incognitto, autostrada, fiasco, fascist, diletante, grotesque, graffitto
etc.
Spanish borrowings.
Spanish borrowings came into English mainly through its American variant.
There are the following semantic groups of them:
a) trade terms: cargo, embargo;
b) names of dances and musical instruments: tango, rumba, habanera,
guitar;
c) names of vegetables and fruit: tomato, potato, tobbaco, cocoa, banana,
ananas, apricot etc.
GERMANIC BORROWINGS
English belongs to the Germanic group of languages and there are
borrowings from Scandinavian, German and Holland languages, though their
number is much less than borrowings from Romanic languages.
Scandinavian borrowings.
By the end of the Old English period English underwent a strong influence
of Scandinavian due to the Scandinavian conquest of the British Isles.
Scandinavians belonged to the same group of peoples as Englishmen and
their languages had much in common. As the result of this conquest there
are about 700 borrowings from Scandinavian into English.
Scandinavians and Englishmen had the same way of life,their cultural
level was the same, they had much in common in their literature therefore
there were many words in these languages which were almost identical, e.g.
ON OE
Modern E
syster sweoster
sister
fiscr fisc
fish
felagi felawe
fellow
However there were also many words in the two languages which were
different, and some of them were borrowed into English , such nouns as:
bull, cake, egg, kid, knife, skirt, window etc, such adjectives as: flat,
ill, happy, low, odd, ugly, wrong, such verbs as : call, die, guess, get,
give, scream and many others.
Even some pronouns and connective words were borrowed which happens very
seldom, such as : same, both, till, fro, though, and pronominal forms with
«th»: they, them, their.
Scandinavian influenced the development of phrasal verbs which did not
exist in Old English, at the same time some prefixed verbs came out of
usage, e.g. ofniman, beniman. Phrasal verbs are now highly productive in
English /take off, give in etc/.
German borrowings.
There are some 800 words borrowed from German into English. Some of them
have classical roots, e.g. in some geological terms, such as: cobalt,
bismuth, zink, quarts, gneiss, wolfram. There were also words denoting
objects used in everyday life which were borrowed from German: iceberg,
lobby, rucksack, Kindergarten etc.
In the period of the Second World War the following words were borrowed:
Volkssturm, Luftwaffe, SS-man, Bundeswehr, gestapo, gas chamber and many
others. After the Second World War the following words were borrowed:
Berufsverbot, Volkswagen etc.
Holland borrowings.
Holland and England have constant interrelations for many centuries and
more than 2000 Holland borrowings were borrowed into English. Most of them
are nautical terms and were mainly borrowed in the 14-th century, such as:
freight, skipper, pump, keel, dock, reef, deck, leak and many others.
Besides two main groups of borrowings (Romanic and Germanic) there are
also borrowings from a lot of other languages. We shall speak about Russian
borrowings, borrowings from the language which belongs to Slavoninc
languages.
Russian borrowings.
There were constant contacts between England and Russia and they borrowed
words from one language into the other. Among early Russian borrowings
there are mainly words connected with trade relations, such as: rouble,
copeck, pood, sterlet, vodka, sable, and also words relating to nature,
such as: taiga, tundra, steppe etc.
There is also a large group of Russian borrowings which came into English
through Rushian literature of the 19-th century, such as : Narodnik,
moujik, duma, zemstvo. volost, ukase etc, and also words which were formed
in Russian with Latin roots, such as: nihilist, intelligenzia, Decembrist
etc.
After the Great October Revolution many new words appeared in Russian
connected with the new political system, new culture, and many of them were
borrowed into English, such as: collectivization. udarnik, Komsomol etc
and also translation loans, such as: shock worker, collective farm, five-
year plan etc.
One more group of Russian borrowings is connected with perestroika, such
as: glasnost, nomenklatura, apparatchik etc.
ETYMOLOGICAL DOUBLETS
Sometimes a word is borrowed twice from the same language. As the
result, we have two different words with different spellings and meanings
but historically they come back to one and the same word. Such words are
called etymological doublets. In English there are some groups of them:
Latino-French doublets.
Latin English from Latin English from French
uncia inch
ounce
moneta mint
money
camera camera
chamber
Franco-French doublets
doublets borrowed from different dialects of French.
Norman Paris
canal channel
captain chieftain
catch chaise
Scandinavian-English doublets
Scandinavian English
skirt shirt
scabby shabby
There are also etymological doublets which were borrowed from the same
language during different historical periods, such as French doublets:
gentil - любезный, благородный, etymological doublets are: gentle - мягкий,
вежливый and genteel - благородный. From the French word gallant
etymological doublets are : ‘gallant - храбрый and ga’llant - галантный,
внимательный.
Sometimes etymological doublets are the result of borrowing different
grammatical forms of the same word, e.g. the Comparative degree of Latin
«super» was «superior» which was borrowed into English with the meaning
«high in some quality or rank». The Superlative degree (Latin
«supremus»)in English «supreme» with the meaning «outstanding»,
«prominent». So «superior» and «supreme» are etymological doublets.
SEMASIOLOGY
The branch of lexicology which deals with the meaning is called
semasiology.
WORD - MEANING
Every word has two aspects: the outer aspect (its sound form) and the
inner aspect (its meaning) . Sound and meaning do not always constitute a
constant unit even in the same language. E.g. the word «temple» may denote
«a part of a human head» and «a large church» In such cases we have
homonyms. One and the same word in different syntactical relations can
develop different meanings, e.g. the verb «treat» in sentences:
a) He treated my words as a joke.
b) The book treats of poetry.
c) They treated me to sweets.
d) He treats his son cruelly.
In all these sentences the verb «treat» has different meanings and we can
speak about polysemy.
On the other hand, one and the same meaning can be expressed by different
sound forms, e.g. «pilot» , and «airman», «horror» and «terror». In such
cases we have synonyms.
Both the meaning and the sound can develop in the course of time
independently. E.g. the Old English /luvian/ is pronounced /l^v / in Modern
English. On the other hand, «board» primariliy means « a piece of wood sawn
thin» It has developed the meanings: a table, a board of a ship, a stage, a
council etc.
LEXICAL MEANING - NOTION
The lexical meaning of a word is the realization of a notion by means of
a definite language system. A word is a language unit, while a notion is a
unit of thinking. A notion cannot exict without a word expressing it in the
language, but there are words which do not express any notion but have a
lexical meaning. Interjections express emotions but not notions, but they
have lexical meanings, e.g. Alas! /disappointment/, Oh,my buttons!
/surprise/ etc. There are also words which express both, notions and
emotions, e.g. girlie, a pig /when used metaphorically/.
The term «notion» was introduced into lexicology from logics. A notion
denotes the reflection in the mind of real objects and phenomena in their
relations. Notions, as a rule, are international, especially with the
nations of the same cultural level. While meanings can be nationally
limited. Grouping of meanings in the semantic structure of a word is
determined by the whole system of every language. E.g. the English verb
«go» and its Russian equivalent «идти» have some meanings which coincide:
to move from place to place, to extend /the road goes to London/, to work
/Is your watch going?/. On the other hand, they have different meanings: in
Russian we say :»Вот он идет» , in English we use the verb «come» in this
case. In English we use the verb «go» in the combinations: «to go by bus»,
«to go by train» etc. In Russian in these cases we use the verb «ехать».
The number of meanings does not correspond to the number of words,
neither does the number of notions. Their distribution in relation to words
is peculiar in every language. The Russian has two words for the English
«man»: « мужчина» and «человек». In English, however, «man» cannot be
applied to a female person. We say in Russian: «Она хороший человек». In
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