2.4 Semantic, or Lexical, Fields

The term lexical field was first introduced by the German linguist Jost Trier. He noted that fields are living realities intermediate between individual words and the totality of the vocabulary; as a part of the whole, they share with words the property of being integrated in a large structure and with the vocabulary the property of being structured in terms of smaller units (as quoted in Ullman, 1951, p. 157; Lyons, 1977, p. 253). A set of lexemes which are related in meaning share a lexical, or semantic, field, so semantic fields are classifications of words associated by their meanings. David Crystal defines a semantic field as “a named area of meaning in which lexemes interrelate and define each other in specific ways” (1995, p. 157). This task may make it look easy to group, for example, all the vegetables under the lexical field “vegetables”: cucumber, carrot, and cabbage; and to group all the pieces of furniture under the lexical field of “furniture”: stool, chair, bed, table wardrobe, sideboard, and bookshelf. Nevertheless, it is not so straightforward. Crystal notes that some lexemes belong to the fields which are difficult to define or vague, e.g., noise or difficult. Some lexemes may belong to more than one field, such as orange. Does it belong to the field of color or fruit? He admits that even if there are some difficulties in arranging the lexemes according to their semantic fields, grouping lexemes by subject matter will be beneficial to the learners of English as a second language as well as young children.

Part III: Synchronic and Diachronic Approaches to the Structure of the English Vocabulary

3.1 Synchronic Approach to the Structure of the English Vocabulary

3.1.1 Common, Literary, and Colloquial layers

Synchronically, the structure of the English lexicon consists of common, literary, and colloquial layers. Leonhard Lipka further divides a literary layer into scientific, foreign, and archaic words. He includes technical, slang, vulgar, and dialectal words in the colloquial layer. The major part of the lexicon Lipka identifies as a common layer--lexemes, which are present in all the varieties of English. The following diagram provided by Lipka illustrates the structure of the English lexicon (2002, p.17). We believe this diagram should include neologisms, as well; they can appear in all the layers of the vocabulary: literary, common, and colloquial.

Common words are stylistically neutral, and their stylistic neutrality makes it possible to use them in all kinds of situations. The common vocabulary is the central group of the English lexicon, its historical foundation and living core. That is why words of this stratum show a considerably greater stability in comparison with words of the other strata, especially colloquial.

The literary layer of the English vocabulary is comprised of literary, scientific, and scholarly terms, foreign words, and archaisms. Besides general-literary (bookish) words, e.g., abdicate, harmony, aberration, accentuate, affinity, aggrandize, allege, antipathy, calamity, alacrity, equanimity, eschew, ingenuous, innocuous, etc., we may have various specific subgroups such as 1) terms or scientific words: gerocomy, genocide, nutrient, respiration, friction, hazard, laboratory, evaporation, vertebrate, and cyclone; 2) literary terms: accent, acrostic, allegory, allusion, antagonist, ballad, caesura, comedy, connotation, metaphor, metonymy, denotation, irony, rhyme, epiphany, oxymoron, parable, and paradox; 3) archaisms: thorp—‘village,’ whilom — ‘at times, formerly,’ aught — ‘anything, all, everything,’ and ere — ‘before.’ Sometimes a clipped form of a longer word supplants the latter altogether, turning it to an archaic word. Thus mob supplanted mobile vulgus ‘movable, or fickle, common people’; and omnibus, in the sense ‘motor vehicle for paying passengers,’ is almost as archaic as mobile vulgus, having been clipped to bus. Taxicab has completely replaced taximeter cabriolet. Bra has similarly supplanted brassiere (Algeo, 2010, p. 235); 4) foreign words: French: bon mot, camouflage, chauffeur, coupon, apropos, faux pas, and bouquet; Spanish: tamale, tortilla, jalapeno, pico de gallo, siesta, fiesta, lasso, burrito, taco, salsa, cilantro, guacamole, and enchilada; German: pretzel, strudel, dachshund, and kindergarten; Italian: confetti, crescendo, gondola, motto, pizza, regatta, lasagna, salami, and zucchini; Russian: babushka, borsch, samovar, sputnik, troika, and tundra; Hawaiian: aloha, hula, and wiki.

The colloquial layer includes technical, slang, jargon, dialectal, and vulgar words. “Slang words or phrases are typically very informal, and they are usually restricted to a particular group— typically teens and young adults— as a marker of in- group status” (Denham & Lobeck, 2010, p. 190). Most are not new words; they are usually existing words which acquired new meanings. Slang does not last long; however, the slang terms that stick around soon cease to be slang and join the common words stratum. Mob, hubbub, and rowdy were previously slang words. Some slang words like cool, nice, awesome, yeah right, whatever, ya, hot, and me too are used by a wide range of people. While some educated people do not use slang and view it unfavourably and hyperbolic, “slang is a feature of most languages and is an indicator of the ways in which language adapts for the purposes of those who use it” (Denham & Lobeck, 2010, p. 190).

