Back-formation

The process of back-formation is the creation of a neologism by reinterpreting an earlier word as a derivation and removing apparent affixes, or more generally, by reconstructing an "original" form from any kind of derived form. The resulting new word is called a back-formation.

The simplest case is when a longer form of a word pair predates what would usually be the basic form. For example, the noun resurrection was borrowed from Latin, and the verb resurrect was then derived from it. We expect the suffix -ion to be added to a verb to create a noun; when as in this case the suffix is removed from the noun to create the verb, this is a back-formation.

Back formation becomes a kind of folk etymology when it rests on an erroneous understanding of the morphology of the longer word. For example, the singular noun asset is a back-formation from the plural assets. However, assets is originally not a plural; it is a loan-word from Anglo-Norman asetz (modern French assez). The -s was erroneously taken to be a plural inflection

Frequently back-formations begin in colloquial use and only gradually become accepted. For example, burger (and beefburger, cheeseburger, etc., from hamburger) is in common use today though it would have been considered awkward or colloquial as late as the 1940s.

· babysit from babysitter

· burgle from burglar

· destruct from destruction

· diagnose from diagnosis

· diplomat from diplomatic

· donate from donation

· edit from editor

· escalate from escalator

· greed from greedy

· injure from injury

· isolate from isolated

· manipulate from manipulation

· mentee from Mentor

· pea from Middle English pease

· peddle from peddler

· semantic (adjective) from semantics

· spectate from spectator

· upholster from upholstery (обивка)

Sound interchange – an opposition in which words are defferentiated due to an alteration of the phonemic composition of the root.

The change may affect:

1. the root vowel (food-feed)

2. root consonant (speak – speech)

3. both (life – live)

4. may be combined with affixation (strong – strength)

5. with affixation and the shift of stress (democrat – democracy)

the process is not active such oppositions survive only as remanants of previous stages.

14. Etymology. What makes it important for contemporary Lex. The role and place of borrowings in English word-stock

Etymology-brunch of lexicology that studies the origin, history, changes, in the meaning of ws.

Etymologia (greek)=etymon (true sense) + legein (speak)

Etym- history of words-how it was spelled, pronounced.

The etymology of a word refers to its origin and the historical roots of the term as a linguistic form. Etymology, in general, is the theory and study of the origins and history of linguistic form., it’s a science of true sense of a w, studies the origin: history and changes in the mng of the w. Studies the following problems:

1) native ws and borrowings

2) assimilation: its types and degrees

3) ways of enriching w-stock.

To comprehend the nature of the English vocabulary and its histori­cal development it is necessary to examine the etymology of its differ­ent layers, the historical causes of their appearance, their volume and role and the comparative importance of native and borrowed elements in replenishing the English vocabulary. Before embarking upon a descrip­tion of the English word-stock from this point of view we must make-special mention of some terms Borrowings.

Borrowing-the process and the result of adopting a word or a group of words from one language to another. Borrowing words from other languages is characteristic of English throughout its history. More than two thirds of the English vocabulary are borrowings. Mostly they are words of Romanic origin (Latin, French, Italian, Spanish). Borrowed words are different from native ones by their phonetic structure, by their morphological structure and also by their grammatical forms. It is also characteristic of borrowings to be non-motivated semantically. English history is very rich in different types of contacts with other countries, that is why it is very rich in borrowings. The Roman invasion, the adoption of Christianity, Scandinavian and Norman conquests of the British Isles, the development of British colonialism and trade and cultural relations served to increase immensely the English vocabulary. The majority of these borrowings are fully assimilated in English in their pronunciation, grammar, spelling and can be hardly distinguished from native words.

English continues to take in foreign words, but now the quantity of borrowings is not so abundant as it was before. All the more so, English now has become a «giving» language; it has become Lingva franca of the twentieth century.

Borrowings can be classified according to different criteria:

a) according to the aspect which is borrowed,

b) according to the degree of assimilation,

c) according to the language from which the word was borrowed.

(In this classification only the main languages from which words were borrowed into English are described, such as Latin, French, Italian. Spanish, German and Russian.)

15. Causes and ways of borrowings. Criteria of B

70%-borrowings

30%-native words

Borrowing words from other languages is characteristic of English throughout its history More than two thirds of the English vocabulary are borrowings. Mostly they are words of Romanic origin (Latin, French, Italian, Spanish). Borrowed words are different from native ones by their phonetic structure, by their morphological structure and also by their grammatical forms.

