Words of native origin and their characteristics

Etymologically, the vocabulary of the two contrasted languages is far from being homogeneous. It consists of two layers – the native stock and borrowed stock of words. Native words comprise only about 30% of the total number of words in the English language. On a straight vocabulary count, considering the high percentage of borrowed words, one would have to classify English as a language of international origin or, at least, a Romance one (as French and Latin words obviously prevail). But here another factor comes into play, the relative frequency of occurrence of words, and it is under this heading that the native Anglo-Saxon heritage comes into its own. The native element in English comprises a large number of high-frequency words like the articles, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, auxiliaries and, also, words denoting everyday objects and ideas (e. g. house, child, water, go, come, eat, good, bad, etc.). Words belonging to the subsets of the native word stock are for the most part characterized by a wide range of lexical and grammar valency, high frequency value and a developed polysemy. They often are monosyllabic, show great word-building power and enter a number of set expressions. Furthermore, the grammatical structure is essentially Germanic having remained unaffected by foreign influence.

A native word is a word which belongs to the original English (Ukrainian) stock, as known from the earliest available manuscripts of the Old English period (for English) and Old Slavonic (in Ukrainian). A loan word (borrowed, a borrowing) is a word taken over from another language and modified in phonemic shape, spelling, paradigm or meaning according to the standards of the English (Ukrainian) language. The native words are further subdivided into Indo-European and Common Cermanic.

By the Indo-European element are meant words of roots common to all or most languages of the Indo-European group. Both English and Ukrainian words of this group denote elementary concepts without which no human communication would be possible. The following groups can be identified:

1. Family relations: father, mother, brother, son, daughter, мати, брат, дочка.

2. Parts of the human body: foot (cf. Ukr. п’ядь), nose, lip, heat, ніс.

3. Animals: cow, swine, goose ( cf. Ukrainian свиня, гусак, корова).

4. Plants: tree ( Cf. Ukr. дерево), birch (cf. Ukr. береза), corn (cf. Ukr. зерно).

5. Time of day: day, night день, ніч.

6. Heavenly bodies: sun, moon, star, зірка, сонце.

7. Adjectives: red (cf. Ukr. рудий, R. рыжий), new, glad (cf. Ukr. гладкий), sad (cf. R. сыт).

8. The numerals from one to a hundred.

9. Pronouns — personal (except they which is a Scandinavian borrowing); demonstrative.

10. Numerous verbs: be (cf. R. быть), stand (cf. Ukr. стоятu), sit (cf. Ukr. сидіти), eat (cf. Ukr. їсти), know (cf. Ukr. знати, знаю).

The Germanic element represents words of roots common to all or most Germanic languages. Some of the main groups of Germanic words are the same as in the Indo-European element.

1. Parts of the human body: head, hand, arm, finger, bone.

2. Animals: bear, fox, calf.

3. Plants: oak, fir, grass.

4. Natural phenomena: rain, frost.

5. Seasons of the year: winter, spring, summer.

6. Landscape features: sea, land.

7. Human dwellings and furniture: house, room, bench.

8. Sea-going vessels: boat, ship.

9. Adjectives: green, blue, grey, white, small, thick, high, old, good.

10. Verbs: see, hear, speak, tell, say, answer, make, give, drink.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-07