Từ Vựng Học Tiếng Anh - Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng Chủ Biên, Lê Quốc Hạnh [PDF]

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Compilers N g u y ễ n M ạnh H àn g Chủ Biên I Â n ^ L ê AQ uoc H ạnh

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CDNHA XUÃT BAN GIÁO DỤC

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI • HỌC • NGOẠI • NGỬ HÀ NỘI •

TỪ VỤNG HỌC TIẾNG ANH

L&icoLogr NGUYỄN MẠNH HỪNG (Chủ biên) LÊ QUỐC HẠNH (Tối bẫn lẩn thứ nhất có sửa chữa và bổ sung)

r "p T'd ọ c ~ ì 1T ự

CHỌN I

NHÀ XUẤT BẢN GIÁO DUC - 2003

i V ặ

s

0

UOfA, i^OÄ, ¿WvU Trong cuốn giáo trinh này, người học sẽ tìm được những điều cơ bản

quan

đến kho tư vựng tiếng Anh, những đặc điểm và sự phân chia. M ỗi bài là m ột mảng trọn vẹn trong từ vựng học, cắc vấn đề

quan trong đó được trình bày dư ới

những tiêu đề riêng để người học dễ theo dõi. Các vấn đề có tính trình bày m ột cách giản dị, dễ hiểu kèm theo những

thuyết được

dụ cụ thể, sinh động.

Cuốn giáo trình này được biên soạn phục vụ cho sinh viên tiếng Anh (học năm thứ 3 và năm thứ 4) học môn từ vựng học tiếng Anh. Nó đáp ứng dầy đủ những yêu cầu của chương trình học vể môn học này. Cuốn giáo trình này có th ể còn là m ối quan tâm thích thú cho những đọc giả mà trình độ tiếng Anh của họ đã khá đủ để đọc những vẫn bản tương dổi khó và họ m uốn có thông tin • Tài nguyên từ vựng của tiếng Anh hiện đạl (ví dụ, vê từ đồng nghĩa, từ đối nghĩa) • Các đặc điểm tu

tư của

từ vựng tiếng Anh

•

Bản chất phức tạp vể nghĩa của từ và các phương pháp nghiên cứu chúng,

•

Thành ngữ tiếng Anh

•

Những thay đổi mà từ vựng tiếng Anh đã trải qua trong lieh s ử ph á t triển của

chúng và vể những khía cạnh khác của tữ vựng học tiếng Anh. Người ta khó mà làm chủ hoàn hảo m ột ngôn ngữ nếu thiếu kiến thức vê những vấn đề này, bởi sự làm chủ hoàn hảo m ột ngôn ngữ bao hàm cách tiếp cận có ý thức tới các

tà inguyên của ngôn ngữ đó và

nhất, đòi hỏi phải có m ột sự hiểu

nhất định về cơ cấu bên trong đã làm cho hệ thống ngôn ngữ khổng lồ vận hành được. Nhằm làm cho cuốn sách thêm sinh động, hấp dẫn, chúng tô i có đưa vào khá nhiều mẩu chuyện cười và những g iai thoại trích đoạn từ các sách của m ột số nhà vàn nổi tiếng, cũng qua đó làm sáng tỏ việc các vấn để từ vựng được s ử dụng cho m ục đích tu

tư

. N guyễn M ạnh Hùng

iii

PREFACE

In this course-book the learner willfind the fundamentals o f the ma with English vocabulary, itscharacteristics and subdivisions. Each u theory and vivid examples. The course-book isintended for English language students (3rd and 4th years o taking the course o f English lexicology and fullymeets the subject. It may also be o f Interest to areaders sufficient to enable them to read texts o f average difficulty and who would to gain some information about the vocabulary resources of Modern English (for example, about synonyms and antonyms), about the stylistic peculiarities of English vocabulary, about the complex nature of the word's meaning and the modern methods of Investigation, about English idioms, about those changes that English vocabulary underwent historical development and about some other aspects o f English lexicology. One can hardly acquire a perfect command o f a language without having knowledge of these things, for a perfect command of a language implies the conscious approach to the language's resources and at least a partial understanding of the "Inner mechanism" which makes the huge language system work. To make the lessons more interesting, a number o f jokes, anecdotes, extracts from some famous writers' works are included inthem. These also words for stylistic purposes. If I try to thank everyone who has helped me the preparation of this material, the list of names would be longer than the Begats. Lexicology is the sort of field, I am happy to say, that is distinguished by a constant and lively exchange of Information. The names mentioned below are but a minimal expression o f my gratitude. Thanks are due to Mr. Lể Quốc Hạnh, senior lecturer o f the English Department, whose advice and cooperation have been invaluable during the process o f compilation and revision. Thanks are due to Profs., Dr. Elizabeth Pats (U.C), Dr. David Smith, Dr. Paul Dr. Gillian Perrett (U.S), who did their best to teach me so much about the English language. Thanks are due to. my Australian colleagues Jenny Anderson, Jane Hower for their helpful suggestions. I am grateful to Mr. Lê Ngọc Tường, Deputy Director o f HUFS and the Scientific Research Department of HUFS for their strong support. Finally, My sincere thanks go to my fond colleagues and students o f the English Department for their very constructive Ideas and feedback. None of them, or anyone else mentioned, isresponsible Nguyen Manh Hung

