Lexicology Of Modern English: Theory And Practice: А. I. Anisimova

Міністерство освіти і науки України
Дніпропетровський національний університет

ім. Олеся Гончара
100-річчю ДНУ присвячується
А. I. Anisimova
LEXICOLOGY OF MODERN ENGLISH:

THEORY AND PRACTICE
Ухвалено на вченій раді як підручник

протокол №8
від 22 грудня 2016 р.
Дніпро
РВВ ДНУ
Акцент ПГЇ
2017
УДК 811.111 ’24(075.8)
ББК 81.2АНГЛ-923
А 64 ISBN 978-966-921-114-9
Рецензенти:
Глущенко В. А. — д-р філологічних наук, проф,, зав. кафедри германської та
слов Енської філології Донбаського державного педагогічного університету
Шашкіна //. І. — канд. філол. наук, доц., зав. кафедри іноземних мов
Придніпровської державної академії будівництва та архітектури
Сафонова Н. А. — канд. філол. наук, доц. кафедри англійської філології
Дніпропетровського національного університету ім. Олеся Гончара
Анісімова, А. I. Lexicology of Modern English : Theory and Practice

A 64 [ Лексикологія сучасної англійської мови : теорія і практика] [Текст]
підручник / А. І. Анісімова. --Д. : РВВ ДНУ, Акцент ПГТ, 2017. - 216 с.
ISBN 978-966-921-114-9
Підручник "Lexicology of Modern English: Theory and Practice’' написаний
англійською мовою й охоплює всі геми, передбачені програмою вищих навчальних
закладів із дисципліни “Лексикологія основної іноземної мови (англійської)". Він
містить 14 розділів, деякі з яких розкривають сучасні питання лексикології в
мультилінгвальному аспекті. У теоретичній частині кожного розділу автор глибоко й
усебічно розкриває тему, спираючись на вже існуючі праці вітчизняних і зарубіжних
лінгвістів. У кожному розділі наведено глосарій і список рекомендованої літератури
для самовдосконалення, питання для обговорення на практичних заняттях і тести для
самоконтролю. Додаткові матеріали містять таблиці й схеми курсу «Лексикологія
анпі ійської мови».
Для студентів філологічних спеціальностей, факультетів іноземних мов, фахівців з
англійської мови, викладачів, наукових працівників, а також усіх, хто цікавиться
питаннями лексикології англійської мови.
УДК 811.111 ’24(075.8)
ББК 81.2АНГЛ-923
The textbook “Lexicology of Modern English: Theory and Practice" is written in English,
and it encompasses the material of lexicological studies which is covered by higher
educational institutions syllabus “Lexicology of the English Language". The textbook contains
14 chapters some of which reveal modern issues of Lexicology in a multilingual aspect. The
theoretical part of each chapter reveals the material and discussion points in a deep and
thorough way referring to the works of Ukrainian and foreign linguists. Each chapter includes
the glossary of useful terms and further reading section, points for discussion, and tasks lor
self-check. In the Appendices of the textbook the reader will find the key material presented in
the charts.
The textbook is useful for the students of philological faculties, specialists in English
Philology, professors and instructors, and also for all those who are interested in the issues of
Lexicology of the English Language.
ISBN 978-966-921-і 14-9 © Анісімова A. L, 2017

CONTENTS
FOREWORD...................................................................................................... 6
Chapter 1. Lexicology as a Branch of Linguistics...........................................7

1.1. The Subject Matter of Lexicology.................................................................8
1.2. Two Approaches to the Language Study....... .............................................. 9
1.3. Specific Problems of English Lexicology.................................................. 12
1.4. Theoretical and Practical Value of Lexicology. Links with Other Branches ..... 14
Chapter 2. Word and Meaning....................................................................•..19

2.1. The Word as a Basic Language Unit...........................................................20
2.2. Motivation. Types of Motivation.................... ...........................................22
2.3. Semasiology and Its Subject Matter............................................................25
2.4. Different Approaches to the Problem of Word Meaning...........................26
2.5. Types of meaning......................................................................................... 29
Chapter 3. Semantic Change.............................. ...32

3.1. The Problem of Classification of Semantic Change.............................. ....33
3.2. Causes of Development of New Meaning...................................................34
3.3. Nature of Semantic Change...................... ..................................................37
3.4. Results of Semantic Change........................................................................ 40
Chapter 4. Polysemy. Homonymy..................... .............................................42

4.1. Polysemy in Synchronic Approach............................................................ 43
4.2. Polysemy in Diachronic Approach................................ .............................47
4.3. Homonymy............. 50
4.4. Classification of Homonyms.......................................................................54
4.5. Homonymy vs Polysemy.................................................. 56
Chapter 5. Synonyms. Antonyms. Hyponyms................................................59

5.1. Synonym. The Problem of Definition..... ...................................................60
5.2. The Synonymic Dominant............................................................................63
5.3. Synonymy in Synchronic and Diachronic Approaches............................. 65
5.4. Antonyms. The Problem of Definition........................................................67
5.5. Classification of Antonyms.......................................................................-.69
5.6. Hyponymy................ 72
Chapter 6. English Phraseology........................ .............................................76

6.1. Phraseology as a Branch of Linguistics.......................... ...........................77
6.2. Different Classifications of Phraseological Units.......................................80
3
6.3. Diachronic Approach to Phraseological Classification.
The Origin of Phraseological Units............. ........................ 81
6.4. Types of Transference of Phraseological Units........... 87
Chapter 7. Word Structure....... .............................................. .90

7.1. Morphemes. Types of Morphemes. Allomorphs.............. . ..91
7.2. Structural Types of W ords.................................................. ..91
7.3. Principles of Morphemic and Derivational Analyses......... ..95
Chapter 8. Word Formation.................................................... ..98

8.1. Word Formation as a Subject of Study............................... ..99
8.2. Major Types of Word Formation........................................ 100
8.2.1. Affixation...................... .................................................... 100
8.2.2. Conversion.................... .................................................... 102
8.2.3. Compounding................................................................... 104
8.3. Minor Types of Word Formation...................................... 107
Chapter 9. Etymological Survey of the English Vocabulary 116

9.1. Words of Native Origin....................................................... I 17
9.2. Borrowing: Historical Background.............................. ...... 118
9.3. Assimilation of Loan Words (Borrowings)........................ 121
Chapter 10. Stylistic Characteristics of Vocabulary............ 124

10.1. Stylistic Peculiarities of Vocabulary................................ 125
10.2. Informal Vocabulary............... ......................................... 125
10.2.1. Colloquial Words........................................................... 126
10.2.2. Slang............................................................................... 127
10.2.3. Dialect Words.............................. .................................. 127
10.3. Formal style..................................................................... 129
10.3.1. Learned Words.............................................................. 129
10.3.2. Archaic and Obsolete Words......................................... 130
10.3.3. Professional Terminology............................................. 131
10.4. Basic Vocabulary............................................................ 133
Chapter 11. Varieties of Modern English............................. 136

11.1. Variet ies of the English Language................................. 137
11.2. British English................................................................... 139
1 1.3. American English.......... ...... ............................................ 141
! 1.4. Canadian English........... ................................................... 143
11.5. Australian English......... ................................................... 144
11.6. New Zealand English................................................... . 146
4
Chapter 12. Ways of Replenishment of English Vocabulary.................... 149
12.1. Neologisms..................................................... ......................................... 150
Chapter 13. Lexicography.................................................................... 15

13.1. Lexicography as a Science........................................................................154
13.2. Types of Dictionaries................................................................................155
Chapter 14. Lexicology: Multilingual Aspect...............................................159

14.1. Multilingualism as an Integral Part of Modern Life.............................. 160
14.2. Hnglish as Lingua Franca of Modern Europe..........................................162
14.3. Multilingualism through Lexicological Studies.......................................165
Key to Self-Check............. 168

Chapter 1. Lexicology as a Branchof Linguistics............................................. 169
Chapter 2. Word and Meaning................................................................ 16
Chapter 3. Semantic Change............................................................................ 170
Chapter 4. Polysemy. Homonymy.................................................................... 171
Chapter 5. Synonyms. Antonyms. Hyponyms....................................
Chapter 6. English Phraseology.........................................................................173
Chapter 7. Word Structure..................................................................................174
Chapter 8. Word Formation................................................................................174
Chapter 9. Etymological Survey of theEnglish Vocabulary.............................175
Chapter 10. Stylistic Characteristics of Vocabulary........................................176
Chapter I 1. Varieties of Modern English.......................................................... 176
Chapter 12. Ways of Replenishment of English Vocabulary...........................177
Chapter 13. Lexicography..................................................................................178
Chapter 14. Lexicology: Multilingual Aspect................................................... 178
References..... .................................................................................................... 179
Appendices......................................................................................................... 188
Appendix I. Charts............................................................................................ 189
Appendix 2. Subject Index................................................................................210
5
“Language is the blood of the soul into
which thoughts run and out of which they
grow...”
(Oliver Wendell Holmes)
FOREWORD
'This volume is a resource for successful acquisition of the course of Modern

English Lexicology by language students. A range of topics presented provides a
basis for the course acquisition and facilitates the theoretical awareness and
practical skills of the future language professionals.
The materials of the book address fundamental issues of Modern English
Lexicology, namely, the general description of Lexicology as a branch of
Linguistics and its specific problems of phraseology, word formation, polysemy,
homonymy, hyponymy etc. The materials proposed serve as an effective tool for
understanding the lexical and semantic peculiarities of Modern English and lead
to students'' awareness in doing their own linguistic research.
We set out with the goal of maintaining the balance between theory and
practice, between providing relevant and thought-provoking theoretical material,
on the one hand, and giving important points lor discussion, on the other.
It is a contemporary textbook that covers updated topics revealing
Lexicology in a multilingual aspect, varieties of Modern English including such
an absolutely new territorial variety as European English, productive ways of
word formation and others. The target reader will find here a number of
supplements which include original design tables and charts, which may be used
for Power Point presentations, useful references and key to self-check material,
together with a wide range of creative tasks to empower students in linguistics.
The results of the research conducted in the framework of the Tempus Joint
Project D1MTEGU “Development and Introduction of Multilingual Teacher
Education Programs at Universities of Georgia and Ukraine” (530360-TEMPUS-
1-2012-l-GE-TEMPUS-JPCR) have been accumulated in separate chapters and
introduced to some chapters.
Alla Anisimova
6
CHAPTER 1.
LEXICOLOGY AS A BRANCH
OF LINGUISTICS
u . і h i: s u b j e c t m a t t e r o f l e x ic o l o g y
1.2. TWO APPROACHES TO ГНЕ LANGUAGE STUDY
1.3. SPECIFIC PROBLEMS OF ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY
1.4. THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL VALUE OF LEXICOLOGY.

LINKS WITH OTHER BRANCHES
7
1.1. The Subject Matter of Lexicology
Lexicology (from Greek lexis 'word' and logos ‘learning') is a branch of

linguistics, the science of language, concerned with the study of words: their
properties, structure, meaning and behaviour in the language (see chart 1, App. I).
All the words of a language make up its vocabulary or lexicon. A word stock that
a speaker of a language has in his/her head is called mental lexicon.
It goes without saying that vocabulary is central to the language, because
without sufficient vocabulary people cannot understand others or express their
own ideas. However, knowing a word is not as simple as merely being able to
recognize or use it. There are several aspects of word knowledge which are used
to measure it.
The word is the basic unit of a language; and the subject matter of
Lexicology is words, their morphological and semantic structures, their
etymology, development and current use.
Being a branch of linguistics, Lexicology has its own aims, objectives and
methods of scientific research. The aim of Lexicology lies in studying and
providing description of vocabulary in terms of its origin, development and
current functioning (see chart I, App. 1).
The main objectives (see chart I, App. 1) of Lexicology are:
— to give sy stematic description of the Lnglish vocabulary and its semantic
classification;
— to define its etymological peculiar features;
— to provide principles of word formation;
— to study the rules and ways of its enrichment.
So, the subject matter of Lexicology is the word, its morphological and
semantic structure and the vocabulary of the language.
Iryna Arnold says: “The vocabulary of the language is not merely the sum
of words, it is words and word groups, phraseological units that language
possesses and studies it from the point of view of its origin, development and
current use11.
We distinguish General Lexicology and Special Lexicology. General
Lexicology studies words and vocabulary irrespective of any specific features of a
particular language (see chart 2, App. 1). Linguistic phenomena and properties
common to all the languages are generally referred to as language universals.
Special (or Partial) Lexicology treats the problems of the given language system
and its specific features (see chart 2, App. 1). Every special Lexicology is based
on the principles of general Lexicology. Thus, for instance, the book you are
holding in your hands is a Special Lexicology textbook, because it investigates
vocabulary and linguistic universals of one specific language —Modem l nglish.
8
Special Lexicology is based on the principles of General Lexicology. Special
Lexicology is further subdivided into Historical and Descriptive (Modern) ones
(see chart 2, App. 1). In order to find out the difference between them, one should
consider two approaches to language study - synchronic and diachronic.
Points for discussion
• The aim and objectives of Lexicology.

• English word as the main object of Lexicology.
Useful Terms
General Lexicology: a branch of Lexicology focused on general study of

words and vocabulary and defines their features common to all the languages.
Lexicology: a branch of linguistics, the science of language, concerned with
the study of words: their properties, structure, meaning and behaviour in the
language.
Mental lexicon: the word stock that a speaker of a language has in his/her
head.
Special Lexicology: a branch of Lexicology concerned with the study of
peculiar characteristics of words and vocabulary of a given language.
Vocabulary / Lexicon: all the words and phrases used in a particular
language or subject; all the words and phrases used and known by a particular
person or group of people.
1.2. Two Approaches to the Language Study
f rom the History of the language we know that the vocabulary of any
language is in the state of constant change. It is especially changeable. New words
appear to name new notions, tools, phenomena. Fhey are called neologisms, e.g.
selfie, to google, to chilax, a life hack, glamping etc.
On the other hand, some words denoting things and phenomena which
became outdated drop out of usage and are called obsolete words, e.g. steed.
The study of the vocabulary of a language in its development is the object of
Historical Lexicology. It deals with the origin of English vocabulary units, their
modifications and development. Ferdinand de Saussure was the first who
distinguished the historical approach to the study of the language from the static
approach.
9
Descriptive (or Modern) Lexicology deals with the semantic and
morphological structure of the words and the vocabulary system of the language
at a given stage of its development.
So, a Course in Modern English Lexicology is therefore a course in
Special Descriptive Lexicology, because its object of study is the English
vocabulary as it exists at the present time.
Linguistic science mentions two basic approaches to the language material
investigation: synchronic (from Greek syn ‘together, with’ and chronos Time')
and diachronic (from Greek dia ‘through’ and chronos ‘time ) (see chart 2,
App. 1). Synchronic approach is concerned with the vocabulary of a language as
it exists at a given time. Respectively, diachronic stands for through time,
whereas synchronic stands for with or together with time. Descriptive
Lexicology uses synchronic approach to deal with the vocabulary of a particular
language at a certain time. A Course in Modern English Lexicology is a course in
Special Descriptive Lexicology, its object of study being the English vocabulary
as it exists and functions at the present stage.
Diachronic approach deals with the changes and the development of
vocabulary in the course of time. It is applied by Historical Lexicology to evaluate
the vocabulary units of a language as the time goes by.
In fact, these two approaches are interconnected and interrelated because
any language is a dynamic system, which exists in a state of constant
development. So, the current (synchronic) state of a language system is a result of
a long process of linguistic evaluation, of its long historical (diachronic)
development.
Contrastive (or Comparative) Lexicology is closely connected with the
Historical Lexicology (see chart 2, App. I). It is aimed at studying the correlation
between two or more languages and of primary importance in this respect is the
comparison and contrasting of the mother tongue with one or two foreign
languages.
• Basic principles of synchronic and diachronic approaches to the language

study.
• Main points of comparing and contrasting different languages.
10
Self-check
1. Match the branch of Lexicology to its definition:

1. General Lexicology a) a branch of Lexicology concerned with the
origin of English vocabulary units, their
modifications and development;
2. Descriptive b) a branch of Lexicology concerned with the
Lexicology study of peculiar characteristics of words and
vocabulary of a given language;
3. Historical Lexicology c) a branch of Lexicology aimed at studying the
correlation between the vocabularies of two or
more languages and finding out their similar and
distinctive features;
4. Special Lexicology d) a branch of Lexicology focused on general
study of words and vocabulary and defines their
features common to all the languages;
5. Contrastive / e) a branch of Lexicology that deals with the
Comparative Lexicology semantic and morphological structure of the words
and the vocabulary system of the language at a
given stage of its development.
Useful terms
Contrastive (or Comparative) Lexicology: a branch of Lexicology aimed

at studying the correlation between two or more languages and of primary
importance in this respect is the comparison and contrasting of the mother tongue
wiith one or two foreign languages.
Descriptive (or Modern) Lexicology: a branch of Lexicology that deals
with the semantic and morphological structure of the words and the vocabulary
system of the language at a given stage of its development.
Diachronic approach: a linguistic approach that deals with the changes and
the development of vocabulary in the course of time.
Historical Lexicology: a branch of Lexicology concerned with the origin of
English vocabulary units, their modifications and development.
Synchronic approach: a linguistic approach concerned with the vocabulary
of a language as it exists at a given time.
1.3. Specific Problems of English Lexicology
To the main problems of English Lexicology we can refer the study of the
word, its internal and external structure (see chart 3, App. 1). By the external
structure we mean its morphological structure, e.g. the word post-impressionists
consists of the following morphemes:
• prefixes: post-, im-;
• the root: -press-;
• suffixes: -ion, -ist;
• noun-forming suffix of plurality: -s.
The external structure of words is studied in the section of word-building.
The internal structure of the word or its meaning is referred to the semantic
structure of the word.
The area of Lexicology specializing in studying internal structure of the
word (i.e. its meaning) is called semantics (or semasiology).
There are two main approaches to this problem: syntagmatic and
paradigmatic levels of study.
On the syntagmatic level, the semantic structure of the word is analysed in
its linear relationship with neighbouring words in connected speech. In other
words, the semantic characteristics of the word are studied on the basis of its
typical context. Syntagmatic analysis is the analysis of syntax or surface, i.e. the
meaning of the word is deduced on the basis of the surrounding, neighbouring
words. Syntagmatic means one element selects the other element either to precede
it or to follow it. f or example, the definite article the selects a noun and not a
verb. Л syntagm is a kind of a chain which helps to understand how the sequence
of events makes up a narrative. Alternatively, syntagmatic analysis allows a
linguist to describe the spatial relationship of a visual text such as posters,
photographs or a particular setting of a filmed scene.
There is a syntagmatic relation between two words if they co-occur in
spoken or written language more frequently than expected from chance and if they
have different grammatical roles in the sentences in which they occur. Typical
examples are the word pairs coffee —drink, sun hot, or teacher —school.
On the paradigmatic level, the word is studied in its relationship with other
words in the vocabulary system. A word may be studied with other words of
similar meaning (work —Job - labour; to say to tell - to talk); of opposite
meaning (busy —idle; accept —reject); of different stylistic characteristics (man
—chap - bloke - guy).
Paradigmatic analysis is the analysis of paradigms embedded in the text
rather than of the surface structure (syntax) of the text (syntagmatic analysis). A
paradigm is a set or list of all the inflectional forms of a word or of one of its
grammatical categories, for example, boy, boy's, boys, boys'. So, by means of
paradigmatic analysis the word meaning can be deduced with the help of its
synonyms and antonyms.
The relation between two words is paradigmatic if the two words can
substitute for one another in a sentence without affecting the grammaticality or
acceptability of the sentence. Typical examples are synonyms or antonyms like
quick - -fast, or eat ~ drink. Normally, words with a paradigmatic relation are the
same part of speech, whereas words with a syntagmatic relation can but need not
be the same part of speech. So, the main problems of paradigmatic studies are
synonymy, antonymy, functional styles.
Phraseology is a branch of Lexicology specializing in word-groups which
are characterized by the stability of the structure and the transferred meaning, e.g.
to take the bull by its horns; birds o f a feather; Tom, Dick and Harry; to pull
one \s leg (see chart 3, App. 1).
One of the important objectives of lexicological study is the study of the
vocabulary as a language system. The vocabulary can be studied synchronically,
that is at a given stage of its development, or diachronically, that is in the context
of the processes through which it grew, developed and acquired its modern form
(etymology).
• (Comment on the peculiarities of syntagmatic and paradigmatic analyses.

• Give your ideas on how vocabulary can be studied as a system.
Self-check
1. 1f we talk about external structure of the word, we study
2. If we talk about internal structure of the word, we study

its
3. Syntagmatic analysis is:

a) the analysis of paradigms embedded in the text;
b) the analysis of changes and development of vocabulary in the course of
time;
c) the analysis concerned with the vocabulary of a language as it exists at a
given time;
13
d) the analysis within the syntactic structure, presupposing that the meani
of the word is deduced on the basis of the surrounding, neighbouring words.
4. Paradigmatic analysis is:

a) the analysis of paradigms embedded in the text;
b) the analysis of changes and development of vocabulary in the course of
time;
c) the analysis concerned with the vocabulary of a language as ii exists at a
given time;
cl) the analysis within the syntactic structure, presupposing that the meaning
of the word is deduced on the basis of the surrounding, neighbouring words.
5. Define the type of relationship (syntagmatic or paradigmatic) for the

following lines:
a) The cat slept on my bed.
b) This dog has eaten my chocolate bar.
c) Go, went, gone, going, goes, goer.
d) Beautiful, pretty, handsome, nice, lovely, good-looking.
Useful terms
External structure of the word: morphological structure of the word.

Internal structure of the word: the meaning of the word.
Paradigm: a set or list of all the inflectional forms of a word or of one of its
g ram ітіat іca 1categ о rіes
Paradigmatic analysis: the analysis of paradigms embedded in the text.
Phraseology: a branch of Lexicology specializing in word-groups which are
characterized by free or stable structure of the word groups.
Syntagm: a kind of a chain which helps to understand how a sequence of
events makes up a narrative.
Syntagmatic analysis: the analysis within syntactic structure; the meaning
of t he word is deduced on the basis of the surrounding, neighbouring words.
1.4. Theoretical and Practical Value of Lexicology. Links with Ollier

Branches
The theoretical value of Lexicology consists in the theoretical study of the

vocabulary as one of the three main aspects of a language: grammar, sound
form, vocabulary. Lexicology also meets the demands of many different
14
branches of applied linguistics: lexicography, sociolinguistics, literary criticism,
standardization of terminology and others (see chart 4, App. 1).
The Course of Modern English Lexicology is of great practical importance.
It is particularly useful in building up the learner’s vocabulary by an effective
selection, grouping and analysis of new words. It helps the student to keep in
memory new words knowing the system of word-formation.
Lexicology also gives the necessary skills of using different kinds of
dictionaries and reference books, and it prepares students for future independent
work on increasing and improving their vocabulary.
There are different branches of linguistics. Any language is the unity of
different aspects: grammar, vocabulary, and sound system. As Lexicology deals
with vocabulary systems, it is definitely connected with all the rest of the aspects.
The word is studied in several branches of linguistics and not in Lexicology only,
and the latter, in its turn, is closely connected with General Linguistics, the
History of the Language, Phonetics, Stylistics, Grammar and such new
branches of science as Sociolinguistics, Cognitive Linguistics, Multilingual
Studies and some others.
Lexicology is linked with Phonetics since the latter is concerned with the
study of the sound-form of the word. The connection between Lexicology and
Phonetics is shown by an association of a given group of sounds with a given
meaning. Discrimination between words may be based upon the stress, e.g.:
present l'prez(d)ntl (n) . present [pn'zenlj (v); record [ rreko:d] (n) —record
/гґкссі/ (v); blackbird j 'hhckbrd j black bird fbkek Ъ-j.d].
There is a close relationship between Lexicology and Grammar.
Interactions between Lexicology and Grammar are evident both is the sphere of
morphology and in syntax. Morphological indicators help to differentiate the
meaning of the word, e.g.: prefix re-points at the repetition of the actions {reread,
rewrite); sufllx -or. -er points out at the person or thing that does the action, or
some part of the action (writer, revolver). Grammar is concerned with various
means of expressing grammatical relations between words as well as with patterns
according to which words are combined into word-groups and sentences.
Syntactic position of a word does not only change its function, but its
lexical meaning as well {library school - school library; Гот gives Nick a book —
Nick gives Tom a book).
Lexicology is bound up with Stylistics since there are problems of meaning,
vocabulary stratification, style treated in the frames of both branches. These are
the problems of meaning, connotations, synonymy, functional differentiation of
vocabulary according to the sphere of communication.
Sociolinguistics which deals with relations between the way the language
works and develops and the facts of social life, language is the reality of thought,
15
and the thought is developing with the development ol‘ society. Г very
phenomenon of human society finds a reflection in the vocabulary.
Lexicology closely cooperates with some other branches of linguistics
dealing with the study of various aspects of the word (see chart 4, App. I ). 'They
are as follows:
— Etymology (from Greek etymon ‘true, real’ and logos 'learning')
examines the origin and development of words, linguistic and extra-linguistic
factors that influence their structure, meaning and functioning;
— Morphology (from Greek morph ‘shape, form ' and logos 'learning')
studies the structure of words: it identifies, analyses, and describes the morphemes
and other linguistic units, such as root words, affixes, parts of speech, intonations
and stresses of a particular language;
— Semasiology (from Greek semasia ‘signification, meaning ’ and logos
‘learning0 deals with semantic structure of a language, i.e. studies the inner
form(the meaning) of the words; it is the most relevant to polysemy and
homonymy;
— Onomasiology (from Greek onomazo ‘to name’ and logos 'learning')
deals with the principles and regularities of the signification of things / notions by
lexical means of a given language, i.e. studies the outer form of the words;
—Phraseology (from Greek phrasis way o f speaking’ and logos
'learning') studies set or fixed expressions, such as idioms, phrasal verbs, and
other types of multi-word lexical units, in which the component parts of the
expression take on a meaning more specific than or otherwise not predictable
from the sum of their meanings when used independently;
— Contextology (from Latin contextus joining together’ and logos
'learning') studies the behaviour of words in speech;
— Lexicography (from Greek lexis ‘speech\ ‘word’ and graph) 'to
scratch, to inscribe, to write') focuses on the design, compilation, use and
evaluation of dictionaries.
• Why do you think grammar, sound form and vocabulary are considered
to be the main aspects of a language?
• Comment on the links of Lexicology with other branches of Linguistics.
16
Self-check
1. Name the branch of Lexicology that studies:

1) the inner form (the meaning) of the words;
2) design, compilation, use and evaluation of dictionaries;
3) the behaviour of words in speech;
4) the structure of words;
5) the origin and development of words;
6) set or fixed expressions, such as idioms, phrasal verbs, and other types of
multi-word lexical units.
2. Fill in the gaps in the points showing practical importance of the Course
of Modern Lnglish Lexicology:
a) it is useful in building up the learner's______ __ by an effective
selection, grouping and analysis of new words;
b) it helps the student to keep in memory new words knowing the system
of ;
e) it gives the necessary skills of using different kinds of
and ;
d) it prepares students for future on increasing and improving their
vocabulary.
Useful terms
Contextology: a branch of linguistics that studies the behaviour of words in

speech.
Etymology: a branch of linguistics that examines the origin and
development of words, linguistic and extra-linguistic factors that influence their
structure, meaning and functioning.
Cram mar: a branch of linguistics concerned with various means of
expressing grammatical relations between words as well as with patterns
according to which words are combined into word-groups and sentences.
Lexicography: a branch of linguistics that focuses on the design,
compilation, use and evaluation of dictionaries.
Morphology: a branch of linguistics that studies the structure of words: it
identifies, analyses, and describes the morphemes and other linguistic units, such
as root words, affixes, parts of speech, intonations and stresses of a particular
language.
17
Onomasiology: a branch of Lexicology that deals with the principles and
regularities of the signification of things / notions by lexical means of a given
language, i.e. studies the outer form of the words.
Phonetics: a branch of linguistics concerned with the study of the sound-
form of the word.
Phraseology: a branch of Lexicology that studies set or fixed expressions,
such as idioms, phrasal verbs, and other types of multi-word lexical units, in
which the component parts of the expression take on a meaning more specific
than or otherwise not predictable from the sum of their meanings when used
independently.
Semasiology: a branch of Lexicology that deals with semantic structure of a
language, i.e. studies the inner form (the meaning) of the words.
Sociolinguistics: a branch of linguistics which deals with relations between
the way the language works and develops and the facts of social life, language is
the reality of thought, and the thought is developing with the development of
society.
Stylistics: a branch of linguistics concerned with the devices in a language
that produce expressive value.
Further reading
Антрушина, Г. Б. Лексикология английского языка [Текст] /

Г. Б. Антрушина, О. В. Афанасьева, Н. Н. Морозова. - М. : Дрофа, 2004. -
288 с.
Ні колен ко, А. Г. Лексикологія англійської мови - теорія і практика
[Текст] / А. Г. Ніколенко. - Вінниця : Нова Книга, 2007. —528 с.
A Course in Modern English Lexicology [Text] / R. S. Ginzburg,
S. S. Khidekel, G. Y. Knyazeva, A. A. Sankin. - M. : Higher School Publishing
House., 1979.-269 p.
Arnold, 1. V. The English Word [Text] / I. V. Arnold. - M. : Высш. шк.,
1986. -2 9 5 с.
18
CHAPTER 2.
WORD AND MEANING
2.1. THE WORD AS A BASIC LANGUAGE UNIT
2.2. MOTIVATION. TYPES OF MOTIVATION
2.3. SEMASIOLOGY AND ITS SUBJECT MATTER
2.4. DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO THE PROBLEM OF

WORD MEANING
2.5. TYPES OF MEANING

2.1. The Word as a Basic Language Unit
Language is a system. System means that all the units o f the language
function according to certain laws. The language consists of a sol of elements
functioning in it (see chart 5, App. 1). They are phonemes, m orphem es, words.
Each unit performs its own function.
The function of the phoneme is distinctive, and it is the minimum
distinctive unit of language.
Morpheme is the minimum significant unit of the language, the smallest
meaningful language unit.
Word is the minimum nominative unit of the language.
Sentence is the smallest communicative unit of the language.
Word is the main language unit. The function of the word is to типе the
objects of reality, it performs the nominative function. So, the word is the smallest
nominative unit of the language.
The words are the central elements of the language system. They are the
biggest units of morphology and the smallest units of syntax. Word is a two-facet
unit, it has a meaning and a sound form. Word is composed of one or more
morphemes, each consisting of one or more spoken sounds and their written
representations.
Words can be analysed on different levels: paradigmatic and syntagmatic.
On syntagmatic level the meaning of the word is revealed in combination
of the word with other words in the flow of speech, e.g. to get a letter; to get cold;
to get to the University.
On paradigmatic level there is a contrastive relation between words
belonging to one subgroup of vocabulary items (verbs of motion, sets of
synonyms).
The definition of a word is one of the most difficult and ambiguous in
linguistics, because the simplest word has many different aspects.
It has a sound form, because it is a certain arrangement of phonemes. It has
its morphological structure, because it is a certain arrangement of morphemes. It
has different meanings, because it may have different syntactic functions.
All the attempts of scholars to characterize the word are specific and are
therefore considered one-sided, because any definition is conditioned by aims and
interests of its author.
The first definition was given by the great English philosopher of the
17th century Thomas Hobbes who wrote that words are not mere sounds but the
names of matters.
Within the scope of linguistics the word has been defined syntactically,
semantically, phonologically and by combining various approaches.
20
Edward Sapir takes into account the syntactic and semantic aspects of the
word and also points out very important characteristics of the word: its
indivisibility. Let us, for example, compare the article ‘a ’ and the prefix ‘a ’ in the
words a lion and alive. A lion is a word-group because we can separate its
elements: a living lion —a dead lion. Alive is a word, it is indivisible.
When discussing the internal cohesion of the word, the English linguist
John Lyons points out that the word has positional mobility and
uninterruptibility (indivisibility), e.g.
the-boys-walked-slowly it show's its positional
slow-ly-the-boy-s-walk-ed mobi 1ity
However, the following position of morphemes is impossible:
ly-slow-ed-work-s-hoy it shows their uninterruptibility
French linguist Antoine IVleillet combines the semantic, phonological and
grammatical criteria and points out the semantic integrity of the word as well.
Taking into account all the criteria given by scholars, it is necessary to add
that a word is a significant unit of a given language capable of functioning alone.
This addition is necessary, because it permits us to create the basis for the
opposition between the word and the phrase.
Summing up the review of different definitions, we can define the word as
the smallest unit o f a given language, capable o f functioning alone and
characterized by positional mobility within a sentence, morphological
uninterruptibility, and semantic integrity (see chart 5, App. 1).
Traditionally, the problem of creating the word theory is based on the
understanding of the relationship between the word and the thought on the one
hand, and the language and society, on the other hand. The word is one of the
fundamental units of the language. It is a dialectical unity of form and content.
• Comment on the problem of definition of word as a basic language unit.

• Reveal the hierarchy of the language units.
Self-Check
1. Match the language unit with its function:

1. Phoneme a) the minimum significant unit;
2 . Morpheme b) the minimum communicative unit;
3. Word c) the minimum distinctive unit;
4. Sentence d) the minimum nominative unit
21
2. The word is a unit: it has a meaning and a sound
form.
3. Continue the following ideas:

a) the word has a sound form, because _________
b) the word has a morphological structure, because
c) the word has different meanings, because_____
4. Match the names of scholars to the criteria they singled out in a word:
1. Thomas Hobbes a) positional mobility and uninterruptibility;
2. Edward Sapir b) the name of matter;
3. Johan Lyons c) semantic integrity;
4. Antoine Meillet d) indivisibility.
Useful terms
Morpheme: the minimum significant unit of the language., the smallest

meaningful language unit.
Phoneme: the minimum distinctive unit of the language.
Sentence: the smallest communicative unit of the language.
Word: the smallest unit of a given language, capable of functioning alone
and characterized by positional mobility within a sentence, morphological
uninterruptibility and semantic integrity.
2.2. Motivation. Types of Motivation
The term motivation is used to denote the relationship between the

phonemic composition and structural pattern of the word and its meaning.
T here are four types of motivation (see chart 6, App. 1):
1) phonetic motivation — when there is a certain similarity between
sounds that make up a word and their meaning.. The word hiss, for example, is
motivated by certain similarity between the sounds that make it up and those
referred to by the sense, e.g. bump; buzz; giggle; hiss; whistle.
In some words initial [f] and [p] are felt as expressing disapproval or
disgust, e.g. pooh. Combination of sounds [ip] is imitative of sound of swift
movement, e.g. sing; swing; fling. This phenomenon is called sound symbolism.
Combination of sounds [11] is associated with quick movement, e.g. flap; flip;
flop.
22
However, this approach is not sound. There are many words, such as flat;
floor containing [fl] but having no association with quick movement.
Combination of sounds [gl] is associated with light and fire, e.g. glare; glitter;
glow, and [si] is associated with mud, e.g. sleet; slime; slush;
2) morphological motivation is a relationship between morphemes of the
word and their meaning. It should be noted that one-morpheme words are
morphologically non-motivated, e.g. pen; give; sad. The word homeless is
completely motivated; gooseberry is partially motivated and repeat is non-
motivated.
3) semantic motivation is the relationship between direct and figurative
meanings of the same word, e.g. the mouth o f the river; the foot o f the mountain.
Semantic motivation is clear in the names of flowers and birds, e.g. violet; blue
bell; blue bottle; blackbird; nightingale; hummingbird;
4) graphical motivation is a relationship between graphical form of the
word and its meaning; it is generally used in technical special language, e.g. U-
turn; T-shirt; 411; l love IJ2; > - larger; < - smaller.
The motivation does not reveal the meaning of the word. It points at one of
the features of the object of the reality which has been chosen while naming it,
e.g. duck (it disappears under the water; in OE ducan means to disappear).
From the historical point of view motivation has been changing in the
course of time. Words that are not motivated at present may have lost their
motivation due to changes in the vocabulary, their motivation is said to be faded,
e.g. to earn (in OE earnian means to harvest). Nowadays, motivation is lost for
there is no connection between the phonemic shape and structural pattern of the
word and its meaning. The motivation is lost. Earn is now a non-motivated word,
e.g. answer (in OE and-swernian meant to speak against). The prefix and the
suffix are reduced and in the result of this process the word had lost its
motivation.
When people come across the words with faded motivation, they try to
make them easier to pronounce. They try to motivate the word, i.e. they try to find
the analogy with the word they know. It is called folk etymology.
Most words with folk etymology are borrowed words, e.g. mushroom (from
French moucheron [museron]); it has nothing in common with room.
• Compare the peculiarities of different types of motivation in English with

your native language and give some examples.
• Comment on the aspects of folk etymology in the English language.
23
Self-Check
1. Analyse the meaning of the following words and define their type of
motivation:
Teacher —someone whose job is to teach, especially in a school; purr a
soft low sound made by a cat to show that it is pleased; foot {of a page) the
lowest or bottom part of a page; chatter —non-stop talking, especially about things
that are not serious or important; green-eyed —having green eyes; greenfingered
- having a seemingly natural gardening ability; voiceless - unable to gel your
opinions or concerns noticed by people in power; ex-president —the oflicial leader
of the country who is no longer in power; T-shirt —a soft shirt with short sleeves
and no collar; heart {of the city) —centre.
2. The term motivation is used to denote____________
3. Consult an etymological dictionary to find out the origin of the following

words, explain why they are the examples of folk etymology, and translate them
into your native language: bridegroom; female; island; nightmare; mayday;
avocado; caterpillar; cocktail; hamburger; mandrake; pilgrim; pumpkin;
standard; crayfish.
Useful terms
Folk etymology: the mistaken motivation due to the fancied analogy of

borrowings with well-known native words.
Graphical motivation: a relationship between graphical form of the word
and its meaning.
Morphological motivation: a relationship between morphemic structure of
the word and its meaning.
Motivation: the relationship between the phonemic composition and
structural pattern of the word and its meaning.
Phonetic motivation: a certain similarity between the sounds that make up
a word and its meaning.
Semantic motivation: a relationship between direct and figurative
meanings of the same word.
Sound symbolism: the apparent association between particular sound
sequences and particular meanings in speech.
24
2.3. Semasiology and its Subject Matter
Semasiology is one of the most important branches of Lexicology and

linguistics, its subject matter is the study of word meaning. The term semantics is
used to denote the lexical meaning of words or phrases. Both terms are of Greek
origin: sema means sign, semasia means signification.
Semasiology deals with the problem of the meaning of the word.
The problem of the meaning of the word has existed since ancient times.
This problem was the part of Philosophy, Logic, Psychology and later - of the
History of Language.
Semasiology formed as a science in the 1830s. Scholars of this period are
Olexandr Potebnia (Russian Empire), Michel Breal (France), Gustaf Stern (the
IJSA), Hermann Paul (Germany). They approached the problem diachronically,
i.e. they treated the problem from the historical point of view.
In the 20th century Semasiology made great progress, especially after the
Grier's work that introduced the theory of '"semantic field”. It influenced the
semantic research for many years.
In the light of current ideas, stresses are being put on synchronic approach
to the problem.
The subject matter of Lexicology is the word, its morphological and
semantic structure and the vocabulary of the language. Each word is a small unit
within a perfectly balanced system.
The term system denotes a set of elements functioning together according to
certain laws. The lexical system of every epoch contains productive elements
typical of this particular period.
Lexical system is not homogeneous. It contains phrasal verbs, complex
prepositions, some compounds, phraseological units etc. Thus, words are the
central elements of a language system.
The word is a unit of speech which serves the purposes of human
communication. It is a unit of communication. As it has been mentioned above, it
is very difficult to give the definition of the word because the simplest word has
some different aspects: morphological and semantic structure, sound form. Any
combination of sounds represents a word i f it possesses some meaning.
A word is a two-facet unit possessing a form and content. By its form (or
outer facet) we mean its sound form and graphical form. By its inner facet we
mean the meaning of the word.
25
• Comment on the links of Semasiology with other sciences.

