§ 13. Summary and Conclusions
1. In spite of the numerous outside linguistic influences and the etymological heterogeneity of its vocabulary the English language is still, in essential characteristics, a Germanic language. It has retained a groundwork of Germanic words and grammar.
Borrowing has never been the chief means of replenishing the English vocabulary. Word-formation and semantic development were throughout the entire history of the language much more productive. Besides most native words are marked by a higher frequency value.
The great number of borrowings brought with them new phonomorphological types, new phonetic, morphological and semantic features. On the other hand, under the influence of the borrowed element words already existing in English changed to some extent their semantic structure, collocability, frequency and derivational ability.
Borrowing also considerably enlarged the English vocabulary and brought about some changes in English synonymic groups, in the distribution of the English vocabulary through spheres of application and in the lexical divergence between the variants of the literary language and its dialects.
VII. Various Aspects of Vocabulary Units and Replenishment of Modern English Word-Stock
INTERDEPENDENCE OF VARIOUS ASPECTS
OF THE WORD
The foregoing description of the word dwelt on its structural, semantic, stylistic and etymological peculiarities separately. In actual speech all these aspects are closely interrelated and interdependent and the pattern of their interdependence largely preconditions the comparative value and place of the word in Modern English. This interdependence is most vividly brought out in the frequency value attached to the words in the language. However it must be pointed out that frequency value alone, important as it is, is not an adequate criterion to establish the most important relationships between words or the most useful section of vocabulary.
§ 1. Notional and Form-Words
The
frequency distribution singles out two classes, all the words of the
language fall into: the so-called notional
words,
the largest class, having a low frequency of occurrence in
comparison with a numerically small group of the so-called form
or function
words.
Form words in terms of absolute figures make a specific group of
about 150
units.
Notional words constitute the bulk of the existing word-stock;
according to the recent counts given for the first 1000
most
frequently occurring words they make 93%
of
the total number. The results of these counts l
(given
below graphically) show the numerical interrelation of the two
classes.
The division of vocabulary units into notional and form words is based on the peculiar interrelation of lexical and grammatical types of meaning. In notional words which are used in speech as names of objects of reality, their qualities, names of actions, processes, states the lexical meaning is predominant. In the majority of form words (prepositions, articles, conjunctions), which primarily denote various relations between notional words, it is the grammatical meaning that dominates over their lexical meaning. The difference between notional and form words may be also described in terms of open and closed sets of vocabulary units.2
It should also be noted that though the division of all vocabulary units into notional and form words is valid, in actual speech the borderline between them is not always clear-cut. Comparing the use, e.g., of the verb (to) keep in the word-groups to keep books, to keep a house, to keep secret with to keep warm, to keep talking or the verb (to) turn in to turn one’s head, to turn the toy in one’s fingers with to turn pale
176
1 С. С. Fries. The Structure of English, ch. VI. N. Y., 1952.
2 See ‘Semasiology’, § 7, p. 19.
|
Notional words |
Form words |
In the 1st hundred of the most frequently occurring words |
66% |
34% |
In the 2nd hundred of the most frequently occurring words |
82% |
18% |
In the 3rd hundred of the most frequently occurring words |
90% |
10% |
In the 4th hundred of the most frequently occurring words |
93% |
7% |
In the 1st thousand of the most frequently occurring words |
93% |
7% |
we
observe that the verbs (to)
keep and
(to)
turn develop
meanings peculiar to form words without breaking with the class of
notional words.
All notional lexical units are traditionally subdivided into parts of speech, i.e. lexical-grammatical classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs. Nouns numerically make the largest class — about 39%, verbs come second — 25% of all notional words, they are followed by adjectives — 17% and adverbs making 12%, the smallest group of notional words.
The frequency value of words’ show that the form words, though insignificant in terms of absolute figures, constitute the most frequent group of words inseparably bound up with almost all patterns notional words are used in. It is interesting to note that the first ten words in order of frequency are: the, of, and, to, a, in, that, is, was, he. The high frequency value of these 150 function words accounts for the fact that this small group makes up approximately half the lexical items of any English text.
The frequency value of different lexical-grammatical classes of notional words also shows a different distribution as compared with the absolute figures for the same classes, as it is the verbs that prove to be words of highest frequency and greatest potential collocability.