iv

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE

By

theend of the course students

will

1. Be familiar with the fundamentals of the word theory and of the main problems associated with English vocabulary, its characteristics and subdivisions; 2. Have developed a better understanding of the vocabulary resources of Modern English, the stylistic peculiarities of English vocabulary, and of the complex nature of the word's meaning, the modem methods of its investigation and those changes that English vocabulary underwent in its historical development; 3. Establish links between the theory of lexicology and the reality of living speech; 4. Be conscious of the "inner mechanism" which makes the huge language system work; 5. Develop a better command of English and thus being more confident in using English;

v

CONTENTS Unit 1 WORDS & LEXICOLOGY • • • •

What isa word? What What do you know about the word? Major peculiarities of the word The main lexicological problems

1 islexicology? 2 2 4

Unit 2 ETYMOLOGY OF ENGLISH WORDS • History of the English language • Changes borrowed words go through • International words • Etymological doublets • Translation - loans • Relationship between etymological and stylistic

12 13 14 15 16

Unit 3 WORD BUILDING

18

• Oveniew • Affixation • Conversion • Composition • Shortening • Minor types of modern word-builcling

18 19 29 32 38 40

Unit 4 MEANING

43

• What is meaning? • Semantic structure of the word • Types o f semantic components vi

43 44 47

• • • • • • • •

Polysemy Meaning and context Foundation for current research How words develop new meanings Causes of development of new meanings Process of development and change of meaning Generalization and specialization of meaning Degeneration and elevation

Unit 5 HOMONYMS • • • •

What are homonyms? Types of homonyms Sources of homonyms Classification o f homonyms

Unit 6 SYNONYMS • • • • •

What are synonyms? Criteria of synonymy Types of synonyms Types of connotations Dominant synonym

Unit 7 EUPHEMISMS. ANTONYMS • • • • • • •

What iseuphemism? Euphemisms inuse Why euphemism? How to create euphemisms Bad effects o f overusing euphemisms Antonyms What is antonym

51

isemantics 54 55 56 58 59

62 62 62 64 69

71 71 73 76 77 . 80

82 82 85 92 94 96 Vll

• Distribution o f antonyms « Classfrcationof antonyms

•

96 97

Unit 8 FORMAL OR INFORMAL?

99

• • •

99 99 104

Basic vocabulary Informal style Format style

Unit 9 PHRASEOLOGY • • • • •

Overview Main characteristics Phraseological Principles of classification Proverbs

109 109 109 units versusfree word-groups 111

Unit 10 REGIONAL VARIETIES OF ENGLISH

123

126

• English in America • Vocabulary o f American English • Grammar system o f American English • American English phonetic peculiarities • American English spelling • English inAsia • English in Australia and New Zealand • English inCanada • English inthe Indian Subcontinent

146

GLOSSARY LANGUAGE AND HUMOUR REFERENCES

147 151 154

viii

126 126 129 137 138 143

HUFS - English Department

UNIT 1

WORDS & LEXICOLOGY WHAT IS A WORD? WHAT IS LEXICOLOGY? These and similar questions are answered by lexicological research.

