3. (ПРОШЛАЯ ЛЕКЦИЯ) Stylistic differentiation of the English vocabulary.

Criteria for the stylistic

differentiation of the EV. Neutral, literary, colloquial words.

The English vocabulary is divided into neutral, literary and  colloquial strata.

The aspect of the literary layer is its bookish character, which makes the layer more or less stable.
The literary vocabulary distinguishes between the following groups of words:
a)    Common literary -are chiefly used in writing and in polished speech. They are used in formal communication.
b)    Terms and learned words - are words denoting scientific concepts or objects, processes, phenomena of
science, humanities, technique
c)     Poetic words- are used primarily in poetry. (woe – sorrow, hapless – unlucky, staunch – firm, harken – hear)
d)    Archaic words-  are old words for denoting still existing objects and concepts (anon – at once, haply– perhaps,
befall – happen)
e)     Barbarisms and foreign words (are foreign words of phrases,words assimilated from foreign languages and
sometimes perverted. They are:
a) Fully assimilated (wine, street, reprimand, helicopter);
b) Partially assimilated(machine, police, garage, prestige);
c) Unassimilated: randezvous, belles lettres, alter ego, chic, bonmot, en passant, delicatessen, matador,
hippopotamus, marauder, Midi, guerre des baguettes, boulangers, croissants.

f)      Literary coinages including nonce-words (orbiter; moisturize; mentee; supermanship.)

    The aspect of the colloquial layer is its lively spoken character, which makes it unstable, fleeting.
The colloquial vocabulary falls into the following groups:
a)    Slang words or phrases that are informal language (money (jack, tin, brass, vof, dough, slippery stuff, loot, lolls,
gravy, bucks, etc).
b)    Jargonisms; are generally old words with entirely new meanings imposed on them. grease – money, loaf –
head, +tiger hunter –gambler, lexer - student preparing for a law course.
c)     Professional words; are words that replace official terms of a profession.  (driller” = borer, digger, wrencher,
hogger, brake weight, “pipeliner” = swabber, bender, cat, old cat, collar-pecker, hammerman.)
d)    Dialectal words; A hut was all the (= the only) home he ever had.
Mary sits aside (= beside) of her sister on the bus.
e)     Vulgar words; are the lowest social class of words. They are the simple, clear words of uneducated people
(damn, bloody, hell, goddam.)
f)      Common colloquial words;  are always more emotionally coloured than literary ones. They are used in
informal communication. ("Sir, you speak clearly and to the point"  and its colloquial equivalent "Friend, you talk
plain and hit the nail right on the head".)
g)    Colloquial coinages are spontaneous and elusive. Most of them disappear from the language leaving no trace in
it.

    The aspect of the neutral layer is its universal character. It can be employed in all styles of language and in all
spheres of human activity. This makes the layer the most stable of all.

 child  (neutral) – kid  (colloq.) – infant  (bookish, official) – offspring  (bookish, scientific);
 father  (neutral) – daddy  (colloq.) – male parent / ancestor  (formal);
 leave / go away  (neutral) – be off / get out / get away / get lost  (colloq., or familiar-colloq.)
– retire / withdraw  (bookish);
 continue  (neutral) – go on / carry on  (colloq.) – proceed  (bookish, formal);
 begin / start  (neutral) – get going /get started / Come on!  (colloq.) – commence  (formal).
4. (ПРОШЛАЯ ЛЕКЦИЯ) Words which have lexico-stylistic paradigm, and words which have no lexico-
stylistic paradigm

Words having a lexico-stylistic paradigm are characterised by:

a) an indirect reference to the object: fat cat  (coll.) => a provider of money for political uses (neutral) =>
denotatum;
b) subjective evaluative connotations;
c) referential borders which are not strict: these words are of a qualifying character so they may be used to
characterise different referents;
d) synonyms;
e) possible antonyms.
To this group we refer poetic diction; archaisms (archaic words); barbarisms and foreign words; stylistic
neologisms; slang; colloquialisms; jargonisms (social and professional); dialectal words; vulgarisms.
Words having no lexico-stylistic paradigm are characterised by:
a) a direct reference to the object;
b) the absence of subjective evaluative connotations;
c) strict referential borders;
d) the lack of synonyms. Synonyms that they may have are purely denotative;
e) the lack of antonyms.
Here we refer:
 stylistically neutral words;
 terms;
 nomenclature words;
 historical words;
 lexical neologisms;
 exotic words.
Words having a lexico-stylistic paradigm are not homogeneous; they may enter the following oppositions:
 colloquial vocabulary — bookish vocabulary
 non-literary words — literary words
 general literary vocabulary — social or dialectal elements special
 vocabulary-contemporary vocabulary — archaic vocabulary.
However, the mentioned groups of words are not closed; they are intersecting - one and the same word may
belong to two or more groups.
 1. Stylistic use of words which have lexico-stylistic paradigm. Stylistic function of literary
word.

