1.Lexicology. Branches of lexicology.

The lexical system of the

language.
Word - basic unit of the lang., resulting from the association  of a particular
meaning with a particular sound form possessing the gram. meaning.  Vocabulary -
system, formed by the total sum of all words in the lang. Lexicology is a branch of
general linguistics. The word “lexicology” is of Greek origin in which “lexis”
means “word” and “logos” means “learning”. In other words it is the study and
analysis of words and complex word - equivalents as recurrent (that happen again
and again) and ready-made units of language. Lexicology as a branch of linguistics
has its own aims and methods of 

scientific research, its basic task being a study and systematic description of 
vocabulary in respect to its origin, development and current use. Lexicology is 
concerned with words, variable word-groups, phraseological units, and with 
morphemes which make up words. Lexicology studies various lexical units:
morphemes, words, variable word groups and phraseological units. We proceed
from the assumption that the word is the 
basic unit of language system, the largest on the morphologic and the smallest on
the 
syntactic plane of linguistic analysis. The word is a structural and semantic entity 
within the language system. 
Branches of lexicology.
1) Semasioligy (is devotes to the study of meaning)
2) Onomasiology (the process of naming and lexical objectifation of notions)
3) Onomastics (proper names)
4) Etymology (study the origin of W)
5) Phraseology (different types of set expressions,  phraseological units)
6) Lexicography (the area of Applied Linguistics  dealing with the theory and
practice of compiling dictionary.
 7) W formation (the derivational types of W and the process of creating new W).

2.Ways of enriching vocabulary. Word-building. Productivity of the

word-building means.
The main ways of enriching vocabulary are word-building, borrowings, formation
of neologism, and formation of phraseological unit.

Word-building is derivation, conversion, composition, shortened and secondary

ways of word-building.

Derivation is affixation, adding an affix to the stem (suffixes, prefixes).

Conversion is a way of word-building through changes of paradigm and function
of the word.

Composition. Compound word are words formed by adding stems to each other.

Shortened is secondary ways of word-building.

The secondary ways of word-building: sound interchange, stress interchange,

sound imitation, reduplication, blending, back formation. redistribution.

3. Derivation
Derivation –the process of forming new words by affixes, sound and stress
interchange, e.g. work – worker, kind – unkind, food – feed, blood – bleed, life –
live, present – present, import – import. Some scholars include conversion into
derivation, too.
Derived words consist of a stem and one or more affixes: 
active = act (stem) +-ive (suffix), activity = activ (stem) + -ity (suffix).

4.Composition. Types of compound words in English.

Compound words are formed by adding stems to each other. It is not easy to
differentiate word-groups

from compound words in English due to its poor morphology.

• the unity of stress in compound words, e.g. 'blackboard;

• the unity of spelling in compound words, e.g. blackboard, skyscraper, silver-fox;

• the semantic unity (idiomaticity), e.g. chatter-box;

• the morphological unity, e.g. a chatter-box, chatter- boxes;

• the unity of syntactical functioning, e.g. These girls are chatter-boxes.

'Chatter-hoxes' is a predicative in

the sentence.

• 'singing-'bird - певчая птица.

quicksilver, quick-silver, quick silver

air-mail, spaceman, seaman, airship.

stone wall, stone walls — a word-group, singing-bird, singing-birds - a compound.

The unity of syntactical functioning is the only reliable criterion in English.

In English compounds the integrity can be easily proved by their indivisibility: one
cannot insert another

word or a word-com- bination between the components of a compound word:

e.g. a sunbeam - 'a bright sunbeam', but 'a sun bright beam'
is impossible, it does not sound correct.

•the majority of them are formed with the help of free stems: e.g. anyway,
silverfox

•the pattern which is most often used in English compounds is a two-stem pattern:
e.g. chatter-box,

seaport, blackboard.

Classification of Compound Words—Main types:

•neutral compounds

•morphological compounds

•syntactical compounds

Subordinate types:

•compound-shortened words,

•compound-derived words.

Neutral compounds are formed by joining together two stems without any joining
morpheme. Such

compounds are the most productive in English. They are divided. ()

Compound nouns of neutral type:

1) noun-noun structural type: e.g. silver-fox, sea-port;

2) gerund-noun type: e.g. looking-glass, skating-rink;

3) noun-gerund type: e.g. haymaking, nightflying;

4) adjective-noun type: e.g. sleepyhead, heavy-weight;

5) noun-verb e.g. hair-do

6) verb-noun type: e.g. go-cart;

7) verb-verb type: e.g. swim-wear;

8) pronoun-noun type: e.g. he-goat, she-cat;

9) adverb- verb type: e.g. downfall;

10) verb-adverb type: e.g. make-up, send-off, lock-out.

Compound Adjectives of Neutral Type:

•adjective-adjective type: e.g. red-hot;

•noun-adjective type: e.g. air-tight;

•noun-participle type: e.g. home-made;

•adverb-participle type: e.g. hard-earned;

•participle-adverb type: e. g. a made-up (face);

•numeral-noun type: e.g. a three-day (conference).

Compound Verbs of Neutral Type:

•noun-verb type: e.g. to henpeek;

•adverb-verb type: e.g. to cross- examine;

•noun-noun type: e.g. to April-fool;

•adjective-noun type: e.g. to coldshoulder;

•adj-verb: e.g. to broadcast

Compound Adverbs of Neutral Type:

•noun-adjective type: e.g. lip- deep;

•adverb-noun type: e.g. downhill; •pronoun-noun type: e.g. anyway.

Compound Pronoun of Neutral Type:

• pronoun- pronoun type: e.g. anyone.

Morphological Type of Compounds:

In English morphological compounds the joining vowels are 'o' and

'i', the joining consonant is 's'. The

first component in such compounds is mostly a bound stem, e.g.: Anglo-Saxon,

electro-motor, sportsman,

kinsman, heartsease, boatsman, huntsman, handicraft, crowsfeet.

Syntactical Type of Compounds:

This type of compounds is peculiarly English, but in modern English, this type of
compounds is not lined

very often. E.g.: hook-and-ladder, man-of- war, mother-in-law, cat-of-nine-tails,

touch-me-not, hide-and-

seek, penny-in- the-slot, forget- me-not.

Compound-derived words are built with the help of two ways of word-building:

composition and derivation, i.e. such words have two (or more) stems which is
characteristic of

compound words and they also have suffixes which is characteristic of derived
words, e.g.: first-nighter,

honeymooner, teenager, go-getter, long- legged, absentminded tisht-minded, two-

sealer , weekender.

Compound-shortened words are formed with the help of two ways of word-
building:

composition and shortening, i.e. such words have two or more stems, which is
characteristic of

compound words and besides, they are also contracted, which is characteristic of
shortenings, e.g.: a.a.gun

(anti-aircraft gun), g. man (government man), h. bag (hand bag).

