language.

The term vocabulary is used to denote the system formed by the sum
total of all the words and word equivalents that the language possesses. The
term word denotes the basic unit of a given language resulting from the
association of a particular meaning with a particular group of sounds capable of
a particular grammatical employment. A word therefore is simultaneously a
semantic, grammatical and phonological unit. The general study of words and
vocabulary, irrespective of the specific features of any particular language, is
known as general lexicology. Linguistic phenomena and proper-ties common to
all languages are generally referred to as language universals. Special
lexicology devotes its attention to the description of the characteristic
peculiarities in the vocabulary of a given language. Every special lexicology is
based on the principles of gen-eral lexicology, and the latter forms a part of
general linguistics. A branch of study called contrastive lexicology provides a
theoretical basis on which the vocabularies of different languages can be
compared and described. The evolution of any vocabulary, as well as of its
single elements, forms the object of historical lexicology or etymology. This
branch of linguistics discusses the origin of vari-ous words, their change and
development, and investigates the linguistic and extra-linguis-tic forces
modifying their structure, meaning and usage. In the past historical treatment
was always combined with the comparative method. Historical lexicology has
been criticised for its atomistic approach, i.e. for treating every word as an
individual and isolated unit. But historical study of words is not necessarily
atomistic. Historical lexicology cannot survey the evolution of a vocabulary as
an adaptive system, showing its change and devel-opment in the course of time.
Descriptive lexicology deals with the vocabulary of a given language at a given
stage of its development. It studies the functions of words and their specific
structure as a char-acteristic inherent in the system. The descriptive lexicology
of the English language deals with the English word in its morphological and
semantical structures, investigating the in-terdependence between these two
aspects. These structures are identified and distinguished by contrasting the
nature and arrangement of their elements. Lexicology also studies all kinds of
semantic grouping and semantic relations: syn-onymy, antonymy, hyponymy,
semantic fields, etc. Meaning relations as a whole are dealt with in semantics -
the study of meaning which is relevant both for lexicology and grammar. The
distinction between the two basically different ways in which language may be
viewed, the historical or diachronic (Gr dia 'through' and chronos 'time') and the
de-scriptive or synchronic (Gr syn 'together', 'with'), is a methodological
distinction, a dif-ference of approach, artificially separating for the purpose of
study what in real language
is inseparable, because actually every linguistic structure and
system exists in a state of constant development. The
distinction between a synchronic and a diachronic approach is
due to the Swiss philologist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-
1913). Indebted as we are to him for this important dichotomy,
we cannot accept either his axiom that synchronic linguis-tics is
concerned with systems and diachronic linguistics with single
units or the rigorous separation between the two. Subsequent
investigations have shown the possibility and the necessity of
introducing the historical point of view into systematic studies
of languages. Language is the reality of thought, and thought
develops together with the develop-ment of society, therefore
language and its vocabulary must be studied in the light of
social history. Every new phenomenon in human society and in
human activity in general, which is of any importance for
communication, finds a reflection in vocabulary. A word,
through its meaning rendering some notion, is a generalised
reflection of reality; it is therefore impossible to understand its
development if one is ignorant of the changes in social, politi-
cal or everyday life, production or science, manners or culture
it serves to reflect. These extra-linguistic forces influencing the
development of words are considered historical lexicology. The
point may be illustrated by the following example: W Past
comes into English through French and Italian from Latin. Low
Latin porta posita fern. p.p. of Latin ponere, posit, v. 'place". In
the beginning of the 16th century it meant 'one of a number of
men stationed with horses along roads at intervals, their duty
being to ride forward with the King's "packet" or other letters,
from stage to stage. This meaning is now obsolete, because
this type of communication is obsolete. The word, how-ever,
has become international and denotes the present-day system
of carrying and deliv-ering letters and parcels. Its synonym
mail, mostly used in America, is an ellipsis from a mail of
letters, ie, 'a bag of letters. It comes from Old French male
(modern malle) "bag", a word of Germanic origin. Thus, the
etymological meaning of mail is 'a bag or a packet of letters or
dispatches for conveyance by post. Another synonym of bag is
sack which shows a different meaning development. Sack is a
large bag of coarse cloth, the verb ro sack 'dismiss from
service' comes from the expression to get the sack, which
probably rose from the habit of craftsmen of old times, who on
getting a job took their own tools to the works; when they left
or were dismissed they were given a sack to carry away the
tools. It should be emphasised that the social nature of
language and its vocabulary is not limited to the social essence
of extra-linguistic factors influencing their development from
without. Language being a means of communication the social
essence is intrinsic to the language itself. Whole groups of
speakers, for example, must coincide in a deviation, if it is to
result in linguistic change. The branch of linguistics, dealing
with causal relations between the way the language works and
develops, on the one hand, and the facts of social life, on the
other, is termed sociolinguistics. Some scholars use this term in
a narrower sense, and maintain that it is the analysis of speech
behaviour in small social groups that is the focal point of
sociolinguistic analysis. A. D. Schweitzer has proved that such
microsociological approach alone cannot give a complete
picture of the sociology of language. It should be combined with
the study of such macrosociological factors as the effect of
mass media, the system of education, language planning, etc.
