Questions for the exam in Lexicology

1. Etymological survey of the English word-stock. Words of the native origin

and their characteristic features.

Etymologically the vocabulary of the English language consists of two branches:

1) the native stock of words (30%); 2) the borrowed stock of words. The native
words include: words of Indo-European stock, words of Common Germanic stock
and proper English words.

To the Indo-European vocabulary belongs such units as:

 Names of celestial bodies (like ‘sun’- Germ. Sonne, Lat. Sol, Rus.
солнце, Ukr. сонце; ‘moon’ Germ. Mond, Lat. mens, Rus. месяц,
Ukr. місяць);
 Names of natural phenomena (like ‘wind’ – Germ. Wind, Ukr. вітер;
‘water’ – Germ. Wasser, Ukr. вода);
 Words expressing close family relations (like ‘father’ – Germ. Vater,
Lat. pater, Sanskrit pitar; ‘mother’ – Germ. Mutter, Ukr. мати, Lat.
mater; ‘brother’ – Germ. Bruder, Ukr. брат, Lat. frater;);
 Names of people & some parts of the body (like ‘Man’ – Germ.
Mann, Sanskrit Mann; ‘nose’ – Germ. Nase, Rus. нос, Ukr. ніс, Lat.
nasus;);
 Names of some animals (like ‘mouse’ – Germ. Maus, Ukr. миша,
Rus. мышь, Lat. mus;);
 Some numerals (‘one’ – Germ. ein, Ukr / Rus. один, Lat. unum; ‘two’
– Germ. Zwai, Ukr / Rus. два, Lat. duo;);
 Names of some kinds of trees and the word ‘tree’ itself (Ukr / Rus.
дерево, Sanskrit dru).

To the Common Germanic vocabulary belongs such units as:

 natural phenomena (like ‘rain’ – Germ. Regen, Dutch Regen;);

 seasons (like ‘summer’ – Germ. Sommer, ‘winter’ – Germ. Winter;);
 objects of surrounding nature (like ‘wood’ – Old Germ. Weter; ‘field’
– Old Eng. feld, Germ. Feld;);
 principal colours (like ‘blue’ – Germ. Blau, Swedich bla;);
 trees, plants, fruits (like ‘oak’ – Germ. [iche]; ‘grass’ – Germ. Grass;);
 household articles, domestic animals, birds (like ‘house’ – Germ.
Haus; ‘bed’ – Germ. Bett; ‘hen’ – Germ. Hahn;);
 food products (like ‘bread’ – Germ. Brot; ‘milk’ – Germ. Milch;);
  parts of body (like ‘hand’ – Germ. Hand; ‘finger’ – Germ. Finger;);
 some adjectives (like ‘good’ – Germ. Gut; ‘small’ – Germ. schmall;);
 many verbs, including all strong verbs (like ‘fall’ – Germ. fallen;
‘bring’ - Germ. bringen; ‘drink’ – Germ. trinken;).

There are some features of native words. They constitute high percentage of the
most frequent words in English. They may be characterized by a high lexical and
grammatical valiancy, high frequency and developed polysemy. They are often
monosyllabic, have great word building power and enter a number of set
expressions.

2. Etymological survey of the English word-stock. Borrowings in English. The

source and origin of borrowings.

Borrowings or loan-words are conditioned by direct linguistic contacts and

political, economic and cultural relations between nations. Borrowings are taken
from another language and are modified in phonemic shape, spelling, meaning of
paradigm according to the standards of English. Word-building affixes were also
borrowed (e.g. –able, -ment, -ity etc.)

The process of borrowing foreign words is active and productive in modern

English and it’s one of the sources of enriching English vocabulary. There are 2
main terms which should be distinguished:

1) Source of borrowing - the language from which the loan word was taken into
English (e.g. Eng. table was taken from Fr. table);
2) Origin of borrowing – refers to the the language to which the word may be
traced (e.g. table Fr. > table > Lat. tabula or elephant < Egyptian < Fr. < Eng.

