Word Origin. Lexicography.

1. Word origin

1.1. Native words

1.2. Borrowings

1.3. Etymological doublets

1.4. International words

2. Lexicography

2.1. The history of dictionary making

2.2. Classification of dictionaries

Etymology (from Greek ?etymon? - truth + ?logos? - learning) is a branch of linguistics that studies the origin and history of words tracing them to their earliest determinable source.

English is generally regarded as the richest of the world's languages. Few other languages can match this word power. English owes its exceptionally large vocabulary to its ability to borrow and absorb words from outside. Atomic, cybernetics, jeans, khaki, sputnik, perestroika are just a few of the many words that have come into use during XX century. They have been taken from Italian, Hindi, Greek and Russian. ?The English language? observed Ralph Waldo Emerson, ?is the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven.?

The English vocabulary has been enriched throughout its history by borrowings from foreign languages. A borrowing (a loan word) is a word taken over from another language and modified in phonemic shape, spelling, paradigm or meaning according to the standards of the English language.

The process of borrowing words from other languages has been going on for more than 1,000 years. The fact that up to 80% of the English vocabulary consists of borrowed words is due to the specific conditions of the English language development.

When the Normans crossed over from France to conquer Eng?land in 1066, most of the English people spoke Old English, or Anglo-Saxon - a language of about 30,000 words. The Normans spoke a language that was a mixture of Latin and French. It took about three centuries for the languages to blend into one that is the ancestor of the English we speak today. The Normans bestowed on English words such as duchess, city, mansion, and palace. The Anglo-Saxon gave English ring and town.

Latin and Greek have been a fruitful source of vocabulary since the 16^th century. The Latin word mini, its converse maxi and the Greek word micro have become popular adjectives to describe everything from bikes to fashion. Perhaps the most important influence in terms of vocabulary comes from what are called Latinate words, that is, words that are originally Latin. Latinate words are common in English (e.g. distinct, cup, describe, transport, evidence, animal, create, act, generation, recollection, confluence, etc.).

There are practically no limits to the kinds of words that are borrowed. Words are employed as symbols for every part of culture. When cultural elements are borrowed from one culture by another, the words for such cultural features often accompany the feature. Also, when a cultural feature of one society is like that of another, the word of a foreign language may be used to designate this feature in the borrowing society. In English a material culture word rouge was borrowed from French, a social culture word republic from Latin, and a religious culture word baptize from Greek.

Such words become completely absorbed into the system, so that they are not recognized by speakers of the language as foreign. Few people realize that garage is borrowed from French, that thug comes from Hindustani, and that tomato is of Aztec origin. ?Many of the words we shall have to class as ?foreigners? will seem at first sight ?true-born Englishmen?, for they have been part of our vocabulary for centuries, but they have only a ?certificate of naturalization?, not a right by birth.? (J. Sheard. The Words We Use. N.Y., 1954, p.183) "

However, some words and phrases have retained their original spelling, pronunciation and foreign identity, for example: rendezvous, coup, gourmet, detente (French); status quo, ego, curriculum vitae, bona fide (Latin); patio, macho (Spanish); kindergarten, blitz (German,); kowtow (Chinese,); incognito, bravo (Italian,).

We may distinguish different types of borrowing from one foreign language by another: (1) when the two languages represent different social, economic, and political units and (2) when the two languages are spoken by those within the same social economic, and political unit. The first of these types has been usually called ?cultural borrowing? while the second type has been termed ?intimate borrowing.? Another principal type is between dialects of the same language. This is called ?dialect borrowing.?

Sometimes the idea of a word rather than the word is borrowed. When we talk about life science instead of biology, it is a type of borrowing the meaning of the Greek derivative, but not the actual morpheme. This type of borrowing is rather extensive, particularly in scientific vocabulary and trade languages as, for example, in the case of Pidgin English in the South Pacific.

A number of words in English have originated from the names of people: boycott, braille, hooligan, mentor, saxophone, watt. Quite a few names of types of clothing originate from the people who invented them: bowler, cardigan, Wellingtons, mackintosh. A number of names of different kinds of cloth originate from place names: angora, denim, satin, tweed, suede. A number of other words in English come from place names: bedlam, spartan, gypsy.