• Prove that the language is a system.
Self-check
I. Match the name of the scholar to the country of his origin:

1) Olexandr Potebnia; a) France;
2) Michel Breal; b) Germany;
3) Gustaf Stern; c) Russian Empire;
4) Hermann Paul. d) the USA.
Useful terms
Semantic field: a set of words grouped semantically (that is, by meaning),

referring to a specific subject.
Semantics: the term denot ing the lexical meaning of words or phrases.
Semasiology: one of the most important branches of Lexicology and
linguistics, its subject matter is the study of word meaning.
2.4. Different Approaches to the Problem of Word Meaning
There have been attempts to give a definition to the word meaning. The
definition of meaning was given by many scholars. Though they are different in
details, the scholars agree on the basic principle: the lexical meaning is the
realization of concept (or notion) by means of a definite language system The
meaning is inseparable from the sound-form and a word itself, because it reflects
the reality.
The word itself is a dialectical unity, it is the dialectical unity of the form
and the content. What are the relations between the form and the content of the
word? In modern linguistics there are two main approaches to the word meaning:
referential and functional.
Referential approach. The representatives of this approach try to define the
meaning of the word by establishing the interdependence between words and
things they denote, and notions of these words. The best-known referential model
of meaning is the so-called basic triangle (see Fig. 1).
26
Concept (notion)
sound form referent (thing)

Fig. 1. Basic Triangle
Originally, this triangular scheme was suggested by the German

mathematician and philosopher Gotlieb Frege. Well-known F^ritish scholars
Charles Kay Ogden and Ivor Armstrong Richards adopted this pattern with
considerable modificalions.
As it can be seen from the diagram, sound-form is connected with the
concept. The dotted line suggests that there is no immediate relation between
sound form and referent: it is established only through the concept.
However, some scholars try not to distinguish meaning from the referent.
Meaning is a linguistic category which cannot be seen or touched, but the referent
is the category о Гreality.
'Thus, we can denote one and the same object by more than one word of a
different meaning, there are some words (angel, phoenix) which have no existing
thing (referent).
The other scholars consider that the word meaning is identical to its sound
form. This is wrong, and it can be easily proved: comparing the sound-forms of
different languages, we can see that they have different meanings:
English cot a small bed with high barred sides for a baby or
young child
|кэ!1
^R ussian ko i a cat
If this point of view were true, different languages would not exist. That is
also proved by the existence of homonyms. Misleading words also have identical
sound-forms in different languages but different meanings, e.g. novel;
eomplexion; Rome.
Another issue that should be discussed here is the difference between notion
and meaning.
27
Notion is the reflection in the mind of real objects and phenomena.
Meaning is a linguistic category which cannot be seen, touched, but Ihe referent
is a category of reality. Some scholars consider that the word meaning is identical
to notion. We cannot accept this point of view.
Notion Meaning
1. Notion is a category of Logic. 1. Meaning is a category of
2. Notion is international. The Linguistics.
number of notions does not 2. Meaning is a national category. The
correspond to the number of words, grouping of meaning diIters from
and the number of meanings. grouping of notion: arm and hand;
3. Not every word denotes man and human; home and house.
notion (articles, some prepositions, 3. Every word has its meaning.
interjections). 4. Meaning may express the speakers’
4. Notion is neutral. attitude to what he is speaking of, e.g.
girl; maid.
Functional Approach. Scholars of the functional approach criticize the

representatives of the referential approach for the mixture of the linguistic and
extra-1 inguistic categories.
The representatives of the functional approach suggest studying the meaning
of the word as the relation of sign to sign, e.g.
This1is2 (Г good4buy* “ P ‘ I V2 і Л 4 I 7V°

They1hmr hooks2 Ґ \ i f + N3
So, different functions and different positions (distribution) of the word

signal different meanings that is the point of view of functional scholars.
None of these approaches can be regarded as the alternative. None of them
is complete without the other.
Meaning of the word is not identical to notion but it may reflect human
notions and in this sense may be considered as the form of their existence.
• Comment on differences between functional and referential approaches to

the word meaning.
• Compare and contrast meaning and notion.
28
Useful terms
Lexical meaning: the realization of concept (or notion) by means of a

definite language system.
Referent (or denotation): the thing that a symbol (as a word or sign) stands
for.
2.5. Types of meaning
Word meaning is made up of various components or types of meaning in

other words, that inner form of the word (meaning) presents the structure, or
semantic structure of the word.
Word-meaning is not homogeneous. It is made up of various components.
These components are described as types of meaning. The two main types of
meaning are the grammatical (categorical) meaning and the lexical (material)
meaning (see chart 7, App. I).
Grammatical meaning is a component of meaning from the point of view
of grammar: the tense-meaning in the word-forms of the verbs {asked, thought),
the meaning of plurality (men, hooks).
Lexical meaning is realization of notion by means of a definite language
system; it is a component of meaning proper to the given language unit in all its
forms (go, goes, went, gone).
Roth lexical and grammatical meanings make up the word-meaning, or the
Icxical-and-grammatical meaning, as neither can exist without each other.
However, in some parts of speech the prevailing component is the grammatical
type of meaning (in prepositions), in others it is the lexical one (nouns, verbs).
Denotational component of lexical meaning expresses the conceptual
content of a word. According to the word’s function denotational meaning may
be significative or demonstrative (i.e. identifying).
Conriotational component of lexical meaning expresses communicative
value the word receives.
Stylistic connotation is acquired by the word depending on the situation in
which the word is uttered (formal - informal), social relationship between
interlocutors (polite - rough), and the purpose of communication (poetic -
official).
An emotional connotation is acquired by the word, when it expresses
emotions, e.g. synonym: large, big, tremendous
An evaluative connotation expresses approval or disapproval, e.g.: “clique
—group ”.
29
The fourth type of connotation is expressive one (or intensifying,
emphatic), thus magnificent, splendid', superb are all used colloquially as terms of
exaggeration.
• Comment on the differences between lexical and grammatical meaning.

• Specify the peculiarities of lexical-and-grammatical meaning.
Self-check
1. Group the following words according to the similarities in their meaning:

grammatical and lexical: girl's, nice, wrote, boy's, teach, writing, girls, woman's,
taught, beautiful, boy, women, teaching, handsome.
2. Choose the correct answer:

of lexical meaning expresses communicative value
the word receives.
a) evaluative component;
b) connotational component;
c) denotational component;
d) expressive component.
Useful terms
Connotational component of lexical meaning: a component that expresses

communicative value the word receives.
Denotational component of lexical meaning: a component that expresses
the conceptual content of a word.
Grammatical meaning: a component of meaning from the point of view of
grammar.
Lexical meaning: a component of meaning proper to the given language
unit in all its forms.
Lexical-and-grammatical! meaning makes up the word meaning as it is
verbalised in the sentence (utterance).
30
Further reading
Беляевская, E. Г. Семантика слова [Текст] / Е. Г. Беляевская. — М. :

Высш. шк., 1987. —127 с.
Верба, Л. Г. Порівняльна лексикологія англійської та української мов
[Текст] / Л. Г. Верба. —Вінниця : Нова книга, 2003. —160 с.
House, 1979.-269 p.
Arnold, I. V. The English Word [Text] / I. V. Arnold. - M. : Высш. шк.,
1986. - 295 с.
Jackson, H. Words, Meaning and Vocabulary. An Introduction to Modern
English Lexicology [Text] / H. Jackson. E. Ze Amleva. —London : Continuum,
2007. 248 p.
Ogden, С. K. The Meaning of Meaning [Text] / С. K. Ogden,
1. A. Richards. —New York : Marcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1923. - 363 p.
31
CHAPTER 3.
SEMANTIC CHANGE
3.1. THE PROBLEM OF CLASSIFICATION

OF SEMANTIC CHANCE
3.2. CAUSES OF DEVELOPMENT OF NEW MEANING
3.3. NATURE OF SEMANTIC CHANGE
3.4. RESULTS OF SEMANTIC CHANGE
32
3.1. The Problem of Classification of Semantic Change
Word meaning changes in the course of the historical development of a

language. Changes of lexical meaning may be illustrated by a diachronic semantic
analysis. For example, the word fond (OE fond) used to mean foolish', the word
glad (OE glad) used to mean bright, shining.
The problem of semantic change was in the centre of scholar’s attention in
the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. The most famous
classification was presented by Michel Breal (France) and Hermann Paul
(Germany).
M. Breal was probably the first who emphasized the fact that when passing
from general usage into some special sphere of communication a word undergoes
some sort of specialisation of its meaning (see chart 8, App. 1).
Specialisation is a process when the new meaning the word acquires is
more precise; it covers only the part of the original meaning. F.g.: hound was
originally the general word for dog, today it only marks its hunting breeds. Meat
was the word lor the food, today it is restricted for a type o f food only.
For instance, in its general meaning the word ease denotes eireumslances in
which a person or a thing is. However, it also possesses some special meanings:
— in law (a law suit);
— in grammar (possessive ease);
— in medicine (a patient and illness).
The process reverse to specialisation is termed generalisation of meaning
(see chart 8, Лрр. I). In that case the scope of the new notion is wider than that of
original one.
Generalisation is a process when a concrete meaning becomes an abstract
one, i.e. the meaning of the word is widened (this is usually observable
diachronically). F.g.: rubbish in Old English meant only broken stones; present-
day expression is wider and covers all kinds o f unwanted or left-over property;
camp had only the meaning of the military camp.
For example, the word fly originally meant to move through the air with
wings; yet, now it denotes any kind of movement in the air or other space and also
very quick movement.
Change of meaning had been studied, but it was a one-side study, involving
only the description and classification of various changes of meaning.
However, this problem is rather complicated, and it includes 3 main aspects
of semantic change: the cause o f semantic change, the results and the nature o f
semantic change. This scheme of analysis has been suggested by Stephen
IJIImann in the book “The Principles of Semantics”.
33
• Comment on the phenomena of generalisation and specialisation of

meaning.
• Compare and contrast the phenomena of specialisation and generalisation
in English with your native or other languages.
Self-check
1. Consult an etymological dictionary and comment on the phenomenon of

semantic change in the following words: deer, artist, gossip, season, room, fruit,
picture, villain, knight, minister, style, angel
2 . Generalisation of meaning is __________ ______________________ .
3. Specialisation of meaning is ____ _ _ _______________________
4. Read the sentences and decide where the meanings of the words in bold
are generalized and where they are specialized.
1. Three million dollars for a picture... By Hollywood standards, that was
not ail that much. 2. As a girl, she wanted to be a movie star. 3. The meat was wet
with juice and rich and had the taste of smoke in it. 4. When the season opened,
the hunter stalled hid dreadful job. 5. A man has just killed a deer with an arrow.
Useful terms
Generalisation: a process when a concrete meaning becomes an abstract

one, i.e. the meaning of the word is widened (this is usually observable
diachronically).
Semantic change: development of the inner structure (the meaning) of the
word.
Specialisation is a process when the new meaning the word acquires is
more precise; it covers only the part of the original meaning.
3.2. Causes of Development of New Meaning
According to socio-linguistic classification, the causes of semantic change

(see chart 9, App. 1) may be subdivided into two groups:
34
a) extra-linguistic;
b) linguistic.
By extra-linguistic causes we mean different kinds of changes in a nation’s
social life, in its culture, knowledge, technology, arts. All this leads to gaps
appearing in the vocabulary which must be filled; arid the way of filing such
vocabulary gaps is by applying some old word to a new object or notion.
For example, carriage has the meaning a vehicle drawn by horses, but with
first appearance of railways in England it receives a new meaning, that of a
railway car.
The words stalls, box, pit, circle are theatre terms, but they had existed a
long time before the first theatres appeared in England.
Some changes of meaning occur due to purely linguistic causes, i.e. factors
acting within the language system. Einguistic causes influencing the process of
vocabulary adaptation may be of syntagmatic and paradigmatic character; in
dealing with them we have to do with the constant interaction and
interdependence of vocabulary units in language and speech, such as
differentiation between synonyms, changes taking place in connection with
ellipsis and with fixed contexts, changes resulting from ambiguity in certain
contexts, and some other causes.
The commonest form of the syntagmatic semantic changes depending on the
context is ellipsis a phenomenon denoting that in a phrase made up of two
words, one of the words is omitted, and its meaning is transferred to its part, for
example, to propose instead of to propose m arriage , to starve instead of to die o f
starvation.
An example of linguistic cause of paradigmatic character is discrimination
of synonyms. In O.E. the word dior (deer) had the meaning of beast. There
existed a borrowed word animal and changed its meaning to the modern one
(a certain kind of beast).
It should be mentioned that new meanings do not emerge from nowhere.
There are certain causes of their development:
1) the change of meaning is due to different types of association, for
instance, the meaning of the word box (a small separate enclosure forming a part
o f the theatre) developed on the basis of its former meaning a rectangular
container used for packing or storing things;
2) the change of meaning may be due to the use of it in a new word
combination. Compare: to take a book; to take prisoners; to take food; to take
efforts
3) the new meaning appears as a result of the word being singled out of the
phraseological unit: to drop a brick- to unintentionally say or do something
embarrassing, tactless, or indiscreet; to commit some social faux pas or mistake.
35
The word brick was singled out, and now it has the meaning something
embarrassing, tactless, or indiscreet;
4) there are some causes of psychological and emotional character,
example, the word terribly may have positive or negative meaning depending on
the context.
Fixed context may be regarded as another linguistic factor in semantic
change. For example, the word token, when brought into competition with loan
word sign, became restricted in use to a number of set expressions, such as love
token, token o f respect and also became specialized in meaning.
• Think why extra-linguistic causes have some influence on a language.

• Find the examples of words which have undergone semantic change in
your native language and in any other foreign language you know.
Self-check
1. Consult an etymological dictionary and comment on the causes (linguistic

or extra-linguistic) of semantic change in the semantic structure of the following
words: campaign, to arrive, camp, bird, fond, violent, enthusiasm.
2. Name the extra-linguistic causes of semantic change:_______________.
3. Name the linguistic causes of semantic change:__ _______________
Useful terms
Ellipsis: a phenomenon denoting that in a phrase made up of 2 words, one

of the words is omitted and its meaning is transferred to another part.
Extra-linguistic causes: different kinds of changes in a nation’s social life,
in its culture, knowledge, technology, arts.
Linguistic causes: factors acting within the language system.
36
3.3. Nature of Semantic Change
Nature of semantic change is connected with some association between the

old meaning and the new one. We can define:
a) similarity of meaning;
b) contiguity of meaning.
Similarity of meanings or metaphor (see chart 10, App. 1) may be
described as the semantic process of associating two referents, one of which in
some way resembles the other. The word hand, for instance, acquired in the 16-th
century the meaning of a pointer o f a clock or a watch because of the similarity of
one of the functions performed by the hand (to point to srnth) and the function of
the clock-pointer (hands o f the clock [watch]).
Unis, similarity of meaning (metaphor) is a transfer of name based on the
assoc іat ion о f s іm іIari ty:
1) similarity in shape head o f cabbage;
2) similarity in function head o f department;
3) similarity of position —foot o f page;
4) similarity of duration - long distance —long speech.
Contiguity of meanings or metonymy (see chart 10, App. 1) 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 illustrated by the use
of the word tongue “the organ of speech'” in the meaning of “language” (as in
mother tongue).
Thus, contiguity of meaning (metonymy) is a transfer of name based on
substituting the part for the whole. This transfer may be conditioned by different
relations between primary and secondary meanings such as the bar (the lawyers),
the town (inhabitants), the House (the members of the family ),the name of place is
used for the people occupying. Instrumental metonymy lies in naming the
instrument instead of the agent: the best pens o f the day meaning writers.
Synecdoche - semantic process of associating two referents when a part of
one is used to mean the whole, e.g. have several mouths to feed —mouth instead of
a whole person; Leeds defeated Manchester —football teams of each city.
Other types of meaning transfer (secondary types of semantic change) are
(see chart 10, App. I):
Personification - semantic process of assigning human qualities to things,
e.g.: the paper says.
Zoosemy —semantic process of assigning similarity between an animal and
a person: stag party —a party for men only, especially on a night before a m an’s
wedding; hen party — a party for women only, that happens just before one o f
them gets married.
37
Euphemism - the need for a less expressive word, substitution of words
which can be harmful for words with milder connotations, e.g.: restroom (toilet),
pass away (die).
Hyperbole - exaggeration of meaning, statement not to be taken literally,
e.g.: wait for ages, weight a ton, I'll kill him when I see him...
Litotes - the opposite of hyperbole, the understatement which can be often
ironical or moderating, e.g.: It wasn 7 bad (in the sense of It was good), She \s not
stupid (She s rather smart).
• Give examples of metaphoric and metonymic associations in multilingual

space.
• Comment on the secondary types of semantic change and give some
examples.
Self-Check
1. Decide on the type of semantic change (metaphoric or metonymic) a

explain its nature.
1. Bobby set his teeth and went bravely to the heart of the matter.
2. England decides to keep check on immigration. 3. 'Triends, Romans,
countrymen, lend me your ears.11 4. She is the true angel in my life. 5. I do not
follow the herd; I carve my own path. 6. He told himself repeatedly that it was
absurd to jump to conclusions. 7. The White House will be announcing the
decision around noon today. 8. The library has been very helpful to the students
this morning. 9. "All the world’s a stage and men and women merely players.’1 10.
The restaurant has been acting quite rude lately.
Z. Match the types of semantic change with their definitions:

1. Metaphor a) semantic process of assigning human qualities to
things;
2. Metonymy b) semantic process of associating two referents,
one of which in some way resembles the other;
3. Synechdoche c) exaggeration of meaning, statement not to be
taken literally;
38
4. Personification d) the need for a less expressive word, substitution
of words which can be harmful for words with
milder connotations;
5. Li tote e) semantic process of associating two referents one
of which makes part of the other or is closely
connected with it;
6. Hyperbole f) semantic process of assigning similarity between
an animal and a person;
7. Euphemism g) semantic process of associating two referents
when a part of one is used to mean the whole;
8. Zoosemy h) the understatement which can be often ironical or
moderating.
3. Decide on the secondary types of semantic change (lHole, hyperbole

euphemism, zoosemy, personification) and translate the sentences into your native
language.
I. A million dollars is not a little amount. 2. He’s not poor, he’s
economically disadvantaged. 3. It doesn’t get better than this. 4. The wind sang
through the meadow. 5. You’re a stupid heartless pig! He obviously needs a
doctor, and hospital care. 6. The ocean danced in the moonlight. 7. That joke is so
old, the last time l heard it I was riding on a dinosaur. 8. He is not the cleverest
person I have ever met. 9. We do not need your services any more, so we have to
let you go, John. 10. Wake up you, lazy dog, or we will be late for our train.
Useful terms
Euphemism: the need for a less expressive word, substitution of words

which can be harmful for words with milder connotations.
Hyperbole: exaggeration of meaning, statement not to be taken literally.
Litotes: the opposite of hyperbole, the understatement which can be often
ironical or moderating.
Metaphor: semantic process of associating two referents, one of which in
some way resembles the other.
Metonymy: semantic process of associating two referents one of which
makes part of the other or is closely connected wi th it.
Personification: semantic process of assigning human qualities to things.
Synecdoche: semantic process of associating two referents when a part of
one is used to mean the whole
Zoosemy: semantic process of assigning similarity between an animal and a
person.
39
3.4. Results of Semantic Change
Results of semantic change can be generally observed in the changes of

denotational component o f the lexical meaning o f the word (restriction
(specialisation) and extension (generalisation) of meaning) or in the alteration of
its connotational component o f the lexical meaning o f the word (amelioration
(elevation) or pejoration (deterioration or degradation) of meaning) (see chart 1 I,
App. I).
These changes have received the particular attention of all scholars and have
been widely used as the basis of the classification of all changes of meaning in
different languages.
Changes in the denotational component of the lexical meaning may result in
the restriction (.specialisation) of the referents denoted by the word: a queen a
woman; to write —to scratch; a bed —a hole.
The changes in denotational component of the lexical meaning may also
result in the application of the word to wider variety of referents. It is commonly
described as extension o f meanings {generalisation) that has been described
above.
The changes in connotational component of the lexical meaning are as a rule
accompanied by the change in the denotational component of the lexical meaning
(see chart 11, App. I).
Amelioration (elevational development) of the connotational component of
the lexical meaning may be observed in the change of the semantic structure of
the word: minister ^ servant attendant; knight = a boy servant. Here we observe
improvement of the connotational component of meaning.
Pejoration (degradative development) of the connotational component of
the lexical meaning is the acquisition by words of some derogatory emotive
change: knave boy, servant; boor —villager, peasant.
• Exemplify the ameliorative and pejorative development of the

connotational component of the lexical meaning of the word.
• The causes of ameliorative and pejorative development of the
connotational component of the lexical meaning of the word.
40
Self-check
1. Use an etymological dictionary and decide on the type of development of

the connotational component of the lexical meaning of the words in bold and
translate the sentences into your native language.
1. You’ve been wonderful simply wonderful... You’ve been an angel.
2. The fellow is not worth the gunpowder it would cost to have him shot. 3. I
really feel Tve been terribly silly. 4. Eliduc’s overlord was the king of Brittany,
who was very fond of the knight and looked after his interests. 5. He left me
when Maryann was a baby... I can’t say whether he’s alive or dead, the villain. 6.
She looked sad and thoughtful.
Useful terms
Amelioration (elevational development) of connotational component of the

lexical meaning may be observed in the change of the semantic structure of the
word.
Pejoration (degradative development) of connotational component of the
lexical meaning is the acquisition by words of some derogatory emotive change.
Further reading
Алефирсіїко, II. Ф. Спорные проблемы семантики [Текст] /

II. Ф. Длефиренко. Волгоград : Перемена, 1999. -273 с.
Вердиева, 3. Н. Семантические поля в современном английском языке
[Текст| ! 3. 11. Вердиева. —М. : Высш. шк., 1986. —120 с
Мостовий, М. І. Лексикологія англійської мови [Текст] /
М. І. Мостовий. - X. : Основи, 1993. —255 с.
Харитон чи 3. А. Лексикология английского языка [Текст] /
3. А. Харитончик. Минек : Выш. шк., 1992. -2 2 9 с.
Cecraerts, IX t heories of Lexical Semantics [Text] / D. Geeraerts. —
Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2010. —362 p.
41
CHAPTER 4.
POLYSEMY. HOMONYMY
4.1. POLYSEMY IN SYNCHRONIC APPROACH
4.2. POLYSEMY IN DIACHRONIC APPROACH
4.3. HOMONYMY
4.4. CLASSIFICATION OF HOMONYMS
4.5. HOMONYMY VS POLYSEMY
42
4.1. Polysemy in Synchronic Approach
Polysemy is a common feature peculiar to all natural languages. This is

particularly true of highly developed languages like English. In Modern English,
an overwhelming majority of words are polysemantic. A casual glance at any
pages of an English dictionary will justify the fact. There are words that have two
or three meanings, and the most commonly used ones can have as many as over a
hundred. When a word is first coined, it is always monosemantic. However, in
the course of its development, the same symbol must be used to express more
meanings. The result is polysemy.
Polysemy (from Greek: poly-, “many ” and sema, “sign ”) is the capacity for
a sign (such as a word, phrase, or symbol) to have multiple meanings, usually
related by contiguity of meaning within a semantic Held. It is thus usually
regarded as distinct from homonymy, in which the multiple meanings of a word
may be unconnected or unrelated.
Polysemy is a phenomenon of language, not of speech. The sum total of
many contexts in which the word is observed to occur permits the lexicographers
to record eases of identical meaning and cases that differ in meaning. They are
registered by lexicographers and found in dictionaries.
Synchronically, polysemy is viewed as the coexistence of various meanings
of the same word in a certain historical period of time, say, Modern English. In
this way, the primary meaning of a word is the core of word-meaning called the
primary (central) meaning.
1he derived meanings, no matter how many, are secondary in comparison.
This does not necessarily mean that the secondary meanings are secondary in
importance. There are cases where the central meaning has gradually diminished
in currency with the changes that have taken place in culture and society, and one
of the derived meanings has become dominant.
Eet us take the word table, for example. Its central (primary) meaning is ‘a
piece o f furniture' (1). If we look it up in the dictionary (Longman Dictionary of
Contemporary English), we can notice that this word also possesses some
secondary meanings (See lag. 2):
43
M en u
ta ble ;• • , •!*,:. ••;

i IlfflffTWjB a piece of furniture win a flat top supported by
'egs:
m e dm ing -ro o m table
lay the table B r it is h E n g lis h set the table A m e ric a n
E . i'ju s n (=put knives, forks etc on a table before а тезі)
Th e wan&r c le a re d me ta b le (=took ail the plates: glasses etc off:
book/reserve a table (=in a restaurant;
Vve booked a table fo r two fo r S o ’clock
coffee/bedside/dinner table
iW R lfG A M f snooker/billiard/ping'-pong etc table a special table for piavuiq a
particular indoor sport cr game on
1ДЯ a list of numbers, facts., or Information arranged in rows across and down
a page
table of
a ta b le o f re s u lts
the tab le o f c o n te n ts
on the table an offer idea etc that is on the table has been off ciaty
suggested and someone is considering ;t
Th e o ffe r on the table i s a 1 0 % mage inc rea se .
turn the tables (on somebody) to change a situation completely so that

someone loses an advantage and you gain one:
Th e ta b le s w ere turne d in the se c o nd had when L e e d s U m te d sc o re d from
the p e n a lty sp ot
under the table тке те ! money that is paid under the table is paid secretly
and illegally
P a y m e n ts w e re m ade u n d e r the table to meed o ffic ia ls.
*ТЯ№ times table a list that young children learn, in which alt the numbers
between 1 and 12 are multiplied by each otaer [- muh pl cat on tab e]
three/four etc times table
He's 12 y e a rs o ld a nd s t ill d o e sn 't kn o w I k s th re e tim e s table.
the оамр of people siting around a table.
H i.$ sto n e s ke p t the w ho le table a m use d .
Fig. 2. Meanings of the word tab le (taken from the Longman Dictionary of
Contemporary Fnglish)
It should be noted that whereas the primary meaning occurs in various and
widely different contexts, secondary meanings are observed only in certain
contexts, e.g. to turn the tables, table o f contents and so on. Thus, we can assume
that the meaning a piece o f furniture occupies the central place in the semantic
44
structure of the word table. As to other meanings of this word, we find it hard to
grade them in order of their comparative value.
As synchronically there is no objective criterion to go by, we may find it
difficult in some cases to single out even the primary meanings since two or more
meanings of the word may be felt as equally “central” in its semantic structure. If
we analyse the verb to get, e.g., which of the two meanings to obtain (get a letter,
knowledge, some sleep) or to arrive (get to London, to get into bed) shall we
regard as the central meaning of this word?
The more objective criterion of the comparative value of main / minor
meanings seems to be the frequency of their occurrence in speech. There is a
tendency in modern linguistics to interpret the concept of the central meaning in
terms of the frequency of occurrence of this meaning.
Of great importance is the stylistic stratification of meanings of a
polysemantic word as main / minor meanings may differ in their stylistic
reference. Stylistic (or regional) status of monosemantic words is easily perceived.
For instance, the word daddy can be referred to the colloquial stylistic layer, the
word parent to the bookish.
Polysemantic words, as a rule, cannot be given any restrictive labels.
In order to do it, we must specify the meaning in which they are used. For
example, there is nothing colloquial or slangy or American about the word yellow
denoting colour as far as this particular meaning is concerned. However, when the
word yellow is used in the meaning o f sensational, it is both slang and American.
Some scholars deny the existence of meaning as something fixed in the
semantic structure of the word. They consider that the word possesses its meaning
only in speech.
The others deny polysemy in general. The linguist Lev Shcherba, for
instance, considered every other meaning to be a separate word, thus denying
polysemy.
In our opinion, all the meanings of the word are interconnected. One
meaning may be explained with the help of the other, and this gives us the ground
to consider these meanings to be components or elements of one and the same
word.
Every meaning of the word is signed either by the form of the word or by
the context. Compare, for example, the following sentences where the word hand
has the same form in the sentences but performs different functions thus
possessing different meanings: The hand o f the watch tells minutes and
Wash your hands before eating.
Unity of the form and content of a polysemantic word is kept in its lexical-
semantic variants. All lexical-semantic variants form semantic structure of the
word, and they are interrelated due to some common semantic component. So,
45
semantic structure is a set of interrelated lexical-semantic variants with different
denotational and connotational components of a lexical meaning.
By the connection between lexical-semantic variants we do not only mean
the relation of similarity, but also the relation of opposition:
1) main meaning — minor meaning. Some scholars believe the most
frequent meaning is the main. The others consider that the main meaning is the
one which occurs when the word is taken in isolation;
2) general meaning —special meaning. General meaning occurs in various
and widely different contexts, special meaning is observed in certain and special
contexts, for example, power as a government, and as energy (nuclear power):
3) primary meaning - secondary meaning. Primary meaning is the one
which is placed first in the dictionary, the rest are secondary meanings;
4) direct meaning - figurative meaning. The meaning is figurative when
the object is named and at the same time characterized, for example: the head o f a
cabbage (metaphoric figurative meaning); He is the best pen o f the day
(metonymic figurative meaning);
5) stylistically the meaning is subdivided into neutral meaning and
marked (coloured) meaning.
From the point of view of their realization in speech (according to the
theory by Viktor Vinogradov), lexical meanings may be classified as follows:
1) direct nominative meaning. These are direct names of the objects, the
usage is determined by logical relations reflecting the objects of reality;
2 ) free nominative meaning;
3) hound nominative meaning that is further subdivided into three types:
lexically bound (heavy industry); syntactically/grammatically hound (make
smh do smth); phraseologically bound (to take smb in hand).
Thus, as it has been said above, semantic structure of a word is the
interrelation and the interdependence of all its lexical-semantic variants. It is
determined not only by the number of its lexical-semantic variants but also by
their types. The semantic structure of a word is a flexible category; it has been
changing with the development of the language.
Paradigmatic relations define the word meaning through its interrelations
with other members (in dictionaries) within one of the subgroups of vocabulary
units. Syntagmatic relations define the word meaning in the flow of speech in
different combinations through various contexts.
46
• Comment on polysemy as a peculiar feature of the English language.

• Explain the relationships of opposition between lexical-semantic variants
of a word.
Seif-check
I. Read the sentences in which the polysemantic word case is used. Consult
a dictionary and comment on every lexical-semantic variant of the word.
1. There were 16 cases of damage to cars in the area. 2. He won’t want to
eat it unless he’s really hungry, in which case he’ll eat almost anything. 3. Let me
research the facts before I put forward a case. 4. The lawyers will only be paid if
they win the case. 5. Jim put his violin back in its case. 6. Polly carried her cases
upstairs to the bedroom. 7. Old English had five cases: nominative, accusative,
genitive, dative, and instrumental.
2. Consult a monolingual dictionary to find all lexical-semantic variants of

the following polysemantic words and explain the relation of opposition in their
semantic structure: family, face, hand, wood, book, foot, business, thing, affair,
president, code.
Useful terms
Lexical-semantic variant: every meaning of the word composing its

semantic structure.
Polysemy {from Greek:/w/у-, “many” and sema, “sign”): capacity for
a sign (such as a word, phrase, or symbol) to have multiple meanings, usually
related by contiguity of meaning within a semantic field.
4.2. Polysemy in Diachronic Approach
Speaking about historical perspectives (diachronic approach) the meaning

may be classified according to its genetic characteristics:
1) archaic —still remaining in use;
2) obsolete —gone out of use;
3) present-day —most frequent in present day language.
47
Polysemy is a result of historical change in semantic structure of the word, it
is a repeated transfer of meaning resulting in new meanings and in rearrangement
in the interrelation of the word meaning.
If polysemy is viewed through the diachronic approach, it is understood as
the growth and development of or as a change in the semantic structure of the
word. Polysemy in diachronic terms implies that a word may retain its previous
meaning or meanings and at the same time acquire one or several new ones. Then
the problem of the interrelation and interdependence of individual meanings of a
polysemantic word consists in finding out whether the word always possessed all
its meanings; whether some of its meanings appeared earlier than the others;
whether the new meanings depend on the existing meanings etc.
In the course of a diachronic semantic analysis of the polysemantic word
table we find that of all the meanings it has in Modern English, the primary
meaning is a flat slab o f stone or wood, which is proper to the word in the Old
English period (OB. Tabule from L. tabula); all other meanings are secondary as
they are derived from the primary meaning of the word and appeared later than
the primary meaning.
In modern linguistic literature, there are two terms that describe the meaning
which is not primary: secondary meaning and derived meaning. When the
meaning of the word is described as secondary, it is implied that it could not
appear before the existence of primary meaning. When we refer to the meaning as
derived, we imply that it is dependent on the primary meaning and somehow
subordinate to it. In the case of the word table, e.g., we may say that the meaning
the food put on the table is a secondary meaning as it is derived from the meaning
a pieee o f furniture (on which meals are laid out).
It follows that the main source of polysemy is a change in the semantic
structure of the word.
Polysemy may also arise from homonymy. When two words become
identical in sound-form, the meanings of the two words are felt as making up one
semantic structure. Thus, from the diachronic point of view, the human ear and
the ear o f corn are two homonyms. One is etymologically related to L. auris, the
other to L. acus, aeeris. Synchronically, however, they are perceived as two
meanings of one and the same word. The ear o f corn is felt to be a metaphor of
the usual type (cf. the eye o f the needle, the foot o f the mountain) and
consequently as one of the derived or, synchronically, minor meanings of the
polysemantic word ear. Cases of this type are comparatively rare and, as a rule,
illustrative of the vagueness of the border-line between polysemy and homonymy.
Semantic changes result, as a rule, in new meanings being added to the ones
already existing in the semantic structure of the word. Some of the old meanings
may become obsolete or even disappear, but the bulk of English words tend to an
increase in number of meanings.
48
There are two diachronic processes of the semantic development of a word:
radiation and concatenation. In cases of radiation the primary meaning stands
in the centre and the secondary meanings proceed out of it like rays. Each
secondary meaning can be traced to the primary meaning (See Fig. 3).
In cases of concatenation, the meaning of the word moves gradually away

from the primary meaning by successive shifts, and secondary meanings of a
word develop like a chain. In such cases, it is difficult to trace some meanings to
the primary one, for example: style: a sharp instrument used for writing —> the
way o f writing —> the manner o f writing —* the manner (in architecture, design,
painting, music, poetry etc).
Concatenation shows that there is no direct connection between the primary
and all the secondary meanings, only one of them is closely connected with the
primary one.
Radiation and concatenation are closely connected, being different stages of
the same semantic process.
Generally, the last meanings have nothing in common with the primary one,
and in such cases homonyms appear. This phenomenon is called the split of
polysemy.
• Diachronic approach to polysemy.