An analysis of the social stratification of languages takes into
ac-count the stratification of society as a whole. -Although the
important distinction between a diachronic and a synchronic, a
linguistic and an extralinguistic approach must always be borne
in mind, yet in language reality all the aspects are
interdependent and cannot be understood one without the
other. Every lin-guistic investigation must strike a reasonable
balance between them. 2. WORDS OF NATIVE ORIGIN AND
THEIR CHARACTERISTICS Etymologicaily the vocabulary of the
English language is far from being homogene-ous. It consists of
two layers the native stock of words and the borrowed stock of
words. 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. The native element in English comprises a large
number of high-fre-quency 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 grammatical valency, high frequency value
and a developed polysemy; they are often monosyllabic, show
great word-building power and enter a number of set
expressions. Furthermore, the grammatical structure is essen-
tially Germanic having remained unaffected by foreign
influence. A native word is a word which belongs to the original
English stock, as known from the earliest available manuscripts
of the Old English period. A loan word, borrowed word or
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 language. The native
words are further subdivided by diachronic linguistics into those
of the Indo-European stock and those of Common Germanic
origin i.e. of words having parallels in German, Norwegian,
Dutch, Icelandic, etc., but none in Russian, Ukrainian or French.
The words having the cognates (words of the same
etymological root, of common origin) in the vocabularies of
different Indo-European languages form the oldest layer which
readily falls into definite semantic groups: . Family relations:
father, mother, brother, son, daughter (ef. Ukr. мати, брат,
син.). 1 2. Parts of the human body: foot (cf. Rus. пядь), поose
(cf. Ukr. nic), lip, heart. 3. Animals: cow, swine, goose. 4. Plants:
tree, birch (cf. Rus. береза), corn (cf. Rus. зерно). 5. Time of
day: day, night. 6. Heavenly bodies: sun, moon, star, 7.
Numerous adjectives: red (cf. Ukr. рудий, Rus, рыжий), new,
glad (cf. Rus. гладкий), sad (cf. Rus. cыт). 8. The numerals
from one to a hundred. 9. Pronouns personal (except they
which is a Scandinavian borrowing), demonstrative. 10.