There are:

 Latin borrowings (early Latin – e.g. cheese, street, wine, cup; later Latin – e.g.
altar, candle, cross; the third period – e.g. animal, antenna, nucleus, alibi; the
latest period – e.g. etc., a.m., p.m., e.g.;);

French borrowings (early loans to which refers simple words (e.g. age, air, boil,
breeze, chain) and many juridical [dʒʊəˈrɪdɪkl] and military terms (e.g. crime, suit,
troops, prison, etc.) and later loans to which refers vocabulary of church and
literature (e.g. lesson, service, publisher, sir, madam), cookery (e.g. jelly, fry,
sauce, toast) and French endings (like –able, -age, -ry, -ess, e.g. drinkable,
husbandry, shepherdess etc.));

 Greek borrowings to which belongs scientific terms (e.g. analysis, botany, epos,
philosophy, scene), linguistic terms (e.g. antonym, idiom, metaphor, synonym,
neologism) and Greek roots like autos, chroma, telos, ae, logos, phone, kratos,
skopein (e.g. autograph, telephone, geology, telegraph, telescope);
 Skandinavian borrowings include such borrowings as:

 ‘k’ before ‘e’, ‘i’ e.g. keg, kid, cake etc.;

 ‘sk’ e.g. scare, skin, sky, score;
 Nouns like: anger, bull [bʊl], by-law, crop, egg, knife, root, sister,
window;
 Adjectives like: ill, ugly, wrong, low [ləʊ], loose, etc.;
 Verbs like: call, die, get, give, take, want, raise [reɪz], etc.;
 Pronouns like: same, they, their, them.

 Celtic borrowings include place-names, like (e.g. Avon (Celt. ‘water’),

London (Celt. ‘lake-fort’)) and other words like budget, career, tunnel
[ˈtʌn(ə)l], down (‘hill’), bin (‘a chest for corn’), etc.;
 Spanish borrowings reflect some peculiarities [pɪˌkjuːliˈærətis] of Spenish life,
habits and traditions (e.g. guitar, tango [ˈtæŋɡəʊ], canyon [ˈkænjən], embargo,
canoe [kəˈnuː], etc.), Spanish words which came through French (e.g.
escalade, terrace, brave, compartment, apartment, etc.) and words from
South-American dialects [ˈdaɪəlekts] which came through Spanish (e.g.
coffee, chocolate, cigar, tomato [təˈmɑːtəʊ]);
 And also we have borrowings from other languages, for instance from:

 German: zinc [zɪŋk], nickel, fatherland, kindergarten, rucksack [ˈrʌk

ˌsæk];
 Dutch: reef, yacht [jɒt], deck, baobab, commandeer [kɒmənˈdɪə(r)];
 Indian: orange, sugar, candy, shampoo, loot;
 Chinese: tea, sorts of tea like – congou [kong-goo], pekoe [pee-koh]
etc.;
 Japanese: kimono, samurai, geisha [ˈɡeɪʃə] etc.;
 Portuguese [pɔː(r)tʃʊˈɡiːz]: banana, cobra, madeira [məˈdɪərə] etc.;
 Arabic: elexir, typhoon, harem [ˈhɑːriːm], sofa etc.;
 Turkish: aga, bey, harem [ˈhɑːriːm], caftan [ˈkæftæn], etc.;
 Rusian: vodka, fortochka, samovar, Bolshevik, sputnik, etc.;
  Ukrainian: steppe, borsch, varenyky, compot, kozak, maidan, etc..

3. Translation-loans and semantic loans in English. International and Ukrainian

words in English

Borrowings or loan-words are conditioned by direct linguistic contacts and

political, economic and cultural relations between nations. Borrowings are
taken from another language and are modified in phonemic shape, spelling,
meaning of paradigm according to the standards of English. Word-building
affixes were also borrowed (e.g. –able, -ment, -ity etc.)