• Compare and contrast the phenomenon of polysemy in English with your
native language.
49
Self-check
1. Consult an etymological dictionary and comment on development of

semantic structure of the following polysemantic words: family, face, hand, wood,
hook, foot, business, thing, affair, president, code.
2. Which polysemantic word can fill all the gaps in the following sets of
sentences? Comment on each meaning and trace the pattern of its diachronic
development.
1) _________
The firefighters managed to save the children from the burning third-lloor
The countryside round here is terribly ___ and boring.

We charge a _____ fee for car hire.
This ball is : there is no air in it.
The cake came out of the oven , not fluffy.
Have you checked that the batteries haven't gone_____ ____ ?
2)
If s only that we should share the housework.
She has hair and blue eyes.
Her written work is excellent but her practical work is only
It should be generally and warm in the next few days.
Kelson has a reputation as a and compassionate judge.
Useful terms
Concatenation: semantic process denoting that the meaning of the word

moves gradually away from the primary meaning by successive shifts, and
secondary meanings of a word develop like a chain.
Radiation: semantic process denoting that the primary meaning stands in
the centre and the secondary meanings proceed out of it like rays.
Split of polysemy: semantic process of split in the semantic structure of the
word resulting in the appearance of homonyms.
4.3. Homonymy
Homonyms are traditionally understood as words identical in sound form

and spelling or at least in one of these aspects, but different in their meaning, for
50
example: bank (n) —a shore vs hank (n) —a financial institution; ball (n) —any
spherical body vs ball (n) - a large dancing party.
Homonymy exists in many languages, but in English it is particularly
frequent, especially among monosyllabic words. In the list if 2540 homonyms
given in the Oxford English Dictionary, 89% are monosyllabic words and only
9,1% are words of two syllables, but from the point of view of their
morphological structure, they are one-morpheme words.
In the process of communication, homonyms may sometimes lead to
confusion and misunderstanding, and they are the most important source of
popular humour. They may ibe the reason for pun {bean and been are
homophones):
— Waiter!
— Yes, sir?
— What’s this?
— It \s bean soup, sir.
— Never mind, what it has been, I want to know what it is now.
When analysing different cases of homonymy, we find that some words are
homonymous in all their forms, i.e. we observe full homonymy of the paradigms
of two or more different words, e.g., in seali—a sea animal and seah — a design
printed on paper by means o f a stamp. The paradigm <(seal, seal's, seals, seals'”
is identical for both of them and gives no indication of whether it is seah or seah,
that we are analysing. In other cases, e.g. seah— a sea animal and (to) seal—
to close tightly, we see that although some individual word forms are
homonymous, the whole of the paradigm is not identical. Compare, for instance,
the paradigms:
sea! (n) (to) sea! (v)
seal seal
seal \s seals
seals sealed
seals ’ sealing, etc.
It is easily observed that only some of the word-forms (e.g. seal, seals, etc.)
are homonymous, whereas others (e.g. sealed, sealing) are not. In such cases we
cannot speak of homonymous words but only of homonymy of individual word-
forms or of partial homonymy. This is true of a number of other cases,
e.g. compare the following paradigms in which partial homonymy is observed:
—find [faind], found [found], found [faund], and found [found], founded
[found id], founded [ found idj;
— know [nou], knows [nouz], knew [nju:], and no [non]; nose [nouz],
noses ['nouzis]; new [nju:].
51
The description of various types of homonyms in Modern English would
be incomplete if we did not give a brief outline of the diachronic processes that
account for their appearance.
The two main sources of homonymy are:
1) divergent semantic development of a polysemantic word;
2) convergent sound development of two or more different words.
The process of divergent semantic development can be observed when
different meanings of the same word move so far away from each other that they
come to be regarded as two separate units. This happened, for example, in the
case of Modern English flower and flour which originally were one word
(ME. Flour, c f Ofr. Flour, for; L. flos - floreni) meaning the flower and
the finest pari o f wheat. The difference in spelling underlines the fact that from
the synchronic point of view they are two distinct words even though historically
they have a common origin.
Convergent sound development of a homonymic word is another factor in
the creation of homonyms. The great majority of homonyms arise as a result of
converging sound development which leads to the coincidence of two or more
words which were phonetically distinct at an earlier date, l or example, OF. le
and OF. Faze have become identical in pronunciation (MnF. I faif and eye fai]).
A number of lexico-grammatical homonyms appeared as a result of convergent
sound development of the verb and the noun (cf. MnF Love —(to) love and OF.
Liifu - lufian). Words borrowed from other languages may through phonetic
convergence become homonymous. ON. Ras and Fr. Race are homonymous in
Modern English (cf. racei freisf running and race> [reisf a distinct ethnical
stock).
Linguists also single out three other sources of homonymy:
Phonetic change —words undergo changes in the course of their historical
development. As a result of such changes, two or more words which were originally
pronounced differently may develop identical sound forms and become
homonymous, e.g., night, knight in OE were not homonymous, as the initial |k] was
pronounced, in ME the initial |k| is not pronounced.
Borrowings can be considered to be one more source of homonymy. A
borrowed word in the final stage of its phonetic adaptation may duplicate in form
either a native word or another borrowing, e.g., write native; right -native; rite —
Latin.
Word-building (conversion, shortening, sound-imitation) also contributes
significantly to the growth of homonymy. The most productive type here is
conversion, e.g.., comb —to comb, pale —to pale, aupair —to aupair. Homonyms of
this type are the same in sound and spelling but refer to different categories of parts
of speech. Shortening also increases the number of homonyms, e.g., fan —
enthusiastic admirer o f some kind o f sport or o f an actor, singer, etc; fan (Latin
52
borrowing) — an implement for waving lightly to produce a cool current o f air.
Sound-imitation fornis pairs of homonyms with other words, e.g., bang —a loud,
sudden, explosive noise; bang - a fringe o f hair.
• Comment on the sources of homonymy.

• Give the reasons for the English language being rich in homonyms.
Self-check
1. Find the homonyms to fill in the gaps of the sentence.

1. A can very low temperatures, it is a very big and
strong animal. 2. The driver turned and the main road.
3. you pass that___ of Coke, please? 4. A is a very annoying
insect, but it can very fast. 5. I ask you to visit me in
? 1 think it is the best month of the year.
2. Complete each of the following sentences by choosing the correct word,

and comment on semantic differences of the suggested variants.
I. Francis wondered what advice / advise the doctor would have for him.
2. The stewardess was moving down the aisle / I'll / isle to make sure the
passengers had fastened their seatbelts. 3. He simply sat down on the ledge and
forgot everything accept / except the marvellous mystery. 4. Out of
sight / site / cite ^ out of mind. 5. All is fair / fare in love and war.
Useful terms
Convergent sound development: the process leading to the coincidence of

two or more words which were phonetically distinct at an earlier date.
Divergent semantic development: the process can be observed when
different meanings of the same word move so far away from each other that they
come to be regarded as two separate units.
Homonyms: words identical in sound form and spelling or at least in one of
these aspects, but different in their meaning.
Phonetic change: a change in the phonetic structure of the words in the
course of their historical development which may result in homonymy.
Borrowing: a language unit borrowed from another language.
53
4.4. Classification of Homonyms
There are a lot of classifications of homonyms. We will show the most

widespread (see chart 12, App. 1).
Walter Skeat classified homonyms according to their spelling and sound
forms, and he pointed out three groups:
» perfect homonyms (homonyms proper) are words identical both in
spelling and in sound-form but different in meaning, such as case —something that
has happened and case —a box, a container;
• homographs are words identical in spelling but different both in their
sound-form and meaning, e.g. bow n [bon] - a piece o f wood curved by a string
and used for shooting arrows and bow n [ban] —the bending o f the head or body;
tear n [tiaj —a drop o f water that comes from the eye and tear v [tea] —to pull
apart by farce;
• homophones are words identical in sound-form but different both in
spelling and in meaning, e.g. sea n and see v; son n and sun n.
Another classification was suggested by Olexandr Smirnitsky. l ie added
one more criterion to Skeat’s classification: grammatical meaning. He
subdivided the group of perfect homonyms in Skeaf s classification into two types
of homonyms:
• perfect homonyms which are identical in their spelling, pronunciation
and their grammar form, such as: spring in the meanings the season o f the year, a
leap, a source;
• homoforms which coincide in their spelling and pronunciation but have
different grammatical meaning, e.g. reading - Present Participle, Gerund, Verbal
noun.
A more detailed classification was given by Iryna Arnold. She classified
only perfect homonyms and suggested four criteria of their classification: lexical
meaning, grammatical meaning, basic forms and paradigms.
According to these criteria Iryna Arnold pointed out the following groups:
• homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings, basic forms and
paradigms and different in their lexical meanings, e.g. board in the meanings a
council and** piece o f wood sawn thin;
• homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings and basic forms,
different in their lexical meanings and paradigms, e.g. to lie lied —lied, and
to lie —lay —lain;
• homonyms different in their lexical meanings, grammatical meanings,
paradigms, but coinciding in their basic forms, e.g. light / lights/ light / lighter /
lightest;
54
• homonyms different in their lexical meanings, grammatical meanings,
in their basic forms and paradigms, but coinciding in one of the forms of
their paradigms, e.g. a bit and bit (past form from the verb to bite).
It should be noted that these classifications are not mutually exclusive. All
homonyms may be described on the basis of the two criteria -- homonymy of all
forms of the word or only some of the word-forms and also by the type of
meaning in which homonymous words or word-forms differ.
• Comment on the lexical-and-grammatical classifications of homonyms.

• Compare and contrast synchronic classifications of homonyms.
Self-check
1. Classify the following words into three groups: homonyms proper,

homographs, homophones: week (n) -- weak {adj); row (n) row {n); wind (n) —
wind (v); sound (n) sound {adj); mulch (//) —match (v); son (n) - sun (n); object
(n) - object (v); made {v) - maid (n); sea (n) sec (n); mean (v) —mean (adj);
firm {adj) —firm {n); scene {n) seen (v); ant (n) aunt (n).
2. Comment on the use of homophones in bold in the following verse:

/I bee can be, a flea can flee,
A burro can burrow a hole.
A horse can gel hoarse {from talking, o f course),
A ewe can take you on a stroll.
A bust can be bused b v the driver you trust,
And Barry can bury a berry.
A band could be banned if they gel out o f hand,
And Mary {who ’s merry) can marry.
3. Look at the following schemes and define what they depict: homonyms
proper, homographs or homophones.
3) +
4. Give the examples of homonyms proper, homographs and homophones
your native language.
Useful terms
Homoforms: words which coincide in their spelling and pronunciation but

have different grammatical meaning.
Homographs: words identical in spelling, but different both in their sound-
form and meaning.
Homophones: words identical in sound-form but different both in spelling
and in meaning.
Perfect homonyms: words identical both in spelling and in sound-form but
different in meaning.
4.5. Homonymy vs Polysemy
One of the most debatable problems in semasiology is the border between

homonymy and polysemy.
When several related meanings are associated with one word within one part
of speech, the word is called polysemantic, when two or more unrelated
meanings are associated with the same form - the words are homonyms.
The transition -from polysemy to homonymy is a gradual process, so it is
hardly possible to point out the precise stage at which all ties between the
meanings disappear and two separate words appear.
In the case of flower, flour, for instance, it is mainly the result of graphic
forms divergence. It gives us a chance to state that the two meanings which
originally made up the semantic structure of one word are now apprehended as
belonging to two different words.
Synchronically, the differentiation between homonymy and polysemy is, as
a rule, wholly based on the semantic criterion. If a connection between the various
meanings is understood by the speaker, they are to be considered as making up the
semantic structure of a polysemantic word, otherwise it is a case of homonymy,
not polysemy.
On the other hand, the semantic criterion implies that the difference between
polysemy and homonymy is actually reduced to the differentiation between
related and unrelated meanings. This traditional semantic criterion does not seem
to be reliable, because of several reasons:
1) various meanings of the same word and the meanings of two or more
different words may be equally understood by the speaker as completely
56
unrelated. For instance, the meaning a change in the form o f a noun or pronoun,
which is usually listed in dictionaries as one of the meanings of case1, seems to be
synchronically unrelated to the meanings of the word case2 as something that has
happened, or a question decided in the court o f law to the meaning of —a box, a
container, etc.;
2) as it has been pointed out, some of the meanings of homonyms arising
from conversion (e.g. paper (nf-paper (v)) are related, but this criterion cannot be
applied to a large group of homonymous word-forms in Modern English. This
criterion proves insufficient in the synchronic analysis of a number of other
borderline cases. Let us take the word brother. It goes without saying that we all
know its plural form —brothers -sons o f the same parent. However, there is one
more plural from for this word —brethren —fellow members o f a religious society.
The meanings may be apprehended as related and then we can speak of polysemy
pointing out that the difference in the morphological structure of the plural form
rellects the difference of meaning. Otherwise we may regard this as a case of
partial lexical homonymy.
It is sometimes argued that the difference between related and unrelated
meanings may be observed in the manner in which the meanings of polysemantic
words are acceptable. Different meanings of one word (polysemy) have certain
stable relationship, which are not to be found between the meanings of two
homonymous words. It can be clearly seen in all metaphoric or metonymic
meanings of one word (e.g foot o f the man foot <>fthe mountain, loud voice —
loud colours).
Such semantic relationships are commonly found in the meanings of one
word and are considered to be indicative of polysemy. It is also suggested that the
semantic connection may be described in terms of such features as:
1) form and function (horn o f an animal and horn as an instrument)
2) process and result (to run move with quick steps and a run —act o f
running).
Moreover, in the synchronic analysis of' polysemantic words we often Find
meanings that cannot be related in any way, as, e.g. the meanings of the word case
discussed above. Thus, the semantic criterion proves not only untenable in theory
but also rather vague and because of this impossible in practice as in many cases it
cannot be used to discriminate between several meanings of one word and the
meanings of two di fferent words.
• Comment on the ways to differentiate between polysemy and homonymy.
57
• Research the problem of homonymy and polysemy in your native
language and say whether it is as ambiguous as in English.
Self-check
1. Read the following sentences and decide which pair is the case of
homonymy, and which one is the case of polysemy.
1. My dog would always bark at mailmen -The tree’s bark was rusty
brown.
2. The newspaper got wet in the rain. —The newspaper fired some of its
editing staff
Further reading

S. S. Khidekel, G. Y. Knyazeva. A. A. Sankin. —M. : Higher School Publishing
House, 1979.-269 p.
Arnold, І. V. The English Word [Text] / I. V. Arnold. - M. : Высш. шк.,
1986.- 295 с.
Halfiday, M. A. К. Language as Social Semiotics. Social Interpretation of
Language and Meaning [Text] / M. A. K. Halliday. —London : Edward Arnold,
1979. -2 5 6 p.
Ulima min, S. Semantics: An Introduction to the Science of Meaning [Text] /
S. Ullmann. —NY : Barnes & Noble, 1962. —278 p.
58
CHAPTER 5.
SYNONYMS. ANTONYMS. HYPONYMS
5.1. SYNONYM. THE PROBLEM OF DEFINITION
5.2. THE SYNONYMIC DOMINANT
5.3. SYNONYMY IN SYNCHRONIC AND DIACHRONIC

APPROACHES
5.4. ANTONYMS. THE PROBLEM OF DEFINITION
5.5. CLASSIFICATION OF ANTONYMS
5.6. HYPONYMY
59
5.1. Synonym. The Problem of Definition
Modern English has a very extensive vocabulary; the number of words

according to the dictionary data is no less than 500 000. We consider the language
as a system. So, the English language is considered to be a system. Thus, the
words of the vocabulary can be classified in various ways.
Here, however, we are concerned only with the semantic classification of
words which gives us better insight into some aspects of Modern English word-
stock.
Classification into monosemantic and polysemantic words is based on the
number of meanings the word possesses.
More detailed semantic classifications are generally based on the semantic
similarity or polarity of words or their component morphemes.
The problem of synonymy is treated differently by different linguists. The
most debatable problem is the definition of synonyms.
Synonyms are traditionally described as words different in sound form but
identical or similar in meaning.
t his definition has been severely criticized on many points.
Semantic similarity or polarity of words may be observed in the similarity
of their denotational and connotational components of lexical meaning.
Firstly, it seems impossible to speak of identical or similar meaning of
words as such, as this part of the definition cannot be applied to polysemantic
words, for example, the verb to look may be a synonym to the verbs to see,
watch, observe, and it may also be a synonym to the verbs to seem, to appear.
Compare: to look at smb and to look pale.
Secondly, it seems impossible to speak of identity or similarity of lexical
meaning as a whole. As it has been mentioned above, the lexical meaning is
comprised of denotational component of lexical meaning and connotational
component of lexical meaning. It is only the denotational component of lexical
meaning that may be described as identical or similar. If we analyse, for instance,
such verbs as to die and to pass away (phenomenon of euphemism —expressing
an unpleasant thing using milder words), we will find that the connotational
component of lexical meaning of these words is different, and it is only the
similarity of the denotational component of lexical meaning that makes the
synonyms.
Thirdly, it does not seem possible to speak of identity of meaning as a
criterion of synonymity as identity of meaning is very rare even among
monosemantic words.
In fact, cases of complete synonymy are very few and are, as a rule,
confined to technical terms, e.g. spirant, fricative.
60
Thus, synonyms are words different in sound form but similar in their
denotational component of lexical meaning or meanings. The synonymic
relationship is observed only between similar denotational component of lexical
meanings of phonetically different words.
It should be pointed out that neither the traditional definition of synonyms,
nor the modified version suggested here provide objective criterion of similarity
of meaning.
Recently, attempts have been made to introduce into the definition of
synonymity the criterion of interchangeability. It means that if A and В have
almost identical environment, we say they are synonyms.
However, interchangeability alone cannot serve as a criterion of
synonymity. We may safely assume that synonyms are words interchangeable in
some contexts. In addition, these words must be similar in denotational
component of lexical meaning because in the sentence I saw a little girl, little may
be changed into tall, pretty. Thus, a more acceptable definition of synonyms
seems to be the following:
Synonyms are the words of the same part of speech different in their sound
form but similar in their denotational components of lexical meaning or meanings
and interchangeable at least in some contexts.
There is such a point of view that a synonym is a word or phrase that is
perfectly substitutable in a context for another word or phrase. People who study
language professionally agree that there is no such thing as an ideal synonym for
it is virtually impossible to find two words or phrases that are identical in
denotation (meaning), connotation, frequency, familiarity, and appropriateness.
Indeed, linguists have long noted the economy of language, which suggests that
no language permits a perfect fit, in all respects, between any two words or
phrases.
Moreover, Rozalia Ginzburg singles out several major problems that
complicate the understanding of a synonym:
1) it seems impossible to speak of identical or similar meaning of words
as such as this part of the definition cannot be applied to polysemantic words;
2) it seems impossible to speak of identity or similarity of lexical meanings
as a whole as it is only the denotational component of lexical meaning that may
be described as identical or similar;
3) it does not seem possible to speak of identity of meaning as a criterion
of synonymity since identity of meaning is very rare even among monosemantic
words.
t hus, the traditional definition is modified and formulated as follows:
synonyms are words different in sound-form but similar in their denotational
component of lexical meaning or meanings; synonymous relationship is observed
61
only between similar denotational components of lexical meanings of
phonemically different words.
Another linguist Iryna Arnold adds that synonyms are interchangeable, at
least in some contexts, but they differ in their morphemic composition, phonemic
shape, shades of meaning, connotations, style, valiency and idiomatic use.
Halyna Babich mentions that a polysemantic word may enter as many
groups as it has lexical-semantic variants, e.g.: to close —to finish, to close - to
shut; to feel - to touch — to handle — to probe, to feel - to sound — to try —to
prove, to feel —to experience —to suffer or enjoy - to have the sense o f Words are
seldom exactly synonymous. By the very nature of a language every word has its
own history, motivation and contexts.
It should be noted that additional characteristics of style, emotional
colouring and valence peculiar to one of the elements in a synonymic group may
be absent in one or all of the others.
• Comment on the problem of semantic similarity of words.

• Reveal the phenomenon of interchangeability of synonyms.
Self-check
1. Underline the correct answer.

According to the opinion o f Rozalia Ginzburg, it is only the denotational /
cannotational component o f lexical meaning that may be described as identical
or similar.
2. Fill in the gaps to make the linguistic definition of synonyms complete.

Synonyms are the words o f the same different in their
, but in their denotational component o f lexical
meaning and ________ at least in some contexts.
3. Match the names of scholars to the aspects they single out in synonymy
and comment on them:
1) Rozalia Ginzburg a) a polysemantic word may enter as many groups
as it has lexical-semantic variants
2) Irvna Arnold b) similar denotational meanings of phonemically
different words
3) Halyna Babich c) interchangeability
62
Useful terms
Criterion of interchangeability: criterion meaning that if A and В have

almost identical environment that may be interchanged.
Euphemism: polite expression of an unpleasant thing using milder words.
Synonyms: words different in sound-form but similar in their denotational
component of lexical meaning or meanings; synonymous relationship is observed
only between similar denotational components of lexical meanings of
phonemic-ally different words.
5.2. The Synonymic Dominant
to look to stare, to glare, to gaze, to peep, to glanee

stare —[to look steadily] I in surprise
glare —[to look steadily/ I in anger
gaze —[to look steadily] l in admiration
to glanee [to look briefly]
to peep [to look steadily] I through an opening
ІГ we look at these synonyms, we will see that their semantic structure is
quite simple, it consists only of denotative component and some connotations.
All synonymic groups have a central word whose meaning is equal to the
whole synonymic group. This word is called the synonymic dominant.
The synonymic dominant expresses the notion common to all the synonyms
of the group in the most general way without contributing any additional
information as to the manner, intensity, duration.
So, any dominant is a typical basic-vocabulary word. Its meaning covers
more or less the meanings of the rest of the synonyms, so that it may be
substituted for any of them.
Summing up what has been said, the synonymic dominant has the following
features:
1) high frequency of usage;
2) broad combinability, ability to be used in combinations with various
classes of words;
3) broad general meaning;
4) lack of connotation.
For example:
to surprise - to astonish —to amaze - to astound
to shine - to Hash, to gleam - to glisten, to sparkle - to glitter, to glimmer
to tremble —to shiver - to shudder - to shake
to make - to produce - to create - to manufacture
63
• Single out and comment on every feature a synonymic dominant should

possess.
• Find some examples of synonymic groups and single out a synonymic
dominant in your native language. Justify your ideas.
Self-check
1. Single out the synonymic dominant in the following groups of synonyms

and justify your choice:
1) jolly, cheerful, gay, merry;
2) to cry, to sob, to weep, to whimper;
3) fat, overweight, obese, plump, flabby;
4) great, wonderful, terrific, fantastic;
5) mad, angry, cross, furious;
6) to pick, to select, to choose, to single out;
7) sincere, frank, honest, upright.
2. Think of a word that serves as a synonymic dominant to the following

denotational components of lexical meanings and complete the synonymic lines.
1) able to learn and understand things quickly — ;
2) someone who you know and like very much, and who will help you in
need ;
3) the feeling you have when part of your body hurts ;
4) not difficult or complicated to do or understand — ;
5) lasting for or taking only a short time — ;
6) to get something by paying money for it - ;
7) unusual or surprising, especially in a way that is difficult to explain or
understand
Useful terms
Synonymic dominant: a central word whose meaning is equal to all the

synonymic group.
64
5.3. Synonymy in Synchronic and Diachronic Approaches
There are about 8000 synonyms in the English language. As any linguistic
phenomenon, synonymy can be viewed both from synchronic and diachronic
points of view (see chart 13, App. 1).
According to the classification introduced by academician
Viktor Vinogradov, there are three types of synonyms:
1) idiographic - words conveying the same notion but differing in shades
of meaning, for example, beautiful, fine, handsome, pretty; to look, to seem, to
appear, to turn out;
2 ) stylistic - words similar in meaning but differing in their stylistic
characteristics, e.g.
Neutral Elevated Coloured

Child infant kid
Father parent dad
Neutral Archaic
Often oft
3) absolute words coinciding in all their shades of meaning and in the

stylistic characteristics. Examples of this kind may be found among technical
terms: affix —flection; the flu —grippe.
However, some scholars consider that absolute synonymy is rare and,
consequently, temporary. Therefore, it does not seem necessary to include
absolute synonyms in the system of classification.
The others do not see the difference between shades o f meaning and stylistic
characteristics. Therefore, the subdivision of synonyms into idiographic and
stylistic is open to question.
Apart from this classification, we distinguish:
1) contextual (context-dependent) synonyms synonyms that are similar
in meaning only in some specific distributional conditions, for example, can't
stand - can't hear; Fll go to the shop and gel some bread —I'll go to the shop
and buy some bread.
2 ) territorial synonyms are synonyms which do not differ ideographically
or stylistically, but are used in different countries speaking the same language:
Britain America Canada Australia
autumn fall fall autumn
queue line line queue
65
Diachronically we speak about the origin of synonyms (see chart 13,
App. 1):
1) borrowing is the main source of synonymy, e.g.
Native origin French Latin
end finish complete
track guide instruct
Two elements of the three are of foreign origin.
2 ) the small number of synonyms are taken from dialects, e.g.
charm —glamour {Scottish dialect)
girl —lass {Scottish dialect)
hoy —lad {Irish dialect)
3) another source of synonymy is different types of word formation:
affixation: effectivity - effectiveness
loss of affixes: while - whilst
shortening: laboratory —lab
compounding: resistance - fight-back; arrangement layout
4) euphemisms, e.g.
unwise —foolish
to remove —to kill
to die to pass away
5) phraseology, e.g.
to deceive —to pull one л leg
to abandon to give up
to continue to go on
to lift —to pick up
• Comment on synchronic approach to synonymy.

• Comment on diachronic approach to synonymy.
Self-check
I. Look at the following groups of words and define what type o f synon
they refer to:
1) mother —mum - parent —progenitor;
2 ) to ascent —to mount - to climb;
3) lift elevator;
4) motherland - homeland - fatherland;
66
5) clever - smart —bright -- intelligent;
6 ) physician - doc -- doctor;
7) compounding —composition.
2. Match the types of synonyms to their definitions:

1) idiographic a) words coinciding in all their shades of meaning and in
their stylistic characteristics;
2 ) stylistic b) words that are similar in meaning only iin some
specific distributional conditions;
3) absolute c) words conveying the same notion but differing in
shades of meaning;
4) contextual d) words which don’t differ ideographic-ally or
stylistically, but are used in different countries
speaking the same language;
5) territorial e) words similar in meaning but differing in their
stylistic characteristics.
3. Consult a dictionary and find as many synonyms to the following word

as you can. Compare and contrast the connotational and denotational components
of their lexical meanings: to sparkle; a car; frank; swift; to leave; to tremble;
different; large; love; animal; a friend; a sweet.
Useful terms
Absolute synonyms: words coinciding in all their shades of meaning and in

their stylistic characteristics.
Contextual (context-dependent) synonyms: synonyms that are similar in
meaning only in some specific distributional conditions.
Idiographic synonyms: words conveying the same notion but differing in
shades of meaning.
Stylistic synonyms: words similar in meaning but differing in their stylistic
characteristics.
Territorial synonyms: synonyms which do not differ ideographically or
stylistically, but are used in different countries speaking the same language.
5.4. Antonyms. The Problem of Definition
Antonyms have traditionally been defined as words of opposite meaning.

This definition, however, is not sufficiently accurate. The problem of antonymy is
67
very much the same as the problem of synonymy and is approached in similar
ways.
Antonymy in general shares many features typical of synonymy. Like
synonyms, perfect and complete antonyms are very rare.
It is usual to find the antonymous polarity restricted to certain contexts. For
example, thick is only one of the antonyms of thin (thin slice — thick slice),
another is fat {a thin man —a fat man).
Interchangeability in certain contexts discussed in connection with
synonyms is typical of antonyms as well. In a context where one member of the
antonymous pair can be used, it is interchangeable with the other member, for
example, thick and thin must be interchangeable in the same context: a thin slice —
a thick slice. The phenomenon of semantic polarity of denotational meaning is
clear in opposition: kind — unkind, possible — impossible, important -
unimportant.
According to the definition suggested by Iryna Arnold, antonyms are two
or more words of the same language belonging to the same part of speech,
identical in style and nearly identical in distribution, associated and used together
so that their denotative meanings render contrary or contradictory notions.
The term antonym is used to indicate words of the same category of speech
which can have contrastive meanings: hot —cold; light dark; up - down.
If synonyms form whole groups, antonyms are usually believed to appear in
pairs. However, it is not quite true in reality: cold — warm — hot; happiness
gaiety - sorrow.
A polysemantic word may have an antonym for each of its meanings: dull
light bright light; dull book — interesting book; dull pupil clever pupil; dull
knife —sharp knife.
Antonymous relations are based upon logical contrary notions.
Antonymy is not evenly distributed among the categories of the parts of
speech. Most antonyms are adjectives, because qualitative characteristics are
easily compared and contrasted: high —low; wide narrow; strong —weak; old -
young.
Verbs take the second place. Yet, verbal pairs of antonyms are fewer in
number: to lose —to find; to open - to close; to live —to die.
Nouns are not rich in antonyms, but even so some examples can be given:
friend —enemy; joy —grief; heaven —earth.
Antonymic adverbs can be subdivided into two groups:
a) adverbs derived from adjectives: warmly - coldly; merrily —sadly;
b) adverbs proper: now - then; here - there; ever —never; up —down.
68
• Comment on the difficulties connected with defining antonyms.

• Comment on the phenomenon of antonymy in different parts of speech.
Self-check
1. Find antonyms for the following words. Translate them into your native
language.
Sharp, bright quick, old, small, ugly, weak, dead, kind, to take, to love, to
begin, light, passive, polite, honest, wrong, new, possible.
2. Read the following extract and replace the words in bold with the
opposite ones from the list. Translate the text into your native language and
comment on the phenomenon of interchangeability of antonyms, stimulating,
meaningful, remarkable, outstanding, thought-provoking, moving
As far as the individual tracks are concerned, most of them are very weak.
The CD opens with their best-known song ‘Down Low” which is an extremely
unimaginative piece of work. In my opinion, the use of violins in this piece is
completely over-the-top. As for the lyrics, well, there are four verses of awful
poetry and one of the most clicked choruses I have ever heard. Most of the tracks
are equally dull.
Useful terms
Antonyms: two or more words of the same language belonging to the same
part of speech, identical in style and nearly identical in distribution, associated and
used together so that their denotative meanings render contrary or contradictory
notions.
Criterion of interchangeability: criterion meaning that if A and В have
almost identical environment that may be interchanged.
5.5. Classification of Antonyms
There exist different classifications of antonyms (see chart 14, App. 1).
Vilen Comissarov classified antonyms from the morphological point of
view. He singled out absolute (root) antonyms and derivational antonyms (see
chart 14, App. 1).
69
Absolute antonyms (or root antonyms) are those which render contrary
notions and have different roots, for example, good —bad, right - wrong, young —
old.
Derivational antonyms are those whose affixes serve to deny the quality
stated in the stems. In other words, they have common roots but different affixes,
for instance, happy — unhappyy lo appear - to disappear. Sometimes they are
formed by means of antonymous suffixes: -fid and —less (painful - painless).
This point of view is highly debatable. Unkind may be interpreted as not
kind, which does not necessarily mean cruel, that is it does not mean extreme
points.
It should be noted that absolute and derivational antonyms differ not only in
their morphological structure, but also in semantics. Derivational antonyms
express contradictory notions, and, as a rule, one of them excludes the other:
active —inactive. Absolute antonyms express contrary notions.
Semantic classification is based on the semantic polarity of antonyms
suggested by Lev Novikov (sec chart 14, App. 1). Me classifies antonyms into
contraries, conversives and incompatibles.
Contraries (antonyms proper) are antonyms whose opposition is gradual
and may embrace several elements characterized by different degrees of the same
property: hot - warm cool cold.
Conversives denote one and the same referent or situation as viewed from
different perspectives: left - right; give ~ receive; parent - child.
Incompatibles are connected with the relation of exclusion, not
contradictions: morning evening; day — night; late early; over — under.
Semantic relations of incompatibility exist among antonyms with a common
component of meaning and may be described as the reverse of hyponymy. l or
example, lo say morning is to say not afternoon, not evening, not night. The use of
one member of this set implies the exclusion of the other members of the set.
Incompatibles differ from contradictories as incompatibles are members of the
multiple-term sets while contradictories are members of two-term sets. A relation
of incompatibility may be also observed between colour terms since the choice of
гос/, for example, entails the exclusion of black, blue, etc.
Semantic polarity presupposes the presence of some common semantic
components in the denotations! meaning, for example, ashamed — proud.
Ashamed means feeling unhappy or trembles because one has done something
wrong; proud denotes feeling o f happiness that has its ground in moral values.
Another linguist Leonard Lipka describes three groups of antonyms
according to the types of oppositeness:
a) antonyms proper (graded antonyms) are polar members of a gradual
opposition which may have intermediary elements and always imply comparison
70
(intensity of feelings) which is clear from the context: ‘beautiful ’ —pretty —good-
looking - plain - ‘ugly
b) complementary antonyms have relationships where there is no middle
group, there are only two possibilities, either one or another: male - female; true -
false. The denial of the one implies the assertion of the other, and vice versa;
c) converse (relational) antonyms denote one and the same subject as
viewed from different perspectives with the reversal of the order of participants
and their roles (subject —object, family —social relations, space —time relations):
husband —wife; doctor —patient; pupil —teacher.
It should be pointed out that not every word in a language can have
antonyms. If a word is polysemantic, it can have several antonyms, e.g. the word
bright has the antonyms dim, dull, sad.
• Comment on the synchronic classi Heat ions of antonyms.

• Comment on the phenomenon of antonymy of polysemantic words.
Self-check
1. Classify the following antonyms according to different criteria:

morphological, semantic, type of 'oppositcncss:
1) hopeful hopeless; 2) fast slow; 3) honest dishonest; 4) love hate
5) man - woman; 6 ) happy unhappy; 7) east west; 8 ) teacher pupil; 9) giant
—tiny; 10) earth sky; I I) careful careless; 12 ) mother daughter.
2. Decide whether the following statements about antonyms are true (T) of
false (F).
1. Semantic classification of antonyms was suggested by Vilen Comissarov.
2. Root antonyms are those which render contrary notions and have similar
roots.
3. Complementary antonyms have no intermediary elements, there are only
two possibilities, either one or another.
4. Leonard Lipka described three groups of antonyms according to the types
of oppositeness.
5. Antonyrnic pairs of the type important — unimportant, legal —illegal are
derіvat іоna I a ntony ms.
6 . Converse antonyms denote one and the same subject as viewed from
different perspectives with the reversal of the order of participants and their roles.
71
7. According to the semantic classification, there are three types of
antonyms: contraries, complementaries and incompatibles.
8 . All the words of a language have antonyms.
9. The classification suggested by Lev Novikov is based on semantic
polarity.
10 . Incompatibles are antonyms connected with the relation of exclusion.
Useful terms
Absolute antonyms (or root antonyms): antonyms which render contrary

notions and have different roots.
Antonyms proper (graded antonyms): polar members of a gradual
opposition which may have intermediary elements and always imply comparison
(intensity of feelings) which is clear from the context.
Complementary antonyms: antonyms having such relationships where
there is no middle group, there are only two possibilities, either one or another.
Contraries (antonyms proper): antonyms whose opposition is gradual and
may embrace several elements characterized by different degrees of the same
property
Converse (relational) antonyms: antonyms denoting one and the same
subject as viewed from different perspectives with the reversal of the order of
participants and their roles (subject object, family - social relations, space
time relations).
Conversives: antonyms denoting one and the same referent or situation as
viewed from different perspectives.
Derivational antonyms: antonyms whose affixes serve to deny the quality
stated in the stems.
Incompatibles: antonyms connected with the relation of exclusion, not
contradiction.
Semantic polarity: a feature presupposing the presence of some common
semantic components in the denotational meaning.
5.6. Hyponymy
Hyponymic relationship can be viewed as the hierarchical relations between

the meaning of the general and the individual terms. The meaning of the
individual item is included in the meaning of the more general item (See Fig. 4).
72
The general term (vehicle, tree, animal) is also referred to as superordinate
or hypernym and serves to describe the lexical-semantic group of vehicles,
movements, emotions, etc.
The individual terms (car, bus) are called hyponyms or subordinates. They
contain the meaning of the general term in addition to their individual meanings
which distinguish them from each other.
Examples:
Cow —animal, Honesty —virtue,
Rose —flower, Crimson —red
blower
Jloribnnda grand)'flora
Kig. 4. Hyponymic relation
rose, tulip, daffodil are co-hyponyms

floribunda, grandiflora are co-hyponyms
I lyponymy is a kind of asymmetrical synonymy; its basic organization is
hierarchical. Let us study the example: the word vehicle includes car, bus,
tram, etc.
The hyponymic relations may be represented hierarchically (See Eig. 5):
vehicle
Eig. 5. Hierarchical hyponymic relations
The word vehicle is called hypernym and is defined as a general term. The
more specific term (car, tram, bus) is called hyponym and is included in the
general term.
John Lyons considers hyponymy as a paradigmatic relation since members
of different syntactic categories might be intentionally related in this way. He
terms such relations quasi-hyponymy and notes that adjectives are often likely
73
to have nominal hypernyms, ancl disparate countable categories are likely to have
uncountable hypernyms:
Shape > round/ square/ oval
Taste > sweet/ hitter/ sour/ salty
Cutlery —knife/fork
Clothing —shirt/ blouse
There are different types of hyponymy. The most commonly mentioned
distinction is among taxonomic and functional hyponymy.
Taxonomic relations are theds-a-kind-of-relaliotu whereas functional
relations are the-is-used-as-a-kind-of-relation. For example, cow is in a taxonomic
relation to animal (a cow is an animal), but in a functional relation to livestock (a
cow functions as livestock).
Anna Wierzbicka names the following categories of superordinates
(hypernyms) marked by their particular morpho-semantic status, in terms of
countability and number:
a) the collectiva-singulariia tantum class (furniture > chair) involves non-
countable, singular superordinates that have countable subordinates;
b) the collectiva-pluralia tantum superordinates are noil-countable, plural
su pcrord іnates (leftovers, odds-and-cnds, remains).
Roger Chaffin and David Herman define the hyponymic types of
subordination according to the types of words involved:
a) perceptual (animal horse) which holds that items defined by
perceptual cues have a special type of hyponym relation;
b) functional (vehicle ear) which relates items defined by their function;
c) geographical (country Russia);
d) activity (game chess);
e) state (emotion fear);
I) action (cook \fry).
• Comment on the phenomena of hypernymy and hyponymy.

