STRATIFICATION of English Vocabulary Literary and Colloquial Strata of Words.

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STRATIFICATION of English Vocabulary Literary and Colloquial Strata of Words

Transcript of STRATIFICATION of English Vocabulary Literary and Colloquial Strata of Words.

Page 1: STRATIFICATION of English Vocabulary Literary and Colloquial Strata of Words.

STRATIFICATION of English Vocabulary

Literary and Colloquial Strata of Words

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King Solomon’s Verse

What is man, that Thou are mindful of him? And the son of man, that Thou visitest him? Thou madest him lower than the angels; To crown him with glory and worship. Thou makest him to have dominion of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet; All sheep and oxen; yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea; And whatsoever walketh through the paths of the seas.

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William Shakespeare, HAMLET, 1601

What piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!

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Dr. L.A.Borrodaile, 1912

Man is metazone, tribloblastic, chordate, vertebrate, pentadactyle, mammalian, eutherian, primate… . The main outlines of each of his principal systems of organs may be traced back, like those of other mammals, to the fishes.

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Stylistic Classification of English Vocabulary

General considerations

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Is it possible to classify the vocabulary?

Differences of opinion

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Three layers of English vocabulary

1. Neutral layer

2. Literary layer

(Super-neutral words)

3. Colloquial layer

(Sub-neutral words)

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Study the following examples:

Colloquial Neutral Literary

kid child infant

comfy comfortable commodious

get out go away retire

flapper young girl maiden

daddy father parent

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LITERARY STRATUM OF WORDS

1. Archaisms

2. Alienisms and foreign words

3. Terms and learned words

4. Poetic words

5. Literary coinages (including nonce - words)

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ARCHAISMS a) obsolete words: methinks (it seems to

me), nay (no); a palfrey (a small horse),

aforesaid, hereinafternamed;

b) archaisms proper (Fr.): troth (faith);

c) historical words: knight, spear; worrier;

d) poetic words: woe (sorrow), haply (perhaps);

e) morphological forms: singest, brethren, thou, thou makest.

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Alienisms and Foreign Words

1. Alien words - borrowings that have English equivalents: chic (stylish), ad infinitum (to infinity), babushka (kerchief tied under the chin).

2. Foreign words - do not belong to the English vocabulary: udarnik, a propos, perestroika, Deutsche Soldaten. Ex.: 1) «She had said ‘Au revoir!’ Not good-bye!» (J.Galsworthy)

2) «We have time, Herr Zippmann, to try your schnapps.” (Heim)

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Alien or foreign?1. Ivan Ilyich was le phenix de la famille, as

they used to say (L.Tolstoy).

2. Canada has a per capita income of about $17,000.

3. «I’ll go upstairs to get shmotki», I said (A.Burgess. A Clockwork Orange).

4. «Avanti, my dear and welcome. Get her a glass, Oliver» (B.Trapido. Brother of the more famous Jack).

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TERMS

Terms - words denoting objects, processes, phenomena of science, humanities, technique.

1) Single terms: psychology, equity, function.

2) Terms consisting of several words: subject-matter, computer-aided system, belles-lettres style.

Within a literary work terms may acquire a satirical effect.

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Terms in a satirical function

«What a fool Rawdon Crawley has been», Clump replied, «to go and marry a governess! There was something about the girl too.»

«Green eyes, fair skin, pretty figure, famous frontal development», Squills remarked (W.M.Thackeray, Vanity Fair).

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Literary coinages (including nonce-words)

Two types of literary neologisms:

1. Designate new-born concepts, terminological coinages: intertextuality, профессиограмма, immunodeficiency, ecosystem.

2. Create expressiveness of the utterance (nonce-words): anti-globalist, musicdom, bananarama, LASER (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation).

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NONCE WORDSNonce-words are chance words, occasional

words, words created for the given occasion with the existing words by means of affixation, composition, conversion, etc. Ex.: There was a balconyful of gentlemen…

The word balconyful was coined by analogy with the words “mouthful”, “spoonful”, “handful”. Nonce-words produce a humorous effect. Being used just once, they disappear completely.

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Colloquial Stratum of WordsSub-neutral Words

1. Slang

2. Vulgarisms

3. Jargonisms

4. Dialectal words

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SLANG

Slang is a non-standard colloquial layer, outside the literary language but forcing its way into it.

Function - to characterize the personage, to create a certain atmosphere (that of scandal, violence or intolerance or humor) in the literary text.

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WHY SLANG?

1. Striving for novelty of expression: intentional substitutes of neutral and elevated words and expressions: cripes instead of Christ.

2. Disguising from outsiders the meaning of what was said: Look at that chick! She’s really on fire. Посмотри на эту бабу. Клевая, не правда ли?

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Stylistic Sources of Slang

1/ Metaphor: He snaked out of here without his overcoat. Он выскользнул отсюда, оставив свое пальто.

2/ Metonymy: skirt (girl)

3/ Hyperbole: killing (astonishing)

4/ Understatement: whistle (flute)

5/ Clear as mud (irony).

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VULGARISMS (SWEAR WORDS)

Vulgarisms: stylistically lowest group of words which are considered offensive for polite usage.

a) abusive words, e.g. son of a bitch; b) hackneyed vulgar words: devil, bloody.

Function: to express strong emotions, mainly annoyance, anger, vexation and the like. Found in direct speech.

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ANSWER THE QUESTION

How are vulgarims euphemistically called?

(A euphemism - is a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a conventionally more acceptable one:

to die ---> to pass away, to be no more, etc.

Answer: sdrow rettel-ruof (mirror-reading)

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JARGONISMSJargonisms: words functioning in

limited spheres of society:

a) professional jargonisms;

b) social jargonisms.

Function: to replace those words which already exist in the language in order to make their speech incoherent to outsiders.

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Professional Jargonisms

Professional jargonisms are denominations of things, phenomena and process characteristic of given profession opposed to the official terms of this professional sphere.

Function: They are used by representatives

of the profession to facilitate the communication.

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Social Jargonisms

Social jargonisms are made of words used to denote non-professional thing relevant for representatives of the given social group with common interests (e.g., music fans, drug addicts and the like).

Function: they are used by representatives of the given group to show that the speaker also belongs to it and sometimes for the purpose of making speech incoherent to outsiders.

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DIALECTAL WORDS

Dialectal words are words and phrases characteristic of a certain locality.They reflect peculiarities of provincialism in phonetics and vocabulary.

Of special significance for English literature is Cockney - the dialect of the uneducated people in London.

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COCKNEY

1) The diphthong [ei] is replaced by [ai]: to sy, to py instead of to say, to pay;

2) the diphthong [au] is replaced by monophthong [a:]: nah then instead of «now then»;

3) words like «manners», «thank you» are pronounced as menners, thenk you.

4) the suffix ”- ing” is pronounced as [n]: sittin’, standin’.

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HOME ASSIGNMENT1. Ивашкин М.П. и др. A Manual of English

Stylistics. - Pp.22-28.

2. Galperin I.R. STYLISTICS. - Pp. 62-95; 103-117. Copy the drawing on p.63.

3. Глазунов С.А. Новый нагло-русский словарь современной разговорной лексики. - М.: Рус. яз., 1998. - 776 с.

4. Make a copy of Test No 2: Stylistic Lexicology and answer all the points. From № 1 of this list of literature. Pp.36-37.