Lecture 3. General Characteristics of the English Word-Stock

1. The growth and development of the vocabulary, its characteristic features.

2. The number of vocabulary units and their usage.

3. The systemic character of the English vocabulary and the problem of its classification.

1-2. The total word-stock of the language is called its lexicon or vocabulary. The lexicon of English is an opened not closed system, because it constantly grows and is enriched especially in technical terms. There are linguistic and non-linguistic causes but mostly combination of both is acting in the vocabulary. Some words become archaic and they either fall out of the vocabulary or remain in it but in restricted spheres (poetry, historical novels, etc.). Words may drop out as a result of the disappearance of the actual objects they denote, or as a result of the influence of borrowings. It is advisable to differentiate obsolete and archaic words. Usually obsolete are words that ___________________________________________________________. When a word is _________________________________________ but not absolutely obsolete, we call it an archaism. The borderline between obsolete and archaic is vague and uncertain, and in many cases it is difficult to decide to which of the groups this or that word belongs. There is a further term for words, which are no longer in use – historisms. By this we mean words denoting _________________________________________________________________.

Those words that appear are much greater in number than those that drop out. The influx of new words is more rapid in our days because of the development of human activities and science. Thus, a neologism is any word or set expression, formed ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________and felt by the speakers as something new.

New vocabulary terms belong to notional parts of speech, to be more exact, to nouns, adjectives and verbs. Their characteristic features are:

· they are mostly monosyllabic;

· they belong to the specialized vocabulary, neutral words and phrases are very few.

The analysis of the development of the vocabulary of Modern English shows that there are two aspects of the growth of the language – the appearance of new lexical items, which increase the vocabulary numerically, and the appearance of new meanings of old words (e.g. network has acquired a meaning of “a number of broadcasting stations, connected for a simultaneous broadcast of the same programme).

New vocabulary units are mostly the result of the new combinations of old elements. Entirely new lexical items make an insignificant section of the vocabulary.

Structurally new vocabulary items represent two types of lexical units: ___________ (blackout, shuttle, Third-worldism, memory-storage, computer, ecocide) and __________________________________________________(blood bank, gas laser, plasma physics, echo cardiography, heart transplantation).

Words in their turn comprise various structural types: ___________ words (jeep, zebra), _____________________ words (collaborationist, antiworld, vietnik, florient, blackmarketeer), _________________________(script-show, motorinn, oildollars, to skyjack, househusband, wild-lifer, hard-liner), ____________________________________, especially those made by conversion and composition from verbs with postpositives (hold-up, read-in, fall-out). The analysis of new words for their derivational structure shows a marked predominance of derived and compound words and a rather small number of simple words. Many technical and scientific inventions and notions are named by using the so-called combining forms (aqualung, astronaut, isotope, semi-conductor).

Word-groups comprise a considerable part of vocabulary extension. Structurally, the bulk of the word-groups belongs to the attributive-nominal type built on the A+A and N+N formulas (frequency modulation, jet engine, total war, Common Marketeer, machine time).

We are to distinguish words which a person uses (_____________ vocabulary) and which understands (_______________ vocabulary).

The problem of the number of vocabulary units is connected with the following lexicological problems:

a) Discrimination of words and phraseological units;

Counting up vocabulary units we usually proceed from the assumption that the English Lexicon comprises not only words but also phraseological units. The term “phtaseological unit” however allows of different interpretation. If the term is to be taken as including all types of set expressions, then various lexical items ranging from two-word groups the meaning of which is directly inferred from the meaning of its components (to win a victory, to lose one’s balance) to proverbs and sayings (It is the early bird that catches the worm, That is where the shoe pinches) have to be counted as separate lexical units on a par with individual words. Thus in the case of to win a victory we must record three vocabulary units: the verb to win, the noun victory and the phraseological unit to win a victory. If however we hold that it is only the set expressions functioning as word-equivalents are to be treated as phraseological units, to win a victory is viewed as a variable (free) word-group and consequently must not be counted as a separate lexical item. The results of vocabulary counts will evidently be different.

b) Polysemy and homonymy;

Another debatable point closely connected with the problem of the number of vocabulary units in English is the borderline between homonymy and polysemy when approached synchronically and divergent views concerning lexico-grammatical homonymy. If identical sound-forms (work, n and work, v) are considered to be different grammatical and semantic variants of the same word, they are accordingly treated as one word. This conception naturally tends to diminish the total number of vocabulary units in English. In some cases of lexical homonymy the boundary line between various meanings of one polysemantic word and the meanings of two homonymous words is not sufficiently sharp and clear and allows of different approaches to the problem. Thus, words like fly – “a two-winged insect” and fly – “a flap of cloth covering the buttons on a garment” may be synchronically treated as two different words or as different meanings of the same word.

c) Discrimination of a word and a word variant;

Next comes the problem of word and word variants. If we consider the clippings doc, prof as variants of the words doctor, professor, we must count prof and professor, doc and doctor as two words having each two variants. If, however, we regard them as different words having each of them its sound-form and semantic structure, we shall count them as four separate words.

d) Modern words and obsolete words;

The criterion, which serves to describe lexical units as belonging to Modern English vocabulary, is also rather vague. The point is that profound modifications in the vocabulary of a language are occasioned not only by the appearance and creation of new lexical items but also by the disappearance of certain lexical units. Some words seem gradually to lose their vitality, become obsolete and may eventually drop put of the language altogether. The process being slow and gradual, the borderline between “dead” and “living” words in the English word-stock is not always clearly defined. Some words can be scarcely ever used in present-day English but may be found in poetical works of outstanding English poets of the nineteenth century. Can we consider them as non-existing in the Modern English vocabulary? The answer to the question as to the number of lexical units in modern English word-stock will naturally vary depending on the answer given to this particular question.

e) Native and foreign words;

The borderline between “non-assimilated” borrowings, which make up part of English vocabulary and foreign or alien words, is not always sharp and distinct. This applies for example to barbarisms. As a rule barbarisms are included in the dictionaries alongside with English words although it is rather doubtful whether they are really part of the English vocabulary. Such lexical items as Luftwaffe, Blitzkrieg are distinguished from other neologisms by their peculiar graphic and sound-form. They are felt as “alien” elements in the English word-stock and are used more or less in the same way as words of a foreign language may be used by English speakers.

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