The word lexicology derives from Greek with meaning word, or the total stock of words and logos meaning science or theory, discourse. Thus, Lexicology, a branch of linguistics, isthe study It is significant that many scholars have attempted to define the words as a linguistic phenomenon. Yet none of the definitions can be considered totally satisfactory in all aspects. It is equally surprising that, despite all the achievements of modern science, certain essential aspects of the nature of the word still escape us. Nor do we fully understand the phenomenon called "language", of which the word is a fundamental unit. We know nothing - or almost nothing - about the mechanism by which a speaker's mental process is converted into sound groups called "words", nor about the reverse process whereby a listener’s brain converts the acoustic phenomena into notions and ideas, thus establishing a two-way process of communication. We know little about the nature of relations between the word and the referent. If we assumed that there is a direct relation between the word and the referent - which seems logical - it gives rise to another question: how should we explain the fact that the same referent is designated by quite different languages. Nguyen Mạnh Hùng, M.A. -

Lé Quốc Hạnh,Lexicol

HUFS - English Department f

We do know by now - though with vague uncertainty - that there is nothing accidental about the vocabulary of the language; that each word is a small unit within a vast, efficient and perfectly balanced system. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE WORD The list of unknown could be extended, but it is probably high time to look at the brighter side and register some of the things we do know about the nature of the word. First, we do know that the word is a unit of speech which, as such, serves the purposes of human communication. Thus, the word can be defined as a unit of communication. Secondly, the word can be perceived as the total of the sounds which comprise it. Third, the word, viewed structurally, possesses several characteristics. MAJOR PECULIARITIES OF THE WORD The modern approach to word studies is based on distinguishing between the external and the internal structures of the word.

By external structure of the word we mean its morphological structure. For example, in the wordpost-impressioniststhe following morphemes distinguished: the prefixes post-, -,the root pr im suffixes -ion, -ist , and the grammatical suffix of plurality All these morphemes constitute the external structure of the word post-impressionists. The external structure of words, and also typical word-formation patterns, are studied in the session on word-building. The internal structure of the word, or its meaning, is nowadays commonly referred to as the word's semantic structure. This is certainly the word's main aspect. Words can serve the purposes of human communication solely due to their meanings, and it is most 2

Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A. - Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Lexicology

2003

HUFS

-English Department

unfortunate when this fact is ignored by some contemporary scholars who, in their obsession with the fetish of structure tend to condemn as irrelevant anything that eludes mathematical analysis. And this is exactly what meaning, with its subtle variation and shifts, is apt to do. The area of lexicology specialising in the semantic studies of the word is called semantics. Another structural aspect o f the word is its unity. The word possesses both external (or formal) unity and semantic unity. Formal unity of the word is sometimes inaccurately interpreted as indivisibility. The example of post-impressionists has already shown that the word is not, strictly speaking, indivisible. Yet, its component morphemes are permanently linked together in opposition to word-groups, both free and with fixed contexts, whose components possess a certain structural freedom, e.g. bright light, to take for granted. A further structural feature of the word is its susceptibility to grammatical employment. In speech most words can be used in different grammatical forms in which their interrelations are realised. So far we have only underlined the word's major peculiarities, but this suffices to convey the general idea of the difficulties and questions faced by the scholar attempting to give a detailed definition of the word. The difficulty does not merely consist in the considerable number of aspects that are to be taken into account, but, also, in the essential unanswered questions of word theory which concern the nature of its meaning. All that we have said about the word can be summed up as follows. The word is a speech unit used for the purposes o f human communication, materially representing a group of sounds, possessing a meaning, susceptible to grammatical employment and characterised by formal and semantic unity.

Nguyễn Mạnh

Hùng,M .Á.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.

HUFS - English Department

THE

M AIN LEXICOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

Two of these have already been underlined.

The problem o f word-buildingis associated with prevailing morpholo word-structure and with processes of making new words. Semantics is the study of meaning. Modern approaches to this problem are characterized by two different levels of study: • syntagmaticand • paradigmatic. On the syntagmatic level, the semantic structure of the word is analysed in its linear relationships with the neighbouring words in connected speech. On the paradigmatic level, the word is studied in its relationships with other words in the vocabulary system. Phraseology is the branch of lexicology specializing in word-groups which are characterized by stability of structure and transferred meaning, e.g. take the bullby thehorns, to see red, birds etc. One further important objective of lexicological studies is the study o f the vocabulary of a language as a system.

The vocabulary can be studied synchroialht at is, at a given sta development, or diachronically, that is, in the context of the process threw which it grew, developed and acquired its modem form.