• Speak about the types of subordination in hyponymy.
Self-check
1. Think of a hypernym for the following groups of hyponyms.

1) green, red, yellow, black, blue, white —____ __ ____
2) students, professors, exams, tests, books - ___________
74
3) winter, spring, summer, autumn —__ _________________ ;
4) mother, father, daughter, son - _______________________ ;
5) eye, ear, mouth, nose, cheek —______________________ .
2. Define the type of subordination for the following pairs of words:

1) feeling > love - _____________ ;
2 ) study > write - _________________ ;
3) pet > cat - __________________ ;
4) vehicle > bicycle - ____ ___ ;
5) river > Amazon - ______________ ;
6 ) party > dance - _____ .
Useful terms
Functional relations: hyponymic relations of the type the-is-used-as-a-

kind-of-relation.
Hypernym (the general term or superordinate): a word describing the
whole lexical-semantic group.
Myponym (the individual term or subordinate): words containing the
meaning of the general term in addition to their individual meanings which
distinguish them from each other.
Taxonomic relations: hyponymic relations of the type the-is-a-kind-of-
relalion.
Further reading
Дії грушина, Г. В. Лексикология английского языка ['Текст] /

Г. 1>. А т рушима, О. В . Афанасьева, И. II. Морозова. — М. : Дрофа, 2004. -
288 с.
Дубенец, Э. ML Современный английский язык. Лексикология [ Текст] /
D. М. Дубенец. - М. : Глосса-Пресс, 2010. - 102 с.
A Course in (Modern English Lexicology |Text| / R. S. Ginzburg,
House, 1970. —269 p.
1986.-295 с.
75
CHAPTER 6.
ENGLISH PHRASEOLOGY
6.1. PHRASEOLOGY AS A BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS
6.2. DIFFERENT CLASSIFICATIONS OF PHRASEOLOGICAL

UNITS
6.3. DIACHRONIC APPROACH TO PHRASEOLOGICAL

CLASSIFICATION. THE ORIGIN OF PHRASEOLOGICAL
UNITS
6.4. TYPES OF TRANSFERENCE OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS
76
6.1. Phraseology as a Branch of Linguistics
Phraseology is one of the sources of vocabulary enlargement and

enrichment. It is the most colourful part of a vocabulary system, and it describes
the peculiar vision of the world by this speaking community. It reflects the history
of the nation, the customs and traditions of the people speaking the language.
Phraseology forms a special subsystem in the vocabulary system. The units of the
subsystem are called differently: phraseological units, phraseologisms, set
expressions, idioms. The classification which will be distributed here is grounded
on the fact that phraseology is regarded as a self-contained branch of linguistics
and not as a part of Lexicology.
Phraseological units are not modelled according to regular linguistic
patterns, they are reproduced ready-made, e.g., to read between the lines, a hard
nut to erack. Bach phraseological unit represents a word group with a unique
combination of components, which make up a single specific meaning. The
integral meaning of the phraseological units is not just a combination of literal
meanings of the components. The meaning is not distributed between the
components and is not reduced to the mere sum of their meanings. Phraseological
units are defined as stable word groups with a specialized meaning of the whole.
The meaning can be partially or completely transferred. Some features are usually
stressed by this definition:
Stability is the basic quality of all phraseological units. 'The usage of
phraseological units is not subject to free variations, and grammatical structure of'
phraseological units is also stable to a certain extent, e.g., we say red tape, but not
red tapes. Phraseological meaning may be motivated by the meaning of
components, but not confined. Stability makes phraseological units more similar
to words, rather than free word combinations. Correct understanding of the units
depends on the background information.
Idiomaticify is the quality of a phraseological unit, when the meaning of the
whole is not deducible from the sum of the meanings of the parts.
Reproducibility is a regular use of phraseological units in speech as single
unchangeable col local ions.
In Lexicology opinions differ as to how phraseology should be defined,
classified, described, and analysed. The word phraseology has very different
meanings in this country and in Great Britain or the United States. In linguistic
literature the term is used for the expressions where the meaning of one element is
dependent on the other, irrespective of the structure and properties of the unit
(Viktor Vinogradov); with other authors it denotes only such set expressions
which do not possess expressiveness or emotional colouring
(Olexandr Smirnitsky), and also vice versa: only those that are imaginative,
expressive and emotional (Iryna Arnold).
77
Nataliia Amosova calls such expressions fixed context units, i.e., units in
which it is impossible to substitute any of the components without changing the
meaning not only of the whole unit, but also of the elements that remain intact.
Olga Akhmanova insists on the semantic integrity of such phrases prevailing over
the structural separateness of their elements. Olexandr Koonin lays stress on the
structural separateness of the elements in a phraseological unit, on the change of
meaning in the whole as compared with its elements taken separately and on a
certain minimum stability. In English and American linguistics no special branch
of study exists, and the term phraseology has a stylistic meaning, according to
Webster’s dictionary it is a mode o f expression, peculiarities o f diction, i.e.,
choice and arrangement o f words and phrases characteristic o f some author or
some literary work.
As far as semantic motivation is concerned, phraseological units are
extremely varied from motivated, e.g., black dress, to partially motivated, e.g., to
have broad shoulders or to demotivated like tit for tat, red tape. Lexical and
grammatical stability of phraseological units is displayed by the fact that no
substitution of any elements is possible in the stereotyped set expressions, which
differ in many other respects: all the world and his wife, red tape, calflove, heads
or tails, first night, to gild the pill, to hope for the best, busy as a bee, fair and
square, stuff and non-sense, lime and again, to and fro.
In a free Phrase the semantic correlative ties are fundamentally different.
The information is additive, and each element has a much greater semantic
independence. Each component may be substituted without affecting the meaning
of the other: cut bread, cut cheese, cat bread etc. Information is additive in the
sense that the amount of information we had on receiving the first signal, i.e.,
having heard or read the word cut, is increased, the listener obtains further details
and learns what is cut. The reference o f cut is unchanged.
Every notional word can form additional syntactic ties with other words
outside the expression. In a set expression the information furnished by each
element is not additive: actually it does not exist before we get the whole. No
substitution for either cut or figure can be made without completely ruining the
following: 1 had an uneasy fear that he might cut a poor figure beside all these
clever Russian officers (Bernard Shaw), lie was not managing to cut much o f a
figure (Iris Murdoch).
• Comment on the features that a phraseological unit should possess.

• Compare and contrast a phraseological unit and a free word-combination.
78
Self-check
1. Match the names of scholars with the features they singled out in
phraseological unit.
1) Viktor Vinogradov a) impossibility to substitute any of the components

without changing the meaning not only of the whole
unit
2) Olexandr Smirnitsky b) dependence of one element on the other
3) Iryna Arnold c) structural separateness of the elements in a
phraseological unit
4) Natal ііa A moso va d) set expressions possessing no expressiveness or
emotional colouring
5) Olga Akhmanova e) imaginative, expressive and emotional
6 ) Olexandr Koonin f) semantic integrity prevailing over the structural
separateness of their elements
2. Find an appropriate term for the following definitions:

a) _____ - the quality of a phraseological unit where the
meaning of the whole is not deducible from the sum of the meanings of the parts;
b) —a regular use of phraseological units in speech as
single unchangeable collocations;
c) —the basic quality of all phraseological units.
Useful terms
Fixed context units: units in which it is impossible to substitute any of the

components without changing the meaning not only of the whole unit, but also of
the elements that remain intact.
Free phrase: a lexical unit whose information is additive, and each element
has a much greater semantic independence; so each component may be substituted
without affecting the meaning of the other.
Idiomaticity: the quality of a phraseological unit, when the meaning of the
whole is not deducible from the sum of the meanings of the parts.
Phraseology: the study of set or fixed expressions, such as idioms, phrasal
verbs, and other types of multi-word lexical units.
Reproducibility: a regular use of phraseological units in speech as single
unchangeable collocations.
79
Stability: the basic quality of all phraseological units meaning that the
usage of phraseological units is not subject to free variations, and grammatical
structure of phraseological units is also stable to a certain extent.
6.2. Different Classifications of Phraseological Units
The previous point makes it clear that a phraseological unit is a very

complicated phenomenon with a number of important features. Hence, there exist
different classifications based on different principles (see chart 15, App. I).
The traditional and oldest classification (for classifying phraseological
units) is based on their original content and might be called thematic. This
approach is widely used in numerous English and American guides to idioms,
phrase books (for example, "‘English Idioms” by David L. Smith). On this
principle, idioms are classified according to their sources of origin. So, Smith
gives in his classification groups of idioms used by sailors, fisherman, solders,
hunters, etc.
Let us look, for instance, at the words-groups consisting of the words
connected with sea and the life of seamen but which have lost their direct
meaning: to he all at sea to he unable to understand; in deep water - in trouble
or danger; in low water, on the roeks -- in strained financial eireumstanees; to be
in the same boat with smb. —to be in some common eireumstanees.
The thematic principle of classifying phraseological units has real merit, bul
it does not take into consideration the linguistic features of the phraseological
unit.
Another classification of Phraseological units is based on semantic
principle (suggested by Viktor Vinogradov) that is degree of cohesion between
the components. The classification is based upon the motivation of the unit, i.e.,
the relationship existing between the meaning of the whole and the meaning of its
component parts. The degree of motivation is correlated with the rigidity,
indivisibility, and semantic unity of the expression, i.e., with the possibility of
changing the form or the order of components, and of substituting the whole by a
single word. According to the type of motivation three types of phraseological
units are suggested: phraseological combinations, phraseological unities, and
phraseological fusions.
Phraseological combinations are partially motivated, they contain one
component used in its direct meaning while the other is used figuratively: meet the
demand, meet the necessity, meet the requirements. In this group of phraseological
units some substitutions are possible which do not destroy the meaning of
metaphoric element. More examples: to attain success, to have success, to lose
80
success. These substitutions are not synonymic, and the meaning of the whole
changes, while the meanings of the noun success and the verb meet are kept intact.
Phraseological unities are much more numerous. They are partially non-
motivated. Their meaning can usually be perceived through the metaphoric
meaning of the whole phraseological unit, e.g., to stick (to stand) to one's guns -
to refuse to change one’s statements or opinions in the face of opposition,
implying courage and integrity.
Phraseological fusions are completely non-motivated word-groups
representing the highest degree of blending together, e.g., til for tat. The meaning
of components is completely absorbed by the meaning of the whole, by its
expressiveness and emotional properties. Phraseological fusions are specific for
every language and do not lend themselves to literal translation into other
languages, e.g., white elephant —expensive but useless thing.
It should be mentioned that he border-line separating unities from fusions is
vague and even subjective. One and the same phraseological unit may appear
motivated to one person (and therefore be labelled as a unity) and demotivated to
another person (and be regarded as a fusion). The more profound one's command
of the language and one’s knowledge of its history, the fewer fusions one is likely
to discover in it.
Another classification suggested by Professor Olexandr Smirnitsky
combines structural and the semantic principles. In terms of this approach, a
phraseological unit is considered to be similar to the word because of the
idiomatic relationship between its parts resulting in its semantic unity and
permitting its introduction into speech as something complete. Here
phraseological units are classilled as follows:
a) traditional phrases whose meaning does not correspond to one notion
and can be derived from the meaning of the component parts: to shrug one's
shottldcrs, clenched fists;
b) phraseological combinations are emotionally and stylistically neutral
phrases: to get up; to fall in love;
e) idioms are emotionally and stylistically coloured phrases: to take the hull
by the horns; to wash one's dirty linen in public.
The structural principle of classifying phraseological units is based on their
ability to perform the same syntactical functions as a word. In the traditional
structural approach, the following principal groups of phraseological units are
distinguishable:
a) verbal: to get (win) the upper hand;
b) substantive: dog's life\ cat-and-dog life, calflove, birds o f a feather;
c) adjectival: high and mighty; spick and span; brand new; safe and sound;
(as) cool as a cucumber; (as) nervous as a cat; (as) weak as a kitten; (as) good as
gold;
81
d) adverbial: hook or crook; for love or money; in cold blood; in the dead
<>/ myjii, by a tony chalk;
e ) inter jectional: By Jove! By George! Sakes alive!
According to another structural classification (Prof. Olexandr Smirnitsky),
two large groups of phraseological units are established:
a) one-summit units, which have one meaningful constituent: to give up; to
make out; to pull out; to be tired; to be surprised;
b) two-summit and multi-summit units which have two or more
meaningful constituents: black art; first night.
Within each of these large groups the phraseological units are classified
according to the category of parts of speech of the summit constituent. So, one-
summit units are subdivided into:
a) verbal-adverbial units equivalent to verbs in which the semantic and the
grammatical centres coincide in the first constituent: to give up;
b) units equivalent to verbs which have their semantic centre in the
second constituent and their grammatical centre in the first: to be tired;
c) prepositional-substantive units equivalent either to adverbs or to
copulas and having their semantic centre in the substantive constituent and no
grammatical centre: by heart; by means of.
Two-summit and multi-summit phraseological units are, in their turn,
classified into:
a) attributive-substantive two-summit units equivalent to nouns:
black art;
b) verbal-substantive two-summit units equivalent to verbs: to take
the floor;
c) phraseological repetitions equivalent to adverbs: now or never;
d) adverbial multi-summit units: every other day.
According to their function in communication (classification by Olexandr
Koonin), phraseological units are subdivided into the following four classes:
a) nominative phraseological units are represented by word-groups,
including the ones with one meaningful word and coordinative phrases of the
type: wear and tear; well and good. This group also includes word-groups with a
predicative structure (as the crow flies), and also predicative phrases о Г the type
see how the land lies; ships that pass in the night;
b) communicative phraseological units are represented by proverbs and
sayings: no joy without alloy; the devil is not so black as he is painted;
c) nominative-communicative phraseological units include nominative
verbal idioms (to break the ice) that can be transformed into a sentence structure
when the verb is used in the Passive Voice (the ice is broken);
d) pragmatic phraseological units represented by interjectional idioms and
response phrases: Bless your heart!; The answer is a lemon.
82
• Compare and contrast different synchronic classifications of

phraseological units.
• Think of examples of phraseological units for every group ( Vinogradov’s
classification) and find the analogues in your native language and in the foreign
languages you know.
Self-check
1. Classify the following phraseological units according to the type

motivation (semantic criterion) and find their analogues in your native language:
1) a white elephant; 2) to break silence; 3) to play second fiddle; 4) to b
the cat; 5) apple-pie order; 6 ) to beat about the bush; 7) to kick the bucket;
8 ) a snake in the grass; 9) to paint the town red; 10) to make head or tail of smth.
2. Classify the following phraseological units according to the structur

criterion (functional classification) and find their analogues in your native
language:
1) my eye!; 2) a bull in a china shop; 3) to lose one's head; 4) as sharp as a
needle; 5) to take the bull by the horns; 6 ) as red as a beetroot; 7) from head to
foot; 8 ) neat and tidy; 9) to dance on a tight rope; 10) blood, sweat and tears.
3. Classify the following phraseological units according to thei

communicative aspect (Koonin’s classification).
1) good heavens!; 2) a dark horse; 3) where there’s a will there’s a way;
4) nothing ventured nothing gained; 5) when pigs fly; 6 ) the heart is broken; 7) at
the back of one's mind; 8 ) truth will out!; 9) Rome wasn’t built in a day; 10) good
riddance!; 11) Get your skates on!
4. Match the beginning of the proverbs with their endings, comment on the
meanings and find the analogues in your native language.
1) All’s fair... a) the mother of invention.
2) Necessity is... b) first served.
3) Every cloud... c) but it pours.
4) It never rains... d) the spice of life.
5) No pain... e) has a silver lining.
6 ) Variety is... f) in love and war.
7) First come... g) no gain.
83
Useful terms
Communicative phraseological units: phraseological units represented by

proverbs and sayings.
Idioms: phrases that are emotionally and stylistically coloured.
Nominative phraseological units: phraseological units represented by
word-groups, including the ones with one meaningful word and coordinative
phrases
Nominative-communicative phraseological units: phraseological units
including nominative verbal idioms that can be transformed into a sentence
structure when the verb is used in the Passive Voice.
Phraseological combinations: phraseological units that are partially
motivated; they contain one component used in its direct meaning while the other
is used figuratively.
Phraseological fusions: completely non-motivated word-groups
representing the highest degree of blending together; the meaning of components
is completely absorbed by the meaning of the whole, by its expressiveness and
emotional properties.
Phraseological unities: partially nonmotivated phraseological units whose
meaning can usually be perceived through the metaphoric meaning of the whole
phraseological unit.
Pragmatic phraseological units: phraseological units represented by
interjectional idioms and response phrases.
Traditional phrases: phrases whose meaning does not correspond to one
notion and can be derived from the meaning of the component parts.

The Origin of Phraseological Units
There exists a diachronic classification by Prof. Borys Larin, which

reflects 3 stages a unit passes on the way of becoming a phraseological one:
1) a free word-group;
2 ) metaphoric phraseological unit;
3) an idiom.
Some phraseological units were built spontaneously that means they have
never been free word groups.
The consideration of the origin of phraseological units contributes to a better
understanding of phraseological meaning. According to the origin all
phraseological units may be divided into two big groups: native and borrowed
(see chart 16, App. 1).
84
The main sources of native phraseological units are:
• terminological and professional lexis, e.g., navigation: to cut the painter —
to become independent, to lower one \s colours—to give in;
• British literature, e.g., the green-eyed monster - jealousy (W.
Shakespeare);
• British traditions and customs, e.g., baker’s dozen —a group o f thirteen (in
the past British merchants of bread received from bakers 13 loaves of bread
instead of 12 ; the 13th loaf was merchant’s profit);
• superstitions and legends, e.g., a black sheep —a less successful or more
immoral person in a family or in a group (people believ ed that a black sheep was
marked by the devil);
• historical facts and events, personalities, e.g., to do a Thatcher —to stay in
power as prime minister for three consecutive terms;
• phenomena and facts of everyday life, e.g., to carry coals to Newcastle
in take smth to a place where there is plenty o f it available (Newcastle is a city in
Northern England where a lot of coal was produced).
The main sources of borrowed phraseological units are:
• the Holly Script, e.g., the kiss o f Judas —any display o f affection whose
purpose is to conceal any act o f treachery',
• ancient legends and myths belonging to different religious or cultural
traditions, e.g., to cut the Gordian knot - to deal with a difficult problem in a
strong, simple and effective way;
• facts and events of the world history, e.g., to meet one ys Waterloo —to be
faced with, esp. after previous success, a final defeat, a difficulty or an obstacle
one cannot overcome (from the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815);
• varieties of the English language, e.g., a hole card - a secret advantage
that is ready to use when you need it (American);
• other languages (classical and modem), e.g., the fair sex — women (from
French: le beau sex); let the eat out o f the bag —reveal a secret carelessly or by
mistake (from German: die Katze aus dem Sack lassen).
• Comment on the sources of native phraseological units.

• Comment on the sources of borrowed phraseological units.
85
Seif-check
1. Fill in the gaps with phraseological units from the list and comment
the sources of their origin: an Aladdin's cave; in the twinkling o f an eye; Prince
Charming; turn the other cheek; the Midas touch; all hands on deck; Jekyll and
Hyde; Achilles heel; star-crossed lovers; a Pyrrhic victory.
1. I’m still single and waiting for _____ _ to appear on his white horse.
2. Larry is a r e a l __________ character: one minute he’s happy and
friendly, the next minute he’s aggressive and violent.
3. My grandmother’s attic w as_______________ of old paintings and other
valuable objects.
4. The film is a classic love story about______________ .
5. Let me finish this e-mail —I’ll be with you________________ .
6 . Our leader has shown that she h a s __________ when it comes to
economic planning.
7. I think this party has a great future, but corruption seems to be
our _________ .
8 . We won our court case, but we’ve got no money left. It was more
o f_______ .
9. I don’t think we should react to their insults. We should ju st________ .
10. We’ll need_________if we’re going to be ready for the party on time.
2. Match the beginnings of the borrowed phraseological units with th

endings, say what language they come from and fill in the gaps of the sentences
with the appropriate units.
1) fait... a) quo
2) ad... b) facto
3) status... c) la vie
4) creme... d) accompli
5) plus... e) de la creme
6 ) de... f) infinitum
7) c’est... g) mentis
8 ) compos... h) 9 a change
1. My grandfather is nearly 100 but he is perfectly_______________ .

2. It’s always beautiful weather when you have to study for exams. It’s
always the way,______________ __ .
3. Their list of demands seemed to go o n _______________ .
4. The older generation is criticising young people, but there’s nothing new
about that. ______
86
5. The Conservatives favoured maintaining t h e __________while the
Liberals hoped for change.
6. 1 wish he’d consulted with us first about changing the computer systems,
but he just presented us with a ______________ .
7. Only the very best students are accepted on this course, they really
are __ ___.
8 . George is th e___________ head of the organisation.
3. Match the idioms with their definitions and decide what English-speaki
country they function in (England, Scotland, the USA, Canada).
1) the frosting on the cake a) something that you find very annoying;
2 ) to be tuned to the moon b) to take off time from work;
3) to take the cake c) to be eccentric;
4) donkey work d) to cry a lot;
5) to book off work e) something that makes a good thing even better;
6 ) to weep buckets f) to be very untidy;
7) to be stirred with a stick g) hard, boring work.
Useful terms
Borrowed phraseological units: phraseological units that were borrowed

into English from other languages.
Native phraseological units: phraseological units that appeared in the
English language due to some inner reasons and were not borrowed from other
languages.
6.4. Types of Transference of Phraseological Units
Phraseological transference is a complete or partial change of meaning of an

initial (source) word-combination as a result of which the word-combination
acquires a new meaning and turns into a phraseological unit. Phraseological
transference may be based on simile, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, etc.
Transference based on simile is the intensification of some feature of an
object (phenomenon, thing) denoted by a phraseological unit by means of
bringing it into contact with another object (phenomenon, thing) belonging to an
entirely different class, e.g., as like as two peas, as old as the hills.
Transference based on metaphor is a likening of one object (phenomenon,
action) of reality to another which is associated with it on the basis of real or
87
imaginable resemblance, e.g., to bend smb to one’s bow —to submit smb; to go to
one’s long rest —to die.
Transference based on metonymy is a transfer of name from one object to
another based on contiguity of their properties, relations, etc. The transfer of name
is conditioned by close ties between two objects, the idea about one object is
inseparably linked with the idea about the other object, e.g., a silk stocking — a
rich, well-dressed man is based on the replacement of the genuine object (a man)
by the article of clothing which was very popular with the men in the past.
Synecdoche is a variety of metonymy. Transference based on synecdoche
is naming the whole by its part, the replacement of the common by the private, of
the plural by the singular and vice versa, e.g., the components flesh and blood in
the phraseological unit in the flesh and blood meaning - in a material form - as
the integral parts of the real existence replace a person or any living being.
• Define the types of transference of phraseological units.

• Compare and contrast the types of transference of phraseological units in
English with your native language.
Self-check
1. Classify the following phraseological units according to the type of

transference and explain their meaning:
1) to see the light; 2) blood., sweat and tears; 3) as fresh as a daisy; 4) to be
at a crossroads; 5) to take centre stage; 6 ) to follow one’s nose; 7) to bite one's
lip; 8 ) as poor as a church mouse; 9) a face like thunder; 10) to drive like a
maniac; 11) to be in a minefield; 12) every nook and cranny; 13) as dry as dust;
14) to bluff one's way; 15) to be all fingers and thumbs; 16) to get on one’s feet.
2. Fill in the gaps in the following ideas:

1) transference based on ____________ is a likening of one object
(phenomenon, action) of reality to another which is associated with it on the basis
of real or imaginable resemblance;
2 ) transference based o n _____________ is naming the whole by its part,
the replacement of the common by the private, of the plural by the singular and
vice versa;
3) transference based o n _____________ is a transfer of name from one
object to another based on contiguity of their properties, relations, etc;
88
4) transference based on _________ is the intensification of some feature
of an object (phenomenon, thing) denoted by a phraseological unit by means of
entirely different class.
Useful terms
Transference based on metaphor: a likening of one object (phenomenon,

action) of reality to another which is associated with it on the basis of real or
imaginable resemblance.
Transference based on metonymy: a transfer of name from one object to
another based on contiguity of their properties, relations, etc.
Transference based on simile: the intensification of some feature of an
object (phenomenon, thing) denoted by a phraseological unit by means of
entirely different class.
Transference based on synecdoche: naming the whole by its part, the
replacement of the common by the private, of the plural by the singular and vice
versa.
Further reading
Амосова, H. H. Основы английской фразеологии [Текст] /

11. И. Амосова. - Л. : Изд-во ЛГУ, 1963. - 208 с.
Голикова, Ж. А. Лексикология и фразеология современного
английского языка [Текст] / Ж. А. Голикова. —Мн. : Новое знание, 2006. -
205 с.
Кунин, А. В. Фразеология современного английского языка [Текст] /
А. В. Кунин. - М. : Высш. шк., 1970. —344 с.
Phraseology and Culture in English [Text] / [ed. By P. Skandera]. —N.Y.,
L. : Routledge, 2007. - 524 p.
Phraseology: Theory, Analysis, and Applications [Text] / [ed. by
A. P. Cowie]. - Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1998. - 258 p.
89
CHAPTER 7.
WORD STRUCTURE
7.1. MORPHEMES. TYPES OF MORPHEMES. ALLOMORPHS
7.2. STRUCTURAL TYPES OF WORDS
7.3. PRINCIPLES OF MORPHEMIC AND DERIVATIONAL

ANALYSES
90
7.1. Morphemes. Types of Morphemes. Allomorphs
As it has been mentioned in the previous chapters, a word is the smallest

language unit capable of functioning alone and characterized by positional
mobility within a sentence, morphological uninterruptibility and semantic
integrity.
A morpheme is the association of a given meaning with a given sound
pattern. Unlike the word, it is not autonomous. A morpheme occurs in speech only
as constituent part of a word, not independently. Morphemes are not divisible into
smaller meaningful units. That is why the morpheme may be defined as the
smallest meaningful language unit.
According to the role they play in constructing words, morphemes are
subdivided into roots and affixes. In other words, morphemic structure of English
words reveals that they are composed of different types: root-morphemes and
affixational morphemes.
The root-morpheme is the lexical nucleus of the word; it has a very general
and abstract lexical meaning common to a set of semantically related words
constituting one word-cluster, for example, (to) teach, teacher, teaching.
Affixational morphemes include inflectional affixes (inflections)<xnd
derivational affixes. Inllections carry only grammatical meaning; derivational
aI'llxes are relevant lor building various types of words. Lexicology is only
concerned with derivational affixes. Derivational affixes are lexically always
dependent on the root which they modify. They possess the same types of
meaning as found in roots, but unlike root-morphemes, most of them have the
part-of speech meaning which makes them structurally the important part of the
word. Due to this component of their meaning the derivational affixes are
classified into affixes building different parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives
or adverbs. So, roots and derivational affixes are generally easily distinguished.
Distinction is also made between free and hound morphemes. Free
morphemes coincide with word-forms of independently functioning words. It is
obvious that free morphemes can be found only among roots, so the morpheme
hoy- in the word hoy is a free morpheme. It follows that bound morphemes are
those which do not coincide with separate word-forms, consequently all
derivational morphemes, such as -ness, -able, -er are bound.
Root-morphemes may be both free and bound. The morphemes theor- in
the words theory, theoretical, or horr- in the words horror, horrible; Angl- in
Anglo-Saxon; Afr- in Afro-Asian are all bound roots as there are no identical
word- forms.
91
Affixes fall into prefixes which precede the root (re-read, mis-pronounce,
unwell) and suffixes which follow the root (as in teach-er, dict-ate). Words which
consist of a root and an affix (or several affixes) are called derived words or
derivatives.
In should also be noted that morphemes may have different phonetic shapes.
In the word-cluster please, pleasing, pleasure, pleasant the root-morpheme is
represented by phonemic shapes: [pli:z] in please, pleasing, [ріез] in pleasure and
[plez] in pleasant. In such cases we say that the phonetic shapes of the word stand
in alternation with each other. All the representations of the given morpheme that
manifest alternation are called allomorphs of that morpheme or morpheme
variants. Thus, [pli:z], [ріез] and [plez] are allomorphs of one and the same
morpheme. The word-cluster duke, ducal, duchess, duchy or poor, poverty may
also serve as examples of allomorphs of one morpheme:
[d]u:k]/[cUt]];[pm]/[ \pnvdti].
As it has already been mentioned, according to the part they play in
constructing words, morphemes are subdivided into roots and affixes. The latter
are further subdivided, according to their position, into prefixes, suffixes and
infixes, and according to their function and meaning, into derivational and
functional affixes, the latter are, also called inflectional affixes or endings.
When functional affix is stripped form the word, what remains is a stem (or
a stem base). The stem expresses the lexical and the part of speech meaning. For
the word hearty and for the paradigm heart (sing.) —hearts (pi.) the stem may be
represented as heart-. This stem is a single morpheme, it contains nothing but the
root, so it is a simple stem. It is also a free stem because it is homonymous to the
word heart.
A stem may also be defined as the part of the word that remains unchanged
throughout its paradigm. Let us have a look, for example, at the paradigm hearty
heartier - (the) heartiest. Its stem is hearty-. It is a free stem, but as it consists of
a root morpheme and an affix, it is not simple but derived. Thus, a stem
containing one or more affixes is a derived stem. If after deducting the affix the
remaining stem is not homonymous to a separate word of the same root, we call il
a bound stem. Thus, in the word cordial "proceeding as it forms the heart", the
adjective-forming suffix can be separated on the analogy with such words as
bronchial, radial, social. The remaining stem, however, cannot form a separate
word by itself: it is bound. In cordially and cordiality, on the other hand, the stems
are free.
Bound stems are especially peculiar to loan words. The point may be
illustrated by the following French borrowings: arrogance, charity, courage,
coward, distort, involve, notion, legible and tolerable, to give but a few. After the
92
suffixes of these words are taken away, the remaining elements are: arrog-, char-,
coiir-, cow-, -tort, -volve, nat-, leg-, toler- which do not coincide with any
semantically related independent words.
• Comment on the types of morphemes.

• Comment on the types of stems.
Self-check
1. Analyse morphologically the following words: notebook, strawberry,

laptop, aimless, beautiful, bad, illustrate, darken, monopolize, teacher, blue-eyed,
tree, government, troublesome, friend, friendship, dishonest, immortal, fact,
illegal, superstructure.
2. Classify the following words according to the type of stem they contain:
I ) big; 2) fishmonger; 3) careless; 4) get; 5) ex-president; 6 ) unimportant,
7) immovability; 8 ) lightheartedness; 9) underestimation; 10) simplify;
II) workload; 12) childproof; 13) heartache; 14) girlish; 15) man;
16) unstoppable.
Useful terms
Affix at ion a I morphemes: morphemes that include inflectional affixes

(inflections) and derivational affixes.
Allomorphs (or morpheme variants): all the representations of the given
morpheme that manifest alternation.
Bound morpheme: a morpheme which does not coincide with separate
word-forms.
Bound stem: a stem which cannot occur as a separate word apart from any
other morpheme.
Derived stem: a stem containing one or more affixes.
Derived words (or derivatives): words which consist of a root and an affix
(or several affixes).
Free morpheme: a morpheme wdiich coincides with word-forms of
independently functioning words.
93
Morpheme: the smallest meaningful language unit; the association of a
given meaning with a given sound pattern
Root-morpheme: the lexical nucleus of the word that has a very general
and abstract lexical meaning common to a set of semantically related words
constituting one word-cluster.
Simple stem: a stem containing nothing but the root.
Stem (or a stem base): a part of the word to which affixes can be attached.
7.2. Structural Types of Words
The morphological analysis of the morphemic level aims at splitting the

word into its constituent morphemes and at determining their number and types.
According to the number of morphemes, words can be classified into
monomorphic and polymorphic.
Monomorphic or root-words consist of only one root-morpheme, e.g.
small, dog, make, give, etc.
All polymorphic words fall into two subgroups: derived words and
compound words —according to the number of root-morphemes (hey have.
Derived words are composed of one root-morpheme and one of more
derivational morphemes, e.g. acceptable, outdo, disagreeable, etc.
Compound words contain at least two stems, they may be derivational
compounds -aspen-holder, light-mindedness, and compounds proper containing
only root morphemes (stems): lamp-shade, eye-ball, etc.
• Comment on the types of words in Modern English.

