§ 15. Summary and Conclusions
1. The comparative value and place of the word in the vocabulary system is conditioned by the interdependence of the structural, semantic, stylistic and etymological aspects of the words which is brought out most vividly in the frequency value attached to each word.
2. On the basis of the interrelation of lexical and grammatical types of meaning words fall into two classes: notional words and form words — a numerically small class of words with the highest frequency value.
1
Some
figures found in Pierre Guiraud’s book Les
caractères statistiques du vocabulaire
(Presses
Universitaires de France, 1954)
may
be of interest to language learners. The counts conducted by the
author show that out of 20,000
words
the first 100
most
frequently occurring words make up 60%
of
any text; 1,000
— 85%; 4,000 — 97,5%, all
the rest (about 15,000)
- 2,5%.
198
Words of high frequency value are mostly characterised by polysemy, structural simplicity, neutral stylistic reference and emotive charge. They generally belong either to the native words or to the early borrowings which are already fully or almost fully assimilated.
Frequency also reflects the interdependence and comparative importance of individual meanings within the word. The basic meaning of the word is at the same time the meaning with the highest frequency value.
The development of vocabulary is largely due to the rapid flow of events, the progress of science and technology and emergence of new concepts in different fields of human activity.
Distinction should be made between the qualitative growth of the vocabulary as a result of semantic extension of the already available words and the numerical replenishing of vocabulary as a result of appearance of new vocabulary units.
There are three principal ways of the numerical growth of vocabulary: a) productive word-formation, b) various non-patterned ways of word creation, c) borrowings.
Productive word-formation is the most powerful source of the numerical growth of present-day English vocabulary.
There are various ways of non-patterned word creation. The two main types are lexicalisation and shortening.
9. The two main types of shortening are: a) transformations of word- groups into words which involve substantivisation, acronyms and blend- ings and b) clippings which consist in a change of the word-structure.
Borrowing as a source of vocabulary extension takes the shape of borrowing of morphemes, borrowing of actual words and loan-translations. Especially active nowadays is the formation of new words out of borrowed morphemes.
The exact number of vocabulary units in Modern English cannot be stated with any degree of certainty for a number of reasons:
a) Constant growth of Modern English word-stock.
b) Intrinsic heterogeneity of Modern English vocabulary.
Divergent views concerning the nature of basic vocabulary units connected with some crucial debatable problems of lexicology: homonymy, polysemy, phraseology, nonce-words.
The absence of a sharp and distinct border-line between English and foreign words and between modern and outdated English vocabulary units.
12. There is a considerable difference between the number of vocabulary units in Modern English word-stock and the number of vocabulary items in actual use.
The selection and number of vocabulary items for teaching purposes depends on the aims set before language learners.
VIII. Variants and Dialects of the English Language
To this point we have been dealing with the vocabulary of the English language as if there were only one variety of this language. We shall now turn to the details in which the language of some English speakers differs from that of others, we shall see what varieties of the language in question there are and how they are interconnected.
Every language allows different kinds of variations: geographical or territorial, perhaps the most obvious, stylistic, the difference between the written and the spoken form of the standard national language and others. We shall be concerned here with the territorial variations, the others being the domain of stylistics.
For historical and economic reasons the English language has spread over vast territories. It is the national language of England proper, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and some provinces of Canada. It is the official language in Wales, Scotland, in Gibraltar and on the island of Malta. The English language was also at different times enforced as an official language on the peoples who fell under British rule or US domination in Asia, Africa and Central and South America. The population of these countries still spoke their mother tongue or had command of both languages. After World War II as a result of the national liberation movement throughout Asia and Africa many former colonies have gained independence and in some of them English as the state language has been or is being replaced by the national language of the people inhabiting these countries (by Hindi in India, Urdu in Pakistan, Burmanese in Burma, etc.). though by tradition it retains there the position of an important means of communication.
The role of the English language in these countries is often overrated, apart from other reasons, through not differentiating between the function of the language as a mother tongue and its function as a means of communication between the colonisers and the native population.
THE MAIN VARIANTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE