- •1. The object of Lexicology
- •2. Lexicology and other Branches of Linguistics
- •3. The definition of the word
- •4. Meaning
- •5. Change of meaning
- •6. Types of word meanings
- •7. Word formation
- •8. Derivation
- •9. Frequency and productivity of affixes
- •10. Meaning of affixes
- •11. Conversion
- •12. Reconversion
- •13. Compounding
- •14. Structure of compounds
- •15. Syntactic and lexical compounds
- •16. Classification of compounds
- •17. Correlation between compound and free phrases
- •18. Shortening
- •19. Correlations of a clip with its prototype
- •20. Position of the clipped part
- •21. Back formations
- •22. Blending
- •23. Acronyms
- •24. True acronyms vs initialisms
- •25. Reverse acronyms
- •26. Eponyms
- •27. Minor types of word formation
- •28. Set expression vs compound
- •29. Classification of set expressions
- •30. Classification of phraseological units
- •31. Features of set expressions
- •33. Loanword. Most popular sources
- •34. Sources of most recent loanwords
- •35. Synonymy
- •36. Strict and loose synonymy
- •37. Distinguishing synonyms
- •38. Abundance of synonyms
- •39. Antonymy
- •41. Types of antonyms
- •42. Pervasiveness of antonyms
- •43. Polysemy
- •44. Problems in the concept of polysemy
- •45. Homonymy
- •46. Homonym clashes
- •47. Types of homonyms
- •48. Hyponymy
- •49. Meronymy
- •50. Lexical gaps
- •51. Origin of dictionaries
- •52. Types of dictionaries
- •53. Styles and neutral vocabulary
- •54. Colloquialisms
33. Loanword. Most popular sources
A loan word (borrowed word, 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. There are certain structural features which enable us to identify some words as borrowings and even to determine the source language.
Latin affixes: N.: - ion, - tion. V.: - ate, - ute, - ct, - d (e), dis -. Adj.: - able, - ate, - ant, - ent, - or, - ar.
French Affixes: N.: - ance, - ence, - ment, - age, - ess. Adj.: - ous. V.: en - .
Alongside loan words proper, we distinguish loan translation and semantic loans. Loan translations are words and expressions formed from the material already existing in the British language but according to patterns taken from another language.. The term semantic loan is used to denote the development of a new meaning of an English word due to the influence of a related word in another language.
The 3 groups of loanwords may be suggested: 1.) completely assimilated loan words, 2.) partially assimilated loan words and 3.) unassimilated loan words or barbarisms.
1) Completely assimilated loan words are found in all the layers of older borrowings. The may belong to the 1st layer of Latin borrowings (cheese, street, wall, wine). Among Scandinavian loan words we find such frequent words as husband, fellow, gate, root, wing, call, die, take, want, happy, ill, low, odd, wrong. Completely assimilated French words are extremely numerous and frequent (table, chair, face, figure, finish, matter). A considerable number of Latin words are at present almost indistinguishable from the rest of the vocabulary (animal, article). They follow all morphological, phonetical and orthographic standards.
2.) partially assimilated loan words may be subdivided depending on the aspect that remains unaltered, i.e. according to whether the word retains features of spelling, pronunciation, morphology or denotation (when the word denotes some specific realia) that are not English into subgroups.
2.1. Loan words not assimilated semantically, because they denote objects and notions peculiar to the country from which they come (sombrero, shah, rajar, toreador, rickshaw, sherbet, krone, zloty, peseta, rouble)
2.2. Loan words not assimilated grammatically (Lat., gr.: bacillus – bacilli, crisis – crises, formula – formulae, index – indices, phenomenon – phenomena).
2.3. Loan words not completely assimilated phonetically. The French words borrowed after 1650: machine, cartoon, police; bourgeois, camouflage, prestige, regime, sabotage; memoir, mélange; It., Sp.: confetti, incognito, macaroni, opera, sonata, soprano, tomato, potato, tobacco
2.4. Loan words not completely assimilated graphically. This group is fairly large and variegated. Fr.: ballet, buffet, corps; café, cliché; bouquet, brioche.
3.) Unassimilated loan words or barbarisms – words from other languages used by English people in conversation or in writing but not assimilated in any way, and for which there are corresponding English equivalents. 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 only, but do not enter the language. (It. adios, ciao).