1. Chronological division in the history of English.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------2
2. Evolution of the nominal parts of speech from OE to NE.--------------------------------------------------------------4
3. Development of the national literary English language.-----------------------------------------------------------------6
4. Evolution of the sound system in ME and NE.----------------------------------------------------------------------------8
5. The role of the foreign element at different stages of the English language development.----------------------9
6. The English consonants and vowels as units of the phonological system. Their articulatory transitions in
speech.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11
7. The system of phonological oppositions in English.--------------------------------------------------------------------11
8. Phoneme and allophone. Types of allophones.--------------------------------------------------------------------------11
9. General characteristics of MnE structure.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12
10. The English noun, its semantic and grammatical peculiarities.-----------------------------------------------------13
11. The English verb, its semantic and grammatical properties.--------------------------------------------------------14
12. Non-finite forms of the English verb, and their use in predicative complexes.---------------------------------15
13. Etymological survey of the English vocabulary.-----------------------------------------------------------------------16
14. Homonymy in English: sources of homonymy; classification of English homonyms.-----------------------18
15. The problem of semantic change in English: its causes, nature and results.-------------------------------------19
16. Semantic similarity and polarity of words within the lexical system of Modern English (synonyms and
antonyms).--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21
17. Major and minor ways of word-formation in Modern English.----------------------------------------------------22
18. English phraseology: structural and semantic peculiarities of phraseological units; different approaches
to their classification.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23
19. Lexical stylistic devices in MnE.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 25
20. Syntactical stylistic devices in MnE.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27
 1. Chronological division in the history of English.
The historical development of a language is a continuous uninterrupted process without sudden beaks
or rapid transformations. The commonly accepted, traditional periodization divides English history into
three periods: Old English, Middle English, New English.
OE begins with the Germanic settlement in Britain (5th century) or with beginning of writing (7th
century) and lasts till 1066, the year of the Norman Conquest.
ME begins with the Norman Conquest and ends on the introduction of printing (1475) which is the
start of the Modern or New English period. The new period lasts to the present day.
Along with the described periodization there is one more detailed provided be Henry Sweet.
1st period – prewritten or prehistorical period which is termed Early Old English. It lasts from the
West Germanic invasion of Britain till the beginning f writing, that is from the 5 th to the close of the 7th.
Tribal dialect prevailed. The evolution of the language in this period is hypothetical. It has been
reconstructed from the written evidence of other Old Germanic languages (esp. Gothic). It was the period of
transition from PG (Proto-Germanic) to written OE.
2nd period – the second period extends from the 8th till the end of the 11th. It is called Old English, or
Anglo-Saxon, or Written OE. The tribal dialects gradually changed into local or regional dialects. By the
end of the period the difference between dialects grew and their relative position altered. In writing sphere
West Saxon had gained supremacy over other dialects (Kentish, Mercian, Northumbrian) while in oral
communication they possessed equal positions. OE was a typical OG language with a purely Germanic
vocabulary and few foreign borrowings, it was an inflected or synthetic L. with a well-developed system of
morphological categories, especially in the noun and adjective. Henry Sweet called this period the period of
full endings.
3rd period – Early Middle English starts after 1066 and covers 12 th, 13th and half of the 14th. It was the
stage of the greatest dialectal divergence caused by the feudal system and foreign influences – Scandinavian
and French. Under Norman rule the official language in England was French. The local dialects were mainly
used for oral communication and were but little employed in writing. Forwards the end of the period English
began to replace French in writing sphere as well as in many other spheres. It was a time of great changes at
all the levels of the language, especially in lexis and grammar. Two layers of lexical borrowings –
Scandinavian and French. High rate of changes. Grammatical alterations were so drastic that by the end of
the period they had transformed English into a mainly analytical language.
4th period – it lasted from the later 14 th till the end of the 15th and embraces the age of Chaucer. It is
called Late or Classical Middle English. It was the time of the restoration of English to the position of the
state and literary language and the time of literary flourishing. The main dialect in writing and literature –
mixed dialect of London. Because of literary efflorescence the language had a more or less fixed form.
Increasing proportion of French-loan words in English. The phonetic and grammatical structure had
incorporated and perpetuated the fundamental changes of the preceding period. Most of the inflections in the
nominal system (n., adj., pron.) had fallen together. Henry Sweet – the period of levelled endings. The verb
system was expanding – new analytical forms and verbal phrases on the way to becoming analytical forms.
5th – Early New English – lasted from the introduction of printing to the age of Shakespeare (1475 –
1660). The first printed book (1475) – William Caxton. The period of transition between the age of Chaucer
and the age of Shakespeare. Political and social structure, the progress of culture, education  formation of
the national English language. Changes had place at all levels. Extensive phonetic changes were
transforming the vowel system and it resulted in the gap between written and spoken forms of the word. The
loss of most inflectional endings – the period of lost endings by Henry Sweet. Great freedom of grammatical
constructions.
6th – the age of normalization and correctness. It lasted from the mid 17 th to the close of the 18 th. This
age witnessed the establishment of norms, which were fixed as rules and prescriptions of correct usage in the
numerous dictionaries and grammar books published at the time and were spread through education and
writing. Literary English differentiated into distinct styles. This period discouraged variety and free choice
of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. It was called – the period of fixing pronunciation. The great
sound shifts were over and pronunciation was being stabilized. Word usage and grammatical constructions
were subjected to restriction and normalization. The morphological system acquired a more strict
symmetrical pattern. The formation of new verbal grammatical categories was completed. Syntactical
structures were perfected and standardized.
7th – Late New English or Mored English – the 19th – 20th. By the 19th English had achieved the
relative stability typical of an age of literary florescence and had acquired all the properties of a national
language with its functional stratification and recognized standards. The 20 th witnessed considerable
intermixture of dialects. Local dialects were replaced be Standard English. The best form – Received
Pronunciation. Regional and local standards. English of upper class, middle, lower class. Growing of
vocabulary due to technological progress.
 2. Evolution of the nominal parts of speech from OE to NE.
When speaking of the nominal part of speech that is noun, adjective, pronoun and numeral, we should
say that the tendency of their development was simplification. It means that the paradigms of the parts of
speech were simplified. They lost some of the categories and those which remained consisted of fewer
members.
The noun: The OE noun had the category of case and number, besides they had masculine, feminine
and neuter gender and there were 25 types of declensions but only 10 distinct endings. The types of
declension are categorized according to the following features:
- the stem-suffix;
- the gender of nouns;
- the phonetic structure of the word, the phonetic changes in the final syllable.
The system distinguished the following declensions:
Vocalic stems (strong) a-stems; ja-stems; o-stems; jo-stems; i-stems; u-stems
declension
Consonantal stems n-stems (weak declension)
root-stems; r-stems; s-stems

The category of case consisted of 4 cases – Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative. The Nominative
case was the case of the subject and the predicative, it denoted the doer of the action. The Genitive case
showed that a noun was an attributive to another noun. According to its use it was divided into Subjective
Genitive and Objective Genitive.
The ending -es of the Genitive singular and -as of the Nominative and Accusative masculine began to
be added to the nouns of different stems and were the basis of the modern plural form and possessive case.
The Dative case was used with prepositions (on morƷene). The Accusative case indicated a relationship
to a verb; it was used as a direct object of the verb and denoted the subject of an action, the result of an
action.
Grammatical gender didn’t always correspond to sex: OE nouns wif (wife), mæʒden (maiden) were
Neuter but wifman (woman) was Masculine. So gender was a grammatical and not a semantic distinction. It
was connected with stems:
a-stems – Masculine and Neuter
o-stems – Feminine
i-stems – all genders
u-stems – M + F
root-stems – M + F
n-stems – all genders

In ME the number of cases reduced to 2. The Genitive case was no longer used as an object, it was used
attributively to modify a noun.
In the 11th-12th centuries the category of gender was lost. It became purely lexical and was defined with
nouns denoting animate beings, while inanimate things were referred to as “it”. As for the number the
ending -es became the most common marker.
In NE the plural number maker -es extended to more nouns and underwent some phonetic changes
(exceptions: oxen, children). The same form: sheep, deer, swine. Vocal gradation: man – men, tooth – teeth.
Since ending -es used for plural form and for possessive meaning by the end of the 17 th the apostrophe
began to be used, probably, instead of the vowel and to distinguish it from the plural form.