There are different types of borrowings: translation-loans, semantic borrowings

and barbarisms. I’d like to tell about translation-loans and semantic loans.
Firstly, translation-loans – are words and expressions formed from material
available in English, but in accordance with foreign models (e.g. Rus. стенная
газета – wallpaper, FR. Cela va sans dire > to go without saying). Semantic
borrowings – are words acquire a new meaning (e.g. pioneer which means
‘first’ changes to the member of the young pioneer organization) or that words
preserve one of their meanings (e.g. Fr. sport what means ‘pleasures,
entertainment’ changes to Eng. sport with meaning only as ‘outdoor game and
exercise’).

Barbarisms – not assimilated in any way and for which there are corresponding
English equivalents (e.g. It. Ciao [tʃaʊ] – Eng. good-bye).

4. Words of Common Indo-European origin in English.

Etymologically the vocabulary of the English language consists of two branches:

1) the native stock of words (30%); 2) the borrowed stock of words. The native
words include: words of Indo-European stock, words of Common Germanic stock
and proper English words.

To the Indo-European vocabulary belongs such units as:

 Names of celestial bodies (like ‘sun’- Germ. Sonne, Lat. Sol, Rus.
солнце, Ukr. сонце; ‘moon’ Germ. Mond, Lat. mens, Rus. месяц,
Ukr. місяць);
 Names of natural phenomena (like ‘wind’ – Germ. Wind, Ukr. вітер;
‘water’ – Germ. Wasser, Ukr. вода);
 Words expressing close family relations (like ‘father’ – Germ. Vater,
Lat. pater, Sanskrit pitar; ‘mother’ – Germ. Mutter, Ukr. мати, Lat.
mater; ‘brother’ – Germ. Bruder, Ukr. брат, Lat. frater;);
  Names of people & some parts of the body (like ‘Man’ – Germ.
Mann, Sanskrit Mann; ‘nose’ – Germ. Nase, Rus. нос, Ukr. ніс, Lat.
nasus;);
 Names of some animals (like ‘mouse’ – Germ. Maus, Ukr. миша,
Rus. мышь, Lat. mus;);
 Some numerals (‘one’ – Germ. ein, Ukr / Rus. один, Lat. unum; ‘two’
– Germ. Zwai, Ukr / Rus. два, Lat. duo;);
 Names of some kinds of trees and the word ‘tree’ itself (Ukr / Rus.
дерево, Sanskrit dru).

5. Assimilation of borrowings. Types of assimilation. Barbarisms in English.

Assimilation – is the process of changing the adopted word. There are 3 types of
assimilation: 1) phonetic; 2) grammatical; and 3) semantic.

Phonetic assimilation – includes changes in sounds forms and stresses when

combinations of sounds foreign to English are against norms (e.g. café,
communiqué where /e/ sounds like /ei/, or another example is Germ. spitz /ʃpɪt͜s/
> Eng. spits /spɪts/). The degree of assimilation depends on the period of
borrowing – the earlier > the fuller assimilation (plate), later assimilation > as in
French (regime /reɪˈʒiːm/, valise /vəˈliːz/);

Grammatical assimilation – change in paradigm (e.g. Fr. finir finisson, Eng.

finishes, -ed, -ing) but there are some exceptions, like: datum – data, criterion
/kraɪˈtɪəriən/– criteria /kraɪˈtɪərɪə/.

Lexical or semantic assimilation – is narrowing of meaning – it’s when

polysemantic word changes to the monosemantic word, acquires specialization,
generalization or new meaning of words. For instance, Fr. words cry, image
earlier were religious terms, but later they became everyday words.

Besides, borrowings begin to combine with native roots and derivational

morphemes and as a result we have hybrids (e.g. battle-field, simple-minded),
where the 1st component is Romanic, and the 2nd one is Germanic. Or in words
like ‘outline’ and ‘by-product’ the 1st element is Germanic and the 2nd one is
Romanic.

