6.The English word’s etymology

6.The English word’s etymology

1. Words of native origin.

2. Causes and ways of borrowings.

3. Assimilation of borrowings.

4. Interrelation between native and borrowed elements.

Ніколенко А. Г. English Lexicology - Theory & Practice, Vinnytsa, 2007.

Akhmanova O.S. Linguistic terminology.-M., 1977.

Квеселевич Д.І., Сасіна В.П. Практикум з лексикології сучасної англійської мови. Вінниця, 2003.

Borrowings, loan words-запозичення, native words-власне англійські слова

1. Words of native origin. A native word is a word which belongs to the original English stock, as known from the earliest available manuscripts of the Old English period. Etymologically the vocabulary of the English language is far from being homogeneous. It consists of two layers – the native stock of words and the borrowed stock of words. Native words comprises only 30% of the total number of words in the English vocabulary but the native words form the bulk of the most frequent words actually used in speech and writing. The native element in English comprises a large number of high-frequency words like the articles, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, auxiliaries and words denoting everyday objects and ideas (e.g. house, child, water, go, come, eat, good, bad). Words belonging tothe subsets of native word-stock are for the most part characterized by a wide range of lexical and grammatical valency, high frequency value and a developed polysemy; they are monosyllabic, show great word-building power and enter a number of set expressions. Furthermore, the grammatical structure is essentially Germanic having remained unaffected by foreign influence.

At various times purists have tried to purge the English language of forein words, replacing them with Anglo-Saxon ones.

2. Causes and ways of borrowings. The term source of borrowing applies to the language from which the loan word was taken into English. Origin of borrowing refers to the language to which the word may be traced.

1. Celtic (5^th-6^th c. A.D.) Several of the Germanic tribes (the most numerous amongst them being the Angles, the Saxons and Jutes) migrated across the sea now known as the English Channel to the British Isles. There they were confronted by the Celts, the original inhabitants of the Isles. The Celts desperately defended their lands against the invaders. They retreated to the North and South-West (modern Scotland, Wales and Cornwall). Through their numerous contacts with the defeated Celts, the conquerors got to know and assimilated a number of Celtic words (Mod. E. bald, down, druid, bard, cradle, street, wall; names of rivers- Avon, Exe, Ux).

2. Latin, 1^st c. B.C. Most of the territory, known to us as Europe was occupied by the Roman Empire. Among the inhabitants of the continent were Germanic tribes, “barbarians” as the arrogant Romans called them. Theirs was really a rather primitive stage of development compared with the high civilization of Rome. After a number of wars two opposing people came into peaceful contact. Trade was carried on and Latin names of fruits and vegetables entered the English vocabulary – cherry, pear, plum, pea, beet, pepper. Other borrowings are cup, kitchen, mill, port, wine.

Latin, 7^th c. A.D. People of England were converted to Christianity what accompanied by Latin borrowings – priest, bishop, nun, candle.

Latin, the renaissance period In England and in all European countries this period was marked by significant developments in science, art and culture that occurred a considerable number of Latin and Greek borrowings- major, minor, intelligent, permanent, datum, status, philosophy, method, music; atom, cycle, ethic, esthete.

3. Scandinavian (8^th-11^th c. A.D.) England underwent several Scandinavian invasions which inevitably left their trace on English vocabulary- call, take, cast, die, law, husband, window, weak; words with sk- combination – sky, skill, skin, ski, skirt.

4. French. Norman borrowings. The epochof theNorman conquest starts with the famous battle of Hastings, when the English were defeated by the Normans under William the Conqueror. French words penetrated every aspect of social life during 200-years period:

· Administrative words- state, government, parliament, council, power

· Legal terms- court, judge, justice, crime, prison

· Military terms- army, war, soldier, enemy

· Educational terms- pupil, lesson, library, science, pen

· Everyday life terms- table, plate, saucer, dinner, supper, river, autumn, uncle

Parisian borrowings. The Renaissance was a period of extensive cultural contact between the major European states. New words entered the English vocabulary, the most significant were Parisian borrowings- regime, routine, police, machine, ballet, matinee, scene, bourgeois.

3. Assimilation of borrowings. Words when they migrate from one language into another adjust themselves to their new environement and get adapted to the norms of the recipient language. They undergo certain changes which gradually erase their foreign features, and, finaly, they are assimilated. The degree of assimilation depends on the lengthof period duringwhich the word has been used in the receiving language, on its importance for communication purpose and its frequency. Oral borrowings due to personal contacts are assimilated more completely and more rapidly than literary borrowings.

Loan words according to the degree of assimilation fall into 3 groups:

a) Completely assimilated loan words

b) Partially assimilated loan words

c) Unassimilated loan words or barbarisms.

Completely assimilated loan words are found in all layers of older borrowings (Latin- cup, kitchen, mill, port, wine, Scandinavian- call, take, cast, die, law, husband, window, weak, sky, skill, skin, ski, skirt, French are extremely numerous and frequent- lesson, library, science, pen, table, plate, saucer, dinner, supper, river, autumn, uncle.