There are 2 types of borrowings: direct (through speech) and indirect (through writing). It is also characteristic of borrowings to be non-motivated semantically. English history is very rich in different types of contacts with other countries, that is why it is very rich in borrowings. The Roman invasion, the adoption of Christianity, Scandinavian and Norman conquests of the British Isles, the development of British colonialism and trade and cultural relations served to increase immensely the English vocabulary. The majority of these borrowings are fully assimilated in English in their pronunciation, grammar, spelling and can be hardly distinguished from native words.

REASONS:

1) smth is not named, semantic gap, there is no object, if it appeared the name for it comes from another Lang (cheese, butter, street, potato, tomato)

2) a new w gives another shade of mng, another emotional coloring=synonyms appear (love-like=adore, admire (Fr))

3) historical, depends on the nature of the w, some L can be prestigious, ws of another L can be imposed. English continues to take in foreign words, but now the quantity of borrowings is not so abundunt as it was before. All the more so, English now has become a «giving» language, it has become Lingva franca of the twentieth century.

4). Unknown reason-loan translation-when 2 ws are translated word for word.

Borrowings can be classified according to different criteria:

a) according to the aspect which is borrowed, There are the following groups: phonetic borrowings, translation loans, semantic borrowings, morphemic borrowings. Such words as: labour, travel, table, chair, people are phonetic borrowings from French; apparatchik, nomenklatura, sputnik are phonetic borrowings from Russian; bank, soprano, duet are phonetic borrowings from Italian etc.

b) according to the degree of assimilation,

Accordingly borrowings are subdivided into: completely assimilated, partly assimilated and non-assimilated (barbarisms).

Completely assimilated borrowings are not felt as foreign words in the language, of the French word «sport» and the native word «start». Completely assimilated verbs belong to regular verbs, e.g. correct -corrected. Completely assimilated nouns form their plural by means of s-inflexion, e.g. gate- gates. In completely assimilated French words the stress has been shifted from the last syllable to the last but one.

Partially – formula-formulae, data-datum

Barbarism-tete-a-tete, граффити –рисунок на стене (итал)

c) according to the language from which the word was borrowed. (In this classification only the main languages from which words were borrowed into English are described, such as Latin, French, Italian. Spanish, German and Russian.) Among words of Romanic origin borrowed from Latin during the period when the British Isles were a part of the Roman Empire, there are such words as: street, port, wall etc

16. Assimilation of Borrowings. Degrees of Ass and factors determining it.

Assimilated w-is a w that is partially or totally adopted to morphological, lexical and other aspects of a recipient Lang. The degree of assimilation of borrowings depends on the following factors:

a) from what group of languages the word was borrowed, if the word belongs to the same group of languages to which the borrowing language belongs it is assimilated easier,

b) in what way the word is borrowed: orally or in the written form, words borrowed orally are assimilated quicker,

c) how often the borrowing is used in the language, the greater the frequency of its usage, the quicker it is assimilated,

d) how long the word lives in the language, the longer it lives, the more assimilated it is.

e) historical conditions (invasion, more prestigious)

f) the time of adoption

g) the degree of genetic proximity.

Accordingly borrowings are subdivided into: completely assimilated, partially assimilated and non-assimilated (barbarisms).

1)Complete -when a certain w adjusts to phonetic morphological and ec system of L=usually these are oral Bws. (butter, cheese, wine)Completely assimilated borrowings are not felt as foreign words in the language.

2)Partially ass-ed: different pronunciation, have a special mng (drogki) Are subdivided into the following groups:

a) borrowings non-assimilated semantically, because they denote objects and notions peculiar to the country from the language of which they were borrowed, e.g. sari(индийская одежда виде куска ткани), sombrero (испанская широкополая шляпа), taiga, kvass etc.

b) borrowings non-assimilated grammatically, e.g. nouns borrowed from Latin and Greek retain their plural forms (bacillus - bacilli, phenomenon - phenomena, datum -data, genius - genii etc.

c) borrowings non-assimilated phonetically. Here belong words with the initial sounds /v/ and /z/, e.g. voice, zero. In native words these voiced consonants are used only in the intervocalic position as allophones of sounds /f/ and /s/ (loss - lose, life - live). Some Scandinavian borrowings have consonants and combinations of consonants which were not palatalized, e.g. /sk/ in the words: sky, skate, ski etc (in native words we have the palatalized sounds denoted by the digraph «sh», e.g. shirt); sounds /k/ and /g/ before front vowels are not palatalized e.g. girl, get, give, kid, kill, kettle. In native words we have palatalization, e.g. German, child.

d) borrowings can be partly assimilated graphically, e.g. in Greak borrowings «y» can be spelled in the middle of the word (symbol, synonym), «ph» denotes the sound /f/ (phoneme, morpheme), «ch» denotes the sound /k/(chemistry, chaos),«ps» denotes the sound /s/ (psychology).

