Lectures in Contrastive Lexicology of the English and Ukrainian Languages

The Normans who conquered England in 1066 were of Scandinavian origin and their French differed somewhat from the central dialect of France. During two centuries after the Norman Conquest the linguistic situation in England was rather complicated; the feudal lords spoke the Norman dialect of the French language, the people spoke English, scientific and theological literature was in Latin, the court literature was in French. Latin and French were used in administration and school teaching. Still English was in common use and therefore the Norman dialect was to a certain extent influenced by English in some phonetical and lexical points. Gradually English assimilated many French words that either ousted their Saxon equivalents (OE unhope – despair; OE tholemodness – patience), brought new concepts (exchequer, parliament) or became synonyms to native words (to help = to aid; weak = feeble).

Before the Norman Conquest only a few words were borrowed: proud, market.

French words borrowed during the period of the 12th –16th centuries show the social status of the Norman invaders and their supremacy in economic, cultural and political development. At that time a lot of terms were borrowed into the English language:

-        terms of rank: duke, prince, baron;

-        law terms: prison, jury, judge;

-        military terms: army, peace, soldier;

-        religious terms: pray, faith, saint;

-        terms of art: art, beauty, paint;

-        terms of architecture: pillar, palace, castle.

In most cases such words were completely assimilated.

Later French borrowings can be easily identified by their peculiar form and pronunciation: garage, technique, machine.

8. Various Other Elements in the English Vocabulary

Quite a number of words were borrowed from other languages: Dutch, Italian, Spanish. England was in commercial contact with the Netherlands during the Middle ages. There lived and worked many skilful Dutch artisans in England (weavers, shipbuilders). Hence, the terminology of some professions owes much to Dutch and Flemish: cruise, dock, reef. Among borrowings there are also weaving terms: rock, spool.

Dutch art terms came to English as a result of the influence of Dutch art (landscape, easel).

The Italian language began to contribute to the English vocabulary in the16thcentury. Many Italian words such as military terms entered through French. During the period of Renaissance Italian culture greatly influenced the cultural life of England. Many musical terms were borrowed at that time: piano, opera, sonata. Among borrowings we find artistic terms (studio, fresco), literary terms (stanza, canto), business terms (bank, traffic), words denoting realities of Italian life (gondola, macaroni).

Spanish brought some words as well. Many words belonging to various languages of the native population of America came through Spanish: banana, canyon, cargo, potato, Negro.

Some Portuguese words came through French, Spanish and Dutch: caste, fetish. There are not many words borrowed immediately from Portuguese: tank, cobra, port (wine), emu.

There are borrowings from the German language: cobalt, quartz, leitmotiv, kindergarten, rucksack.

Some other languages contributed to the English vocabulary as well. Arabian gave some terms: algebra, Moslem, mufti, sherbet.

With the beginning of England’s colonial expansion in the 16th-17th centuries many words penetrated into the English vocabulary from the languages of colonial countries: cashmere, jungle, rupee (Hindi), ginseng, serge (Chinese), hara-kiri, rickshaw (Japanese).

The Russian language also contributed to the English vocabulary: rouble, kopeck, taiga, sable, sarafan, tsar.

In the Ukrainian language there borrowings from the Polish language (в’язень, застава, ліжко, зичити), from the Check language (брама, праця, вагатися). There also exist Turkic words (кабан, кайдани) in the Ukrainian language.

Words borrowed from the English language are partially assimilated (футбол, хокей). Some borrowings in the Ukrainian language are restricted in word-formation. Such words as ноу-хау, от кутюр have no derivatives.

International words are used in both languages: organisation, telephone, judo, banana. Some international words can coincide only in one of the meanings. E.g.: the words stress, faculty, data. They are called pseudointernationalisms.

9. False Etymology

The historical development of borrowed words often brings about an indistinctness of the word’s etymological meaning. The words are then wrongly associated with their ultimate source whereas actually the word may have come through some intermediate language. The word debt comes not from the Latin word debit but from the French dette while doubt comes not from the Latin word dubitare but from the French word doute. But scientists wrongly attributed them directly to the Latin source and consequently introduced the missing b which never came to be pronounced.

In many cases words lose their etymological clarity. The word buttery (larder) which came from the Latin word botaria (Latin bota – barrel, bottle) was wrongly associated with the English word butter. Such instances of the so-called folk etymology are not very rare in the English language.

In some cases folk etymology leads to the appearance of compound words which are tautological. In the word greyhound the first element of which comes from the Scandinavian grey (собака) was associated with grey meaning colour.

Sometimes under the influence of folk etymology the spelling of the word is changed. The word hiccough was written hicket but it was associated with the word cough and a new spelling was introduced.

