OE vocabulary. Ways of word-formation.

Modern estimates of the total OE vocabulary range from about 30.000-100.000 words. The last digit is probably too high, but it depends on the treatment of polysemy and homonymy.The bulk of the OE vocab. were native words. In the course of the OE period it grew;it was mainly replenished from native sources, by means of word-formation.According to their morphological structure OE words fell into 3 main types:1) simple words (“root-words”), containing a root-morpheme and no derivational affixes:e.g.land, sinzan, zōd.(NE land, sing, good).2) derived words consisting of one root-morpheme and one or more affixes:e.g. be-zinnan, un-scyld-iz(NE begin, innocent)3) compound words, whose stems were made up of more than one root-morpheme:e.g.mann-cynn, scir-ze-refa(NE mankind, sheriff).

The system of OE word-formation is quite similar to the Modern one. One of the most unusual examples of the OE w-f was the ability of a single root to be either among simple, derived and compound words. E.g. OE mōd(NE mood) produced about 50 words: derived: mōdiz(proud), compound: mōd-caru(care)

OE employed 2 ways of word-formation: derivation & word-composition.Derived words in OE were built with the help of affixes: prefixes & suffixes; but also words were distinguished with the help of sound interchanges and word stress.

Sound interchanges in the roots of related words were frequent, and nevertheless they were used more as an additional feature which helped to distinguish between words built from the same root. Sound interchanges were never used alone; they were combined with suffixation:

Vowel gradation was used in OE as a distinctive feature between verbs and nouns, between verbs derived from a single root:rīdan v – rād n [i: - a:]- NE ride, raid.

The use of consonant interchanges was far more restricted. They arose due to phonetic changes:rhotacism, Verner;s Law..

e.g.Talu-tellan (NE tale, tell) – gemination of the consonants.

The shifting of word stress also helped to differentiate between ;parts of speech. The verb had unaccented prefixes while the corresponding nouns had stressed prefixes: e.g. ond-‘swarian v – ‘ond-swaru n.

Prefixation was a productive way of building new words. They were used widely with verbs;e.g. zān – go; ā-zān – go away.

The most productive: ā-, be-, for-, ze-, ofer-, un-.

Suffixation-the most productive. Suffixes not only modified the lexical meaning of the word, but could refer it to another part of speech. Mostly applied in forming nouns, adjectives, rarely with verbs: zōd-nis (NE goodness), zræd-iz(NE greedy).

Word composition: nouns, adjectives: e.g. hām-cyme(NE home-coming).

44. Borrowings from contemporary lang. in NE.

The influx of French words reached new peaks in the late 15^th and 17^th c. They mainly pertain to diplomatic relations, social life, art, fashions:e.g. attaché, dossier; hotel, restaurant, cortege; ballet, genre; manoeuvre, police, brigade; cravat, menu, soup, blouse; detail, machine, ticket, progress. Most of them have not been completely assimilated and have retained a foreign appearance to the present day. Besides Greek, Latin, French, English speakers of the NE period borrowed freely from no less than 50 foreign tongues:

1. Italian(art, music, literature):14^th c. ducato, million, florin, pistol, cartridge, aria, bass, cello, concerto, duet, piano, sonata, violin.Some retained their Italian appearance, others assumed a French shape:intrigue, campaign.2 Spanishcame as a result of contacts with Spain in the military, commercial and polit. fields.: armada, barricade, cannibal, embargo, cargo.Many loan-words indicated new objects and concepts encountered in the colonies: banana, canoe, colibri, potato, tobacco, mosquito.

3.Dutch made abundant contribution to E., particularly in the 15^th, 16^th c., when the commercial relations between England and the Netherlands were at their peak. Trade, wool-weaving: pack, spool, stripe, tub. Nautical terminology: cruise, deck, keel, skipper.

4. German loan-words reflect the scientific and cultural achievements of Germany. Mineralogical terms: cobalt, nickel. Philosophical: dynamics, transcendental. More; kindergarten, halt, stroll, plunder. The most peculiar feature of German influence is the creation of translation-loans on German models from native English components: superman was naturalized by B.Shaw as a translation of Nietzsche’s Űbermensch; masterpiece from Meisterstück.

5. Russian. The earliest entered in the 16^th c., when the English trade company established the 1^st trade relations with Russia. They indicate articles of trade and specific features of life in Russia: beluga, muzhik, samovar, tsar, vodka. After 1917: komsomol, Bolshevik

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 1204