3)Non-assimilated borrowings (barbarisms) are borrowings which are used by Englishmen rather seldom and are non-assimilated, e.g. addio (Italian), tete-a-tete (French), dolce vita (Italian), duende (Spanish), an homme a femme (French), gonzo (Italian) etc.

17. Loan translation (калька)

Translation loans are word-for-word (or morpheme-for-morpheme) translations of some foreign words or expressions. In such cases the notion is borrowed from a foreign language but it is expressed by native lexical units,

dolce vita-sweet life, «to take the bull by the horns» (Latin), «fair sex» (French), «living space» (German) etc. Some translation loans appeared in English from Latin already in the Old English period, e.g. Sunday (solis dies) Mother tongue. There are translation loans from the languages of Indians, such as: «pipe of peace», «pale-faced», from German «masterpiece», «homesickness», «superman».. wunderchild

18. Name the main periods when English experienced the influx of borrowings

6 c. – Latin, Greek bor.-s. These borrowings are usually called classical borrowings.

Among words of Romanic origin borrowed from Latin during the period when the British Isles were a part of the Roman Empire, there are such words as: street, port, wall etc. Many Latin and Greek words came into English during the Adoption of Christianity in the 6-th century. At this time the Latin alphabet was borrowed which ousted the Runic alphabet. These borrowings are usually called classical borrowings. Here belong Latin words: alter, cross, dean, and Greek words: church, angel, devil, anthem.

Latin and Greek borrowings appeared in English during the Middle English period due to the Great Revival of Learning. These are mostly scientific words because Latin was the language of science at the time. These words were not used as frequently as the words of the Old English period, therefore some of them were partly assimilated grammatically, e.g. formula - formulae. Here also belong such words as: memorandum, minimum, maximum, veto etc.

Classical borrowings continue to appear in Modern English as well. Mostly they are words formed with the help of Latin and Greek morphemes. There are quite a lot of them in medicine (appendicitis, aspirin), in chemistry (acid, valency, alkali), in technique (engine, antenna, biplane, airdrome), in politics (socialism, militarism), names of sciences (zoology, physics). In philology most of terms are of Greek origin (homonym, archaism, lexicography).

Middle Ages – Latin bor.-s. (mostly scientific words)

10 c. – Scandinavian b-s. By the end of the Old English period English underwent a strong influence of Scandinavian due to the Scandinavian conquest of the British Isles. Scandinavians belonged to the same group of people as Englishmen and their languages had much in common. As the result of this conquest there are about 700 borrowings from Scandinavian into English.Scandinavians and Englishmen had the same way of life, their cultural level was the same, they had much in common in their literature therefore there were many words in these languages which were almost identical, e.g. However there were also many words in the two languages which were different, and some of them were borrowed into English, such nouns as: bull, cake, egg, kid, knife, skirt, window etc, such adjectives as: flat, ill, happy, low, odd, ugly, wrong, such verbs as: call, die, guess, get, give, scream and many others.

Scandinavian Phrasal verbs are now highly productive in English /take off, give in etc/.

11 c. – French b-s. (Norman conquest)

Most of them came into English during the Norman conquest. French influenced not only the vocabulary of English but also its spelling,. Runic letters remaining in English after the Latin alphabet was borrowed were substituted by Latin letters and combinations of letters, e.g. «v» was introduced for the voiced consonant /v/ instead of «f» in the intervocal position /lufian - love/, the digraph «ch» was introduced to denote the sound /ch/ instead of the letter «c» / chest/ before front vowels where it had been palatalized

There are the following semantic groups of French borrowings:

a) words relating to government: government;b) words relating to military affairs: army, war,, battle;c) words relating to jury: advocate,, barrister;d) words relating to fashion: luxury, coat, collar, lace, pleat, embroidery;e) words relating to jewelry: topaz, emerald, ruby, pearl;f) words relating to food and cooking: lunch, dinner, appetite, to roast, to stew.

after 1650 -French b-s. (partially assimilated. Through literature) through French literature, but they were not as numerous and many of them are not completely assimilated: belle-lettres, conservatorie, brochure, nuance, piruette, vaudeville; corps, echelon, fuselage, manouvre; entresol, chateau, bureau; ragout, cuisine.

