4. Classification of morphemes

A morpheme is the smallest indivisible two-facet language unit which implies an association of a certain meaning with a certain sound form. Unlike words, morphemes cannot function independently (they occur in speech only as parts of words).

Classification of Morphemes

Within the English word stock maybe distinguished morphologically segment-able and non-segment-able words (soundless, rewrite – segmentable; book, car - non-segmentable).

Morphemic segmentability may be of three types:

a) Complete segmentability is characteristic of words with transparent morphemic structure (morphemes can be easily isolated, e.g. heratless).

b) Conditional segmentability characterizes words segmentation of which into constituent morphemes is doubtful for semantic reasons (retain, detain, contain). Pseudo-morphemes

c) Defective morphemic segmentability is the property of words whose component morphemes seldom or never occur in other words. Such morphemes are called unique morphemes (cran – cranberry (клюква), let- hamlet (деревушка)).

• Semantically morphemes may be classified into: 1) root morphemes – radicals (remake, glassful, disorder - make, glass, order- are understood as the lexical centres of the words) and 2) non-root morphemes – include inflectional (carry only grammatical meaning and relevant only for the formation of word-forms) and affixational morphemes (relevant for building different types of stems).

• Structurally, morphemes fall into: free morphemes (coincides with the stem or a word-form. E.g. friend- of the noun friendship is qualified as a free morpheme), bound morphemes (occurs only as a constituent part of a word. Affixes are bound for they always make part of a word. E.g. the suffixes –ness, -ship, -ize in the words darkness, friendship, to activize; the prefixes im-, dis-, de- in the words impolite, to disregard, to demobilize) and semi-free or semi-bound morphemes (can function both as affixes and free morphemes. E.g. well and half on the one hand coincide with the stem – to sleep well, half an hour, and on the other in the words – well-known, half-done).

5. Taking into account the growth of the vocabulary in the last forty years an estimate of 30,000 words in the actual working vocabulary of educated persons today may be considered reasonable though it comprises a number of non-assimilated, archaic and occasional words. It should be pointed out, however, that a considerable number of words are scarcely ever used and the meaning of quite a number of them is unknown to an average educated English layman, e.g. abalone, abattoir, abele and the like.⁴ It follows that there is a considerable difference between the number of lexical items in Modern English vocabulary and the number of lexical items in actual use. Bу the phrase “in actual use” we do not imply words and phrases used by any single individual butthe vocabulary actually used and understood by the bulk of English-speaking people as a whole at a given historical period. It also follows that not all vocabulary items are of equal practical importance. In this connection it should be recalled that there is a considerable difference between the vocabulary units a person uses and those he understands. According to the data available, the “passive” vocabulary of a “normally educated person” comprises about 30,000 words. At best about 20,000 are actually used in speech. Of these not all the words are equally important.

• The relative “value” of lexical items is dependent on how frequently this or that particular unit occurs in speech and on the range of application of these units. 4,000 — 5,000 of most frequently occurring words are presumed to be amply sufficient for the daily needs of an average member of the given speech community. It is obvious that these 4,000 — 5,000 comprise ordinary words which are as a rule polysemantic and characterised by neutral stylistic reference.¹ Specialised vocabulary units (special words and terminology) are naturally excluded.

• It should not be inferred from the above that frequency alone is an adequate criterion to establish the most useful list of words. There are, especially in science, words that appear very rarely even in a large corpus, but are central to the “concepts of a whole science.

• As is well known terminology in various fields of scientific inquiry comprises many peculiar vocabulary units the bulk of which is made up of Latin or Greek morphemes. Terms possess a number of common features in all European languages. Terms are as a rule used by comparatively small groups of professionals and certainly not by the language community as a whole. Most of them are to a certain extent “international”, i.e. understandable to specialists irrespective of their nationality

6. 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.

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).

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).

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).

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.

7 .Colloquial speech is characterised by the frequent use of words with a broad meaning (something close to polysemy): speakers tend to use a small group of words in quite different meanings, whereas in a formal style (official, business, scientific) every word is to be used in a specific and clear meaning. Compare the different uses of the verb get which frequently replaces in oral speech its more specific synonyms:

I got (= received) a letter today; Where did you get (= buy) those jeans?; They didn’t get (= there wasn’t) much snow last winter; I got (= caught) the ‘flu last month; Where has my pen got to (=disappeared)?; I got (= forced) him to help me with the work; I didn’t get (= hear) you / what Сѓou said.

There are phrases and constructions typical of colloquial style: What’s up? (= What has happened?);so-so (= not especially good); Sorry? Pardon? (= Please, repeat it, I didn’t hear you); See you (= Good-bye); Me too / neither (= So / neither do I), etc.

In grammar there may be: (a) the use of shortened variants of word-forms, e.g. isn’t; can’t; I’d say, he’d’ve done (= would have done); Yaa (= Yes); (b) the use of elliptical (incomplete) sentences; (Where’s he?) – At home; Like it? (= Do you / Did you like it?) – Not too much (= I don’t like it too much); (Shall I open it?) – Don’t!; May I? (= May I do this?)