There are 3 main degrees of assimilation:

 Complete assimilation includes all types of assimilation which aren’t

foreign (e.g. face, table, street, take, etc.);
  Partial assimilation which is characterized by lack of one type of
assimilation, and this type of assimilation subdivided into:

a) not assimilated semantically e.g. rickshaw [ˈrɪkˌʃɔ:], shah [ʃɑː],

rajah [ˈrɑːdʒə];
b) not assimilated grammatically e.g. genius [ˈdʒiːniəs] – genii
[ˈdʒiː.ni], formula [ˈfɔː(r)mjələ] – formulae [faw·myuh·lee], index
[ˈɪndeks] – indices [ˈɪn.dɪ.siːz];
c) not assimilated phonetically e.g. machine, tobacco [təˈbækəʊ],
camouflage [ˈkæməˌflɑːʒ];
d) not assimilated graphically e.g. ballet [ˈbæleɪ], buffet [ˈbʊfeɪ],
cliché, bouquet [bəʊˈkeɪ];

 Not assimilated at all (Barbarisms) – not assimilated in any way and

for which there are corresponding English equivalents e.g. It. Ciao
[tʃaʊ] – Eng. good-bye, bambino [bamˈbēnō], affiche, etc..

6. The etymology of affixes in English. Native and borrowed affixes. Hybrids and
their patterns.

An affix is the part of the word that changes the meaning of the root or used to
form a new word. There are three main types of affixes: prefixes, infixes, and
suffixes. A prefix occurs at the beginning of a word or stem (sub-mit, pre-
determine, un-willing); a suffix at the end (wonder-ful, depend-ent, act-ion); and
an infix occurs in the middle. But in English there are no infixes.

There are dead and living affixes. Dead affixes are those which have become
fully merged with the stem and can be singled out by a diachronic analysis of
the development of the word ( e.g. admit - L. - ad + mittere). And living affixes
are easily singled out from stems: -ness, -less. –dom, -hood, -able, -ible, -ly, -ful,
pro-, anti-, contra-, super- [ˈsuːpə], supra-, co-, re-, etc.. Living affixes can be
also subdivided into productive (e.g. –able, -ness), semi-productive (e.g. –ive, -
fy) and unproductive (e.g. –ous, -th, -escent).

Affixes also can be divided into native and borrowed affixes. Native affixes
include such prefixes as: a- (away), be- (before, beside), for- (forget, forgive),
out- (outlet, outsize), with- (withtake, withgo, withstand), on- (onset, ongo), in-
(indeed, independent). And what about native suffixes, there are: -dom, -ed, -en,
-fold, -ful, -ly, -hood, -ing, -ish, -less, -let, -like, -lock, -ness, -ship, -some, -teen,
-th, -ward, -wise, -y; (e.g. kingdom, childhood, priceless, outlet, monthly,
 happiness, toward, unfriendliness, beautiful, friendship, etc.). Borrowed affixes
include such prefixes as: anti-, co-, contra-, counter- [ˈkaʊntə], de-, demi-, dis-,
en-, ex-, extra-, hyper-, hypo-, inter-, intra-, mal-, poly-, post-, pre-, re-, retro-,
semi-, sub-, super-, supra-, trans-, ultra-, vice- (antivirus, colocate, international,
postgame, predict, prehead, semiformal, subordinate, ultralight, transportation,
superhuman). Borrowed suffixes which borrowed from Latin are: -able, -ible,
-ant, -ent, etc. (e.g. lovable [ˈlʌvəb(ə)l], sufficient, edible), from French: -age, -
ance, -ence, -ancy, -ency, -ard, -ate, -sy (e.g. baggage [ˈbæɡɪdʒ], language,
dissonance [ˈdɪsənəns], fluency, decorate [ˈdekəreɪt]) and from Greek: -ist, -ism,
-ite (e.g. linguist, fascism [ˈfæʃɪz(ə)m], unite).

