Lexical influence of the French language

The first appearance of French words in English began in the 12^th century and not immediately after the Norman conquest. During the 13^th -14^th centuries the number of French words in English was still growing. In 1265 the English Parliament was opened and its sittings were conducted in French. The situation when two languages were in use in the country brought to mass borrowings from one language from into another. Many of the French borrowings of that period were connected with the life and traditions of the French nobility. At the same time many other borrowings came into English which denoted notions and things already existing in English. In such cases pairs of synonyms appeared in English. These words may be divided into the following groups according to spheres of activity:

1) words connected with the state and government, the court, and jurisdiction: government, to govern, parliament, power, nation, people, justice, judge, council, prince, baron, noble, sentence;

2) words connected with army and military life: army, war, peace, battle, enemy, defeat, retreat, defense, victory, soldier, officer, captain, colonel, lieutenant, conquest, regiment:

3) words connected with religion and church: religion, saint, prayer;

4) town professions: butcher, painter, tailor;

5) country professions: miller, shoemaker, shepherd;

6) art notions: art, colour, figure, image, ornament;

7) amusements: pleasure, leisure, feast, dinner, supper, roast;

As a result of the French influence exercised upon England there appeared such groups of synonyms as: to begin - to commence; to hide - to conceal; to feed - to nourish, to look for to search; deep - profound.

The difference between the native word and its French synonym is that the former s more colloquial the latter is more literary. In a few cases however it is the French word that is more colloquial than its English synonym. The word «valley» is more colloquial than its English synonym «dale» which is used in poetry. The French word «action» is more widely used than «deed». Besides that a great number of French words penetrated into English at the period of the Norman conquest, there were borrowed some world-building elements, prefixes, suffixes:

1) -ance, ence; they serve to form abstract nouns from verbs and adjectives. They penetrated into English with such French nouns as: ignorance, entrance, experience. And in the 15^th century we find the noun «hindrance» formed from the verb «to hinder» which is of the Anglo-Saxon origin;

2) -ment serves to form nouns from verbs, it penetrated into English with such French words as: government, parliament, ornament.

3) -age. The following words were borrowed: courage, marriage, carriage;

4) -able, ible were borrowed to form adjectives. At that period there were borrowed such adjectives as: flexible, tolerable;

5) -ess was borrowed to form feminine nouns, it penetrated into English with such nouns as «princess», «countess». In MnE there are a lot of nouns with this suffix: hostess, shepherdess, goddess;

6) -let was borrowed with the word «circlet» in MnE: booklet, streamlet, droplet, ringlet;

7) -al - refusal, funeral, proposal, burial.

To the group of prefixes refer «dis-, en-»: disappoint, disappear, encage, enrich, encircle.

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