The syntax of colloquial speech is also characterised by the preferable use of simple sentences or by asyndetic connection (absence of conjunctions) between the parts of composite sentences; complex constructions with non-finite forms are rarely used.

Besides the standard, literary-colloquial speech, there is also a non-standard, or substandard, speech style, mostly represented by a special vocabulary. Such is the familiar-colloquial style used in very free, friendly, informal situations of communication – between close friends, members of one family, etc. Here we find emotionally coloured words, low-colloquial vocabulary and slang words. This style admits also of the use of rude and vulgar vocabulary, including expletives (obscene words / four-letter words / swear words): rot / trash / stuff (= smth. bad); the cat’s pyjamas (= just the right / suitable thing); bread-basket (= stomach);tipsy / under the influence / under the table / has had a drop (= drunk); cute /great! (Am.) (= very good); wet blanket (= uninteresting person); hot stuff! (= smth. extremely good); You‘re damn right (= quite right).

The term slang is used in a very broad and vague sense. Besides denoting low-colloquial words, it is also used to denote special jargons / cants, i.e. words typically used by particular social groups to show that the speaker belongs to this group, as different from other people. Originally jargons were used to preserve secrecy within the social group, to make speech incomprehensible to others – such is the thieves’ jargon / cant. There is also prison slang, army slang, school slang, teenagers slang, etc. Consider the examples of American campus slang: dode (= an appealing / stupid person, idiot); harsh (= very bad, mean);nerd / nurd (= a person who studies a lot or is socially outdated); thrash (= perform well on a skateboard);throg (= drink any alcoholic drink); of American teenagers slang: flake (= a stupid erratic person); scarf (=eat or drink; consume); scope out (= look at, examine, check out); chill out (= relax, calm oneself); babe magnet (= a person or thing that attracts members of the opposite sex).

But often words from a particular jargon spread outside its social group and become general slang. See examples of general British slang: crackers (= crazy people); the year dot (= long ago); get the hump (= get angry); mac (= Scotsman); ratted (= drunk); snout (= tobacco); of general American slang: buck (= dollar);cabbage (= money); John (= lavatory); give smb. wings (= teach to use drugs); top dog (= boss); stag party(= a party without a woman).

There are also professional words which represent a kind of jargon / slang used by people in their professional activity. See some professional jargon words for a blow in boxing: an outer (a knock-out blow); a righthander; an uppercut; a clinch (position of fighting close, body pressed to body).

Within the English formal language the following styles are distinguished: the style of official documents, the scientific prose style, the publicistic style, the newspaper style, the belle-lettres style. Most of these styles belong exclusively to writing, insomuch as only in this particular form of human intercourse can communications of any length be completely unambiguous. Each style is characterised by a number of individual features which can be classified as leading or subordinate, constant or changing, obligatory or optional, essential or transitory. Each style can be subdivided into a number of substyles.

8. A term is, in many respects, a very peculiar type of word. An ideal term should be monosemantic and, when used within its own sphere, does not depend upon the micro-context, provided it is not expressed by a figurative variant of a polysemantic word. Its meaning remains constant until some new discovery or invention changes the referent or the notion. Polysemy, when it arises,¹ is a drawback, so that all the speakers and writers on special subjects should be very careful to avoid it. Polysemy may be tolerated in one form only, namely if the same term has various meanings in different fields of science. The terms alphabet and word, for example, have in mathematics a meaning very different from those accepted in linguistics.

Being mostly independent of the context a term can have no contextual meaning whatever. The only meaning possible is a denotational free meaning. A term is intended to ensure a one-to-one correspondence between morphological arrangement and content. No emotional colouring or evaluation are possible when the term is used within its proper sphere. As to connotation or stylistic colouring, they are superseded in terms by the connection with the other members of some particular terminological system and by the persistent associations with this system when the term is used out of its usual sphere.

A term can obtain a figurative or emotionally coloured meaning only when taken out of its sphere and used in literary or colloquial speech. But in that case it ceases to be a term and its denotational meaning may also become very vague. It turns into an ordinary word. The adjective atomic used to describe the atomic structure of matter was until 1945 as emotionally neutral as words like quantum or parallelogram. But since Hiroshima and the ensuing nuclear arms race it has assumed a new implication, so that the common phrase this atomic age, which taken literally has no meaning at all, is now used to denote an age of great scientific progress, but also holds connotations of ruthless menace and monstrous destruction.

Every branch and every school of science develop a special terminology adapted to their nature and methods. Its development represents an essential part of research work and is of paramount importance, because it can either help or hinder progress. The great physiologist I.P. Pavlov, when studying the higher nervous activity, prohibited his colleagues and pupils to use such phrases as the dog thinks, the dog wants, the dog remembers; he believed that these words interfered with objective observation.