When borrowings begin to combine with native roots and derivational

morphemes and as a result we have hybrids (e.g. battle-field, simple-minded),
where the 1st component is Romanic, and the 2nd one is Germanic. Or in words
like ‘outline’ and ‘by-product’ the 1st element is Germanic and the 2nd one is
Romanic. There are also many hybrid compounds, such as blackguard(English +
French); schoolboy(Greek + English).

7. Word-formation in English. Word-derivation and word-composition

(compounding) as types of word-formation.

Word-formation is the process of creating new words from the material

available in the language according to certain structural and semantic pattern.
**Word is a principal, basic unite of the language, the largest on the
morphological level and the smallest on the syntactic level.**

There are many kinds of word formation, like: word-derivation or word-

composition or compounding. Word-derivation is the formation of a new word
by changing the form of the root or by adding affixes (suffixes, prefixes and
inflections) to it (e.g., “hope” to “hopeful”). Suffixation is used for creating
nouns and adjectives (beauty+ful, friend+ly, teach+er). Prefixation is used for
creating verbs (colocate, predict). Inflection is an morpheme which indicates
grammatical relationships of number (-s, -es), case (’s), gender (lioness) and
tense (-s, -ed). Word-derivation is a major source of new words in a language.
Word-composition (compounding) is another type of word-building which is
highly productive. That is when new words are produced by combining two or
more stems (e.g. snowball, ice-cream, blackboard, etc.). Stem is that part of a
word which remains unchanged throughout its paradigm and to which
grammatical inflexions and affixes are added.
 There are different types of compounds. The first one is proper compounds – it’s
when 2 or more simple stems joined together (e.g. film-star, blackberry), or it
can be with the linking ‘o’ or consonant ‘s’ (Anglo-Saxon, sportsman, electro-
motor); ablaut and rhyme combinations are also proper compounds (e.g.
singsong, ping-pong); it also include reduplication (e.g. fifty-fifty, so-so) and
also 2 stems joined with preposition and conjunction stem (e.g. pepper-and-salt,
up-to-date, matter-of-fact). The second type is compounds with one derived
stem (dressmaker, goal-keeper). The third one is compounds with a clipped stem
(e.g. H-bag (‘handbag’), H-bomb (‘hydrogen bomb’)). The fourth type is
compounds with a compound stem (e.g. wastepaper-basket). The fifth type of
compounds is derivational compounds, it’s words formed by word-combination
and derivation (in other words adding affixes) (e.g. long-legged, blue-eyed,
dark-haired, schoolboyishness (N+N+ish+ness)). Another type of word-
formation is coordinative compounds – is th words which have 2 equal
components, what mean that they have 2 semantic centres (Anglo-Ukrainian,
tiptop, etc.). Here belong reduplicative compounds (fifty-fifty), rhythmic twins
(chit-chat, walkie-talkie [wɔː.kiˈtɔː.ki]) and additive compounds (e.g. writer-
translator, bed-sitting room). And the last type of compounds is subordinative
compounds – it’s when one component (head member) dominates over the
other one (adjunct) (e.g. baby-sitter, lap-computer, coal-black).

8. Productivity. Productive and nonproductive ways of word-formation in English.

Productivity – is a high ability to form new words after semantic and grammar
pattern.

To the productive ways of word-formation are:

 Affixation which include prefixation and suffixation (beauty+ful,

friend+ly, teach+er, forget, transportation, etc.);
 Conversion – is the process of changing one part of speech to another, for
instance from noun to verb, like (a buy – to buy, a smile – to smile, import
– to import);
 Word –composition / word-building - is when new words are produced by
combining two or more stems. (e.g. baby-sitter, blue-eyed, etc.);
 Shortening, which include:

 Lexical abbreviation (e.g. H-bag (‘handbag’), H-bomb (‘hydrogen

bomb’));
  Graphical abbreviation (p.m.( post meridiem [ˌpōs(t)-mə-ˈri-dē-
əm]), a.m. (ante meridiem [ˌan-ti-mə-ˈri-dē-əm]), BBC (British
Broadcasting Corporation), USA);

Acronyms are pronounced as words: UFO (Unidentified flying

object), NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), UNO
(United Nations Organization).

