The English Language

There is no doubt that the English language is today the most widely used language for international communication and that those who master it either as their first or second language will improve not only their own education but also their chances of success in both business and social environments.

One should say that English is not an easy language to learn. There is a big problem of spelling, of the large number of exceptions to any rule. This language is very idiomatic and the prepositions are difficult to remember. English is one of those languages which may seem easy in the beginning, but then the bridge between basic knowledge and mastery takes a long time to cross. But if you do cross this bridge it will give you great satisfaction. You will be able to speak to people from other countries, to read foreign authors in the original, which makes your outlook wider.

English, in common with all modern languages, has a life of its own and all attempts to impose a rigid standard of grammar, structure and use will fail. What is “good English”? It is not something thought up by a committee of scholars, grammarians and teachers. It is the language used by a vast number of educated intelligent people to communicate effectively and precisely. Words and expressions are born, live for a short time and then die or find their place in our permanent vocabulary according to the temporary or permanent nature of the phenomena they describe.

In studying the history of a language we are faced with a number of problems concerning the causes of changes in the language. These causes can be of two kinds: external and internal. In the first case the language is influenced by factors lying outside it or extralinguistic factors. Such historical events as wars, conquests, cultural contacts, and the like can hardly fail to influence a language more, especially its vocabulary. On the other hand, most changes in the phonetic structure of a language and also in its grammatical structure are due to internal causes.

It must also be noted that the evolution of a language is not even: it may be faster or slower, besides, its various levels change at different rates. Thus, the word-stock seems to change rather rapidly; the sound system of a language changes very slowly because it must carefully preserve the contrast between phonemes essential for differentiation between morphemes. As the grammar structure of the language provides general frames and patterns for the other systems of the language it also changes very slowly.

The two greatest influences on the formation, adaptation and use of English words over the last forty years have undoubtedly been the United States of America and the advance of science, in particular the means of communication – what Russians call СМИ: television, cinema and the printed word. As to the first of these influences, the accent, vocabulary and usage of American English (that is, the type of English found in North America) are those that dominate the world today and for Russian-speakers, particularly businessmen, it is American-English which they will come across most frequently. Americans, however, greatly admire what we may call English-English and are fascinated by its history and development.

As to the media, there is hardly anyone whose life has not been influenced, consciously or subconsciously by them. We spend a great deal of time reading newspapers and magazines and watching television: in fact, it is almost impossible to avoid them. And they use the English language to inform, to persuade, to entertain and to educate us.

III. Лексические упражнения

1. Найдите в словаре все имеющиеся значения для следующих глаголов и переведите на русский язык предложения с этими глаголами. Выпишите из текста и переведите на русский язык, используя нужное значение предложения с этими глаголами:

To use

Oil is used for frying potatoes.

May I use your name?

The car uses a lot of petrol.

I fell as if I had been used.

He used to do it.

She used to be a teacher.

To fail

His eyesight is failing.

The boy failed to convince her.

Her sister never fails to write a letter to her.

Unfortunately the bank failed.

To change

The snake changes the skin.

You should change a child as soon as possible, as his sportwear is wet.

To find

I could find nothing to say.

The woman found she had forgotten the key.

The jury found him guilty.

I will find the money for the excursion in any way.

The young man found courage to ask the girl to marry him.

Found out in a lie the salesman left the counter.

Занятие 8

I. Предтекстовые упражнения

1. В тексте этого занятия несколько раз используется притяжательный падеж. Проанализируйте различные способы передачи английской притяжательной конструкции на русский язык и определите, какой способ наиболее целесообразен в каждом конкретном случае на примере предложений из текста. При необходимости произведите замены частей речи или введение дополнительных слов.

Today, when English is one of the major languages in the world, it requires

an effort of the imagination to realize that this is a relatively recent thing – that in Shakespeare’s time, for example, only a few million people spoke English; …

One person in seven of the world’s entire population belongs to one of these groups. Incredibly enough, 75% of the world’s mail and 60% of the world’s telephone calls are in English.

2. Переведите на русский язык следующие словосочетания:

an effort of the imagination, a relatively recent thing, its present standing, a very flexible language, the free admissions of words, the easy creation of compounds and derivatives.