4

Nguyen Mạnh Hùng, M A.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M A

HUFS - English Department

UNIT 2

ETYMOLOGY OF ENGLISH WORDS HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Are alt English words really English? As a matter of fact, they are - if we regard them in the light of present-day English. If, however, their origins are looked into, the picture may seem somewhat bewildering. A person who does not know English but knows French (Italian, Latin, Spanish) is certain to recognize a great number of familiar - looking words when skipping through an English book. English belongs to theIndo-European family of languages. To family relationship of these languages, here are the words for mother and brother. English German Gaelic Latin Greek Okl Church Slavonic Sanskrit Indo-European

mother mutter mathair mater meter mati mâtr mater

brother bruder braithair frater phratẽr bratru bhrãtr bhrãter

It is true that English vocabulary, which is one of the most extensive amongst the world’s languages contains an immense number of words of foreign origin. Nguyen Mạnh Hùng,

M.A.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Lex

HUFS - English Department

In order to have a better understanding of the problem, it will be necessary to go through a brief survey of certain historical facts, relating to different epochs. 1. The first century B. C. Most of the territory now known to us as Europe is occupied by the Roman Empire. Among the inhabitants of the continent are Germanic tribes, “barbarians” as the arrogant Romans call them. Theirs is really a rather primitive stage of development, especially if compared with the high civilization and refinement of Rome. They are primitive cattle-breeders and know almost nothing about land cultivation. Their tribal languages contain only Indo-European and Germanic elements. Now comes an event which brings an important change. After a number of wars between the Germanic tribes and the Romans these two opposing peoples come into peaceful contact. Trade is carried on, and the Germanic people gain knowledge of new and useful things.

The first among them are new things to eat. It is from the Romans that they learn how to make butterand cheese and, as there are naturally n these foodstuffs in their tribal languages, they are to use the Latin words to name them (Lat. butyrum , .caseu) It is also to the Romans that tribes owe the knowledge of some new fruits and vegetables of which they had no ideas before, and the Latin names of many fruits and vegetables enter their vocabularies reflecting their new knowledge: cherry (Lat.

cerasum),pear(Lat.

plum (Lat. primus)

Some more examples of Latin borrowings of this period are: cup (Lat.,

cupa),kitchen (Lat., coquina), (Lat.,

What was significant here was that all these Latin words were destined to become the earliest group of borrowings in the future English language which was - much later - built on the basis of the Germanic tribal languages.

6

Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

-Lé Quốc Hạnh, M A

HUFS - English Department

2. The fifth century, A. D. Several of the Germanic tribes migrated across the sea now known as the English Channel to the British Isles. There they were confronted by the Celts, the original inhabitants of the Isles. The Celts desperately defended their land against the invaders, but they were no match for the military-minded Teutons and gradually yielded most of their territory. They retreated to the North and South-West. Through their numerous contacts with the defeated Celts, the conquerors got to know and assimilated a number of Celtic words (Mod. E. bald, down, glen, druid, bard, cradle, etc) Especially numerous among the Celtic borrowings were place names, names of rivers, hills, etc. The Germanic tribes occupied the land, but the names of many parts and features of their territory remained Celtic. For instance, the names of the rivers Avon, Exe, Esk, Usk, Ux originate from Celtic words meaning river and water. Some Latin words entered the Anglo-Saxon languages through Celtic, among them such widely-used words as street (Lat., via) and wall (Lat., vallum). 3. The seventh century, A. D. This century was significant for

theChristianization

Latin was the official language of the Christian church, and consequently the spread of Christianity was accompanied by a new period of Latin borrowings. These no longer came from spoken Latin as they did eight centuries earlier, but from church Latin. Also, these new Latin borrowings were very different in meaning from the earlier ones. They mostly indicated persons, objects and ideas associated with church and religious rituals. Additionally, in a class of their own were educational terms. It was quite natural that these were also Latin borrowings, for the first schools in England were church schools, and the first teachers, priests and monks.

