, tea, weed (“narcotic”) /drug addicts’ jargon/, etc.
Professionalisms are sub-standard colloquial words used by people of a definite trade or profession. Such words are informal substitutes for corresponding terms, e.g. nuke (“nuclear”), identikit (“photorobot”), Hi-Fi (“high fidelity”), anchors (“brakes”), smash-up (“accident”), etc.
Vulgarisms include: a) expletives and swear words of abusive character, like damn, goddam, bloody, etc.; b) obscene (or taboo, four-letter) words which are highly indecent.
Practical assignment
1. Analyse the word-formative means the following colloquial neologisms are made by. Give their Ukrainian equivalents.
Aggro, air-cool, argy-bargy, baddie, bang-on (a.), bartend, bind (n.), buddy- buddy, chaser, cheaps, chicken (v.), chopper, clanger, clever-clever, cloth-eared, coffee-and, coffee-house (v.), compo, comprehensives, delly, diner, dragola, eye-popping, fanzine, hand-in-glove, hokey-pokey, jams, job- hop, kick-up (n.), kiss off, loner, marry-in, mod, no-goodnik, nosey, nudie, put-put, quickie, recap, rhubarb, sleeper, smasher, sticky-fingered, stopper, tacky, teach-in, think-tank, tinkle (n.), tonguelashing, too-too, trannie, tuned-in (a.), upbeat, vegetably.
2. Pick out colloquialisms from the sentences below and comment on their meaning and word-formative structure. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. The backcountry look never left her. She came from the sticks; there could be no mistake about that (S. Bellow). 2. Could anybody have been tailing him? Ithiel smiled, and pooh-poohed this. He wasn’t that important. (Id.). 3. “I don’t say that I’m better than other women. I’m not superior. I’m nutty, also” (Id.). 4. “He said he was walking around the apartment...” Imagine, a man like that, lewd and klepto, at large in her home (Id.). 5. “What’s your opinion of Frederic - an occasional stealer or a pro?” (Id.). 6. Involuntarily Clara fell into Dr. Gladstone’s way of talking... As the sessions were short, she adopted his lingo to save time, notwithstanding the danger of false statements (Id).
7. “Wilder has gone to Minnesota to see some peewee politician who needs a set of speeches” (Id.). 8. “Did I hurt your feelings?” “If that means bossy, no. My feelings weren’t hurt when I knew you better” (Id.). 9. “What could she do?” “Heaps of things,” said Prankie vigorously (A. Christie). 10. For three weeks two days he had a breather and slowly hauled himself out of the abyss (J. P. Donleavy).
3. State the classes of colloquial nomination the units in black type belong to. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. “To get a rating in my Company,” Capt. Holmes was saying sternly, “a man has got to know his stuff. He has to soldier” (J. Jones). 2. "Now don’t forget, Georgie boy. That’s a promise to your old mother” (J. B. Priestley). 3. “Look hero, Stanley, just tell him I’m having a discussion – no, a thingumty – a conference, just now” (Id.). 4. “Oh – and I say – Smeeth, just make out a what-you-call-it, will you – a statement of outstanding accounts” (Id). 5. “Oh, stop talking like I-don’t-know-what. A preacher. You’re talking like a preacher” (J. O’Hara). 6. “Will you be coming to bed, Ethan?” “Not now, my darling dear” (J. Steinbeck). 7. George grinned. “You’re an artful number, aren't you?” (V. Canning).
4. Classify the units in bold type into slang words, jargonisms, professionalisms and vulgarisms. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.