Words having a lexico-stylistic paradigm which are characterized by:

        a) an indirect reference to the object: fat cat  (coll.) => a provider of money for political uses  (neutral) =>
denotate;
        b) subjective evaluative connotations;
        c) referential borders which are not strict: these words are of a qualifying character so they may be used to
characterize different referents;
        d) synonyms;
        e) possible antonyms.
Literary words of the English language can be classified into the following groups: poetic diction, archaic words,
barbarisms and foreign words, bookish (learned) words.

 Poetic diction
Poetic words are stylistically marked, they form a lexico-stylistic paradigm. In the 17th-18th centuries
they were widely used in poetry as synonyms of neutral words. In modern poetry such a vocabulary
barely exist 
a) archaic words (commix  – mix);
b) archaic forms (vale  – valley);
c) historic words (argosy  – large merchant ship);
d) poetic words proper (anarch, brine).

Their main function is to mark the text in which they are used as poetic, thus distinguishing it from non-
fiction texts. In modern poetry such words are seldom used. Their stylistic meaning gets more vivid when
they are contrasted to neutral words.

 Archaic words i.e. out-dated words that denote existing objects, are divided into two groups:
a) archaic words proper: words which are no longer recognized in modern English. They were used
in Old English and have either dropped out of language use entirely or completely changed
(troth  –  faith,  losel  –  worthless);
b) archaic forms of the words: corse instead of corpse, an instead of and, annoy instead of
аnnоуаnсе.
 Barbarisms  are words of foreign origin which have not been entirely assimilated into the English
language preserving their former spelling and pronunciation. Most of them (e.g. chic, chagrin, en
passant)  have corresponding English synonyms.
 Bookish (learned) words are  mostly used in official or high-flown style (catenate, depicture,
disimprove, dalliance).  In official usage, they mark the text as belonging to this or that style of
written speech, but when used in colloquial speech or in informal situations, they may create a
comical effect.
 Stylistic neologisms are new names that denote already existing objects and notions (mole – a spy
who successfully infiltrates an organization; ageism  – discrimination of a person on the ground of
age).
Historical words are associated with definite stages in the development of a society and cannot be
neglected, though the things and phenomena to which they refer no longer exist.
2. Stylistic functions of conversational words

Conversational words of all kinds are widely used for stylistic purposes. There are four speech spheres in
which they are mostly largely used: everyday speech, newspaper language, poetry, and fiction.

Colloquial words are subdivided into two groups:

 literary colloquial words (which are used in every day conversations both by educated and non-
educated people)
E.g. ”dad”, “kid”, “crony”, “fan”, “to pop”, “folks”.

 non-literary colloquialisms which include:

 SLANG is a special vocabulary of low and vulgar type, often fresh and emotional
description of an object: money (jack, slippery stuff, loot, lolls, gravy, bucks, etc).
Function: to characterize the personage, to create a certain atmosphere (that of
scandal, violence or intolerance or humor) in the literary text.

 JARGONISMS - are a low colloquial words, which are used by limited groups of people.
Divided into
 Professional jargonisms are denominations of things, opposed to the official
terms of this professional sphere.
for “pipeliner” (трубопроводчик) -“swabber”, “bender”, “cat”, “old cat”,
“collar-pecker”, “hammerman”
Function: They are used by representatives of the profession to facilitate the
communication.

 Social jargonisms are made of words used to denote nonprofessional thing of

the given social group with common interests
e.g., music fans, drug addicts and the like
Function: they are used by representatives of the given group for the purpose of
making speech incoherent to outsiders.