Numerous verbs: be (cf. Rus. быть), stand (cf. Rus. стоять), sit
(cf. Rus. cudema), eat (cf. Rus. есть), know (cf. Rus. знать,
знаю).Some of the most frequent verbs are also of Indo-
European common stock fear, come, sit stand and others. The
adjectives of this group denote concrete physical proper ties
hard, quick, slow, red, white Most numerals also belong here
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-Euro pean
element. 1. Parts of the human body: head, hand, arm, finger,
bone. 2. Animals bear, fox, calf 3. Plants ook, 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. Many adverbs and pronouns
also belong to this layer.It is probably of some interest to
mention that at various times purists have tried to purge the
English language of foreign words, replacing them with Anglo-
Saxon ones. One slogan created by these linguistic nationalists
was: "Avoid Latin derivatives, use brief, terse Anglo-Saxon
monosyllables". The irony is that the only Anglo-Saxon word in
the entire slogan is "Anglo-Saxon". 3. FOREIGN ELEMENTS IN
MODERN ENGLISH. The term source of borrowing should be
distinguished Lom the term origin of bor-rowing. The first
should be applied to the language from which the loan word
was takes into English. The second, on the other hand, refers to
the language to which the word may be traced. Thus, the word
paper <Fr papier<Lot papyrus Gr papyrus has French as its
source of borrowing and Greek as its origin. It may be observed
that several of the terms for items used in writing show their
origin in words denoting the raw material. Papyros is the name
of a plant; cf. book DE boc the beech tree" (boards of which
were used for writing) Alongside loan words proper, we
distinguish loan translation and semantic loans Translation
loans are words or expressions formed from the elements
existing in the English language according to the patterns of
the source language. They are not taken into the vocabulary of
another language more or less in the same phonemic shape in
which they have been functioning in their own language, but
undergo the process of translation. It is quite obvious that it is
only compound words (i. e. words of two or more stems) which
can be subjected to such an operation, each stem being
translated separately: masterpiece (from Germ. Mesterstück),
wonder child (from Germ. Wunderkind), first dancer (from 14-
Ital, prima-ballerina), the moment of truth (from Sp. el
momento de la verdad), collective farm (from Rus. Koz03), five-
year plan (from Rus, пятилетка) The Russian KOAXOY was
borrowed twice, by way of translation-loan (collective farm) and
by way of direct borrowing (kolkhoz) The case is not unique.
During the 2nd World War the German word Blitzkrieg was also
borrowed into English in two different forms the translation-loan
fighming-war and the direct borrowings blitzkrieg and blitz Eng
chain-smoker Get. Kettenraucher, Eng, wall newspaper Rus.
cвенная газета Ukr настенна базатаThe term semantic lean,
is used to denote the development in an English word of a new
meaning due to the influence of a related word in another
language, eg. the compound word shock brigade which existed
in the English language with the meaning "аварийна бригада"
acquired a new meaning "ударная бригада" which it borrowed
from the Russian language Eng. pioneer explorer, one who is
among the first in new fields of activity; → Rus muoнep a
member of the Young Pioneers' Organization. Each time two
nations come into close contact, certain borrowings are a
natural conse-quence. The nature of the contact may be
different. It may be wars, invasions or conquests when foreign
words are in effect imposed upon the reluctant conquered
nation. There are also periods of peace when the process of
borrowing is due to trade and international cul-tural relations.
These latter circumstances are certainly more favourable for
stimulating the borrow-ing process, for during invasions and
occupations the natural psychological reaction of the oppressed
nation is to reject and condemn the language of the oppressor.
In this respect the linguistic heritage of the Norman Conquest
seems exceptional, especially if compared to the influence of
the Mongol-Tartar Yoke on the Russian language. The Mongol-
Tartar Yoke also represented a long period of cruel oppression,
yet the imprint left by it on the Russian vocabulary is
comparatively insignificant. The difference in the consequences
of these evidently similar historical events is usu-ally explained
by the divergence in the level of civilisation of the two
conflicting nations. Russian civilisation and also the level of its
language development at the time of the Mon-gol-Tartar
invasion were superior to those of the invaders. That is why the
Russian lan-guage successfully resisted the influence of a less
developed language system. On the other hand, the Norman
culture of the 11th c. was certainly superior to that of the
Saxons. The result was that an immense number of French
words forced their way into English vocabu-lary. Yet,
linguistically speaking, this seeming defeat turned into a
victory. Instead of being smashed and broken by the powerful
intrusion of the foreign element, the English language managed
to preserve its essential structure and vastly enriched its
expressivo resources with the new borrowings. Sometimes the
borrowing process is to fill a gap in vocabulary. When the
Saxons borrowed Latin words for butter, plum, beet, they did it
because their own vocabularies lacked words for these new
objects. For the same reason the words potato and tomato
were -15- borrowed by English from Spanish when these
vegetables were first brought to England by the Spaniards. But
there is also a great number of words which are borrowed for
other reasons. There may be a word (or even several words)
which expresses some particular concept, so that there is no
gap in the vocabulary and there does not seem to be any need
for borrowing. Yet, one more word is borrowed which means
almost the same, almost, but not exactly It is borrowed
because it represents the same concept in some new aspect,
supplies a new shade of meaning or a different emotional
colouring. This type of borrowing enlarges groups of synonyms
and greatly provides to enrich the expressive resources of the
vocabulary. That is how the Latin cordial was added to the
native friendly, the French desire to wish the Latin admire and
the French adore to like and love English vocabulary, which is
one of the most extensive amongst the world's languages
contains an immense number of words of foreign origin.