3. Найдите в словаре перевод следующих однокоренных слов:

simple, simpleton, simplicity, simplification, to simplify, simplistic, simply;

to flex, flexibility, flexible, flexidisc, flexion, flextime, flexor, flexuous; flexure.

II. Текст

English as a World Language

Today, when English is one of the major languages in the world, it requires an effort of the imagination to realize that this is a relatively recent thing – that in Shakespeare’s time, for example, only a few million people spoke English; and the language was not thought to be very important by the other nations of Europe, and was unknown to the rest of the world.

English has become a world language because of its establishment as a mother tongue outside England, in all the continents of the world. This exporting of English began in the seventeenth century, with the first settlements in North America. Above all, it is the great growth of population in the United States, assisted by massive immigration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, that has given the English language its present standing in the world.

People who speak English fall into one of three groups: those who have

learned it as their native language; those who have learned it as a second language

in society that is mainly bilingual; and those who are forced to use it for a practical

purpose – administrative, professional or educational. One person in seven of the

world’s entire population belongs to one of these three groups. Incredibly enough,

75% of the world’s mail and 60% of the world’s telephone calls are in English.

BASIC CHARACTERISTICS. SIMPLICITY OF FORM. Old English, like modern German, French, Russian and Greek, had many inflections to show singular and plural, tense, person, etc., but over the centuries words have been simplified. Verbs now have very few inflections, and adjectives do not change according to the noun.

FLEXIBILITY. As a result of the loss of inflections, English has become, over the past five centuries, a very flexible language. Without inflections, the same word can operate as many different parts of speech. Many nouns and verbs have the same form, for example swim, drink, walk, kiss, look, and smile. We can talk about water the flowers: time to go and to time a race; a paper to read and to paper a bedroom. Adjective can be used as verbs. We warm our hands in front of a fire; if clothes are dirtied, they need to be cleaned and dried. Prepositions lap are flexible. A sixty-year old man is nearing retirement; we can talk about a round of golf, cards, or drinks.

OPENNESS OF VOCABULARY. This involves the free admissions of words from other languages and derivatives. Most world languages have contributed some words to English at some time, and the process is now being reversed. Purists of the French, Russian, and Japanese languages are resisting the arrival of English in their vocabulary.

THE FUTURE OF ENGLISH. Geographically, English is the most widespread language on Earth, second only to Mandarin Chinese in the number of people who speak it. It is the language of business, technology, sport, and aviation. This will no doubt continue, although the proposition that all other languages will die out is absurd.

III. Лексические упражнения

1. Переведите на русский язык словосочетания, в которых прилагательные major, basic и наречие mainly являются частичными синонимами:

major languages, mainly bilingual society, basic characteristics.

Найдите в тексте предложения с этими словосочетаниями и переведите их на русский язык.

2. Переведите на русский язык сочетания существительного characteristic с некоторыми прилагательными:

distinctive

marked

distinguishing

identifying characteristic

dominant

outstanding

unique

facial

individual characteristics

national

physical

3. Переведите на русский язык следующие предложения и определите в качестве какой части речи употребляется слово professional:

She is a real professional.

He turned a professional at the age of twenty.

My sister learns German for professional purposes as she is a professional at finance.

He was an art student who had played professional football for a short time. They run it with a truly professional but personal touch.

Занятие 9

I. Предтекстовые упражнения

1. На примере предложения из текста проанализируйте английскую эмфатическую конструкцию и правильно передайте ту же степень выразительности в переводе.

Not only are English’s grammar and syntax relatively simple, the language’s sound system is flexible and “user friendly” − foreign words tend to be pronounced the same as in their original tongue.

2. Уточните в словаре все варианты значений следующих наречий, которые встретятся Вам при переводе текста:

roughly, relatively, friendly, cheerfully.

3. Переведите на русский язык следующие словосочетания:

promiscuous acquisitiveness, greet sea of synonyms, different connotations, different levels of science, innate appeal, the most cheerfully democratic and hospitable language.

4. Найдите в словаре перевод следующих слов:

precise, precisely, preciseness, precision;

international, internationale, internationality;

form, formal, formalism, formalist, formalistic, formality, formalization, to formalize.

II. Текст

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