Words of native origin and the role they play in the English vocabulary

The etymological structure of the English vocabulary: its mixed character.

Etymological survey of the English lexicon.

Morhpems r the smallest lexical units and phraeological r the largest.word-central

Lexical units-лекс.ед,лексема

Linguistics is not a science in the full sense of the word. However, many linguists aim to make it a science. Any branch of re search must define its basic units.

Lexicology is associated with such terms as lexical item or unit, then with the term lexeme.

In English lexeme may be a single word, a group of words, compounds (blackboard), idioms or shortened forms (flu, UK).

There are word variants:

1) Regional — colour/ color, centre/ center;

2) Phonetic variants;

3) Morphological.

The term “etymology” comes from Greek and it means the study of the earliest forms of the word. Now etymology studies both: the form and the meaning of borrowed and native words. In every modern language there are native and borrowed words. It is quite natural and logical because contacts between people, and peoples are lead to the process of borrowing. As for English language many scientist consider the foreign influence to be the most important factor in the development of the Eng. language. There are more borrowed words in English than in any other European language. So we speak of the mixed character of the English vocabulary. It contains the native element and the borrowed elements. The native element includes Indo-European, Germanic element and English proper element: boy, girl, lord, lady – proper English word.

By the native element we mean words which were not borrowed from other languages. The number of native words is rather small, about 25%-30%. About 70% of words are borrowed. This fact gave ground to the assumption that English is not a Germanic language, but a Romenic-Germanic language.

Today the accepted point of view is that Eng. is a Germanic language and the mixed character of its vocabulary is one of its main features. It can be proved by the fact that in speech the correlation between native and borrow words is different. It was found out that in the works of English classics about 80% of words are native. (prepositions, modal and auxiliary verbs, a great many irregular verbs, some nouns and adjectives denoting everyday notions). The native element include Indo-European, Germanic and English proper words. Indo-European words have cognates in other I-E languages. EG: English words of this group denote elementary concepts without which no human communication would be possible. day, night, mother, father, son, daughter.

Germanic words have cognates in modern Germanic languages. EG: They denote parts of human body: hand, head, arm, bone. Animals: fox, bear.

English proper words don’t have any cognates in other languages: lord, lady, boy, girl.

The concepts of "borrowing", "source of borrowing", "origin of borrowing". Special types of borrowings: translation-loans, doublets, international words.

The term “borrowing” may mean the process of borrowing and the result of the process-the word itself. The term source of borrowing means the language which from the word was taking into English. EG: delicious was taken from French so, French is the source of borrowing.

The term origin of borrowing denotes the language to which the word may be traced. EG: the word “school is a Latin borrowing. (It comes from Latin) of Greek origin. It means that to Latin (it) came from Greek. “to adore” came from French. There are different reasons for borrowing words, linguistic and extro-lingustic (historic) reason. Historic reasons include wars and conquest and peaceful contacts as well. The main linguistic reason are the following: 1.) a gap in vocabulary. EG: potato, tomato were borrowed from Spanish, when these vegetables were brought to the British island. So, the word were borrowed together with notions which they denoted. 2.) To present the same notion in a new aspect, from a different point of view. EG: The French word “to adore” was added to native words “to like” and “to love”, to denote the strongest degree of the process.

The classification of English borrowings includes more than ten groups. The main groups of borrowing are:

- the three layers of dating borrowing

- borrowings from French

- borrowing from Scandinavian (антруш стр. 44-49)

Translation-loan(s) (калька) – are borrowings which are made up by means of literally translating words and word combinations. EG: from the Russian language: пятилетка – five-year plan. from German: Wunderkind – wonder child. from Italian: prima ballerina – first dancer.

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