English lexicology

Practically speaking the same patterns and means of word-formation are used in coining neologisms in both variants. Only the frequency observed in both cases may be different. Some of the suffixes more frequently used in American English are: -ее (draftee 'a young man about to be enlisted),- ettte (tambourmajorette 'one of the girl drummers in front of a procession1), -dom and -ster, as in roadster 'motor-car for long journeys by road' or gangster dom.

American slang uses alongside the traditional ones also a few specific models, such as verb stem + -er + adverb stem + -er: e.g. opener-upper 'the first item on the programme' and winder-upper 'the last item1, respectively. It also possesses some specific affixes and semi-affixes not used in literary colloquial: -о, -eroot ~aroo, -sie/sy, as in coppo 'policeman', fatso ла fat man', bossaroo 'boss', chapsie 'fellow'.

The trend to shorten words and to use initial abbreviations is even more pronounced than in the British variant. New coinages are introduced: in advertisements, in the press, in everyday conversatiori; soon they fade out and are replaced by the newest creations. Ring Lardner, very popular in the 30's, makes one of his characters, a hospital nurse, repeatedly use two enigmatic abbreviations: G.F. and B. F.; at last the patient asks her to clear the mystery, «What about Roy Stewart?» asked the man in bed.

«Oh, he's the fella I was telling you about» said Miss Lyons, «He's my G. F.' s B.F.»

«Мay be Гт a D.F. not to know, but would you tell me what a B.F. and G.F. are?»

«Well, you are dumb, aren't you?» said Miss Lyons, «A G.F, that's a girlfriend, and a B.F. is a boyfriend. I thought everybody knew that.»

Particularly common in American English; are verbs with the hanging postpositive. They say that in Hollywood you never meet a man:, you meet up with him, you do not study a subject but study up on it. In British English similar constructions serve to add a new meaning.

The lexical peculiarities of American English are an easy target for ironical outbursts on the part of some writers, John Updike is mildly humorous. His short poem «Philological» runs as follows:

The British puss demurely mews;

His transatlantic kin meow,

The kine in Minnesota moo;

Not so the gentle Devon cows:

They low,

As every schoolchild ought to know.

Although not sufficiently great to warrant American English the status of an independent language, it is considerable enough to make a mixture of variants sound unnatural, so that students of English should be warned against this danger.

The American English, apart from British English, is not the only existing variant. There are several other variants -where difference from the British standard is normalized. They are Australian English, Canadian English, New Zealand English. Each of them has developed a literature of its own, and is characterized by peculiarities in phonetics, spelling, grammar and vocabulary.

The vocabulary of all the variants is characterized by a high percentage of borrowings from the language of the people who inhabited the land before the English colonizers came. Many of them denote some specific realia of the new country: local animals, plants or weather conditions, new social relations, new trades and conditions of labour. The local words for new notions penetrate into the English language and later on may become international, if they are of sufficient interest and importance for people speaking other languages. The term international words is used to denote words borrowed from one language into several others simultaneously or at short intervals one after another.

34. Replenishment of the English vocabulary

Ways of Replenishment (Neol, Abbrev, Borrowed). Being an adaptive sys the voc is constantly adjusting itself to the changing conditions of human commun-n. New notions appear, requiring new wrds to name them. New wrds, expressions or neologisms are created fro new things. Neologism- a newly coined wrd or phrase or a new meaning for an existing wrd. Problem- which wrds are considered to be new? The most rational point- N-wrds that appeared in the last years of the previous generation. Reasons for N origination: - polit changes, -the spere of law& police (lie-detector, plastid bomb), -science & technology, -innovations (fast-food). Way of forming N: - creating (sound imitation), -borrowing ( Fr, Germ, Spanish), -combining (affixation, w-composition). Prefixes: parapsychologist, documercial, psycholinguistic, intro, maxi, mini. Suffixes: drive-in, workaholic, eer, st. Compounding (rhyme c- brain-rain), Shortening (landing) strip. Abbrev- w-ds formed from the initial letters of each of the parts of a phrasal term. 2 types: -Acronyms, a wrd-comb pronounced as a wrd, popular esp in polit & techn voc (NATO -- the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, National Organisation for Women - NOW, homon to odinary wrd). - Alphabetisms, pronounced as a series of letters, retain correlation with prototype (B.B.C- the British Broadcasting Corporation, SOS).Specific type- represented by Lat abb which sometimes are not read as Lat w-ds but substituted by Eng equiv-s (id est-that is, exempli gratia- for ex). Graphical abb- symbol used instead of wrds in written engl, for economy of space (gvt- government, DC-district of Columb). -A specifically Eng pattern- the 1 element is a letter and 2- a complete w-d (A-bomb).The contracted form is monosem, its prototype- polysemy (prep=homework, preparation=getting ready with a homework, homework). Blends- formed by joining together 2 wrds. 2 types depending upon the prototype phrases with wh they can be correlated: -Additive (consisting of complete stems (smoke+fog=smog, smoke +haze=smaze). -Restrictive (attrib phrase where the 1 element serves as modifier of the 2, cinematographic+ panorama= Cinerama). Borrowed- taken from another lang and modified in phonemic shape, spelling, paradigm or meaning acc to the standards of Eng. Came in dif times. Early Latin b-ngs, 1c BC (butter, chalk, kitchen). In 5c AD- a few Celtic w-ds penetrated (cradle, London). In 7c AD- christianisation, many religious terms from Latin (priest, nun). End 7c- mid 11c- Scandinavian w-ds: N (window, husband, law), Adj( ugly, weak), V (call, take, die). Scand w-ds are similar in pronunc with anglo-sax. Many scand w begin from sk- skill, skin, ski, skirt, sky. In 1066-Norman Conq, England- bilingual. Fr was official. Fr w-ds: -administrative, -military terms (army, officer), -educational (pupil, pencil, library), -w of everyday life (dinner, river, uncle). In Renaissance period- from Lat, Greek, connected with science (univer, professor), Italian (piano, opera, violin). 18-20c - the basis of w was dif due to colonial expansion: Indian (pundit), Arabic (sherbet), Chinese. Rus layers: -prerevolut (before 1917), vodka, valenkis, pelmenis, -sovietisms, preserve only rus meaning (polit-bureau, 5-year-plan), -perestroika period. Degree of assimilation depends on: -length of the period during wh the w has been used, -importance for commun-n, -frequency of usage. ?3 groups: 1Completely assim- found in all layers of older assim-ed w, follow all phonetic, morph standards of Eng., take an active part in w-derivation, formation. 2Partly assim-a) not assim semant-ly as they denote notions peculiar to the country from wh came (sombrero, rouble), b) not assim gram-ly \crisis- crises\, c) not assim phonetically. 3Barbarisms- from other lang not assim in any way. Classified: foreign clothes, foreign titles (rajah), food & drink (vodka), transport. Criteris: strange pronunciation, spelling. Enter lasng in 2 ways- through oral & written speech. Types of assim: -phonet (when foreign sounds are replaced by the closest Eng sounds), -grammat (when loans acquire new gram paradigm), -Semant (preserve all the primary meanings.

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