 Clipping – is cutting two or more syllables and it subdivided into:

o apocope (the loss of one or more sounds or letters at the end

of a word) – e.g. ad – advertisement;
o aphaeresis (is the loss of the first part of the word producing
a new form) – e.g. phone – telephone;
o syncope (is the loss of one or more sounds from the interior
of a word, especially the loss of an unstressed vowel) – e.g.
maths – mathematics;
o combined type – e.g. tec – detective, flu – influenza, fridge –
refrigerator.

The unproductive means of word-formation include:

 Blending / portmanteau [pɔː(r)tˈmæntəʊ] words (it’s when we take the

beginning of one word and combine with the ending of another one) – e.g.
smog < smoke+fog, medicare < medical+care.
 Back-formation (a word that is formed from an existing word which looks
as though it is a derivative, typically by removal of a suffix) - e.g. edit
from editor, to baby-sit from babysitter.
 Onomatopoeia [ˌɒnəʊmætəˈpiːə] (imitation of natural sounds) – e.g.
quack-quack, murmur, puss-puss, buzz.
 Sentence-condensation (is the process of transforming sentence in one
word) – e.g. merry-go-round, forget-me-not.
 Sound and stress interchange – e.g. strong – strength, food – feed,
`increase – inc`rease.

9. Morpheme. Classification of morphemes according to semantic and structural

criteria.

Morpheme – is the smallest meaningful indivisible two-faceted language unit.

Morphemes may be classified: from the semantic point of view, and from the
structural point of view.

From the semantic point of view there are:

 Root morphemes (e.g. teach, crime, man, boy);

 Inflection is an morpheme which indicates grammatical relationships of
number (-s, -es), case (’s), gender (lioness) and tense (-s, -ed). Inflections
have only grammatical meaning and are used to make word-forms.
 Affixational morphemes which are suffixes (suffix follows the root-
morpheme) and prefixes (a prefix precedes the root-morpheme) (e.g.
beautiful, unknown, before, kingdom, decorate, linguist, happiness, etc.).

From the structural point of view there are:

 Free morphemes which coincide with word-forms – e.g. boy-friend, pen-

holder, dress-market.
 Bound morphemes which don’t coincide with separate word-forms – e.g.
theor-y, horr-or, micro-phone, horr-ible.
 Pseudo-morphemes – e.g. retain, contain, receive [rɪˈsiːv], perceive [pə(r)
ˈsiːv], deceive [dɪˈsiːv].
 Allomorphs - any of the variant forms of a morpheme as conditioned by
position or adjoining sound – e.g. please, pleasure, pleasant; and in-, im-,
il-, ir-, un-, etc. are negative allomorphs.
  Semi-affixes which take intermediate position between roots and affixes –
well-, self-, -man, ill-, half-, etc. they can be both as independent words
and affixes.

10. Principles of the morphemic analysis. Methods of Immediate and Ultimate

Constituents.

Principles of the morphemic analysis – means that we single out the

morphemes and determine their arrangement in the word. There two types of
principles of the morphemic analysis: Immediate [ɪˈmiːdiət] Constituents [kən
ˈstɪtjʊənts] and Ultimate [ˈʌltɪmət] Constituents.

Immediate Constituents – it’s the process of analyzing structure of the word

step by step, defining the main part of the word. – e.g. unfriendliness (un-
friendliness > friendli-ness > friend-li (ly)); un – nnegative prefix; ness – native
suffix; li (ly) - native suffix.

Ultimate Constituents - it’s the process of analyzing structure of the word to

highlight individual word morphemes. – e.g. un – friend – li – ness.