Classification of the English Vocabulary

 

Neutral, common literary and common colloquial vocabulary

2. Special literary vocabulary

3. Special colloquial vocabulary

1. Neutral, common literary and common colloquial vocabulary

The word-stock of any language may be represented as a definite system in which different aspects of words may be singled out as interdependent. Aspect- the most typical characteristic of a word.

The word-stock of any given language can be roughly divided into three uneven groups, differing from each other by the sphere of its possible use. The biggest layer of the English word-stock is made up of neutral words, possessing no stylistic connotation and suitable for any communicative situation, two smaller ones are and colloquial strata respectively.

Neutral words, which form the bulk of the English vocabulary, are used in both literary and colloquial language. Neutral words are the main source of synonymy and polysemy. It is the neutral stock of words that is so prolific in the production of new meanings new words by means of conversion, word compounding, word derivation.

Common literary words are chiefly used in writing and in polished speech.

The following synonyms illustrate the relations that exist between the neutral, literary and colloquial words in the English language: kid-child-infant, daddy-father-parent, chap-fellow-associate, go on, continue, proceed.

Common colloquial vocabulary overlaps into the standard English vocabulary and is therefore to be considered part of it. It borders both on the neutral vocabulary and on the special colloquial vocabulary. Both common literary and common colloquial words are not homogenious.

Special literary vocabulary

Literary words, both general (also called learned, bookish, high-flown) and special, contribute to the message the tone of solemnity, sophistication, seriousness, gravity, learnedness. They are used in official papers and documents, in scientific communication, in high poetry, in authorial speech of creative prose.

Special colloquial vocabulary

Colloquial words mark the message as informal, non-official, conversational. Apart from general colloquial words, widely used by all speakers of the language in their everyday communication (e. g. "dad", "kid", "crony", "fan", "to pop", "folks").

 

Speak on Syntax as one of the major parts of the theoretical grammar. Describe the basic syntactic notions. Illustrate your answer with examples

Syntax deals with combinability of words, i.e.how words are combined to make meaningful utterances, what patterns they combine on, and what abstract grammatical meaning they express.

The main objectives of Syntax are:

1) to study relations between words within word combinations;

2) to study the sentence as a structural unit which communicates a message in a definite situation.

The units of syntactic analysis are the sentence and the phrase. They represent different levels of a hierarchy. From the constructive point of view both the sentence and the phrase are groups of elements related with each other and organised in a definite way. However, the sentence and the phrase differ. The sentence the phrase – expresses a ‘complete thought’– Has a nominative function – is a name of a type of real life situations/– Doesn’t express a ‘complete thought’ – Has a nominative function – is a complex name of discrete objects of events – Has a certain intonation pattern– Is a minimal communicative unit of speech – Realises Predication (Modality,Temporality, Personality)

– The elements are equal in their status

– The elements are not equal in their status: a head word + one or more adjuncts

– Are used to expand sentence components but not to build the structure of the sentence

– Are built either (1) with the help of conjunctions expressing coordination (? the relation is formally marked) or (2) without conjunctions

– Are used to build the structure of the sentence

– Are built either (1) with the help of prepositions expressing subordination (? the dependence is formally marked) or (2) without prepositions

The major criteria for classifying subordinative phrases:

1) the lexical grammatical class (part of speech) of the head word

noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases;

2) the degree of semantic fusion between the elements free phrases and phraseological units;

3) subtypes of syntactic relations variants of Subordination: Agreement, Government, Adjoinment.

Agreement is the morphologically marked variant of subordination, i.e. the

dependent element shares the morphological categories of the head word.

Agreement is not very common on the phrase level in English.

Government in English is mostly prepositionally (syntactically) marked.

Adjoinment is formally unmarked. The word position in a phrase and se-

mantic correlation matter. The main and most common variant of subordination

in English where the word order is fixed.

 

Describe the development of polysemy of the converted words. Illustrate your answer with examples. Identify problems a translator may encounter dealing with polysemantic words in the English language

The word polysemy means plurality of meanings. It exists only in the language, not in speech. A word which has more than one meaning is called polysemantic. There are two processes of the semantic development of a word: radiation and concatenation. In cases of radiation the primary meaning stands in the centre and the secondary meanings proceed out of it like rays. Each secondary meaning can be traced to the primary meaning, e.g. face (the front part of the human head - the primary meaning; the front part of a building, the front part of a watch, the front part of a playing card; expression of the face, outward appearance - secondary meanings).

In cases of concatenation secondary meanings of a word develop like a chain, e.g. crust – 1. hard outer part of bread, 2. hard part of anything (a pie, a cake), 3. harder layer over soft snow, 4. sullen gloomy person, 5. impudence. Here the last meanings have nothing to do with primary ones. In such cases homonyms appeare in the language. This phenomenon is called the split of polysemy.

Synchronically, the problem of polysemy ie the problem of interrelation an interdependence of different meanings of the same word. The semantic structure of a polysemantic word is the sum total of relations between its lexico-semantic variants.

The analysis of the semantic structure of a polysemantic word is based on the following set of oppositions:

1. Direct-derived meaning: rat – animal like, but larger than a mouse; rat – cowardly person; strike-breaker.

2. Extended-restricted meaning: to knock – strike, hit; to knock – of a petrol

engine – make a tapping or thumping noise.

3. Free-bound meaning: hat – cover for the head; hat – nonsense (to speak

through one’s hat).

4. General-specialized meaning: case – instance or example of the

occurence of smth; case – (med.) person suffering from a disease.

5. Neutral-emotional meaning: nut – fruit consisting of a hard shell

enclosing a kernel that can be eaten; nut – (slang) head of a human

being.

Conversion is a characteristic feature of the English word-building system. It is also called affixless derivation or zero suffuxation. Conversion is the main way of forming verbs in Modern English. Verbs can be formed from nouns of different semantic groups and have different meanings because of that.:

a) verbs can have instrumental meaning if they are formed from nouns

denoting parts of a human body, tools, machines, instruments, weapons:

to eye, to hammer, to machine-gun, ti rifle;

b) verbs can denote an action characteristic of the living being: to crowd, to

wolf, to ape;

c) verbs can denote acquisition, addition, deprivation: to fish, to dust, to

paper;

d) verbs can denote an action performed at the place: to park, to bottle, to

corner.