The appearance of structuralist schools of linguistics has completely changed linguistic terminology. A short list of some frequently used terms will serve to illustrate the point: allomorph, allophone; constituent, immediate constituent’, distribution, complementary distribution, contrastive distribution’, morph, morphophonemics, morphotactics, etc.

The origin of terms shows several main channels, three of which are specific for terminology. These specific ways are:

Formation of terminological phrases with subsequent clipping, ellipsis, blending, abbreviation: transistor receiver → transistor → trannie; television text → teletext; ecological architecture → ecotecture; extremely low frequency → ELF.

The use of combining forms from Latin and Greek like aerodrome, aerodynamics, cyclotron, microfilm, telegenic, telegraph, thermonuclear, telemechanics, supersonic. The process is common to terminology in many languages.

Borrowing from another terminological system within the same language whenever there is any affinity between the respective fields. Sea terminology, for instance, lent many words to aviation vocabulary which in its turn made the starting point for the terminology adopted in the conquest of space. If we turn back to linguistics, we shall come across many terms borrowed from rhetoric: metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and others.

Terms are not separated from the rest of the vocabulary, and it is rather hard to say where the line should be drawn.

9. As the process of borrowing is mostly connected with the appearance of new notions which the loan words serve to express, it is natural that the borrowing is seldom limited to one language. Words of identical origin that occur in several languages as a result of simultaneous or successive borrowings from one ultimate source are called international words.

International words play an especially prominent part in various terminological systems including the vocabulary of science, industry and art. The etymological sources of this vocabulary reflect the history of world culture. Thus, for example, the mankind’s cultural debt to Italy is reflected in the great number of Italian words connected with architecture, painting and especially music that are borrowed into most European languages: allegro, andante, aria, arioso, barcarole, baritone (and other names for voices), concert, duet, opera (and other names for pieces of music), piano and many many more.

The rate of change in technology, political, social and artistic life has been greatly accelerated in the 20th century and so has the rate of growth of international wordstock. A few examples of comparatively new words due to the progress of science will suffice to illustrate the importance of international vocabulary: algorithm, antenna, antibiotic, automation, bionics, cybernetics, entropy, gene, genetic code, graph, microelectronics, microminiaturisation, quant, quasars, pulsars, ribosome, etc. All these show sufficient likeness in English, French, Russian and several other languages.

The international wordstock is also growing due to the influx of exotic borrowed words like anaconda, bungalow, kraal, orang-outang, sari, etc. These come from many different sources.

International words should not be mixed with words of the common Indo-European stock that also comprise a sort of common fund of the European languages.

This layer is of great importance for the foreign language teacher not only because many words denoting abstract notions are international but also because he must know the most efficient ways of showing the points of similarity and difference between such words as control : : контроль; general : : генерал; industry : : индустрия or magazine : : магазин, etc. usually called ‘translator’s false friends’.

The treatment of international words at English lessons would be one-sided if the teacher did not draw his pupils’ attention to the spread of the English vocabulary into other languages. We find numerous English words in the field of sport: football, out, match, tennis, time. A large number of English words are to be found in the vocabulary pertaining to clothes: jersey, pullover, sweater, nylon, tweed, etc. Cinema and different forms of entertainment are also a source of many international words of English origin: film, club, cocktail, jazz.

At least some of the Russian words borrowed into English and many other languages and thus international should also be mentioned: balalaika, bolshevik, cosmonaut, czar, intelligentsia, Kremlin, mammoth, rouble, sambo, soviet, sputnik, steppe, vodka.

To sum up this brief treatment of loan words it is necessary to stress that in studying loan words a linguist cannot be content with establishing the source, the date of penetration, the semantic sphere to which the word belonged and the circumstances of the process of borrowing. All these are very important, but one should also be concerned with the changes the new language system into which the loan word penetrates causes in the word itself, and, on the other hand, look for the changes occasioned by the newcomer in the English vocabulary, when in finding its way into the new language it pushed some of its lexical neighbours aside. In the discussion above we have tried to show the importance of the problem of conformity with the patterns typical of the receiving language and its semantic needs.

10. The style of informal, friendly oral communication is called colloquial. The vocabulary of colloquial style is usually lower than that of the formal or neutral styles, it is often emotionally coloured and characterised by connotations (consider the endearing connotations in the words daddy, kid or the evaluating components intrash).

Colloquial speech is characterised by the frequent use of words with a broad meaning (something close to polysemy): speakers tend to use a small group of words in quite different meanings, whereas in a formal style (official, business, scientific) every word is to be used in a specific and clear meaning. Compare the different uses of the verb get which frequently replaces in oral speech its more specific synonyms:

I got (= received) a letter today; Where did you get (= buy) those jeans?; They didn’t get (= there wasn’t) much snow last winter; I got (= caught) the ‘flu last month; Where has my pen got to (=disappeared)?; I got (= forced) him to help me with the work; I didn’t get (= hear) you / what Сѓou said.

