Literary words of Eng. vocabulary.

Literary words: bookish words, terms, archaisms, historical words, neologisms, barbarisms.

1) Bookish words are mainly borrowings from Latin & Greek. They constitute the majority of elevated words. They are used in formal situations such as public speeches, political discourses & in books. Bookish words are usually the formal synonyms of neutral words. For ex.: individual=man, repose = rest.

2) Terms denote diff. notions referred to science, technique, art. They contain only 1 component of connotation which is stylistic. Their normal sphere of application is scientific roles & publicistic texts. They do not perform any stylistic function. If terms are used in other texts, they play a specific stylistic role. In fiction, terms are used to create a true-to-life background & characterize people thought their speech.

3) Archaisms – words which are no longer used in modern English. Among them there are archaic forms, which are gram.forms of words. There are archaic words proper. They were in use in OE & since then they have either dropped out-of-use all together or have changed beyond recognition. F.ex. Belike = perhaps.

4) Historical wordswhich denotedrareness of objects & phenomena which has disappeared in our life. Archaisms & historical words are present in historical novels. They create a special atmosphere of the given part period, so called historical color. In dialogues archaisms & hist. words are used for speech characterization. No books are written only with archaisms. They are used also in Modern official & solemn terms of these texts.

5) Neologisms denote new objects & phenomena. They may be subdivided into lexical & stylistic. Lexical neologisms denote new concepts & objects: hoolivan, garbology. ??

Stylistic n-sms give new names to exciting notions & objects. They are created for expressiveness. Sometimes N. appear due to the violation of word building rules which make them more expressive. N. are often occasional words under…. able only in context they are individual creations which serve in the render of humour, irony or to achieve greater expressiveness. “I used to call her “hypo” because she was a hypocrite ….

6) Barbarisms were borrowed into Eng. not long ago. & have preserved their original form. They haven’t under gone the phonetic adaptation and their spelling, pronunciation still feel foreign.

Ex. Peid-a-terre, faux pas(simple mistake of behavior).

B. is speech point to the high social, cultural, educational level of a speaker. Besides there is some elegance delicacy about some B. and they make speech more exquisite & refined. They may be employed to mitigate the meaning of the neutral or coloq. synonyms: “He made a faux pas”(he made a mistake).

7) Sometimes we can come across foreign words in the text. They point to the foreign origin of the speaker or they can create the background of the foreign country. The use of foreign words at the beginning of the text produces an expression that the whole text is uttered in a foreign language.

(7) Colloquial words of the English vocabulary. Colloquial phraseological units. Colloquial words are restricted in their use oА everyday communication. They have the shade of informality and familiarity about them. They are usually coloured by all components of connotation. Colloquialisms include the following groups: 1) colloquial synonyms of neutral words. (chap – guy, classy) 2) phonetic variants of usual words (vet, demo) 3) dimi’nutives (piggy, granny, daddy) 4) colloquial meanings of polysemantic words (spoon – foolish person, hedgehog – unpleasant person) 5) most interjections 6) colloquial phraseological units (down in the mouth - unhappy) In modern fiction colloquial words are widely used especially in dialogues to reflect the natural character of conversation. Rather often it occurs in narration, especially in a first person narration. Slangy words: They are more familiar and degraded worth than colloquialisms. They are not accepted in lots of everyday situations. Most slangy words bear negative assessment and convey a cynical and critical view of life. Among slangy words there are a lot of synonyms to denote ideas which arouse a great emotional reaction, such as money, drugs, crime, drunkenness, girls. (drunkenness – blowed, cock-eyed, corned; girls – bint, chick, baby, tart). Slangy words are typical of modern prose, especially about crime and teenagers where they are used in dialogues. Rather often the narration is also conducted in slang especially if it is a first person narration. Jargonisms are subdivided into social and professional. Social jargonisms are close to slang. It’s more restricted on the 1 hand, on the other hand, have very strong connotation. Social jar. are used by particular social classes and groups to conceal the meaning from in the outsiders. The reason for its use was secrecy. At present it serves as a sign of recognition. He who talks jargon belongs to certain exclusive group and can’t be trusted. Linguistically jar-s are made up of ordinary words used in a special meaning or they are distorted w-s ex: Cockney-rhyming slang: wife-trouble and strife. Professional jar-s: these are words and word combinations used by professional group to give new vivid names to tools, machines, processes connected with occupation ex: army jargon: to do police-wash the floor. J-s may be used in fiction, mostly in dialogues to characterize a person through his speech & to create a realistic background. Vulgarisms are rough, coarse w-s. they can be subdivided into lexical and stylistic. Lexical – express ideas which are concerned unmentionable in a civilized society. It is their lexical meaning that is vulgar. These are the so-called 4-letter words which refer to intimate spheres of a human body and physiology. In the course of time these objectionable words tend to be replaced by various substitutes which in a way resemble the original word. (bloody, bloomy, blasted, blessed, blamed). As soon as a substitute becomes generally known & accepted in this vulgar meaning, it comes to be considered as vulgar as the original w-d. St-c vul-s-their lexical are not indecent but these words are marked by very strong negative connotation conveying the speaker’s negative emot-l attitude to object of his speech ex: old bean-old person/ smeller-nose. V-s characterize the speech of uneducated and uncultured. Besides very often they express affected colloquial speech of the person who is gripped by very strong negative emotions like anger, indignation, hate. Dialectisms are restricted in their use in a certain geog. area. They are always been used in Eng and Am literature. But no work is ever written in dialect exclusively. No one would understand such a book. Authors usually refer to stylization in order to make an impression on a dialectal speech. They use colloquial words and avoid literary words. They distort grammar and use ungrammatical forms because most dialect speakers are badly educated and they change the spelling of w-s to give an idea of dialectal pronunciation.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1659