What is the word stock of english

The
word-stock of any language may be presented as a system, the elements
of which are interconnected, interrelated and yet independent. Then
the word-stock of the English language may be divided into three main
layers (strata): the
literary layer
(stratum), the
neutral layer,
and the
colloquial layer.
The literary and the colloquial layers contain a number of subgroups.
Each subgroup has a property it shares with all the subgroups within
the layer. This common property which unites the different groups
within the layer is called its aspect.

The
aspect of the
literary layer
is its bookish character, which makes the layer more or less stable.

The
aspect of the
colloquial
layer
is its lively spoken character, which makes it unstable, fleeting.

The
aspect of the
neutral layer
is its universal character. It can be employed in all styles of
language and in all spheres of human activity. This makes the layer
the most stable of all.

The classification given by
I.R. Galperin reflects to a great extent the mobility of the lexical
system so characteristic of the English language at its present stage
of development.

The
vocabulary has been divided here into two basic groups: standard
and non-standard
vocabulary. Diagram 14 demonstrates the aforementioned layers and
their subgroups.

Neutral
words
form the bulk of the English Vocabulary and are used in both literary
and colloquial language. Neutral words are the main source of
synonymy and polysemy. Unlike all other groups, neutral words don’t
have a special stylistic colouring and are devoid of emotional
meaning.

The
literary vocabulary
consists of the following subgroups of words:

1. common
   literary words;

2. terms
   and learned [‘lə:nid] words;

3. poetic
   words;

Diagram
14.

1. archaic
   words;

2. barbarisms
   and foreign words;

3. literary
   coinages and nonce-words.

The
colloquial
vocabulary
includes
the following groups of words:

1. common
   colloquial words;

2. slang;

3. jargonisms;

4. professionalisms;

5. dialectal
   words;

6. vulgar
   words;

7. colloquial
   coinages.

The
common literary, neutral and common colloquial words are grouped
under the term Standard
English Vocabulary.

Other
groups in the literary and colloquial layers are called special
literary
(bookish)
vocabulary and special
(non-standard)
colloquial
vocabulary.

Literary words

1.
Common
standard literary words
are
chiefly used in writing and in polished speech. They are used in
formal communication. One can always tell a literary word from a
colloquial word, because literary words are used to satisfy
communicative demands of official, scientific, poetic messages, while
colloquial words are employed in non-official everyday communication.

Literary words stand in
opposition to colloquial words forming pairs of synonyms which are
based on contrasting relations.

Colloquial
Neutral Literary

kid

child
infant

daddy
father parent

get
out go away retire

go
on continue proceed

start
begin commence

2.
Terms
are
words denoting objects, processes, phenomena of science, humanities,
technique. Terms are coined to nominate new concepts that appear in
the process of and as a result of technical progress and the
development of science. “All scientists are linguists to some
extent. They are responsible for devising a constituent terminology,
a skeleton language to talk about their subject-matter” (Ullmann
S., 1951). This quotation makes clear one of the essential
characteristics of a term – its highly conventional
character.
Another
of the most characte­ristic features of a term is its direct
relevance
to
the system or set of terms used in a particular science, discipline
or art, i.e. to its nomenclature.
Terms
are characterised by a tendency to be monosemantic
and therefore easily call forth the required concept. The terms of
linguistics are onomastics,
argot,
toponym,
phonology,
etc.

Learned
words
are lofty (bookish) words and phrases which do not pertain to some
specific scientific sphere of usage or nomenclature and are of
general, interdisciplinary character. They contribute to the message
the tone of solemnity, sophistication, seriousness, gravity,
learnedness, e.g. abode
(= home),
plausible
(= possible);
convoluted (=complicated or difficult to understand); to cooperate
(= to
work together);
to inform (= to
tell);
to assist (= to
help);
to promote (= to
help something develop);
to secure (= to
make certain)
social progress;
with the following objectives/ends (= for
these purposes);
to be determined / resolved (= to wish);
to endeavour (= to
try);
to proceed (= to go);
to inquire (= to ask).