Although Lipka does not differentiate between slang and jargon, we believe there are some differences between them. Jargon is not as informal as slang is, and jargon tends toward “specialized vocabulary associated with particular professions, trades, sports, occupations, games, and so on” (Denham & Lobeck, 2010, p. 190). Slang is used mostly by teens and young adults. Moreover, slang may not exist more than one generation, but jargon may travel from one generation to the other. Some medical jargon words are ailment, alleviate symptoms, allergen, benign, condition, dosage, edema, inflammation, inhibitor, lesion, syncope, intake, and vertigo. The following are university jargon words and expressions: academic advisor, term, semester, alumnus (alumni), assessment, campus, dissertation, elective, enrollment, finals, graduation, incomplete, independent student, learning outcomes, mentor, module, office hours, plagiarism, provost, sabbatical, seminar, tutor, and tutorial.

Slang is not the same as a style, or register, although some scholars claim they are. Bruce Rowe and Diane Levine (2012) argue, “The use of slang is another way that speakers indicate the informal register” (p. 214). By using slang, individuals indicate their social identity, and slang actually has never been accepted in formal language. Racial epithets are also slangs, and they are actually taboo slang, such as “wop for Italians who immigrated ‘without papers,’ wetback for Mexicans who illegally crossed the border by swimming across the Rio Grande, and slant eyes for Asians, who have an epicanthic fold in the eyelid” (Ibid, p. 214). Many people create their own slang words that are not identifiable by other people; however, slang words may be related to the whole generation that are identifiable by many people, e.g., jazz musicians of Harlem used the phrase cool cat to identify an individual who was a wonderful jazz musician. The hippies used the phrase far-out to express amazement or marked by a considerable departure from the conventional or traditional. Another expression hippies used is get high which means having some feelings after taking some drugs. This phrase still exists as slang.

Everyone has a different way of speaking in a formal or informal setting. Individuals shift registers easily and unconsciously. In the conversation with friends and family members, individuals use different vocabulary and tone than they would use during their teaching, lecturing, or conducting business. They never fail to switch from one register to another depending on a situation or a setting. According to Denham and Lobeck, register is the manner of speaking that depends on audience (e. g., formal versus informal) (2010, p. 190), and it is a speech or writing style adopted for a particular audience (Ibid, p. 342). Shifting registers, or styles, helps people maintain their social relationships. In a given situation, they may want to show their power, but in a different context, they may minimize it. Register differences can be shown in different ways. One is word choice when communicating in a formal or informal setting. Individuals will not use such words or phrases as gonna, ya’ll, wanna, and fixin’ during the job interview, but they may use them after the interview when they describe the interview process to their friends or family members. According to Frank Parker and Kathryn Riley, “when speaking or writing in a more formal register, our word choice may lean toward multisyllabic words rather than their shorter equivalents” (2010, p.180). Other ways of shifting registers are sentence structures, an accent, and tones. During the job interview, the interviewee may ask, “Which department will I be working in?” or “In which department will I be working?” The second example shows that the interviewee knows an appropriate formal style of communication. A register is “the variety of language for a particular purpose” (Algeo & Pyles, 2010 p. 11), and the more different the circumstances are, the more registers we use to communicate our message. Registers are suitable to the situation, the level of formality, and the individual to whom we are speaking.

The word ‘technical’ is “a direct derivation from the Greek tekhne, an art, skill, or craft” (Murphy, 2011, p. 146). Technical terms are specialized vocabulary of various specialties. Some technical terms are binary, cache, encryption, domain, blacklist, buffer, defragment, keystroke, annealing, frit, grinder, and laminate.

Vulgar, or taboo, words are “forbidden words or expressions interpreted as insulting or rude in a particular language” (Denham & Lobeck, 2010, p. 190). This term came from Latin vulgus, which means common people, so vulgar language is directly translated as the language of common people. Although vulgar words are forbidden, they have existed in the language for hundreds of years, and the list is extensive.

Dialects are mutually intelligible varieties of a language that differ in systematic ways, but these language forms are understood by speakers of these varieties. “A dialect variety of a language has unique phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and vocabulary and is spoken and understood by a particular group” (Denham & Lobeck, 2010, p. 514). Three types of dialects are identified such as regional, ethnic, and social. When people are separated from each other geographically, regional dialects develop. Dialectologists list three American regional dialects: Northern, Midland, and Southern. Ethnic dialects are characterized by ethnic groups living in those areas. “The linguistic characteristics of the people who settled there are the primary influence on that dialect, and the speech of most people in that area shares similar dialect features” (Denham & Lobeck, 2010, p. 410). Social dialects can reveal our educational or class status. The choice of a language variation and the speakers’ “attitudes about social class, politics, and religion all influence our linguistic choices” (Ibid, p.416).