The pronoun
OE main classes of pronouns: personal, demonstrative, interrogative, indefinite (in NE + relative,
possessive, reflexive). The grammatical categories of the pronouns were either similar to those of nouns (in
noun-pronouns) or corresponded to those of adjectives (in adjective pronouns). Some features were peculiar
to them alone.
OE pronouns had 3 persons, 3 numbers in the 1st and 2nd person (singular, dual, plural) and 2 numbers in 3rd
person (singular and plural), 3 genders in 3rd person (M, F, N).
The pronouns of the 1st and 2nd person had suppletive forms:
N – ic; G. – min, D. – me, Acc. – mec, me
Personal pronouns began to lose some of their case distinctions (D. instead of Acc.).
The adjective
2 numbers, 3 genders, 5 cases, degree of comparison.
The number of cases in the adjective paradigm was reduced: the Instr. case had fused with the Dat. by the
end of OE; distinction of other cases in Early ME was unsteady, many forms of different cases coincided.
Weak and strong forms of adjectives used for different purposes: the strong forms were associated with the
meaning of indefiniteness (corresponding to the meaning of the modern indefinite article), the weak forms –
with the meaning of definiteness (corresponding to the definite article).
Although the category of Number was the most stable in all the periods, the tendency towards an uninflected
form affected also distinction of Number. The loss of final -e which served for distinction between singular
and plural in the transition to NE made the adjective an entirely uninflected part of speech.
The degrees of comparison is the only set of forms which the adjective has preserved through all historical
periods. However, the means employed to build up the forms of the degrees of comparison have
considerably altered.
Positive, comparative (-ra), superlative (-est/-ost). Sometimes suffixation was accompanied by an
interchange of the root-vowel: lonƷ  lenƷra  lenƷest (long).
Means of forming the degrees of comparison: suffixation, suffixation + vowel interchange, suppletion (Ʒod
– bettra – bet(e)st.
In ME emerged the new system of comparison similar to modern. More and most used with all kind of
adjectives, regardless of the number of syllables. In Early NE text the use of double
comparatives/superlatives were fund: more fresher, most unkindest.
 3. Development of the national literary English language.
The formation of the NLEL covers the Early NE period (1475 – 1660) but it continued its development
till the 19th century.
Economic and political unification. Conditions for linguistic unity
The formation of the national literary English language covers the Early New English period (1475-
1660). There were at least two major external factors, which favoured the rise of the national language and
literary standards: the unification of the country and the progress of culture.
Other historical events, such as increased foreign contacts, affected the language in a sell general way.
They influenced the growth of the vocabulary. As early as the 13th century within the feudal system new
economic relations began to take shape. The 15th and the 16th centuries saw other striking changes in the
life of the country. While feudal relations were decaying, bourgeois relations and the capitalist mode of
production were developing rapidly. Trade had extended beyond the local boundaries. In addition to farming
and cattle-breeding an important wool industry was carried on in the countryside. Britain began to export
woolen cloth produced by the first big enterprises, "the manufactures". The new nobility, who traded in
wool, fused with the rich townspeople to form a new class, the bourgeoisie, while the evicted farmers, the
poor artisans and monastic servants turned into farm labourers, wage workers and paupers.
Progress of culture. Introduction of printing
The 15th and the 16th centuries in Western Europe are marked by a renewed interest in classical art and
literature and by a general efflorescence of culture. The rise of a new vigorous social class – the bourgeoisie
– proved an enormous stimulus to the progress of learning, science, literature and art. The Universities at
Oxford and Cambridge became the centers of new humanistic learning. Education had ceased to be the
privilege of the clergy. As before, the main subject in schools was Latin. The English language was labeled
as "a rude and barren tongue", fit only to serve as an instrument in teaching Latin. Scientific and
philosophical treatises were written in Latin. Latin was not only the language of the church but also the
language of philosophy and science. The influence of classical languages on English grew and was reflected
in the enrichment of the vocabulary.
The invention of printing was one of the outstanding achievements of this great age. It had the most
immediate effect on the development of the language, its written form in particular. Printing was then called
"artificial writing". It was invented in Germany in 1438 by Johann Gutenberg. The first printer of English
books was William Caxton (1422-1491). During a visit to Cologne he learned the method of printing and in
1475 opened up his own printing press. The first English book printed in Bruges in 1475. Among the earliest
publications were the poems of Chaucer. Cheap printed books became available to a greater number of
readers and the London form of speech was carried to other written works produced all over England.
Foreign contacts and expansion of English
The Tudors encouraged the development of trade inside and outside the country. The great geographical
discoveries (beginning with the discovery of the New World in 1492) gave a new impetus to the progress of
foreign trade. English set forth on daring journeys in search of gold and treasures. Under the late Tudors
England became one of the biggest trade and sea powers.
The main events of the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603) were connected with the rise of merchant
capital. Ousting their rivals from many markets England became involved in the political struggle of the
European countries for supremacy. Most complicated were its relations with France, Spain and Portugal. In
1588 England defeated the Spanish fleet, the Invincible Armada, thus dealing a final blow to Spain, its main
rival in overseas trade and in colonial expansion. In the late 16th century England founded its first colonies
abroad. The contacts of England with foreign nations, although not necessarily friendly, became closer,
which had an inevitable influence on the growth of the vocabulary. As Britain consolidated into a single
powerful state, it extended its borders to include Wales, Scotland and part of Ireland. By the end of the Early
New English period the area of English had expanded to embrace the whole of the British Isles with the
exception of some mountainous parts of Wales and Scotland, the Isle of Man, Cornwall, and some parts of
Ireland, - though even in most of these regions the people were becoming bilingual.
Establishment of the Written Standards
Towards the end of Early New English, that is by the middle of the 17th century, one of the forms of the
national literary language – its Written Standard – had probably been established. Its growth and recognition
as the correct or "prestige" form of the language of writing had been brought about by the factors: the
economic and political unification of the country, the progress of culture and education and the flourishing
of literature. In the 15th and the 16th centuries the speech of London became still more mixed owing to
increased intermixture of the population. The capital attracted newcomers from different regions of the
country. Elements of various provincial dialects were incorporated in the spoken and written forms of
London speech. The written Standard of the early 17th century was, however, far less stabilized and
normalized than the literary standards of later ages.
The writings of the Renaissance display a wide range of variations at all linguistic levels: in spelling, in
the sphere of grammatical forms and word-building devices, in syntactical patterns and in choice and use of
words. Variants are employed as equivalents or "near-equivalents" without any noticeable dialectal or
stylistic connotations, although they may have originated from different localities, social groups or literary
genres. This linguistic "freedom" is accounted for by the wide social and geographical foundation of the
literary language, by broad contacts of the literary language with folklore and oral speech, and by the
increased amount of written matter produced. They were scientific and philosophical compositions, letters
and diaries, poetry and literary prose, drama and official papers.
The age of literary Renaissance, which enriched the language in many ways and was marked by great
linguistic freedom, was followed by the period of "normalization" or a period of "fixing the language". This
age set great store by correctness and simplicity of expressions. The language of Shakespeare and his
contemporaries struck the authors the authors of the late 17th century as rude and unpolished, though neo-
classicists never reached the heights of the Renaissance writers. The 18th century is remarkable for
deliberate attempts to fix the language and interfere with its evolution. Among the exponents of this
movement were the writer J.Swift (1667-1745), the founders of the first English newspaper R.Steele and
J.Addison, the authors of prescriptive English grammar and the great 18th century lexicographers.
The grammars of the 18th century were influenced both by the descriptions of classical languages and
by the principles of logic. They wished to present language as a strictly logical system. The main purpose of
these grammars was to formulate rules based on logical considerations and to present them as fixed and
obligatory. Grammars were designed to restrict and direct linguistic change. This type of grammars is
known as "prescriptive" or "normative" grammars. The grammars and dictionaries of the 18th century
succeeded in formulating the rules of usage, partly from observation but largely from the "doctrine of
correctness", and laid them down as norms to be taught as patterns of correct English. Codification of norms
of usage by means of conscious efforts on the part of man helped in standardizing the language and in fixing
its Written and Spoken Standards. The Written Standard had probably been fixed and recognized by the
beginning of the 17th century.