1. “You know what a pipe it is to buy an unregistered weapon in this town under the counter” (E. Queen). 2. “What do you want?” “Dough,” the derelict said. “Do-re-mi. Lots of it” (Id.). 3. Ed Tollman annoyed him. He was obviously not Bamey’s kind of case, but a hardworking schmo in deep trouble who probably thought j a hundred dollars was a big fee (Id.). 4. “Why didn’t you wake up?” she implored. “Because the bastard alarm clock didn’t go off,” he shouted. “Or you forgot to set the bleeding thing, one of the two” (A. Sillitoe). 5. They could be called on to trek and search for the survivors of any kite that belly-dived in the north Malayan jungle (Id.). 6. He got his stiff fingers into a pocket, came out with some chicken feed, picked a nickel and pushed it at me (R. Stout). 7. “A thousand dicks and fifteen thousand cops have been looking for Hibbard for eight days” (Id.). 8. “But you need the money!.. What is it now? Yellows? Reds? Acid? Speed? What the hell is it now? Grass isn’t that expensive!” (R. Ludlum). 9. I had finished the wine while Terry slept, and I was proper stoned (J. Kerouac). 10. “Then what is it?” Buck Mulligan asked impatiently. “Cough it up” (J. Joyce).
UNIT 8. DIALECTS AND VARIANTS
OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Linguists distinguish local dialects and variants of English. In the British Isles there exist five main groups of local dialects: Northern, Western, Midland, Eastern and Southern. These dialects, used as means of oral communication, are peculiar to comparatively small localities. They are marked by some deviations mostly in pronunciation and vocabulary, but have no normalized literary form.
One of the best known Southern dialects is Cockney, the regional dialect of London.
Regional varieties of English possessing a literary form are called variants. In the British Isles there are two variants, Scottish English and Irish English.
The varieties of English spoken in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India should also be considered as variants of Modern English. Each of them is characterized by distinct peculiarities in pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary, and grammatical system.
Practical assignment
1. Read the following excerpts and comment on their dialectal peculiarities.
North-Western
“Well thou shall have to do summat, my son. This pig-sty’s no place for a man. Thee wife’s next thing ‘til a beggar. Thee dowter looks like an orphan. Thou looks like workhouse fodder. Thou shall hev to do summat. Yer mother’s sick wid’ worry.”
“Don’t bring her intil it. Thou moans thou’s shamed. That’s all.”
“All! Ay lad, Aa’s shamed. But thou’s bluddy near ruined. Now – theer’s a job, he’ll give thee fourteen bob a week. Tek it. Git out of this muck-heap. That’s what Aa kem to say.”
“And now thou’s off.”
“Ay – Aa’s offl Aa’ll catch diphtheria sittin’ in this byre. What the hell, man! Is this as good as thou can manage for thisel?” (M. Bragg).
B. Scottish Variant
“Did ye see the like! She’s nearly gane! the puir thing! and her so young and so bonnie. I maun dae ma best for her”.
Back in her comfortable kitchen she shouted to her son, who sat before the huge crackling log fire: “Quick man! I want ye to run like fury to Levenford for a doctor. Ye maun get yin at a’ costs. There’s an ill woman in the byre. Go, in God's name, at once, and no’ a word frae ye. It’s life or death. If ye dinna hurry she’ll be gane. Haste ye! Haste ye awa’ for help” (A.J. Cronin).
2. Give the British equivalents for the following Americanisms.
Apartment, associate professor, baby-carriage, baggage, candy, cane, check, cookie, com, drugstore, editorial, elevator, fall, flat, full, gimmick, mail, mailbox, movies, saloon, sidewalk, stock, store, street car, subway, suspenders, truck.
3. Comment on the differences in the meanings of the following words in British and American English.
Administration, apartment, billion, corn, to cover, dresser, dumb, faculty, to fire, to guess, homely, lumber, lunch, mad, minerals, pavement, sick.
4. Transcribe the words below according to British and American norms of pronunciation.
Ask, auditory, candidate, centenary, ceremony, clerk, dance, delegate, derby, dictionary, dormitory, laboratory, lieutenant, matrimony, missile, not, premier, secretary, schedule, teacher, territory, tomato, top, wrath.
5. Write the words below according to American spelling norms.
Anaemic, catalogue, centre, colour, defence, dialogue, encase, fibre, honour, inflexion, judgement, labour, offence, programme, theatre, traveller.
