F) Colloquial coinages

E) Vulgar words

D) Dialectal words

C) Professionalisms

Professionalisms are the words used in a definite trade, profession or calling by people connected by common interests both at work or at home. Professional words name anew already existing concepts, tools or instruments, and have the typical properties of a special code. Their main feature is technicality. They are monosemantic.

Professionalisms do not aim at secrecy. They fulfill a socially useful function in communication, facilitating a quick and adequate grasp of the message. Professionalisms are used in emotive prose to depict the natural speech of a character. The skilful use of a professional word will show not only the vocation of a character, but also his education, breeding, environment and sometimes even his psychology.

Dialectal words are those which in the process of integration of the English national language remained beyond its literary boundaries, and their use is generally confined to a definite locality. There sometimes is confusion between the terms dialectal, slang and vernacular. All these groups when used in emotive prose are meant to characterize the speaker as a person of a certain locality, breeding, education, etc.

Some dialectal words are universally accepted as recognized units of the standard colloquial English. Of quite a different nature are dialectal words which are easily recognized as corruptions of standard English words. Dialectal words are only to be found in the style of emotive prose, very rarely in other styles. And even here their use is confined to the function of characterizing personalities through their speech.

The term vulgarism is rather misleading. Webster’s “New International Dictionary” defines vulgarism as “a vulgar phrase or expression, or one used only in colloquial, or, esp. in unrefined or low, speech”. I.R.Galperin defines vulgarisms as expletives or swear-words and obscene words and expressions.

There are different degrees of vulgar words. Some of them, the obscene ones, are called “four-letter” words. A lesser degree of vulgarity is presented by expletives and they sometimes appear in euphemistic spelling.

The function of vulgarisms is almost the same as that of interjections, that is to express strong emotions. They are not to be found in any style of speech except emotive prose, and here only in the direct speech of the characters.

Colloquial coinages (nonce-words) are spontaneous and elusive. Most of them disappear from the language leaving no trace in it. Some nonce-words and meanings may acquire legitimacy and thus become facts of the language, while on the other hand they may be classified as literary or colloquial according to which of the meanings is being dealt with.

When a nonce-word comes into general use and is fixed in dictionaries, it is classified as a neologism for a very short period of time. This shows the objective reality of contemporary life. Technical progress is so rapid that it builds new notions and concepts which in their turn require new words to signify them. Nonce-coinage appears in all spheres of life.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-07