Prefixes

• Prefixes with negative meaning (mis- (mislïcian displease), un- (uncu þ unknown), wan- (wanhäl unwell).

• Other prefixes (be- (be 3 än go around, ‘adore’, be þ encan think over), for- (fordön destroy), 3e- (3 emynd mind, 3 esëon see), of- (ofslëan kill, oftëon take away) etc).

Often prefixes modified lexical meaning, and there were grammatical prefixes, for example to build participle II (sitten (to sit) – 3esett (sat).

Composition was widely used in OE. There are compound substantives, adjectives, and, in lesser number, verbs.

Compound substantives may be formed by joining:

(1) “Noun + Noun”: evening time, goldsmith;

(2) “Adjective + Noun”: quicksilver.

Compound adjectives may be formed by joining:

(1) “Noun + Adjective”: satiated with wine;

(2) “Adjective + Adjective”: widely known;

(3) “Adjective + Noun”: happy- hearted, glad- minded.

Loan-words or borrowings are the words from other languages. It is also a way to develop the language.

Old English has only words from two sources-from Latin and Celtic languages. Some words taken over from Latin had been borrowed by Latin from Greek.

Celtic. Celtic language had a marginal influence on the English vocabulary. Some Celtic elements have been preserved in geographical names.

Semantic areas:

· common nouns (bin, cross, cradle, etc.) – most of them died out, some survived only in dialects;

· place names and names of waterways: Kent, London, York, etc. ;Ouse, Avon, Evan, Thames, Dover – all with the meaning “water”;

- comb (“deep valley”) – Duncombe, Winchcombe, etc.;

- torr (“high rock”) – Torr, Torcross, etc.;

- llan (“church”) – Llandoff, Llanelly, etc.;

- pill (“creek”) – Pylle, Huntspill, etc.

Latin. In OE period these borrowings may be classified into two layers: (1) the oldest layer words taken over either directly from the Romans before the Anglo-Saxons settled in Britain, or from the Celtic inhabitants of Britain, (2) the second layer: words concerning religion and the church, taken over after the introduction of Christianity, which began in 597; these words belong to the 7th century.

First Layer. Here belong, on the one hand of objects of material culture, and on the other, names of products which the Anglo-Saxons bought from Roman merchants.

Semantic areas:

• trade (trade, deal, chest, flask, etc.);
• building (chalk, file, copper, etc.);
• domestic life (dish, kettle, kitchen, pepper, etc.);
• military affairs (wall, street, pile, etc.);
• place names:

- castra (“castle”)(Chester, Lancaster, etc.);

- wich (“village”) (Norwich, Woolwich, etc.);

- port (“port“) (Bridport, Devonport, etc.).

Second Layer. The second layer consists of words which directly or indirectly belong to the sphere of religion, church and learning. When Christianity was introduced in England the Latin language came to be used as language of the church.

Semantic areas:

• religion (angel, hymn, idol, pope, psalm devil, monk; from Greek through Latin – anthem, bishop, candle, apostle, etc.);
• learning (teacher, school, scholar, master, verse, accent, grammar, etc.);
• everyday life (plant, pine, radish, cap, sock, etc.).

Vocabulary developed in ME period both by internal processes and by borrowing words and word-building morphemes from other languages.

Latin. Third Layer. Latin words were borrowed in all historical periods. In the age of Renaissance there was a new wave of Latin and Greek borrowings. In the 16^th – 17^th centuries Latin was the main language of philosophy and science. In the sphere of internal development we may note deriving new words by means of affixation by Latin and Greek prefixes and suffixes.

