Formal Language. Formal style is restricted to formal situations.

a) Learned words: Printed page, poetry and fiction, bookish, book, learned, scholarly, book learned and etc.

- Officialese: official, bureaucratic language.

- Fiction-Literary-refined: From romance language.

- Poetic Diction (words): Lofty, highly flown, archaic, coloring. Educated English people may use them in their even daily language.

 

· As for passive recognition the learned words should be taught for lectures and fictitious book to be understood.

· But to be functional activization all of them shouldn’t be taught.

b) Archaic words: archaic words may be seen in print but cannot be seen in conversational English. Out of circulation rejected by living language. Can be seen in historical novels, books and poems. In dialects can be revival in other places.

c) Obsolete words: the words, which have completely gone out of use. No longer in use.

d) Professional Terminology: Term employed by a particular branch of science, technology, art, trade and etc. There are several conversational problems about them. There is no impenetrable wall between terms and normal words.

e) Basic Vocabulary: Neutral, opposed to formal and informal. Possible to use in all kinds of situations, verbal and written form. Central group of vocabulary. Stylistically they have got one general and broad meaning.

ETYMOLOGY OF ENGLISH WORDS

Native Elements

1. Indo-European
2. Germanic elements
3. English proper.

Barrowed Elements

1. Celtic (5^th-6^th AD).
2. Latin.

1^st group (1^st c BC),

2nd group (7^th c AD),

3^rd group-the Renaissance period.

1. Scandinavian (8^th-11^th c AD)
2. French

a) Norman (11^th-13^th c AD)

b) Parisian Renaissance

1. Greek (Renaissance)
2. Italian (Renaissance)
3. Spanish (Renaissance and later)
4. German
5. Indian
6. Russian and some other languages

 

Why are the words borrowed?

 

Words are borrowed;

1. To fill the vocabulary gap to that of the language lack of those objects with their names.

Ex; butter, cheese, plum, beet, potato, tomato.

2. To be able to express the same concept from the ather aspects, and to express the same phenomenan more colourfully. They contribute the synonyms to any language vacabulary they are barrowed.

Ex; Cordial-friendly, desire-wish, admire-adore-like-love. Even having the similarities they are not the same words exactly.

 

Do Borrowed Words Change or Do they Remain the Same?

 

Borrowed words naturally change and adjust themselves to the rules of the language to which they are borrowed. As the people adapt themselves to the societies where they live in.

Borrowed words adjust themselves to the vocabulary storage of the language they are transferred in three ways;

1. Phonetical adaptaion

2. Grammatical adaptation

3. Semantical adaptation

 

International Words.

It is often the case that some words are borrowed by several languages not just by one. Such words are usually convey concepts which are significant in the field of communication.

Many of them are Latin nad Greek origin. Most names of sciences, in art, political terms, tropical fruits, sports are international. Ex; Philisophy, chemistry, mathematics, biology, medicine, linguistics, atomic sputnik, television, radio, football, baseball, hockey, cricket, golf, cocoa, coffee, chocolate, coca-cola, banana, mango, communism, revolution, democracy.

It is very important to note that some international mainly borrowings are similar because of being in the same language family group. Ex; Eng-son, Geman-sohn, Russian-sın.

 

Etymological Doublets and Triplets.

Some native origin words may have phonetical and semantical similarities with the borrowed words. Ex; shirt-skirt, shrew-screw, canal-channel, captain-chieftan, cavalry-chivalry, hospita-hostel-hotel. Some shortened words have the similarities with the original words. Ex; f anatic-fan, defence-fence, sahadow-shade.

 

Translation – Loans

Some words are not borrowed exactly as they are to any language but they are translated into that language having the same function in meaning. Ex; first dancer-prima ballerina (from Ital), collectice farm-kolkhoz (from Russian) and etc.

 

Are Etymological and Stylistic Characteristics of Words at All Interrelated?

The answer to this question is positive. Etimolgically native origin words are mostly conversational words, they are more close in sence and wormer. Etimologically borrowed words are mostly learned words and drier. Ex; wish-desire, friendly-cordial, motherly-maternal, childish-infantile, sunny-solar, handy-manuel and etc.