10. Types of Borrowings

1. Aliens – words like eau-de-Cologne, phenomenon – phenomena, retaining their foreign look, their phonetical and grammatical peculiarities.

2. Denizens – loan-words that received the “right of citizenship” in English and are not easily recognised as borrowings (wine, table).

3. Barbarisms – words usually having synonyms among the completely assimilated or native words limited to official, literary, bookish usage (en regale, tete-a-tete).

4. Translation loans – a word-for-word or element—for-element translation of a unit of the lexical source language (blue stocking, collective farm).

5. Semantic borrowings – the words which changed their meanings under the influence of a foreign language: cadres (військовий персонал – кадри).

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VOCABULARY

1.                  Ways of classifying the vocabulary.

2.                  Special literary vocabulary

a)                  neologisms;

b)                 archaisms.

3.                  Special Colloquial vocabulary

a) dialects.

b) slang.

1.  Ways of Classifying the Vocabulary

The whole of the word-stock of the English language can be divided into three main layers: the literary layer, the neutral layer and the colloquial layer. The literary and colloquial layers contain a number of subgroups each of which has a property it shares with all the subgroups within the layer. Prof. I. Galperin calls this common property the aspect. The aspect of the literary layer is its markedly bookish character. It makes the layer more or less stable. The aspect of the colloquial layer is its lively spoken character which makes the layer unstable. The aspect of the neutral layer is its universal character. That means it is unrestricted in its use. It can be used in all styles of the language. It is this feature that makes the layer the most stable of all.

The subgroups of the special literary vocabulary are the following: terms, poetical words, foreignisms and barbarisms, archaic words, nonce-words.

The subgroups of the special colloquial layer are such: dialectical words, vulgarisms, slang, jargon, professionalisms, nonce-words.

The common literary, neutral and common colloquial words are grouped under the term Standard English vocabulary. Other groups in the literary layer are regarded as special literary vocabulary and those in the colloquial layer are regarded as special colloquial vocabulary.

Words can be classified from the point of view of their origin. They can be native and borrowed (See the previous chapter).

2.  Special Literary Vocabulary

a) Neologisms

Neologisms are words and expressions used for new concepts that appear in the course of the language development, new meanings of the already existing words and new names of old concepts.

Neologisms appear all the time. The words table, sky once were neologisms. But soon they became vital and widespread to be felt neologisms. Names of different fruit, species were new names of new concepts (pea, cherry, pepper). The introduction of Christianity brought with it a great number of new concepts and words (church, candle). The Norman Conquest also contributed to the enrichment of the English vocabulary (army).

The development of industry, the development of technology, new inventions caused the appearance of new words (film, television, self-starter).

A great number of neologisms appeared during the periods of great social upheavals (machine, bank, investment).

After the Bourgeois Revolution in France there appeared such words as bureaucracy, revolution, regime, terrorism.

After World War I such neologisms as blackout, camouflage, air-raid appeared.

After World War II such words as H-bomb, the UNO, cold war entered the language.

In the 70-s of the 20th century neologisms were connected with all spheres of life: computerization (multi-user, neurocomputer, liveware, telepost, telebanking,

finger-print) ; exploration of space (space-bike, cargo-module, link-up); development of the arts (soft art, action painting, kinetic art; development of cinema, TV, video (inflight videosystem, satellite-delivered show, kidvid); theatrical art (theatre of absurd, son et lumiere, revolve); social development (the Lib movement, libbie). In the 70s libbies declared that the English language discriminated women. As a result of it the names denoting occupations and containing the element man underwent some changes. The word cameraman was substituted by operator, fireman – fire-fighter, chairman – chairperson, policeman – police officer. Even in church the word mankind was substituted by people. At the same time the names of women’s professions were changed: stewardess – flight attendant, nurse – male nurse, male secretary. He/she in written speech is used when both sexes are meant. S/he variant is less frequently used.

In the 80-s – 90-s of the 20th century neologisms were connected with lifestyles (belonger, ladies who lunch, theme pub); computerisation (laptop, to back up, to toggle); economics (sunrise industry, sunset industry, dawn raid); music (acid house, MTV, New Age music); mass media (video nasty, video piracy, tabloid television); art (crossfader, body-popping); medicine (to burn out, PWA, ME); education (baker day, City technology college ; fashion (body conscious, leisure wear); cookery (jacket crisp, tapas, yarg).

New semi-affixes were registered: -driven/led (market-led, design-driven); -friendly (environment-friendly, student-friendly); -something (thirty-something, fifty-something); -ware (software, hardware, wetware); -wise (power-wise, money-wise); loadsa- (loadsamoney, loadsabonuses).