Explanations for this should be sought in the history of the
language which is closely connected with the history of the
nation speaking the language. In order to have a better
understanding of the problem, it will be nec casary to go
through a brief survey of certain historical facts, relating to
different epochsThe first century B. C. Most of the territory,
known to us as Europe was occupied by s Roman Emre Among
the inhabitants of the continent were Germanisplum (Lat,
pramual peu (Lat, pism), beet (Lat. heta), pepper (Lat. piper)
Some more examples of Latin borrowings of this period are cup
(Lat cuppa), kuchen (Lat coquinal mill (Lat, molina), port (Lat
portus), wine (Lat, vinum) The fact that all those borrowings
occurred is in itself significant li was certainly im portant that
the Germanic tribal languages gained a considerable number of
new words and were thus enriched. What was even more
significant was that all these Latin words were destined to
become the earliest group of borrowings in the future English
language which was much later-built on the basis of the
Germanic tribal languages. The fifth century A. D. Several of
the Germanic tribes (the most numerous amongst them being
the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes) migrated across the sea
now known as the English Channel to the British Isles. There
they were confronted by the Celts, the original inhabitants of
the Isles. The Celts desperately defended their lands against
the invaders, but they were no match for the military-minded
Teutons and gradually yielded most of their territory. They
retreated to the North and South-West (modern Scotland,
Wales and -16- Comwall). Through their numerous contacts
with the defeated Celts, the conquerors got to know and
assimilated a number of Celtic words (Mod. E bald, down, glen,
druid, bard cradle). Especially numerous among the Celtic
borrowings were place names, names of rivers, bills, etc. The
Germanic tribes occupied the land, but the names of many
parts and features of their territory remained Celtic. For
instance, the names of the rivers Avon, Exe, Esk, Usk, Ux
originate from Celtic words meaning "river" and "water". Even
the name of the English capital originates from Celtic Llyn +
dun in which m is another Celtic word for "river" and chan
stands for "a fortified hill", the meaning of the whole being
"fortress on the hill over the river" Some Latin words entered
the Anglo-Saxon languages through Celtic, among them such
widely-used words as street (Lat strato via) and wolf (Lat.
vallum) The seventh century A. D. This century was significant
for the christianisation of England. Latin was the official
language of the Christian church, and consequently the spread
of Christianity was accompanied by a new period of Latin
borrowings. These no longer came from spoken Latin as they
did eight centuries earlier, but from church Latin Also, these
new Latin borrowings were very different in meaning from the
earlier ones. They mostly indicated persons, objects and ideas
associated with church and religious ritu als. E priest (Lal
presbyter), bishop (Lai episcopus), monk (Lat monachus), min
(Lai. nanna), candle (Lal candela) Additionally, in a class of their
own were educational terms. It was quite natural that these
were also Latin borrowings, for the first schools in England were
church schools, and the first teachers priests and monks. So,
the very word school is a Latin borrowing (Lat schola, of Greek
origin) and so are such words as scholar (Las, scholarf-is) and
magister (Lat. ma-gister), From the end of the 8th c to the
middle of the 11th c. England underwent several Scandinavian
invasions which inevitably left their trace on English
vocabulary. Here are some examples of early Scandinavian
borrowings: call, v., lake, v., cart, v., die, v., law, aband, n.
