8.3. Stylistic Lexicology

Stylistic lexicology studies groups of words according to their stylistic differentiation based on their connotative meaning.

Most of English words are neutral (do not have any connotative coloring). Their meanings are purely denotative. They are either native words or fully assimilated borrowings: table, good, to go, something, enough, first. Neutral words easily produce new meanings and stylistic variants, cf.: mouse – “a small animal”; mouse – “a device”; mouse – “a quiet person”.

Bookish words are found in refined writing and polished speech. These are words mostly of foreign origin and polymorphemic structure: solitude, fascination, paternal, divergent, to comprise, appointee, infant, hereby.

Terms are words that belong to the domain of science. Most of terms are bookish words. A classical term is monosemantic and has no synonyms. Terms of general nature are interdisciplinary (general scientific terms), e.g.: approbation, anomaly, definition, monograph, to refer, to deduce.

Semantically narrow terms belong to a particular branch of science: vector, equation, logarithm (math.); periodic table, absorbent carbon (chem.); abscess (med.); abatement (jur.); A-bag, platoon (mil.); assets and liabilities (fin.); absenteeism (biz.); apse, frieze, pediment (arch.); still life (art); palatalization, illocutionary force, discourse (linguistics).

Poetic words are mostly archaic; their function is to create poetic images and to make speech elevated, e.g.: Albion, academe, alarum (дзвін будильника), azure, maiden, arise (воскресати), oft (often), art (2^nd p. sing. pres. t. of “to be”), thou (ти), thee (тебе, тобі), thy, thine (твій, твоя, твоє, твої), ye (ви).

Language is constantly changing and renewing. Old words die and new appear. Before disappearing, a word undergoes three stages of being obsolescent, obsolete, and archaic.

To obsolescent words belong the pronoun thou and its forms thee, thy, thine; verbs ending in -est & -th, e.g.: thou knowest, he maketh.

Obsolete words have gone completely out of usage though they are still recognized by native speakers: methinks = it seems to me, nay = no.

Archaims are words which are no longer used in everyday speech and have been ousted by synonyms, e.g.: steed (horse), slay (kill), behold (see), troth (faith). Sometimes a lexical archaim begins a new life, getting a new meaning, then the old meaning becomes a semantic archaism, like in a word fair in the meaning “beautiful”. Sometimes the root of the word remains and the suffix is changed, then the old suffix is considered to be a morphemic archaism, e.g.: beutious /suffix -ous was substituted by –ful/, bepaint /be- was dropped/, darksome /-some was dropped/, often /-en was added/.

Archaic words belong to OE, are not recognized nowadays but remain in the language. Their main function is to serve as stylistic devices and to create historical background in writing, e.g.: abidance (residence), ait (island), font (source of water, spring), an (якщо), antic, (смішний, чудний, блазень), apparel (clоthes).

The same is true with historisms – words that name the objects not existing now and belonging to different historic periods: yeoman, vassal, falconet, abolitionism (civil movement for liberation in the USA before the Civil War of 1861-1865), acropolis, ante-bellum, armour-bearer, Amazon, yeoman (free peasant), assessor (tax collector in England).

Neologisms are newly born words. At present time English is developing very swiftly and this process is called “neology blow-up”. R. Berchfield, one of the co-authors of NED, states that nearly 800 neologisms appear every day in Modern English. The “originators” of neologisms are mostly scientists, mass media and news reporters, some politicians and men of letters.

New words are created in three main ways: a) a lexical unit in the language can change its meaning to denote a new object or phenomenon (semantic neologism), e.g.: the word umbrella in the meaning “coverage”, like umbrella project; b) by means of renomination, i.e. a new lexical unit is created for denoting an object which already has its nominalization, e.g.: the word slum was 1^st substituted by the word ghetto, then by inner town; c) a new lexical unit is created to denote a new object or phenomenon (proper neologism), like bank dispenser, ATM, plastic card, spa.