How English Worsds Are Made.

Word Building

If considered structurally, words appear to be divisible into smaller units which are called morphemes. Morphemes do not occur as free forms but only as constituent parts of the words but they possess their own meanings.

All morphemes (words) are divided into two large classes: roots and affixes. Affixes are divided into again two.

a) Prefixes: They precede the roots in the structure of word. Ex; re-read, miss-pronounce.

b) Suffixes: They follow the roots. Ex; teach-er, cur-able, dic-tate.

Words which consist of roots and affixes are called derived words and the process of producing new words in this way is called derivation.

 

Main structural types of Modern English words are;

 

1. Root words

2. Derived words

3. Compounds

4. Shortenings

 

· The most productive ways of word building are conversion, derivation and composition.

• If we have a new word to some criteria then we call it- derived word. If we do not have new word after the process of affixation then we call it- inflected word.
• If we claim that we have a derived word we mean it has changed in these criteria.

- Semantically

- Morphologically

- Syntactically

- Phonetically

- In graphic

 

The major types of Modern English word-building;

 

1. Affixation: The process of affixation consists of in coining a new word by adding an affix or several affixes to some root morpheme. These affixes can be both native and borrowings. We can further classify affixes as inflectional or derivational. Inflectional affixes depend on the function of a word in a sentence. For example, the inflectional affix ‘- s’ at the end of pot makes the word plural. The remaining affixes in English are derivational affixes, which change the form, function and/or meaning of words. Affixes can also be classified into productive and non-productive types. The productive affixes are used in deriving new words in particular period of time. The non-productive affixes are used in very frequently and commonly used derived words but are not mentioned derived words anymore.

a) Semantics of affixes: The affixes are admitted to be the smallest component of a word having meaning. Meanings of affixes are specific and considerably different from that of root words. So the affixes (especially noun forming and adverb forming affixes) affect the root words that they are added in manner, functionally and semantically.

2. Conversion: It is sometimes referred to be affix less way of word-building or even affix less derivation. Conversion is the process of making a new word from some existing word by changing the category of a part of speech. The morphemic shape of the original word remains unchanged. But still it is mentioned to be a way of derivation because the function and meaning of the word changes after the process of conversation.

a) Semantics of affixes: The semantic of the word after the process of conversion changes in manner and function in sentence. This change occurs most of the time from verb to noun or vice-versa.

3. Composition: This type of word-building happens by combining two or more stems. Compounds are not homogenous in structure. There are three types of structures in compositional process.

· Neutral Compounds: combining the two stems without any linking elements. Blackbird, bedroom, tallboy. This type has also three subtypes. They are;

a) Simple neutral compounds: they consist of simple affix less stems.

b) Derived compounds: They are the compounds which have affixes in their structure. Blue-eyed, lady-killer, newcomer.

c) Contracted Compounds: These words have a shortened stem in their structure. TV-set, V-day, FBI agent.

· Morphological compounds: This type words are few in number and non-productive. Handiwork, handicraft, Anglo-Saxon.

· Syntactic Compounds: Sentence like compounds having the similarities to that of a sentence. Lily-of-the-valley, good-for-nothing, mother-in-love, pick-me-up, whodunit.

a) Semantic aspect of compound words: Can the meaning of a compound word be regarded as the sum of its constituent meanings?

1. Yes, the meaning of a compound word can be regarded as the sum of its constituent meanings. Bedroom, working-man, classroom.

2. In this type one of the component or partially the whole compound has changed its meaning so the meaning compound word cannot be regarded as the sum of its component meanings. Blackbird, football.

3. The meaning of the compound word has changes completely therefore deducing or predicting the compound meaning from its components is impossible. Ladybird, tallboy, horse-marine, butterfingers.

* The second and third compounds are called idiomatic compounds.