(<Sc. husbondi, ie "inhabitant of the house"), window n. (Sc.
vindauga ie "the eye of the wind"), ill, adj., loose, adj., low, adj.,
weak, adj. Some of the words of this group are easily
recognisable as Scandinavian borrowings by the initial sk-
combination. Eg sky, skill, skin, ski, skirt Certain English words
changed their meanings under the influence of Scandinavian
wonds of the same root. So, the O. E. bread which meant
"piece" acquired its modern meaning by association with the
Scandinavian brandThe O. E. dream which meant "joy"
assimilated the meaning of the Scandinavian draume (of with
the Germ. Trawm "dream" and the В дрема) 1066. With the
famous Battle of Hastings, when the English were defeated by
the Normans under William the Conqueror, we come to the
eventful epoch of the Namun Conquest. The epoch can well be
called eventful not only in national, social, political and buanan
terms, but also in linguistic terms. England became a bi-lingual
country, and
Conquest. The epoch can well be called eventful not only in national, social,
political and human terms, but also in linguistic terms. England became a bi-
lingual country, and the impact on the English vocabulary made over this two-
hundred-years period is immense French words from the Norman dialect
penetrated every aspect of social life. Here is a very brief list of examples of
Norman French borrowings <-17- Administrative words: state, government,
parliament, council, power. Legal terms: court, judge, justice, crime, prison.
Military terms: army, war, soldier, officer, battle, enemy Educational terms:
pupil, lesson, library, science, pen, pencil. Everyday life was not unaffected by
the powerful influence of French words. Numer-ous terms of everyday life were
also borrowed from French in this period: e. y table, plate, saucer, dinner,
supper, river, autumn, uncle, etc. The Renaissance Period. In England, as in all
European countries, this period was marked by significant developments in
science, art and culture and, also, by a revival of interest in the ancient
civilisations of Greece and Rome and their languages. Hence, there occurred a
considerable number of Latin and Greek borrowings. In contrast to the earliest
Latin borrowings (1st c. B. C.), the Renaissance ones were rarely concrete
names. They were mostly abstract words (c. g. major, minor, filial, moderate,
intelligent, permanent, to elect, to create). There were naturally numerous
scientific and artistic terms (datum, statics, phenomenon, philosophy, method,
music). The same is true of Greek Renaissance borrowings (e. g. atom, cycle,
ethics, esthete). The Renaissance was a period of extensive cultural contacts
between the major Eu-ropean states. Therefore, it was only natural that new
words also entered the English vo-cabulary from other European languages. The
most significant once more were French borrowings. This time they came from
the Parisian dialect of French and are known as Parisian borrowings: regime,
routine, police, machine, ballet, matinee, scene, technique, bourgeois, etc.
Italian also contributed a considerable number of words to English, e. g. piano,
violin, opera, alarm, colonel. Latin Loans are classified into the subgroups: 1.
Early Latin Loans. Those are the words which came into English through the
lan-guage of Anglo-Saxon tribes. The tribes had been in contact with Roman
civilization and had adopted several Latin words denoting objects belonging to
that civilization long before the invasion of Angles, Saxons and Jutes into
Britain (cup, kitchen, mill, port, wine). 2. Later Latin Borrowings. To this group
belong the words which penetrated the English vocabulary in the sixth and
seventh centuries, when the people of England were converted to Christianity
(priest, bishop, mun, candle). 3. The third period of Latin includes words which
came into English due to two his torical events: the Norman conquest in 1066
and the Renaissance or the Revival of Learn ing. Some words came into English
through French but some were taken directly from Latin (major, minor,
intelligent, permanent). 4. The Latest Stratum of Latin Words. The words of this
period are mainly abstract and scientific words (nylon, molecular, vaccine,
phenomenon, vacuum). Norman-French Borrowings may be subdivided into
subgroups: 1. Early loans-12-15th century 2. Later loans-beginning from the
16th century. The Early French borrowings are simple short words, naturalized
in accordance with the English language system (state, power, war, pen, river).
