LEXICOLOGY
Lecture 2
ENGLISH ETYMOLOGY
Topics for discussion:
1. General etymological survey.
2. Types of borrowings.
3. Assimilation of borrowings.
4. Linguistic effects of borrowing.
5. Borrowings in modern English.
Etymology – the study of lexical
history (mg development).
development
English – a ‘hospitable lg’:
lg
on the basis of the Germanic tribal lgs;
lgs
its core – by the 7th c.;
c
mixed character – 30% vs. 70%;
120 lgs – sources of its present-day
vocabulary
WORDSTOCK
native words
borrowings/loans
1) Indo-European stock; 1) Celtic (5-6th c. A.D.)
2) Germanic origin 2) Latin (3 waves)
3) English proper 3) Scandinavian (8-11th c. A.D.)
4) French
5) Greek, Italian, Spanish etc.
NATIVE Vocabulary:
1) stability;
stability
2) semantic value (parts of body, family members
& closest relatives, animals, common actions,
natural phenomena);
3) wide collocability:
collocability idioms, phrasal verbs, stone
wall constructions;
4) polysemy;
polysemy
5) derivational potential;
potential
6) wide sphere of application & high frequency
value.
Conditions stimulating borrowing process:
1) close contact;
2) domination of some lg/s;
3) a sense of need – to fill a gap in the vocabulary
(butter, plum, beet; potato, tomato);
4) prestige.
Source of borrowings – the lg from which
the loan word was taken into English.
Origin of borrowing – the lg to which the
loan word may be traced
• rouble:
rouble Rus. Fr. Eng.
• cotton: Ar. Fr. Eng.
WAYS of BORROWINGS
through oral speech written speech
time
length of words
peculiarities of words
2. Types of borrowings
1) borrowings proper (table, chair, people;
iceberg, lobby);
2) translation-loans/
translation-loans calques;
calques
3) semantic loans;
loans
4) international words;
words
5) combining forms/
forms neo-classical
compounds;
compounds
6) hybrid words;
words
7) etymological doublets;
doublets
8) folk etymology.
etymology
CALQUES – words/expressions formed from
the material existing in the lg but according to
patterns taken from another lg, by means of
literal morpheme-for-morpheme/word-for-
word translation
from Lat. ‘circulus vitiosus’;
from Lat. ‘solis dies’;
from Sp. ‘el momento de la verdad’
from Ger. ‘Übermensch’
pipe of peace,
peace pale-faced
from Rus. ‘черная вдова’
SEMANTIC LOANS – words that acquired
a new mg due to the influence of a related word
in another lg
pioneer
to dwell: OE ‘to wander’ + ‘to live’
(Sc.)
gift: OE ‘ransom for one’s wife’ + ‘a
present’ (Sc.)
INTERNATIONAL words – words of
identical origin that appear in several lgs as a
result of simultaneous/successive borrowing
from one ultimate source
film, club, cocktail, jazz
•reflecting history of world culture
•notions important for communication
COMBINING FORMS/neo-classical
compounds – words made of borrowed roots
of Greek/Latin origin
telephone, photograph, bioenergy,
futurology
•didn’t exist in the original lg, formed in
modern times
•mostly international
HYBRID WORDS – words made up of
elements derived from two or more lgs:
Gr./Lat./Fr. + native
• Eng. stem + Lat. sfx
readable, eatable, likable;
• Fr. root + nat. sfx
senseless, cheerless, colourless;
colourless
• schoolboy (Gr. + nat.)
ETYMOLOGICAL DOUBLETS – 2 words
of the same lg derived from the same basic word
but by different routes
Lat. Eng.
Fr. Eng.
Lat. fragilis fragile
OFr. frele frail
grammar – glamour; canal – channel, senior --
sir
Lat. ‘quies’,
quies ‘quietus’
quietus Eng. ‘quiet’
quiet
Fr. Eng. ‘quite’
quite
Gr. ‘thesauros’
thesauros (a store) Lat. Eng.
‘thesaurus’
thesaurus
OFr. ‘tresor’
tresor Eng. ‘treasure’
treasure
Etymol. triplets:
hospital (Lat.) – hostel (Norm. Fr.) – hotel
(Par. Fr.)
capture – catch -- chase
Scandinavian influence:
shirt – skirt
shift -- skip
FOLK ETYMOLOGY – mistaken forms
OFr. salier (‘salt-box’) salt-cellar
Sp. cucuracha cockroach
Fr. surounder (‘overflow’)
Eng. surround (‘encircle’)
ASSIMILATION of borrowings –
adaptation of a loan word to the norms of the
given lg
Types of assimilation:
1) phonetic (shift of stress): `capital, `service;
`
2) grammatical: protégés;
3) lexical/semantic (changes in the semantic
structure): stool, surround, nice
4) graphic (phantom/fantom)
Degree of assimilation:
1) complete (sky, get, skin, skirt; table, sport)
2) partial:
partial
• non-assimilated semantically:
semantically sombrero, shah,
sheikh, tsar, zloty
• n/a grammat.:
grammat criteria; but: formulas vs.
formulae, mediums vs. media
• n/a phonetically:
phonetically police, cartoon; parkour [pɑː
ˈkʊə], [ˈpɑːr.kʊr]
• n/a graphically:
graphically protège, cortège, cliché;
morpheme;
3) n/a = barbarisms (dolce vita; tête-à-tête;
Déjà Vu; beau monde)
4. Linguistic effects of borrowing
1) increase in stylistic synonyms (cordial –
friendly, desire – wish, admire – adore - like)
2) changes in the semantic structure of
words:
• specialization of mg of native words
• new mgs
3) derivational ability (re-, -able, -ism)
4) changes in morphological system
5) changes in phonetic structure (sk-, v-, [oi])
Borrowings in Modern English
Culture:
• cuisine: croissant, tiramisu, sushi
• sports: aikido
• mantras, guru, sudoku, karaoke, graffiti, feng
shui
Politics:
• jihad/jehad; niqab, hijab; sharia
• perestroika, glasnost; siloviki, krysha
• black widow