• Compare and contrast the types of words in English with your native
language.
Self-check
1. Classify the following v/ords according to their morphological type: eoal-

black, brotherhood, short, minimize, thermometer, do-or-die, indifference, bald-
headed, remake, ownership, curiosity, adulthood, speed, kingdom, improvement,
investment.
94
2. Use a dictionary and transform the following monomorphic words into
polymorphic (derived and compound): act; trust; man; long; hand; do; hope; like.
Useful terms
Compound words: words that contain at least two stems, they may be
derivational compounds.
Derived words: words that are composed of one root-morpheme and one of
more derivational morphemes.
IVIonomorphic words (or root-words): words that consist of only one root-
morpheme.
Polymorphic words: words that consist of two or more morphemes.
7.3. Principles of Morphemic and Derivational Analyses
In most cases the morphemic structure of words is transparent enough, and

individual morphemes clearly stand out within the word. The segmentation of
words is generally carried out according to the Method o f Immediate and Ultimate
Constituents. This method is based on the binary principle, i.e., each stage of the
procedure involves two components the word immediately breaks into.
At each stage these two components are referred to as the Immediate
Constituents (Ics). Fach 1C is in turn broken into smaller meaningful elements at
the next stage of the analysis. The analysis is completed when we arrive at
constituents incapable of further division, i.e. morphemes. These are referred to as
Ultimate Constituents (IJcs). The analysis of word-structure at the morphemic
level must naturally proceed to the stage of IJcs. For example, the noun
friendliness is first segmented into the les: friendli- recurring in the adjectives
friendly-looking and friendly and -nis (bund in a countless number of nouns, such
as unhappiness, blackness, sameness, etc. The 1C -nis is at the same time an UC
of the word, as it cannot be broken into any smaller elements possessing both
sound-form and meaning. Any further division of -ness would give individual
speech-sounds which denote nothing by themselves. The IC friendli- is next
broken into the Ics -// and friend- which are both IJcs of the word.
Derivational Level of Analysis. The morphemic analysis of words only
defines the constituent morphemes, determining their types and their meaning but
does not reveal the hierarchy of the morphemes comprising the word. Morphemes
are arranged according to certain rules, the arrangement differing in various types
of words and particular groups within the same type. These relations within the
word and the interrelations between different types and classes of words are
95
known as derivative or word-formation relations. The analysis of derivative
relations aims at establishing the structural patterns words are built on. The
basic unit at the derivational level is the stem.
The stem is defined as that part of the word which remains unchanged
throughout its paradigm, thus, the stem which appears in the paradigm (to) ask( ),
asks, asked, asked, asking is ask-; the stem of the word singer, as shaped by the
paradigm singer( ), singer's, singers, singer’ is s i n g e r It is the stem of the word
that takes the inflections which shape the word grammatically as one or another
part of speech.
Formulas and Patterns. Derivational Types of Words. The stem-
structure may be represented in a generalized wav by employing the following
conventional symbols: small letters n, v, a, adv, mirn for the stem of the respective
parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, numerals; ved for the Past
Participle of any verb; sf— for a suffix, p r f — for a prefix. The generalized
formulas, e.g., of the stems of such words as re-write, driver, hlaekness, to
pocket, match-box, wind-driven would be: p rf + v, nv, na, vn, n і n, n I ved,
where nv stands for deverbal noun-stems, means that i.e. noun-stems built from
verbal stems, na- for deadjectival stems, vn—for denominal verbal stems. The nv,
na, type may be represented by formulas indicating the concrete means used to
build the given stems, such as v + s fa + .v/‘etc.
Derivational pattern is a regular meaningful arrangement, a structure that
imposes rigid rules on the order and the nature of the derivational bases and
affixes that may be brought together. A pattern is a generalisation, a scheme
indicative of the type of les, their order and arrangement which signals the part of
speech, the structural and semantic peculiarities common to all the individual
words for which the pattern holds true. Patterns of derivative structures are
usually represented in a generalised way in terms of conventional symbols: small
letters v, n, a, d, пит stand for the bases which coincide with the stems of the
respective parts of speech: verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, numerals; v(</, iw
stand for the bases which are the past and present participles respectively. In such
words as, for example, long-fingered or sit-inner the derivational bases are
represented by bracketed symbols of the parts of speech making up the
corresponding collocations, for example (a+n)+-ed); (v Id) I -er.
• Comment on the principles of the Method of Immediate and Ultimate

Constituents.
• Comment on the derivational level of analysis.
96
Self-check
1. Analyse the following words using the Method of Immediate and

Ultimate Constituents: multinationality; overtiredness; antisocial;
autobiographical; multilingualism, misunderstanding; undercooked;
improbability; monologue; postgraduate; pseudo-scientific; disappointment.
2. Represent the stem-structures of the following words by means of

derivational analysis: forgetfulness; pencil-sharpener; weakness; readable;
boyish; journalism; delicious; advertisement; composer; introduction; one-eyed.
Useful terms
Derivational analysis: the analysis of derivative relations aimed at

establishing the structural patterns words are built on; its basic unit is the stem.
Derivational pattern: a regular meaningful arrangement, a structure that
imposes rigid rules on the order and the nature of the derivational bases and
aI'tlxes that may be brought together.
1in mediate Constituent (1C): every component of the word capable of
division.
Ultimate Constituent (UC): a smaller meaningful element of the word
incapable of further division, i.e. morphemes.
Further reading
Харитопчик:, 3. А. Лексикология английского языка [Текст] /

3. А. Харитопчик. Ми. : Выш. пік., 1992. —229 с.
A Course in Modern Fnglish Lexicology [Text] / R. S. Ginzburg,
S. S. Khidekel, G. Y. Knyazeva, A. A. Sankin. —M. : Higher School Publishing
House, 1979. 269 p.
Adams, V. Introduction to Modern English Word Formation [Text] /
V. Adams. - London: Longman, 2010. -2 3 0 p.
Arnold, I. V. The English Word [Text] / I. V. Arnold. - M. : Высш. шк\,
1986. - 295 с.
97
CHAPTER 8.
WOIH) FORMATION
8.1. WORD FORMATION AS A SUBJECT OF STUDY
8.2. MAJOR TYPES OF WORD FORMATION
8.2.1. AFFIXATION
8.2.2. CONVERSION
8.2.3. COMPOUNDING
8.3. MINOR TYPES OF WORD FORMATION
98
8.1. Word Formation as a Subject of Study
Word formation is a process of creating new words from the material

available in the language after certain structural and semantic formulas and
patterns. Every language has its own patterns of word formation. Together with
borrowing, word-building provides for enlarging and enriching the vocabulary of
the language.
According to the classification by Mykola Shansky, we distinguish three
main types of word formation: morphological, syntactic and semantic.
At present the most common ways of word formation are affixation (or
derivation), conversion and composition (or compounding), which will be
described below.
Word formation is sometimes contrasted with semantic change, which, as it
has been mentioned in previous chapters, is a change in a single word's meaning.
The boundary between word formation and semantic change can be difficult to
define: a new use of an old word can be seen as a new word derived from an old
one and identical to it in form.
There are a number of ways of word formation in English. They may be
subdivided into two groups: major and minor.
Major types of word formation include affixation, conversion, and
compounding (or composition) (see chart 17, App. 1).
Minor types of word formation are shortening; lexicalisation; blending;
clipping; sound and stress interchange; sound imitation; reduplication and
back formation (see chart 18, App. 1).
It should be taken into consideration that nowadays shortening has been
developing in such a rapid way that some linguists say that it may take an
intermediary position between major and minor types of word formation.
• Comment on the phenomenon of word-formation.

• Name major and minor types of word-formation.
Useful terms
Major types of word formation: such types of word formation that are the
most abundant: affixation, conversion, and compounding (or composition).
99
Minor types of word formation: such types of word formation that are the
least abundant: shortening; lexicalisation; blending; clipping; sound and stress
interchange; sound imitation; reduplication and back formation.
Semantic change: a change in a single word’s meaning.
Word formation: the process of creating new words from the material
available in the language after certain structural and semantic formulas and
patterns.
8.2. M ajor Types of Word Formation
8.2.1. Affixation
Words which consist of a root and an affix (or several affixes) are called
derived words or derivatives and are coined by the process of word formation
known as affixation (see chart 17, App. 1). Affixation has been one of the most
productive ways of word formation throughout the history of English. The process
of affixation consists in coining a new word by adding an affix or several affixes
to some root morpheme. Affixation is further subdivided into prefixation and
suffixation.
There are several classifications of affixes.
From the etymological point of view affixes are classified into:
— native that can be, for example:
• noun-forming\ - er, -ness, -ing, -dom, -hood, -ship, -th;
• adjective forming'. - ful, -less, -y, -ish, -ly;
• verb-forming: - en,
• adverb-forming: - ly; -ward(s).
— borrowed that are numerous in the English vocabulary, for example:
• Latin affixes:
■ noun-forming: -ion, -tion;
■ verb-forming: -ate, -ute, -et, dis-;
■ adjective-forming: -able, -ate [it], -ant, -ent, -or,-al, -ar;
• French affixes:
■ noun-forming -ance, -ence, -ment, -age, -ess;
■ adjective-forming -ous;
■ verb-forming: en-.
From the point of view of their productivity, affixes can be classified into:
— productive - the ones, which take part in deriving new words in this
particular period of language development. The most productive affixes are, for
instance:
100
• noun-forming suffixes - er, -ing, -ness, -ism, -ist, -ance;
• adjective-forming suffixes: - y, -ish, -ed, -able, -less;
• verb-forming suffixes - ize, -ise, -ate;
• adverb-forming suffixes —ly;
• verb-forming prefixes: im-, re-, dis-.
— non-productive affixes - the ones that do not form the new words, they
are a part of already existing words. They are, for example:
• noun-forming: -th. -hood; -ship;
• adjective-forming: -ly, -some, -en, -ous;
• verb-forming: -en.
From the semantic point of view:
1) the prefixes can be divided into:
-- prefixes of negative meaning: un-, in-, dis-, U-, im-, un-, dis-;
— prefixes denoting repetition of an action: re-;
— prefixes denoting space and time relation: fore-, pre-, post-,over-, super-,
pre-, post-.
2) the suffixes are subdivided into the ones denoting:
— the agent of the action: -er (lawyer), -ist (taxist), -enl (student);
— nat іона Iіty: -ian (Ilungarian). -ese (Chinese), -ish (English);
— collectivity : -dom (kingdom), -ry (f)easantry), -ship (friendship);
— diminutiveness: -ie (horsie), -let (booklet), -ette (kitchenette);
— activity or ideology: -ism (journalism), -ist (socialist).
• Comment on the phenomenon of affixation in Modern English.

• Reveal different classifications of affixes and give your own examples.
Self-check
1. Complete the following sentences using the words in bold. Add

necessary prefixes and comment on their types:
1. Children love parcels at Christmas time. WRAP
2. I almost always find that I ___ with his opinion. AGREE
3. Pin sure he's lying but it’s going to be hard to ____his story. PROVE
4. After a brief speech the Queen __ the new statue. VEIL
5. His phone was______ because he didn’t pay his last bill. CONNECT
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2. Look at the following words and comment on the type of affixe
according to their origin, productivity and semantics. Make up your own
sentences with them: supervisor; childhood; physicist; addressee; delicious;
unforgivable; homeless; flexible; unhappiness; disapproval; disagreement;
enrichment; enable; pronunciation; partnership; improbability; inevitable;
heartless; kingdom; ownership; warmth; friendly..
Useful terms
Affixation: one of the major types of word-formation which consists in

coining a new word by adding an affix or several affixes to some root morpheme.
Prefixation: a process of coining a new word by adding a prefix to some
root morpheme.
Suffixation: a process of coining a new word by adding a suffix to some
root morpheme.
8.2.2. Conversion
Conversion is a type of word formation that consists in making a new word

from some existing word by changing the category of a part of speech, the
morphemic shape of the original word remaining unchanged (see chart ! 7,
App. 1).
The question of conversion has been a controversial one in several aspects.
The very essence of this process has been treated by a number of scholars (e.g.
Henry Sweet) not as a word building act, but as a mere functional change.
So, from their point of view, in the sentence Hand me that book the word
hand is not a verb, but a noun used in a verbal syntactical function, that is
hand (me) and hands (She has small hands) are not two different words but one.
Nowadays, conversion is universally accepted as one of the major ways of
enriching English vocabulary with new words. It is not only a highly productive
but also a particularly English way of word formation.
The analytical structure of Modem English greatly facilitates the processes
of making words of one category of part of speech from words of other part of
speech. A great number of monosyllabic words are another factor in favour of
conversion, because such words are naturally more mobile and flexible than
polysyllabic ones.
There are certain regularities in the association of words converted, for
instance, from nouns to verbs which can be roughly classified into:
102
— the noun is the name of a tool, the verb denotes an action performed
by the tool: to hammer, to nail;
— the noun is the name of an animal, the verb denotes an action or aspect
of behaviour considered typical of this animal: to dog, to wolf, to ape, to fox;
— the noun is the name of a part of the human body, the verb denotes an
action performed by it: to hand, to leg, to eye, to elbow;

— the noun is the name of a profession or occupation, the verb denotes an
activity typical of it: to nurse, to cook, to maid, to groom;
— the noun is the name of a place, the verb denotes the process of
occupying the place or of putting something / somebody in/on it: to room, to

house, to table;
— the noun is the name of a container, the verb denotes the act of putting
smth within the container: to can, to bottle, to pocket;
— the noun is the name of meal, the verb denotes the process of taking it:
to supper;
— the noun denotes the name of an object, the verb denotes acquisition or
addition of the object: to fish,
1Iowever, it is not only nouns that may be converted into verbs or vice
versa. There are also some other parts of speech that are subjected to this process,
for example, calm (ad/) calm (v), busy (ad/) —busy (v).
• Justify why conversion is considered to be a particularly Rnglish way of

word formation.
• Comment on certain regularities in the association of converted words.
Self-check
1. Define the part of speech of the words in bold. State the part of spee
they are derived from.
1. She busied herself with cleaning the room. 2. If all those cigarettes had
been smoked, the room ought to have been full of strong tobacco smell. 3. It was
clear now that he had come to there to blackmail her. 4. John took on a look of
surprise. 5. Martha gave Robert a quick smile and left. 6 . Ann finally freed
herself from those terrible responsibilities. 7. The hatred seemed to have blinded
him. 8 . My brother prefers grilled chicken. 9. This textbook is a must for all the
students. 10. Hand me this document, please.
103
2. Classify the following verbs according to the type of association involve
and explain the meaning of the nouns they are derived from:
1) to google; 2) to hare; 3) to tip; 4) to bag; 5) to brush; 6 ) to zip; 7) to cake;
8 ) to lunch; 9) to mouse; 10) to finger; 1 1) to paint; 12) to shield; 13) to stamp:
14) to selfie.
Useful terms
Conversion: a type of word formation that consists in making a new word

from some existing word by changing the category of a part of speech, the
morphemic shape of the original word remaining unchanged.
8.23. Compounding
Compounding (or composition) is a type of word-formation in which new

words are produced by combining two or more stems (see chart 17, App. 1); it is
one of the three most productive types of word formation in Modem English.
All the compounds may be classified into compound nouns (combination
of two nouns) and compound adjectives.
Compound adjective is an adjective which is made up of two parts and is
usually written with a hyphen: well-dressed’ blue-eyed, shocking-pink. There is
another special group of compound adjectives where the second part is a
preposition: all-out strike, hard-up student, drive-in movie, well-off'bankers.
Compound noun is a fixed expression which is made up of two or more
words and functions as a noun. Compound nouns can be graphically written as:
— two or more words: tin opener, hank account;
— through the hyphen: pen-name, baby-sitter;
— as a solid word: blackbird, blackboard.
Structurally compound nouns can be based on phrasal verbs: break-out from
the prison, output has increased, a breakthrough has been made in research.
There are also some other classifications of compounds: structural, syntactic
and semantic.
Compounds are not homogeneous in structure. According to the structural
classification, they are subdivided into:
• neutral compounds where the process of compounding is realized
without any linking elements (this type is productive): blackbird, sunflower,
nickname.
Neutral compounds may be: simple (bedroom); derived (lady-killer);
contracted (TV-set, T-shirt, H-bag);
104
• morphological compounds are very few in number. This type is non
productive. It is presented by words in which two compounding stems are
combined by a linking vowel or consonant: Anglo-Saxon, Franco-Prussian,
spokesman, handicraft;
• syntactic compounds are words formed from segments of speech
preserving in their structure articles, prepositions, adverbs: lily-of-the-valley,
Jack-of-all-trades, mother-in-law, do-it-yourself
From the point of view of semantic classification all the compounds are
distinguished according to the degree of cohesion between the parts of the
compound:
1. The first group includes compounds whose meanings can be described
as the sum of their constituent meanings: classroom, sleeping-car, reading-room,
dining-room. These compounds may possess a slight shift of meaning.
2. The second group of compounds makes the shift of meaning more
obvious: blackboard, lady-killer, chatterbox, blackbird, football. In these
compounds one of the components has changed its meaning. However, the
meanings of the constituents of the compounds of this second group are still
transparent: you can see through them the meaning of the whole complex.
3. In the third group of compounds the process of deducing the meaning
may be observed: bluestocking, bluebottle. So, in these compounds the whole
meaning does not correspond to the meanings of the constituents and they are
called idiomatic compounds.
• Comment on structural classification of compounds.

• Comment on semantic classification of compounds.
Self-check
1. Match the words from the left column with the words from the right
column to make compound adjectives. Comment on their types according to the
existing classifications and fill in the gaps to complete the sentences.
1) never a) centred
2 ) absent b) class
3 ) self c) haired
4) long d) off
5) world e) up
6 ) well f) free
105
7) built g) out
8) sugar h) ending
9) worn i) famous
10) second j) minded
1. That student’s parents are v e ry __________ , but they don’t give him
much money.
2. She has become absolutely____________ , she forgets everything.
3. It seemed that the journey was____________ , I was very tired of it.
4. He decided to save some money and bought a ____ ticket for the
train.
5. I love these shoes, and though they a re_________ I can’t throw them
away.
6. She is a very beautiful woman with blue eyes.
7. Once there were only trt es here, but now if s a
8. Brad Pitt is a actor.
9. Jill’s attractive and pleasant to look at, but she's extremely__
10. foods do not contain sugar and usually contain an
artificial sweetener instead.
2. Fill in the gaps with the appropriate compound nouns from the list.
Comment on their meanings and types: Faeebook, he-who-niust-not-be-narned,
breakthrough, science fiction, earrings, break-up, greenhouse effect, takeover,
feedback, dragonflies
1. Л ______ has been made in AIDS research.
2. TV companies always welcome____ from viewers.
3. Last week we reported on the_________ of the mayor's marriage.
4. is a website where you can share your can show
information about yourself, and communicate with groups of friends.
5. T h e ___ of one of our leading hotel chains was announced.
6 . She was wearing go ld __ ______and a diamond necklace.
7. The main villain of the “Harry Potter” series is Lord Voldemort,
or __ .
8 . Neither can we guarantee that everywhere on Earth will be warmer as
the ________ progresses.
9. That second child may have spent her preschool years catching and
studying ______ or building castles out of blocks.
10. One might be interested in modernist writing and another
in _______________, for example.
106
Useful terms
Compound adjective: an adjective which is made up of two parts and is

usually written with a hyphen.
Compound noun: a fixed expression whiich is made up of two or more
stems and functions as a noun.
Compounding (or composition): a type of word-formation in which new
words are produced by combining two or more stems.
Morphological compounds: a group of compounds presented by the words
in which two compounding stems are combined by a linking vowel or consonant.
Neutral compounds: a group of compounds presented by the words in
which the process of compounding is realized without any linking elements.
Syntactic compounds: a group of compounds presented by the words
formed from segments of speech preserving in their structure articles,
prepositions, adverbs.
8.3. IVlinor Types of Word Formation
New words in different notional classes can also appear as a result of

various minor ways of word-formation. Their main types are as follows:
shortening; lexicalisation; blending; clipping; sound and stress interchange;
sound imitation; reduplication and back formation (see chart 18, App. I ).
Shortening. This comparatively new way of word-building has achieved a
high degree of productivity nowadays, especially in American English. That is
why shortening as a type of word formation, according to some points of view,
takes the intermediate position.
There exist two main types of shortening: clipping and abbreviation.
Clipping refers to the creation of new words by shortening a word of two or
more syllables (usually nouns and adjectives) without changing its class
membership. Though clipped words often exist together with the longer original
source word, they function as independent lexical units with a certain phonetic
shape and lexical meaning of their own. The lexical meanings of the clipped word
and the source word (the very word), as a rule, do not coincide, for instance, doc
refers only to one who practices medicine, whereas doctor denotes also the higher
degree given by a university and a person who has received it, e.g. Doctor o f Law,
Doctor o f Philosophy.
Clipped words always differ from the non-clipped words in the emotive
charge and stylistic reference. Clippings indicate an attitude of familiarity on the
part of the user either towards the object denoted or towards the audience, thus
clipped words are characteristic of colloquial speech. In the course of time,
107
though, many clipped words find their way into the literary language losing some
of their colloquial colouring. Clippings show various degrees of semantic
dissociation from their full forms. Some are no longer felt to be clippings, e.g.
pants (c f pantaloons), bus (c f omnibus), bike {cf bicycle). Some of them retain
rather close semantic ties with the original word. This gives ground to doubt
whether the clipped words should be considered separate words.
Some linguists hold the view that in case semantic dissociation is slight and
the major difference lies in the emotive charge and stylistic application, the two
units should be regarded as word-variants (e.g. exam and examination, lab and
laboratory, etc.).
Clipping often accompanies other ways of shortening such as
substantivisation, e.g. perm (from permanent wave), op (from optical art), pop
(from popular music, art, singer).
As independent vocabulary units clippings serve as derivational bases for
suffixal derivations collocating with highly productive neutral and stylistically
nonneutral suffixes -ie, -er, e.g. nightie {cf. nightdress), panties, hanky
{cf handkerchief). Cases of conversion are frequent, e.g. to taxi, to perm, etc.
There do not seem to be any clear rules by means of which we might predict
where a word will be cut though there are several types into which clippings are
traditionally classified according to the part of the word that is clipped:
— words that have been shortened at the end the so-called apocope (or
back clipping): ad (from advertisement), lab (from laboratory), mike (from
microphone);
— words that have been shortened at the beginning - the so-called
aphaeresis (or fore clipping): car (from motor-car), phone (from telephone),
copter (from helicopter);
— words in which some syllables or sounds have been omitted from the
middle — the so-called syncope: maths (from mathematics), pants (from
pantaloons), specs (from spectacles);
— words that have been clipped both at the beginning and at the end
(middle clipping): flu (from influenza), tec (from detective), fridge (from
refrigerator).
It must be stressed that acronyms and clipping are the main ways of word-
creation most active in present-day English. The peculiarity of both types of
words is that they are structurally simple, semantically non-motivated and give
rise to new root-morphemes.
Abbreviation consists in coining new words by shortening the word forms
to their initial letters.
Abbreviations are further subdivided into two groups: graphical and
lexical.
108
Graphical abbreviations are restricted in use to written speech, occurring
only in various kinds of texts, articles, books, advertisements, letters, etc. In
reading, many of them are substituted by the words and phrases that they
represent. It follows that graphical abbreviations cannot be considered new lexical
vocabulary units.
Main graphical abbreviations in use are as follows:
1) titles: Dr. = doctor, Mr. —Mister, Prof. ^ Professor;
2) geographical issues: St. - Street; CA ~ California; NY = New York;
3) time and date: Mon = Monday; Dec = December; p.m.; a.m.;
4) currency: f or EUR euro; £ or GBP = pound; $ or USD = dollar;
5) measurement and distance: //, foot/feet: m - metre; kg =kilogram;
6 ) graphical symbols: <£/ < > ; -4; (a);
7) texting: 41J (for you); IJ2 (you too);
8 ) science symbols: Ca (Calcium); О (oxygen); a; ft; y.
It should be noted that a certain distinction should be made between
shortening which results in new lexical items and a specific type of shortening
proper only to written speech resulting in numerous graphical abbreviations which
are only signs representing words and word-groups of high frequency of
occurrence in various spheres of human activity as for instance, RD for Road and
Sir for Street in addresses on envelopes and in letters; in for tube, aer for aerial in
Radio Engineering literature, etc. English graphical abbreviations include rather
numerous shortened variants of Latin and French words and word-groups, e.g.:
i.c. (E. id est) — that /л; R.S.V.P. (Er. Repondez s'il vous plait) - reply
please, etc.
As far as lexical abbreviations arc concerned, there are different types of
such abbreviations and there is no unanimity of opinion among scholars whether
all of them can be regarded as regular vocabulary units. It seems logical to make
distinction between letter abbreviations and acronyms.
Letter abbreviations are mere replacements of longer phrases including
names of well-known organisations of undeniable currency, names of agencies
and institutions, political parties, famous people, names of official offices, etc.
t hey are not spoken or treated as words but pronounced letter by letter and as a
rule possess no other linguistic forms proper to words. The following may serve
as examples of such abbreviations: CBW -T chemical and biological warfare,
DOD Department o f Defence (o f the USA), /TV ^ Independent Television,
Instructional Television, SST = supersonic transport, etc.
It should be remembered that the border-line between letter abbreviations
and true acronyms is fluid and many letter abbreviations in the course of time may
turn into regular vocabulary units. Occasionally letter abbreviations are given
pronunciation spelling as, for instance, D.J [dejay] = disc jokey, M.C. [cm si] =
master o f ceremonies, BBC [ ‘hi: 'hi: \si:] = British Broadcasting Corporation;
109
MP ['em ’pi:] = Member o f Parliament; SOS [ 'e s ’ou’es] = Save Our Souls. The
last example tends to pass over into a true acronym and be read as a word
SOS [sosj.
Acronyms are regular vocabulary units spoken as words. They are formed
in various ways:
1) from the initial letters or syllables of a phrase, which may be
pronounced as a succession of sounds denoted by the constituent letters forming a
syllabic pattern, i.e. as regular words, e.g. UNO [ju:nou] United Nations
Organisations; NATO [fneitou] = North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, UNESCO
UNESCO [ju: ’neskou]; laser [ 'leisa] light amplification by stimulated emission
o f radiation; radar [ ‘reida] = radio detection and ranging; ВMEWS [bi:m/u:z]
Ballistic Missile Early Warning System^
2) from the initial syllables of each word of the phrase, e.g. Interpol
inter/national police; tacsalcom Tactical Satellite Communications, Capcom
Capsule Communicator (the person at a space flight centre who communicates
with the astronauts during a space flight).
Acronyms may be formed by a combination of the abbreviation of the first
or the first two members of the phrase with the last member undergoing no change
at all: V-day Victory Day; H-bomb - hydrogen bomb; g-force gravity
force, etc.
All acronyms unlike letter abbreviations perform the syntactical functions of
ordinary words taking on grammatical inflexions, e.g. MBs (will attack huge arms
bill), M.P's (concern at....). They also serve as derivational bases for derived
words and easily collocate with derivational suffixes as, e.g. YCLcr ( member o f
the YCL); Mpcss ( woman-member o f Parliament); radar man.
Lexicalisation. Due to various semantic and syntactic reasons the
grammatical flexion in some word-forms, most often the plural of nouns, as in,
e.g. the nouns arms, customs, colours, loses its grammatical meaning and
becomes isolated from the paradigm of the words arm, custom, look. As a result
of the re-interpretation of the plural suffix the word-form arms, customs
developed a different lexical meaning ‘weapons ’ and ‘import duties ’ respectively.
That led to a complete break of semantic links with the semantic structure of the
words arm, custom and thus to the appearance of new words with a different set of
grammatical features. It should be noted that there is no unanimity of opinion on
whether all such items should be viewed as new words or only as new meanings.
Different approaches to the problem are connected with the border-line between
polysemy and homonymy and many individual cases are actually open to doubt.
Essentially the same phenomenon of lexicalisation is observed in the
transition of participles into adjectives. The process is also known as
adjectivisation. It may be illustrated by a number of adjectives such as tired,
devoted, interesting, amusing which are now felt as homonymous to the
participles of the verbs to tire, to devote, to interest, to amuse. Lexicalisation is a
long, gradual historical process which synchronically results in the appearance of
new vocabulary units.
Blending is the result of conscious creation of words by merging irregular
fragments of several words which are aptly called splinters. Splinters assume
different shapes - they may be severed from the source word at a morpheme
boundary as in transceiver (transmitter and receiver), transistor (= transfer and
resistor) or at a syllable boundary like cute (from execute) in electrocute,
medicare (from medical care) or boundaries of both kinds may be disregarded as
in brunch (from breakfast and lunch), smog (from smoke and fog), ballute (from
balloon and parachute), etc. Many blends show some degree of overlapping of
vowels, consonants and syllables or echo the word or word fragment it replaces.
This device is often used to attain punning effect, as in foolosopher echoing
philosopher; icecapade (spectacular shows on ice) echoing escapade; baloonatic
(balloon and lunatic). Blends are coined not infrequently in scientific and
technical language as a means of naming new things, as trade names in
advertisements. Since blends break the rules of morphology, they result in original
combinations which catch quickly. Most of the blends have a colloquial favour.
Both sound- and stress-interchange may be regarded as ways of forming
words only diachronically because in Modem English not a single word can be
coined by changing the root-vowel of a word or by shifting the place of the stress.
Sound-interchange as well as stress-interchange, in fact, has turned into a means
of distinguishing primarily between words of different parts of speech and as such
is rather wide-spread in Modem English: to sing -- song, to live — life, strong —
strength. It also distinguishes between different word-forms: man —men, wife —
wives, to know - knew, to leave —left.
Sound-interchange falls into two groups: vowel-interchange and
consonant-interchange. By means of vowel-interchange we distinguish
different parts of speech: full —to fill, food —to feed, blood •- to bleed. In some
cases vowel-interchange is combined with affixation: long ~ length, strong —
strength, broad—breadth. Intransitive verbs and the corresponding transitive ones
with a causative meaning also display vowel-interchange: to rise —to raise, to sit
to set, to lie - to lay, to fall —to fell.
The type of consonant-interchange typical of Modern English is the
interchange of a voiceless fricative consonant in a noun and the corresponding
voiced consonant in the corresponding verb: use —to use, mouth - to mouth, house
to house, advice —to advise.
['here are some particular cases of consonant-interchange: fk] - [if/: to
speak — speech, to break —breach; [s] —[df: defence - to defend; offence —to
offend; fsj — [t]: evidence — evident, importance — important, etc.
Ill
Consonant-interchange may be combined with vowel-interchange: bath -
to bathe, breath —to breathe, life —to live.
Stress-interchange (or change of stress) is another non-productive type of
word-building in Modern English. It is a type of formation of a new word by
means of the shift of the stress in the source word. Many English verbs of Latin-
French origin are distinguished from the corresponding nouns by the position of
stress. Here are some well-known examples of such pairs of words: ‘export (n) -
to ex 'port (v); ‘import (a) —to im fo rt (v); 1conduct (n) —to con ’duct (v); 'present
(n) - to pre ’sent (v); ‘increase (n) - to in 'crease (v).
The difference in stress often appeared after the verb was formed and was
not therefore connected with the formation of the new word. It could be brought
about by analogy or purely phonetical reasons. Change of stress mostly
accompanied either the formation or the borrowing of the word.
Stress-interchange is not restricted to pairs of words consisting of a noun
and a verb. It may also occur between other parts of speech, for instance, between
adjective and verb: frequent (a) —to fre ’quent (v); ‘absent (a) —to ah ’sent (v).
Sound imitation (or onomatopoeia, or echoism) is consequently the
naming of an action or thing by a more or less exact reproduction of a sound
associated with it. For instance, words naming sounds and movement of water:
babble, blob, bubble, flush, gurgle, gush, splash.
The term onomatopoeia is from Greek onoma 1name, word' and poiein ‘to
make ’—the making of words (in imitation of sounds).
It would, however, be wrong to think that onomatopoeic words reflect the
real sounds directly, irrespective of the laws of the language, because the same
sounds are represented differently in various languages. Onomatopoeic words
adopt the phonetic features of English and fall into the combinations peculiar to it.
This becomes obvious if one compares onomatopoeic words crow and twitter and
the words flow and glitter, with which they are rhymed in the following poem:
The cock is crowing,
The stream is flowing.
The small birds twitter,
The lake does glitter,
The green fields sleep in the sun (Wordsworth).
The majority of onomatopoeic words serve to name sounds or movements.
Most of them are verbs easily turned into nouns: bang, boom, hump, hum, rustle,
smack, and thud.
They are very expressive and sometimes it is difficult to tell a noun from an
interjection. Consider the following: Thum - crash! “Six о ‘clock, N ursef —crash!
As the door shut again. Whoever it was had given me the shock o f my
life (Ch. Dickens). Sound-imitative words form a considerable part of
interjections: bang! Hush! Pooh!
112
Semantically, according to the source of sound, onomatopoeic words fall
into a few very definite groups:
— verbs denoting sounds produced by human beings in the process of
communication or in expressing their feelings: babble, chatter, giggle, grunt,
grumble, murmur, mutter, titter, whine, whisper;
— sounds produced by animals, birds and insects, e.g. buzz, cackle, croak,
crow, hiss, honk, howl, moo, mew, purr, roar. Some birds are named after the
sound they make, these are, for instance, the crow, the cuckoo, the whippoorwillr;
— the verbs imitating the sound of water such as bubble or splash;
— the verbs imitating the noise of metallic things: clink, tinkle, or forceful
motion: clash, crash, whack, whip, whisk.
The combining possibilities of onomatopoeic words are limited by usage.
Thus, a contented cat purrs while a similarly sounding verb whirr is used about
wings. A gun bangs and a bow twangs.
In reduplication new words are made by doubling a stem, either without
any phonetic changes as in bye-bye (colloquial for good-bye) or with a variation
of the root-vowel or consonant as in ping-pong, chit-chat (this second type is
cal led gradational reduplication).
This type of word-building is greatly facilitated in Modem Rnglish by the
vast number of monosyllabic words. Stylistically speaking, most words made by
reduplication represent informal groups: colloquialisms and slang, for example,
walkie-talkie (a portable radio), riff-raff(the worthless or disreputable element o f
society; the dregs o f society). In a modern novel an angry father accuses his
teenage son of doing nothing but dilly-dallying all over the town. (dilly-dallying -
wasting time, doing nothing, loitering).
Another example of a word made by reduplication may be found in the
following quotation from The Importance o f Being Earnest by O. Wilde: Lady
Bracknell. 1 think it is high time that Mr. Bunhury made up his mind whether he
was going to live or to die. This shilly-shallying with the question is absurd
{shilly-shallying —irresolution, indecision).
Back formation (or reversion) is a type of word formation that lies in
coining new words by subtracting the suffix of the existing one, for example:
to baby-sit (from babysitter), to beg (from beggar), greed (from greedy).
• Define the minor types of word formation.

• Enumerate the types of word formation that are the most productive ones.
Give reasons.
113
Self-check
1. Match the minor types of word formation with their definitions and give
your own examples to each of them.
1. Clipping a) the result of conscious creation of words by merging
irregular fragments of several words;
2. Abbreviation b) a type of formation of a new word by means of the
shift of the sound in the root;
3. Lexicalisation c) consists in coining new words by shortening the word
forms to their initial letters;
4. Blending d) a type of word formation that lies in coining new
words by substracting the suffix of the existing one;
5. Stress interchange e) the naming of an action or thing by a more or less
exact reproduction of a sound associated with it;
6 . Sound interchange f) lies in creation of new words by shortening a word of
two or more syllables without changing its class
membership;
7. Sound imitation g) the process of making new words by doubling a stem,
either without any phonetic changes;
8 . Reduplication h) the minor type of word formation that denotes the loss
of grammatical meaning by the grammatical Ilex ion thus
becoming isolated from the paradigm;
9. Back formation i) a type of formation of a new word by means of the
shift of the stress in the source word.
2. State whether the following statements are true or false.

1. Such words as UNESCO, BBC, Interpol are the examples of acronyms.
2 . Apocope is another name for fore-clipping.
3. D./and MC are graphical abbreviations.
4. Consonant-interchange is the interchange of a voiceless fricative
consonant in a noun and the corresponding voiced consonant in the corresponding
verb.
5. Another name for sound imitation is onomatopoeia.
6 . Chocoholic, slanguage, Chinglish are the examples of blending.
7. Shortening is subdivided into clipping and blending.
8 . Bye-bye, ping-pong, chit-chat are the examples of echoism.
9. Stress-interchange is a productive type of word formation in Modern
English.
10. Syncope is a type of clipping in which some syllables or sounds have
been omitted from the middle.
114
Useful terms
Abbreviation: a minor type of word formation consisting in coining new

words by shortening the word forms to their initial letters.
Back formation: a type of word formation that lies in coining new words
by subtracting the suffix of the existing one.
Blending: a minor type of word formation that results from the conscious
creation of words by merging irregular fragments of several words.
Clipping: a minor type of word formation lying in creation of new words by
shortening a word of two or more syllables without changing its class
membership.
Lexicalisation: a minor type of word formation denoting the loss of
grammatical meaning by the grammatical flexion thus becoming isolated from the
paradigm.
Reduplication: a type of word formation that lies in coining new words by
doubling a stem, either without any phonetic changes.
Sound imitation (or onomatopoeia): the naming of an action or thing by a
more or less exact reproduction of a sound associated with it.
Sound-interchange: a minor type of word formation that consists in
creating a new word by means of the shift of the sound in the root.
Stress interchange: a minor type of word formation that lies in coining a
new word by means of the shift of the stress in the source word.
Further reading
A Course in lModern English Lexicology [Text] / R. S. Ginzburg,

I louse, 1979. - 269 p.
V. Adams. - London: Longman, 2010. -2 3 0 p.
1986.- 295 с.
Canon, G. Historical Changes and English Word formation : New
Vocabulary Items [Text] / G. Canon. —N.Y., 1986.-284 p.
Flag, I. Word-Formation in English [Text] / 1. Plag. - Cambridge :
Cambridge University Press, 2002. —264 p.
CHAPTER 9.
ETYMOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE
ENGLISH VOCABULARY
9.1. WORDS OF NATIVE ORIGIN
9.2. BORROWING: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
9.3. ASSIMILATION OF LOAN WORDS (BORROWINGS)
116
9.1. Words of Native Origin
A native word is a word which belongs to the original English word-stock.