Neologisms can be divided into three groups: neologisms proper in which the novelty of the form is combined with the novelty of the contents (audiotyping, bio-computer, thought-processor); transnominations which combine the novelty of the form with the meaning which was already rendered by another form (sudser, big C, bail-out); semantic innovations in which a new meaning is rendered by a form which already exists in the language (bread, drag, gas).

The English language enriches its vocabulary at the expense of borrowings but it happens not so frequently as it was in the Middle Ages or during the period of Renaissance. From the receiving language it turned into the language that gives. It is connected with the fact that it became the language of international communication. Borrowings constitute about 7,5% of all neologisms. The main source of borrowings is French (cinematheque, petit dejeuner). But there appeared a new tendency to borrow words from Japanese (zazen), Yiddish (nudge, zoftig, shlep).

Recently there have appeared many borrowings in the Ukrainian language: електорат, Інтернет, гіпсокартон, дилер, імідж.

b) Archaisms

Language is never stable. In the course of time the vocabulary changes by being supplemented with new words which come into being with the development of science and culture. A certain number of obsolete words usually drop out of the vocabulary of the language. Obsolete words pass out of use completely or remain in the language as elements performing purely historical descriptive functions. The disappearance of old occupations causes the disappearance of their old names. The names of such old occupations can be preserved as family names: Chandler (candle maker), Webster (weaver), Wright (worker). Archaic words can be preserved in proverbs: Many a little makes a mickel. The verb to read in the old meaning to interpret, to guess survived in to read a riddle. An old sense of favour (features, looks) survived in hard-favoured, ill-favoured, well-favoured. The preposition on was once common in the meaning because of. This meaning survives in on purpose, on compulsion. The preposition with originally meant against and now this meaning is preserved in withdraw, withstand. Archaic are the following adverbs: therefore, therefrom, wherein, thereon. Archaic are the participles ending in -en: drunken, gotten, washen.

Archaisms surviving in compounds, phraseological units are only partly understood as archaisms. Oft is not archaic when combined with present and past participles as in oft-recurring. Told is a survival of the Old English word tellan (to count) in all told.

In colloquial speech he word aught survives in for aught I know

(As far as I know).

Archaisms can be classified into lexical and grammatical. Lexical archaisms are words: woe (sorrow), nigh (near), aught (anything). Grammatical archaisms are old grammatical forms: thou (you), the -est inflexion for the 2nd person singular, -th for the 3rd person singular, the plural form of brother (brethren), tense forms like wilt, spake, builded.

Historisms belong to obsolete words. The causes of their appearance are extralinguistic. It is the denotatum that is outdated. They are very numerous as names for social relations and institutions and objects of material culture of the past. The names of ancient weapons, types of boats, types of carriages, instruments belong to historisms: battle axe, battering ram.

Archaisms differ from historisms in this respect that they are obsolete names for existing objects. Archaisms always have synonyms : to deem - to think, glee – joy.

Obsolete words survived as parts of compound words. The word gar, an old word for spear, survives in garlic, garfish. The word mara (incubus, an evil spirit) survives in nightmare.

One can also speak about obsolete meanings not only about obsolete words. Thus, to come used to mean to be seemly or becoming, to fall was used in the meaning of to move quickly. But these meanings are practically forgotten now.

Ukrainian archaic words are: чоло, перст, всує, ланіти, узріти. Смерд, війт, кожум’яка, плахта, аршин are historisms.

3. Special Colloquial Vocabulary

a)Dialects

The history of the English language begins with the incursions of the Germanic tribes in the middle of the 5th century. The Jutes came first and occupied the smallest territory (Kent and the Isle of Wight). The Saxons occupied practically all of England south of the Thames with the exception of the Jutish territories and Cornwall. They also occupied some territories north of the Thames. The Angles occupied the greater part of what is now England.

The first dialect that could lay claim to literary precedence was the Northumbrian, the language of the kingdom of Northumbria , including the north of England and the south of Scotland. Other dialects which had grown apart by the 8th century were Mercian, Saxon, Kentish. After the fall of Northumbria from its political supremacy Northumbrian sank to the position of a provincial dialect and under King Alfred in the 9th century the West Saxon dialect came to be predominant and was regarded as a literary language.

The Norman Conquest displaced the southern dialect of Wessex from the position of supremacy. The West Saxon sank to the level of other dialects.

The development of feudalism in England tended to create dialectical divergences of speech. During the 12th- 13th centuries there existed a number of dialects each of which had as much right as any other to be called the English language. During the Middle English period there existed the following dialects: Northern, Midland, Southern. The Northern dialect was the descendant of the Northumbrian dialect of Old English. Later a variety of the Northumbrian dialect was developed into the Scottish language. The Midland dialect was the descendant of the Mercian dialect of the Old English period. It was divided into two distinct varieties: East Midland and West Midland. The Southern dialect was spoken between the Thames and the English Channel. It was a descendant of the West Saxon dialect. Of these three dialects it was the Midland dialect that became the national language of the country. The reason that led to the predominance of the Midland dialect was a large territory which was most important economically, politically and culturally.

