Lecture 10. Lexical systems (4 hrs)

Objective. To inform the students of different types of lexical systems; to raise the students’ awareness of the English vocabulary as an adaptive system; to develop cognitive skills of analyzing & summarizing the information, distinguishing between major & minor aspects, categorizing & estimating relevant facts.

Glossary: adaptive system, neologism, juxtaposition, obsolete words, archaism, historism, morphological grouping, lexical-grammatical grouping, notional and form-words, thematic groups, semantic field, hyponymy, ideographic group, terminological system, term, emotive speech, primary and derived interjections, diminutive affixes, inversion, nonce-words, echo-conversion, emphatic / intensifying words, evaluative words

Plan

1. Neologisms & archaisms

2. Morphological & lexical-grammatical grouping

3. Thematic & ideographic groups

4. Terminological systems

5. Emotionally coloured & emotionally neutral vocabulary

10.1. Neologisms & archaisms

New notions appear, requiring new Ws to name them. Sometimes a new name is introduced for a thing / notion that continues to exist, & the older name ceases to be used. → The number of Ws in a language is not constant. New Ws are borrowed / coined out of the existing language material, according to the patterns already productive / creating new ones.

A neologism is a newly coined W / phrase / a new meaning for an existing W / a W borrowed from another language. The development of science & industry → the invention & introduction of a great number of new Ws & changed the meanings of old ones: aerobic, black hole, computer, isotope, feedback, penicillin, pulsar, quasar, tape-recorder, supermarket. In the course of time the new W is accepted into the W-stock of the language & ceases to be considered new. It may not be accepted & vanish from the language.

Ways of Neo-forming: 1) abbreviation. The laws of efficient communication demand maximum signal in minimum time. → Radio location – radio detection & ranging. Convenient abbreviation out of the 1st letter(s) of each W – radar;

2) blending: bionics < bio+(electr)onics; slimnastics < slim+gymnastics;

3) new semi-affixes: chairperson, policeperson (a tendency to degender professional names); power-mad, money-mad, speed-mad, movie-mad & auto-happy, trigger-happy, footlight-happy (obsessed with sth.); workaholic, footballaholic, bookaholic, washeteria ‘a self-service laundry’ (-aholic – an abstracted form);

4) compounding by juxtaposition of free forms: brains-trust ‘a group of experts’, brain drain ‘emigration of scientists’, quiz-master ‘chairman in competitions testing the knowledge of the participants’;

5) composition & conversion: fall-out (the radioactive dust); a peculiarly English & steadily developing type of Ns formed from Vs with post positives: a holdup ‘armed robbery’ from hold-up ‘rob’, a come-back ‘a person who returns after a long absence’;

6) productive derivation: anti-flash ‘serving to protect the eyes’, antimatter, anti-novel, anti-pollution, deglamorise ‘to make less attractive’, resit ‘to take a written examination a 2^nd time’, rehouse ‘to move a family to a new house’. The prefix un- increases its valency, enjoys a new wave of fashion & is attached even to N-stems: contemporary un-hero, unfunny;

7) semantic change: net-work ‘a number of broadcasting stations, connected for a simultaneous broadcast of the same programme’.

Neos are opposed to obsolete Ws (archaisms & historisms). Archaisms are Ws that were once common but are now replaced by Syns. When new Syn Ws, borrowed / coined within the English language, introduce nothing conceptually new, the stylistic value of older Ws is changed. Becoming rare they acquire a lofty poetic tinge, are associated with poetic diction: aught ‘anything whatever’, betwixt ‘between’, billow ‘wave’, damsel ‘a noble girl’, ere ‘before’, even ‘evening’, forbears ‘ancestors’, hapless ‘unlucky’, lone ‘lonely’, morn ‘morning’, perchance ‘perhaps’, save ‘except’, woe ‘sorrow’.

When the causes of the W’s disappearance are extra-linguistic (the thing named is no longer used), its name becomes a histоrism: names for social relations, institutions & objects of material culture of the past. Ancient transport means: brougham, berlin, calash, diligence, fly, gig, hansom, landeau, phaeton, prairie schooner, caravels, galleons. Clothes: doublets (a close-fitting jacket with / without sleeves worn by men in the 15^th-17^th centuries); bloomers – an outfit designed for women in mid-19^th century, Turkish-style trousers gathered at the ankles & worn by women as “a rational dress”. It was introduced by Mrs. Bloomer, editor & social reformer, as a contribution to woman rights movement. Later bloomers were worn by girls & women for games & cycling, they became shorter. Weapons: a battering ram ‘an ancient machine for breaking walls’; a blunderbuss ‘an old type of gun with a wide muzzle’; breastplate ‘a piece of metal armour worn by knights over the chest to protect it in battle’.