UNIT 9. LEXICOGRAPHY
Lexicography is a brunch of applied linguistics which deals with the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries. The object of study of lexicography is the vocabulary of a language. The aim of lexicography is semantic, formal and functional description of all individual words.
Dictionary is a book listing words of language with their meanings and reference information.
Lexicology is the theory and lexicography is the practice of describing words.
Main types of English dictionaries
Types of English dictionaries differ in the choice of items and information about them. The encyclopaedic dictionaries include items of designations such as: names of substances, diseases, plants and animals, institutions, terms of science, some important events in history, geographical and biographical entries.
A linguistic dictionary is a book of words of a language, usually listed alphabetically, with definitions, pronunciations, etymologies and other linguistic information or with their equivalents in another language (or other languages).
American dictionaries include scientific, technical, geographical and bibliographical items. British dictionaries devote maximum space to the linguistic properties of words.
Classification
1. According to the nature of word-list: general; restricted dictionaries (terminological, phraseological, dialectal word-books, dictionaries of new words, etc.).
2. As to the information they provide: explanatory; special dictionaries (only some characteristics); sphere of human activity (technical dictionaries); type of units (of idioms); relationships of units (of synonyms); associative dictionaries (the lexical entry is a stimulus word with a list of response words either in an alphabetical order or according to their frequency).
3. As to the number of languages used: monolingual, bilingual, multilingual.
4. According to the medium used: paper; computerized; computerized versions of paper dictionaries; proper electronic dictionaries: for human use, machine dictionaries for text processing, etc.
Explanatory dictionaries provide infomatoin on all aspects of the lexical units entered: graphical, phonetic, grammatical, semantic, stylistic, etymological, etc.
Dictionaries also fall into diachronic and synchronic with regard to time.
Translation (parallel) dictionaries - a list of vocabulary items in one language and their equivalents in (an) other language(s).
Phraseological dictionaries – idiomatic or colloquial phrases, proverbs and other, usually with illustrations.
Dictionaries of neologisms (neologism – <20 years). The new items are collected from the reading of newspapers, magazines and – rarely – books.
Dictionaries of slang – substandard speech such as vulgarisms, jargonisms, taboo words, curse-words, colloquialisms.
Usage dictionaries – usage problems of all kind – for native speakers: the difference in the meaning of synonyms, the proper pronunciation, etc.
Dictionaries of word frequency – frequency of occurrence of lexical units in speech for teaching purposes, the basic vocabulary, for the machine translation systems to choose a better – more frequent variant of a word.
Reverse dictionaries – the entry words are arranged in an alphabetical order starting with the final letter – e.g. for rhyming purpose.
Pronouncing dictionaries – contemporary variation of pronunciation.
Etymological dictionaries – the etymology of the words listed.
Ideographic (ideological) dictionaries – group words by concept or semantic relation.
Some Basic Problems of Dictionary-Compiling
The work at a dictionary consists of the following main steps: the selection of material, the selection of entries and their arrangement, the setting of each entry.
Problems of compiling: (1) the selection of lexical units for inclusion, (2) their arrangement, (3) the selection and arrangement (grouping) of word-meaning, (4) the definition of meanings, (5) illustrative material, (6) the setting of the entries, (7) supplementary material.
If one compares the general number of meanings of a word in different dictionaries even of the same type, one will see that their number varies greatly. Students sometimes think that if the meaning is placed first in the entry, it must be the most important, the most frequent. This is not always the case. It depends on the plan followed by the compilers.
Questions
- What does Lexicography deal with?
- What is the definition of “dictionary”?
- What is the difference between British and American dictionaries?
- State the classification of dictionaries according to the nature of word-list.
- Classify dictionaries according to the number of languages.
- Which are the main steps on working at a dictionary?
- What are the basic problems of dictionary-compiling?