There are phrases and constructions typical of colloquial style: What’s up? (= What has happened?);so-so (= not especially good); Sorry? Pardon? (= Please, repeat it, I didn’t hear you); See you (= Good-bye); Me too / neither (= So / neither do I), etc.

In grammar there may be: (a) the use of shortened variants of word-forms, e.g. isn’t; can’t; I’d say, he’d’ve done (= would have done); Yaa (= Yes); (b) the use of elliptical (incomplete) sentences; (Where’s he?) – At home; Like it? (= Do you / Did you like it?) – Not too much (= I don’t like it too much); (Shall I open it?) – Don’t!; May I? (= May I do this?)

The syntax of colloquial speech is also characterised by the preferable use of simple sentences or by asyndetic connection (absence of conjunctions) between the parts of composite sentences; complex constructions with non-finite forms are rarely used.

Besides the standard, literary-colloquial speech, there is also a non-standard, or substandard, speech style, mostly represented by a special vocabulary. Such is the familiar-colloquial style used in very free, friendly, informal situations of communication – between close friends, members of one family, etc. Here we find emotionally coloured words, low-colloquial vocabulary and slang words. This style admits also of the use of rude and vulgar vocabulary, including expletives (obscene words / four-letter words / swear words): rot / trash / stuff (= smth. bad); the cat’s pyjamas (= just the right / suitable thing); bread-basket (= stomach);tipsy / under the influence / under the table / has had a drop (= drunk); cute /great! (Am.) (= very good); wet blanket (= uninteresting person); hot stuff! (= smth. extremely good); You‘re damn right (= quite right).

The term slang is used in a very broad and vague sense. Besides denoting low-colloquial words, it is also used to denote special jargons / cants, i.e. words typically used by particular social groups to show that the speaker belongs to this group, as different from other people. Originally jargons were used to preserve secrecy within the social group, to make speech incomprehensible to others – such is the thieves’ jargon / cant. There is also prison slang, army slang, school slang, teenagers slang, etc. Consider the examples of American campus slang: dode (= an appealing / stupid person, idiot); harsh (= very bad, mean);nerd / nurd (= a person who studies a lot or is socially outdated); thrash (= perform well on a skateboard);throg (= drink any alcoholic drink); of American teenagers slang: flake (= a stupid erratic person); scarf (=eat or drink; consume); scope out (= look at, examine, check out); chill out (= relax, calm oneself); babe magnet (= a person or thing that attracts members of the opposite sex).

But often words from a particular jargon spread outside its social group and become general slang. See examples of general British slang: crackers (= crazy people); the year dot (= long ago); get the hump (= get angry); mac (= Scotsman); ratted (= drunk); snout (= tobacco); of general American slang: buck (= dollar);cabbage (= money); John (= lavatory); give smb. wings (= teach to use drugs); top dog (= boss); stag party(= a party without a woman).

There are also professional words which represent a kind of jargon / slang used by people in their professional activity. See some professional jargon words for a blow in boxing: an outer (a knock-out blow); a righthander; an uppercut; a clinch (position of fighting close, body pressed to body).

Within the English formal language the following styles are distinguished: the style of official documents, the scientific prose style, the publicistic style, the newspaper style, the belle-lettres style. Most of these styles belong exclusively to writing, insomuch as only in this particular form of human intercourse can communications of any length be completely unambiguous. Each style is characterised by a number of individual features which can be classified as leading or subordinate, constant or changing, obligatory or optional, essential or transitory. Each style can be subdivided into a number of substyles. The latter present varieties of the root style and have much in common with it. The root styles fall into the following substyles:

The style of official documents: business documents, diplomatic documents, legal documents, military documents.

The scientific prose style: the humanities, the exact sciences.

The publicistic style: speeches (oratory), essays, articles.

The newspaper style: newspaper headlines, brief news items, advertisements.

The belle-lettres style: poetry proper, emotive prose, drama.

Any comparison of the texts belonging to different stylistic varieties listed above will show that the first two of them – official documents and scientific style varieties – are almost entirely devoid of emotive colouring being characterised by the neutrality of style, whereas the last three are usually rich in stylistic devices.

Each functional style requires the choice of a special kind of grammatical forms and structures and most of all of vocabulary. Words or word groups which are specifically employed by a particular branch of science, technology, trade, or the arts to convey a concept peculiar to this particular activity are identified as terms.Terms are generally associated with a certain branch of science and therefore with a series of other terms belonging to that particular branch of science. They always come in clusters, either in a text or on the subject to which they belong, or in special dictionaries which unlike general dictionaries make a careful selection of terms. Taken together, these clusters of terms form a system of names for the objects of study of any particular branch of science.

11. Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered acceptable in certain social settings. Slang expressions may act as euphemisms and may be used as a means of identifying with one's peers.