Later French borrowings can -18-There are certain structural features which
enable us to identify some wonds as bor rewings and even to determine the
source language. You can also recognise the origin of bemowings by certain
suffixes, prefixes or endings which are given in Appendix 1. Lexical
correlations are defined as lexical units from different languages which are
phonetically and semantically related. The number of Ukrainian-English lexical
cormistions is about 6870. The history of the Slavonic-German ties resulted in
the following correlations beat бити, call-rosoc widow вдова, day день, young
Semantically Ukrainian-English lexical correlations are various. They may
denote everyday objects and commonly used things brutal брутальний, сар
капелюх, cold холодний, ground грунт, kettle котел, kitchen кухня, lily
топку монета, quart-кварта sister cecrpa, wolf-Bosk -19- Some Ukrainian-
English lexical correlations have common Indo-European back-ground: garden
город murder мордувати, sool-ca Beside Ukrainian-English lexical correlaitons
the Ukrainian language contains bor-rowings frum modem English period:
брифинг - briefing. диск-жокей disk-jockey, ескалізи езcapis естебяшмент
establishment, хіт парад hit parade, кітч, халтура kitch масс-медія mass
media, cepsaa serial 4. ASSIMILATION OF BORROWINGS Words when they
migrate from one language into another adjust themselves to their new
environment and get adapted to the norms of the recipient language. They
undergo certain changes which gradually crase their foreign features, and,
finally, they are assimi lated. Sometimes the process of assimilation develops to
the point when the foreign origin of a word is quite unrecognisable (dinner, cat,
lake, cup). Others, though well assimilated, still bear traces of their foreign
background. Distance and development, for instance, are identified as
borrowings by their French suffixes, skin and sky by the Scandinavian initial ik
police and regime by the French stress on the last syllable. The term
assimilation of a loan word is used to denote a partial or total conformation to
the phonetical, graphical and morphological standards of the receiving language
and its semantic system, Le. the process of assimilation of borrowings includes
changes in sound form, marphological structure, grammar characteristics,
meaning and usage Phonetic assimilation comprises changes in sound form and
stress. Sounds that were alien to the English language were fitted into its
scheme of sounds, e g. In the recent French borrowings communique, cafe the
long [e] and [c] are rendered with the help of [ei] The accent is usually
transferred to the first syllable in the words from foreign sources. The lasting
nature of phonetic adaptation is best shown by comparing Narman French
borrowings to later ones. The Norman borrowings have for a long time been
fully adapted N M365police and regime by the French stress on the last syllabic
The term assimilation of a loan word is used to denote a partial or total
conformation to the phonetical, graphical and morphological standards of the
receiving language and its semantic system, ie the process of assimilation of
borrowings includes changes in sound form, morphological structure, grammar
characteristics, meaning and usage Phonetic assimilation comprises changes in
sound form and stress. Sounds that were alien to the English language were
fitted into its scheme of sounds, eg. In the recent French borrowings
communique, cafe the long [e] and [e] are rendered with the help of [ei]. The
accent is usually transferred to the first syllable in the words from foreign
sources. The lasting nature of phonetic adaptation is best shown by comparing
Norman French borrowings to later ones. The Norman borrowings have for a
long time been fully adapted to the phonetic system of the English language:
such words as table, plate, courage, chi alry bear no phonetic traces of their
French origin. Some of the later (Parisian) borrowings, even the ones borrowed
as early as the 15 c., still sound surprisingly French: regime, vo lize, matinee,
cafe, baller. In these cases phonetic adaptation is not completed. The three
stages of gradual phonetic assimilation of French borrowings can be illus trated
by different phonetic variants of the word garage ga'ra:3> gæra:3> 'gæridy
(Amer.). The degree of phonetic adaptation depends on the period of borrowing,
the earlier the period is the more completed is this adaptation. Grammatical
adaptation consists in a complete change of the former paradigm of the
borrowed word (i. e. system of the grammatical forms peculiar to it as a part of
speech). -20- If it is a noun, it is certain to adopt, sooner or later, a new system
of declension; if it is a verb, it will be conjugated according to the rules of the
recipient language. Yet, this is also a lasting process. The Russian noun marino
was borrowed from French carty in the 19th c. and has not yet acquired the
Russian system of declension. The same can be said about such English
Renaissance borrowings as datum (pl. data), phenomenon (pl. phenomena),
criterion (pl. criteria) whereas earlier Latin borrowings such as cup, plum,
street, woll were fully adapted to the grammatical system of the language long
ago. By semantic adaptation is meant adjustment the system of meanings of the
vocab ulary. Borrowing is generally caused either by the necessity to fill a gap