5. Conversion.
Conversion is a highly productive way of coining new words in Modern 
English. Conversion is sometimes referred to as an affixless way of word-building,
a 
process of making a new word from some existing root word by changing the 
category of a part of speech without changing the morphemic shape of the original 
root-word. The transposition of a word from one part of speech into another brings 
about changes of the paradigm.
 A great number of one-
syllable words is another factor that facilitates conversion.
Typical semantic relations within a converted pair
I. Verbs converted from noun (denominal verbs) denote:
1.action characteristic of the object ape (n) - to ape (v)
butcher (n) - to butcher (v)
2.instrumental use of the object screw (n) - to screw (v) whip (n) - to whip (v)
3.acquisition or addition of the object fish (n) - to fish (v)
II. Nouns converted from verbs (deverbal nouns) denote: 
1. instance of the action:to jump (v) -jump (n); to move (v) - move (n) 
2. agent of the action: to help (v) - help (n), to switch (v) - switch (n)
3. place of action: to drive (v) - drive (n), to walk (v) - walk (n) 
4.object or result of the action: to peel (v) - peel (n), to find (v) - find (n).
The shortening of words involves the shortening of both words and word-
groups. Distinction should be made between shortening of a word in written
speech 
(graphical abbreviation) and in the sphere of oral intercourse (lexical abbreviation).
 Lexical 
abbreviation is the process of forming a word out of the initial elements (letters, 
morphemes) of a word combination by a simultaneous operation of shortening and 
compounding. Words that 
have been shortened at the end are called apocope (doc-doctor, mit-mitten, vet-
veterinary). Words that have been shortened at the beginning are called aphaeresis 
(phone-telephone). Words in which some syllables or sounds have been omitted
from 
the middle are called syncope (ma'm - madam, specs - spectacles). Sometimes a 
combination of these types is observed (tec-detective, frig-refrigerator).
Blendings (blends, fusions or portmanteau words) may be defined as formation 
that combine two words that include the letters or sounds they have in common as
a 
connecting element (slimnastics < slim+gymnasttcs; mimsy < miserable+flimsy; 
galumph < gallop+triumph; neutopia < new+utopia). The process of formation is
also 
called telescoping. The analysis into immediate constituents is helpful in so far as
it 
permits the definition of a blend as a word with the first constituent represented by
a 
stem whose final part may be missing, and the second constituent by a stem of
which 
the initial part is missing. The second constituent when used in a series of similar 
blends may turn into a suffix. A new suffix -on; is, for instance, well under way in 
such terms as nylon, rayon, silon, formed from the final element of cotton. In
present-day English numerous new words have 
been coined recently: Reaganomics, Irangate, blacksploitation, workaholic, 
foodoholic, scanorama etc.
Back formation is a semi - productive type of word-building. It is mostly active 
in compound verbs, and is combined with word-composition. The basis of this type
of 
word-building is compound words and word-combinations having verbal nouns,
gerunds, participles or other derivative nouns as their second component (rush-
development, finger-printing, well-wisher). These compounds and word-
combinations 
are wrongly considered to be formed from compound verbs which are nonexistent
in reality. This gives a rise to such verbs as: to rush-develop, to finger-print, to
well-
wish.
Onomatopoeia (sound-imitation, echoism) is the naming of an action or thing 
by a more or less exact reproduction of a natural sound associated with it (babble, 
crow, twitter). Semantically, according to the source of sound onomatopoeic
words 
fall into a few very definite groups. Many verbs denote sounds produced by
human 
b eings in the process of communication or in expressing their feelings (babble, 
chatter, giggle, grumble, murmur, mutter, titter, whisper). There are sounds
produced 
by animals, birds and insects (buzz, cackle, croak, crow, hiss, howl, moo, mew,
roar). 
Besides the verbs imitating the sound of water (bubble, splash), there are others 
imitating the noise of metallic things (clink, tinkle) or forceful motion (clash,
crash, 
whack, whip, whisk).
Sentence - condensation is the formation of new words by substantivising the 
whole locutions (forget-me-not, merry-go-round).
Sound and stress interchange (distinctive stress, the shift of stress). The essence 
of it is that to form a new word the stress of the word is shifted to a new syllable.
It 
mostly occurs in nouns and verbs. Some phonetic changes may accompany the
shift 
of the stress (export - to export, increase - to increase, break - breach, long -length).

6. shortening types of shortening

Shortening is the process and the result of forming a word out of the initial
elements (letters, morphemes) of a word combination

Types of Shortening
clipping
acronyms
blending
abbreviation

Clipping
is a type of word-building shortening of spoken words
m e d i a l clipping (or s y n c o p e) e.g., fancy (fantasy), ma'am (madam) .
f i n a l clipping (or a p o c o p e) e.g., cap (captain), gym (gymnasium,
gymnastics) , lab (laboratory), ed (editor ) ;
i n i t i a l clipping (or a p h e s i s) e.g., cap (captain), phone (telephone), story
(history), chute (parachute ) ;
may be combined and result in the curtailed words with the middle part of the
prototype retained, e.g., flu (influenza), frig (refrigerator), tec (detective )

structure of the prototype

shortened words correlated with w o r d s , e.g ., cabbie (cabman), nightie

(nightdress), teeny (teenager) ;
shortened words correlated with p h r a s e s , e.g. , finals (final examinations),
perm (permanent wave), pop (popular music), pub (public house), taxi (taximeter-
cab ).

B l e n d i n g is a type of compounding by means of merging parts of words into

new one word .
coining a new word from the initial elements of one word and the final elements of
another, e.g. , drunch (drink + lunch), skort (skirt + short ) ;
combining the initial elements of one word with a notional word, e.g., mobus
(motors + bus), legislady (legislative lady) .
coining a new word by combining one notional word arid the final element of
another word, e.g., manglish (man + English), radiotrician (radio + electrician );
A b b r e v i a t i o n is a type of shortening when words are formed from the initial
letters of each part of a phrasal term. Abbreviations are pronounced as a series of
letters, i.e. the alphabetical reading of the letters is retained. E.g., B.B.C. (The
British Broadcasting Corporation), M.P. (Member of Parliament), P.M. (Prime
Minister), T.V. (Television), Y.C.L. (The Young Communist League ).
A specific type of abbreviations having no parallel in Ukrainian is represented by
Latin abbreviations, which are not read as Latin words but substituted by their
English equivalents , e.g., a.m. (ante meridium) – in the morning; p.m. (post
meridiem) – in the afternoon;
A c r o n y m s (from Greek "acros" end + "onym" name) are abbreviated words
formed from the initial letters of word-combination; the abbreviated written form
lends itself to be read as though, it were an ordinary English word and sounds like
an English word.
  NATO   /neitou/ - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization,  UNO  /ju:nou/ -
United Nations Organization,  SALT   /solt/ - Strategic Arms Limitation Talks,
radar  – radio detecting and ranging;  laser   – light amplification stimulated
emission radio;  maser  – microwave amplification stimulated emission radio

7. SECONDARY WAYS OF WORDBUILDING

SOUND INTERCHANGE

The causes of sound interchange can be different. It can be the result of Ancient
Ablaut which cannot be

explained by the phonetic laws during the period of the language development
known to scientists., e.g.

to strike - stroke, to sing - song etc. It can be also the result of Ancient Umlaut or
vowel mutation which

is the result of palatalizing the root vowel because of the front vowel in the syllable
coming after the

root ( regressive assimilation), e.g. hot - to heat (hotian), blood - to bleed (blodian)
etc.

In many cases we have vowel and consonant interchange. In nouns we have

voiceless consonants and in

verbs we have corresponding voiced consonants because in Old English these

consonants in nouns were

at the end of the word and in verbs in the intervocal position, e.g. bath - to bathe,
life - to live, breath -

to breathe etc.