ADDITIONL MATERIAL
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British English |
American English |
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accommodations |
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instant replay |
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airplane |
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aluminum |
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tractor-trailer |
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eggplant |
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cookie sheet |
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legal holiday |
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beet(s) |
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cookie; cracker |
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underground economy |
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sponge bath |
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apartment building |
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trunk |
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cotton candy |
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parking lot |
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emergency room |
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drugstore |
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French fries |
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movie theater; the movies |
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plastic wrap |
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durable goods |
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cornstarch |
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(housing) project |
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face card |
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guardrail |
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chips; potato chips |
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alligator clip |
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checking account |
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hazard pay |
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heavy cream |
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checkers |
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thumbtack |
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robe; bathrobe |
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drunk driving |
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drinks cupboard |
liquor cabinet |
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drinks party |
cocktail party |
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driver’s license |
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divided highway |
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drop cloth |
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garbage can |
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earth (electrical) |
ground |
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engaged (of a phone) |
busy |
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Real estate agent, realtor (trademark) |
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station wagon |
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unlisted |
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parochial school |
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fiscal year |
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fire company/department |
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second floor |
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fish stick |
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fitted carpet |
wall-to-wall carpeting |
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washcloth |
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apartment |
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soccer |
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sidewalk |
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fringe (hair) |
bangs |
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full stop (punctuation) |
period |
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yard; lawn |
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goods train |
freight train |
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green thumb |
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grill (noun) |
broiler |
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grill (verb) |
broil |
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first floor |
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groundskeeper |
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barrette |
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hatrack |
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bachelorette party |
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billboard |
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vacation |
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vacationer |
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homey |
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in hospital |
in the hospital |
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sprinkles (for ice cream) |
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confectioners’ sugar |
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indicator (on a car) |
turn signal |
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jelly beans |
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sweater |
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elementary school |
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doghouse |
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ladybug |
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a lettuce |
a head of lettuce |
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grade crossing |
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elevator |
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lollipop |
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crossing guard |
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truck |
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luggage van |
baggage car |
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corn |
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math |
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cell phone |
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Monkey shines |
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expressway; highway |
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mom/mommy |
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diaper |
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pinwale |
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newscaster |
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tic-tac-toe |
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oven mitt |
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acetaminophen |
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parting (in hair) |
part |
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solitaire |
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sidewalk |
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pay envelope |
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crosswalk |
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clothespin |
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gas; gasoline |
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physical therapy |
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jumper |
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dark chocolate |
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all-purpose flour |
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turtleneck |
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reverse discrimination |
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mailbox |
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zip code |
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potato chip |
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power point |
electrical outlet |
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baby carriage; stroller |
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private school |
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public transportation |
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stroller |
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estimator |
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line |
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race car |
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railroad |
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court tennis |
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certified mail |
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license plate |
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back-up lights |
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right triangle |
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beltway |
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roundabout (at a fair) |
carousel |
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roundabout (in road) |
traffic circle |
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rowboat |
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sailboat |
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saloon (car) |
sedan |
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sandwich cake |
layer cake |
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sanitary napkin |
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shopping cart |
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skeleton in the closet |
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jump rope |
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sled |
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railroad tie |
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lawyer |
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soy/soybean |
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scallion |
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bachelor party |
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appetizer |
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public school |
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tempest in a teapot |
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candy |
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takeaway (food) |
takeout; to go |
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taxi stand |
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dish towel |
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row house |
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candy apple or caramel apple |
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labor union |
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industrial park |
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sneakers |
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truck stop |
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shopping cart |
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subway |
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thermos bottle |
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verge (of a road) |
shoulder |
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undershirt |
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veterinarian |
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wagon (on a train) |
car |
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vest |
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walker |
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closet |
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Italian ice |
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clapboard |
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white coffee |
coffee with cream |
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Wholewheat bread |
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windbreaker |
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crosswalk |
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zed (letter Z) |
zee |
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zipper |
FINAL TEST
1. Lexicology is a branch of linguistics which deals with…
- the various means of expressing grammatical relations between words and with the patterns after which words are combined into word-groups and sentences
- the outer sound form of the word
- lexical units and the vocabulary of a language
- the study of the nature, functions and structure of stylistic devices and with the investigation of each style of language