in the vocabulary or by a chance to add a synonym conveying an old concept in
a new way. Yet, the proc ess of borrowing is not always so purposeful, logical
and efficient as it might seem at first sight. Sometimes a word may be borrowed
"blindly", so to speak, for no obvious reason, to find that it is not wanted
because there is no gap in the vocabulary nor in the group of syno nyms which
it could conveniently fill. Quite a number of such "accidental" borrowings are
very soon rejected by the vocabulary and forgotten. But there are others which
manage to take root by the process of semantic adaptation. The adjective forge,
for instance, was bor rowed from French in the meaning of "wide". It was not
actually wanted, because it fully comcided with the English adjective wide
without adding any new shades or aspects to its meaning. This could have led to
its rejection. Yet, forge managed, to establish itself very firmly in the English
vocabulary by semantic adjustment. It entered another synonymic group with
the general meaning of "big in size". At first it was applied to objects character-
sued by vast horizontal dimensions, thus retaining a trace of its former meaning,
and now, though still bearing some features of that meaning, is successfully
competing with big hav ing approached it very closely, both in frequency and
meaningThe adjective gay was borrowed from French in several meanings at
once. "noble of but", "hright, shining", "multi-coloured" Rather soon it shifted
its ground developing the meaning "joyful, high-spirited" in which sense it
became a synonym of the native marry and is some time left it far behind in
frequency and range of meaning. This change was again caused by the process
of semantic adjustment: there was no place in the vocabulary for the former
meanings of gay, but the group with the general meaning of high sports N
M365adjective nice was a French borrowing meaning "silly" at first. The
English change of meaning seems to have arisen with the use of the word in
expressions like a nice dir inction, meaning first "a silly, hair-splitting
distinction", then a precise one, ultimately an attractive one. But the original
necessity for change was caused once more by the fact that the meaning of
"foolish" was not wanted in the vocabulary and therefore nice was obliged to
look for a gap in another semantic field. Thus the process of semantic
assimilation has many forms 1) narrowing of meanings (usually polysemantic
words are borrowed in one of the mean ings), 2) specialization or generalization
of meanings, 1) acquiring new meanings in the recipient language, 4) shifting a
primary meaning to the position of a secondary meaning -21- The degree of
assimilation depends upon the length of period during which the word has been
used in the receiving language, upon its importance for communication purpose
and its frequency. Oral borrowings due to personal contacts are assimilated
more com pletely and more rapidly than literary borrowings, Le borrowings
through written speech. Loan words according to the degree of assimilation fall
into three groups: a) completely assimilated loan words, b) partially assimilated
loan words, c) unassimilated loan words or barbarisms. The group of partially
assimilated words may be subdivided depending on the aspect that remains
unaltered, Lc. according to whether the word retains features of spelling, pro-
nunciation, morphology or denotation (when the word denotes some specific
realia) that are not English. The third group is not universally accepted, as it
may be argued that words not changed at all cannot form part of the English
vocabulary, because they occur in speech unly, but do not enter the language.
Completely assimilated loan words are found in all the layers of older
borrowings They may belong to the first layer of Latin borrowings, e. g. cheese,
street, wall or wine. Among Scandinavian loan words we find such frequent
nouns as husbond, fellow, gate, root, wing such verbs as coll, die, take, want
and adjectives like happy, ill, low, odd and wrong. Completely assimilated
French words are extremely numerous and frequent table, chair, face, figure,
finish, matter etc. A considerable number of Latin words borrowed during the
revival of learning are at present almost indistinguishable from the rest of the
vocabulary (Eng, animal, article, Ukr. кума, праця, хлопець, казон, хліб,
хворий, хватати). The number of completely assimilated loan words is many
times greater than the number of partially assimilated ones. They follow all
morphological, phonetical and ortho- graphic standards. Being very frequent
and stylistically neutral, they may occur as dominant words in synonymic
groups. They take an active part in word-formation. Moreover, their
morphological structure and motivation remain transparent, so that they are
morphologi cally analysable and therefore supply the English vocabulary not
only with free forms but also with bound forms, as affixes are casily perceived
and separated in series of loan words that contain them. Such are, for instance,
the French suffixes -age, once and-ment, and the English modification of
French esse and fier, which provide spoech material to produce hybrids like
shortage, goddess, hindrance, speechify, and endearment. The free forms, on the
other hand, are readily combined with native affixes, c. g.pained, painful,
painfully, painless, painlessness, all formed from pain<Fr. peine Lol. poena Gt.