Nguyễn Mạnh Hừng, M.A.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Lex

HUFS

-English Department

4. From the end of the 8lh century to the middle o f the 11th century. England underwent several Scandinavian invasions which inevitably left their trace on English vocabulary. Some of words of this group are easily recognizable as Scandinavian borrowings by the initial sk- combination. E.g. skate, sky. Certain English words changed their meanings under the influence of Scandinavian words of the same root. So, O.E. bread which meant piece acquired its modern meaning by association with the Scandinavian 5. 1066. With the famous Battle of Hastings, when the English were defeated by the Normans under William the Conqueror, we come to the eventful epoch of the Norman Conquest. The epoch can well be called eventful not only in national, social, political and human terms, but also in linguistic terms. French words from the Norman dialect penetrated every aspect of social life. Here is a very brief list of examples of Norman French borrowings: Administrative words: Legal terms: Military terms: Educational terms:

government, council, power, state. court, crime, prison, judge. war, soldier, battle, officer. pupil, pen, pencil, lesson, library.

Everyday life was not unaffected by the powerful influence of French words. Numerous terms of everyday life were also borrowed from French in this period; e.g. plate, saucer, autumn, uncle, river, etc. 6. The Renaissance Period. In England, as in all European countries, this period was marked by significant developments in science, art and culture and, also, by a revival of interest in the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome and their languages. Hence, there occurred a considerable number of Latin and Greek borrowings. 8

Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

HUFS - English Department

They were mostly abstract words: e.g.:

filial, moderate, intelligent, elect

There were numerous scientific and artistic terms: e.g.

datum, status, phenomenon, music

The same is true of Greek Renaissance borrowings: e.g.

cycle, ethics, esthete

The Renaissance was a period of extensive cultural contacts between the major European states. Therefore, it was only natural that new words also entered the English vocabulary from other European languages. The most significant once more were French borrowings. This time, they came from the Parisian dialect of French and are known as Parisian borrowings. These words of French origin sound and “look” very different from their Norman predecessors. e.g.

police, machine, ballet, matinée

Italian also contributed a considerable number of words to English: e.g.

opera, alarm, colonel

There are certain structural features which enable us to identify some words as borrowings and even to determine the source language. We have already established that the initial sk usually indicates Scandinavian origin. You can also recognize words of Latin and French origin by certain suffixes, prefixes or endings. The historical survey above is far from complete. Its aim is just to give a very general idea of the ways in which English vocabulary developed and of the major events through which it acquired its vast modern resources.

Nguyễn Mạnh Hung, M.A.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Le

HUFS - English Department

The Etymological Structure of English Vocabulary The native element I. Indo-European element

I.

II. Germanic element

II.

III. English Proper element (not earlier than 5th c. A.D)

III. IV.

The borrowed element C eltic( 5 th - 6 th c. A.D) Latin 1st group: 1st c. B.C 2nd Group: 7th c. A.D 3rd group: the Renaissance period

Scandinavian (8th - 11th c. A.D) French 1. Norman borrowings: 11th-13th c. A.D 2. Parisian borrowings (Renaissance) V. Greek (Renaissance) VI. Italian (Renaissance and later) VII. Spanish (Renaissance and later) VIII. German. IX. Indian X. Russian And some other groups

It should be pointed out that not only does the second column contain more groups, but it also implies a greater quantity of words. This anomaly is explained by the country’s eventful history and by its many international contacts. On a straight vocabulary count, considering the high percentage of borrowed words, one would have to classify English as a language of international origin or, at least, a Romance one (as French and Latin words obviously prevail). But here another factor comes into play, the relative frequency of occurrence of words, and it is under this heading that the native AngloSaxon heritage comes into its own. The native element in English comprises a large number of high-frequency words like the articles, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, auxiliaries and, also, words denoting everyday objects and ideas. 10

Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A. -Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Lexicology -2003

HUFS - English Department

Furthermore, the grammatical structure is essentially Germanic having remained unaffected by foreign influence. It is probably of some interest to mention that at various times purists have tried to purge the English language of foreign words, replacing them with Anglo-Saxon ones. Now let us turn to the first column of the table representing the native element, the original stock of the English vocabulary. The column consists of three groups, only the third being dated: the words of this group appeared in the English vocabulary in the 5th century or later, that is, after the Germanic tribes migrated to the British Isles. As to the Indo-European and Germanic groups, they are so old that they can not be dated. It was mentioned in the historical survey opening this unit that the tribal languages of the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes, by the time of their migration, contained only words of Indo-European group. The following groups can he

ident

1. Family relations: father, mother, brother. 2. Parts of the human body.' foot, nose, lip. 3 . Animals: cow, swine, goose. 4. Plants: tree,birch, corn. 5. Times of day: day,night. 6. Heavenly bodies: sun,moon, star. 7. Numerous adjectives: red, new, glad. 8. The numerals from one to a hundred. 9. Pronouns - personal, demonstrative. 10. Numerous verbs : be, sit, eat. The Germanic element represents words of roots common to all or most Germanic languages. Some of the main groups of Germanic words are the same as in the Indo-European element. 7. 2. 3.