STRESS INTERCHANGE

Stress interchange can be mostly met in verbs and nouns of Romanic origin : nouns
have the stress on
the first syllable and verbs on the last syllable, e.g. `accent - to ac`cent. This
phenomenon is explained in

the following way: French verbs and nouns had different structure when they were
borrowed into

English, verbs had one syllable more than the corresponding nouns. When these
borrowings were

assimilated in English the stress in them was shifted to the previous syllable (the
second from the end) .

Later on the last unstressed syllable in verbs borrowed from French was dropped
(the same as in native

verbs) and after that the stress in verbs was on the last syllable while in nouns it
was on the first syllable.

As a result of it we have such pairs in English as : to af`fix -`affix, to con`flict-

`conflict, to ex`port -`export,

to ex`tract - `extract etc. As a result of stress interchange we have also vowel

interchange in such words

because vowels are pronounced differently in stressed and unstressed positions.

SOUND IMITATION

It is the way of word-building when a word is formed by imitating different

sounds. There are some

semantic groups of words formed by means of sound imitation

a) sounds produced by human beings, such as : to whisper, to giggle, to mumble, to

sneeze, to whistle

etc.

b) sounds produced by animals, birds, insects, such as : to hiss, to buzz, to bark, to

moo, to twitter etc.

c) sounds produced by nature and objects, such as : to splash, to rustle, to clatter, to

bubble, to ding-

dong, to tinkle etc.

The corresponding nouns are formed by means of conversion, e.g. clang (of a bell),
chatter (of children)

etc.

BLENDS

Blends are words formed from a word-group or two synonyms. In blends two ways
of word-building are

combined : abbreviation and composition. To form a blend we clip the end of the
first component

(apocope) and the beginning of the second component (apheresis) . As a result we

have a compound-

shortened word. One of the first blends in English was the word «smog» from two
synonyms : smoke

and fog which means smoke mixed with fog. From the first component the
beginning is taken, from the

second one the end, «o» is common for both of them.

Blends formed from two synonyms are: slanguange, to hustle, gasohol etc. Mostly
blends are formed

from a word-group, such as : acromania (acronym mania), cinemadict (cinema

adict), chunnel (channel,

canal), dramedy (drama comedy), detectifiction (detective fiction), faction (fact

fiction) (fiction based on

real facts), informecial (information commercial) , Medicare ( medical care) ,

magalog ( magazine

catalogue) slimnastics (slimming gymnastics), sociolite (social elite), slanguist

( slang linguist) etc.

BACK FORMATION

It is the way of word-building when a word is formed by dropping the final

morpheme to form a new
word. It is opposite to suffixation, that is why it is called back formation. At first it
appeared in the

languauge as a result of misunderstanding the structure of a borrowed word . Prof.

Yartseva explains

this mistake by the influence of the whole system of the language on separate
words. E.g. it is typical of

English to form nouns denoting the agent of the action by adding the suffix -er to a
verb stem (speak-

speaker). So when the French word «beggar» was borrowed into English the final
syllable «ar» was

pronounced in the same way as the English -er and Englishmen formed the verb
«to beg» by dropping

the end of the noun. Other examples of back formation are : to accreditate (from
accreditation), to bach

(from bachelor), to collocate (from collocation), to enthuse (from enthusiasm), to

compute (from

computer), to emote (from emotion) to reminisce ( from reminiscence) , to televise

(from television) etc.

Reduplication is the way of word-building when new words are formed by

repeating one and the same

syllable or a whole stem. Reduplication in most cases is combined with sound

interchange.

Reduplication is often combined with alliteration and rhyme and also with sound
imitation. In most

cases words formed by reduplication belong to the colloquial style (only a few of
such words belong to

the neutral style, e.g. &#39;murmur&#39;, &#39;ping-pong&#39;).

When reduplication is used without sound interchange we have cases of perfect (v

complete)

reduplication. In most cases reduplication is partial.

Reduplication is not productive. It is used mainly in speaking with small children
and especially in

children&#39;s stories.

Redistribution

This way of word-building is used very seldom. It is the result of a mistake in

understanding the

structure too. In this case the border between the indefinite article and the noun is
misunderstood.

Secondary ways are really secondary because they are mostly not productive.

Those are the secondary ways of word-building in modern English. Secondary

ways are really secondary

because they are mostly not productive. Yet if we compare the secondary ways of
word- building we can

see that some of them are used more often than others (e.g. &#39;blending&#39; is
used rather often and

&#39;redistribution&#39; is used very seldom).

8. Semasiology as the branch of lexicology. Referential and functional

approaches to word meaning.
9. The semantic structure of the word. Types of meaning.
The semantic structure of a polysemantic word may be defined as a structured set
of
interrelated meanings.
Polysemy does not interfere with the communicative function of the language
because in every
particular case the situation or context cancel all the meanings but one and make
speech clear.
semantic structure of a word – a structured set of interrelated lexico-semantic
variants
semantic structure of a word – combination of various meanings
Monosemantic words, i.e. having only one meaning, are comparatively few in
number and
these are mainly scientific terms (e.g. hydrogen, molecule, etc.).
Lexico-semantic variant (LSV)
1. polysemantic word in one of its meanings;
2. represents unity of form and meaning;
3. has its own morphological peculiarities, syntactic function, different valency
4. contain a semantic component which may be found in all other LSV of this word
Word meaning is represented by different types of meaning: grammatical, lexical,
lexico-
grammatical.
Grammatical meaning is the component of word meaning, recurrent in identical
sets of
individual forms of different words. It is expressed by:
1. word-form (such as books, girls, boys – the meaning of plurarity; looked, asked
– tense
meaning);
2. the position of the word in relation to other words (e.g. He sings well, She
dances badly –
‘sings’ and ‘dances’ are found in identical positions between a pronoun and an
adverb,
their identical distribution proves that they have identical gr.m.)
Lexico-grammatical meaning of the word is the common denominator
(знаменатель) to all the
meanings of the words belonging to a certain lexico-grammatical class or group of
words.
Lexical meaning is the component of word meaning recurrent in all the forms of
the word. The
word forms go, goes, went, gone, going have different gr.m., but they have one and
the same l.m.
‘the process of movement’.
The main component of L.m. are
1. the denotational meaning of words is the same for all the speakers. It is the
realization
of the concept by means of the given language.
2. The pragmatic aspect of l.m. is the part of meaning, that conveys information on
the
situation of communication: information on the ‘time and space’ relationship of the
participants, information on the participants in the given language community,
information on the register of communication.
3. The connotational meaning conveys the speaker’s attitude toward what he is
speaking
about. There are 4 main types of connotations: a) The emotional connotation
expresses
human emotions and feelings (e.g. daddy, father); b) The evaluative connotation
expresses approval or disapproval (e.g. agent and spy, planning and
scheming=planning

secretly); c) The intensifying connotation adds emphasis (усиление) to the

meaning.
(e.g. enormous, huge, tremendous=very); d) The stylistic connotation determines
the
functional speech style characteristic of the word usage (dad-father-parent;
colloquial-
neutral-bookish).

e.g. semantic structure of the word «Table»

1. a piece of furniture
2. people seated at a table for a meal
3. sing. food provided at a table
4. a thin flat piece of metal, wood, etc.
5. pl. slabs of stone
6. pl. words cut into them or written on them (ten tables)
7. an orderly arrangement of facts, figures, etc.
8. part of machine-tool on which the work is put to be operated on
Types of Lexical Meanings as Elements of a Word’s Semantic Structure^
primary : : secondary
basic : : minor
central : : peripheric
direct : : figurative
general : : particular
abstract : : concrete
neutral : : coloured
present day : : archaic

10. Stylistic Classification of the English Vocabulary

The word-stock of a language can be represented as a system in which different
aspects of words are singled out as interdependent. For our purposes it is important
to classify words from the stylistic point of view.