poine "penalty". Completely assimilated loanwords are also indistinguishable
phonetically. A loan word never brings into the receiving language the whole of
its semantic structure if it is polysemantic in the original language. And even the
barrowed variants are for the most part changed and specialized in the new
system. The word sport can serve as an illustra N M365
moglological Arveidre and motivation remain transparent, so that they are
morpholog cally analysable and therefore supply the English vocabulary not
only with free forms but also with bound forms, as affixes are easily perceived
and separated in series of loan words that contain them. Such are, for instance,
the French sufixes-age, once and -ment, and the English modification of
French-esse and fler, which provide speech material to produce hybrids like
shortage, goddess, hindrance, speechify, and endearment. The free forms, on the
other hand, are readily combined with native affixes, og pained, painful,
painfully, painless, painlessness, all formed from poin Fr. peine Lat. poena Gr.
poine "penalty" Completely assimilated loanwords are also indistinguishable
phonetically. A loan word never brings into the receiving language the whole of
its somantic structure if it is polysemantic in the original language. And even
the borrowed variants are for the most part changed and specialized in the new
system. The word sport can serve as an illustra tion. It had a much wider scope
in Old French denoting pleasures, making merry and enter tainments in general.
It was borrowed into Middle English in this character but gradually acquired the
additional meaning of outdoor games and exercise, and in this new meaning
was borrowed into many European languages and became international. It is
convenient to classify and study loan words as oppositions of the words as they
exist in the receiving -22- language with their prototypes in the source language,
on the one hand, and with words of the same lexico-graummatical class or
(depending on the level chosen) of the same morpho logical or phonetical
pattern in the receiving language. Specialization is primarily due to the fact that
the receiving system has at its disposal words for the older notions, and it is
only the new notion that needs a new name. Even so, the borrowing of a new
word leads as a rule to semantic changes in words already existing in the
language. The second group containing partially assimilated loan words can be
subdivided into 4 subgroups. (a) Loan words not assimilated semantically,
because they denote objects and no-tions peculiar to the country from which
they come: foreign clothing: mantilla, sombrero; foreign titles and professions:
shah, rajah, sheik, bei, toreador, foreign vehicles: caique (Turkish), rickshaw
(Chinese); food and drinks: pilow (Persian), sherbet (Arabian); foreign
currency: euro (Germany), rupee (India ), rouble (Russia), etc. (b) Lean words
not assimilated grammatically, for example, nouns borrowed from Latin or
Greek which keep their original plural forms: bacillus bacilli, crisis crises;
formula formuloe: index indices, phenomenon phenomena. Some of these are
also used in English plural forms, but in that case there may be a difference in
lexical meaning, as in indices indexes (c) Loan words not completely
assimilated phonetically. Some of the French words borrowed after 1650 keep
the accent on the final syllable: machine, cartoon, police. Others, alongside with
peculiarities in stress, contain sounds or combinations of sounds that are not
standard for the English language and do not occur in native words: [3]-
bourgeois, camouflage, prestige, regime, sabotage, (wu:]-memoir; the nasalized
[6]-melange. le marry cases it is not the sounds but the whole pattern of the
word's phonetic make-up that is different from the rest of the vocabulary, as in
some of the Italian and Spanish borrow-ings confes, incognito, macaroni, operu,
sonata, soprano and зонтали, родава, лобисси Nstandard for the English
language and do not occur in native words: [3]-hourgeois, camouflage, premge,
regime, sabotage, wo-memoir the nasalized []-melange In many cases it is not
the sounds but the whole pattern of the word's phonetic make-up that is different
from the rest of the vocabulary, as in some of the Italian and Spanish borrow
ings confetti, incognito, macaroni, opera, sonata, soprano and tomato, potato,
tobacco.