The next stage in the growth of the national literary language was the development of the spoken
Standard. The dating of this event appears to be more problematic. It seems obvious that in the 18th century
the speech of educated people differed from that of common, uneducated people – in pronunciation, in the
choice of words and in grammatical construction. The number of educated people was growing and their
way of speaking was regarded as correct. The earliest feasible date for the emergence of the Spoken
Standard is the late 17th century. Some authors refer it to the end of the "normalization" period. The latter
date (the end of the 18th century) seems to be more realistic, as by that time current usage had been
subjected to conscious regulation and had become more uniform. The rules formulated in the prescriptive
grammars and dictionaries must have had their effect not only on the written but also on the spoken forms of
the language. The spoken forms, even when standardized, were never as stable as the Written Standard. Oral
speech changed under the influence of sub-standard forms of the language, more easily than the written
forms. Thus by the end of the 18th century the formation of the national literary English language may be
regarded as complete, for now it possessed both a Written and a Spoken Standards.
 4. Evolution of the sound system in ME and NE.
The sound system of the English language has undergone profound changes in the thousand years which
have elapsed since the Old English period. The changes affected the pronunciation of words, word stress,
and the system of vowel and consonant phonemes. The change of the sound system can be grouped into two
main stages:
 Early Middle English changes, which show the transition from Written Old English to Late Middle
English – the age of literary flourishing or "the age of Chaucer";
 Early New English changes, which show the transition from Middle English to later New English –
the language of the 18th and the 19th centuries.
In OE: the prefix or the root of the word were stressed while the suffixes and endings were unstressed. In
Early ME the word accent acquired greater positional freedom and began to play a more important role in
word derivation. These changes were connected with the phonetic assimilation of thousands of loan words
adopted during the ME period. Under the rhythmic tendency, a secondary stress would arise at a distance of
one syllable from the original stress.
Extensive changes of vowels are one of the most remarkable features of English linguistic history. A variety
of changes affected vowels in stressed syllables.
One of the most important of them was the Great Vowel Shift. Early Middle English witnessed the greatest
event in the history of English vowels - the Great Vowel Shift – which involved the change of all Middle
English long monophthongs, and probably some of the diphthongs. The Great Vowel Shift is the name given
to a series of changes of long vowels between the 14th and the18th centuries. During this period all the long
vowels became closer or were diphthongised. The changes can be defined as "independent".
As they were not caused by any apparent phonetic conditions in the syllable or in the word, but they affected
regularly every stressed long vowel in any position. As the spelling had been already stabilized the Great
Vowel Shift was not reflected in it. As a result the meaning of the letters and digraphs designating long
vowels has changed radically. The separate stages of the changes in the system of long vowels in the process
of the Great Vowel Shift can be shown as following:
a: > ei; : > e: > i:; i: > ai; : > ou; o: > u:; u: . au.
If we compare the system of long vowels of the pre-Great Vowel Shift period with the system of the post
Great Vowel Shift period, we have to state that there appeared no new vowels, that is the Great Vowel Shift
did not result in any new vowels. So we should rather speak of rearrangement of long vowels:
Middle English New English
[ei] wey [ei] make
[i:] time [i:] see
[e:] seen [i:] sea
[ai] sayde [ai] time
[ou] howe [ou] go
[u:] hous [u:] moon
[au] drawen [au] house
+At the same time the essence of this phonetic change consists in the fact that the distribution of the long
vowels became different: the sound [i:] occurs in the New English word see which was pronounced
as [se:] in Middle English, but the same sound does not occur in the new English word time which was
pronounced as [ti:m ] in Middle English. The Great Vowel Shift was the most profound and comprehensive
change in the history of English vowels. Every long vowel, as well as some diphthongs, was "shifted", and
the pronunciation of all the words with these sounds was altered. The problem of the Great Vowel Shift has
attracted the attention of many linguists and still remains unsolved.
 5. The role of the foreign element at different stages of the English language development.
From the earliest stages, English came into contact with a number of different foreign languages. The
interaction of speakers of English with foreigners inevitably influenced the structure of the English
language. The most noticeable influence of contact languages was on the vocabulary, though other levels of
the language system were affected as well.
The Old English vocabulary was almost purely Germanic and the number of borrowings was very low.
The oldest layer of the Old English vocabulary is formed by words which are common to all or nearly all
Indo-European languages: terms of kinship (brōðor, sweostor, mōdor, dohtor, sunu), parts of human body
(næġl, beard), names of natural phenomena and of plants and animals (sunne, mōna, mere ‘sea’, snāw,
trēōw, wulf, ottor, eolh ‘elk’), verbs referring to the basic activities of man (dōn, bēōn), adjectives denoting
the most essential qualities (long, nīwe), personal and demonstrative pronouns and numerals (iċ, þū, mīn,
twā, þrī).
The common Germanic layer contains words connected with nature (eorþe, land, sand, sea, sċēāp
‘sheep’, fox) and with human life and activities (arm, fi ndan, macian, steorfan, singan). The Old English
vocabulary contained a small group of words which are not found in other Germanic dialects. There are very
few etymologically independent words, e.g. brid ‘bird’ and clipian ‘to call’. Most words in this category are
compounds or derivations based on Germanic roots, e.g. wīfman, hlāford (hlāf ‘bread’, ModE loaf, + weard
‘keeper’; hlāford was ultimately shortened to lord), hlǣfdiġe (hlāf + *diġ- ‘kneed’; ultimately shortened to
lady), sċīrġerēfa (sċīr ‘shire, county’ + ġerēfa ‘chief ’, ultimately shortened to sheriff). The number of
borrowings into Old English is very low, the estimate being about 3 %. Most of them came from Latin.
Celtic influence. Although Anglo-Saxons were in contact with Celtic tribes both on the Continent and
after their arrival in Britain, the lexical influence of Celtic languages on English is limited to place names
(e.g. Avon, Devon, Dover, Thames, York) and a small number of common nouns. An important word that
entered English via the Celtic Old Irish language (Old Gaelic) is the word cross (of Latin origin).
Latin influence. Old English was influenced by Latin in three stages. In the first stage Latin words
were taken over when the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians were still on the continent, i.e. before the
beginning of the development of Old English. the second and the third stages occurred on English soil and
connected with the arrival of Christianity and with the Benedictine reform. The borrowings were all
motivated by the need for the denotation of new concepts. the Old English Latin borrowings thus differ from
Latin borrowings in the Middle English and Early Modern English periods (during the revival of learning),
in which Latin words were often taken over although adequate native words were available
Scandinavian influence. A rough estimate of loans from Scandinavian is 700–900 words, aside from
archaic or regional items. Most of the Scandinavian words were adopted during the Middle English period,
when central and northern dialects of English, which had been in close contact with the Scandinavian
language since the 9th century, became more prominent than southern dialects. During the Old English
period, probably only about 100 words were borrowed from Scandinavian. An important element of the
Scandinavian influence is the introduction of non-palatalized pronunciations in words like skirt, kettle, dike,
give, or egg. In Old English, the original Proto-Germanic consonants k [k], sc [sk], and ʒ [ɣ], were
palatalized in the neighbourhood of palatal vowels into [tS], [S], and [j]. Palatalization, however, did not
take place in Scandinavian dialects. Most ModE words with [k], [sk], and [g] (from [ɣ]) in the
neighbourhood of palatal vowels (in the case of [sk] even in the neighbourhood of velar vowels) are
therefore of Scandinavian origin, for example scale, skill, skin, score, skulk, sky, get, give, egg.
 6. The English consonants and vowels as units of the phonological system. Their articulatory
transitions in speech.
The distinction between C and V is based mainly on auditory effect. Cs are known to have noise and
sometimes noise combined with voice whereas vowels are the sounds consisting of voice only.
From the articulatory point of view the difference is in the working of speech organs.
Vowels – there is no obstruction is made. On perception level the integral characteristic is tone, not
noise.
Consonants – the various obstructions are made which characterized by a complete, partial and
intermittent blockage of air passage.
Consonants:
according to the work of vocal cords and force of exhalation: voiced and voiceless;
according to active organ of speech and place of articulation: labial (bilabial, labio-dental), lingual
(fore-lingual, medio-lingual, back-lingual), glottal/pharyngal;
according to the manner of noise production and the type of obstruction: occlusive (nasal, noise/stops
(plosives), constructive (sonorants, noise (fricative));
according to the position of soft palate: nasal, oral.
