ETYMOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE ENGLISH WORDSTOCK

I. Define these terms.

Etymology, a native word, a loan word, semantic borrowings, etymological doublets, translation loans, assimilation of borrowings, international borrowings, barbarism.

II. Would you agree or disagree with these statements?

1) English is a Germanic language with a Roman vocabulary.

2) The English wordstock is heterogeneous.

III. Answer the following questions:

1) What is meant by the native element of English vocabulary?

2) What are the characteristics of the native English wordstock?

3) What are the causes of borrowing? Give examples.

4) What is the structure of the borrowed element of English vocabulary?

5) How can we identify a word as a borrowing?

6) What types of assimilation of borrowings do you know?

7) What stages of assimilation do borrowed words go through?

IV. 1. Classify the following words into

(a) Indo-European,

(b) Germanic,

(c) English proper:

Daughter, woman, room, land, cow, moon, sea, red, spring, three, I, lady, always, goose, bear, fox, lord, tree, nose, birch, grey, old, glad, sad, daisy, heart, hand, night, eat, see, make.

2. Can you identify all the Germanic words in this quotation?

Bot O, as to embrace me she inclined,

I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night. (Milton)

3. In the following sentence, all the words but one are Germanic. Which one is not? State its etymology.

Weapons grated against the ship.

V. Analyse the following lexical groups. Which of the words belong to the native word-stock and which are borrowed? State the origin of the borrowed words.

1. breakfast, dinner, supper, lunch;

2. alarm, fright, fear, terror;

3. fruit, apple, orange, plum, banana, grapes, cherry, pear, lemon, mango, mandarine, apricot;

4. animal, crocodile, wolf, fox, bear, zebra, kangaroo, monkey, lion, giraffe, camel, beaver, gorilla;

5. cattle, sheep, lamb, boar, bull, ox, donkey, ass, mule, mare, goat, horse, cow, rabbit, deer, cat, pig, dog.

VI. State the source language.

Kindergarten, tête-à- tête, Blitzkrieg, bon mot, prima donna, Hun, nazi, soprano, violin, waltz, law, caravan, taboo, mazurka, tobacco, umbrella, school, anchor, nun, jungle, caftan, babushka, wigwam.

VII. State the origin of the words and say whether they are completely assimilated, partially assimilated or non-assimilated:

Represent, pearl, juvenile, orthography, cactus, album, shawl, monsieur, tranquil, quit, skirt, check, situation, coup d’etat, choir, kitchen, patriarch.

VIII. Give the missing etymological doublet. State the origin of these etymological doublets:

1. cavalry -... 7. major -...

2. cart -... 8. pauper -...

3. liquor -... 9. dike -...

4. salon -... 10. shrew -...

5. shade -... 11. legal -...

6. of -... 12. ward -...

IX. What type of borrowing are these words? Classify them according to the spheres of human activity. What is their etymology?

Progress, democracy, drama, philosophy, rugby, football, basketball, tragedy, comedy, biology, medicine, atom, cricket, hockey, chocolate, grapefruit, ballet, coca-cola, telegraph, telephone, bank.

X. State the origin of the following translation loans:

Wonder child, masterpiece, first dancer, concentration camp, collective farm.

XI. Compare the following words. What are they called? Why?

intelligent – интеллигентный actual - актуальный

cabinet – кабинет principal - принципиальный

realize – реализовывать object - объект

Give three more similar pairs; explain the difference in the meaning of the English and Russian words.

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