 VULGARISMS - stylistically lowest group of words which are considered offensive for
polite usage.
Types: abusive words e.g. son of a bitch; hackneyed vulgar words: devil, bloody.
Function: to express strong emotions, mainly annoyance, anger, vexation and the like.

 DIALECT WORDS - are words and phrases characteristic of a certain locality. They reflect
peculiarities of provincialism in phonetics and vocabulary. Of special significance for
English literature is Cockney-the dialect of the uneducated people in London.
'ud - would, 'im - him, 'aseen - have seen, canna - cannot, dinna-don't, sportin –
sporting
3. Stylistic functions of words which have no lexico-stylistic paradigm

To this group, we refer terms, nomenclature words, historical words, exotic words, and lexical
neologisms.

 TERMS words denoting objects, processes, phenomena of science, humanities,

technique and belong to particular sciences. Consequently, the domain of their usage is
the scientific functional style.
A classical term is monosemantic and has no synonyms. When used in other styles,
terms produce different stylistic effects. They may sound humoristically or make speech
"clever" and "scientific-like".
There are 2 types:
1) Single terms: psychology, equity, function.
2) Terms consisting of several words: subject-matter, computeraided system, belles-
lettres style.
Compare: Chlorophyll makes food by photosynthesis = Green leaves build up food
with the aid of light.

 NOMENCLATURE words are very close to terms: they refer to a definite branch of
human activity, mainly professional, e.g. names of minerals, chemical elements, types of
cars etc.

 EXOTIC WORDS are borrowed foreign words denoting objects characteristic of a certain

country (canzonet, matador). 
They have no synonyms in the language-borrower, do not form a lexico-stylistic
paradigm and therefore are not considered to be lexical EM, but nevertheless they may
be used for stylistic purposes.

 HISTORICAL WORDS are associated with definite stages in the development of a society
and cannot be neglected, though the things and phenomena to which they refer no
longer exist.
Historical words (yeoman, thane, baldric, goblet) have no synonyms as compared to
archaic words which may be replaced by their modern synonyms.

 LEXICAL NEOLOGISMS are new words that denote new objects (laser, shopping, pop
promo, killer, satellite). Stylistic neologisms are new names that denote already existing
objects and notions (mole - a spy who successfully infiltrates an organisation; ageism -
discrimination of a person on the ground of age).
4. Stylistic functions of phraseology

The question of the status of phraseological units (PhU) is very complicated.

There are many phraseological units which are quite neutral: in fact,  in turn,  for instance,  in order
that,  in  principle.
To this group we should also refer:
 historical PhU: the secular aim, the Blue and the Grey, the common beam;
 lexical neologisms: oil crisis, energy crisis;
 terminological PhU: supersentencial units, expressive means  etc.
   
Additional (connotative) information of PhU, as that of any word, may be of four types, functional-
stylistic, emotional, evaluative, and expressive-figurative.

    Accordingly, PhU may be divided into two similar classes: PhU having a lexico-stylistic paradigm, and
those having no lexico-stylistic paradigms.

    PhU having a lexico-stylistic paradigm also fall into 

 literary (be in accord with somebody,  play upon advantage,  most and least,  bring to
mould,;  ad ovo,  ad hoc, a la carte,; a heart of oak,  Achilles heel)
 conversational ones (Adams ale, slit the bat, ask me another, monkey's  allowance,
to get on the ball, admiral of the red, grab for altitude, gef the bird, sell one's back, get
the wind up, a bit of jam, get somebody on his ears).

    Peculiar stylistic usage of PhU is accounted for the possibility of their structural and contextual
transformations which are oriented to achieving a definite stylistic effect.

    Structural transformations of PhU may be represented by:

        1) expansion of PhU, e.g. When you had a weak case and knew it, Alan thought, even straws
should be grasped at firmly  (from to catch at a straw);

        2) reduction of PhU as the result of the compression of proverbs, sayings, quotations etc,
e.g.  Howaden added severely: "Better too much too eariy than too little too late” (from better late than
never);

        3) inversion of the components of PhU. It implies the change of the PhU structure while preserving
its original components, e.g.  Fortunately,  it's only the cat’s head and we still have a firm grip on the
body  (from  to let the cat out of the bag).

Contextual transposition of PhU presupposes that a PhU may be totally reconsidered and reinterpreted
in context, e.g. Pooh goes visiting and gets into a tight place (from  to be in a tight comer).