3.
Poetic
and highly literary words belong to special
literary vocabulary. They are mostly archaic and aim at producing an
elevated effect or giving the work of art a lofty poetic colouring.
Poetic tradition has kept alive such archaic words and forms as
follows:

poetic	woe	quouth	hearken	speaketh	cometh	brethren
neutral	sorrow	speak	hear	speaks	comes	brothers

Poetic words in an ordinary
environment may also have a satirical or humorous function (Cf.
“Three men in a boat” by G.K. Jerome).

4.
Archaic
words (obsolescent
and obsolete words).

The
word-stock of any language is in the state of constant change. Words
change their meaning and sometimes drop out of the language
altogether. We shall distinguish three stages in the aging process of
words.

The
first stage
means the beginning of the aging process when the word becomes rarely
used. Such words are in the stage of gradually passing out of general
use, and are called obsolescent
(выходящий
из
употребления,
устаревающий).
These are morphological forms belonging to the earlier stages in the
development of the language. They are quite easily recognized by the
English language community, e.g. thou
(ты),
thee
(тебя,
тебе,
тобой),
thy
(твой),
-est
– thou
makest,
—(e)th
– he maketh,
speaketh,
wilt
– will.

Obsolescent words are widely
used in poetry as in the following poem by G.G.Byron “And wilt thou
weep when I am low?”:

And
wilt
thou weep
when I am low?

Sweet
lady! Speak those words again:

Yet
if they grieve thee,
say not so –

I
would not give that bosom pain.

My
heart is sad,
my hopes are gone,

My
blood runs coldly through my breast;

And
when I perish,
thou
alone

Wilt
sigh above my place of rest.

The
second stage
of the aging process. It includes those words that have already gone
completely out of use but are still recognized by the English
speaking community. They are called obsolete,
e.g. methinks
(=
it seems to me),
nay (=
no),
whereof (=
of which),
betwixt (=
between),
damsel
(=
noble girl (дама,
девица)),
steed (=
horse).

The
third stage
indicates the words which are no longer recognized in Modern English.
They are called archaic
proper,
e.g. losel
(=
a lazy fellow),
befall
(= happen),
cove
(= chap),
imp
(= shoot,
bud).
Archaisms name existing realia and have synonyms in Modern English.

It
should be mentioned that archaic words are frequently found in the
style of official documents, e.g. aforesaid
(aforenamed),
hereby,
hereinafter,
henceforth.
Their function here is terminological in character. They help to
maintain the exactness of expression so necessary in this style.

One
should distinguish archaic words from historical
words
denoting concepts and phenomena that are out of use in modern times.
They never disappear from the language and have no synonyms, e.g.
camisole,
dog-whipper,
berlin,
gig [gig],
manbote.
Historical words are primarily used in the creation of a realistic
background of historical novels.

5.
Barbarisms
and foreignisms
are words of foreign origin which have not entirely been assimilated
into the English language. They bear the appearance of a borrowing
and are felt as something alien to the native tongue. Most of them
have corresponding English synonyms, e.g. chic
(stylish), bon
mot
(a clever witty saying), tête-a
tête
(face to face).

Barbarisms
have already become facts of the English language: they are given in
dictionaries: taiga,
blitzkrieg,
perestroika,
Duma.

Foreign
words do not belong to the English vocabulary, they are not
registered in dictionaries. They are generally italicized to indicate
their foreign nature or their stylistic value. They have no synonyms,
e.g. kandidat,
siloviki,
byt,
poshlost,
meschanstvo.

Both barbarisms and foreign
words are used in various styles with various aims. One of their
functions is to supply local colour, that is to depict local
conditions of life, customs and habits, concrete facts and events and
other specific cultural peculiarities. Barbarisms and foreign words
very often convey the idea of the foreign origin or cultural and
educational status of the personage.