In accordance with the sphere of their usage English words can be divided into 3
main layers: literary, neutral and colloquial. The literary and colloquial layers
contain a number of sub-groups. Each of these groups has an aspect (a property, a
common feature) it shares with all the subgroups within the layer. The common
property of the literary layer is its markedly bookish character, which makes the
layer more or less stable. The common property of the colloquial layer of words is
its lively spoken character, which makes it unstable, fleeting. The aspect of the
neutral layer is its universal character, which means that words belonging to this
layer are not restricted in use and can be employed in all styles and all spheres of
human communication, which makes this layer the most stable of all.

The literary layer includes words that are universally accepted, words that have no
local or dialectal character. The literary vocabulary consists of the following
groups of words:

common literary

terms and learned words

poetic

archaic

barbarisms and foreign words

literary coinages (including nonce-words)

The colloquial layer of words is often limited to a definite language community

(e.g. professional group) or confined to a special locality where it is spoken.

The colloquial vocabulary falls into:

common colloquial

slang

jargonisms

professionalisms

dialectal
vulgar

colloquial coinages

The common literary, neutral and common colloquial words are grouped under the
term “Standard English Vocabulary”. Other groups in the literary layer are
regarded as special literary vocabulary and those in the colloquial layer - special
colloquial (non-literary) vocabulary.

11. Polysemy. Diachronic and Synchronic Approaches to Polysemy.

Polysemy can be viewed both diachronically and synchronically. If polysemy is
viewed diachronically, it is understood as the growth and development or, in
general, 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 may be
roughly formulated as follows: Did the word always possess all its meanings or did
some of them appear earlier than others? Do the new meanings depend on the
meanings already existing? And if so what is the nature of this dependence? Can
we observe any changes in the arrangement of the meanings?))
 
Here terms 'primary', 'secondary', and 'derived meanings' are used. Primary
meaning is the meaning that was the first in time, all the other meanings of the
same word are secondary. The terms 'secondary' and derived' are to a certain extent
synonymous. When we describe the meaning of the word as 'secondary' we imply
that it could not have appeared before the primary meaning was in existence. When
we refer to the meaning as 'derived' we imply not only that, but also that it is
dependent on the primary meaning and somehow subordinate to it. In the word
'table' the meaning 'the food put on the table' is a secondary meaning as it is
derived from the meaning 'a piece of furniture'. 
 
The main source of polysemy is a change in the semantic structure of the word.
Polysemy may also arise from homonymy. 
 
When two different words become identical in sound-form, the meanings of the
two words are felt as making up one semantic structure. 
 
Synchronically we understand polysemy as the coexistence of various meanings of
the same word at a certain historical period of the development of the language. In
this case the problem of the interrelation and interdependence of individual
meanings making up the semantic structure of the word must be investigated along
different lines. Then we are mainly concerned with the following problems: Are all
the meanings of the word equally representative of the semantic structure of the
word? Is the order in which the meanings are recorded in dictionaries purely
arbitrary or does it reflect the comparative value of individual meanings, the place
they occupy in the semantic structure of the word? Intuitively we feel that the
meaning which first occurs to us whenever we hear or see the word is the main
one. This emerges as the basic (major) meaning of the word and the other
meanings are minor (Instead of 'basic' you may use the term central', then all the
other meanings are marginal ). We find it hard to grade minor meanings in order of
their comparative value (and sometimes it is difficult to single out even the basic
meaning). 
 
There is no objective criterion to go by. A more objective criterion of the
comparative value of individual meanings seems to be frequency of their
occurrence in speech.

12. Semantic changes. Causes of semantic changes. Types of semantic

changes.
1. The meaning of a word can change in the course of time. Transfer of the
meaning is called lexico-
semantic word-building. In such cases the outer aspect of a word does not change.
The causes of
semantic changes can be extra-linguistic and linguistic.
The change of the lexical meaning of the noun &quot;pen&quot; was due to extra-
longuistic causes. Primarily &quot;pen&quot;
comes back to the latin word &quot;penna&quot; (a feather of a bird). As people
wrote with goose pens the name
was transferred to steel pens which were later on used for writing. Still later any
instrument for writing
was called a pen.
On the other hand, causes may be linguistic, e.g. the conflict of synonyms when a
perfect synonym of a
native word is borrowed from some other language one of them may specialize in
its meaning.
Semantic changes have been classified by different scientists. The most complete
classification was
suggested by a German scientist Herman Paul. It is based on the logical principle.
He distinguishes two
main ways where the semantic change is gradual (specialization and
generalization), two momentary
conscious semantic changes (metaphor and metonymy) and secondary ways:
gradual (elevation and
degradation), momentary (hyperbole and litotes).
Specialization
It is a gradual process when a word passes from a general sphere to some special
sphere of
communication, e.g. case has a general meaning circumstances in which a person
or a thing is. It is
specialized in its meaning when used in law, in grammar, in medicine. The
difference between these
meanings is revealed in the context. The meaning of a word can specialize when it
remains in general
usage.
Generalization
It is the transfer from a concrete meaning to an abstract one, e.g. journey was
borrowed from French
with the meaning one day trip, now it means a trip of any duration.
Secondary ways of semantic changes:
3.1 Elevation. It is a transfer of the meaning when it becomes better in the course
of time: knight
originally meant a boy, then a young servant. Now it is a title of nobility given to
outstanding people.
3.2 Degradation. It is a transfer of the meaning when it becomes worse in the
course of time, e.g. villain
originally meant working on a villa, now it means a scoundrel.
3.3 Hyperbole. It is a transfer of the meaning when the speaker uses exaggeration,
e.g. to hate (doing
something), not to see somebody for ages. Hyperbole is often used to form
phraseological units, e.g. to
split hairs.
3.4 Litotes. It is a transfer of the meaning when the speaker expresses the
affirmative with the negative
or vice versa, e.g. not bad (it is good), no coward, not half as important.

13. Homonymy. Causes and sources of homonymy. Classification.

Homonyms are words identical in sound and spelling or at least in one of these
aspects, but different in their meaning and distribution. The term is derived from
Greek (homos – the same, onoma – name, i.e. the same name combined with the
difference of meaning.
E.g. bank: 1) a shore, a river bank; 2) a financial institution;
Ball: 1) any spherical body; 2) a large dancing party.
Homonyms exist in many languages but in English this language phenomenon is
especially frequent, mostly in monosyllabic words (nearly 90 % of homonyms).
Homonyms are divided into homonyms proper (identical in both sound and
spelling), e.g. ball, bank; homophones (identical in sound but different in spelling),
e.g. piece-peace, knight-night, scent-sent-cent; homographs (the same in spelling
but different in sound), e.g. to bow – bow, lead – to lead.
Another classification is based on the part of speech homonyms belong to. If both
homonyms belong to the same part of speech, they are lexical, e.g. to read – read,
knight –night, to lie – to lie. Homonyms belonging to different parts of speech are
called lexico-grammatical, e.g. left – left, eye –I, knows – nose.
The third classification is based on the similarity of the paradigms (grammatical
forms each homonym possesses). E.g. match-matches: match – matches, such
homonyms are called full. Homonyms that coincide in one or two members (not in
all members) of their paradigms are called partial. E.g. to lie- lying-lied – lied : to
lie-lying- lay-lain ; left : to leave-leaving-left-left.

