Learned words

Formal style is restricted to formal situations. In general, formal words fall into two main groups: words associated with professional communication and a less exclusive group of so-called learned words.

These words are mainly associated with the printed page. It is in this vocabulary stratum that poetry and fiction find their main resources.

We find here numerous words that are used in scientific prose and can be identified by their dry, matter-of-fact flavour (e.g. comprise, experimental, heterogeneous, homogeneous, conclusive, divergent, etc).

To this group also belongs so-called ‘ officialese’ (канцеляризмы). These are the words of the official, bureaucratic language. They should be avoided in speech and in print, e.g. assist (for help), endeavour (for try), proceed (for go), approximately (for about), sufficient (for enough), inquire (for ask).

Probably the most interesting subdivision of learned words is represented by the words found in descriptive passages of fiction. These words, which may be called ‘literary’, also have a particular flavour of their own, usually described as ‘refined’. They are mostly polysyllabic words drawn from the Romance language and, though fully adapted to the English phonetic system, some of them continue to sound singularly foreign. Here are some examples: solitude=loneless, lonely place (уединение, одиночество), sentiment=feeling (чувство), fascination=strong attraction (очарование, обаяние), delusion (заблуждение), meditation (размышление), cordial=friendly (сердечный, радушный).

There is one further subdivision of learned words: modes of poetic diction. These stand close to the previous group many words from which, in fact, belong to both these categories. Yet, poetic words have a further characteristic – a lofty, sometimes archaic, colouring: “ Alas! (увы) theyhad been friends in youth;

But wispering tongues can poison truth

And constancy (постоянство) lives in realms (царства) above;

And life is thorny; and youth is vain…

Though learned words are mainly associated with the printed page, this is not exclusively so. Any educated English-speaking individual is sure to use many learned words not only in his formal letters and professional communication but also in his everyday speech. Educated people in both modern fiction and real life use learned words quite naturally and their speech is richer for it.

On the other hand, excessive use of learned words in conversational speech presents grave hazards. Utterances overloaded with such words have pretensions of ‘refinement’ and ‘elegance’ but achieve the exact opposite verging on the absurd and ridiculous.

Writers use this phenomenon for stylistic purposes. When a character in a book or in a play uses too many learned words, the obvious inappropriateness of his speech in an informal situation produces a comic effect.

However any suggestion that learned words are suitable only for comic purposes, would be quite wrong. It is in this vocabulary stratum that writers and poets find their most vivid paints and colours, and not only their humorous effects. Without knowing some learned words, it is even impossible to read fiction (not to mention scientific articles) or to listen to lectures in the foreign language.

It is also true that some of these words should be carefully selected and “activized” to become part of the students’ functional vocabulary.

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