Vowels:
according to the position of lips: (rounded, unrounded);
according to the position of tongue:
horizontal movement: front, front-retracked, central, back-advanced, back;
vertical movement: high (close), middle (mid-open), low (open);
according to the degree of tension: tense or lax;
according to the length: long, short
In the process of speech, that is in the process of transition from the articulatory work of one sound to
the articulatory work of the neighbouring one, sounds are modified. These modifications can be conditioned
by:
- complementary distribution of phonemes (within a word);
- the contextual variations in which phonemes may occur at the junctions of words;
- the style of speech: official or rapid colloquial.
Assimilation is a modification of a consonant under the influence of a neighbouring consonant. When a
consonant is modified under the influence of an adjacent vowel or vice versa this phenomenon is called
adaptation or accommodation.
When one of the neighbouring sounds is not realized in rapid or careless speech this process is called
elision: a box of matches (may be pronounced without [v]).
Assimilation:
- progressive – voiced (c→d – partly devoiced);
- regressive – at the (t← ð – t becomes dental);
- reciprocal/double – track. When /d/ sound meet /y/ sound in “they called you” ( ðei ka:ld ju )
becomes they called you ( ðei ka: ldʒu: ). The two phonemes are influence each other and make a
new sound. The process of dental sound /d/ meet /y/ →/j/ is produce a new sound /dʒ/
 7. The system of phonological oppositions in English.
Phonology has its own methods of investigation. Semantic method is applied for phonologic analysis
and is based on a phonemic role that phonemes can distinguish words and morphemes that opposed each
other.
The phonemes of a language form a system of oppositions, in which any one phoneme is usually
opposed to any other phoneme in at least one position, in at least one minimal pair. If the substitution of one
sound for another results in the change of the meaning, the commuted sounds are different phonemes,
speech sounds, which are phonologically significant.
It consists in systematic substitution of one sound for another in order to find out in which cases such
replacing leads to a change of meaning where the phonetic context remains the same. The procedure is
called the communication test which consists in finding minimal pairs in their grammatical forms:
[pen] – [ben], [gein] – [kein], [ten] – [den].
The articulatory features that serve to distinguish meaning are called distinctive (relevant) features.
Minimal distinctive features are discovered through oppositions. This method helps to prove whether the
phonemic difference is relevant or not, whether the opposition is single, double or multiple.
Trubetskoy elaborated the classification the classification of phonological opposition which is based on
the number pf distinctive articulatory features underline the opposition^
- if the opposition is based on a single difference in the articulation of two speech sounds it is turned a
single phonological opposition: [pen] – [ten] – different place of articulation;
- if the sounds in distinctive opposition have 2 differences in articulation it is a double phonological
opposition: [pen] – [den] – place of articulation + voiced/voiceless (fortis-lenis opposition);
- if there are 3 differences within the minimal pairs we observe a triple phonological opposition:
[peɪ] – [ðeɪ] – place of articulation + fortis – lenis opposition + manner of production
(occlusive/constrictive).
The articulatory features which do not serve to distinguish meaning are called non-distinctive
(irrelevant). For example, it is impossible in English to oppose an aspirated [p] to a non-aspirated one in the
same phonetic context to distinguish meanings. That is why aspiration is a nondistinctive feature of English
consonants.
 8. Phoneme and allophone. Types of allophones.
Phoneme is the minimal linguistic unit which is capable of differentiating words, morphemes and even
utterances and which is socially accepted in the given human community.
Phoneme is a functional unit – serves for distinguishing the morpheme from another: bath – path, like –
light (opposition_ - distinctive function.
Phoneme is material, real and objective unit, it is realized in speech in the form of specific sounds, its
allophone accomplishing a constitutive function.
Phoneme performs a recognitive function because of the use of the right allophones and other phonetic
units, facilitates normal recognition.
When phoneme retain its typical articulatory characteristics it is called the principal allophone which do
not undergo any distinguishable changes in speech: [d] is occlusive, fore-lingual, apical, alveolar, lenis –
that is how it sound in isolation or as in words ‘door’, ‘dawn’.
The allophones that occur under the influence of the neighbouring sounds in different situations are
called subsidiary. Allophone is a sound that is slightly different from another sound, although both sounds
belong to the same phoneme and the difference does not affect meaning: little [l] at the beginning is different
from the [l] at the end.
den – [d] – principal allophone, because it has no influence of the neighbouring sounds
dean – [d] is partially subsidiary (slightly palatalized before front vowels)
Allophones of the same phoneme have similar articulating features but at the same time then can show
considerable phonetic differences; they never occur in the same phonetic context, they are not capable of
differentiating the meaning.
The feature without a change of meaning are called relevant (or distinctive).
The invariant of a phoneme is a bundle of its distinctive features (a native speaker’s generalized
variant).
Learners of English usually make mistakes in the articulation of particular sounds. L.V. Shcherba
classifies the pronunciation errors as phonological and phonetic.
If an allophone of some phoneme is replaced by an allophone of a different phoneme the mistake is
called phonological, because the meaning of the word is inevitably affected. It happens when one or more
relevant features (those ones that are capable of differentiating meanings) of the phoneme are not realized.
When the vowel [i:] in the word beat becomes slightly more open, more advanced or is no longer
diphthongized the word beat may be perceived as quite a different word bit. It is perfectly clear that this type
of mistakes is not admitted in teaching pronunciation to any type of language learner.
If an allophone of some phoneme is replaced by another allophone of the same phoneme the mistake is
called phonetic, because the meaning of the word is not affected. When the vowel [i:] is fully long in such a
word as sheep, the meaning of the word does not change. Nevertheless, language learners should try to avoid
phonetic mistakes in their pronunciation. If they do make them the degree of their foreign accent can be an
obstacle to the listener’s perception and understanding (M.A. Sokolova).
 9. General characteristics of MnE structure.
The grammatical structure of language is a system of means used to turn linguistic units into communicative
ones, in other words – the units of language into the units of speech. Such means are inflexions, affixation,
word order, function words and phonological means.
Generally speaking, Indo-European languages are classified into two structural types
– synthetic and analytic. Synthetic languages are defined as ones of ‘internal’ grammar of the word – most
of grammatical meanings and grammatical relations of words are expressed with the help of inflexions
(Ukrainian - зроблю, Russian, Latin, etc). Analytical languages are those of ‘external’ grammar because
most grammatical meanings and grammatical forms are expressed with the help of words (will do).
However, we cannot speak of languages as purely synthetic or analytic – the English language (Modern
English) possesses analytical forms as prevailing, while in the Ukrainian language synthetic devices are
dominant. In the process of time English has become more analytical as compared to Old English.
Analytical changes in Modern English (especially American) are still under way.
In Modern English analytical means of expressing syntactical relations are represented by:
- word order;
- function words;
- prop words;
- analytical formation
The word order is essential to the meaning of a sentence. The meaning of an utterance is rendered by its
grammatical structure, while the shape of a word plays minor role.
Inflexions and word changing for grammatical paradigm:
- affixation ([s,z,iz], [t,d,id], [in]) – homonymy on grammatical level
- morphophonemic alteration: sing – sang – sung, mouse – mice, this – these
- suppletive formation: am – is – are – was – were – be – been, good – better – the best, I – my – mine
– me, person – people.
Function words: prepositions, conjunctions, articles.
Prop words: one, absolute pronouns, those (She is going to have a long vacation this year and I suppose you
are also going to.)
The secondary predication is related to the situation of speech indirectly, through the primary predication.
 10. The English noun, its semantic and grammatical peculiarities.
The noun denotes “substance” or “thingness”. It is considered to be the main nominative part of speech
(name things, living beings, places, materials, processes, states, abstract notions and qualities)
Practically any part of speech can be substantivized: He’s been working like a black. We had ice-cream for
afters.
Nouns fall into proper and common. Common nouns are subdivided into count and non-count. The former
are inflected for number where the latter are not. Further distinction is into concrete, abstract and material.
Concrete nouns fall into three subclasses:
1. Nouns denoting animate beings (living beings) – persons and animals.
2. Nouns denoting inanimate objects.
3. Collective nouns denoting a group of persons. These may be further subdivided into: collective
nouns proper denoting both a group consisting of separate individuals and at the same time considered as a
single body. (The family were on friendly but guarded terms.) and nouns of multitude which are always
associated with the idea of plurality, they denote a group of separate individuals: police, clergy, cattle (The
police here are efficient)
According to their morphological composition nouns can be divided into simple (one root morpheme),
derived (affixes), compound (more than one roots)
Grammatical categories of number and case. Most nouns have both a singular and plural form, expressing a
contrast between “one” and “more than one” (variable nouns). When nouns are used only in sg or pl –
invariable nouns.