Slang can be regional (that is, used only in a particular territory), but slang terms are often particular instead to a certain subculture, such as music or video gaming. Nevertheless, slang expressions can spread outside their original areas to become commonly used, like cool and jive Some words eventually lose their status as slang. The word mob, for example, began as a shortening of Latin mobile vulgus. When slang spreads beyond the group or subculture that originally used it, its original users sometimes replace it with other, less-recognised terms to maintain group identity.^[2]

One use of slang is to circumvent social taboos, as mainstream language tends to shy away from evoking certain realities. For this reason, slang vocabularies are particularly rich in certain domains, such as violence, crime, drugs, and sex. Alternatively, slang can grow out of mere familiarity with the things described. Among wine connoisseurs (and other groups), for example, Cabernet Sauvignon is often known as "Cab Sav," Chardonnay as "Chard" and so on;^[3] this means that naming the different wines expends less superfluous effort; it also helps to indicate the user's familiarity with wine.

Even within a single language community, slang, and the extent to which it is used, tends to vary widely across social, ethnic, economic, and geographic strata. Slang may fall into disuse over time; sometimes, however, it grows more and more common until it becomes the dominant way of saying something, at which time it usually comes to be regarded as mainstream, acceptable language (e.g. the Spanish word caballo), although in the case of taboo words there may not be an expression which is considered mainstream or acceptable. Numerous slang terms pass into informal mainstream speech, and sometimes into formal speech, though this may involve a change in meaning or usage.

Slang often involves the creation of new meanings for existing words. It is common for such novel meanings to diverge significantly from the standard meaning. Thus, "cool" and "hot" can both mean "very good," "impressive," or "good-looking".

Slang terms are often known only within a clique or ingroup. For example, Leet ("Leetspeak" or "1337") was originally popular only among certain Internet subcultures, such as crackers and online video gamers. During the 1990s, and into the early 21st century, however, Leet became increasingly more commonplace on the Internet, and it has spread outside Internet-based communication and into spoken languages.^[4] Other types of slang include SMS language used on mobile phones, and "chatspeak," (e.g., "LOL", an acronym meaning "laughing out loud" or "laugh out loud" or ROFL, "rolling on the floor laughing"), which used to be widely used in instant messaging on the Internet in the early 2000s

12. Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time. By an extension, the term "etymology (of a word)" means the origin of a particular word.

For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during earlier periods of their history and when they entered the languages in question. Etymologists also apply the methods of comparative linguistics to reconstruct information about languages that are too old for any direct information to be available. By analyzing related languages with a technique known as the comparative method, linguists can make inferences about their shared parent language and its vocabulary. In this way, word roots have been found that can be traced all the way back to the origin of, for instance, the Indo-European language family.

13. Semantic Affinity of a linguistic-pattern is a measure for judging the effectiveness of that pattern in extracting the required Noun-Phrases belonging to a semantic class. A linguistic pattern for Information Extraction is a a frame (usually a verb-phrase) with certain role-filling slots. …………

14. The adoption of countless foreign words exercised a great influence upon the system of English word-formation, one of the result being the appearance of many hybrid words in the English vocabulary. The term h y b r i d w o r d s is, needless to say, of diachronic relevance only.

Here distinction should be made between two basic groups: 1) Cases when a foreign stem is combined with a native affix, as in colourless, uncertain. After complete adoption the foreign stem is subject to the same treatment as native stems and new words are derived from it at a very early stage. For instance, such suffixes as -ful, -less, -ness were used with French words as early as 1300; 2) Cases when native stems are combined with foreign affixes, such as drinkable, joyous, shepherdess. Here the assimilation of a structural pattern is involved, therefore some time must pass before a foreign affix comes to be recognised by speakers as a derivational morpheme that can be tacked on to native words. Therefore such formations are found much later than those of the first type and are less numerous. The early assimilation of -able is an exception. Some foreign affixes, as -ance, -al, -ity, have never become productive with native stems. Reinterpretation of borrowed words gave rise to affixes which may not have been regarded as such in the source language. For instance, -scape occurring in such words as seascape, cloudscape, mountainscape, moonscape, etc. resulted from landscape of Dutch origin. The suffix -ade developed from lemonade of French origin, giving rise to fruitade, orangeade, gingerade, pineappleade, etc.; the noun electron of Greek origin contributed the suffix -tron very widely used in coining scientific and technical terms, e.g. cyclotron, magnetron, synchrophasotron, thyratron, etc.

