Stylistic Classification

of English Vocabulary
Lesson 2
 Stylistic Classification of the English
Vocabulary

• The whole word-stock of the English language is divided into three main
layers: the literary layer, the neutral layer and the colloquial layer.
• The neutral layer can be employed in all styles of language and in all
spheres of human activity. It is this that makes the layer the most stable of
all. The literary layer of words consists of groups accepted as legitimate
members of the English vocabulary. They have no local or dialectal
character. The colloquial layer of words as qualified in most English or
American dictionaries is limited to a definite language community or
confined to a special locality where it circulates.
 The following synonyms illustrate the relations that exist between neutral,
literary and colloquial words in the English language.

Colloquial Neutral Literary

Kid child infant
Daddy father parent
Teenager Boy (girl) Youth (maiden)
Go ahead begin, start commence
 The literary vocabulary
• Common literary (literature, poetry, drama, etc.);
• Terms and learned words (language of science); psychology, equity, Chlorophyll, etc.
• Poetic words (produce an elevated effect; welkin=sky; to proceed =to go; devouring element =fire);
• Archaic words (a. obsolescent words-gradually passing out of general use: thee, thine, maketh; b. obsolete
words – have already gone out of use but still recognizable by the English-speaking community:
methinks=it seems to me, nay=no; c. archaic proper – are no longer used and recognized in modern English
(troth=faith, a losel=a worthless, lazy fellow).
• Barbarisms and foreignisms (words or foreign origin); alter ego, datum, etc.
• Literary coinages=neologisms (including nonce-words and blends): anti-hero, to be wived; Unesco. E-mail,
browser.
 The colloquial vocabulary falls into the following groups:

• Common colloquial (daddy, teenager, etc.);

• Slang - ​very informal words and expressions that are more common in spoken language,
especially used by a particular group of people, for example, children, criminals, soldiers,
etc. (bread-basket=stomach);
• Jargonisms (aim at preserving secrecy: grease=money; loaf=head)
• Professionalism – used by a group of people with the same profession (piper=decorates
pastry; block-buster-a bomb designed to destroy buildings);
• Dialectal words (phonetic peculiarities: volk=folk;
• Vulgar words (swear words: damn, bloody, to hell)
 Which layer is it and which subgroup?
• Foe,
• Protégé
• Bloody hell
• thou,
• Visage
• Hacker