Latin	Greek
abstract concepts(anticipate, exact, exaggerate, explain, fact, dislocate, accommodation, etc.)	theatre(drama, episode, scene, theatre, etc.)
literature(anapest, climax, epilogue, rhythm, etc.)
rhetoric(dialogue, metaphor, etc.)
affixes de-(demolish, destroy, etc.), ex-(extract,, explore, explain, etc.), re-(reread, retell, retry, etc.), -ate(locate, excavate, etc.), -ent(apparent, present, turbulent, etc.), -ct(correct, erect, etc.)	rootsfor creation of new words ()
affixes -ism(humanism, mechanism, aphorism, etc.), -ist (protagonist, terrorist, cyclist, etc.), anti-(antibody, antidote, antibiotic, etc.), di-(digest, diverse, etc.), neo-(neo-realism, neo-conservatism, etc.)

Many of these borrowings formed a base for international terminology and increase a number of synonyms in English language.

In ME period the borrowing were mainly from Scandinavian and French languages.

Basis for Comparison	Scandinavian Borrowings	French Borrowings
Time	since the 9^th c. (Scandinavian Invasion)	since the 11^th c. (Norman Conquest)
Number	1 000	10 000
Area	Scandinavian borrowings came to English from Northern and North-Eastern Dialects	French borrowings started to penetrate from the South and spread northwards.
Ways of Borrowing	Scandinavian borrowings penetrated only through oral speech. They were just raiders.	French borrowings penetrated through oral and written speech and at first were adopted only by the high strata of the society.
Assimilation of Borrowings	Scandinavian borrowings were easier to assimilate as far as the Scandinavian Dialects as well as Old English Dialects were Germanic dialects. So the languages were very similar and the assimilation was easy.	French borrowings were more difficult to assimilate as far as French was a Romance language while English was a Germanic one. So they two languages differed in some essential features (stress/accent, vocalic system, etc.) and the assimilation was hard.
Semantic Fields	· everyday life(cake, raft, skirt, birth, dirt, fellow, root, window, to die, etc.); · military(knife, fleet, etc.); · legal matters (law, husband, etc.); · some pronouns and conjunctions(they, their, them, both, though, etc.); · essential notion(N scar, anger; V to call, to take, to want to kill, to cast, to scare; Adj happy, ill, weak, wrong; Pron same, both; Prep till, fro, etc.).	· government and administration(assembly, authority, council, to govern, office, nation, etc.); · feudal system(baron, countess, duke, feudal, noble, etc.); · military (aid, arms, army, battle, defeat, force, etc.); · law (crime, court, jury, justice, false, defendant, etc.); · church (abbey, Bible, chapel, clergy, grace, etc.); · art, architecture(chimney, palace, colour, figure, design, etc.); · entertainment(pleasure, leasure, sport, dance, cards, etc.); · address(madam, sir, mister, etc.).
Recognition in ModE	Scandinavian borrowings are hard to distinguish from the native words as far as Scandinavian Dialects belonged to the same language group (Germanic). The only distinctive Scandinavian feature in English: Scandinavian cluster [sk](sky, skill, skin, skirt, etc.);	French borrowings are often recognisable due to some phonetic, word-building and spelling peculiarities: · oi, oy(point, joy, toy, etc.); · initial v(very, voice, etc.); · -age (village, carriage, etc.); · c as [s](pierce, city, etc.).
Contributions	· A lot of Scandinavian borrowingsdisappeared, some were left only in dialects; · Some Scandinavian borrowingsreplacedthe native words(they, take, call, etc.); · Scandinavian borrowingsenlargedthe number of synonyms in English: native to blossom – Scan. borr. to bloom, native wish – Scan. borr. want, native heaven – Scan. borr. sky, etc.	· French borrowingsenlarged the English vocabulary(a lot of new words); · Some French borrowingsreplacedthe native words(very, river, easy,etc.); · French borrowingsenlargedthe number of synonyms in English: native to hide – Fr. borr. To conceal, native wish – Fr. borr. desire, native smell – Fr. borr. odour, etc. · Some French affixes were borrowed into English (com-, sub-, dis-, -ment, -ish, -able,etc.).

Etymological Doublets. Sometimes a word is borrowed twice from the same language. As a result, we have two different words with different spellings and meanings but historically they come back to one and the same word. Such words are called etymological doublets:

Дата добавления: 2014-01-04