The influence of borrowings. Hybrids. Due to “the specific historical development of English, it has adopted many words from other languages, especially from Latin, French and Old Scandinavian. The number and character of borrowed words tell us of the relations between the peoples, the level of their culture, etc. It is for this reason that borrowings have often been called the milestones of history. Thus if we go through the lists of borrowings in English and arrange them in groups according to their meaning, we shall be able to obtain much valuable information with regard to England’s contacts with many nations. Some borrowings, however, cannot be explained by the direct influence of certain historical conditions, they do not come along with any new objects or ideas. Such were for instance the words air, place, brave, gay borrowed from French. Words that are made up of elements derived from two or more different languages are called hybrids. English contains thousands of hybrid words, the vast majority of which show various combinations of morphemes coming from Latin, French and Greek and those of native origin.Thus, readable has an English root and a suffix that is derived from the Latin -abilis and borrowed through French. Moreover, it is not an isolated case, but rather an established pattern that could be represented as English stem+-able. Cf. answerable, eatable, likable, usable. Its variant with the native negative prefix un- is also worthy of note: un-+English stem+-able. The examples for this are: unanswerable, unbearable, unforeseeable, unsayable, unbelievable. The suffix of personal nouns -ist derived from the Greek agent suffix -istes forms part of many hybrids. Sometimes (like in artist, dentist) it was borrowed as a hybrid already (Fr dentiste<Lat dens, dentis ‘a tooth’ + -ist). The same phenomenon occurs in prefixation and inflection. The noun bicycle has a Latin prefix (bi-), a Greek root (cycle<kyklos ‘a wheel’), and it takes an English inflection in the plural: bicycles. There are also many hybrid compounds, such as blackguard (Engl+Fr) or schoolboy (Gr+Engl)

15. Etymological doublets. Words shirt & skirt etymologically descend from the same root. Shirt is native word and skirt (as sk suggests) is Scandinavian borrowing. Their phonemic shape is different and there is a certain resemblance which reflects their common origin. Their meanings are also different but easily associated: they both denote articles of clothing. Words originating from same etymological source but differ in phonemic shape and meaning is called etymological doublets. Sometimes word is borrowed twice to the same l-ge. Not all doublets come in pairs. Examples of groups are: appreciate, appraise, apprise; astound, astonish, stun; kennel, channel, canal.

International words. These are words borrowed simultaneously by several l-ges. They convey concepts which are significant in the field of communication. 1) Latin and Greek: names of sciences (psychology, philosophy), terms of art (music, theatre, comedy, artist), political terms (policy, revolution, progress). 2) English: sport terms (football, baseball, hockey, tennis), names for fruits. Many international words of English origin: film, club, cocktail, jazz. Some of Russian words borrowed into English: balalaika, cosmonaut, czar, rouble, sputnik, vodka. International words should not be mixed with words of the common Indo-European stock that also comprise a sort of common fund of the European languages. This layer is of great importance for the foreign language teacher not only because many words denoting abstract notions are international but also because he must know the most efficient ways of showing the points of similarity and difference between such words as control : : контроль; general : : генерал;

16. By the Indo-European element are meant words of roots common to all (or most) languages of the Indo-European group. The words of this group denote elementary concepts without which no human communication would be possible. The following groups can be identified.

1.Family relations: father, mother, brother, son, daughter.

2.Parts of the human body: foot, nose, lip, heart.

3.Animals: cow, swine, goose.

4.Plants: tree, birch, corn.

5.Time of day: day, night.

6.Heavenly bodies: sun, moon, star.

Numerous adjectives: red, new, glad, sad

7.The numerals from one to a hundred.

8.Pronouns - personal (except “they” which is a Scandinavian borrowing) and demonstrative.

9.Numerous verbs: be, stand, sit, eat, know.

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-European element.

1.Parts of the human body: head, hand, arm, finger, bone.

2.Animals: bear, fox, calf.

3.Plants: oak, 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.

The English proper element is opposed to the first two groups. For not only it can be approximately dated, but these words have another distinctive feature: they are specifically English have no cognates in other languages whereas for Indo-European and Germanic words such cognates can always be found, as, for instance, for the following words of the Indo-European group.

Star: Germ. - Stern, Lat. - Stella, Gr. - aster.

Stand: Germ. – stehen, Lat. - stare, R. – стоять.

Here are some examples of English proper words: bird, boy, girl, lord, lady, woman, daisy, always.

Latin affixes of nouns:

The suffix (-ion): legion, opinion, etc.; the suffix (-tion): relation, temptation, etc.

Latin affixes of verbs:

The suffix (-ate): appreciate, create, congratulate, etc.; the suffix (-ute): attribute, distribute, etc.; the remnant suffix (-ct): act, collect, conduct, etc.; the prefix (dis-): disable, disagree, etc.

17. Synonyms. Synonyms are words different in their outer aspects, but identical or similar in their inner aspects. In English there are a lot of synonyms, because there are many borrowings, e.g. hearty / native/ - cordial/ borrowing/. After a word is borrowed it undergoes desynonymization, because absolute synonyms are unnecessary for a language. However, there are some absolute synonyms in the language, which have exactly the same meaning and belong to the same style, e.g. to moan, to groan; homeland, motherland etc. In cases of desynonymization one of the absolute synonyms can specialize in its meaning and we get semantic synonyms, e.g. «city» /borrowed/, «town» /native/. The French borrowing «city» is specialized. In other cases native words can be specialized in their meanings, e.g. «stool» /native/, «chair» /French/.Duality of synonyms is their most confusing feature. They are somewhat same and yet they are obviously different. Their function in speech is revealing different aspects, shades and variations of same phenomenon. The only existing classification system for synonyms was established by Vinogradov. In his classification there are 4 types of synonyms: 1. ideographic - are words conveying same concept, but dif. in shades of meaning. (To happen - to occur - to befall - to chance) 2. stylistic - are words different in stylistic characteristics. Belong to different styles. (child - Infant - kid)