The dialect of London was the dialect of such cultural centres as Oxford and Cambridge. It was the form of speech native to Chaucer who wrote in the Midland dialect and contributed greatly to raising it to the position of superiority.

The dialectical peculiarities observed in some of the elements of the Modern English vocabulary go back to the dialects of Old English and to the subsequent dialectical division of the feudal epoch. Those Old English words that were not included into the most stable and widely used layer of the English vocabulary are often preserved in dialects: bairn (child), kemp (fighter). Sometimes dialectical words are not remnants of Old English words but corrupted words and expressions, such as nammut (lunch), gurt (great), zote (soft).

There are also borrowed words used only in dialects: bonny (pretty), tass (cup).

As far as grammatical peculiarities are concerned the following cases can be mentioned: the usage of I be in the South , I is in the North. In the South they use the interrogative and negative constructions without the auxiliary do.

There is one more dialect that enjoys a somewhat peculiar position for it can be met almost anywhere in English-speaking countries – Cockney. Its lexical, phonetical and grammatical peculiarities can be found in the speech of Eliza Doolittle in B.Shaw’s “Pygmalion”.

There are two kinds of ordinary Cockney: – the variety of Modified Standard speech which is the typical Cockney English of London, as spoken by educated middle-class people; - the variety of Modified Standard which is also heard in London but which is spoken by the semi-literate and quite illiterate.

There are several peculiarities of Cockney. In pronunciation speakers consistently drop the sound [h] where it ought to be heard and put in [h] where there is none: ’am an’ heggs (ham and eggs), I ’ate (I hate), in the hopen air (in the open air).

The substitution of [n] by [n] is quite a common thing: mornin’, goin’, puddin’.

The sounds [d] and [t] are also frequently dropped as in an’ (and), hobjec’ (object), nex’ (next).

The sound [w] is dropped : ekal (equal).

The diphthong shift is characteristic of Cockney: [ai] is used instead of [ei], [oi] instead of [ai], [au] instead of [ou].

The Cockney grammar exhibits several anomalies: I’s bin (have been); I ain’t (am not); I, we, you calls; we, you was; I has; he do.

In the Ukrainian language there are three groups of territorial dialects: northern, south-eastern, south-western. E.g.: in the northern dialect such words can be found as: коросліп (пролісок), веселуха (райдуга), хупавий (гарний), жалива (кропива), скот (худоба), но (але) are used in the south-eastern dialect. In the northern dialect such words as бараболя (картопля), стрий (дядько по батькові), банітувати (лаяти), пантрувати (стежити) are used.

b) Slang

By slang we mean words or phrases in common colloquial usage in some or all of their senses hanging on the outskirts of the literary language but continually forcing their way into it. On the other hand, the term is often applied to the words and phrases peculiar to people of some class or profession. Slang is often humorous, witty. It is more and more penetrating into the literary language. The slang word is a deliberate substitute for a word of the vernacular just as a nickname is a substitute for a personal name. Slang is unstable and it has no fixed meaning.

Slang can be of two types: general and special. General slang includes words that are not specific for any social or professional group: bean, block, dome, upper storey for a head; three sheets in the wind, half-seas-over, pin-eyed for drunk. Базар (розмова), здрейфити (злякатися), наїжджати (чіплятися, погрожувати, кльово (дуже добре) are used in the Ukrainian language.

Special slang is peculiar for some groups of people: university slang, football slang etc.

Special slang should be distinguished from terms. When the word is the only name for the special notion it belongs not to slang but to terminology. If the word is a jocular name for something that can be described in some other way it is slang. There are cases when words originated as professional slang later assumed the dignity of special terms or passed on into general slang. The expression to be on the beam was first used by pilots about the beam of the radio beacon indicating the proper course for the aircraft to follow. Then figuratively to be on the beam came to mean to be right and to be off the beam began to mean to be at a loss.

The most important peculiarities of slang concern the plane of content not the plane of form. The lexical meaning of a slang word contains not only the denotational component but also an emotive component. Slang words are clearly motivated: cradle-snatcher (an old man who marries a young woman); belly-robber (the head of a military canteen).

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

A – Adjective

Adv – Adverb

Lat – Latin

N – Noun

N’s – Noun in the Genitive Case

Num – Numeral

OE – Old English

OFr – Old French

OSc – Old Scandinavian

Prep - Preposition

V - Verb

REFERENCES

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