The case-system of English nouns.
English makes very few gender distinctions. The category of gender is expressed by the obligatory
correlation of nouns with the personal pronouns of the third person. These serve as specific gender
classifiers of nouns.
English nouns can show the sex of their referents (biological distinctions) by means of:
1) root formations: king – queen, gentleman – lady, monk – nun
2) suffixal derivation: actor – actress, hero – heroine
3) word composition: he-bear – she-bear, tom-cat – tabby-cat, boy-friend – girl-friend
Combinability of the noun is closely connected with its lexico-grammatical meaning. They have left-hand
connections with articles, some pronouns, most adjectives, numerals. With prepositions nouns have both
left-hand and right-hand connections, but only left-hand connections are a characteristic feature of the noun,
since most parts of speech may have right-hand connections with prepositions.
English nouns can also easily combine with one another by sheer contact. In the contact group the noun,
which stands in preposition, plays the role of a semantic qualifier to the noun in post-position: a garden
chair, a table lamp
Functions: the subject and the object. Other syntactic functions – attributive, adverbial, predicative – are not
immediately characteristic of the substantive quality of the noun.
 11. The English verb, its semantic and grammatical properties.
The general categorial meaning of the verb is “action”, “process”, presented dynamically. Divided into
notional (possessing full lexical meaning and the ability to make a sentence alone) and semi-notional verbs.
Semi-notional and functional verbs have very general “faded” lex. meanings as in be, have, become, seem,
can, may, must or structural meaning as with do, shall, will, where the meaning of “action” is almost
obliterated. Include such groups as: auxiliaries, link-verbs, modal verbs, semi-notional verbid introducer
verbs (M.Y. Blokh’s classification)
Auxiliary verbs constitute grammatical elements of the categorial forms of the verb: be, have, do, shall,
will. They serve to build up analytical forms in the conjugation of the English verb.
Some grammarians treat link-verbs as altogether devoid of all lexical meaning (meaningful content). If it
were so there would be no difference between: He is old. He becomes old. A link-verb is followed by a
predicative or in other words it introduces the nominal part of the predicate which is commonly expressed
by a noun, an adjective, or a phrase of a similar semantico-grammatical character. The linking function in
the purest form is, perhaps, expressed by the verb “be” – a pure link-verb. All the other link-verbs express
some specification of this general predicative – linking semantics. Subdivided into: those expressing
perceptions (seem, appear, look, feel, taste), those expressing non-perceptional or “factual” link-verb
connection (become, get, grow, remain, keep).
Modal verbs are characterized:
1) by their peculiar modal meanings; the meaning of “action, process” common to all verbs is scarcely
felt, being suppressed by the modal meanings: ability, permission, doubt, supposition, necessity, etc. to
perform an action denoted by a notional verb;
2) by their peculiar combinability, which is also bilateral like that of link-verbs, but unlike link-verbs
which can attach different parts of speech, modal verbs are followed only by infinitives;
3) by their syntactic function; having no non-finite forms, they are used only as predicates.
Semi-notional verbid introducer verbs are distributed among the verbal sets: seem, happen, turn out, try,
manage, fail, begin, continue, stop.
The predicator verbs should be strictly distinguished from their grammatical homonyms in the subclasses of
notional verbs: They began to fight. They began the fight.
Grammatical categories: person, number, time, mood (indicative – subjunctive, imperative – non
imperative), aspect (cont. – non cont.), voice (act. – pass.), time correlation (perfect – non – perfect)
Combinability is closely connected with its lexico-grammatical meaning. It is naturally associated 1) with
nouns and noun – equivalents: either the doer of the action or the recipient of the action, 2) with adverbs and
their equivalents qualifying an action.
The most typical function of the finite verb in the sentence is the predicate. The non-finite forms have other
functions but they can perform the function of secondary predicates in secondary predications: I saw him
close the door. His coming so late annoyed us.
 12. Non-finite forms of the English verb, and their use in predicative complexes.
Non-finite forms denote a secondary action related to that expressed by the finite form of the verb-predicate.
This grammatical opposition is based on the notion "finitude" which was introduced by Barbara Strang in
"Modern Engl Structure".
The non-finites possess a double nature. The Infinitive and Gerund have verb and noun features, Part. I and
II – verb, adjective and adverb features. The main verbal feature of the Infinitive and Participles – can be
used as a part of analytical form: will do, is working, is built, have come.
They have only 3 grammatical categories – Aspect, Voice, Time Correlation
There's also duality in their combinability. They form combinations with adverbs, nouns, pronouns
(denoting objects or circumstances of actions) and thus perform verbal functions in the sentence. They also
can be combined with finite verbs like nouns or adverbs, performing non-verbal functions in the sentence.
Their syntactic functions are quite different from those of the finite verbs. They are very rarely used as
predicates (except secondary ones) but they are employed for almost any other function in the sentence.
The non-finites unable to express the predicative meanings of time and mood still express the so-called
secondary or potential predication, forming syntactic complexes directly related to certain types of
subordinate clauses: We could hear someone singing in the next room
The complex is not self-dependent in a predicative sense. It normally exists only as a part of a sentence
which is built up by means of primary predicative constructions that have a finite verb as their backbone.
The Infinitive has 2 variants marked and unmarked. The marked Infinitive is an analytical form,
characterized by the morpheme to +  Inf., the unmarked Infinitive, contrariwise, is a bare infinitive, the
one having a zero ending Inf.: I saw him swim – He was seen to swim.
The –ing form is characterized by the morpheme -ing, which is represented by the only allomorph  the
suffix i. Traditional grammar distinguishes between two different sets of homonymous forms with the
suffix -ing Participle I (Pr.S.) and the Gerund (is used as a subject or an object).
Participle II is characterized by the morpheme {-en} represented by a greater number of allomorphs than
the morphemes of the Infinitive and the -ing form. Most productive are the three phonologically conditioned
allomorphs /d/, /t/, /id/. Others are  the suffix (-en), e.g. taken, fallen; simplyin, e.g. known; a zero
morph, e.g. put, set; etc.
As the Participle has only one form, it does not possess any of the grammatical categories of the Infinitives
and the —ing form. The grammatical meaning of the Participle is closely connected with the lexical
character of the verb. The participle is, in the main, formed from transitive verbs and has passive meaning.
It was a question put down by one of the correspondents.
Predicative complexes:
the Objective-with-the-Infinitive Construction (I always liked him to sing)
the For-to-Infinitive Construction (She pause for him to continue)
Gerundial Construction (Don’t you object to out smoking in here?)
Half-Gerundial Construction (I don’t think them coming too)
the Objective Participial Construction with Part. I (I saw John playing tennis)
the Objective Participial Construction with Part. II (The drill left the team exhausted. He got the house
painted)
 13. Etymological survey of the English vocabulary.
The term “etymology” comes from Greek and it means the study of the earliest forms of the word. Now
etymology studies both: the form and the meaning of borrowed and native words. In every modern language
there are native and borrowed words. The English vocabulary contains the native element and the borrowed
elements. The native element includes Indo-European, Germanic element and English proper element: boy,
girl, lord, lady – proper English word.
By the native element we mean words which were not borrowed from other languages. The number of
native words is rather small, about 25%-30%. About 70% of words are borrowed.
Today the accepted point of view is that Eng. is a Germanic language and the mixed character of its
vocabulary is one of its main features. It can be proved by the fact that in speech the correlation between
native and borrow words is different. It was found out that in the works of English classics about 80% of
words are native. (prepositions, modal and auxiliary verbs, a great many irregular verbs, some nouns and
adjectives denoting everyday notions). The native element includes Indo-European, Germanic and English
proper words. Indo-European words have cognates in other IE languages. EG: English words of this group
denote elementary concepts without which no human communication would be possible. day, night, mother,
father, son, daughter.
Germanic words have cognates in modern Germanic languages. EG: They denote parts of human body:
hand, head, arm, bone. Animals: fox, bear. English proper words don’t have any cognates in other
languages: lord, lady, boy, girl.
The term “borrowing” may mean the process of borrowing and the result of the process-the word itself.