14. Synonymy.
Synonyms are two or more words belonging to the same part of speech and
possessing one or more
identical or nearly identical denotational meanings, interchangeable in some
contexts. These words
are distinguished by different shades of meaning, connotations and stylistic
features.
The synonymic dominant is the most general term potentially containing the
specific features
rendered by all the other members of the group. In the series leave, depart, quit,
retire, clear out the
verb leave, being general and most neutral term can stand for each of the other four
terms.
However, there are some absolute synonyms in the language, which have exactly
the same meaning
and belong to the same style: to moan, to groan; homeland, motherland. In cases of
desynonymization
one of the absolute synonyms can specialize in its meaning and we get semantic
(ideographical)
synonyms. They denote different shades of one meaning: city (borrowed) – town
(native). The French
borrowing city is specialized in its meaning. Sometimes one of the absolute
synonyms is specialized
in its usage and we get stylistic synonyms: to begin (native) – to commence
(borrowing). Here the
French word is specialized. The difference between stylistic synonyms is in their
stylistic reference
and as a result in their emotional colouring. Stylistic synonyms can also appear by
means of
shortening: exam (colloquial), examination (neutral).
Among stylistic synonyms we can point out euphemisms: the late (dead), to
perspire (to sweat).
There are words in every language which people instinctively avoid because they
are considered
indecent, indelicate, rude or impolite. These words are substituted by euphemisms,
generally
innocuous words or expressions used in place of ones that may be found offensive
or suggest
something unpleasant. On the other hand, there are slang synonyms. They are
expressive, mostly
ironical words serving to create fresh names for some things that are frequently
used: mad – daft,
potty, balmy, loony, bonkers, touched, nutty.
There are also phraseological synonyms, these words are identical in their
meanings and styles but
different in their combinability with other words in the sentence: to visit museums
but to attend
lectures; teachers question their pupils, judges interrogate witnesses.
Contextual synonyms are similar in meaning only under some specific
distributional conditions: buy
and get are not synonyms out of context but they are synonyms in the following
examples: I‘ll go to
the shop and buy some bread and I‘ll go to the shop and get some bread. Very
many compound nouns
denoting abstract notions, persons and events are correlated with phrasal verbs. We
have such
synonymous pairs as: arrangement – layout, reproduction – playback.
Conversion can also serve to form synonyms: laughter – laugh. There are also
cases of different
affixation: effectivity – effectiveness. It can be treated as a lexical variant but not a
synonym. Variants
can also be phonetical (vase [veiz] - [va:z]) and graphical (to-morrow - tomorrow).

15. Antonyms. Types of antonyms.

Antonyms аге words belonging to the same part of speech different in sound, and
characterized
by semantic polarity of their denotational meaning.
R.S. Ginzburg’s Classification.
Semantically antonyms are classified into:
 Contraries (gradable antonyms) can be arranged into a series according to the
increasing
difference in one of their qualities: cold – cool – warm – hot (cold – hot –
contraries, cool
– warm – intermediate members).
 Contradictories – to use one of the words of this pair is to contradict the other.
To use NOT before one of them means to make them semantically equivalent:
single –
married, male – female.
 Incompatibles – antonyms which are characterized by the relations of exclusion:
morning – afternoon, evening – night, white – red.
According to the character of semantic opposition antonyms are subdivided into
antonyms proper, complete and conversitives. The semantic polarity in antonyms
proper
is relative, the opposition is gradual, it may embrace several elements characterised
by
different degrees of the same property. They always imply comparison. Large and
little
or small denote polar degrees of the same notion, i.e., size.
 Complementaries are words characterised only by a binary opposition which
may have
only two members; the denial of one member of the opposition implies the
assertion of
the other e.g., not male means female.
 Conversives are words which denote one and the same referent as viewed from
different
points of view, that of the subject and that of the object, e.g., buy - sell, give -
receive.
V.N. Comissarov classified antonyms into two groups: absolute (root) antonyms
(late - early)
and derivational antonyms (to please – to displease, honest - dishonest). Absolute
antonyms
have different roots and derivational antonyms have the same roots but different
affixes. In most
cases negative prefixes form antonyms (un-, dis- non-). Sometimes they are formed
by means of
antonymous suffixes: -ful and -less (painful - painless).
The difference between derivational and root antonyms is also in their semantics.
Derivational
antonyms express contradictory notions, one of them excludes the other: active -
inactive.
Absolute antonyms express contrary notions. If some notions can be arranged in a
group of more
than two members, the most distant members of the group will be absolute
antonyms: ugly,
plain, good-looking, pretty, beautiful, the antonyms are ugly and beautiful.

16.Semantic Relationships between Words.

Semantic field is a closely knit sector of vocabulary characterised by a common
concept (e.g.
in the semantic field of space we find nouns (expanse, extent, surface); verbs
(extend, spread,
span); adjectives (spacious, roomy, vast, broad)). The members of the semantic
fields are not
synonymous but all of them are joined together by some common semantic
component. This
semantic component common to all the members of the field is sometimes
described as the
common denominator of meaning, like the concept of kinship, concept of colour,
parts of the
human body and so on. The basis of grouping in this case is not only linguistic but
also extra-
linguistic: the words are associated, because the things they name occur together
and are closely
connected in reality.
Thematic (or ideographic) groups are groups of words joined together by common
contextual
associations within the framework of the sentence and reflect the interlinking of
things and
events in objective reality. Contextual association are formed as a result of regular
co-occurrence
of words in similar repeatedly used contexts. Thematic or ideographic groups are
independent of
classification into parts of speech. Words and expression are here classed not
according to their
lexico- grammatical meaning but strictly according to their signification, i.e. to the
system of
logical notions (e.g. tree - -grow - green; journey - train, taxi, bus - ticket; sunshine
- brightly -
blue - sky).
Hyponomy is the semantic relationship of inclusion existing between elements of
various levels.
Thus, e.g. vehicle includes car, bus, taxi; oak implies tree, horse implies animal;
table implies
furniture. The hyponymic relationship is the relationship between the meaning of
the general and
the individual terms.
A hyperonym is a generic term which serves as the name of the general as
distinguished from
the names of the species-hyponyms. In other words the more specific term is called
the
hyponym. For instance, animal is a generic term as compared to the specific names
wolf, dog or
mouse (these are called equonyms) Dog, in its turn, may serve as a generic term for
different
breeds such as bull-dog, collie, poodle, etc.

17. The Role of Borrowings in the English Vocabulary.

More than two thirds of the English vocabulary are borrowings. Mostly they are
words of Romanic origin (Latin, French, Italian, Spanish). Borrowed words are
different from native ones by their phonetic structure, by their morphological
structure and also by their grammatical forms. It is also characteristic of
borrowings to be non-motivated semantically. English history is very rich in
different types of contacts with other countries, that is why it is very rich in
borrowings. Borrowings can be classified according to different criteria:
a) according to the aspect which is borrowed;
b) according to the degree of assimilation;
c) according to the language from which the word was borrowed

18. Classification of borrowings according to the degree of assimilation

Accordingly borrowings are subdivided into: completely assimilated, partly
assimilated and non-assimilated (barbarisms). 
 