The number of completely assimilated loan words in many times greater than the number of partially assimilated ones. They follow all morphological, phonetical and orthographic standards. Being very frequent and stylistically neutral, they may occur as dominant words in synonymic groups. They take an active part in word-formation. For instance, the French suffixes – age, -ance and –ment, -esse, -fier and their English modification – shortage, goddess, speechify.

Completely assimilated loan words are also indistinguishable phonetically. A loan word never brings to the receiving language the whole of its semantic structure if it is polysemantic in the original language. And even borrowed variants are for the most part changed and socialized in the new system. The word sport was borrowed from French into ME and acquired the additional meaning of outdoor games and exercises, and in this new meaning was borrowed into many European languages and became international.

Partially assimilated loan words can be subdivided into 4 subgroups.

a) loan words not assimilated semantically,because they denote objects and notions peculiar to the country from which they come- sombrero, shah, toreador, sherbet, rouble, euro.

b) loan words not assimilated grammatically, for example, nouns borrowed from Latin or Greek which keep their original plural forms – phenomenon-phenomena, formula-formulae, bacillus-bacilli.

c) loan words not completely assimilated phonetically. Some of the French words borrowed after 1650 keep an accent on the final syllable: machine, cartoon, police. Others contain sounds that are not standard for the English language – [ з ]- bourgois, camouflage, prestige, regime; [wa:]-memoir; the nasalized [ã]-melange. In the Italian and Spanish borrowings the whole pattern of the word’s phonetic make-up is different from the rest of vocabulary- confetti, incognito, macaroni, opera, tomato, potato, tobacco. The pronounciation of words where the process of assimilation is phonetically incomplete will often vary: foyer-[‘ foiei] or [fwaje].

d)loan words not completely assimilated graphically. This group is large and variegated. There are words borrowed from French in which the final consonant is not pronounced- ballet, buffet, corps. Some may keep diachronic mark- café, cliché. Specifically French diagraphs (ch, qu, ou) may be retained in spelling: bouquet, brioche.

The third group of borrowings-barbarisms are words from other languages used by English people in conversation or in writing but not assimilated in any way, and for which there corresponding English equivalents: Ital. addio, ciao- good-bye, Fr. Affiche- placard, Lat. E.g.- for example.

4. Interrelation between native and borrowed elements. Lexical correlations are defined as lexical units from different languages which are phonetically and semantically related. A native word is a word which belongs to the original English stock, as known from the earliest available manuscripts of the Old English period. A loan word, borrowed word or borrowing is a word taken over from another language and modified in phonemic shape, spelling, paradigm or meaning according to the standards of the English language.

The native words are further subdivided by diachronic linguistics into those of the Indo-European stock and those of Common Germanic origin, i.e. of words having parallels in German, Norwegian, Dutch, Icelandic. Some of the most frequent verbs are also of Indo-European common stock: bear, come, sit, stand; the adjectives denoting concrete physical properties- hard, quick, slow, red, white; most numerals.

The Germanic element represents words of roots common to all or most Germanic languages:

1. Parts of human body: head, hand, arm, finger, bone.

2. Animals: bear, fox, calf.

3. Plants: oak, fir, grass.

4. Natural phenomena: rain, frost.

5. Seasons of the year: winter, spring, summer.

6. Landscape features: sea, land.

7. Human dwellings and furniture: house, room, bench.

8. Sea-going vessels: boat, ship.

9. Adjectives: green, blue, grey, white, small, thick, high, old, good.

10. Verbs: see, hear, speak, tell, say, answer, make, give, drink.

The words having the cognates (words of the same etymological root, of common origin) in the vocabularies of different Indo-European languages form the oldest layer which readily falls into definite semantic groups:

1. Family relations: father, mother, brother, son, daughter (Ukr. Мати, брат, син, донька).

2. Parts of human body: foot (Rus.пядь), nose (Ukr.ніс).

3. Animals: cow, swine, goose (Ukr.корова, свиня, гуска).

4. Plants: birch (Rus.береза), corn (Rus.зерно).

5. Time of day: day, night.

6. Heavenly bodies: sun, moon (Ukr.сонце), (Rus.месяц).

7. Numerous adjectives: red (Ukr.рудий), new.

8. The numerals from one to a hundred.

9. Pronouns: personal (except they which is a Scandinavian borrowing); demonstrative.

10. Verbs: be (Rus.быть), stand (Rus.стоять), sit (Rus.сидеть), eat (Rus.есть), know (Rus.знать).

The number of Ukrainian-English lexical correlations is about 7 000 (beat-бити, call-голос, day-день, widow-вдова, young-юний, brutal-брутальний, cap-капелюх, cold-холодний, kitchen-кухня, lily-лілія, money-монета, sister-сестра, wolf-вовк, garden-город, murder-мордувати, disk-jockey - диск-жокей, serial-серіал, mass media – масс-медія).

Дата добавления: 2015-11-04