Parts of the human body: head, hand, arm. Animals: fox,calf, bear. Plants: oak, fir, grass.

Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Le

HUFS - English Department

4 . Natural phenomena: rain, frost 5. Seasons of the year: winter, spring, summer 6 . Landscape features: sea, land 7. Human dwellings and furniture: house, room, bench 8. Sea-going vessels: boat, ship 9 . Adjectives: green, blue, grey, white 10. Verbs: see, hear, speak, tell, say It has been mentioned that the English proper element is, in certain respects, opposed to the first two groups. Not only can it be approximately dated, but these words have another distinctive feature: they are specifically English having no cognates in other languages whereas for Indo-European and Germanic words such cognates can always be found. CHANGES BORROWED WORDS GO THROUGH Do borrowed words change or do they remain the same? The eminent scholar Mario Pei put the same question in a more colourful way: " Do words when they migrate from one language into another behave as people do under similar circumstances? Do they remain alien in appearance, or do they take out citizenship papers ?”. Most of them take the second way, that is, they adjust themselves to their new environment and get adapted to the norms of the recipient language. They undergo certain changes which gradually erase their foreign features, and finally, they are assimilated. Borrowed words are adjusted in the three main areas o f the new language system: the phonetic, the grammatical and the semantic. Phonetic adaptation The lasting nature of phonetic adaptation is best shown by comparing Norman French borrowings to later ones. The Norman borrowings have for a long time been fully adapted to the phonetic system of the English 12 Nguyen Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

HUES

-English Department

language. Some of the later (Parisian) borrowings, even the ones borrowed as early as the 15th c., still sound surprisingly French. Grammatical adaptation Grammatical adaptation consists, in a complete change of the former paradigm of the borrowed word. If it is a noun, it is certain to adapt, sooner or later, a new system of declension, if it is a verb, it will be conjugated according to the rules of the recipient language. Yet. this is also a lasting process. Semantic adaptation Semantic adaptation means adjustment to the system of meanings of the vocabulary. It has been mentioned that borrowings is generally caused either by the necessity to fill a gap in the vocabulary or by a chance to add a synonym conveying an old notion in a new way. Sometimes a word may be borrowed "blindly", so to speak, for no obvious reason, to find that it is not wanted because there is no gap in the vocabulary nor in the group of synonyms which it could conveniently fill. Quite a number of such "accidental" borrowings are very soon rejected by the vocabulary and forgotten. The adjective nice was a French borrowing meaning at first. The English change of meaning seems to have arisen with the use of the word in expressions like a nice distinction, meaning first "a silly, hair-splitting distnco", then a precise one, ultimately an attractive one. But the original necessity for change was caused once more by the fact that the meaning of "foolish" was not wanted in the vocabulary and therefore nice was obliged to look for a gap in another semantic field. INTERNATIONAL WORDS It is often the case that a word is borrowed by several languages, and not just by one. Such words usually convey notions which are significant in the field of communication. Nguyen Mạnh Hùng, M A.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Le

HUFS

-English Department

Many of them are of Latin and Greek origin. Most names of sciences are international, e.g. philosophy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, lexicology. There are also numerous terms of art in this group: e.g. music, theatre, drama, tragedy, comedy, artist, It is quite natural that political terms frequently occur in the international words: e.g. atomic, antibiotic, radio, television, sputnik. The English language also contributed a considerable number of international words to world languages. Among them the sports terms occupy a prominent position: .football,volley-ball, hockey, cricket, golf, ect.

e.g

Fruits and foodstuffs imported from exotic countries often transport their names too and, being simultaneously imported to many countries, become international: •V

•’

, * ; l t i r

‘ ■

l f i t

J'

7

\

:

•

••

f

e.g. coffee, cocoa, chocolate, avocado, grapefruit. ETYMOLOGICAL DOUBLETS The words shirt and

skirtetymologically descend from the sam

Shirt is a native word, and skirt (as the initial sk suggests) is a Scandinavian borrowing. Their phonemic shape is different, and yet there is a certain resemblance which reflects their common origin. Their meanings are also different but easily associated: they both denote articles o f clothing. Such words as these two originating from the same etymological source, but differing in phonemic shape and in meaning are called etymological doublets. 14 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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-English Department