The term source of borrowing means the language which from the word was taking into English. EG:
delicious was taken from French so, French is the source of borrowing. The term origin of borrowing
denotes the language to which the word may be traced. EG: the word “school is a Latin borrowing. (It comes
from Latin) of greek origin. It means that to Latin (it) came from Greek. “to adore” came from French.
There are different reasons for borrowing words, linguistic and extro-lingustic (historic) reason. Historic
reasons include wars and conquest and peaceful contacts as well. The main linguistic reason are the
following: 1.) a gap in vocabulary. EG: potato, tomato were borrowed from Spanish, when these vegetables
were brought to the British island. So, the word were borrowed together with notions which they denoted.
2.) To present the same notion in a new aspect, from a different point of view. EG: The French word “to
adore” was added to native words “to like” and “to love”, to denote the strongest degree of the process.
The main groups of borrowing are:
- the three layers of dating borrowing
- borrowings from French
- borrowing from Scandinavian
Translation-loan(s) (калька) – are borrowings which are made up by means of literally translating
words and word combinations. EG: from the Russian language: пятилетка – five-year plan. from German:
Wunderkind – wonder child. from Italian: prima ballerina – first dancer.
Doublets are words which have the same origin but they are different in phonetic shape and in meaning.
Doublets appeared in English in different ways.
1) One of the pair may be a native word and the other a borrowed one. EG: the word “shirt” is a native
one. “skirt” was borrowed from Scandinavian. (одежда)
2) Both the words are borrowed, but from different languages. EG: senior (from Latin) sir (from French)
3) Both the words are borrowed from one of the same language, but at different period of time. EG:
cavalry (Normandy French) – кавалерия. Chivalry (Parisian Language) – рыцарство (ch-показывает о
более позднем происхождение)
4) Shortening may bring to life etymological doublets. EG: history and story, defense and fence.
International words are the words, which borrowed by several language, among international words are
names of sciences (phonetic, physics, political terms, sports, name of fruits, foods)
With the famous Battle of Hastings, when the English were defeated by the Normans under William the
Conqueror, we come to the eventful epoch of the Norman Conquest. The epoch can well be called eventful
not only in national, social, political and human terms, but also in linguistic terms. England became a bi-
lingual country, and the impact on the English vocabulary made over this two-hundred-years period is
immense: French words from the Norman dialect penetrated every aspect of social life. Here is a very brief
list of examples of Norman French borrowings.
Administrative words: state, government, parliament, council, power.
Legal terms: court, judge, justice, crime, prison.
 Military terms: army, war, soldier, officer, battle, enemy.
Educational terms: pupil, lesson, library, science, pen, pencil.
The native element The borrowed element
I. Indo-European I. Celtic (5th – 6th c. A.D.)
II. Germanic II. Latin
III. English proper (no earlier that 5th c. A.D.) a. 1st group – 1st c. B.C.
b. 2nd group – 7th c. A.D.
c. 3rd group – the Renaissance period
III.Scandinavian (8th – 11th c. A.D.)
IV.French
a. Norman borrowings (11th – 13th c.)
b. Parisian borrowings (Renaissance)
V. Greek (Renaissance)
VI.Italian (Renaissance and later)
VII. Spanish (Renaissance and later)
VIII. German
IX.Indian
X. Russian and some other groups
 14. Homonymy in English: sources of homonymy; classification of English homonyms.
Homonyms are words which are identical in sound and spelling, or, at least, in one of these aspects, but
different in their meaning, e.g. bank, n-a shore, bank, n-an institution for receiving, lending, and
safeguarding money, ball, n-a sphere, any spherical body, ball, n-a large dancing party.
The most widely accepted classification of homonyms is the following: homonyms proper, homophones
and homographs.
Homonyms proper are words identical in pronunciation and spelling, like bark, in “the noise made by a
dog”, bark, n “the skin of a tree».
Homophones are words of the same sound but of different spelling and meaning: air-heir, buy-bye,
knight-night, peace-piece, write, right, rite.
Homographs are words different in sound and in meaning but accidentally identical in spelling: bow
[bou] – bow [bau], lead [li: d] – lead [led], row [rou] – row [rau], wind [wind] – wind [waind].
Professor A. I. Smirnitsky classified homonyms into two large classes: full homonyms and partial
homonyms.
Full lexical homonyms are words which represent the same category of parts of speech and have the
same paradigm. Ex. Match, n – a game, a contest ----- Match, n - a short piece of wood used for producing
fire.
Partial homonyms are subdivided into three large groups:
A) Simple lexico-grammatical homonyms words which belong to the same category of parts of speech.
Their paradigms have one identical form, but it is never the same form (to find – found (Past Indef., Past
Part. of to find)
B) Complex lexico-grammatical partial homonyms are words of different categories of part of speech
which have one identical form in their paradigms. e.g. rose, n - rose, v (Past Indef. Of to rise)
C) Partial lexical homonyms are words of the same category of parts of speech which are identical only
in their corresponding forms. (to hang (hung, hung), v - to hang (hanged, hanged), to can (canned, canned -
can (could).
Sources of homonyms
One of the sources of homonyms is phonetic changes which words undergo in the course of their
historical development. As a result of such changes, two or more words which were formerly pronounced
differently may develop identical sound forms and thus become homonyms. (Night and knight).
Borrowing is another source of homonyms. A borrowed word may, in the final stage of its phonetic
adaptation, duplicate in form either a native word or another borrowing. Bank, n (“shore”) – is a native
word, and bank, n (“a financial institution”) is an Italian borrowing.
Word-building also contributes significantly to the growth of homonymy, and the most important type
in this respect is undoubtedly conversion. Such pairs of words as comb, n. — to comb, v., pale, adj. — to
pale, v., to make, v. — make, n. are numerous in the vocabulary. Homonyms of this type, which are the
same in sound and spelling but refer to different categories of parts of speech, are called lexico-grammatical
homonyms.
Shortening is a further type of word-building which increases the number of homonyms. E. g. fan, n. in
the sense of «an enthusiastic admirer of sport or of an actor, singer, etc.» is a shortening produced from
fanatic. Its homonym is a Latin borrowing fan, n. which denotes an implement for waving lightly to produce
a cool current of air.
Words made by sound-imitation can also form pairs of homonyms with other words: e. g. bang, n. («a
loud, sudden, explosive noise») — bang, n. («a fringe of hair combed over the forehead»). Also: mew, n.
(«the sound a cat makes») — mew, n. («a sea gull»).
Two or more homonyms can originate from different meanings of the same word when, for some
reason, the semantic structure of the word breaks into several parts. This type of formation of homonyms is
called split polysemy.
board, n. — a long and thin piece of timber board, n. — daily meals, esp. as provided for pay, e. g. room
and board; board, n. — an official group of persons who direct or supervise some activity, e. g. a board of
directors.
spring, n. — the act of springing, a leap spring, n. — a place where a stream of water comes up out of
the earth (R. родник, источник) spring, n. — a season of the year.
 15. The problem of semantic change in English: its causes, nature and results.
1. Not only the sound-form but also the meaning of the word is changed in the course of the historical
development of language. The factors causing semantic changes may be roughly subdivided into extra-
linguistic and linguistic causes. Among extra-linguistic causes it is possible to single out such as various
changes in the life of the speech community, changes in economic and social structure, changes in ideas,
scientific concepts, way of life and other spheres of human activities. To linguistic causes we can write
down for example discrimination of synonyms. Although objects, institutions, concepts, etc. change in the
course of time in many cases the sound form of the words which denote them is retained but the meaning of
the words is changed. The word car, e.g., ultimately goes back to Latin carrus which meant ‘a four-wheeled
wagon’ (ME. carre) but now that other means of transport are used it denotes ‘a motor-car’, ‘a railway
carriage’ (in the USA), ‘that portion of an airship, or balloon which is intended to carry personnel, cargo or
equipment’.
Some changes of meaning are due to what may be described as purely linguistic causes, i.e. factors
acting within the language system. The commonest form which this influence takes is the so-called ellipsis.
In a phrase made up of two words one of these is omitted and its meaning is transferred to its partner. The
verb to starve, e.g., in Old English (OE. steorfan) had the meaning ‘to die’ and was habitually used in
collocation with the word hunger (ME. sterven of hunger). Already in the 16th century the verb itself
acquired the meaning ‘to die of hunger’. Similar semantic changes may be observed in Modern English
when the meaning of one word is transferred to another because they habitually occur together in speech.