2. What is Special Lexicology?
- It is the lexicology of any language
- It is the lexicology of a particular language
3. Synchronic lexicology deals with …
- the change and development of vocabulary in the course of time
- vocabulary at a given stage of language development, usually at the present time
4. The word has …
- phonological and semantic aspects
- phonological and syntactic aspects
- phonological, semantic, syntactic aspects
5. By external structure of the word we mean …
- its meaning
- its morphological structure
6. Two or more words identical in sound-form but different in meaning, distribution and (in many cases) origin are …
- antonyms
- homonyms
- paronyms
7. By their graphic and sound-form there may be …
- full and partial homonyms
- grammatical, lexical and lexico-grammatical homonyms
- perfect homonyms, homophones and homographs
8. Homophones are …
- identical in spelling but different in sound-form
- identical in sound-form but different in spelling
9. Word-formation …
- deals with segmentation of words into morphemes
- is an autonomous language mechanism which is used to make new words
10. The morphemes which may occur alone and coincide with word-forms are …
- bound morphemes
- free morphemes
11. Affixation consists in …
- putting two stems together
- adding an affix to a stem
12. A non-affixal type of word-building is …
- compounding
- conversion
13. Conversion is …
- formation of verbs or nouns from other parts of speech
- formation of verbs
- formation of nouns
14. The branch of linguistics which studies the ways of bringing words together in the flow of speech is called …
- phraseology
- lexical morphology
15. Which of the phraseological units are completely non-motivated and usually stable?
- phraseological unities
- phraseological fusions
- phraseological collocations
16. Proverbs, sayings and quotations are …
- phraseological units
- idioms proper
17. A variety of a language which prevails in a district, with local peculiarities of vocabulary, pronunciation and phrase is …
- a dialect
- an accent
18. British, American, Australian and Canadian English are …
- local dialects
- regional variants of standard language
19. The science of dictionary-compiling is …
- lexicology
- lexicography
20. Linguistic dictionaries deal with …
- lexical units
- concepts
21. Historical events, geographical names, names for diseases, plants, animals, institutions are included in …
- encyclopaedic dictionaries
- linguistic dictionaries
22. Linguistic dictionaries may be explanatory or specialized by …
a) the nature of their word-list
b) the kind of information they provide
c) the language in which the information is presented
23. The dictionary presenting a wide range of data is …
- specialized
- explanatory
24. The dictionary giving the information in the same language is …
- bilingual
- monolingual
25. Connotative meaning is …
- the emotive charge and the stylistic value of the word
- the word’s reference to the object
26. Metaphor is based on …
- contiguity of referents
- similarity of referents in shape, in function, in position, in behaviour, etc.
27. The diachronic approach to polysemy deals with …
- frequency of different meanings
- the order in which different meanings appeared
28. By words which because of similarity of sound or partial identity of morphemic structure can be erroneously or punningly used in speech we mean …
- paronyms
- homonyms
29. The words incredulous and incredible are …
- homonyms
- antonyms
- paronyms
- synonyms
30. The members of a thematic group which belong to the same part of
speech and are so close to one another semantically are …
- synonyms
- antonyms
31. Ideographic synonyms differ …
- only in their denotational meaning
- both in their denotational meaning and connotation or style
32. The synonyms dad – father – parent are …
- ideographic
- ideographic-stylistic
33. Phraseological units are understood as …
- non-motivated word-combinations that are reproduced as ready-made stable units
- motivated word-combinations that allow of variability of their components
34. The word-combination small beer is …
- a phraseological unity
- a phraseological (habitual) collocation
