The scandinavian borrowings in the english vocabulary.

The Danish invasion in 878 resulted in the occupation of a great part of the country. The effect of the Danish conquest was a contribution of many Scandinavian words in the english vocabulary. Scandimavian words were borrowed most freely between the 9^th and 12^th century. It is supposed that the Scandinavian element in Modern English amounts to 650 root-words. Scandinavian loan-words denote objects and actions of the most commonplace description and do not represent any new set of ideas hither to unknown to the people adopting them. We find here such everyday words as: (n) bull, cake, crop, egg, fellow, guest, kid, root, sky, sister, window; (adj) flat, low, mean, odd, wrong; (v) call, die, get, give, scream, scrape, take, want. Scand. borrowings are numerous is geographical place names in Northern England, such as: Braithwaite, Whitby. Scand. elements survive in such hybrid compounds as: lawful, lawless, greyhound. It is of interest to note that there are words in the english vocabulary that exist side by side for a long time, sometimes for centuries, two slightly different forms for the same word, one the original english form and the other scandinavian. (whole - hale, from - fro, shirt - skirt, shot - scot, true - trig, neat, tidy).

CLASSIFICATIONS OF ENGLISH COMPOUNDS

1. According to the parts of speech compounds are subdivided into:

a) nouns, such as: baby-moon, globe-trotter.

b) adjectives, such as: free-for-all, power-happy.

c) verbs, such as: to honey-moon, to baby-sit, to henpeck,

d) adverbs, such as: downdeep. headfirst,

e) prepositions, such as: into, within.

i) numerals, such as: fifty-five.

2. According to the way components are joined together compounds are divided into:

a) neutral, which are formed by joining together two stems without any joining morpheme, e.g. ball­point, to windowshop.

b) morphological where components are joined by a linking element: vowels «o» or «i or the consonant «s», e.g. {«astrospace». «handicraft», «sportsman»),

c) syntactical where the components are joined by means of form-word stems, e.g. here-and-now. free-for-all., do-or-die.

3. According to their structure compounds are subdivided into:

a) compound words proper which consist of two stems, e.g. to job-hunt, train-sick, go-go, tip-top.

b) derivational compounds, where besides the stems we have affixes, e.g. ear-minded, hydro-skimmer.

c) compound words consisting of three or more stems, e.g. cornflower-blue, eggshell-thin, singer-songwriter,

d) compound-shortened words. e.g. boatel, tourmobile,motocross, intervision.

4. According to the relations between the components compound words are subdivided into:

a) subordinative compounds where one of the components is the semantic and the structural centre and the second component is subordinate: these subordinative relations can be different:

with comparative relations, e.g. honey-sweet, eggshell-thin, with limiting relations, e.g. breast-high, knee-deep, with emphatic relations, e.g. dog-cheap, with objective relations, e.g. gold-rich, with cause relations, e.g. love-sick, with space relations, e.g. top-heavy, with time relations, e.g. spring-fresh. with subjective relations, e.g. foot-sore etc.

b) coordinative conpounds where both components are semantically independent, Here belong such compounds when one person has two functions, e.g. secretary-stenographer, woman - doctor. Such compounds are called additive. This group includes also compounds formed by means of reduplication e.g. fifty-fifty, no-no.

5. According to the order of the components compounds are divided into comp. with direct order: kill-joy: and comp. with indirect order: nuclear-free, rope-ripe.

 

The sources of Phraseology.

In etymological classification of idiomatic phrases by L.P. Smith in his book “Words and Idioms”, the author points out the following sources of phraseology:

1. Ph. Units built around the names of different parts of the body: soft in the head, to have an open hand, to have a good head on one’s shoulders.

2. Ph. Units from sport life: straight from the shoulder, to keep the ball rolling, to back up(support).

3. Set expressions from art: to play the first fiddle, out of tune, to make a scene, to change one’s tune.

4. Phrases from Shakespeare writing: to be or not to be, to make sure double sure, the beginning of the end, to the heart’s content.

5. Biblical expressions: safe and sound, dairy bread, to be a proverb and a byword.