There are many words that have changed their meaning in English, e.g. mind originally meant ?memory?, and this meaning survives in the phrases ?to keep in mind, time out of mind, etc.?. The word brown preserves its old meaning of ?gloomy? in the phrase ?in a brown study?. There are instances when a word acquires a meaning opposite to its original one, e.g. nice meant ?silly? some hundreds of years ago.

Thus, there are two main problems connected with the vocabulary of a language: 1) the origin of the words, 2) their development in the language. These two questions refer to the basic word stock as well as to the vocabulary.

The etymological structure of the English vocabulary consists of the native element (Indo-European and Germanic) and the borrowed elements.

Native Words

By the Native Element we understand words that are not borrowed from other languages. A native word is a word that belongs to the Old English word-stock. The Native Element is the basic element, though it constitutes only up to 20 - 25% of the English vocabulary. The question of the origin of the native words goes back to the untraceable times.

a) Indo-European Element: since English belongs to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European group of languages, the oldest words in English are of Indo-European origin. They form part of the basic word stock of all Indo-European languages. There are several semantic groups:

? words expressing family relations: (brother, daughter, father, mother, son);

? names of parts of the human body: (foot, eye, ear, nose, tongue);

? names of trees, birds, animals: (tree, birch, cow, wolf, cat);

? names expressing basic actions: (to come, to know, to sit, to work);

? words expressing qualities: (red, quick, right, glad, sad);

? numerals: (one, two, three, ten, hundred), etc.

There are many more words of Indo-European origin in the basic stock of the English vocabulary.

b) Common Germanic words are not to be found in other Indo-European languages but the Germanic. They constitute a very large layer of the vocabulary, e.g.:

? nouns: hand, life, sea, ship, meal, winter; ground, coal goat;

? adjectives: heavy, deep, free, broad, sharp, grey;

? verbs: to buy, to drink, to find, to forget, to go, to have, to live, to make;

? pronouns: all, each, he, self, such;

? adverbs: again, forward, near;

? prepositions: after, at, by, over, under, from, for.

Borrowings

English has taken over words from most of the other languages with which it has had contact. It has taken many words from the ancient languages, Latin and Greek, and these borrowings usually have academic or literary associations (per capita, dogma, drama, theory, pseudonym).

Some scientists point out three periods of Latin borrowings in old English:

1). Latin-Continental borrowings,

2). Latin-Celtic borrowings

3) Latin borrowings connected with the Adoption of Christianity.

To this periods belong military terms {wall street, etc.), trade terms {pound, inch), names of containers {cup, dish), names of food (butter, cheese), words connected with building (chalk, pitch), etc. These were concrete words that were adopted in purely oral manner, and they were fully assimilated in the language. Roman influence was felt in the names of towns, e.g. Manchester, etc. from the Latin word caster - ??????.

With the Adoption of Christianity mostly religious or clerical terms were borrowed: dean, cross, alter, abbot (Latin); church, devil, priest, anthem, school, martyr (Greek).

Latin and Greek borrowings of the Middle English period are connected with the Great Revival of Learning and are mostly scientific words: formula, inertia, maximum, memorandum, veto, superior, etc. They were not fully assimilated, they retained their grammar forms.

There are some classical borrowings in Modern English as well: anaemia, aspirin, iodin, atom, calorie, acid, valency, etc. There are words formed with the help of Latin and Greek morphemes (roots or affixes): tele, auto, etc. Latin and Greek words are used to denote names of sciences, political and philosophic trends.

French is the language that had most influence on the vocabulary of English; it also influenced its spelling. After the Norman invasion (1066), English was neglected by the Latin- writing and French-speaking authorities. Northern French became the official language in England.