Completely assimilated borrowings are not felt as foreign words in the language,
c.f. the French word sport and the native word start. Completely assimilated verbs
belong to regular verbs, e.g. correct - corrected. Completely assimilated nouns
form their plural by means of s-inflexion, e.g. gate - gates. In completely
assimilated French words the stress has been shifted from the last syllable to the
first one, e.g. capital, service. 
 
Semantic assimilation of borrowed words depends on the words existing in the
borrowing language. As a rule, a borrowed word does not bring all its meanings
into the borrowing language if it is polysemantic, e.g. the Russian borrowing
sputnik is used in English only in one of its meanings. 
 
Partly assimilated borrowings are subdivided into the following groups: 
 
a) borrowings non-assimilated semantically, because they denote objects and
notions peculiar to the country from the language of which they were borrowed,
e.g. sari, sombrero, sarafan, taiga, steppe, borshch, kvass, shah, rajah, tsar,
rickshaw, troika, rupee, zloty, peseta etc; 
 
b) borrowings non-assimilated grammatically, e.g. nouns borrowed from Latin and
Greek retain their plural forms: bacillus - bacilli, phenomenon - phenomena, datum
-data, genius - genii etc; 
 
c) borrowings non-assimilated phonetically. Here belong words with the initial
sounds [v] and [z], e.g. voice, zero. In native words these voiced consonants are
used only in the intervocalic position as allophones of sounds [f] and [s] (loss -
lose, life - live). Some Scandinavian borrowings have consonants and
combinations of consonants which were not palatalized, e.g. [sk] in the words: sky,
skate, ski etc (in native words we have the palatalized sounds denoted by the
digraph sh, e.g. shirt); sounds [k] and [g] before front vowels are not palatalized
e.g. girl, get, give, kid, kill, kettle. In native words we have palatalization, e.g.
German, child.
 
d) borrowings can be partly assimilated graphically, e.g. in Greek borrowings y can
be spelled in the middle of the word (symbol, synonym), ph denotes the sound [f]
(phoneme, morpheme), ch denotes the sound [k] (chemistry, chaos), ps denotes the
sound [s] (psychology, psychiatry).

19. Celtic Borrowings.

Celts were the original inhabitants of the British Isles before the Angles, the
Saxons and the Jutes 
came to the Isles in the 5th century. Celts were moved to Scotland, Wales and
Cornwall. Celtic 
borrowings were not numerous in the English language: down, cradle [ei], bard,
brat, druid, 
bald. But Celtic elements are well preserved in place-names. The names of some
British rivers 
contain the Celtic word uisge (вoда): Exe, Esk, Usk. It is also contained in the
word whiskey, 
formerly meaning “the water of life”.
The Celtic dun (крепость) is found in the town names Dundee, Dunbar; cum
(долина) –
Duncombe, Boscombe; llan (церковь) –in Llandovery, lanely, Llangefni. London
is of Celtic 
origin, too: llyn (река) and dun (крепость).
Some male names are of Celtic origin: Arthur (благородный), Donald (гордый
вождь), Evan (молодой воин).
Late Celtic borrowings are more numerous and they came into the English
language from 
Scottish, Irish and Welsh: clan, flannel, lock, shamrock (трилистник), slogan,
Tori, whiskey. 
Some Celtic words came into English via French: tunnel, carry, cargo, gravel, etc.

20. Latin borrowings.

A study of the history and process of Borrowing is essentially the study of the
development of language. It reveals the point of contact between two people
and two ways of living and speaking. The English language was its profundity
and reach to a number of sources. Latin is an important source. In fact,
the Latin influence is the earliest and the greatest of all the influences on the
language. It began with the Christian era and still is continuing. In the earliest
phase, the word related to trade, warfare, domestic life and names of plants and
fruits found their way into the English language. Words related to domestic life
and names of plants and fruits were kettle, kitchen, cook, cup, peplum, pea and
butter. The Latin influence survived in the place names such as Lancaster,
Gloucester, Winchester, and Worcester.
The introduction of Christian is Britain brought it in close contact with  Latin
Christianity. It resulted in the familiarity with an astical and the regular words
like Church, bishop, alter, angel, monk, Psalm and Temple were introduced
into the language. Words connected with domestic life and education were
brought into its vocabulary, such words were mate, silk, plaster, school verse,
and meter. Nouns, verbs, and adjectives such as offer, spend, stop, crisp and
short crept into the English vocabulary.
Latin words continued to spill through middles ages the words came to
literature. Latin was also spoken by the Ecclesiastes and men of learning. The
words adopted during the Middle English period related to the law, literature,
theology, and science were :
 Words relating to law: conspiracy, custody, legal, minor notary
 Words relating to theology: incarnate, rosary, script
 Words relating to literature: allegory, genius, index, prosody 
 Words relating to science: mechanical, solar, zenith, Zephyr 
During the Renaissance, the zeal for classical learning was responsible for the
impact. The Latin words adopted are mainly abstract and scientific and entered
into English through the medium of writing. The words nouns were the
atmosphere, circus, vacuum, dexterity, adjectives- domestic, vital,
habitual, verbs- adapt, benefit, meditate, exist.
The flow of Latin words continued even in the later period and a number of
words came into the nature stock.
 17th C – premium, equilibrium, specimen, formula, complex
 18th C – nucleus, inertia, ultimatum, habitat, deficit
 19th C – consciousness, referendum, omnibus.
A curious phenomenon developed the formation of hybrids by adding  Latin
suffixes stagnation and Latin prefixes to the same dethrone, Pre-Raphaelite,
Pro-Russian, reorganize, resubmit appeared.
Latin influences were not confined only to nature vocabulary, it left its impact
on sentence- construction and grammar as a whole. During the 17th century and
18th century, Latin grammar was the only grammar taught in schools.
The Latin grammar was worthy of study and imitation. Such a great poet
as Milton adopted the disciplined syntax of Latin. The introduction of a large
number of Latin adjectives as paternal, urban, literary and human eliminated
the poverty of adjective in the native stock. Because of the huge influence
of Latin words, English earned a vast wealth of synonyms which helped in the
expression of the subtle shade of thought. Such Latin verbs as adapt, alienate
and assassinate added a new glitter to the language.
But, the pronunciation experienced an adverse effect because of  Latin
influence. The shifting of stress from the initial syllable is contrary to the spirit
of the Germanic family of languages. The stress-shifting has caused irregularity
in the pronunciation of English words.

21. Scandinavian Borrowings.

The first Scandinavian words began to penetrate into the English vocabulary at the
beginning of 
our era during the occasional raids of the vikings. A great number of Scandinavian
borrowings 
pertain to the period which lasted from the end of the 8th century to the middle of
the 
11th century. The languages and the cultures of the vikings and the Britons did not
differ much which made the borrowing process easy. Many Scandinavian words
used in everyday life 
entered the English language: egg, husband, root, wing, anger, weak, loose, wrong,
happy, ugly, 
die, cut, take, give, call, want, they, their, them, both, same, till. Some
Scandinavian words 
eventually replaced the native ones. Thus, the pronoun they (Þa) replaced the
native pronoun hi, 
the verb take – the verb niman. Occasionally both the English and Scandinavian
words were 
retained with a difference in meaning or use: no/nay (отказ, отрицательный
ответ), hide/skin, 
craft/skill, etc. 
The Viking invasion left its imprint in place names. The Scandinavian element is
found in place 
names in –by: Derby [a, Rugby; –thorp: Althrop, –toft: Eastoft, etc. 
Scandinavian borrowings can be recognized by sound combination [sk] sk/sc (sky,
skill, ski, 
scrape, scare), [i, [i] and [e] after k (key, kilt, kid).