6.
Literary
coinages,
or nonce
words,
or occasional
words
are lexical units which are created just for a moment, for the given
occasion only. Then they almost always disappear forever, e.g. «Не
тормози,
сникерсни!»
One of the main reasons why nonce words are made up is that the
speaker cannot find the right word in the vocabulary for what he
wants to say. Words are coined to draw the reader’s/ listener’s
attention to something; to make one’s speech more expressive, etc.,
e.g. the word Kwyjibo
was used in The
Simpsons
“Bart the Genius” in a game of Scrabble, meaning “a bald,
overweight, North American ape of below average intelligence”.

Most
great writers were prolific in coining occasional words, for example,
V. Nabokov is responsible for originating such words as truthlet,
motherlesness,
lilitian,
pre-humbertian,
rosedarling,
libidream.

Sometimes
people play with language. In this case the intention is entirely
ludic. The brilliant example of language play is the following rhyme
Jabberwocky
from “Alice in Wonderland”:

‘Twas
brillig,
and the slithy toves

Did
gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All
mimsy were the borogoves,

And
the mome raths outgrabe.

Occasional
words are created with the help of all-productive types of
word-formation. For example, among several used by Lewis Carrol in
the extract above slithy
is a portmanteau of slimy
and lithe.

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  01.05.201512.56 Mб51ENLISH GRAMMAR (Understanding & Using).pdf

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by Linda Correli

Etymologically the vocabulary of the English language is far from
being homogenous. It consists of two layers — the native stock of
words and the borrowed stock of words. Numerically the borrowed stock
of words is considerably larger than the native stock of words.

In fact native words comprise only 30% of the total number of words
in the English vocabulary but the native words form the bulk of the
most frequent words actually used in speech and writing. Besides, the
native words have a wider range of lexical and grammatical valency,
they are highly polysemantic and productive in forming word clusters
and set expressions.

Borrowed words or loanwords are words taken from
another language and modified according to the patterns of the receiving
language.

In many cases a borrowed word especially one borrowed long ago is
practically indistinguishable from a native word without a thorough
etymological analysis. The number of the borrowings in the vocabulary
of the language and the role played by them is determined by the
historical development of the nation speaking the language.

The most effective way of borrowing is direct borrowing from another
language as the result of the contacts with other nations. Though,
a word may be also borrowed indirectly not from the source language
but through another language.

When analyzing borrowed words one should distinguish between two terms
— source of borrowing and origin of borrowing. The first
term is applied to the language from which the word was immediately borrowed
and the second — to the language to which the word may be ultimately traced.
The closer the two interacting languages are in structure the easier it
is for words of one language to penetrate into the other.

There are different approaches to classifying the borrowed stock of words

The borrowed stock of words may be classified according to the nature of
the borrowing itself as borrowing proper, loans translation and
semantic loans.

Loan translation or calque is a phrase borrowed from
another language by literal word-for-word translation.

Semantic loan is the borrowing of the meaning for a word already
existing in the English language.

Latin loans are classified into the subgroups.

1. Early Latin loans. Those are the words which came into English
   language through the languages of the Anglo-Saxon tribes. The tribes had
   been in contact with Roman civilization and had adopted many Latin words
   denoting objects belonging to that civilization long before the invasion
   of the Angles, Saxons and Judes into Britain (e.g., cup, kitchen, mill,
   wine, port).
2. Later Latin borrowings. To this group belong the words which
   penetrated into English language in the sixth and seventh centuries, when
   the English people were converted to Christianity (e.g., priest, bishop,
   nun, and candle).
3. The third period of the Latin borrowings includes words which
   came into English due to two historical events: the Norman Conquest and
   the Renaissance. Some came to English language through French but some
   were borrowed directly from Latin (e.g., major, minor, intelligent, permanent).
4. The latest layer of Latin words. The words of this period are
   mainly abstract and scientific words (e.g., nylon, molecular, vaccine,
   phenomenon, and vacuum).

The tendency of the English language to borrow extensively can be traced
during the centuries. Thus, one can confidently claim that borrowing is
one of the most productive sources of enrichment of the English vocabulary.

About the author:

Linda Correli is a staff writer of
www.CustomResearchPapers.us
and an author of the popular online tutorial for students «What Teachers
Want: Master the Art of Essay Writing in 10 Days», available at
www.Go2Essay.com

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