Another linguistic cause is discrimination of synonyms which can be illustrated by the semantic
development of a number of words. The word land, e.g., in Old English (OE. land) meant both ’solid part of
earth’s surface’ and ‘the territory of a nation’. When in the Middle English period the word country (OFr.
contree) was borrowed as its synonym, the meaning of the word land was somewhat altered and ‘the
territory of a nation’ came to be denoted mainly by the borrowed word country.
2. Change of meaning is effected through association between the existing meaning and the new. This
association is generally based on the similarity of meaning (metaphor) or on the contiguity of meaning
(metonymy).
Similarity of meanings or metaphor may be described as a semantic process of associating two
referents, one of which in some way resembles the other. The word hand, e.g., acquired in the 16th century
the meaning of ‘a pointer of a clock of a watch’ because of the similarity of one of the functions performed
by the hand (to point at something) and the function of the clockpointer. Since metaphor is based on the
perception of similarities it is only natural that when an analogy is obvious, it should give rise to a
metaphoric meaning. This can be observed in the wide currency of metaphoric meanings of words denoting
parts of the human body in various languages (cf. ‘the leg of the table’, ‘the foot of the hill’, etc.).
It has also been observed that in many speech communities colour terms, e.g. the words black and
white, have metaphoric meanings in addition to the literal denotation of colours.
Contiguity of meanings or metonymy may be described as the semantic process of associating two
referents one of which makes part of the other or is closely connected with it.
This can be perhaps best illustrated by the use of the word tongue — ‘the organ of speech’ in the
meaning of ‘language’ (as in mother tongue; cf. also L. lingua, Russ. язык). The word bench acquired the
meaning ‘judges, magistrates’ because it was on the bench that the judges used to sit in law courts, similarly
the House acquired the meaning of ‘members of the House’ (Parliament).
3. Semantic changes in the denotational component may bring about the extension or the restriction of
meaning. The change in the connotational component may result in the pejorative or ameliorative
development of meaning.
Results of semantic change can be generally observed in the changes of the denotational meaning of the
word (restriction and extension of meaning) or in the alteration of its connotational component (amelioration
and deterioration of meaning).
Changes in the denotational meaning may result in the restriction of the types or range of referents
denoted by the word. This may be illustrated by the semantic development of the word hound (OE. hund)
which used to denote ‘a dog of any breed’ but now denotes only ‘a dog used in the chase’.
 Changes in the denotational meaning may also result in the application of the word to a wider variety of
referents. This is commonly described as extension of meaning and may be illustrated by the word target
which originally meant ‘a small round shield’ (a diminutive of targe, сf. ON. targa) but now means
‘anything that is fired at’ and also figuratively ‘any result aimed at’.
As can be seen from the examples discussed above it is mainly the denotational component of the
lexical meaning that is affected while the connotational component remains unaltered. There are other cases,
however, when the changes in the connotational meaning come to the fore. These changes, as a rule
accompanied by a change in the denotational’ component, may be subdivided into two main groups: a)
pejorative development or the acquisition by the word of some derogatory emotive charge, and b)
ameliorative development or the improvement of the connotational component of meaning. The semantic
change in the word boor may serve to illustrate the first group. This word was originally used to denote ‘a
villager, a peasant’ (cf. OE. zebur ‘dweller’) and then acquired a derogatory, contemptuous connotational
meaning and came to denote ‘a clumsy or ill-bred fellow’. The ameliorative development of the
connotational meaning may be observed in the change of the semantic structure of the word minister which
in one of its meanings originally denoted ‘a servant, an attendant’, but now — ‘a civil servant of higher rank,
a person administering a department of state or accredited by one state to another’.
 16. Semantic similarity and polarity of words within the lexical system of Modern English (synonyms
and antonyms).
Synonyms are 2 or > words belonging to the same parts of speech and possessing one or > identical or
nearly identical denotational meaning interchangeable in some contexts. These words are distinguished by
different shades of meaning, connotations and stylistic features.
Synonyms are one of the language’s important expressive means. The principal function of synonyms is
to present the same phenomenon in different aspects, shades and variations.
According to academic V.V. Vinogradov synonyms can be divided into:
- ideographic – word conveying the same concept but differing shades of meaning (beautiful – fine –
handsome – pretty);
- stylistic – differing is stylistic characteristics;
- absolute – coinciding in all their shades of meaning and in all their stylistic characteristics.
According to interchangeability in context synonyms are classified into:
- total – members of synonymic group can relace each other in any given context without the slightest
alteration in denotative meaning or emotional meaning and connotations;
- relative – denote different degree of the same notion of different shades of meanings and can be
substituted only in some contexts;
- contextual or context-dependent synonyms are similar in meaning only under some specific
distributional conditions (to get – to buy).
Sources of synonyms:
Native English to ask belly
French borrowing to question stomach
Latin borrowings to interrogate abdomen

The term “antonyms” is used to indicate words of the same category of parts of speech which have
contrasting meaning: hot – cold, light – dark, happiness – sorrow, up – down, accept – reject.
Antonyms can be divided into:
- - contradictories – type of semantic relations that exist between pairs like dead – alive, single –
married;
- contraries – gradual opposition, may have intermediate elements: cold – cool – warm – hot;
- incompatibles – semantic relations of exclusion exist among the antonyms with the common concept
of meaning: morning is not afternoon, evening, night; spring is not summer, winter, autumn.
 17. Major and minor ways of word-formation in Modern English.
Major ways of word-formation: affixation, composition, conversion, abbreviation
Minor ways of word-formation: shortening, blending, acronyms, sound interchange, sound imitation, back-
formation, distinctive stress.
Suffixation is more productive than prefixation. In ModE suffixation is characteristic of noun and adjective
formation, while prefixation is typical of verb formation (rewrite, promotion, increase).
Affixes native and borrowed:
OE by-(stander) anti- - Greek
be-(friend) com-/col-/cor-/co-/ - Latin (collaborate, cooperate, correct)
un-(happy) -age – French (postage, passage)
-al – French (arrival – denotes acts of doing)
-ant/-ent – French from Latin (servant, student)
-hood – Germanic (childhood, knighthood)
Conversion – making a new word from some existing word by changing the category of a part of speech; the
morphemic shape of the original word remains unchanged: work – to work, rest – to rest, dream – to dream
(verbalization, substantivation, adjectivation, adverbalization).
Word-composition – type of word-formation, in which new words are produced by combining of 2 or >
Immediate Constituents, which are both derivational bases.
1) hyphened words: heart-ache, heart-felt
2) composition with a vowel or a consonant as a linking element: speedometer, statesman;
3) linking elements – prepositions o conjunctions: up-to-date, pepper-and-salt, son-in-law
According to the structure of immediate constituents:
- consisting of simple stems: film-star, ice-cold (compound proper);
- compound with one or two of constituents have derived stem: chain-smoker;
- one of the constituents is a clipping stem: maths-mistress; Xmas
Shortenings:
1) to make a new word from a syllable of the original word: phone (telephone), fence (defence), hols
(holidays), props (properties);
2) to make a new word from the initial letters of a word group: UNO [ˌjuː en ˈəʊ] – the United Nations
Organisation.
3) to make a new word by missing some letters: limited – ltd, building – bld.
Acronyms are abbreviations which are read as ordinary words: NATO, SOS, UNICEF
Lexical abbreviation is the process of forming a word out of the initial elements of a word combination by
simultaneous operation of shortening and compounding.
Blending: bio(logical)+(electro)nic=bionic; smoke+fog=smog; television + broadcast = telecast
Onomatopoeia: to bark; to crow; to buzzle;
 18. English phraseology: structural and semantic peculiarities of phraseological units; different
approaches to their classification.
Phraseology is a branch of lexicology studying phraseological units (set expressions, phraseologisms, or
idioms (in foreign linguistics). Phraseological units differ from free word-groups semantically and
structurally:
1) they convey a single concept and their meaning is idiomatic, i. e., it is not a mere total of the
meanings of their components;
2) they are characterized by structural invariability (no word can be substituted for any component of a
phraseological unit without destroying its sense (to have a bee in one's bonnet (not cap or hat);
3) they are not created in speech but used as ready-made units. Unlike a word, a phraseological unit can
be divided into separately structured elements and transformed syntactically.
Classification of phraseological units
V.V. Vinogradov’s classification system is founded on the degree of semantic cohesion between the
components of a phraseological unit. It was the first classification based on the semantic principle.