Most of them are terms: browser, chat, gadget, hypertext, hacker, on-line, provider, server, site, spam, spammer. Some of them denote social stratification of the society: belonger (a midclass representative), surviver (a lower class representative), sustainers (a bit more prosperous people), emulators (those who pretend to be prosperous), achievers (those who have prospered), jet set (the rich). There are different semantic groups of neologisms belonging to everyday life: starter (hors d’oevres), hipster (trousers or shirt with the belt on the hips), completenik (a long sweater), sweatnik (a long jacket), bloomers (lady’s sports trousers), bumbag (a small bag worn on the waist), maitre (a bag for cosmetics), dangledolly (a car talisman).

Occasionalisms (nonse-words) are coined for a particular situation or context and aimed at a particular stylistic effect: moneyholic (D.Francis), snob (W.Thackerey), to galumph (to gallop + triumph), to chortle (to chuckle + snort) – “O frabjous day! Calloh! Callay!” He chortle in his joy. (L.Carroll).

Dialecticisms used by people of a certain community living on a certain territory, e.g.: charm (E) – glamour (Scot.), ghost (E) – bogle / boggard / boggart / to boggle (Scot.), girl (E) – lass (Scot.), colcen (Ir.); lab = boy, daft = silly (Scot.); nurley = hockey (Ir.), volt = folk, zee = see (South. E dial.); lorry (Br.) – truck (Am.), I’m sorry (Br.) – Excuse me (Am.); an’t = is not, has not, babbie = baby, yep = yes (Am.).

Barbarisms are borrowed from other languages and are not fully assimilated in English (retaining their original spelling and pronunciation), e.g.: Lat. a propos, datum, alter ego; Fr. clichй, protйgй, rйsumй, beau monde, parvenu, de novo (знову), haute couture, rapport, liaison, morale, force major; Ital. a cappella, allegro, andante, adagio.

Exotisms are words which sound strange: alpaca, angora, anil (індіго), sushi, kiwi, arabesque (мавританський), kimshi (Chinese sour cabbage).

Professionalisms comprise a specific sub-language that is created and used by representatives of a particular profession and at first is not understandable by the common community. Their aim is to make professional communication more economical, e.g.: scalpel (a short sharp knife), bear or bull market, white elephant, milk cows, stars (types of goods), sewing machine (machine gun), tin-fish (submarine).

Colloquial words / colloquialisms are familiar words, idioms, and grammatical fusions used in informal speech and writing: doc, cap, disco, ad; to hit the nail right on the head, to givе a sack, not an atom (ні краплини); contractions: an’t = am not, is not, are not; amalgation of two words in a single one: s’long, c’mon, gimme, wanna, gonna; affixation: girlie, Scotty (Scotchman), arty (з претензією на артистичність); paraphrases: reporter → legman, travelling agent → bagman, theatre sponsor → angel, children’s tricks → hanky-penky, property → assets, arrogant answer → back-talk, interjections boo, oops, gee, wow.

Slangy words represent non-standard vocabulary, the language of a certain sub-culture which is hardly used in writing. Slang is more vivid, forceful and expressive than standart English. Slangy words are often rude, scornful, estimative, and humorous. They are deviod of intelligence, moral, virtue, and other human values. Most of them are short, often monosyllabic. The most popular images of slang are food, money, sex, people’s appearance and character, e.g.: the notion “money” = bucks, beans, greens, green goods, hay, gelt, sugar, iron, chips, corn, sand, shells.

Jargonisms are non-standard words used by people of a certain asocial group to keep their meaning secret. There are jagons of criminals, convicts, gamblers, vagabonds, souteneurs and prostitutes, drug dealers, e.g.: drugs = candy, white stuff, drug addict = snifter, drug seller = candy man, capsule = cap, injection = jab-off.

Vulgarisms (obscene words) may be seen as a part of slang. They are considered impolite, derogatory, and boorish (so-called anti-language), e.g.: shit, whore, bitch.

For further reading: Yefimov L. P. et al. Practical Stylistics of English, pp. 23-29; Kveselevych D. I. Modern English Lexicology, pp. 107-121; Nikolenko A. G. English Lexicology: Theory and Practice, pp. 250-270.