22. French borrowings.

After the Norman conquest, we find the 'church', the 'courts of law', the 'arts of
war', trade with the 'continent' and the 'pastimes' of the aristocracy becoming
Norman-French intermingling. Words like 'battle', 'court', 'countess', 'treasure',
'charity', were derived from French. The French influence on the English language
was general and wide spreading during the Middle English period. The 17th
century is significant in the history of the French loans as period in matters of
literature and social communication. Words like 'dragoon', 'stockade', 'ballet',
'burlesque', 'tableau', 'chagrin', 'soup' are the representative of the 17th century
borrowings from French. The loan words of the 18th century are 'guillotine',
'regime', 'picnic', 'police', 'coup', etc. In the 18th century, food and cooking
continued to engage French loans, for example, “casserole”, “croquette”, “ragout”,
“liqueur”; also do literature, music, and art, for example, “critique”, “belles
letters”, “précis”, “brochure”. The 19th century is a rich century in borrowing
French words. These include the usual military terms those relating to art and
letters, textiles and furniture. For example: 'barrage', 'communique', 'renaissance',
'restaurant', 'matinee', 'menu', 'chauffeur', 'elite'.[1] Thus, we see that many words
were used to denote things, food, military term, government, art and other.[5]
There are word-combinations between which can see the difference between
colloquial native words and more formal Romance terms. For example: “forgive
and pardon”, “ reply- answer”, “odour- smell”.[3] The influence of French
borrowings on the English language. The most important influence the French
language had on the English language was the introduction of too many French
words into English. It should be mentioned that one of the characteristics of Old
English was to enlarge its vocabulary chiefly by using prefixes and suffixes and
combining native elements into self-interpreting compounds. More than 10,000
French words found their way into English and about three quarters of these words
are still used. Quite a lot of the words of French origin used in English sit
alongside native English ones, and in some cases there are words of Latin origin
with similar meanings. For example, “a king” (from Old English “cyning”) can be
kingly, “royal” (from French “roial”). The pronunciation of English changed to
some extent under the influence of French, as did the spelling. English grammar
did take on a few French structures, such as putting in adjectives after nouns, for
example, secretary general. In conclusion I would like to say though the number of
French loans in the modern period is relatively minor in comparison to Middle
English, the contribution is most important. Today there is no doubt or disputable
grounds to argue that the loans did nothing but enrich the English language.
Summing up, I want to say that in my opinion each language should borrow words
from another language, for its enrichment. Thus, we examined the ways of
borrowing French words and their influence on English, also we have seen
difference ways of difference types of borrowings.

23.Neologism.

Neologisms can be classified according to the ways they are formed. They are
subdivided into: phonological neologisms, borrowings, semantic neologisms and
syntactical neologisms. Syntactical neologisms are divided into morphological
(word-building) and phraseological (forming word-groups).

Phonological neologisms are formed by combining unique combinations of

sounds, they are called artificial, e.g. rah-rah (a short skirt which is worn by girls
during parades, because girls repeat in chorus rah-rah: when they are marching.

Strong neologisms include also phonetic borrowings, such

as perestroika (Russian), solidarnosc (Polish) etc.

Morphological and phraseological neologisms are usually built on patterns existing

in the language, therefore they do not belong to the group of strong neologisms.

Among morphological neologisms there are a lot of compound words of different

types, such as free-fall (різке падіння курсу акцій), bioastronomy (search for life
on other planets,) x-rated (about films terribly vulgar and
cruel), Amerenglish (American English).
Among neologisms there are a lot of compound nouns of different types. Most of
them are of neutral type that consists of two stems without any joining element,
e.g. moonlight - політ на Луну, ringway – кільцева дорога, sheepskin
– дубленка, shelflife – термін зберігання etc.

24. Archaism and historisms.

When we consider the lexical system of a language as an adaptive system

developing for many centuries and reflecting the changing needs of the
communication process, we have to contrast the innovations with words
that dropped from the language (obsolete words) or survive only in special
contexts (archaisms and historisms).

Archaisms are words that were once common but are now replaced by
synonyms. When these new synonymous words, whether borrowed or
coined within the English language, introduce nothing conceptually new,
the stylistic value of older words tends to be changed; on becoming rare
they acquire a lofty poetic tinge due to their ancient flavour, and then they
are associated with poetic diction.

Some examples will illustrate this statement: aught n ‘anything

whatever’, betwixt prp ‘between’, billow n ‘wave’, chide v
‘scold’, damsel n ‘a noble girl’, ere prp ‘before’, even n
‘evening’, forbears n ‘ancestors’, hapless a ‘unlucky’, hark v
‘listen’, lone a ‘lonely’, morn n ‘morning’, perchance adv
‘perhaps’, save prp, cj ‘except’, woe n ‘sorrow’, etc.

When the causes of the word’s disappearance are extra-linguistic, e.g.

when the thing named is no longer used, its name becomes an histоrism.
Historisms are very numerous as names for social relations, institutions
and objects of material culture of the past. The names of ancient transport
means, such as types of boats or types of carriages, ancient clothes,
weapons, musical instruments, etc. can offer many examples.

Before the appearance of motor-cars many different types of horse-drawn

carriages were in use. The names of some of them are: brougham, berlin,
calash, diligence, fly, gig, hansom, landeau, phaeton, etc. It is interesting
to mention specially the romantically metaphoric prairie schooner ‘a
canvas-covered wagon used by pioneers crossing the North American
prairies’. There are still many sailing ships in use, and schooner in the
meaning of ‘a sea-going vessel’ is not an historism, but a prairie
schooner is. Many types of sailing craft belong to the past
as caravels or galleons, so their names are historisms too.
 The history of costume forms an interesting topic by itself. It is reflected in
the history of corresponding terms. The corresponding glossaries may be
very long. Only very few examples can be mentioned here. In W.
Shakespeare’s plays, for instance, doublets are often mentioned. A doublet
is a close-fitting jacket with or without sleeves worn by men in the 15th-
17th centuries. It is interesting to note that descriptions of ancient garments
given in dictionaries often include their social functions in this or that
period. Thus, a tabard of the 15th century was a short surcoat open at the
sides and with short sleeves, worn by a knight over his armour and
emblazoned on the front, back and sides with his armorial bearings. Not all
historisms refer to such distant periods. Thus, bloomers — an outfit
designed for women in mid-nineteenth century. It consisted of Turkish-
style trousers gathered at the ankles and worn by women as “a rational
dress”. It was introduced by Mrs Bloomer, editor and social reformer, as a
contribution to woman rights movement. Somewhat later bloomers were
worn by girls and women for games and cycling, but then they became
shorter and reached only to the knee.

A great many historisms denoting various types of weapons occur in

historical novels, e. g. a battering ram ‘an ancient machine for breaking
walls’; a blunderbuss ‘an old type of gun with a wide
muzzle’; breastplate ‘a piece of metal armour worn by knights over the
chest to protect it in battle’; a crossbow ‘a medieval weapon consisting of
a bow fixed across a wooden stock’. Many words belonging to this
semantic field remain in the vocabulary in some figurative meaning, e.
g. arrow, shield, sword, vizor, etc.