4. Semi-affixes: in some derives words some affixes can carry the characteristics of both free stems and bound stems (affixes). So these kinds of new-built words also stand between the derived words and the compound words in their characteristics. These kinds of affixes are called semi-affixes. Water-proof, kiss-proof, bomb-proof, bullet-proof, fire-proof, sportsman, gentleman, seaman, policeman.

5. Shortening (Contraction): These kinds of words are produced in two ways. The first one is to make new word from its syllable of the original word. Phone-telephone, vac-vacation, ad-advertisement. The latter one is to make new word from the initial letters of word group. BBC, UNO, UN, USA.

 

Some minor types of modern word-building

1. Sound Imitation. Words that coined by this interesting type of word-building are made by imitating different kinds of sounds that may be produced by animals, birds, insects, human beings and inanimate objects. Howl, cock-a-doodle-doo, quack, meow, moo, crow, cuckoo, fluffy, slip, shimmer, tingling.

2. Reduplication: - bye-bye, ging-gong, chit-chat.

3. Back-Formation: beggar - to beg, burglar- to burgle, cobbler – to cobble.

 

B. Semantical Aspect:

1. Correlation of the separate meaning of the constituent parts of the actual meaning of the compound. –Classroom, -bedroom are sum of their constituent parts’ meanings. Sleeping car, dancing-hall their meaning partially changed.

2. Meaning which are chanced:

- Football, - game.

- Lazy bone, - not bone but person.

- Chatterbox, - not box but person.

3. Completely different:

- Ladybird – insect

- Tallboy – is not a boy but furniture.

- Bluebottle – flower, insect.

 

• Semi-affixes: Water proof, bomb proof, noble man, gentle man, Scot land, mother land.

 

 

What is “Meaning”?

Among the word’s various characteristics, meaning is certainly the most important. The meanings of all the utterances of speech community are the total experiences of that community; arts, science, practical occupations, amusements, humor, personal and family life. Meaning is inner form semantic structure of word. Meaning can be described as a component of the word through which a concept is communicated. In this the word gets the ability of denoting the real objects, qualities, actions and notions. The complex and somewhat mysterious relationships between referent, concept and word are traditionally represented by the following triangle.

 

Thought or reference (concept)

 

Symbol (word) Referent (object)

 

In this shape the dotted line suggests that there is no immediate and direct relation between word and referent: it is established only through the concept. There is a hypothesis that concepts can only find their realization through word. The process of communication occurs like this, concepts (mental process) are converted into words (linguistic phenomena) and the reverse process: a heard or a printed word converted into a kind of mental picture. This process of communication hasn’t been understood and described yet but can be named sort of miracle.

 

Polysemy

Semantic Structure of the Word

It is a state of a word having more than one meaning. This shows that semantic structure of a word is not indissoluble unity. Polysemantic situation is, if the other meanings are evaluated properly and well, advantage for a language. Main reasons for this are: lack of enough words (symbols) for newly invented, met, discovered referent (objects, phenomena, and etc,.) and the limitation of humans’ speech organs to produce the sound combinations to be words (symbols).

When analyzing the semantic structure of polysemantic word there are two level;

1. Semantic structure of a word treated as system of meanings.

 

Fire, n.

Flame

I

 

II III IV V

An instance of destructive burning: A forest Fire

Burning material in stove, fire place, etc.; There is a fire in the next room. Acamp fire

The shooting of guns. To open-cease fire.

Strong feeling, passion, enthusiasm. A speech lacking fire

 

The above scheme suggest that meaning I holds a kind of dominance over the other meanings conveying the concept in the most general way. Meaning I (generally referred as to main meaning) presents the centre of the semantic structure of the word holding its other component meanings together.

There are two kinds of relations:

1. The relations between the main meaning and other component meanings, there can be direct association or may not.

2. The relation among the component meanings: there can be direct association or may not.

 

The above definitions show that semantic structure of a word is divisible and can be apart from each other in meaning and association. Therefore the semantic structure of a word should be investigated at both these levels: a) of different meanings, b) of semantic components within each separate meaning. For monosemantic words (words with one meaning) the first level is naturally excluded.