Vinogradov classified phraseological units into three classes: phraseological combinations, unities and
fusions.
Phraseological combinations are word-groups with a partially changed meaning. They may be said to be
clearly motivated, that is the meaning of the unit can be easily deduced from the meanings of its constituent
(to be good at something, to be a good hand at something, to have a bite, to take something for granted, to
stick to one’s word, to stick at nothing, bosom friends).
Phraseological unities are word-groups with a completely changed meaning, that is, the meaning of the
unit does not correspond to the meanings of its constituent parts. They are motivated units or, putting it
another way, the unit of the whole meaning can be deduced from the meanings of the constituent parts; the
metaphor, on which the shift of meaning is based, is clear and transparent (to stick to one’s guns (= to be
true to one’s views or convictions); to lose one’s head (= to be at a loss what to do); to lose one’s heart to
smb. (= to fall in love).
Phraseological fusions are word-groups with a completely changed meaning but, in contrast to the
unities, they are demotivated, that is, their meaning cannot be deduced from the meanings of the constituent
parts; the metaphor, on which the shift of meaning was based, has lost its clarity and is obscure (to come a
cropper (to come to disaster); neck and crop (entirely, altogether as in She severed all relations neck and
crop.); to set one’s cap at somebody (to try and attract a man; spoken about girls and women).
Professor Smirnitsky:
- traditional phrases – meaning of the phrase from the meaning of its components;
- logical combinations – metaphorical motivation is faded, emotionally and stylistically neutral;
- idioms – imaginative, emotionally and stylistically coloured, always having neutral synonym.
The classification system of phraseological units suggested by Professor A.V. Koonin is based on the
combined structural-semantic principle. Phraseological units are classified into the following four classes:
1. Nominative phraseological units are represented by word-groups, including the ones with the
meaningful word, and coordinative phrases of the type wear and tear, well and good. It also includes word-
groups with a predicative structure, such as the crow flies, and predicative phrases of the type see how the
land lies, ships that pass in the night.
2. Nominative-communicative phraseological units include word-groups of the type to break the ice –
the ice is broken, that is, verbal word-groups which are transformed into a sentence when the verb is used in
the Passive voice.
3. Interjectional phraseological units which are neither nominative nor communicative (e.g. My God!).
4. Communicative phraseological units are represented by proverbs and sayings (e.g. Can the leopard
change his spots?)
Amosova:
phrasemes – two-member word-groups in which one of the members has specialised meaning dependent on
the second component; the word served as a clue to the specialised meaning of one of the components is
habitually used in its central meaning, e.g. small hours, black frost, white lie;
idioms – are semantically and grammatically inseparable units characterised by impossibilty of attaching
meaning to the members of the group taken in isolation (as in red tape, dark horse), logical incompatibilty
(as in mare’s nest).
Larin: diachronic approach
1st stage – it originates as a free combination
2nd stage – clearly motivated and stereotyped metaphorical phrase;
3rd stage – idiom with lost motivation
 19. Lexical stylistic devices in MnE.
Metaphor – a LSD resulting from the logical association of similarity between two objects, in which words
or phrases denoting one object are transferred to others in order to indicate a resemblance between them
(He was fooled with happiness; they hadn’t the heart to refuse him)
Metaphor is the most widely used trope. A distinction is usually made between lexical (dead, trite) and
poetic (fresh, original) metaphors. Lexical M. gradually loses its expressiveness often becoming an entry of
the dictionary: a ray of hope, a leg of table. Poetic M. is always an individual creation: Her eyes were two
profound and menacing gun-barrels. By its structure M. can be simple (elementary) or extended (sustained).
The term “extended metaphor” refers to a comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a
series of sentences in a paragraph, or lines in a poem. It is often comprised of more than one sentence, and
sometimes consists of a full paragraph.
Simile – a LSD based upon an analogy between two unlike objects belonging to two different classes: She
seemed nothing more than a doll. A simile has a structure of three elements: two objects compared and a
connective (like, as, as though, as like, as if, such as, as … as, +verbs: to seem, to look like, to resemble, to
remember, to appear. Simile ≠ logical comparison: The boy seems to be as clever as his mother.
Hackneyed, or trite similes: blind as a bat, work like a horse.
Personification – a LSD which endows an inanimate object or idea with features peculiar of a human being:
the face of London; autumn comes; nature blushes. Personification is regarded as a kind of metaphor since it
is based on relations of likeness between inanimate and animate objects.
Metonymy – a LSD based on contiguity of objects or phenomena: the house = members of the Parliament,
the crown = king or queen, hand = worker. Metonymic relations imply that there is an objectively existing
relationship between the object named and object implied. Transference of name in metonymy does not
involve necessity for two different words to have a common component in their semantic structures, as in
the case of metaphor, but proceeds from the fact that two objects (phenomena) have common ground for
existence in reality. (The moustache and I had nothing in common)
Synecdoche – a LSD based on a specific kind of metonymic relations when a word or phrase in which a part
of something is used to represent a whole, or a whole is used to represent a part of something. For example,
in ‘Australia lost by two goals’, Australia is used to represent the Australian team.
Epithet – a LSD which gives an attributive characterization of a person, thing or phenomenon: wild wind,
loud ocean, heart-burning smile. Epithet shows an individual emotional attitude of the speaker towards the
object. According to the structure epithets can be divided into: simple, pairs, chains, two-step (adverb +
adjective) and phrase (move-if-you-dare expression)
Hyperbole – a LSD in which emphasis is achieved through deliberate exaggeration: I have told it to you
thousand times. H. is aimed at exaggerating quality or quantity.
Understatement – a LSD which intentionally underrates the size, shape, dimensions, characteristic features
of the object: he knows a thing or two; a bite-size boy. It does not signify the actual state of affairs in reality,
but presents the latter through the emotionally coloured perception and rendering of the speaker.
Oxymoron – a LSD based upon a contrast between two word: sweet sorrow, horribly beautiful, cry silently.
O. presents a combination of two semantically contradictory notions, that help to emphasize contradictory
qualities simultaneously existing in the described phenomenon as a dialectical unity.
Periphrasis – a LSD which consists of using a roundabout form of expression instead of a simpler one:
don’t invite that perennial loser for our party.
Zeugma – a LSD which consists in the use of a word in the same grammatical relation to two adjacent
words in the context, one metaphorical and the other literal in sense: the boys took their places and their
books; hold your pen and your tongue.
Pun, or play of words – a LSD emerging as an effect created by words similar or identical in their sound
dorm and contrastive or incompatible in meaning: Santa Claus’ helpers are known as subordinate clauses; a
bicycle can’t stand on its own because it is two-tired.
Antonomasia – a LSD which consists in the use of a proper name for a common one, and vice versa: He
was married money. The great chief arrived. Is used to point out the leading feature of a person.
Paradox – a LSD based on the contrast is a statement contradictory to what is accepted as a self-evident or
proverbial truth: truth is honey which is bitter.
 20. Syntactical stylistic devices in MnE.
Parallelism – a SSD based upon a recurrence of syntactically identical sequences which lexically are
completely or partially different: What we anticipate rare occurs; what we least expect generally happens.
Chiasmus - a SSD based upon the repetition of a syntactical pattern, but it has a cross order of words or
phrases: Down dropped the breeze, the sails dropped down.
Polysyndeton – a SSD which lies in an insistent repetition of a connective between words, phrases, clauses
in an utterance.
Asyndeton - a SSD which consists in the deliberate omission of connectives.
Detachment – a SSD consisting in separating a secondary part of a sentence with the aim of emphasizing it:
I want to go, he said, miserably.
Repetition – repeated occurrence of a word or a phrase (anaphora – at the beginning, epiphora – at the end,
framing/ring, anadiplosis/catch repetition: repetition of a prominent word)
Climax (gradation) – a SSD a figure of speech in which a number of ideas are so arranged that each
succeeding one rises its predecessor in impressiveness, force, importance or emotional tension.
Anticlimax – a SSD a figure of speech in which ideas are arranged in ascending order of significance or
emotional or logical importance.
Antithesis – a SSD consisting in an opposition or contrast of ideas expressed by parallelism of contrasted
words placed at the beginning and at the end of a syntactical unit: some people have much to live on, and
little to love for.
Litotes – a SSD, a type of understatement which consists in the use of negative for the contrary: He had not
been unhappy all day.