Words of English native origin consist of very ancient elements (see chart 19,
App. 1):
— Indo-European;
— Germanic;
— West Germanic;
— Proper native elements.
The bulk of English word-stock has been preserved, although some words
passed out of existence. When speaking about the role of the native element, the
linguists confine themselves to words of Anglo-Saxon origin. They are few:
clepian {call), hrid {bird), wifman {woman), boia {boy), lafdi {lady), daysic {daisy)
etc.
All the words of Indo-European origin can be grouped into various semantic
subgroups:
— auxiliaries and modal verbs: shall, will, should, would, must, can, may;
— pronouns: /, you, he, my, your, his;
— prepositions: in, out, on, under;
— numerals: four, five;
— conjunctions: and, till, as;
— parts of the body: head, hand, arm, back;
— members of the family: father, mother, brother, son, wife;
— natural phenomena and planets: rain, wind, sun, moon, star;
— animals: horse, cow, sheep, cat;
— qualities and properties: old, young, cold:
— common actions: do, make, go, come, see, hear, eat.
A much bigger part of this vocabulary layer is formed by words of the
common Germanic stock, i.e. words having parallels in German, Norwegian,
Dutch etc., but not in Ukrainian or French. The following examples of such words
can be given:
— nouns: summer, winter, storm, rain, ice, ground, bridge, room, coal, iron,
shoe, care, evil, hope;
— verbs: bake, burn, buy, drive, keep, learn, make, meet, see, send, shoot;
— adjectives: broad, dead, deep, deaf.
Speaking about words of native origin, it should be mentioned that some
native words were used as components of compounds so often that they acquires
the status of derivational affixes: -dom; -hood; -ly; -over; -under.
117
• Comment on the specific features of native English words.

• Name the groups of native words.
Useful terms
Native word: a word which belongs to the original English stock.
9.2. Borrowing: Historical Background
By the word borrowing used in singular, we understand the process by

which a borrowed word came into the vocabulary from one language to another.
The same word may denote the result of this process, that is a borrowed word
itself or a loan word.
The part played by borrowing in the vocabulary of a language depends upon
the history of each given language. English history contains innumerable
occasions for all types of relationship between nations. It is not surprising that up
to 70% of the English vocabulary consists of loan words and only 30% are native.
To have a better understanding of the problem, it will be necessary to go
through a brief survey of certain historical facts relating to different epochs (see
chart 19, App. 1):
I) Ist cent. B.C. Most territory is occupied by the Roman Empire, and the
British Isles are not the exception. The influence on the English word-stock is
great, the Roman words firmly entered the English native word-stock and fully
adopted that they are hardly recognisable as borrowed ones, for example: street,
wall etc.
Among the inhabitants of the continent there are Germanic tribes, t he only
products known to the Germanic tribes were meat and milk. It is from the Romans
that they learn how to make butter and cheese. As there are naturally no words for
such foodstuff in their tribes, they are to use the Latin words to name them. So,
Latin names of fruit and vegetables enter the vocabulary : cherry {Lai. Cerasum),
pear {Lai. Pirum), plum {Lat. Primus), beet {Lai. Beta), pepper {Lai. Piper). Some
other words of this period are cup {Lat. Cuppa), kitchen {Lat. Coquina), port {Lat.
Portus);
2) 5th cent. A.D. Several of the Germanic tribes migrated across the sea no
known as English Channel to the British isles. They were confronted by the Celts.
Especially numerous among the Celtic borrowings were names of rivers and hills:
Avon, Exe, Usk, Ux. These words originate from Celtic words meaning river
118
and water. Even the name of the English capital originates from Celtic Llyn+dun
in which llyn is another Celtic word for river and dun stands for a fortified hill —
the meaning of the whole is fortress on the hill over the river;
3) 7th cent. A.D. This century was significant for the Christianization of
England. Latin was the official language of the Christian Church. Also, this period
was accompanied by a new period of Latin borrowings. These new Latin
borrowings mostly indicated people, objects and ideas associated with church:
priest (Lat. Presbyter), bishop (Lat. Episcopus), monk (Lai. Monachus), nun (Lat.
Nonna), candle (Lat. Candela). It was quite natural that educational terms were
also Latin borrowings, for the first schools in England were church schools, and
the first teachers priests and monks. So, the very word school is a Latin borrowing
(Lat. Schola, o f Greek origin) and so are such words as scholar (Lat. Scholar(-is)
and magister (Lat. Magister);
4) 8th- 11th cent. A.D. In this period England underwent several
Scandinavian invasions. Mere are some examples of early Scandinavian
borrowings: lake (v.), cast (v.), die (v.)f law (n.), husband (sc. “hus+bondi”
means ‘inhabitant of the house) (n.), window (sc. “vindauga” means ‘the eye o f
the wind) {n.), ill (adj.), loose, (adj.), low (adj.), weak (adj.). Some of
Scandinavian borrowings arc easily recognizable by the initial sk- letter
combination: sky, skill, skin, ski, skirt;
5) 1066 —the period of Norman conquest. French words from the Norman
dialect penetrated into every aspect of social life. The new words included
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; terms of everyday life; table, plate, dinner, supper, river, autumn, uncle;
6 ) the Renaissance period was characterized by a revival of interest in the
ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome and appearance of scientific and artistic
terms: datum, status, phenomenon, philosophy, method, music. Greek Renaissance
borrowings include such terms as atom, cycle, ethics, esthete. At this period there
were extensive cultural contacts between states. Therefore, it was natural that new
words also entered the English vocabulary from other European languages. The
most significant were French borrowings. This time they came from the Parisian
dialect of French and are known as Parisian borrowings: routine, police, machine,
ballet, matinee, scene, technique, bourgeois, etc. Italian also contributed a
considerable number of words to English, for example, piano, violin, opera,
alarm, colonel.
Thus, the English vocabulary has mixed character. The leading role in the
history of its development belongs to the word formation and semantic changes
patterned according to the specific features of the English language system. This
system absorbed the vast majority of loan words according to its own standards.
119
So, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish an old borrowing from a native word.
For example, the words cheese, street, wall, wine belong to the earliest layer of
Latin borrowings.
However, there are a lot of loan words which can be clearly defined as
borrowed because of their peculiarity in pronunciation, spelling and morphology.
The initial position of the sounds [v], [cty] and /у/ is a sign that the word is not of
native word-stock: vacuum {Latin), valley {French), vanilla {Spanish). The initial
[3] occurs in comparatively late borrowings: gendarme.
Another indicators of borrowings are initial letters /, x, z and such
combinations as ph, kh in the root indicate the foreign origin of the word:
philology {Greek), khaki {Indian), beau {French).
Some letters are pronounced differently depending on the origin of the
word. Thus, x is pronounced as [ks] or [gz] in words of native and Latin origin
respectively, or as [z] as in xylophone {Greek). Such a combination as ch is
pronounced as ftf] in words of native origin {chair, child), as /// in words of late
French origin (machine, parachute) and as / к/ in words of Greek origin {epoch,
Chemistry).
• Comment on the causes of borrowing.

• Speak on the sources and periods of borrowing.
Self-check
I. Using an etymological dictionary, define the source of the following

borrowings:
1) phenomenon; 2 ) triumph; 3) barricade; 4) hysteria; 5) euphoria;
6 ) algebra; 7) window; 8 ) reindeer; 9) naive; 10) skip; 11) method; 12) chauffeur;
13) alchemy; 14) skin; 15) candle; 16) metamorphosis; 17) chateau; I 8 ) macaroni;
19) cruise; 2 0 ) opera; 2 1 ) tornado; 2 2 ) coffee.
2. Fill in the table and comment on the similarities of a word in these

languages:
English German French Italian Spanish

drink bo іre bere
Mutter mamma
chandelle candela
120
Tal vallee
sun sol
Useful terms
Borrowed word (or loan word): the word that came into the English word
stock from another language.
Borrowing: (used in singular) the process by which a borrowed word came
into the vocabulary from one language to another.
9.3. Assimilation of Loan Words (Borrowings)
The term assimilation is used to denote a partial or total conformation to the

phonetical, graphical and morphological standards of the receiving language and
its semantic system. The degree of assimilation depends on the length of the
period during which the word has been used in the receiving language.
Classification of loon words according to (he degree of their assimilation is
as follows: completely assimilated words, partially assimilated words and
unassimilated words (or barbarisms) (see chart 2 0 , App. 1).
Completely assimilated words are found in all the layers of older
borrowing: La!in — cheese, sheet, wall, wine; Scandinavian - husband, fellow,
gate, happy, ill, low, wrong; French table, chair, face, they follow all
morphological, phonetic and orthographic standards. They take an active part in
word formation.
Partially assimilated borrowings can be subdivided into the following
subgroups:
a) borrowed words not assimilated semantically, because they denote
notions and objects peculiar of the country they come from: sari, sombrero; titles
and professions: toreador, sheikh, shah;
b) borrowed words not assimilated grammatically: crisis crises;
formula —formulae; index —indices; phenomenon - phenomena;
c) borrowed words not assimilated phonetically: machine, cartoon,
police. Alongside with peculiarities in stress, they contain sounds and
combinations of sounds that are not standard for the English language and do not
occur in native words: prestige, regime, confetti, macaroni, sonata, tomato,
potato, tobacco. The pronunciation of words where the process of assimilation is
phonetically incomplete will often vary: foyer may be pronounced as [fm ei] or
[fwa:je]\ boulevard may be pronounced as [ ‘bulwa:], [*budiva;] or [bu:lva;d]:
121
d) borrowed words not completely assimilated graphically: ballet, buff
—the final consonant is not pronounced; cafe, cliche - are pronounced and written
as they are in the source language..
Barbarisms are words taken from other languages used by the English
people in conversation or in writing but not assimilated and which have
corresponding English equivalents: addio, ciao —goodbye.
It should be mentioned that the criteria of barbarisms revelation are strange
pronunciation and strange spelling. Barbarisms enter languages in 2 ways:
through oral or written speech.
• Speak on phenomenon of assimilation of borrowings.

• Comment on the phenomenon of barbarism.
Self-check
1. Classify the following borrowings according to the degree of their

assimilation.
Fiesta; tomato; umbrella; cheese; deja vu; incognito; nucleus; brioche;
scheme; note bene; table; toreador; memoir; persona non grata; husband.
2. Make up your sentences with the borrowings from t ask 1.
Useful terms
Assimilation: a partial or total conformation to the phonetical, graphical

and morphological standards of the receiving language and its semantic system.
Barbarisms (or non-assimilated words): words from other languages used
by the English people in conversation or in writing but not assimilated and for
which there are corresponding English equivalents.
Completely assimilated words: borrowed words that follow all
morphological, phonetic and orthographic standards; they take an active part in
word formation.
Partially assimilated borrowings: borrowed words that have not
assimi lated in one of their aspects (semantic, grammatical, phonetic or graphical).
122
Further reading
Антрушина, Г. Б. Лексикология английского языка [Текст] /

Г. Б. Антрушина, О. В. Афанасьева, Н. Н. Морозова. - М. : Дрофа, 2004. -
288 с.
Аракин, В. Д. История английского языка [Текст]: учеб, пособие /
В. Д. Аракин. - М. : ФИЗМАТЛИТ, 2003. - 272 с.
Маковский, М. М. Английские социальные диалекты [Текст] /
М. М. Маковский. —М. : Высш. шк., 1982. —151 с.
Манерко, Л. А. Этимология английского языка через историю народа
Великобритании [Текст] / Л. А. Манерко. - Рязань : Изд-во РГПУ
им. С. А. Есенина, 1998. - 272 с.
House, 1979. - 269 p.
Arnold, I. V. The English Word [Text] / I. V. Arnold. —M. : Высш. шк.,
1986. -2 9 5 с.
123
CHAPTER 10.
STYLISTIC CHARACTERISTICS
OF VOCABULARY
10.1. STYLISTIC PECULIARITIES OE VOCABULARY
10.2. INFORMAL VOCABULARY
10.2.1. COLLOQUIAL WORDS
10.2.2. SLANG
10.2.3. DIALECT WORDS
10.3. FORMAL STYLE
10.3.1. LEARNED WORDS
10.3.2. ARCHAIC AND OBSOLETE WORDS
10.3.3. PROFESSIONAL TERMINOLOGY
10.4. BASIC VOCABULARY
124
10.1. Stylistic Peculiarities of Vocabulary
The words cover communication. The social context in which the

communication is taking place determines both the mode of dress code and the
mode of speech. When placed in different situations, people instinctively choose
different kinds of words and structures to express their thoughts.
The suitability or unsuitability of a word for each particular situation
depends on its stylistic characteristics or, in other words, on the functional style it
represents.
The term functional style is generally accepted in modern linguistics.
Iryna Arnold defines it as a system of expressive means peculiar to a specific
sphere of communication.
By the sphere of communication we mean the circumstances attending the
process of speech in each particular case: professional communication, a lecture,
an informal talk, a formal letter, an informal letter, a speech in court, etc.
All these circumstances or situations can be roughly classified into two
types: formal (a lecture, a speech in court, an official letter, professional
communication) and informal (an informal talk, an intimate letter) (see chart 2 1 ,
App. I).
Useful terms
Functional style: a system of expressive means peculiar to a specific sphere

of communication.
Sphere of communication: the circumstances attending the process of
speech in each particular case.
10.2. Informal Vocabulary
Informal vocabulary is used in family, with relatives or friends. One uses

informal words when at home or when making yourself at home. It should be
pointed out that the informal talk of well-educated people considerably differs
from that of the illiterate or the undereducated; the choice of words with adults is
different from the vocabulary of teenagers; people living in provinces use certain
regional words and expressions. The choice of words is determined in each
particular case not only by an informal (or formal) situation, but also by the
speaker’s educational and cultural background, age group, and his occupational
and regional characteristics.
125
Informal words and word-groups are traditionally divided into three types:
colloquial, slang and dialect words and word-groups (see chart 21, App. 1).
10.2.1. Colloquial Words
Among other informal words, colloquialisms are the least exclusive:

everybody uses them, and their sphere of communication is comparatively wide.
Literary colloquial words are informal words used in everyday colloquial speech
both by cultivated and educated people of all age groups.
Vast use of informal words is one of the prominent features of English and
American literature of the 20th century. It is quite natural that informal words
appear in dialogues in which they realistically reflect the speech of modern
people.
However, in modern fiction informal words are not restricted to
conversation in their use, but frequently appear in descriptive passages as well. In
this way, the author creates an intimate, warm, informal atmosphere, meeting his
reader, as it were, on the level of a friendly talk, especially when the narrative
verges upon non-personal direct speech.
Here are some examples of literary colloquial words. Pal and chum are
colloquial equivalents o f friend; girl, when used colloquially, denotes a woman an
of any age; hite and snack stand for meal; hello is an informal greeting, and so
long is a form of parting; start, go on, finish and he through are also
colloquialisms; to have a crush on somebody is a colloquial equivalent of to he in
love; a hit (of) and a lot (of) also belong to this group.
A considerable number of shortenings are found among words of this type:
pram, exam, fridge, flu, prop, zip, movie. Verbs with post-positional adverbs are
also numerous among colloquialisms: put up, put over, make up, make out, do
away, turn up, turn in.
Literary colloquial words are to be distinguished from familiar colloquial
and low colloquial. The borderline between the literary and familiar colloquial is
not always clearly marked. Yet, the circle of speakers using familiar colloquial is
more limited: these words are used mostly by the young and the undereducated
people and also in families among related people. This vocabulary group closely
verges on slang and has something of its coarse flavour: doc (for doctor), hi (for
how do you do), ta-ta (for good bye), goings-on (for behaviour, usually with a
negative connotation), to kid smb. (for tease, banter), to pickup stub, (for make a
quick and easy acquaintance), go on with you (for let me alone).
Low colloquial style is defined by George Krapp as characteristic o f the
speech o f persons who may be broadly described as uncultivated, lids group is
126
stocked with words of illiterate English which do not present much interest for our
purposes.
As far as colloquialisms are concerned, most students’ mistakes originate
from the ambiguousness of the term itself. Some students misunderstand the term
"colloquial” for wide usage (obviously mistaking "colloquial” for
“conversational”). This misconception may lead to most embarrassing errors
unless it is taken care of in the early stages of language study.
І0.2.2. Slang
Much has been written on the subject of slang that is contradictory and at
the same time very interesting. The Oxford English Dictionary defines slang as
language of a highly colloquial style, considered as below the level of standard
educated speech, and consisting of new words or of current words employed in
some special sense.
This definition is inadequate because it equates slang with colloquial style.
Yet, the last line of the definition current words in some special sense is
important and we shall have to return to this a little later.
All or most slang words are current words whose meanings have been
metaphorically shifted. Each slang metaphor is rooted in a joke, but not a kind or
amusing joke. This is the criterion for distinguishing slang from colloquialisms:
most slang words are metaphors and jocular, often with a coarse, mocking,
cynical colouring.
The circle of users of slang is more than that of colloquialisms. It is usually
characterized by the age group and professional group. Yet, slang is of colourful
and humorous qualities that make it catching, so that a considerable part of slang
may become accepted by nearly all the groups of speakers.
10.2.3. Dialect Words
I lenry Watson Fowler defines a dialect as a variety of a language which

prevails in a district, with local peculiarities of vocabulary, pronunciation and
phrase. England is a small country, yet it has many dialects with their own
distinctive features (e. g. the Lancashire, Dorsetshire, Norfolk dialects).
So, dialects are regional forms of English. Standard English is defined by
the Random House Dictionary as the English language as it is written and spoken
by literate people in both formal and informal usage and that is universally current
while incorporating regional difference.
127
Dialect peculiarities, especially those of vocabulary, are constantly being
incorporated into everyday colloquial speech or slang. From these levels a few of
them even come into formal speech and into the literary language. Car, trolley,
tram began as dialect words.
• Comment on the peculiarities of functional style.

• Speak on the features of informal style.
Self-check
1. Classify the following informal words into three groups (colloquialisms.

slang, dialect words) and identify their meaning: cool; birdie; yon bet; beans;
smash-up; bastard; hand-in-glove; it \s no go; nutty; nuke; wicked; hot-pants; pie
eyed; brainy; unchancy; backhander; booze.
2. Look at the following dialect sentences. Use the Internet sources and
define what dialect they belong to. Paraphrase them into Standard lhitish Lnglish.
1. Use your loaf!
2. Ah’m nicely off out t’taan.
3. Is it marrying her you want?
4. There’s nice to see you.
5. The weins wouldnae stop greetin’.
6 . He ain’t got the bottle to do it, has he?
7. Oh, he’s a bonny wee bairn.
8 . It was very well that he looked.
9. Tidy "ouse you've got, bach.
10. I’m just going down the apples & pears to get a cup of tea from the
kitchen.
Useful terms
Colloquialism: an expression or word used in informal conversation.

Dialect: a variety of a language which prevails in a district, with local
peculiarities of vocabulary, pronunciation and phrase.
128
Familiar colloquial words: informal words used mostly by the young and
the undereducated people and also in families among related people; this
vocabulary group closely verges on slang and has something of its coarse flavour.
Literary colloquial words: informal words used in everyday colloquial
speech both by cultivated and educated people of all age groups.
Low colloquial style: characteristic of the speech of people who may be
broadly described as uncultivated.
Slang: language of a highly colloquial style, considered as below the level
of standard educated speech, arid consisting of new words or of current words
employed in some special sense.
Standard English: the English language as it is written and spoken by
literate people in both formal and informal usage and that is universally current
while incorporating regional difference.
10.3. Formal style
We have already pointed out that formal style is restricted to formal

situations. In general, formal words fall into two main groups: words associated
with professional communication and a less exclusive group of the so-called
learned words (see chart 21 , Лрр. 1).
10.3.1. Learned Words
These words are mainly associated with the printed page. It is in this
vocabulary stratum that poetry and fiction find their main resources.
The term learned is not precise and does not adequately describe the exact
characteristics of these words. A somewhat out-of-date term for the same category
of words is bookish, but, as Eric Partridge notes, book-learned and bookish are
now uncomplimentary. We also may use the term formal words.
the term learned includes several heterogeneous subdivisions of words.
We find here numerous words that are used in scientific prose, documentation,
journals, textbooks, monographs, articles, theses of any kind etc, and can be
identified by their dry, matter-of-fact flavour: comprise, compile, experimental,
heterogeneous, homogeneous, conclusive, divergent, and scientific terms.
To this group also the so-called officialese belong. These are the words of
the official, bureaucratic language. Here are some words from Partridge’s list:
assist (for help), endeavour (for try), proceed (for go), approximately (for about),
sufficient (for enough), attired (for dressed), inquire (for ask).
129
Here is the typical example of officialese: “You are authorized to acquire
the work in question by purchase through the ordinary trade channels.” Which,
translated into plain English, would simply mean: “We advise you to buy the book
in a shop.”
The learned words are represented by the words found in descriptive
passages of fiction. These words, which may be called literary, also have a
particular flavour of their own, usually described as refined.
The very sound of these words seems to create complex and solemn
associations. Here are some examples: solitude, sentiment, fascination,
fastidiousness, delusion, meditation, felicity, elusive, cordial, illusionary.
There is one further subdivision of learned words: into poetic words. Yet,
poetic words have a further characteristic - a lofty, high-flown, sometimes
archaic, colouring.
Though learned words are associated with the printed page, this is not
exclusively so. Any educated English-speaking individual is sure to use many
learned words not only in his formal letters and professional communication but
also in his everyday speech.
Yet, generally speaking, educated people in both modern fiction and real life
use learned words quite naturally and their speech is certainly the richer for it.
On the other hand, excessive use of learned elements in conversational
speech presents grave hazards. When a character in a book or in a play uses too
many learned words, the obvious inappropriateness of his speech in an informal
situation produces a comic effect.
However, any suggestion that learned words are suitable only for comic
purposes would be quite wrong. It is in this vocabulary stratum that writers and
poets find their most vivid paints and colours, and only their humorous effect.
This piece of modern prose is rich in literary words which underline its stem
and reserved beauty. One might even say that it is the selection of word which
makes the description what it is: serious, and, yet, charged with grave forebodings
and tense expectation.
10.3.2. Archaic and Obsolete Words
t hese words stand close to the learned words, particularly to the models of
poetic diction. Learned words and archaisms are both associated with the printed
page. Yet, as we have seen, many learned words may also be used in
conversational situations. This cannot happen with archaisms, which are
invariably restricted to the printed page. These words are old, partly or fully out of
circulation, rejected by the living language but still in use.
130
Thou and thy, aye {yes) and nay {no) are certainly archaic and long since
rejected by common usage, yet poets use them even today. We also find the same
four words and many other archaisms among dialectisms, which is quite natural as
dialects are also conservative and retain archaic words and structures.
Numerous archaisms can be found in Shakespeare, but it should be taken
into consideration that what appear to us today as archaisms in the works of
Shakespeare, are, in fact, examples of everyday language of Shakespeare's time:
morn (for morning), moon (for month), damsel (for girl), errant (for wandering,
e.g. errant knights).
Sometimes, an archaic word may undergo a sudden revival. So, the formerly
archaic kin (Tor relatives; one's family) is not current in American usage.
We use the term obsolete tor words which have completely gone out of use.
It should be pointed out that the borderline between obsolete and archaic is vague
and uncertain, and in many cases it is difficult to decide to which of the groups
this or that word belongs.
There is another term for words which are no longer in use: historism. By
this we mean words denoting objects and phenomena which are things of the past
and no longer exist.
10.3.3. Professional Terminology
The learned words, as it has been said above, also include hundreds of
thousands of words belonging to special scientific, professional or trade
terminological systems. They are not used or even understood by people outside
the particular speciality. Every Held of modern activity has its specialized
vocabulary. There is a special medical vocabulary, and similarly special
terminologies for psychology, linguistics, ELT and many other fields of science.
Term, as traditionally understood, is a word or a word group which is
specifically employed by a particular branch of science, technology, trade or the
arts to convey a notion peculiar to this particular activity. So, multilingual,
bilingual, interdental, labialization, palatalization, glottal stop, descending scale
are terms of theoretical phonetics.
There are several controversial problems in the field of terminology. The
first is the puzzling question of whether a term loses its terminological status
when it comes into common usage. It is quite natural that under the circumstances
numerous terms pass into general usage without losing connection with their
speci fic fields being one of the sources of vocabulary enrichment.
There are linguists in whose opinion terms are only those words which have
retained their exclusiveness and are not known or recognized outside their specific
sphere. From this point of view, words associated with the medical sphere, such as
131
unit (іa medical dose), theatre {a special room in a hospital where medical
operations are done)* contact (a vehicle o f disease) are no longer medical terms as
they are in more or less common usage.
There is yet another point of view, according to which any terminological
system is supposed to include all the words and word-groups conveying notions
peculiar to a particular branch of knowledge, regardless of their exclusiveness.
Modem research of various terminological systems has shown that there is no
impenetrable wall between terminology and the general language system.
Two other controversial problems deal with polysemy and synonymy.
According to some linguists, an ideal term should be monosematic (i.e. it should
have only one meaning). Polysematic terms may lead to misunderstanding, and
that is a serious shortcoming in professional communication. This requirement
seems quite reasonable.
The same is true about synonymy in terminological systems. There are
scholars who insist that terms should not have synonyms because, consequently,
scientists and other specialists would name the same objects and phenomena in
their field by different terms and would not be able to come to any agreement.
• Comment on the distinctive features of formal vocabulary.

• Give your own examples of learned, archaic and obsolete words.
Self-check
1. Classify the following formal words into four groups: bookish words,
archaic words, obsolete words, professionalisms and define their meaning:
cordial; radar; heterogeneous; glee; phoneme; paternal; thou; to brabble; deem;
apocope; miscellaneous; bookwright; to befoul; divergent.
2 . Match the notions with their definitions.

1. Officialese a) words which have completely gone out of use;
2. Obsolete words b) words possessing a lofty, high-llown, sometimes
archaic, colouring;
3. Archaisms c) a v/ord or a word group which is specifically
employed by a particular branch of science,
technology, trade or the arts to convey a notion
peculiar to this particular activity;
132
4. Term d) a word denoting objects and phenomena which
are things of the past and no longer exist;
5. Ideal term e) words that are used in scientific prose,
documentation, journals, textbooks, monographs,
articles, theses of any kind etc.;
6 . Learned words f) words of the official, bureaucratic language;
7. Poetic words g) old words, partly or fully out of circulation,
rejected by the living language but still in use;
8 . Historisms h) a monosemantic term.
Useful terms
Archaisms: old words, partly or fully out of circulation, rejected by the
living language but still in use
Historism: a word denoting objects and phenomena which are things of the
past and no longer exist.
Ideal term: a monosemantic term.
Learned words: words that arc used in scientific prose, documentation,
journals, textbooks, monographs, articles, theses of any kind etc., and can be
identified by their dry, matter-of-fact flavour.
Obsolete words: words which have completely gone out of use.
Officialese: the words of the official, bureaucratic language.
Poetic words: words possessing a lofty, high-flown, sometimes archaic,
colouring.
Term; a word or a word group which is specifically employed by a
particular branch of science, technology, trade or the arts to convey a notion
pec uІіar to thіs part іс uIa r act іvity
10.4. Basic Vocabulary
These words are stylistically neutral, and in this respect, opposed to formal
and informal words described above. Their stylistic neutrality makes it possible to
use them in all kinds of situations, both formal and informal, in verbal and written
communication. These words are used every day, everywhere and by everybody,
regardless of profession, occupation, educational level, age group or geographical
location. These are words without which no human communication would be
possible as they denote objects and phenomena of everyday importance: house,
bread, summer, winter, child, mother, green, difficult, to go, to stand etc.
133
The basic vocabulary is the central group of the vocabulary, its historical
foundation and living core. That is why words of this stratum are of considerably
greater stability in comparison with words of the other strata, especially informal.
Basic vocabulary words can be recognized not only by their stylistic
neutrality, but also by the entire lack of other connotations (i.e. attendant
meanings). Their meanings are broad, general and directly convey the notion,
without supplying any additional information.
The basic vocabulary and the stylistically marked strata of the vocabulary
do not exist independently but are closely interrelated. Most stylistically marked
words have their neutral counterparts in the basic vocabulary. Terms are an
exception in this respect. On the other hand, colloquialisms may have their
counterparts among learned words, whereas slang has counterparts both among
colloquialisms and learned words. Archaisms, naturally, have their modem
equivalents at least in some of other groups.
The table gives some examples of such synonyms belonging to different
stylistic strata. The following table sums up the description of the stylistic strata of
English vocabulary.
• Comment on the distinctive features of basic vocabulary.

• Think about your personal basic vocabulary and give reasons.
Self-check
1. Fill in the gaps of the table with the words of the appropriate style, as in
the example: _______ __ ____________
Neutral Formal Informal
children '.'.//sp rin g ........ kids
booze
place
goodbye
2. Look at the following formal expressions and find their less formal
equivalents
1) I thought I’d drop you a line... — _ ;
2) I find it difficult to believe that... — ___ ___ ;
3) a significant percentage of people... —_________ ___ _____ ;
134
4) it is a well-known fact that... —_________
5) I am about to express my disagreement... —
Useful terms
Basic vocabulary: a central group of the vocabulary, its historical

foundation and living core.
Further reading
An грушина, Г. Б. Лексикология английского языка [Текст] /

Г. Б. Антрушина, О. В. Афанасьева, Н. Н. Морозова. — М. : Дрофа, 2004. —
288 с.
!Мостовий, ML І. Лексикологія англійської мови [Текст] /
М. І. Мостовий. —X. : Основи, 1993. - 255 с.
Arnold, I. V. The English Word [Text| / I. V. Arnold. - M. : Высш. шк.,
1986. 295 c.
Quirk, R. The English Language in a Global Context [Text] / R. Quirk,
II. G. Widdowson // Lnglish in the World: reaching and Learning the Language
and Literatures / |ed. By R. Quirk and H. G. Widdowson]. - Cambridge, 1985. —
l\ I 6 .
135
CHAPTER 11.
VARIETIES OF MODERN ENGLISH
11.1. VARIETIES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
11.2. BRITISH ENGLISH
11.3. AMERICAN ENGLISH
11.4. CANADIAN ENGLISH
11.5. AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH
11.6. NEW ZEALAND ENGLISH
136
11.1. Varieties of the English Language
During the last decades, more and more papers are aimed at researching the
peculiarities of the English language in its different forms. Linguistic literature is
full of such terms as international English, world Englishes, new Englishes.
As English functions all over the world, it has acquired a plenty of features
that differ from one English-speaking community to another. There is no single
standard variety of the language that would function throughout the world. The
differences between Englishes of different countries may be explained by
linguistic and extra-linguistic causes as well.
Modern linguists, who deal with the study of the varieties of the English
language, agree with the theory developed by Braj Kachru, who offered three
circles of the English language use: the inner circle, the outer circle and the
expanding circle (see chart 2 2 , App. 1).
According to this theory, the inner circle is limited to the “native” context
of the use of English in those countries which are considered to be the English-
speaking ones: Great Britain, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Varieties of English spoken here are called natiional varieties, because English
functions in these countries as a native (or national) language (ENL —English as
a Native Language).
It should be noted that national variety of the language is a social-and-
historical category which serves as a means of communication of the nation and is
manifested in two forms: oral and written. Moreover, national varieties of the
same language do not possess well-marked differences, but at the same time they
receive autonomy acknowledged within every national community.
The outer circle includes the countries where English is the second
language (ESL — English as a Second Language) because it is important for
historical reasons and plays a part in the nation’s institutions. The varieties of
English spoken here are called local varieties. Braj Kachru names these varieties
World Englishes. The outer circle includes Malaysian, Singaporean, Kenyan,
Nigerian and other “local” varieties of English.
As for the third circle - the expanding one — it describes English as a
foreign language (EEL — English as a Foreign Language) in those countries
where it does not perform any state functions (political, juridical, social etc.). This
circle includes the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, where English is
considered to be the means of integration into the common political, economic,
informational and educational areas. In our opinion, Europe can be included into
this group as well.
Speaking about Europe, we may state that English functions here as a
lingua franca (ELF - English as Lingua Franca) —a language used by people
whose first (native) languages are different. This thought has also been supported
137
by such linguists as Allan James, Petra Jesenska, Antje Wilton and
Annick de Houwer. This statement may also be proved by the fact that English
takes the leading position in the list of the official languages of the European
Union (EU). All the business letters and documents are written in this very
language. According to Eurostat (the European Statistical System), English is the
most widespread language in the EU countries.
Moreover, the variety of English functioning in Europe is considered by
many linguists to be an independent one, so there have been more and more
papers researching another variety of English called European English or Euro-
English.
It is necessary to mention that within every variety of Modern English it is
possible to single out the dialects of a language. A dialect is a form of a language
which is spoken only in one area, with words or grammar that arc slightly
different from other forms of the same language.
Below, we will describe those varieties of English that refer to the inner
circle, or the national ones: British English, American English, Canadian
English, Australian English, and New Zealand English.
• Comment on the theory of the varieties of English offered by Вraj Kachru.

• Describe the spread of English throughout the world.
Self-check
1. Decipher the following abbreviations:

a) ENE- ______ ____............................ ;
b) E S L - _______ _______.................. ;
c) EEL _ ______________ _ ;
d) ELF - ._.... _........... ............................................................... .
2. Match the notions with their definitions:

1) national variety of the a) any language used in a country other than
language one's own; a language that is studied mostly
for cultural insight
2) local variety of the b) a social-and-historical category which serves
language as a means of communication of the nation and
is manifested in two forms: oral and written
138
3) foreign language c) a form of a language which is spoken only in
one area, with words or grammar that are
slightly different from other forms of the same
language
4) lingua franca d) second language of the country that is
important for historical reasons and plays a part
in the nation’s institutions
5) dialect e) a language used by people whose main
languages are different.
Useful terms
Dialect: a form of a language which is spoken only in one area, with words
or grammar that are slightly different from other forms of the same language.
Foreign language: any language used in a country other than one’s own; a
language that is studied mostly for cultural insight.
Lingua franca: a language used by people whose main languages are
different.
Local variety of the language: second language of the country that is
important for historical reasons and plays a part in the nation’s institutions.
National variety of the language: a social-and-historical category which
serves as a means of communication of the nation and is manifested in two forms:
oral and written.
11.2. British English
It should be noted that the spoken forms of British English (BrE) vary
considerably, reflecting a long history of dialect development amid isolated
populations.
As far as the United Kingdom is concerned, dialects vary here amongst the
four countries (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), as well as within
the countries themselves.
It should be mentioned that British English is characterized by standard
usage of the English language fixed in the dictionaries. It is characterized by the
use of words typical only of British English, for example: floor {ground floor, first
floor), underground, lift, petrol station, crosswalk, cooker, frying pan, shopping
trolley, car park and others.
139
The standard variety of the language is called Received Pronunciation
(RP). The term denotes the accent of educated people living in London and the
southeast of England and of other people elsewhere who speak in this way.
Because of its association with education rather than region, it is the only British
accent that has no specific geographical correlate: it is not possible, on hearing
someone speak RP, to know which part of the United Kingdom he or she comes
from. RP is not superior to other varieties of English; it is itself only one particular
accent that has, through the accidents of history, achieved more prestige than
others.
There are some features that are traditionally prescribed to this variety of
English. They are as follows:
— Non-rhoticity, meaning the r at the ends of words isn't pronounced
(mother sounds like “multihuh ”);
— Trap-bath split, meaning that certain a words, like hath, can’t, and
dance are pronounced with the broad-a, like in the word father,
— The vowels tend to be a bit more conservative than other accents in
Southern England, which have undergone significant vowel shifting over the past
century.
One of the brightest dialects of British English is Cockney English dialect.
It refers to the accent or dialect of English traditionally spoken by working-class
Londoners. Cockney speakers have a distinctive accent and dialect, and
occasionally use rhyming slang. A fake cockney accent is sometimes called
mockimey. Rhyming Slang phrases are derived from taking an expression which
rhymes with a word and then using that expression instead of the word, lor
example the word look is rhymed with butcher’s hook, and cockney uses it instead
of the word look: Let’s take a quick butcher \s hook.
As for the other dialects of British Emglish, the major divisions are normally
classified as English English (or English as spoken in England, which
encompasses Southern English dialects„ West Country dialects, East and West
Midlands English dialects and Northern English dialects), Welsh English, Irish
English and Scottish English. The various British dialects differ in pronunciation
and in the words that they have borrowed from other languages.
* Comment on the features of Received Pronunciation.

• find and present some additional information about the dialects of British
English.
140
Self-check
1. Give the Standard English equivalent to the following Cockney rhyming

slang text. Pay special attention to the phrases in italics.
On yer loaf o f bread you’ve got your harnet fair (or maybe a syrup o f figs).
On yer boat race you have yer mince pies, king tears and I suppose. In yer north
and south you've got yer Hampstead heath. Yer /bq/sits on yer Gregory peck,
which sits on yer noddy holders.
2. Give twenty examples of British English vocabulary.
Useful terms
Cockney English dialect: the accent or dialect of English traditionally

spoken by working-class of Londoners.
Received Pronunciation (RP): the accent of educated people living in
London and the southeast of England and of other people elsewhere who speak in
this way.
11.3. American English
American English (AmE) is the national variety of the English language

native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the
United States and is the common language used by the federal government,
residents of the US and considered the de facto language of the country.
Regional dialects in the United States typically reflect some elements of the
language of the main immigrant groups in any particular region of the country,
especially in terms of pronunciation and vernacular vocabulary.
Traditionally, nine regional dialects of American English are singled out.
they are Western English, North Central English, Inland Northern English,
Midland English, Western Pennsylvania English, Southern English, Mid-
Atlantic English, New York City English and Eastern New England English.
The process of coining new lexical items started as soon as the colonists
began borrowing names for unfamiliar flora, fauna, and topography from the
Native American languages. Examples of such names are opossum, raccoon,
squash and moose. Other Native American loanwords, such as wigwam or
moccasin, describe articles in common use among Native Americans.
141
With the new continent there developed new forms of dwelling, and hence a
large inventory of words designating real estate concepts (land office, lot), types
of property {adobe, apartment, mobile home, multi-family), and parts thereof
{driveway, breezeway, backyard).
Ever since the American Revolution, a great number of terms connected
with the U.S. political institutions have entered the language; examples are run
(i.q, for office), gubernatorial, primary election, repeater. Some of these words
are internationally used (for example, caucus, gerrymander, filibuster, exit poll).
It should be pointed out that American English and British English often
differ at the levels of phonology, phonetics, vocabulary, and, to a much lesser
extent, grammar and orthography.
• Comment on the peculiarities of American English.