They may enter the vocabulary by different routes. Some of these pairs, like shirt and skirt, consist of a native word and a borrowed word: shrew, n.(E) -screw, n.(Sc). Others are represented by two borrowings from the same language twice, but in different periods: corpse (Norm. Fr) travel(Norm. Fr) - travail (Par. Fr.), cavalry (Norm. Fr.) - chivalry (Par. Fr.)

corps(Par. F

Etymological triplets (i.e. groups of three words of common root) occur rarer, but here are at least two examples:

hospital (Lat.) - hostel (Norm. Fr.) - hotel (Par. Fr.), to capture (Lat.) tocatch (Norm. Fr.) - to chase (P A doublet may also consist of a shortened word and the one from which it was derived: history -story fantasy- fancy courtesy TRAN SLA TION-LOANS

The term loan-word is equivalent to borrowing. By translation-loan we indicate borrowings o f a special kind. They are not taken into the vocabulary of another language more or less the same phonemic in which they have been functioning intheir o process o f translation. ft is quite obvious that it is only compound words (i.e. words of two or more stems) which can be subjected to such an operation, each stem being translated separately: masterpiece (from Germ. Meisterstück), wonder child (from Germ. Wunderkind), first dancer (from Ital. Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A. - Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

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During the 2nd World War the German word Blitzkrieg was also borrowed into English in two different forms: the translation-loan lighting-war and the direct borrowings blitzkrieg and blitz. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ETYMOLOGICAL AND STYLISTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF WORDS Is it possible to establish regular associations between any of the groups of etymological classification and the stylistic classification of English vocabulary? The answer must be in the affirmative. It is quite natural to expect to find a considerable number of native words in the basic vocabulary, if we remember that the latter comprises words denoting essential object and phenomena. Yet, one should keep in mind that among basic vocabulary words there are also rather numerous Latin and French borrowings. In general, we should not be misled into thinking that all short common words are native, and that only three- and four-syllable words come from foreign sources. Words like very, air, hour, cry, cat, pay, box, face, poor, dress are of foreign origin despite their native appearance and common use. So it would be correct to state that, though native words prevail in the basic vocabulary, this stratum also comprises a considerable number of old borrowings which have become so fully adapted to the English language system that they are practically indistinguishable from the native stock. The centre of gravity of borrowed words in the stylistic classification is represented by two groups: learned words and terminology. In these strata the foreign element dominates the native. It also seems that the whole opposition of "formal versus informal" is based on the deeper underlying opposition of "borrowed versus native", as the informal strata, especially slang and dialect, abound in native words even though it is possible to quote numerous exceptions. Comparing the expressive and stylistic value of the French and the English words in such synonymic pairs as to begin - to commence, to wish - to desire, happiness - felicity, O. Jespersen'remarks: "The French word is 16 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M A.

-Lê

HUFS - English Department

usually more formal, more refined, and has a less strong hold on the emotional side of life". The truth of this observation becomes even more obvious if we regard certain pairs within which a native word may be compared with its Latin synonym: motherly daughterly -

maternal,

fatherly fila,childish

-

infantile, etc.

Motherly loveseems much warmer than - which sounds dutiful but cold. The word childishis associated with all the wonder and vivid poetry of earliest human age whereas infantile is quite dry. You may speak about childish games and childish charm, but about diseases, whereas infantile mind implies criticism.

It is interesting to note that a similar pair of words solar can not even be regarded as synonyms though semantically they both pertain to the sun. Yet, if a fine day can be described as sunny, it certainly can not be characterized by the word solar which is used in highly formal terminological senses (e.g. solar energy). The same is true about handy manual,toothy (e.g. a toothy grin) de(term a kind of person) - nasal (e.g. nasal sounds, voice). f T j 7. _ ' “ 9 ^ ! ...............7 ............................................. 7 .....................

ng, M.A.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A -~~ỄexrcơhgyrẸ2ứũỉ 17

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UNIT 3 ị

i

.

..\

\

....

.

* i;> M J

U

Compare: reddened - reddish starry flowery 28 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M A.

