5 Subgroups of special literary vocabulary

1. Terms

2. Archaic and historical words

3. Poetic words

4. Foreign words and barbarisms

5. Literary coinages

Terms

• Indicate the technical peculiarities

• Make reference to the occupation

• Create the true-to-life atmosphere

• Suggest the author’s erudition

• Parodying function (Ex. Green eyes, fare skin, famous frontal development-W.M.Thackeray)

Determinization: Full steam ahead!

Archaisms

1. Obsolescent words

   1. Morphological archaisms

• Pronominal forms (thee, thou, thy, thine)

• Verbal endings (maketh, hath, makest)

• Archaic verb-forms (art = are, wilt = will)

• Prepositions and adverbs (heretofore)

1. French borrowings (pallet, garniture, palfrey)

1. Obsolete

   1. Methinks = It seems to me

   2. Nay = no

2. Archaisms proper

   1. Troth = faith

   2. Losel = lazy fellow

Functions of archaisms

• Expressive function

• Satirical purposes

• Terminological function

  • Hereby (сим, этим, настоящим)

  • Hereinafter (ниже)

  • Thereof (из этого, из того)

  • Theretofore (до того времени)

Historical words

Ex.: goblet, mace, gorget

Poetic words

• Quoth = spoke

• Eftsoons = again, soon after

• Steed = horse

• Welkin = sky

• Vale = valley

Barbarisms

• Chic = stylish

• Bon mot = a clever witty saying

• Bona fide = legal, genuine

• De facto = actually

• Espirit de corps = a cooperative spirit

• Faux pas = error, mistake

• Coup d’etat = change of government

Italian: dolce vita, ciao, gonzo

Spanish: adios, duende

Foreign words – terminological function, have no synonyms

• Udarnik, kolkhoz

• Blitzkrieg, Luftwaffe

• Hara-kiri

Functions:

1. To supply local color (The boy consumed schinken and braten and kartoffeln and cranberry jam)

2. As speech characterization

3. To elevate the language (Ma petit cher)

4. To create the impression of the foreign speech

• Deutsche Soldaten – a little while ago, you received a sample of American strength (St. Heym)

• He look at Miss Forsyte so funny sometimes. I tell him all my story, he so sympatisch (Galsworthy)

Literary coinages

• Utopia – Thomas Moore 1516

• Irritate – Thomas Elyot 1530

• Scapegoat – 1530 William Tyndale

• Diary – 1581 Ben Johnson

• Changeful – 1606 William Shakespeare

• Yahoo (a rude violent person) 1726 Jonathan Swift

• Deadlock – 1779, Richard Brinsley Sheridan

• Hot dog – T.A. Dorgan

• Robot – Karel Capek

Ways of coinage:

1. Affixation

• Ungoogleable

• -ize

• -anti

• -dom

• -ship

• -ese

• -rama

• -thon

2. Word-compounding

• Gendergap

• Impeachment nostalgia

• Digital natives / net generation

• A bachelor girl / a hyphenated woman

3. Blending

• Docusoap

• Chunnel

• Guesstimate

• Tenigue

• Fauxtography

4. Nonce-word

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious = superb

2 леция.

Stylistic differentiation of words in the English vocabulary.

Colloquial words are those with tinge of informality, they cannot be used in formal speech.

The colloquial layer:

• Common colloquial vocabulary

• Special

• Slang

• Professional and social jargon

• Dialectal words

• Vulgarisms

• Colloquial coinages

Several groups of colloquial words:

1. Colloquial words proper (colloquial synonyms of neutral words): chap (fellow), sniffy (disdainful).

1. + “nursery words”: tummy, dad, mommy;

2. phonetic variants of neutral words (gaffer – grandfather, baccy – to buckle, feller – fellow)

3. + phonetic contractions of auxiliary and modal words ( ‘ve, ‘d, ‘ll);

4. diminutives of neutral/colloquial words (granny, lassie, piggy)

5. + diminutives of proper names ( Polly, Johnny);

6. colloquial meanings of polysemantic words (spoon (a man of low mentality), hedgehog (unmanageable person);

7. most interjections ( Gee! Eh? Well…)

Slang – language of a highly colloquial type. It belongs to the subneutral part of vocabulary, slang words are used as intentional substitutes for neutral or elevated words or expressions. They possess humorous or derogatory connotations. Scholars often confuse the terms “slang” and “jargon”. The term “slang” refers to what is in common use, to what is employed under the circumstances by every English speaking person. Slang is general jargon (metaphor), a jargon universally spoken. The reason for appearance of slang is striving for novelty of expression; all denominations are replaced by original, more expressive ones. So, due to growing popularity and frequent usage, slang words cease to be fresh and become colloquial or even neutral. The loss of novelty brings about constant change in slang. Old and new words coexist for a while, which makes slang very rich in synonyms. Everyday notions which excite an emotional reaction can be expressed by many synonyms, up to 30 or 40 (food, money, sex).

Slang

• Intentional substitutes (for neutral\elevated words)

• Humorous\derogatory connotations

• Reason: striving for novelty of expression

• Rich in synonyms

Slang (synonyms)

food =

grub – пища, еда, харч

chuck – пища, еда

chow – еда

belly-timber;

drugs: cocain = Lady Snow, Angel; heroin = Helen, Harry; money = jack, tin, splosh, spondulics, cash, slippery stuff, brass, oof.

Money: jack, tin, brass, oof, slippery stuff, cash, dough, green, cabbage, spondulics, splosh

In slang we observe different figures of speech.

SLANG (figures of speech)

Metaphor.

• upper story – head

• a fin – hand

• milkshakes – breasts of woman

• ball and chain – one’s spouse

Metonymy.

• skirt – a girl

• pinkeye – inferior whisky which causes reddening of the eyes

• two umlauts – a Lowenbrau beer

Hyperbole.

• killing – astonishing (The girls were dressed to kill).

• A-bomb (drug abuse)

• ripping, topping, corking (excellent)

Understatement.

• some – excellent (I say! He said, “some” picture!)

Jargon words

• Professional jargonisms (professionalisms)

• Informal substitutes for official terms in a special field, emotive synonyms to terms

• Pertain to very specific objects typical of this professional sphere only (sewing machine = machine gun (a specific military object))

• Do not aim at secrecy

• Social

• Emotive synonyms to neutral words

• Pertain to objects, concepts and notions of everyday life

• Aim at secrecy, conceal or disguise the meaning