There are several semantic groups of French borrowings:

4) government terms: to govern, to administer, assembly, record, parliament;

5) words connected with feudalism: peasant, servant, control, money, rent, subsidy;

6) military terms: assault battle, soldier, army, siege, defence, lieutenant;

7) words connected with jury: bill defendant plaintiff, judge, fine;

8) words connected with art amusement fashion, food: dance, pleasure, lace, pleat, supper, appetite, beauty, figure, etc.

Early French borrowings were fully assimilated; the opposite tendency is to be discerned in the later French borrowings. During the seventeenth century there was a change in the character of the borrowed words. From French, English has taken lots of words to do with cooking, the arts, and a more sophisticated lifestyle in general (chic, prestige, leisure, repertoire, resume, cartoon, critique, cuisine, chauffeur, questionnaire, coup, elite, avant-garde, bidet detente, entourage).

French borrowings of the period of the Norman Conquest have become part and parcel of the English vocabulary. The number of borrowings was so large that it became possible to borrow morphemes and form word-hybrids, e.g.: god-goddess (- ess of French origin was added to the English stem), short - shortage, bewilder - bewilderment, baker-bakery. French stems can form hybrids with the English affixes: beauty - beautiful, trouble - troublesome.

Scandinavian Borrowings are connected with the Scandinavian Conquest of the British Isles, which took place at the end of the 8^th century. Scandinavians belonged to the same group of peoples as Englishmen and the two languages were similar.

The impact of Old Norse on the English language is hard to evaluate. Nine hundred words - for example, take, leg, hit, skin, same - are of Scandinavian origin. There are probably hundreds more we cannot account for definitely, and in the old territory of the Danelaw in Northern England words like beck (stream) and garth (yard) survive in regional use. Words beginning with sk Like sAy are Norse (the Danes - also called Norsemen - conquered northern France, and finally England).

In many cases Scandinavian borrowings stood alongside their English equivalents. The Scandinavian skirt originally meant the same as the English shirt. The Norse deyja (to die) joined its Anglo-Saxon synonym, the English steorfa (which ends up as starve). Other synonyms include: wish and want, craft and skill, rear and raise.

However, many words were borrowed into English, e.g. cake, egg, kid, window, ill, happy, ugly, to call, to give, to get, etc. Pronouns and pronominal forms were also borrowed from Scandinavian: same, both, though, they, them, their.

Besides these groups of borrowings there are borrowings from a wide range of languages. English has taken over words from most of the other languages with which it has had contact: over 120 languages are on record as sources of the English vocabulary. From Japanese come karate, judo, hara-kiri, kimono, and tycoon. From Arabic, algebra, algorithm, fakir, giraffe, sultan, harem, mattress. From Turkish, yogurt, kiosk, tulip; from Farsi, caravan, shawl, bazaar, sherbet; from Eskimo, kayak, igloo, anorak; from Yiddish, goy, knish, latke, schmuck. From Italian come words connected with music and the plastic arts (piano, alto, incognito, bravo, ballerina, etc.). German expressions in English have been coined either by tourists bringing back words for new things they saw or by philosophers or historians describing German concepts or experiences (kindergarten, blitz; hamburger, delicatessen, waltz, seminar). The borrowings from other languages usually relate to things, which English speakers experienced for the first time abroad (Portuguese: marmalade, cobra; Spanish: junta, siesta, patio, mosquito; Dutch: dock, leak, pump,yacht, easel, cruise; Finish: sauna; Russian: bistro, tsar, balalaika).

What happens to the words when they come into the language? Do they undergo certain changes?

Most of the borrowed words at once undergo the process of assimilation. Assimilation of borrowed words is their adaptation to the system of the receiving language in pronunciation, in grammar and in spelling. There are completely assimilated borrowings that correspond to all the standards of the language {travel, sport, street), partially assimilated words (taiga, phenomena, police) and unassimilated words (coup d'etat, tete-a-tete).

Borrowed words can be classified according to the aspect which is borrowed. We can subdivide all borrowings into the following groups:

- phonetic borrowings (table, chair, people);

- translation loans (Gospel pipe of peace, masterpiece);

- semantic borrowings (pioneer);

- morphemic borrowings (beautiful uncomfortable).

Date: 2016-06-12; view: 303