3. absolute - once coincide in all their shades of meaning and in all their stylistic characteristics.4. dialectical synonyms. (Autumn ~ fall)   More modern approach to classification of synonyms may be based on definition of synonyms as words differing in conotation: 1. connotation of degree or intensity. E.g.: to surprise- to astonish – to amaze – to astound; 2. connotation of duration. E.g.: to stare – to glare – to gaze – to glance – to peep – to peer; 3. emotive connotation. E.g.: alone – single – lonely – solitary; 4. evaluative connotation conveys speaker’s attitude as good or bad: e.g. well-known – famous – notorious –celebrated; 5. causative connotation: e.g. to sparkle (сиять(глаза) положительные эмоции) – to glitter (блестят, но эмоции отрицательные) - to shiver (with cold, from a chill, because of a frost) – to shudder (with fear); 6. connotation of manner: e.g. to stroll – to stride – to trot – to pace – to swagger – to stagger. All these synonyms denote different ways and types of walking: length of space, tempo, gait.

18. Antonyms Traditionally antonyms are treated as words with opposed meanings, but the notion of the opposition is rather vague. Nikitin states that antonomy is based on the semantic opposition of features. Arnold: “Antonyms are two or more words of the same language belonging to the same part of speech and to the same semantic field identical in style and nearly identical in distribution associated and often used together, so that their denotative meanings render contradictory or contrary notions. Complete antonyms are fairly rare. The relations of antonomy restricted to certain contexts (e.g. thick – thin). Antonomy may be both structural and contextual. In the latter case the words are not regularly opposed by certain feature between antonyms in specific context (e.g. “It was the spring of hope” – “It was the winter of despair”) and are contrasted due to their context. Бублякова suggested 4 criteria for classifying antonyms:1) Substantivity vs. predicativity (predicative antonyms, unlike substanted, represent an opposition of feature or a situation: e.g. “cry” – “laughter” = substanted antonyms, but e.g. “to cry” – “to laugh” =predicative antonyms); 2) Privacy vs. equipollency (private opposition is characterized by the presence of the certain feature in one member of the opposition and the absence of the same feature in the other. Private antonyms are called quantitative. In the equipollent opposition one member is characterized by a certain feature and the other member corresponds to a feature correlating with the first one: e.g. “man” – “woman”. These antonyms are qualitative); 3) Static (e.g. “male” – “female”) vs. dynamic (e.g. “arrival” – “departure”); 4) Binary vs. gradual (Binary antonyms have only 2 members opposed to each other, gradual antonyms – more than 2 members in the opposition): a) Contradictories – are mutually opposed and deny one another (e.g. “dead” – “alive”, “perfect” – “imperfect”). Among contradictories there is a subgroup of words of the type “young” – “old”. The difference between this in the antonymic pairs lies in the fact that to say “not young” is not necessarily to say “old”; b) Contraries – mutually opposed but they are gradable (e.g. “cold” – “hot”); c) Incompatibles – semantic relations in incompatibles exists among the antonyms within common components of meaning and may be described as the reverse of hyponomy, the relations of exclusion but not contradiction (e.g. to say “morning” is not to say “afternoon”). Another classification of antonyms is based on the morphological approach: a) root or absolute antonyms (e.g. “right” – “wrong”); b) the presence of negative affixes creates derivational antonyms (e.g. “happy” – “unhappy”). There are typical affixes and typical patterns that form derivational antonyms. The relevant type of derivational antonyms contains negative prefixes dis-, a-, im-, in-. as to the suffixes in modern English they are not just added to the root but exchanged for another suffix (e.g. “hopeless” – “hopeful”). Almost every word can have one or more synonyms, comparatively few have antonyms, they are: a) qualitative adjectives (e.g. “old”); b) words connected with feelings or state (e.g. “hope” – “despair”); c) words of direction (e.g. “here” – “there”); d) words of position in space and time (e.g. “far” – “near”); e) some others (e.g. “day” – “night”, “late” – early”). Conversives denote one and the same referent or situation as viewed from different point of view (e.g. “buy” – “sell”, “give” – “receive”; “to marry” renders both conversive meanings, it denotes good for both participants). Reversives – verbs denoting the reverse or the undoing of the action expressed by one of them (e.g. “time” – “untime”, “marry” – “divorce”)

The semantic relations of opposition are the basis for grouping antonyms. The term "antonym" is of Greek origin and means “opposite name”. It is used to describe words different in some form and characterised by different types of semantic contrast of denotational meaning and interchangeability at least in some contexts.

