56. Word-composition. Criteria of composition.

Composition-- (30% of English words) - is a very productive word building means in modern English. The aim of this process is to combine two stems to produce one word.

e.x. bedroom; blackboard

56.1. Principles (problems) of composition

1. How to differentiate compound words from word combinations.

5 criteria of this distinguish

1) Phonetic – all word-combination bare a primary stress on each of its constitutive parts where is compound word have only one primary stress.

Ex. Laughing boys laughing gas (compound word)

2) Morphological – in compound words the ending is placed at the end of this structure.

Ex. Weekend (s)

3) Syntactical – strict word order;

Ex. Adj + noun = beautiful house

4) Syntactic – in some compound words the meaning of a whole can’t be deduced (исчислять) from the total sum of the meanings of its constitutive parts.

Ex. Ladybird – божья коровка

Type – writer – печатная машинка

5) Graphic

n In one block

n Hyphenated

n Separatel

57. The problem of the Word. The theory of the Word.

Word – is considered a central unit of linguistic and speech because it possesses a phonetic shape and grammatical structure (morphological) and its meaning(semantic shape). more than 100 definitions of a WORD but not a single definition has been consider quite significant.

3 approaches to the definitions of a word

1. Phonetic approach

2. Grammatical approach

3. Semantic approach

1. Morphological approach (Henry Sweet)

A word is minimal sentence. (Nothing about semantic and phonetic) Leonard Bloomfield word – is a minimum free form (минимальная свободная форма) (nothing about the meaning)

2. Edward Sapir word – is one of the smallest completely satisfying bits of isolating meaning into which the sentence resolves itself. the most essential feature – indivisibility (неделимость) (a (dangerous) live; alive)

3. Anton Meillet (combines the semantic, phonological and grammatical criteria)word – is defined by the association of a particular meaning with a particular group of founds capable of a particular grammatical employment criteria.

4. И.В.Арнольд, А.И. Смерницкий, В.В. Ярцева.(noticed the connection of a word with practical reality)word – denotes something in reality and this should be taking into consideration while a given the definition of a word.

word – is the smallest significant unit of a given language capable of functioning alone and characterized by positional mobility within a sentence, morphological indivisibility and semantic integrity (целостность)

The word as a dialectical unity of form (the spoken or written expression) and content (the meaning rendering the emotion or the concept in the mind of the speaker which he intends to convey to his listener)

58. Variants and dialects of the English language.

Local dialects are varieties of the English Language peculiar to some districts and having no normalized literary form.

Regional varieties possessing a literary form are called variants.

In GB there are two variants: Scottish English and Irish English, and five main groups of dialects: Nothern, Midland, Eastern, Western and Southern. Every group contains several (up to ten) dialects.

Among the regional varieties beyond the borders of GB American English is the most important, as it has its own literary standards, i.e. its own generally accepted norms of speaking and writing. american English can not be called a dialect since it has a literary normalized form called Standard American, while a dialect has no litrary form.

Canadian, Australian and Indian English can also be considered regional varieties of English with their own peculiarities.

The differences between British English (BE) and American English (AmE) are observed in the vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and spelling.

There is a number of differences between British and American lexicons. There exist words which belong only to American vocabulary and constitute its specific feature. These words are called Americanisms (the term was introduced by Sir John Witherspoon, rector of Princeton University). Among Americanisms the following major groups of words are distinguished: historical Americanisms, proper Americanisms and borrowings.The examples of historical Americanisms are the words: fall (autumn), to guess (in the meaning “to think”), sick (in the meaning “ill, unwell”). In BE their meanings have changed, while in AmE these words still retain their old meanings.

Proper Americanisms are words that are specifically American. They denote American realia, objects of American flora and fauna: ^ Congress, House of Representatives, District Attorney, forty-niner (золотоискатель 1949 года), prairie scooner (фургон переселенцев), jump a claim (захватить чужой участок), drugstore, blue-grass, catbird (американский пересмешник), bullfrog, etc. They are also names of objects which are called differently in the US and in GB: store – shop, baggage – luggage, subway – underground, railroad – railway, gasoline – petrol, department – faculty, etc.

AmE is rich in specifically American borrowings which reflect the historical contacts of the Americans with other nations on the American continent. Among such borrowings are Spanish borrowings (ranch, sombrero, canyon, tornado), Afro-American borrowings (banjo), German borrowings (lager beer and black beer, frankfurter) and especially Indian borrowings (the words wigwam, canoe, mocassin, tomahauk, racoon, skunk, names of places, rivers, lakes and states: Mississippi, Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky.

The differences between Canadian and BE are concerned mainly with intonation. As for the vocabulary, some words do not differ from their British counterparts while others are the same as in AmE: to guess (“to think”), rooster (“cock”)