17 c. – Italian b-s. (some geological terms) Cultural and trade relations between Italy and England brought many Italian words into English. The earliest Italian borrowing came into English in the 14-th century, it was the word «bank» /from the Italian «banko» - «bench»/. In the 17-th century some geological terms were borrowed: volcano, granite, bronze, lava. At the same time some political terms were borrowed: manifesto, bulletin. But mostly Italian is famous by its influence in music and in all Indo-European languages musical terms were borrowed from Italian: alto, baritone, basso, tenor, falsetto, solo, duet, trio, quartet, quintet, opera, operette, libretto, piano, violin. Among the 20-th century Italian borrowings we can mention: gazette, incognitto, autostrada, fiasco, fascist, diletante, grotesque, graffitto etc.

20 c. – German, Russian, Italian b-s.

There are some 800 words borrowed from German into English. Some of them have classical roots, e.g. in some geological terms, such as: cobalt, bismuth, zink, quarts, gneiss, wolfram. There were also words denoting objects used in everyday life which were borrowed from German: iceberg, lobby, rucksack, Kindergarten etc.

In the period of the Second World War the following words were borrowed: Volkssturm, Luftwaffe, SS-man, Bundeswehr, gestapo, gas chamber and many others. After the Second World War the following words were borrowed: Berufsverbot, Volkswagen etc.

Russian borrowings Among early Russian borrowings there are mainly words connected with trade relations, such as: rouble, copeck, pood, sterlet, vodka, sable, and also words relating to nature, such as: taiga, tundra, steppe etc.

through Rushian literature of the 19-th century, such as: Narodnik, moujik, duma, zemstvo. volost, ukase etc, and also words which were formed in Russian with Latin roots, such as: nihilist, intelligenzia, Decembrist etc.After the Great October Revolution many new words appeared in

Spanish borrowings came into English mainly through its American variant. There are the following semantic groups of them: a) trade terms: cargo, embargo; b) names of dances and musical instruments: tango, rumba, habanera, guitar; c) names of vegetables and fruit: tomato, potato, tobbaco, cocoa, banana, ananas, apricot etc.

19. Compare Scandinavian and French influence on English

The largest group of borrowings are French borrowings. French influenced not only the vocabulary of English but also its spelling. There are the following semantic groups of French borrowings:

a) words relating to government: administer, empire, state, government;

b) words relating to military affairs: army, war, banner, soldier, battle;

c) words relating to jury: advocate, petition, inquest, sentence, barrister;

d) words relating to fashion: luxury, coat, collar, lace, pleat, embroidery;

e) words relating to jewelry: topaz, emerald, ruby, pearl;

f) words relating to food and cooking: lunch, dinner, appetite, to roast, to stew.

Words were borrowed from French into English after 1650, mainly through French literature, but they were not as numerous and many of them are not completely assimilated. There are the following semantic groups of these borrowings:

a) words relating to literature and music: belle-lettres, conservatorie, brochure, nuance, piruette, vaudeville;

b) words relating to military affairs: corps, echelon, fuselage, manouvre;

c) words relating to buildings and furniture: entresol, chateau, bureau;

d) words relating to food and cooking: ragout, cuisine.

By the end of the Old English period English underwent a strong influence of Scandinavian due to the Scandinavian conquest of the British Isles. Scandinavians belonged to the same group of peoples as Englishmen and their languages had much in common. As the result of this conquest there are about 700 borrowings from Scandinavian into English.

Scandinavians and Englishmen had the same way of life,their cultural level was the same, they had much in common in their literature therefore there were many words in these languages which were almost identical. Even some pronouns and connective words were borrowed which happens very seldom, such as: same, both, till, fro, though, and pronominal forms with «th»: they, them, their.

Scandinavian influenced the development of phrasal verbs which did not exist in Old English, at the same time some prefixed verbs came out of usage. Phrasal verbs are now highly productive in English.

20.Ethymological doublets

Sometimes a word is borrowed several times from the same language in different periods of history. As the result, we have two different words with different spellings and meanings but historically they come back to one word. Such words are called etymological doublets.

There are also etymological doublets which were borrowed from the same language during different historical periods, such as French doublets: gentil & etymological doublets are: gentle - мягкий, вежливый and genteel - благородный.

Sometimes etymological doublets are the result of borrowing different grammatical forms of the same word (superior & supreme).

Uncial (L) – inche (Engl fr L) ounce (Engl fr Fr)

Moneta - mint - money

camera - camera - chamber

(from French)Norman - Paris

canal - channel

scandinavian – English skirt – shirt; scabby - shabby

hospital (lat), hostel (fr), hotel (fr)

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