9. Stylistic classification of english vocabulary

For stylistic purposes, Galperin (1977) presents the system of stylistic classification of English vocabulary which consists of three overlapping layers:

1.(unmarked) neutral layer – being the most stable level it forms the bulk of English vocabulary, its common core, includes field-nonspecific words, is the source of polysemy and synonymy and renders itself for the word-formation processes,

2. (marked) literary layer consisting of a) common literary words (used esp. in writing and polished speech), and b) special literary words, which include terms and learned words (terminology of sciences), poetic words (highly elevated vocabulary), archaic words (obsolescent, obsolete, archaic proper), barbarisms and foreign words (foreignisms), literary/terminological coinages (including nonce-words),

3.(marked) colloquial layer contains words which have lively spoken character: a) common colloquial words, b) special colloquial words which include slang (e.g., college slang, rap slang, military slang), jargonisms, professional words (e.g., journalese), dialectal words, vulgar words, colloquial coinages (nonce-words). The neutral layer along with the overlapping areas of common literary words and common colloquial words form the standard English vocabulary. The relations between the neutral and common colloquial/common literary words is represented by existing chains of synonyms.

10. Abbreviations, shortenings, the ways of vocabulary enrichment in English.

Words are made differently – productively and non-productively. Productive ways are: 1) affixation; 2) composition; 3) conversion; 4) shortening. Non-productive ways are: 1) stress-shift; 2) blending; 3) reduplication; 4) mutation (чередование); 5) sound imitation.

Both types are called word-building. But word-making is more general. It includes word-building, borrowings, the change of meaning and phraseology.

Shortening is a productive way of word-building which consists in making both new words and forms by dropping the parts of a word.

1) new words: (de)fence, mob(ile), (a)mend;

2) lexical variants (forms): (Ale)xander, doc(tor); acronyms – shortened words read in alphabetic manner: USA, BBC, USSR;

3) graphic abbreviations: h. (hour), m. (mile), Rd (road), A.D., B.C.;

4) synonyms: Bekka – Rebekka, USA – the United States of America;

5) etymological doublets (twins) – of the same origin but had different changes: twins – between, through – thorough, inn – in, miss – mistress, fancy – fantasy;

6) it gives homonyms: cab(ine) – cab(riolette) – cab(bage); I.D. (idea) – I.D. (identification card)

paye – pay as you earn

asap – as soon as possible

g.p. – generalpurpose

O’K – all correct

11. Phraseological units, or idioms and free word group

Idioms - structurally, lexically and semantically fixed phrases or sentences having mostly the meaning, which is not made up by the sum of meanings of their component parts.

Theyare characterised by a double sense: the current meanings of constituent words build up a certain picture, but the actual meaning of the whole unit has little or nothing to do with that picture, in itself creating an entirely new image.

All PU are divided into 3 groups:

Ph. Fusions – non-motivated and indivisible. To show white feather – струсить;

Ph. Unities – are motivated, but metaphorical. Monkey business – дурачества;

Ph. Collocations – the meaning of it’s components resulted in the meaning of Ph.unit.

There are two major criteria for distinguishing between phraseological units and free word-groups: semantic and structural.

Academician V. V. Vinogradov spoke, that phraseological units' meaning does not consist of the meanings of each separate constituent part of the unit. The meanings of the constituents merge to produce an entirely new meaning: e. g. to have a bee in one's bonnet means "to have an obsession about something; to be eccentric or even a little mad". This phraseological unit is characterised by semantic unity, it conveys a single concept.

The structural criterion also brings distinctive features of phraseological units and free word-groups.

Structural integrity, that is an essential feature of phraseological units, finds expression in a number of restrictions.

First of all, restriction in substitution. As a rule, no word can be substituted in phraseological unit without destroying its sense. To carry coals to Manchester makes as little sense as B Харьков со своим самоваром.

At the same time, in free word-groups substitution does not present any dangers

The second type of restriction is the restriction in additional components.

We can say: This big ship is carrying a large cargo of coal to the port of Liverpool.