Structurally, all antonyms can be subdivided into absolute (having different roots) and derivational (of the same root), (e.g. "right"- "wrong"; "to arrive"- "to leave" are absolute antonyms; but "to fit" - "to unfit" are derivational).

Semantically, all antonyms can be divided in at least 3 groups:

a) Contradictories. They express contradictory notions which are mutually opposed and deny each other. Their relations can be described by the formula "A versus NOT A": alive vs. dead (not alive); patient vs. impatient (not patient). Contradictories may be polar or relative (to hate- to love [not to love doesn't mean "hate"]).

b) Contraries are also mutually opposed, but they admit some possibility between themselves because they are gradable (e.g. cold – hot, warm; hot – cold, cool). This group also includes words opposed by the presence of such components of meaning as SEX and AGE (man -woman; man - boy etc.).

c) Incompatibles. The relations between them are not of contradiction but of exclusion. They exclude possibilities of other words from the same semantic set (e.g. "red"- doesn't mean that it is opposed to white it means all other colors; the same is true to such words as "morning", "day", "night" etc.).

There is another type of opposition which is formed with reversive antonyms. They imply the denotation of the same referent, but viewed from different points (e.g. to buy – to sell, to give – to receive, to cause – to suffer)

A polysemantic word may have as many antonyms as it has meanings. But not all words and meanings have antonyms!!! (e.g. "a table"- it's difficult to find an antonym, "a book").

Relations of antonymy are limited to a certain context + they serve to differentiate meanings of a polysemantic word (e.g. slice of bread - "thick" vs. "thin" BUT: person - "fat" vs. "thin").

19 Homonyms. Hyponymy. Hyponymy is a semantic relation of inclusion. (vehicle: taxi, car, tram) The hyponymic rel-ions may be viewed as a hierarchical rel-ions btw the m-ng of the general & the indiv terms. The gen term is sometimes referred to classifier\hyporonym & serves to describe the lex-gr groups. The ind ref to as hyponyms, they entail the m-ng to the gen term in add to their indiv m-ngs, which disting them from each other. Types: nouns – mironymy, verbs – lex entailment: temporal (study>graduate)& traponymy (to do smth in a certain manner link>walk), backward opposition (aim: hit\miss) & casual relations. Problems: 1. diff cl-ons (person); 2. diff lang. Homonyms are words which is identical in sound and spelling or at least in one of these aspects, but different in their meanings: e.g. bank (a shore) – bank (an institution). English vocabulary is rich in such pairs. If synonyms and antonyms can be regarded as treasure of l-ge’s expressive resources, homonyms may lead to confusion or misunderstanding. But this characteristic makes them one of most important sources of humor. Homonyms which are same in sound and spelling are termed homonyms proper. Homophones are homonyms which are same in sound but different in spelling: e.g. bean (боб) - been (3 to be) Homographs are words which are the same in spelling, but different in sound: e.g. lead ([li:d] управлять) – lead ([led] cвинец) Classification of homonyms: According to Professor Smirnizkii they are subdivided into full homonyms and partial homonyms. Full lexical homonyms are words which represent same category of speech: e.g. match (матч) – match (спичка). Partial homonyms are subdivided into 3 subgroups: 1) Simple lexico-gram. partial homonyms are words which belong to same category of part of speech and have one identical form: e.g. lay (infinitive) – lay (Past Indefinite of the verb to lie). 2) Complex lexico-gram. partial homonyms are words of different categories of parts of speech which have one identical form. e.g. rose (роза) – rose (Past Indefinite of the verb to rise). 3) Partial lexical homonyms are words of the same category of part of speech which are identical only in their corresponding forms: e.g. to can (консервировать) – can (modal verb).

Classification of homonyms

Homonyms are words that are identical in their sound-form or spelling but different in meaning and distribution.

1) Homonyms proper are words similar in their sound-form and graphic but different in meaning (e.g. "a ball"- a round object for playing; "a ball"- a meeting for dances).

2) Homophones are words similar in their sound-form but different in spelling and meaning (e.g. "peace" - "piece", "sight"- "site").

3) Homographs are words which have similar spelling but different sound-form and meaning (e.g. "a row" [rau]- "a quarrel"; "a row" [rəu] - "a number of persons or things in a more or less straight line")

There is another classification by Смирницкий. According to the type of meaning in which homonyms differ, homonyms proper can be classified into:

I. Lexical homonyms - different in lexical meaning (e.g. "ball");

II. Lexical-grammatical homonyms which differ in lexical-grammatical meanings (e.g. "a seal" - тюлень, "to seal" - запечатывать).

III. Grammatical homonyms which differ in grammatical meaning only (e.g. "used" - Past Indefinite, "used"- Past Participle; "pupils"- the meaning of plurality, "pupil's"- the meaning of possessive case).

All cases of homonymy may be subdivided into full and partial homonymy. If words are identical in all their forms, they are full homonyms (e.g. "ball"-"ball"). But: "a seal" - "to seal" have only two