- a phraseological fusion
35. The morpheme is …
- a two-facet unit possessing both form and content, positionally mobile and syntactically independent
- the smallest indivisible two-facet unit which occurs in speech only as a constituent part of the word
36. Lexicology is mainly interested in …
- derivational affixes
- functional affixes
37. Word structure consists in …
- making new words with the help of morphemes
- segmentation of words into morphemes
38. Root morphemes carry …
- lexical and grammatical meaning
- lexical meaning
39. The morphemes which may occur alone and coincide with word-forms or immutable words are …
- bound morphemes
- free morphemes
40. The most numerous amongst the words produced by conversion are…
- verbs made from nouns
- nouns made from verbs
41. The USA, the U.N.O. are …
- Latin abbreviations
- shortened words
- acronyms
42. Words denoting objects and phenomena which are things of the past and no longer exist are called …
- archaisms
- historisms
- obsolete words
43. The earliest group of English borrowings is …
- Scandinavian
- French
- Latin
- Celtic
44. The word mag is …
- a clipping
- an abbreviation
45. Transference based on resemblance is …
- metonymy
- metaphor
46. The word distance is …
- English by origin
- not English by origin
47. Indo-European elements are …
- native
- borrowed
48. The word girl is …
- of German origin
- English proper
49. International words are …
- borrowed by several languages
- borrowed by one language
50. Words coined only for particular occasion are …
- neologisms
- nonce-words
51. The word chit-chat is …
- an etymological doublet
- an example of reduplication
52. A neologism mimsy is …
- an acronym
- a blend
53. A phraseological neologism sleeping policeman is …
- a phraseological unit with transferred meaning
- a non-idiomatic expression
LITERATURE
- Антрушина Г.Б. Лексикология английского языка: учеб. пособие для студентов / Г.Б. Антрушина, О.В. Афанасьева, Н.Н. Морозова. – М.: Дрофа, 2005. – 286 с.
- Арнольд И. В. Лексикология современного английского языка: Учеб. для ин-тов и фак. иностр. яз. — 3-е изд., перераб. и доп. — М.: Высшая школа, 1986. - 295 с.
- Баран Я.А. Основні питання загальної та німецької фразеології. – Львів: Вища шк., 1980.
- Бухбиндер В.А. Работа над лексакой / Основы методики преподавания иностранных языков. – К.: Вища школа, 1986. – C. 159 – 179.
- Дубенец Э.М. Lexicology of the English Language, Курс лекций и планы семинарских занятий по лексикологии английского языка (для студентов третьего курса), Московский педагогический университет, 2004. – 192c.
- Зыкова И.В. Практический курс английской лексикологи - A Practical Course in English Lexicology: учеб. пособие для студ. лингв. вузов и фак. ин. языков / И.В. Зыкова. – 2-е изд., испр. – М.: Издательский центр «Академия», 2007. – 288 с.
- Каращук П. М. Словообразование английского языка. – М.: Высшая школа. 1977. – 314 с.
- Квеселевич Д.І., Сасіна В.П. Практикум з лексикології сучасної англійської мови: Навч. посібник. – Вінниця: Видавництво “Нова Книга”, 2001. – 126 с.
- Кочерган М.П. Вступ до мовознавства: Підручник для студентів філологічних спеціальностей вищих навчальних закладів освіти. – К.: Видавничий центр «Академія», 2002. – 368с.
- Кунин А.В. Английская фразеология. (Теорет. курс.) М., «Высшая школа», 1970. – 343с.
- Кунин А.В. Курс фразеологии современного английского языка: Учебник для институтов и факультетов иностранных языков. – 2-е изд., перераб. – М., Дубна, 1996.
- Мешков О. Д. Словообразование современного английского языка. М.: Наука, 1976. – C. 24 - 85.
- Мостовий М.І. Лексикологія англійської мови. – Х.: Основа, 1993. – 256 с.
- Раевская Н.Н. Лексикология английского языка, – К.: «Высшая школа», 1979. – 301с.
- Смирницкий АИ. Лексикология английского языка. - М., 1956, C. 12 -17.
- Смирницкий АИ. К вопросу о слове (проблема отдельности слова). / В кн.: Вопросы теории и истории языка. - М., 1952.
- Соловьева М.В. Лексикология современного английского языка. М., 1997.
- Харитончик, З.А. Лексикология английского языка / З.А. Харитончик. – Минск: Вышэйш. шк., 1992. – С. 166–176.
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