25. Basic words of English language. Singularities of basic words.

1. Basic Words. The phenomenon which makes the language vocabulary stable is
its basic words. They
are far less numerous than the vocabulary as a whole, but they live for a long time,
for centuries, and
they provide the language with a basis for the formation of new words.
The language&#39;s vocabulary is in the state of almost constant change because
it is directly connected with
man&#39;s productive activity, with all spheres of man&#39;s labour and his life.
In other words, the language
grows and changes together with the growth and development of human society,
and its vocabulary
never remains stable. The almost continuous changes in the vocabulary consist of:
1) dropping of old useless words, i.e. obsolete words, names of things and
phenomena that have
disappeared from reality;
2) the development of new meanings in active words;
3) the formation of new words to denote new referents with the help of the
language&#39;s wordbuilding
elements;
4) borrowings from other languages.
Such changes in the language vocabulary are determined by the need of really
necessary words and
terms. As for basic words they are most necessary. That is why they are basic.
2. Singularities of Basic Words.
The following are singularities of basic words:
1. They are far less numerous than the words or the whole vocabulary as they
include only vitally
necessary words.
2. Basic words change very slowly. It is quite clear that words which express
every-day notions,
phenomena, common actions, objects of nature and the animal world, etc. should
be stable because
each new generation adopts the traditions of its fathers. But life goes on, changes
take place and they
find reflection in the vocabulary.
3. Basic words are those which express important notions necessary for life. Such
words are:
a) the names of different objects and phenomena of nature, e.g. rain, snow, water,
wind, earth,
mountain, hail, etc.;
b) the names of wild and domestic animals, e.g. bear, wolf, fox, lion, cow, sheep,
pig, elephant, etc.;
c) the names of birds, e.g. hen, goose, duck, turkey, partridge, etc.;
d) the names of instruments of labour and the result of labour, e.g. hammer, axe,
plough,
spade, hoe, fork, house, dam, nail, scissors, needle, etc.;
e) the names of corn, e.g. wheat, barley, rye, maize, corn, buckwheat, etc.;
f) the names of different actions and processes, e.g. eat, sleep, work, drink, talk,
think, believe, learn,
study, sit, go, sing, laugh, etc.;
g) the names of relatives, e.g. mother, father, sister, brother, uncle, aunt, cousin,
grandfather, husband,
wife, son, etc.;

h) the names of qualities, e.g. new, old, good, bad, long, red, white, hot, cold, dull
(dim), etc.;
i) the pronouns, numerals, prepositions and conjunctions, e.g. he, she, I, one, two,
and, if, but, etc.
4. Basic words are common to all people.
5. Basic words serve as a basis for the formation of new words. New words are not
built out of nothing,
out of empty sounds.
How can one recognize basic words? The following can be used as a help:
1) they be common to all people,
2) stylistically neutral,
3) have stability,
4) capability of expressing more than one idea, or of forming new words, or be a
component of a set
expression.
If a word has the first three features and is also, let&#39;s say, a component of a
phraseological unit, then it is
a basic word. But do not forget that sometimes a comparatively &#39;new&#39;
word can belong to the category
of basic words, e.g. radio, television, etc.
Basic words influence the ways and forms of enriching the language vocabulary,
define the regularities
of its historical development. Vocabulary development, in its turn, influences the
basic words. So we see
there is a close structural correlation between them. One may wonder with the
vocabulary changing
constantly what it is that makes the language stable. It is the basic words, together
with the grammar,
that makes the language stable.
Grammar plays a definite organizing role in the language. It creates the
constructive possibility of
intelligent speech. Although it is impossible to think of the language without words
the vocabulary does
not constitute the language. The vocabulary assumes great significance only when
it falls under the
charge of grammar, for grammar determines the rules governing the modification
of words and the
combination of words into sentences.

26. Regional varieties of the English language. Lexical differences. 

The Eng. language. exists in the form of its varieties. It is the national language of
England proper, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and some part of Canada. 
 
Standard English — the official language of Great Britain taught at schools and
universities, used by the press, the radio and the television and spoken by educated
people may be defined as that form of English which is current and literary,
substantially uniform and recognised as acceptable wherever English is spoken or
understood. Modern linguistics distinguishes territorial variants of a national
language and local dialects. Variants of a language are regional varieties of a
standard literary language characterised by some minor peculiarities in the sound
system, vocabulary and grammar and by their own literary norms. Dialects are
varieties of a language used as a means of oral communication in small localities,
they are set off from other varieties by some distinctive features of pronunciation,
grammar and vocabulary. The most marked difference between dialects and
regional variants in the field of phonetics lies in the fact that dialects possess
phonemic distinctions, while regional variants are characterised by phonetic
distinctions. In matters of vocabulary and grammar the difference is in the greater
number and greater diversity of local peculiarities in the dialects as compared with
the regional variants. In the British Isles there exist many speech varieties confined
to particular areas. These local dialects traceable to Old English dialects may be
classified into six distinct divisions: 1) Lowland (Scottish or Scotch, North of the
river Tweed),1 2) Northern (between the rivers Tweed and Humber), 3) Western,
4) Midland and 5) Eastern (between the river Humber and the Thames), 6)
Southern (South of the Thames). Their sphere of application is confined to the oral
speech of the rural population in a locality and only the Scottish dialect can be said
to have a literature of its own with Robert Burns as its greatest representative. 
 
Since BE, AE and AuE have essentially the same grammar system, phonetic
system and vocabulary, they cannot be regarded as different languages. Nor can
they be referred to local dialects; because they serve all spheres of verbal
communication in society, within their territorial area they have dialectal
differences of their own; besides they differ far less than local dialects. 
 
Another consideration is that AE has its own literary norm and AuE is developing
one. Thus we must speak of three variants of the English national language having
different accepted literary standards, one spoken in the British Isles, another
spoken in the USA, the third in Australia. Canadian English is influenced both by
British and American English but it also has some specific features of its own.
Specifically Canadian words are called Canadianisms. there are Australian English,
Canadian English, Indian English. Each of these has developed a literature of its
own, and is characterised by peculiarities in phonetics, spelling, grammar and
vocabulary. 
 
+The main lexical differences between the variants are caused by the lack of
equivalent lexical units in one of them, divergences in the semantic structures of
polysemantic words and peculiarities of usage of some words on different
territories. Local variations in the USA are relatively small. What is called by
tradition American dialects is closer in nature to regional variants of the national
literary language.

27. The History of American English.

American English begins its history at the beginning of the 17th century when first
English-speaking settlers began to settle on the Atlantic coast of the American
continent. The language which they brought from England was the language
spoken in England during the reign of Elizabeth I. The first settlers took some of
the names for local places, animals, plants, customs from languages spoken by the
local population – Indians: chipmuck (an American sqiurrel), squaw (an Indian
woman).
Besides Englishmen, settlers from France, Spain and other countries came to
America. Therefore, some words were borrowed from their languages: bureau,
depot, pumpkin (French), bonanza, cockroach, lasso (Spanish).
Such words as boss, dope, sleigh were borrowed from Dutch.
The second period of American English history begins in the 19th century.
Immigrants continued to come from Europe to America. Italians brought with them
a style of cooking which brought with them a style of cooking which became
widely spread and such words as pizza, spaghetti came into English. There
were words borrowed from German: hamburger, noodle, schnitzel. During the
second period of American English history there appeared quite a number
of words and word-groups which were formed in the language due to the new
political system, liberation of America from the British colonialism, its
independence. The following lexical units appeared due to these events: The
United States of America, assembly, Senate, senator, President, Vice-President.
 
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