• Comment on Native American words.
Self-check
1. Givc British English equivalents to the following American Engl

words and compare their meanings:
American English British English
Subway
Baggage ....... . ..
Cine
Gasoline
Check _____________
Candy
wash up
wash the dishes
Closet
Cookie
2. Fill in the gaps with the appropriate American English word with the
similar meaning to the word in italics.
1. The British go on holiday, while the Americans go on
2 . Londoners live in flats, while New Yorkers live in
3. The British buy a single ticket, while the Americans buy a
ticket.
142
4. The British use pedestrian crossing to cross the street, while Americans
use_____
5. Londoners prefer chips for dinner, while New Yorkers
prefer_____ ______ .
6. The British are proud of their fruit gardens, while the Americans are
proud of their fruit_____________ .
7. In Britain you will get a bill in the restaurant, while in the US you will get
a _______.
8. In Britain you will open the curtains to make the room lighter, while in
the US you will open th e___________________ .
9. In Britain people take out the rubbish, while in the US they take out
th e __ ____.
10. In Britain the new academic term starts in autumn, while in the US the
new academic starts in
11.4. Canadian English
Canadian English (CanE) is a national variety of English spoken in

Canada. It contains elements of British English and American English, as well as
Canadianisms: elements distinctively characteristic of Canadian usage.
English is one of Canada's two official languages. It is the majority
language in every Canadian province and territory except Quebec (which has a
french-speaking majority) and Nunavut (which has an Inuktitut-speaking
majority). Outside Quebec, English is the home language for over 80 per cent of
the population.
Throughout Canada, English mostly has a uniform phonology and very little
diversity of dialects compared to the neighbouring English of the United States;
the greatly homogeneous single variety spoken particularly in western and central
(inland) Canada, as well as across all of Canada among urban middle-class
speakers from Anglophone family backgrounds, is commonly referred to as
Standard Canadian English.
Canadian English shares vocabulary with other English dialects; in fact, it
tends to share vocabulary not only with American English, but also has many non-
American terms distinctively shared instead with Britain. British and American
terms can also coexist in Canadian English to various extents, sometimes with
new nuances in meaning; a classical example is holiday (British) often used
interchangeably with vacation (American), though, in Canadian speech, the first
can more narrowly mean a trip elsewhere and the second can mean general time
off work. In addition, the vocabulary of Canadian English also features some
words and meanings that are seldom (if ever) found elsewhere. For example, the
word parkage is used to denote a parking garage; and the meaning of the word
bachelor is an apartment in a single room and with a small bathroom attached.
It should be mentioned that Canadian English is notable for its comparative
lack of regional variation, with a very similar type of English spoken by most
people across the vast territory between Victoria and Halifax. Compared to Britain
and the eastern United States, regional differences are small and subtle and they
decrease from east to west.
• Comment on the peculiarities of Canadian English.

• Comment on the phenomenon of Canadianisms.
Self-check
1. Find British English and American English equivalents to the following

Canadian English words:
Canadian English American English British English

washroom
runners ____
pencil crayon
gasbar
fire hall
11.5. Australian English
Australian English ( AusE) is a major vari ety of the English language, used
throughout Australia. Although English has no official status in the Constitution,
Australian English is the country's de facto official language and is the first
language of the majority of the population.
Initially, and uniquely, a majority of the British colonies in Australia were
penal. As they expanded and as free colonies were developed, immigrants using
languages other than English were insignificant. Relations with the Aborigines
were generally poor and after an initial intake of words from their languages (such
as boomerang, dingo, kangaroo, koala, kookaburra, wombat) were not conducive
to extensive borrowing.
144
The most marked feature of the Australian accent is its homogeneity, with
no regional differences as marked as those in BrE and AmE.
There are no syntactic features that distinguish standard AusE from standard
BrE, or indeed any major non-standard features not found in Britain either, but
there are many distinctive words and phrases. However, although AusE has added
some 10,000 items to the language, few have become internationally active. The
largest demand for new words has concerned flora and fauna, and predominant
occupations like stock-raising have also required new terms. Because of this,
Australianisms are based on Aboriginal vocabulary predominantly naming words:
single nouns (mulga - an acacia, mullock — mining refuse), compounds (black
camp —an Aboriginal seidement, black tracker —an Aboriginal employed by the
police to track down missing persons, redfin — a fish, red gum —a eucalypt),
nouns used attributively {convict colony —a penal colony, convict servant or
convict slave —a convict assigned as a servant).
Despite a new-found sense of independence (including the export of
Australian films and television series), AusE is subject to the media-borne
influences of BrE and AmE. By and large, because of traditional ties, there is less
resistance to BrE than to AmE], particularly in pronunciation and spelling.
Although it is 1,200 miles away, New Zealand is considered to be a close
geographical, cultural, and linguistic neighbour. The constant movement of labour
between the two countries ensures continuing exchange and sharing of features
with New Zealand English.
• Comment on the peculiarities of Australian English.

• Comment on native Australian words.
Self-check
1. Look at the following Australian English words, define them and give
their equivalents in Standard English:
1) truckie; 2) milko; 3) beaut; 4) biggie; 5) Oz; 6 ) Aussie; 7) sunnies
8 ) lollies; 9) postie; 10) tucker; 11) g’day; 12) arvo; 13) be apples.
2. Look at the following sentences and think what the Australian

colloquialisms in italics mean.
1) Em exhausted —let’s have a smoko.
2) She wants to be ajourno, when she leaves uni.
145
3) We got terrible bitten by mozzies at yesterday’s 146arbie.
4) He’s planning to do a bit of farming bizzo while he’s in the States.
5) We decided to have a party as the olds had gone away for the weekend.
11.6. New Zealand English
New Zealand English (NZE) is over 200 years old. The language was
brought to New Zealand by Captain James Cook and his English-speaking crew in
1769. He recorded in his diary some MAORI words, such as pah (a fort'іlied
village) and on a later visit pounamu (greenstone or nephrite), that later became
part of the vocabulary of all New Zealanders.
As it has been mentioned above, parallels are often drawn between AusE
and NZE. Although the two varieties are by no means identical, they are often
indistinguishable to outsiders.
Grammatical system of NZE is similar to British English. The differences
mainly refer to the vocabulary system.
There are a number of dialectal words and phrases used in New Zealand
English. These are mostly informal terms that are more common in casual speech.
A considerable number of loan words have also been taken from the Maori
language as well as from Australian English.
Many New Zealand English terms have their origins in Australia. The best-
known one is the use of the word mate to mean friend, or buddy, or simply
person, as in “G'day male, how are ya?" or “cheers, mate!" Although it is
originally an early British usage adopted and adapted in Australia, it is used in
New Zealand exactly as in Australian usage.
Advancing from its British and Australian English origins, New Zealand
English has developed to include many Americanisms and American vocabulary
in preference over British terms as well as directly borrowed American
vocabulary. Some examples of American words used instead of British words in
New Zealand English are bobby pin for British hairpin, muffler for the
British sileneer, truck for the British lorry.
In addition to word and phrase borrowings from Australian, British and
American English, New Zealand English has its own unique words and
phrases derived entirely from New Zealand. Not considering slang, some of these
New Zealandisms are heaps (adj, adv) meaning abundant, plenty, tucker (n)
meaning food, etc. In conversation there are some unique collocations, for
example no worries meaning ok, yeah nah meaning you do not agree, not even
meaning no with emphasis on how untrue something is, choice meaning great etc.
Besides, in New Zealand English there is such a phenomenon as false
cognates. These are words and phrases in New Zealand English that sound
146
similar to phrases in British or American English, but actually have contradictory
meanings, for example, the phrase quite nice in NZE means something that is
unpleasant.
Another peculiarity of NZE is the tendency to abbreviate words. In New
Zealand, it is possible to hear familiar words chopped in half, often with the suffix
“-ies ” added, for example, hrekkie instead of breakfast, or rellie instead of
relatives.
• Comment on the peculiarities of the origin of New Zealand English.

• Comment on the peculiarities of New Zealand English vocabulary.
Self-check
1. Look at the following New Zealand English words, define them and find
their equivalents in Standard English:
1) av; 2) dairy; 3) Chilli Bin; 4) jandals; 5) Manchester; 6 ) lollie
7) munted; 8 ) stoked.
2. The following phrases are New Zealand English false cognates. Find their
meanings and comment on their differences with Standard English.
1) to have a mare — _____;
2 ) sweet as — ;
3) yeah nah ;
4) winner ______ .
Further reading
Швейцер, А. Д. Литературный английский язык в США и Англии

(Текст] / А. Д. Швейцер. - М. : Высш. шк., 2003. —200 с.
A Course in Modern English Lexicology [Text]/ R. S. Ginzburg,
I louse, 1979.-269 p.
Crystal, D. The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of The English Language [Text]
/ D. Crystal. - Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2005. - 499 p.
147
Кас him, В. В. World Englishes 2000: Resources for research and teaching
[Text] / В. B. Kachru // L. Smith (Ed) World Englishes 2000. - Honolulu, 1997. -
P .209-251.
Schneider, E. W. Postcolonial English. Varieties around the World [Text] /
E. W. Schneider. -- Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2007. - 385 p.
148
CHAPTER 12.
WAYS OF REPLENISHMENT
OF ENGLISH VOC ABULARY
12.1. m .o i .o <;is m s
149
12.1. Neologisms
Being an adaptive system the vocabulary is constantly adjusting itself to the

changing conditions of human communication. As any developed system, it
consists of 500 000 lexical units. Approximately 800 new words (or neologisms)
appear and enter the English vocabulary. Approximately the same number of
words goes out of it. By neologism we understand the name for a relatively new
or isolated term, word or phrase that may be in the process of entering common
use. Neologisms are often directly attributable to a specific person, publication,
period, or event.
Old and new contacts with other nations result in entering borrowed words
in the vocabulary system of the English language.
The next factor that influences the development of the English vocabulary
and its enrichment is the productive ways of word formation that take part in
coining innovative lexis introduced to the English language word-stock.
New vocabulary units appear as a result of:
1) productive or patterned ways of word formation;
2 ) non-productive or non-patterned ways of word formation;
3) borrowing from other languages;
4) semantic extension.
As it has been shown in the previous chapters, there are different ways of
word formation. The most productive of them are:
— affixation, for example, otherness, brain-washer, errorist (someone who
repeatedly makes mistakes) etc.;
— compounding: birthquake; love-proof etc
— conversion: selfie (n) — selfie (v); text (//) — text (v); google (n)
google (v);
— shortening: Internet —net; computer — comp; com the shortening for
company; used in some Internet addresses that belong to companies or businesses
(e.g. www.yahoo.com).
Borrowing as a means of replenishing the vocabulary of present-day
English is active mainly in the field of scientific terminology. It should be noted
that the present-day English vocabulary, especially its terminological layers, is
constantly enriched by words made up of morphemes of Latin and Greek origin
such as words with the morphemes -iron used chiefly in the Held of electronics,
e.g. mesotron, cyclotron, etc.; tele-, e.g. telecast, telelecture, telediagnosis', -in,
e.g. protein, penicillin', -scope, e.g. iconoscope, oscilloscope etc.
There are true borrowings from different languages as well. They, as a
rule, reflect the way of life, the peculiarities of development of the speech
communities from which they come. From the Ukrainian language there came
words like chumak, hopak, pysanka, varenyky, Rada, maidan, vyshyvanka etc.
150
The words borrowed from the German language at the time of war reflect the
aggressi ve nature of German fascism, e.g. Blitzkrieg, Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe.
Semantic extension of words already available in the language is a
powerful source of qualitative growth and development of the vocabulary though
it does not necessarily add to its numerical growth; it is only the split of polysemy
that results in the appearance of new vocabulary units thus increasing the number
of words.
In this connection it should be remembered that the border-line between a
new meaning of the word and its lexical homonym is in many cases so vague that
it is often difficult to state with any degree of certainty whether we have another
meaning of the original word or its homonym —a new self-contained word, e.g.
і he IVeh in www has a meaning of the system on the Internet that allows you to
find and use information that is held on computers all over the world; heel (si.) —
a traitor, double-erosser and heel —the hack part o f a human foot.
On the other hand, the meaning of the verb freeze —to immobilise (foreign-
owned credits) by legislative measures and its further penetration into a more
general sphere seen in to freeze wages and the correlated compound wage-freeze
is definitely felt as a mere development of the semantic structure of the verb
(to) freeze.
New words, expressions as neologisms are created for new things. The
neologism is a newly coined word or phrase. New notions appear, requiring new
words to name them.
The word is regarded as a new one for 25-30 years. It is impossible to say
exactly how many words we have in the language because they appear every day.
English like all languages has ils resources to allow speakers to say literally
anything they choose.
Entirely new words are even more interesting, because here speakers of the
language are seen as being creative. 'There are a lot of new words like, for
exam p Ie, freelam gremlin, MlDonaldizat ion, Disneyfieat ion etc.
Neologisms may appear due to some word formation processes, for
example, putting two familiar words together: coach-potato, snail-mail, sound
bite, push-poll (compounding). Sometimes a member of a compound word can be
added practically without limit: -friendly, -free, -babble, -bashing.
• Comment on the ways of replenishment of the English vocabulary.

• Reveal the peculiarities of neologisms and exemplify them.
151
Self-check
1. Say whether the statement is true or false.

1. Approximately 800 new words appear and enter the English vocabulary.
2. Semantic extension does not cause the appearance of new words in the
English language.
3. Borrowing as a means of replenishing the vocabulary of present-day
English is active mainly in the field of scientific terminology.
4. The word is regarded as a new one for 35-40 years.
5. New words, expressions as neologisms are created for new things.
Useful terms
Neologism: the name for a relatively new or isolated term, word or phrase
that may be in the process of entering common use. Neologisms are often directly
attributable to a specific person, publication, period, or event.
Semantic extension: a powerful source of qualitative growth and
development of the vocabulary though it does not necessarily add to its numerical
growth; it is only the split of polysemy that results in the appearance of new
vocabulary units thus increasing the number of words.
Further reading
Am рушина, Г. Б. Лексикология английского языка |Тексті /

Г. Б. Антрушина, О. В. Афанасьева, Н. If Морозова. М. : Дрофа, 2004.
288 с.
S. S. Khidckel, G. Y. Knyazeva. A. A. Sankin. —M. : Higher School Publishing
House, 1079. —269 p.
Arnold, I. V. The English Word [Text] / 1. V. Arnold. - M. : Высш. шк.,
1986. - 295 c.
CHAPTER 13.
LEXICOGRAPHY
13.1. LEXICOGRAPHY AS A SCIENCE
13.2. TYPES OF DICTIONARIES

13.1. Lexicography as a Science
Lexicography is the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries. The

Oxford English Dictionary defines the word dictionary as a book dealing with the
individual words o f a language (or certain specified class o f them) so as to set
forth their orthography, pronunciation, signification and use, their synonyms,
derivation and history, or at least some o f these facts; for convenience o f
reference the words are arranged in some stated order, now in most languages,
alphabetical, and in larger dictionaries the information given is illustrated by
q uotations from literature.
The history of English lexicography dates back to the Old English period
when religious books were translated from Latin and lists of selected English-
Latin equivalents - glossaries - were made up. In the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance appeared Latin-English and English-Latin dictionaries based on the
alphabetical principle. The first monolingual dictionary “A Table
Alphabetical” by Robert Cawdrey was published in 1604. It contained and taught
the true writing, and understanding of hard English words, borrowed from
Hebrew, Greek, Latin or French, etc. Among the earliest dictionaries we also find
John Bullokars “An English Expositor” (1616), Henry CockeranTs “The English
Dictionary” (1623). The latter was the first to use the word “dictionary” in its title.
The turning point in the history of English Lexicography was achieved
when Dr. Samuel Johnson’s “Dictionary of the English Language” was published
in 1747. It was the most comprehensive dictionary of the language with
etymologies, complete and clear definitions, and commentaries as to the usage of
the words and illustrative quotations from English fictions. Notwithstanding
certain demerits, this dictionary marks the beginning of English Lexicography as a
science. It served the foundation of the most complete and authoritative dictionary
of the English language - “The Oxford English Dictionary”, compiled by the
English Philological Society (1888 - 1928) and aimed at the objective recording
of the language.
The first American dictionaries of English were based on British
dictionaries of the 18th century. A truly American dictionary “American
Dictionary of the English Language” was compiled by Noah Webster and
published in 1828. It contained the specific words of American English and a
number of encyclopaedic supplements.
• Comment on the peculiarities of Lexicography as a branch of Lexicology.

• Tell about the first dictionaries.
154
Self-check
1. Match the names of the authors to the titles of their dictionaries:

1) Robert Cawdrey a) “An English Expositor”;
2) John Bullokar b) “American Dictionary of the
English Language”;
3) Henry Cockeram c) “A Table Alphabetical”;
4) Dr. Samuel Johnson d) “The Oxford English
Dictionary”;
5) 1English Philological Society e) “The English Dictionary”;
6 ) Noah Webster f) “Dictionary of the English
Language”.
2 . I ill in the gaps to complete the definition of the word dictionary:

A book dealing with the __so as to set forth their
, signification and use, their __________ , derivation
and , or at least some of these facts, for convenience of reference the
words are arranged in some ____ , now in most languages, ______ ,
and in larger dictionaries the information given in illustrated b y _________ .
Useful terms
Dictionary: a book dealing with the individual words of a language (or

certain specified class of them) so as to set forth their orthography, pronunciation,
signification and use, their synonyms, derivation and history, or at least some of
these facts; for convenience of reference the words arc arranged in some stated
order, now in most languages, alphabetical, and in larger dictionaries the
information given is illustrated by quotations from literature.
Lexicography: the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries.
13.2. Types of Dictionaries
The classification of dictionaries is a very important aspect of lexicography.

The entire work of dictionary making from the planning stage to the preparation
of press copy, at its different stages, collection of materials, selection and setting
of entries and arrangement of entries and their meanings is largely governed on
the basis of which the dictionary is classified.
155
Dictionaries can be classified into different types on the basis of several
criteria, varying from the nature of the lexical entry to the prospective user of the
dictionary. The main criteria for the classification of dictionaries are as follows:
— density of entries depending on the word list being general or restricted
and special and its covering regional and social dialects, jargons and slangs and
archaisms;
— the number of languages involved: monolingual, bilingual,
multilingual etc.;
-- the nature of entries: lexical only or also encyclopaedic, the degree of
concentration on strictly lexical data:
— axis of time: diachronic (dynamic) or synchronic (static);
— arrangement of entries: alphabetical, semantic or causal;
— purpose: normative or referential;
-- prospective user: meant for the general reader to find out general
linguistic information, or for special users to know some special aspects of the
lexical unit, say, etymology etc.
All these criteria can be applied, sometimes alone and sometimes with
others, for the classification of d ictionaries.
According to these criteria several types of dictionaries may be singled out
and distinguished: linguistic and non-linguistic (see chart 23, App. I).
The linguistic dictionary deals with only the lexical stock i.e. words as
speech material and may be roughly called word book. It includes linguistic
information peculiar of the lexical unit: pronunciation, definition, etymology,
grammatical category.
Non-linguistic dictionary is presented by the encyclopaedic dictionary. Its
aim is to present information on all aspects of human knowledge. The items
presented are more of denotational character. They also give historical events,
geographical features, biographical sketches of important personalities. The
information provided is detailed and relates to the history and the description of
the item.
The historical dictionary is concerned with a systematic study of changes
affecting a lexical unit during its life i.e. within a period from which there is
evidence. In order to present these changes in the structure and meaning of a word
the lexicographer traces it back to its earliest available occurrence in the literature
of the languages and records its development in subsequent stages of the
language. In order to do this the lexicographer makes use of all the available
works of the language. All the occurrences of the lexical units in different
contexts in all works are found out. These contexts are analysed and compared
with each other. By doing this, the lexicographer finds out the different senses of a
lexical unit and finer nuances of its meanings. Then these meanings and
submeanings are arranged in chronological order. As for the forms, the changes in
156
their shape are also recorded chronologically. The number of words in a language
is very large and changes in case of all the words are difficult to record in all their
minor details. As a result, the lexicographer has to analyse a large amount of data
to find out the semantic changes of a lexical unit.
General dictionaries may be subdivided according to the language of
description into monolingual and bilingual or multilingual. To monolingual we
refer all types of explanatory dictionaries. Learner’s dictionaries may be
considered a special type of monolingual dictionaries for general use. They are
characterized by simplicity of definitions, information on the usage of the listed
words.
Special dictionaries may be subdivided according to the sphere of human
activity in which they are used or the functional variant of the language: technical
dictionaries, medical dictionaries, dictionaries o f law terms, etc; dialect
dictionaries, dictionaries o f slang.
Another criterion of division is the unit o f description. We distinguish
dictionaries of foreign words, phraseological dictionaries, dictionaries of new
words, of obsolete words, dictionaries of synonyms, antonyms, abbreviations,
proverbs, quotations, surnames, dictionaries of collocations, etc.
According to the aspect o f the word described special dictionaries are also
subdivided into pronouncing dictionaries (orthoepic dictionaries),
etymological dictionaries, spelling dictionaries (orthographical dictionaries),
dictionaries of frequency, etc.
• Comment on the criteria for the classification of dictionaries.

• Comment on the types of dictionaries and their distinctive features.
Self-check
1. Match the types of dictionaries to their descriptions.

1) Linguistic a) is concerned with a systematic study of
dictionary changes affecting a lexical unit during its life i.e.
within a period from which there is evidence;
2) Encyclopaedic b) deals with only the lexical stock i.e. words as
dictionary speech material and may be roughly called word
book;
157
3) Historical c) may be subdivided according to the sphere of
dictionary human activity in which they are used or the
functional variant of the language;
4) General d) may be monolingual and bilingual or
dictionary multilingual according to the language of
description;
5) Special e) is aimed at presenting information on all
dictionaries aspects of human knowledge; gives historical
events, geographical features, biographical
sketches of important personalities.
Useful terms
Dictionary entry: the entry in a dictionary of information about a word.

Encyclopaedic dictionary: a dictionary aimed at presenting information on
all aspects of human knowledge; gives historical events, geographical features,
biographical sketches of important personalities.
Explanatory dictionary: a dictionary where both the entry words and their
definitions or meanings are given in the same language.
General dictionary: a dictionary that may be monolingual and bilingual or
multilingual according to the language of description.
Historical dictionary: a dictionary concerned with a systematic study of
changes affecting a lexical unit during its life i.e. within a period from which there
is evidence.
Linguistic dictionary: a dictionary that deals with only the lexical stock i.e.
words as speech material and may be roughly called word book.
Special dictionary: may be subdivided according to the sphere of human
activity in which they are used or the functional variant of the language.
Further reading
Виноградов, В. В. Лексикология и лексикография. Избранные труды

[Текст] / В. В. Виноградов. —СПб. : КАРО, 2004. - 192 с.
Минаева, Л. В. Лексикология и лексикография английского языка
[Текст]: учеб, пособие / Л. В. Минаева. —М. : ACT: Астрель, 2007. - 222 с.
Jackson, Н. Lexicography: An Introduction [Text] / Н. Jackson. —
L., N.Y. : Rout ledge, 2002. - 141 p.
158
CHAPTER 14.
LEXICOLOGY:
MULTILINGUAL ASPECT
14.1. MULTILINGUALISM AS AN INTEGRAL PART

OF MODERN LIFE
14.2. ENGLISH AS LINGUA FRANCA OF MODERN EUROPE
14.3. MULTILINGUALISM THROUGH LEXICOLOGICAL

STUDIES
159
14.1. Multilingualism as an Integral Part of Modern Life
All the languages of the world must, and do contribute to the brotherhood of
the mankind. Contrary to what many people used to believe, a language is not
only a grammatical structure, a set of interconnected words, in agreement with a
syntactic code, but also, and especially, a creation of meaning based upon our
senses. Thus, we observe, interpret and express our world from a specific
personal, geographical and political context.
It should be mentioned that a language is a complex system which unites
different interconnected aspects: semantics, style, syntax, vocabulary, grammar.
They are all essential and should be taken into account while analysing some
linguistic peculiarities. Each of the aspects can be examined from various
standpoints. As a result, there are a great number of linguistic theories, and every
linguist offers his own ideas concerning some particular phenomenon.
The last fifty years have been marked by the development of information
technologies and modern system of communication. This process results in the
spread of the English language on the global scale. Nowadays, English is the main
candidate for becoming a lingua franca because it is used in almost all the spheres
of the society and takes the second position (being a native language for about 350
million people around the world) in the top-twenty languages list, making way
only for the Chinese language. Besides, more than 42.3 million people speak
English as their second or foreign language.
On the other hand, from the very beginning of its existence, the European
Union has been supporting the distribution of multilingualism, as the phenomenon
which reflects the ability of a person to speak more than two languages, and
tolerant attitude towards the language and cultural diversity. That is why the study
of the issues connected with multilingualism has been engrossing the researchers”
minds more and more. The distinctive features of this phenomenon have been
described in the works of such linguists as Antje Wilton, Jean-Marc Dewaele,
Li Wei, etc.
It is worth mentioning that in 2004 a position called the European
Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism was
established. The official EU policy actively promotes the spread of
multilingualism amongst its citizens. A key part of this initiative is close
monitoring of language knowledge, practice and attitudes by Eurobarometer
(European International project which is a series of public opinion surveys
conducted regularly by the European Commission). The most recent results seem
overwhelmingly positive, with high levels of reported multilingualism, and a
generally positive view towards languages.
It is necessary to point out that linguistic diversity is a key property of
Europe's identity, and both the EU Institutions based in Brussels and the Council
160
of Europe (CoE) based in Strasbourg have been active in promoting language
learning and multi lingual іsm/plurilingualism. The major language policy agencies
in these two institutions are the Unit for Multilingualism Policy within the
Directorate-General of Education and Culture in the European Commission and
the Language Policy Unit of the Directorate of Education in the Council of
Europe.
Multilingualism is a common and increasing phenomenon in a present day
society which can be studied from different perspectives. The Council of Europe
makes a distinction between plurilingualism as a speaker’s competence (ability
to use more than one language) and multilingualism as the presence of various
languages in a given geographical area. The EU uses multilingualism for both
(sometimes specifying ‘multilingualism of the individual’).
Besides, multilingualism is one of the competences that a modern specialist
should possess in order to be successful in his career. This idea has been a central
one in the European policy since the very beginning of the European Union
existence. However, the first official guidelines on multilingualism were
highlighted by the European Commission only in 2005.
It is worth emphasizing that a way towards multilingualism is a set of
actions aimed at supporting educational programs; it presupposes learning at least
two foreign languages and performing activities aimed at preserving language
diversity, increasing the time for learning foreign languages. Not a single official
document mentions obligatory learning of one particular language. As a result, the
language policy of every state should be balanced and reasonable. The language
totalitarianism is impossible in our modern multinational global community.
As a democratic organisation, the EU has to communicate with its citizens
in their own language. The same goes for national governments and civil services,
businesses and other organisations all over the EU. Europeans have a right to
know what is being done in their name. They must also be able to play an active
part without having to learn other languages.
All the factors mentioned above explain why the issue about the dominance
of the English language in Europe is one of the most topical ones nowadays. The
usage of English as an international language under the process of globalization is
fundamentally altering the nature and usage of the language. In a world under
transformation by globalization, English is increasingly becoming used as a
medium of communication. This process finds its reflection in all the spheres of
social life.
161
• Define the phenomenon of multilingualism.

• Comment on the peculiarities of multilingualism in Europe.
Self-check
1. Say whether the statement is true (T) or false (F):

1. In 2002 a position called the European Commissioner for Education,
Training, Culture and Multilingualism was established.
2. Linguistic diversity is thought to be a key property of Europe's identity.
3. The Council of Europe makes no distinction between the terms
plurilingualism and multilingualism.
4. The term plurilingualism is understood as the presence of various
languages in a given geographical area.
5. In Europe there are some official documents mentioning obligatory
learning of one particular language.
Useful terms
Multilingualism: the presence of various languages in a given geographical

area.
Plurilingualism: a speaker's competence, ability to use more than one
language).
14.2. English as Lingua Franca of Modern Europe
The idea of English being a contemporary European lingua franca may be

further developed in terms of the theory about territorial varieties of the language,
which has been studied by a number of linguists, such as B. Kachru, J. Jenkins,
B. Seidhofler, S. Mollin and described in Chapter 11.
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English offers a very precise
definition of the notion lingua franca. It is a language used between people
whose main languages are different.
The analysis of the history of the English language has shown that its rapid
transformation into the language lingua franca took place in the middle of the
twentieth century. In the postwar years, English became an indispensable part of
education systems of Europe, supranational European bodies (European Union)
162
as well as numerous regional organizations in Europe. All these factors make it
possible to suggest that the English language is actually a lingua franca of modern
Europe.
Traditionally, British or American English, also called Standard English,
was thought to be a generally accepted norm that other varieties correlate with.
However, modern research shows that due to the process of globalization the
existence of “monochrome” standard has become an anachronism and a standard
version of English at the present stage of its development loses its relevance in
countries where it is a native language, because the standards of the generally
accepted language are revealed and developed there.
Researchers claim that ELF (English as lingua franca) is functioning in
Europe with pragmatic purposes in science, business, commerce, tourism etc. It
also serves as a mediator in the academic, cultural, diplomatic, legal, political,
scientific and technological discourses and educational sphere.
Despite the fact that ELF to some extent depends on the standard version of
English, it is still under the influence of language-and-cultural background of the
people who speak it; its language organization is specific to the areas where it
functions (e.g. business, education, science, media, etc.). In other words, ELF of
modern Europe is a self-contained version of the language that is able to develop
its own rules depending on the content environment it functions in.
It is worth mentioning that sometimes the functioning of English as the
language lingua franca in modern Europe is directly associated with the
phenomenon of bilingualism / multilingualism; and ELF is even called a partner
of multilingualism. This can be explained by the fact that a person who speaks
English with other people forms the environment for the use and distribution of
English as ELF.
It should be mentioned that there is an opinion nowadays that English is a
kind of threat for European multilingualism and linguistic diversity of Europe.
Some researchers consider it to be a “killer language” and claim that it
contaminates other European languages.
However, the use of ELF in Europe is not necessarily a threat to
multilingualism in Europe. ELF is a useful tool for interlingual and intercultural
communication —it is an additional language, never a substitute for European
citizens' native languages. Neurolinguistic studies of translation and code-
switching as its tool do not support the assumption that ELF inhibits or damages
the conceptualisation in people’s first language (LI).
It should be noted that ELF is a hybrid language. Because of ELF speakers'
inner diglossia, evaluation norms should not be any longer inner circle (see
Chapter 11) English speakers’ competence, but rather multilingual experts’ use of
English as lingua franca.
163
Studies of the influence of ELF on other languages show that the norms of
some European languages are open to English influence to a certain degree and in
certain domains.
Language policy in Europe should search for a sensible “third way” that
would be free from fighting ELF for its dangerous “linguistic imperialism” and
accepting ELF for its benefits. Today in Europe, English as lingua franca is not
used instead of other European languages but rather as a kind of additional or “co
language”, employed in conjunction with, but not necessarily in opposition to,
other European languages.
Thus, at the present stage of its development, the English language plays a
leading part in the linguistic worldview of modern Europe; it is the modern
European lingua franca.
* Comment on the peculiarities of English as lingua franca (ELF).

• Comment on the role of English in Europe.
Self-check
1. Decide whether the statement is true (T) or false (F):

1. Lingua franca is a language used between people whose main languages
are different.
2. Traditionally, only British English was thought to be a generally accepted
norm.
3. ELF is functioning in Europe with pragmatic purposes in science,
business, commerce, tourism etc.
4. ELF of modern Europe is a self-contained version of the language that is
able to develop its own rules depending on the content environment it functions
in.
5. English as lingua franca of modern Europe is not associated with the
phenomenon of bilingualism / multilingualism.
6 . Some researchers consider English to be a “killer language” and claim
that it contaminates other European languages.
7. ELF is a useful tool for interlingual and intercultural communication.
8 . ELF is a hybrid language.
9. The European languages are not subjected to English influence.
10. ELF is used instead of other European languages all the time.
164
14.3. Multilingualism through Lexicological Studies
As far as lexicological aspect is concerned, multilingualism is revealed in

phraseological units, borrowings, in links with other branches (See Chapter 1).
The lexicological study of multilingualism gives us assurance to state that
phraseological units are the heritage of the language showing national verbalized
peculiarities of mentality, cognition, and special acquisition of the worldview.
Borrowings as one of the results of language replenishment vividly show the
multilingual character of the language.
Multilingualism is an interdisciplinary issue of concern. The analysis of
theoretical and methodological literature allows us to highlight three main
research perspectives in multilingual data analysis: linguistic, psycholinguistic and
social inguistic.
As for the linguistic perspective, the research carried out within its
framework concentrates on the questions connected with language acquisition,
knowledge and use. The key objective here is to define the nature of multilingual
knowledge and to find out, how grammar and vocabulary systems of several
languages interact in a person’s mind.
A number of linguists have carried out their investigations from this
perspective. Having studied their works, we may state that such kind of research
is an empirical one. The researcher gathers some data that he gets in the process of
communication with multilingual people. After that he analyses the peculiarities
of their speech, pays attention to the use of grammar, vocabulary and sentence
structure.
Another point that should be highlighted here is the process of multilingual
acquisition. The linguist looks for the similarities and differences between
multilingual and monolingual acquisition and tries to discover whether the
languages a multilingual person is acquiring develop in the same way and at the
same speed, or the languages a multilingual person is acquiring do not influence
and interact with each other.
The linguists consider that there is one more area in which multilingual
people clearly differ from monolingual people, namely, code mixing -- the act of
mixing elements from different languages in the same utterance. While these
studies provide further evidence for the separate-development argument, they also
suggest that there are both quantitative and qualitative differences between
multilingual and monolingual acquisition.
Psycholinguists working on multilingualism are interested in essentially the
same three key issues — multilingual knowledge\ multilingual acquisition and
multilingual use. However, the research methodologies differ from the ones
applied within the framework of linguistic perspective. Psyeholinguistic research
tends to use experimental and laboratory methods to investigate multilingual
165
behavior. It means that they create some unnatural conditions of communication
in order to trigger multilingual speech.
It should be pointed out that psycholinguists are less concerned with
describing and explaining structures of multilingual speech, but try to define the
nature and peculiarities of the cognitive processes involved in receiving and
producing multilingual speech.
The sociolinguistic perspective differs from the linguistic and
psycholinguistic perspectives in terms of both its research methodologies and its
basic concerns. Sociolinguists see multilingualism as a socially constructed
phenomenon and the bilingual or multilingual person as a social actor. It is also
important to mention that for a multilingual speaker, language choice is not only
an effective means of communication but also an act of national identity.
Li Wei states that "every time we say something in one language when we
might just as easily have said it in another, we are reconnecting with people,
situations, and power configurations from our history of past interactions and
imprinting on that history our attitudes towards the people and languages
concerned; through language choice, we maintain and change ethnic group
boundaries and personal relationships, and construct and define “self' and “other1'
within a broader political economy and historical context".
So, the issue of language use that linguists and psycholinguists are
concerned with becomes an issue of national identity and idcnlillcation for the
sociolinguist.
• Comment on multilingualism as an interdisciplinary issue of concern.

