The main trends in word-formation in E

In OE the vocabulary mainly grew by means of word-formation. The words fell into 3 main types: simple words (root-words) – a word consisting of a root-morpheme with no derivational suffixes; derived words – a word consisting of a root-morpheme + 1 or more then one affix; compound words – a word consisting of more then one root-morpheme.

Ways of Word-Formation: Word-Derivation: sound interchange – was employed frequently, but never alone (usually was accompanied by suffixation ). Sources of sound-interchange:1) ablaut; 2) palatal mutation (verbs from nouns; verbs from adjectives; nouns from adjectives;), 3) consonantal interchanges). word stress – was not frequent; it helped to differentiate between parts of speech and was used together with other means; prefixation – was a productive way (unlike in ModE): 1) IE prefixes (OE un- (negative)); 2) Germanic prefixes (OE mis-, be-, ofer- (over-)); 3) prefixes were widely used with verbs, but were far less productive with the other parts of speech; 4) prefixes often modified lexical meaning; 5) there were grammatical prefixes (was used to build Participle 2 of strong; turned durative verbs into terminative). suffixation – was the most productive way, mostly applied to nouns and adjectives, seldom to verbs.

Classification of OE suffixes: 1) Suffixes of agent nouns (-end, -ere, -estre); 2) Suffixes of abstract nouns (-t, -þu, -nes/nis, -unζ/inζ); 3) Adjectival suffixes (-iζ, -isc, -ede, -sum); 4) New suffixes derived from noun root-morphemes (-dōm, -hād, -lāc, -scipe); 5) New suffixes derived from adjective root-morphemes (-lic, -full, -lēas).

Word-Composition: Word-composition – a combination of 2 ore more root-morphemes – was a highly productive way of word-formation. The main patterns were: 1) N + N à N (the most frequent); 2) syntactical compounds à N; 3) Adj + N à Adj (so-called bahuvrihi type); 4) N + Adj à Adj; 5) V + N à N (very rare). Word composition was often accompanied by other ways of word formation mentioned above.

31. Borrowing as a source of the replen-t of E vocabulary in ME & NE

Latin has been the most long-lasting donor of borrowings to English because its influence started before the 5^th A.D. (when Anglo-Saxons still lived on the Continent) and continues up to present day. Usually Latin borrowings in OE are classified into the following layers: Continental borrowings – words that the West Germanic tribes borrowed from Latin while they still lived on the Continent. Later, when they conquered the British Isles, they brought these words with them. These words are present in all the Germanic languages. Semantic fields: concrete objects (household (cup, pillow, etc. ), food (cheese, butter, etc.), animals (mule, turtle, etc.)); units of measurement (mile, pound, inch, etc.). Borrowings after the Roman Invasion of the British Isles (through the Romanised Celts) that lie within the following semantic areas: trade (trade, deal, chest, flask, etc.); building (chalk, file, copper, etc.); domestic life (dish, kettle, etc.); military affairs (wall, street, pile, etc.); place names: -castra (“castle”)(Chester, Lancaster, etc.); -wich (“village”) (Norwich, Woolwich, etc.); -port (“port“) (Bridport, Devonport, etc.). Borrowings after the Introduction of Christianity (597) that lie within the following semantic areas: religion (angel, hymn, idol, pope, psalm; from Greek through Latin – anthem, bishop, candle, apostle, etc.); learning (school, scholar, master, verse, accent, grammar, etc.); everyday life (plant, pine, radish, cap, sock, etc.). Plus there appeared a lot of so-called translation loans – words that were translated part-for-part from Latin (e.g. Monday (“moon day”, from Latin Lunae dies). All Latin borrowings in OE underwent assimilation, i.e.: changed their spelling according to the English rules; underwent some phonetic changes according to the English rules; were used in derivation and compounding; acquired grammatical categories of the English parts of speech.

ME: After the Norman Conquest the main spheres of the Latin Language remained: church; law; academic activities. French became the official language of administration (it was used in the king’s court, in the law courts, in the church (as well as Latin), in the army, by the nobles in the south of England). English was the language of common people in the Midlands and in the north of England. It still remained the language of the majority who were the representatives of the lower classes of society and never learned French, so the Norman barons had to learn English to be able to communicate with locals and soon English regained its position as the language of the country. The surge of interest in the classics during the Age of the Renaissance led to a new wave of borrowings from Latin and Greek (through Latin mainly). Latin (abstract concepts (anticipate), affixes de- (destroy, etc.), ex- (extract,, explore), re- (retell, retry.), -ate (locate,), -ent (present), -ct (correct). Fate of these Borrowings in English: Many of them underwent a shift of meaning, Many of them increased the number synonyms in English, Many of them formed the basis for international terminology.

In ME the main donors of borrowings to English were French and Scandinavian Languages. French Borrowings: Time ( since the 11^th c. (Norman Conquest), Number ( 10 000), Area ( French borrowings started to penetrate from the South and spread northwards), Ways of Borrowing ( French borrowings penetrated through oral and written speech and at first were adopted only by the high strata of the society (French was the language of the administration, king’s court, law courts, church (as well as Latin) and army).

Scandinavian Borrowings: Time ( since the 9^th c. (Scandinavian Invasion), Number ( 1 000), Area ( Scandinavian borrowings came to English from Northern and North-Eastern Dialects), Ways of Borrowing ( Scandinavian borrowings penetrated only through oral speech as far as the Scandinavians had never been too eager to come to the power wherever they went. They were just raiders).