4. Professional terminology

A term is a word or a phrase with a fixed meaning, denoting a thing or a process in some branch of science, production or in some other field of human activity. It should be monosemantic, have only a denotational meaning, possess no synonyms, e.g. appendix (med.) – a small, narrow tube attached to the large intestine. In medical sphere it is monosemantic.

Terms are widely used in newspapers, in official style, and in fiction. Besides remaining in a certain terminological group a term may be substituted by another term.

International words are words which borrowed by several languages, e.g. philosophy, mathematics, theatre, drama.

Among international words are terms of art (music, tragedy, comedy), political terms (diplomacy, policy, revolution, progress, democracy), names of sciences (economics, phonetics, politics), technological terms (telephone, Internet), sports (football, volley-ball, baseball, hockey, tennis), name of fruits and foodstuff (coffee, banana, chocolate, coca-cola, mango, grapefruit).

5. Standard English. Slang

Languages are composed of different varieties and dialects. We can distinguish several different kinds of English. In general, there are two broad categories of English: standard and nonstandard.

Standard English has standard use that receives the highest respect within society. This respect is based on grammatical usage and on pronunciation (in British English, for example, the most respected pronunciation is known as Received Pronunciation – RP).

It is the language of most educational, legal, governmental, and professional documents. It is a model which others may follow. Standard English is associated with education. Standard forms are those acceptable by most people as being the educated form, the form used in the media and taught in schools. It can be distinguished two kinds of Standard English: formal English and informal English. Formal English is the language, more often written than spoken, used by highly educated people in formal situations. Grammar and usage are generally conservative. It is the language of all serious writing. Informal English is the language (written or spoken) most English-speaking people use most of the time. It is the language of magazines, newspapers, most books, and of business letters and talks intended for general audiences.

Slang is a variety of vocabulary layers that consists either of newly created words and phrases or words employed in special meaning (school slang, sport slang, newspaper slang, etc.). Slang refers to nonstandard lexical items, and it changes rapidly. Most slang words will either disappear from use within a generation or become standardized and no longer slang.

Slang is considered to be a low form of the language and is generally associated with younger speakers. For instance, stud – жеребец, самец (о мужчине), половой гигант; goon – болван, тупица; sucky – The food is sucky (как можно есть такую гадость).

Some of slang words and phrases have become common in Modern English: mate, chap, it’s up to you, chatter-box, etc.

SEMINAR 5

KEY TERMS

active vocabulary term

formal informal

neologism arhaism

slang Standard English

stock layer

lexical group conversational words

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AND EXERCISES

1. General characteristics of the English vocabulary.

2. Standard English. In what situations is Standard English most likely to be used? Nonstandard English.

3. Formal style. The properties of formal English and the field of its application.

4. Terminology. A term. Provide examples of your professional terminology.

5. The properties of informal English.

6. Neologisms: ways of forming, groups of neologisms. Archaisms.

7. The use of slang.

1. Speak about the difference between formal and informal style in your mother tongue. Give examples.

2. What do the following exclamations mean?

Ouch! Wow! Gosh!

Touch wood. Phooey! Whoops!

Well? Cheers. Hi!

2. Prepare the presentations of examples illustrating the dynamic character of the English vocabulary.

3. Give modern English equivalents of the words. Translate them into Russian: bade, spouce, dire, aught, quoth, kine, swain, courser, ire, charger, thy, thine, troth, hath, whit

4. Translate compound-neologisms. Use them in sentences of your own: character assassination, double standard, paper-back book, brain tank, communication gap, job-hopper, shockwave, shuttle democracy, marginal man, fall-out, sweet heart contract, nine-to-fiver, doublespeak, spaghetti-western, runaways

Test

1. Nowadays in English there are:

a) 470 000 words

b) 500 000 words

c) 350 000 words

d) 450 000 words

2. Archaisms are words which:

a) replaced some new words

b) are no longer used in everyday speech

c) are used to express unimportance

d) are used instead of new meanings

3. Neologism is:

a) an old lexical unit for denoting a new object or phenomenon

b) a lexical unit existing in the language and changing its meaning

c) a new lexical unit that develops in the language

d) a new lexical unit for denoting a new object or phenomenon

4. The words from the basic stock are usually:

a) monosemantic

b) pollysemantic

c) nonstandard

d) formal

5. Formal English is the language, more often

a) abbreviations

b) written

c) spoken

d) neologism

6. Slang refers to

a) formal English

b) standard English

c) literary words

d) nonstandard lexical units

PART THREE