• Speak on linguistic, psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives in
multilingual data analysis.
Further reading
James, A. R. English as a European Lingua Franca: Current Realities and

Existing Dichotomies [Text] / A. R. James // English in Europe: The Acquisition
of the Third Language. - Clevedon, 2000. —P. 22 —38.
Jesenska, P. Eurospeak and ELF - English as a current global Lingua
Franca [Text] / P. Jesenska // Topics in Linguistics. —2007. —JSf«l. —P. 62 —67.
Mollin, S. English as a Lingua Franca: A New Variety in the New
Expanding Circle? [Text] // Nordic Journal of English Studies. - 2006. - Vol. 5,
No 2 .-P .4 1 -57.
166
Multilingual Europe: Reflections on Language and Identity [Text] / [ed.
By J. Warren and H. M. Benbow. - Cambridge : Cambridge Scholars Publishing,
2008.-200 p.
Wilton, A. The Dynamics of English in a Multilingual Europe [Text] /
A. Wilton, A. de Houwer /7 English in Europe Today: Sociocultural and
Educational Perspectives. - Amsterdam : John Benjamins Publishing Company,
2011. —P. 1 - 13.
167
KEY
t o Self-Check/
168
KEY TO SELF-CHECK
Chapter 1. Lexicology as a Branch of Linguistics
1.2. Two Approaches to the Language Study

1. 1 —d); 2 —e); 3 - a); 4 —b); 5 - c).
1.3. Specific Problems of English Lexicology

1. Morphological structure.
2. Semantic structure (meaning).
3 . d).
4. a).
5 . a) syntagmatic; b) syntagmatic; c) paradigmatic; d) paradigmatic.
1.4. Theoretical and Practical Value of Lexicology. Links with Other

Branches
1. 1) Semasiology; 2) Lexicography; 3) Contextology; 4) Morphology;
5) Etymology; 6 ) Phraseology.
2 . a) vocabulary; b) word formation; c) dictionaries and reference books;
d) independent work.
Chapter 2. Word and Meaning
2.1. The Word as a Basic Language Unit

1. I - c); 2 - a); 3 - d); 4 - b).
2 . Two-facet.
3. a) it is a certain arrangement of phonemes; b) it is a certain arrangement
of morphemes; c) it may have different syntactic functions.
4. 1 - b ) ; 2 - d ) ; 3 —a); 4 - е ) .
2.2. Motivation. Types of Motivation

1. Teacher - morphological motivation; purr - phonetic motivation; foot (of
a page) — semantic motivation; chatter - phonetic motivation; green-eyed —
morphological motivation; green-fingered - semantic motivation; voiceless —
semantic motivation; ex-president —morphological motivation; T-shirt - graphical
motivation; heart (of the city) —semantic motivation.
2. The relationship between the phonemic composition and structural
pattern of the word and its meaning.
3. Consult a dictionary.
169
2.3. Semasiology and Its Subject Matter
1. 1 - c ) ; 2 - a ) ; 3 - d ) ; 4 - b ) .
2.5. Types of Meaning

1. Girls -- girl’s; nice —beautiful —handsome; wrote - writing; boy's —boy;
woman’s - women; taught - teaching.
2 . b).
Chapter 3. Semantic Change
3.1. The Problem of Classification of Semantic Change

2. A process when a concrete meaning becomes an abstract one, i.e. the
meaning of the word is widened.
3. A process when the new meaning the word acquires is more precise; it
covers only the part of its original meaning.
4. 1 — generalisation; 2 specialisation; 3 specialisation;
4 - generalisation; 5 —specialisation.
3.2. Causes of Development of New Meaning

2. Different kinds of changes in a nation's social life, in its culture,
knowledge, technology, arts.
3. factors acting within the language system: ellipsis, discrimination of
synonyms, fixed context.
3.3. Nature of Semantic Change

1. I) metaphoric; 2) metonymic; 3) metaphoric; 4) metaphoric;
5) metaphoric; 6 ) metaphoric; 7) metonymic; 8 ) metonymic; 9) metaphoric;
10 ) metonymic.
2. 1 - b); 2 - c); 3 - g); 4 - a); 5 - h); 6 - c); 7 d); 8 - I).
3. 1 - Iіtote; 2 - euphemism; 3 - hyperbole; 4 - personification;
5 — zoosemy; 6 - personification; 7 - hyperbole; 8 - litote; 9 - euphemism;
10 zoosemy.
3.4. Results of Semantic Change

170
Chapter 4. Polysemy. Homonymy
4.1. Polysemy in Synchronic Approach

1 . 1) an example of a particular situation or of something happening; 2 ) a
situation that exists, especially as it affects a particular person or group; 3) a set of
reasons why something should happen or be done; 4) a question or problem that
will be dealt with by a law court; 5) a special box used as a container for holding
or protecting something; 6 ) a suitcase; 7) the way in which the form of a word
changes, showing its relationship to other words in a sentence.
4.2. Polysemy in Diachronic Approach

2 . I) flat; 2 ) fair.
4.3. Homonymy
1.1) bear, bear; 2) left, left; 3) Can, can; 4) fly, fly; 5) May, May.
2. 1) advice; 2) aisle; 3) except; 4) sight; 5) fair.
4.4. Classification of Homonyms

1. Homonyms proper: sound (n) sound (adj); match (n) - match (v); mean
(v) mean (adj); trim (adj) —firm (n).
I tomographs: row (n) row (n); wind (n) wind (v); object (n) object (v).
Homophones: week (n) —weak (adj); sun (n) —son (n); made (v) —maid (n);
sea (n) - see (v); scene (n) —seen (v); ant (n) aunt (n).
2. Comment on the use of homophones.
3. I) homonyms proper; 2) homophones; 3) homographs.
4.5. Homonymy vs Polysemy

1. a) polysemy; b) homonymy.
Chapter 5. Synonyms. Antonyms. Hyponyms
5.1. Synonym. The Problem of Definition

1. Denotational.
2. Synonyms are the words of the same part of speech different in their
sound form but similar in their denotational components of lexical meaning or
meanings and interchangeable at least in some contexts.
3. 1 —c); 2 —b); 3 - a).
5.2. The Synonymic Dominant
1.1) cheerful; 2) to cry; 3) fat; 4) great; 5) angry; 6 ) to choose; 7) honest.
2 . 1) clever (synonymic dominant), smart, intelligent, bright; 2 ) friend
(synonymic dominant) mate, comrade, buddy, fellow; 3) pain (synonymic
dominant), ache, soreness, hurt; 4) easy (synonymic dominant), simple, trivial;
5) quick (synonymic dominant), fast, swift, prompt, rapid; 6 ) to buy (synonymic
dominant), to purchase, to acquire; 7) strange (synonymic dominant), odd, weird,
extraordinary.
5.3. Synonymy in Synchronic and Diachronic Approaches

1. 1) stylistic; 2) idiographic; 3) territorial; 4) absolute; 5) stylistic;
6 ) stylistic; 7) absolute.
2. 1 - c); 2 - e); 3 - a); 4 - b); 5 - d).
5.4. Antonyms. The Problem of Definition

2. Very weak - outstanding; unimaginative - moving; completely over-the-
top — stimulating; awful — meaningful; cliched — thought-provoking; dull —
remarkable.
5.5. Classification of Antonyms

1. 1) derivational antonyms; contraries; antonyms proper; 2 ) absolute
antonyms; contraries; antonyms proper; 3) derivational antonyms; contraries;
antonyms proper; 4) absolute antonyms; contraries; antonyms proper; 5) absolute
antonyms; incompatibles; complementary antonyms; 6 ) derivational antonyms;
contraries; antonyms proper; 7) absolute antonyms; conversives; relational
antonyms; 8 ) derivational antonyms; conversives; relational antonyms; 9) absolute
antonyms; contraries; antonyms proper; 10 ) absolute antonyms, incompatibles;
complementary antonyms; 11) derivational antonyms; contraries; antonyms
proper; 12) absolute antonyms; conversives; relational antonyms.
2. 1) F; 2) F; 3) T; 4) T; 5) T; 6 ) T; 7) T; 8 ) F; 9) T; 10) T.
5.6. Hyponymy
1.1) colour; 2) university; 3) season; 4) family; 5) face.
2. 1) state; 2) action; 3) perceptual; 4) functional; 5) geographical;
6 ) activity.
172
Chapter 6. English Phraseology
6.1. Phraseology as a Branch of Linguistics

1. 1 —b); 2 - d); 3 -- e); 4 - a); 5 - f); 6 - c).
2 . a) idiomaticity; b) reproducibility; c) stability.
6.2. Different Classifications of Ph raseological Units

1. 1) phraseological fusion; 2 ) phraseological combination;
3) phraseological unity; 4) phraseological fusion; 5) phraseological unity;
6 ) phraseological unity; 7) phraseological fusion; 8 ) phraseological unity;
9) phraseological fusion; 10) phraseological unity.
2. 1) interjectional; 2) substantive; 3) verbal; 4) adjectival; 5) verbal;
6 ) adjectival; 7) adverbial; 8 ) adjectival; 9) verbal; 10) substantive.
3. 1) pragmatic; 2) nominative; 3) communicative; 4) communicative;
5) nominative; 6 ) nominative-communicative; 7) nominative; 8 ) pragmatic;
9) nominative-communicative; 10) pragmatic; 11) pragmatic.
4. 1) All's fair in love and war; 2) Necessity is the mother of invention;
3) Every cloud has a silver lining; 4) It never rains but it pours; 5) No pain,
no gain; 6 ) Variety is the spice of life; 7) First come, first served.

1.1) Prince Charming; 2) Jekyll and Hyde; 3) an Aladdin’s cave; 4) s
crossed lovers; 5) in the twinkling of an eye; 6 ) the Midas touch; 7) Achilles heel;
8 ) a Pyrrhic victory; 9) turn the other cheek; 10) all hands on deck.
2. 1) compos mentis (Latin); 2) c’est la vie (French); 3) ad infinitum (Latin);
4) plus да change (French); 5) status quo (Latin); 6 ) a fait accompli (French);
7) creme de la creme (French); 8 ) de facto (Latin).
3. 1 - e) (the USA); 2 - c) (Scotland); 3 - a) (the USA); 4 - g (England);
5 - b (Canada); 6 - d (England); 7 - f (Scotland).
6.4. Types of Transference of Phraseological Units

1. 1) metaphor; 2) synecdoche; 3) simile; 4) metaphor; 5) metaphor;
6 ) metaphor; 7) metaphor; 8 ) simile; 9) simile; 10) simile; 11) metaphor;
12) synecdoche; 13) simile; 14) metaphor; 15) metonymy; 16) metaphor.
2. 1) metaphor; 2) synecdoche; 3) metonymy; 4) simile.
173
Chapter 7. Word Structure
7.1. Morphemes. Types of Morphemes. Allomorphs

1. Morphological analysis.
2. Simple stems: big; get; workload; childproof; heartache; man.
Derived stems: fishmonger; careless; ex-president; unimportant;
lightheartedness; girlish; unstoppable.
Bound stems: immovability; underestimation; simplify.
7.2. Structural Types of Words

1. Root-words: short; speed.
Derived words: brotherhood; minimize; indifference; remake; ownership;
curiosity; adulthood; kingdom; improvement; investment.
Compound words: coal-black; thermometer; do-or-die; bald-headed.
7.3 Principles of Morphemic and Derivational Analyses

1. Morphemic analysis (Ics, Ucs).
2. Derivational analysis.
Chapter 8. Word Formation
8.1. Major Types of Word Formation

8.2.1. Affixation
1.1) unwrapping; 2) disagree; 3) disprove; 4) unveiled; 5) disconnected.
2. Types of suffixes.
8.2.2. Conversion
1. 1) verb (derived from adjective); 2 ) verb (derived from noun); 3 ) verb
(derived from noun); 4) noun (derived from verb); 5) noun (derived from verb); 6 )
verb (derived from adjective); 7) verb (derived from adjective); 8 ) participle II
(derived from verb); 9) noun (derived from verb); 10 ) verb (derived from noun).
2 . 1) the verb denotes an action performed by the tool: 2 ) the verb denotes
an action or aspect of behaviour typical of the animal; 3) the verb denotes
acquisition of an object; 4) the verb denotes an act of putting something within the
container (the bag); 5) the verb denotes an action performed by the tool; 6 ) the
verb denotes an action performed by the tool; 7) the verb denotes ab action of
cooking the cake; 8) the verb denotes an action of taking meal; (>) the verb denotes
an action or aspect of behaviour typical of the animal; 10) the verb denotes an
action performed by the part of a human body; I I ) the verb denotes an action
174
performed by the tool; 12) the verb denotes an action performed by the tool;
13) the verb denotes an action performed by the tool; 14) the verb denotes an
action performed by the tool.
8.2.3. Compounding
1.1) well-off; 2) absent-minded; 3) never-ending; 4) second-class; 5) w
out; 6 ) long-haired; 7) built-up; 8 ) world-famous; 9) self-centred; 10) sugar-free.
2. 1) breakthrough; 2) feedback; 3) break-up; 4) Facebook; 5) takeover;
6 ) earrings; 7) he-who-must-not-be-named; 8 ) greenhouse effect; 9) dragonflies;
10) science fiction.
8.3 Minor Types of Word Formation

1. 1 - f); 2 - c); 3 - h); 4 - a); 5 - i); 6 - b); 7 - e); 8 - g); 9 - d).
2. 1) T; 2) F; 3) F; 4) T; 5) 1 *6 ) T; 7) F; 8 ) F; 9) F; 10) T.
Chapter 9. Etymological Survey of the English Vocabulary
9.2. Borrowing: Historical Background

1. 1) Latin; 2) French; 3) Spanish; 4) Greek; 5) Greek; 6 ) Arabic;
7) Scandinavian; 8 ) Scandinavian; 9) French; 10) Scandinavian; 11) Latin;
12) French; 13) Arabic; 14) Scandinavian; 15) Latin; 16) Greek; 17) French;
18 ) Italian; 19) Dutch; 20) Italian; 21) Spanish; 22) Arabic.
2.
English German French Italian Spanish
drink trinken bo іre bere Beber
mother Mutter mam an mamma Madre
candle Kerze chandelle candela Candela
valley Tal vallee vallata Valle
sun Sonne sole'll sole Sol
9.3. Assimilation of Loan Words (Borrowings)

1. Fully assimilated words: umbrella; cheese; table; husband.
Partially assimilated words: fiesta; tomato; incognito; nucleus; brioche;
scheme; toreador; memoir.
Non-assimilated words: deja vu; nota bene; persona non grata.
2. Make up your sentences.
175
Chapter 10, Stylistic Characteristics of Vocabulary
10*2 Informal Vocabulary

1. Colloquialisms: birdie; you bet hand-in-glove; it’s no go; brainy.
Slang: cool; beans; smash-up; bastard; nutty; hot-pants; pie-eyed;
backhander; booze.
Dialect words: nuke; wicked; unchancy.
2. 1) Use your head! (Cockney) 2) I’m going into town today. (Yorkshire)
3) Do you want to marry her? (Irish) 4) It’s nice to see you. (Welsh) 5) The
children would not stop crying. (Scottish) 6 ) He doesn’t have the courage to do it,
does he? (Cockney) 7) He’s a lovely, little child. (Scottish) 8 ) He looked very
well. (Irish) 9) You’ve got a nice house. (Welsh) 10) “I’m just going down the
stairs to get a cup of tea from the kitchen” (Cockney).
110.3 Formal Style

1. Bookish words: heterogeneous; paternal; to brabble; deem:
miscellaneous; divergent.
Archaic words: glee; thou; to befoul.
Obsolete words: bookwright.
Professionalisms: cordial; radar; phoneme; apocope.
2. 1 - f); 2 - a); 3 - g); 4 - c); 5 - h); 6 - c); 7 b; 8 d.
10.4. Basic Vocabulary
Neutral Formal In formal

children offspring kids ~ __
drink alcoholic beverages Booze
house/flat adobe/residenee Place
bye-bye goodbye Bye
2. 1) l am writing; 2) it can’t be right that; 3) a lot of people; 4) everyone

knows that; 5) I strongly disagree.
Chapter 11. Varieties of Modern English
11.1. Varieties of the English Language

1. a) English as a Native Language; b) 1 ugh .h as a Second Language;
c) English as a Foreign Language; d) English as I ang.ua I i.hk a
2. 1 - b); 2 - d); 3 - a); 4 - e); 5 - c).
176
11.2. British English
1. On your head you’ve got your hair (or maybe a wig). On your face
you’ve got your eyes, ears and a nose. In your mouth you’ve got your teeth. Your
head sits on your neck, which sits on your shoulders.
2. Give your examples.
11.3. American English

1. Underground; luggage; queue; petrol; bill; sweet; wash your hands; wash
up; wardrobe; biscuit.
2. 1) vacation; 2) apartments; 3) one-way; 4) crosswalk; 5) French fries;
6 ) yards; 7) check; 8 ) drapes; 9) garbage; 10) semester, fall.
11.4. Canadian English

1.
Canadian English American English British English
washroom bathroom, restroom toilet, WC
runners Sneakers Trainers
pencil crayon colored pencil colouring pencil
gasbar gas station petrol station
fire hall fire station fire station
11.5. Australian English

1. 1) lorry; 2) milkman; 3) beautiful; 4) big; 5) Australia; 6 ) Australian;
7) sunglasses; 8 ) sweets; 9) postman; 10) food; 11) hello; 12) afternoon; 13) be
alright.
2. 1) smoking break; 2) journalist, university; 3) mosquitoes, barbecue;
4) business; 5) adults/parents.
11.6. New Zealand English

1.1) avenue; 2) a comer shop; 3) box that keeps food or drink cool; 4) f
flops; 5) bed linen; 6 ) sweets; 7) not good; 8 ) very pleased.
2. I) to make a fool of yourself; 2) good; 3) no thank you; 4) loser.
Chapter 12. Ways of Replenishment of English Vocabulary
12.1 Neologisms
1. 1) T; 2) F; 3) T; 4) F; 5) T.
Chapter 13. Lexicography
13.1. Lexicography as a Science

1. 1 - c); 2 - a); 3 - e); 4 - f); 5 - d); 6 - b).
2. A book dealing with the individual words of a language (or certain
specified class of them) so as to set forth their orthography, pronunciation,
signification and use, their synonyms, derivation and history, or at least some of
these facts; for convenience of reference the words are arranged in some stated
order, now in most languages, alphabetical, and in larger dictionaries the
information given is illustrated by quotations from literature.
13.2. Types of Dictionaries

1. 1 - b); 2 - e); 3 - a); 4 - d); 5 - c).
Chapter 14. Lexicology: Multilingual Aspect
14.1. Multilingualism as an Integral Part of Modern Life

1. 1) F; 2) T; 3) F; 4) P; 5) F.
14.2. English as Lingua Franca of Modern Europe

1.1) I ; 2) F; 3) T; 4) T; 5) F; 6 ) T; 7) T; 8 ) T; 9) F; 10) F.
178
'Referevice&
179
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S. IJllmann. —N. Y. : Barnes & Noble, 1962.-278 p.
Wei, L. Research Perspectives on Bilingualism and Multilingualism [Text] /
L. Wei // The Blackwell Guide to Research Methods in Bilingualism and
Multilingualism / [ed. by Li Wei and Melissa G. Moyer]. - Oxford, 2008. -
P. 3 - 17.
Wierzbicka, A. Semantics, Culture and Cognition. Universal Human
Concepts in Culture-Specific Configurations [Text] / A. Wierzbicka. — N.Y.,
Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1992.-496 p.
Wilton, A. The Dynamics of English in a Multilingual Europe [Text] /
A. Wilton, A. de Houwer /7 English in Europe Today: Sociocultural and
Educational Perspectives. —Amsterdam, 2011. —P. 1 —13.
187
Appendices
188
A p p e n d i x 1. C h a r t s
Chart l (to chapter 1.1)
The Subject Matter of Lexicology

189
C h a rt 2 (to ch a p ters 1.1, 1.2)
Types of Lexicology
LEXICOLOGY
GENERAL SPECIAL HISTORICAL MODERN COMPARATIVE

studies words and treats the problems of deals with the changes deals with the semantic studies the correlation
vocabulary irrespective the given language and the development of and morphological between two or more
of any specific features system and its specific vocabulary in the structure of the words languages and of
of a particular language features course of time and the vocabulary primal*} importance in
system of the language this respect is the
at a given stage of its comparison and
development contrasting of the
190
mother tongue with one

or two foreign
languages
Two Approaches to the Language Study
Synchronic (from Greek s y n ‘together, with' Diachronic (from Greek dia (through' and
and chronos ‘time") approach is concerned chronos ‘t im e ') approach deals with the
with the vocabulary of a language as it exists changes and the development of vocabulary
at a given time in the course of time
Specific Problems of English Lexicology
THE STUDY OF THE WORD:

external (morphological) internal (semantic) structure of the word
structure of the word
svntagmatic level paradigmatic level

(the semantic structure of the word is analysed in (the word is studied in its relationship with
its linear relationship with neighbouring words other words in the vocabulary system)
Problem 1
in connected speech)
syntagmatic analysis Paradigmatic analysis

is the analysis of syntax, i.e. the meaning of the is the analysis of paradigms embedded in
word is deduced on the basis of the surrounding, the text rather than of the surface structure
neighbouring words. (syntax) of the text (syntagmatic analysis).
A syntagm is a kind of a chain which helps to A paradigm is a set or list of all the
understand how; the sequence of events makes up inflectional forms of a word or of one of
a narrative. its grammatical categories
PHRASEOLOGY: a branch of Lexicology specializing in word-groups which are characterized by the stability of the
P r o b le m 2
structure and the transferred meaning

C h a rt 4 (to c h a p te r 1.4)
Links of Lexicology with Other Branches
Lexicography
Basic Units of the Language
C h a rt 6 ( to c h a p te r 2 .2 )
Motiv ation and Its Types

C h a rt 7 {to c h a p te r 2 .5 )
Types of Meaning
MEANING
Referential (denotational) meaning Connotational meaning
s ig n if ic a tiv e d e m o n s tr a tiv e s ty lis tic e x p r e s s iv e e m o tio n a l e v a lu a tiv e

C h a rt 8 {to c h a p te r 3.1)
Chart 9 {to chapter 3.2)
'o\
чО
Discrim ination o f synonyms

Chart 10 (to chapter 3.3)
Nature of Semantic Change
Sim ilarity of meaning Contiguity of meaning
Metaphor Metonymy
Secondary Types of Semantic Change
Personification Zoosemy Euphemism Hyperbole Litote

semantic process of semantic process of a less expressive word, exaggeration of the opposite of
U v - л Л л Іл
a l i g n i n g u u iJ ia ii assigning similarity substitution of words meaning, statement not n ) 'p c iu u ic , in c
qualities to things between an animal and which can be harmful to be taken literally understatement which
a person for words with milder can be often ironical or
connotations moderating
C h a rt 11 (to c h a p te r 3.4)
C hart 12 (to chapter 4.4)
C la s s if ic a tio n s o f H o m o n y m s
Author Types Definitions Examples

Perfect homonyms words identical both in spelling and in sound-form but case - something that has happened
(homonyms proper) different in meaning case — a box. a container
tear nftia] - a drop of water that
Walter words identical in spelling but different both in their
Homographs comes from the eye
Skeat sound-form and meaning
tear v [tea] - to pull apart by force
words identical in sound-form but different both in sea n and see v
Homophones
spelling and in meaning son n and sun n
words identical in their spelling, pronunciation and their spring in the meanings the season of
Perfect homonyms
Olexandr grammar form the year, a leap, a source,
Smirnitsky words coinciding in their spelling and pronunciation but reading - Present Participle,
Homoforms
having different grammatical meaning Gerund, Verbal noun
homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings, basic forms and board in the meanings a council and
paradigms and different in their lexical meanings a piece of wood sawn thin
homonyms identical in their grammatical meanings and basic forms, different to lie - lied - lied, and
in their lexical meanings and paradigms to lie - lay - lain
Irvna
homonyms different in their lexical meanings, grammatical meanings,
Arnold light lights>'light / lighter / lightest
paradigms, but coinciding in their basic forms
homonyms different in their lexical meanings, grammatical meanings, in their
basic forms and paradigms, but coinciding in one o f the forms of their a bit and bit (to bite)
paradigms
C h a rt І З (to c h a p te r 5 .5 )
Synonymy in Synchronic Approach

200
Synonymy in Diachronic Approach

C hart 14 (to ch a p ter 5.4)
C la s s ific a tio n s o f A n to n y m s
r ~ 1 ^
Morphological criterion
У______________ ,____ ___________ ____ ^
201
f \ /
1) contraries: hot - warm - cool - cold; 1) absolute (root) antonyms: good - had;
2) conversives: left - right; parent - child; right —wrong
3) incompatibles: day - night; late - early. 2) derivational antonyms: happy - unhappy;
to appear - to disappear
V ___________ У
C l a s s if ic a t io n s o f P h r a s e o l o g i c a l U n it s
Author Principle Types Definitions

are partially motivated; they contain one component used in its
phraseological combinations
direct meaning while the other is used figuratively
are partially nonmotivated; their meaning can usually be perceived
phraseological unities
Viktor through the metaphoric meaning of the whole phraseological unit
semantic
Vinogradov are completely non-motivated word-groups representing the
highest degree of blending together; the meaning of the
phraseological fusions
components is completely absorbed bv the meaning o f the whole,
by its expressiveness and emotional properties
their meaning does not correspond to one notion and can be
202
structural traditional phrases

Olexandr derived from the meaning of the component parts
and
Smirnitsky phraseological combinations і are emotionally and stylistically neutral phrases
semantic
idioms are emotionally and stylistically coloured phrases
one-summit units have one meaningful constituent
Olexandr
structural two-summit and multi-summit і
Smirnitsky have two or more meaningful constituents
units
nominative phraseological are represented by word-groups, including the ones with one
units meaningful word and coordinative phrases
function in communicative phraseological :
Olexandr are represented by proverbs and sayings
communi- units
Koonin
cation nominative-communicative include nominative verbal idioms that can be transformed into a
phraseological units | sentence structure when the verb is used in the Passive Voice
pragmatic phraseological units ' are represented by interjectional idioms and response phrases
C hart 16 {to ch apter 6.3 )

203
Major types of word formation

204
Minor Types of Word Formation

205
Chart 19 (to chapters 9.1 and 9.2)
E t y m o lo g ic a l S u r v e y o f t h e E n g lis h V o c a b u la r y
Native Words (-30%) Borrowed Words (-70%)

— Indo-European - 1st cent. B.C. (Latin borrowings)
— Germanic - 5th cent. A.D. (Celtic borrowings)
— West Germanic - 7th cent. A.D. (Latin borrowings)
— Proper native elements - 8th-11th cent. A.D. (Scandinavian borrowings)
- 1066 (Norman borrowings)
- the Renaissance period (Greek and Lrench
borrowings)
206
Assimilation of borrowings
Completely assimilated words Partially assimilated borrowings Non-assimilated words (barbarisms)

Borrowed words which meet all a) borrowed words not assimilated Words taken from other languages used
morphological phonetic and semantically: by the English people in conversation or
orthographic standards b) borrowed w ords not assimilated in writing but not assimilated and which
grammatically: have corresponding English equivalents
c) borrowed words not assimilated
phonetically;
d) borrowed w ords not completely
assimilated graphically.
C h a rt 21 (to c h a p te r 10)
S ty lis tic C h a r a c t e r is tic s o f th e E n g lis h V o c a b u la r y
Stylistically- Stylistically-marked words

L . . . . _ _____ _
neutral words Informal Formal

Basic Vocabulary 1. Colloquial Words: 1. Learned words:
- literary; - literary ;
- fam iliar; - words o f scientific prose;

207
- low. - officialese;
2. Slang Words. - poetic words.
3. D ialect Words. 2. Archaic and obsolete words.
3. Professional Terminology.
Chart 22 (to chapter 11)
V a r ie t ie s o f t h e E n g lis h L a n g u a g e
208
C hart 23 (to chapter 13)
Lexicography
Types of Dictionaries
DICTIONARY is...
£
a book dealing with the individual
words of a language (or certain
specified class of them) so as to set
209
forth their orthography ,

pronunciation, signification and use,
their synonyms, derivation and
history, or at least some of these
facts; for convenience of reference
the words are arranged in some
stated order, now in most languages.
alphabetical, and in larger
dictionaries the information given is
illustrated bv quotations from
literature
b
Appendix 2. Subject Index
Abbreviation 8.3
Absolute antonyms 5.5
Absolute synonyms 5.
Affixation 8.
Affixational morphemes 7.
Allomorphs 7.
Amelioration J.
* • OJ
American English 11
Antonyms 5.
Antonyms proper 5.
u>
Archaisms К
Assimilation 9.
Australian English
L/ї
11
Back formation 8.
^
Barbarisms 9.
4^*
Basic vocabulary К
Blending 8.
Borrowed phraseological units 6 .
Borrowed word 9.
Borrowing 9.
Bound morpheme 7.
Bound stem 7.
British English 1!
4^ to
Canadian English I1
Clipping 8.
to to ^
Cockney English dialect II

Colloquialism К
Communicative phraseological units 6 .
Com p1e menta ry an to ny ms 5.

Completely assimilated words 9.
Compound adjective 8.
Compound noun 8.
Compound words 7.
Compounding 8.2.3
Concatenation 4.2
Connotational component of lexical meaning 2.5
210
Contextology 1.4
Contextual (context-dependent) synonyms 5.3
Contraries 5.5
Contrastive / Comparative Lexicology 1.2
Convergent sound development 4.3
Converse antonyms 5.5
Conversion 8 .2.2
Conversives 5.5
Criterion of interchangeability 5.1; 5.4
Denotational component of lexical meaning 2.5
Derivational analysis 7.3
Derivational antonyms 5.5
Derivational pattern 7.3
Derived stem 7.1
Derived words 7.1; 7.2
Descriptive / Modern Lexicology 1.2
Diachronic approach 1.2
Dialect 10 .2 ; 11.1
Dictionary 13.1; 13.2
Dictionary entry 13.2
Divergent semantic development 4.3
LHipsis 3.2
1in су с 1о pacd іc d іct іо nary 13.2
etymology 1.4
euphemism 3.3; 5.1
1Explanatory dictionary 13.2
ГExt ra-1 іngu іstic causes 3.2
f amiliar colloquial words 10.2
fixed context units 6.1
folk etymology 2.2
f oreign language 11.1
flee morpheme 7.1
f ree phrase 6.1
Functional relations 5.6
f unctional style 10.1
General dictionary 13.2
General Lexicology 1.1
Generalisation 3.1
Graded antonyms 5.5
211
Grammar 1.4
Grammatical meaning 2.5
Graphical motivation 2.2
Historical dictionary 13.2
Historical Lexicology 1.2
Historism 10.3
Homoforms 4.4
Homographs 4.4
Homonyms 4.3
Homophones 4.4
Hyperbole 3.3
Hypernym 5.6
Hyponym 5.6
Ideal term 10.3
Idiographic synonyms 5.3
Idiomaticity 6.1
Idioms 6.2
Immed іate Con st іt lien t 7.3
Incompatibles 5.5
Lexical meaning 2.4; 2.5
Lexical-and-g ram mat іca 1rnean іng 2.5
Lexical іsat ion 8.3
Lexicography 1.4; 13.1
Lexical-semantic variant 4.1
Lingua franca 11.1; 14.2
Linguistic causes 3.2
Linguistic d ictiоnary 13.2
Literary colloquial words 10.2
Litotes 3.3
Loan word 9.2
Local variety of the language 11.1
Low colloquial style 10.2
Major types of word formation 8 . 1; 8.2
Mental lexicon 1.1
Metaphor 3.3
Metonymy 3.3
Minor types of word formation 8.1; 8.3
Monomorphic words 7.2
212
Morpheme 2.1
Morphological compounds 8.2.3
Morphological motivation 2.2
Morphology 1.4; 7.1
Motivation 2.2
Multilingualism 14.1; 14.3
National variety of the language 11.1
Native phraseological units 6.3
Native word 9.1
Neologism 12.1
Neutral compounds 8.2.3
New Zealand English 11.6
Nominative phraseological units 6.2
Nominative-communicative phraseological units 6.2
Non-assimilated words 9.3
Obsolete words 10.3
Officialese 10.3
Onomasiology 1.4
Onomatopoeia 8.3
Paradigm 1.3
Parad іg mat іc a na 1уs іs 1.3
Partially assimilated borrowings 9.3
Pejoration 3.4
Perfect homonyms 4,4
Personification 3.3
Phoneme 2.1
Phonetic change 4.3
Phо net іc mot іvat ion 2.2
Phonetics 1,4
Phraseo 1og ical со mb іnat іоns 6.2
Ph raseol ogical Ins ions 6.2
Phraseo 1og іcal unities 6.2
Phraseology 1.3: 1.4; 6.1
PI uri lingual ism 14.1
Poetic words 10.3
Polymorphic words 7.2
Polysemy 4.1
Pragmatic phraseological units 6.2
Prefixation 8.2.1
213
Radiation 4.2
Received Pronunciation 11.2
Reduplication 8.3
Referent 2.4
Reproducibility 6.1
Root antonyms 5.5
Root-morpheme 7.1
Semantic change 3.1
Semantic extension 12.1
Semantic field 2.3
Semantic motivation 2.2
Semantic polarity 5.5
Semantics 2.3
Semasiology 2.3
Sentence 2.1
Shortening 8.3
Simple stem 7.1
Slang 10.2
Sound imitation 8.3
Sound symbolism 2.2
Sound-interchange 8.3
Special dictionary 13.2
Special Lexicology 1.1
Specialisation 3.1
Sphere of communication 10.1
Split of polysemy 4.2
Stability 6.1
Stem 7.1
Stress interchange 8.3
Stylistic synonyms 5.3
Suffix at іon 8 .2.1
Synchronic approach 1.2
Synecdoche 3.3
Synonymic dominant 5.2
Synonyms 5.1
Syntactic compounds 8.2.3
Syntagm 1.3
Syntagmatic analysis 1.3
214
Taxonomic relations 5.6
Term 10.3
Territorial synonyms 5.3
Traditional phrases 6.2
Transference based on metaphor 6.4
Transference based on metonymy 6.4
Transference based on simile 6.4
Transference based on synecdoche 6.4
Ultimate Constituent 7.3
Vocabulary / Lexicon 1.1
Word 2.1
Word formation 8.1; 8.2; 8.3
Zoosemy 3.3
215
Тем план 2017, поз. 40
Навчальне видання
Алла Ігорівна Анісі мова
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Lexicology Of Modern English: Theory And Practice: А. I. Anisimova

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Міністерство освіти і науки України

Дніпропетровський національний університет

100-річчю ДНУ присвячується

LEXICOLOGY OF MODERN ENGLISH:

Ухвалено на вченій раді як підручник

Анісімова, А. I. Lexicology of Modern English : Theory and Practice

ISBN 978-966-921-і 14-9 © Анісімова A. L, 2017

Chapter 1. Lexicology as a Branch of Linguistics...........................................7

Chapter 2. Word and Meaning....................................................................•..19

Chapter 3. Semantic Change.............................. ...32

Chapter 4. Polysemy. Homonymy..................... .............................................42

Chapter 5. Synonyms. Antonyms. Hyponyms................................................59

Chapter 6. English Phraseology........................ .............................................76

Chapter 7. Word Structure....... .............................................. .90

Chapter 8. Word Formation.................................................... ..98

Chapter 9. Etymological Survey of the English Vocabulary 116

Chapter 10. Stylistic Characteristics of Vocabulary............ 124

Chapter 11. Varieties of Modern English............................. 136

Chapter 13. Lexicography.................................................................... 15

Chapter 14. Lexicology: Multilingual Aspect...............................................159

Key to Self-Check............. 168

References..... .................................................................................................... 179

'This volume is a resource for successful acquisition of the course of Modern

1.2. TWO APPROACHES TO ГНЕ LANGUAGE STUDY

1.3. SPECIFIC PROBLEMS OF ENGLISH LEXICOLOGY

1.4. THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL VALUE OF LEXICOLOGY.

Lexicology (from Greek lexis 'word' and logos ‘learning') is a branch of

Points for discussion

• The aim and objectives of Lexicology.

General Lexicology: a branch of Lexicology focused on general study of

1.2. Two Approaches to the Language Study

Points for discussion

• Basic principles of synchronic and diachronic approaches to the language

1. Match the branch of Lexicology to its definition:

Contrastive (or Comparative) Lexicology: a branch of Lexicology aimed

Points for discussion

• (Comment on the peculiarities of syntagmatic and paradigmatic analyses.

1. 1f we talk about external structure of the word, we study

2. If we talk about internal structure of the word, we study

3. Syntagmatic analysis is:

4. Paradigmatic analysis is:

5. Define the type of relationship (syntagmatic or paradigmatic) for the

External structure of the word: morphological structure of the word.

1.4. Theoretical and Practical Value of Lexicology. Links with Ollier

The theoretical value of Lexicology consists in the theoretical study of the

Points for discussion

1. Name the branch of Lexicology that studies:

Contextology: a branch of linguistics that studies the behaviour of words in

Антрушина, Г. Б. Лексикология английского языка [Текст] /

2.1. THE WORD AS A BASIC LANGUAGE UNIT

2.2. MOTIVATION. TYPES OF MOTIVATION

2.3. SEMASIOLOGY AND ITS SUBJECT MATTER

2.4. DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO THE PROBLEM OF

2.5. TYPES OF MEANING

Points for discussion

• Comment on the problem of definition of word as a basic language unit.

1. Match the language unit with its function:

3. Continue the following ideas:

Morpheme: the minimum significant unit of the language., the smallest

2.2. Motivation. Types of Motivation

The term motivation is used to denote the relationship between the

Points for discussion

• Compare the peculiarities of different types of motivation in English with

2 . Generalisation of meaning is ____________ .

3. Name the linguistic causes of semantic change: _____________