-starred -flowered -flowering. -Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

HUFS - English Department

The semantic difference between the members of these groups is very obvious: the meanings of the suffixes are so distinct that they colour the whole words. Flowery is applied to speech or a style. Flowered means decorated with a pattern of flowers. Flowering is blossoming. Reddened implies the result of an action or process. Reddish is not exactly red, but tinged with red. Starry means "resembling stars". Starred is "covered or decorated with stars".

CONVERSION When in a book-review a book is referred to as a splendid read, is read to be regarded as a verb or a noun? What part of speech called Jessie.

isroom in the sentence: I was to room

an

This type of questions naturally arise when one deals with words produced by conversion, one of the most productive ways of modern English word­ building. Conversion is sometimes referred to as an affixless way word-building or even affixless derivation. Saying that, however, is saying very little because there are other types of word-building in which new words are also formed without affixes.

Conversion consists inmaking a new word from some existing new word has a meaning which differs from that of the original one though it can more or less be easily associated with it. It has also a new paradigm peculiar to its new category as a part of speech. Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.Á. -

Lê Quốc Hạnh, MLexicolog

HUFS - English Department

nurse, n.

nurse, v.

Substantive paradigm

Verbal paradigm

- s, plural.

- s, 3rd

-'s, possessive case, singular.

- ed, pas/ indefinite, past participle.

- s', possessive case, plural.

- ing , presentparticiple, gerund.

personsingular.

The question of conversion has, for a long time, been a controversial one in several aspects. The very essence of this process has been treated by a number of scholars (e.g. H. Sweet), not as a word-building act, but as a mere functional change. Conversion is not only a highly productive but also a particularly English way of word - building. Its immense productivity is considerably encouraged by certain features of the English language in its modern stage of development. The analytical structure of Modern English greatly facilitates processes of making words of one category of parts of speech from words of another. So does the simplicity of paradigms of English parts of speech. A great number of one-syllable words are another naturally more mobile and flexible than polysyllables. Conversion is a convenient and "easy" way of enriching the vocabulary with new words. It is certainly an advantage to have two (or more) words where there was one, all of them fixed on the same structural and semantic base. The high productivity of conversion finds its reflection in speech where numerous occasional cases of conversion can be found, which are not registered by dictionaries and which occur momentarily, through the immediate need of the situation. The very first example, which opens the section on conversion in this unit (the book is a splendid read) though taken from a book-review, is a nonceword, which may be used by reviewers now and then or in informal verbal 30 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.Á.

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communication, but has not yet found its way into the university acknowledged English vocabulary. One should guard against thinking that every case of noun and verb (verb and adjective, adjective and noun, etc.) with the same morphemic shape results from conversion. There are numerous pairs of words (e.g. love, n.- to love, v.; work, n.- to work, v. etc.) which did not occur due to conversion but coincided as a result of certain historical processes (dropping of endings, simplification of stems) when before that they had different forms (e.g. O.E. lufu, n. lufian,v.). On the other hand, it is quite true that the first cases of conversion (which were registered in the 14th c.) imitated such pairs of words as love, n. - to love, v. for they were numerous in the vocabulary and were subconsciously accepted by native speakers as one of the typical language patterns. It was mentioned at the beginning of this section that a word made by conversion has a different meaning from that of the word from which it was made though the two meanings can be associated. There are certain regularities in these associations which can be roughly classified. For instance, in the group of verbs made from nouns some of the regular semantic associations are as indicated in the following list: 1. The noun is the name of a tool or implement, the verb denotes an action performed by the tool: tohammer, to nail, to pin, 2. The noun is the name of an animal, the verb denotes an action or aspect of behaviour considered typical of this animal: to dog, to wolf, to monkey. 3. The name of a part of the human body - an action performed by it: to hand, to leg (si), to eye,. Nguyễn Mạnh Hừng,

M.A.- Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Lexicology

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4. The name of a profession or occupation - an activity typical of it: to nurse, to cook,

tomaid.

5.The name of a place - the process of occupying the place or of putting sth/sb in it: toroom,

tohouse,

In actual fact, these associations are not only complex but sometimes perplexing. COMPOSITION This type of word-building, in which new words are produced by combining two or more stems, is one of the three most productive types in Modern English; the other two are conversion and affixation. Compounds, though certainly fewer in quantity than derived or root words, still represent one of the most typical and specific features of English wordstructure. There are at least three aspects of composition that present special interest. Structural aspect Compounds are not homogeneous in structure. Traditionally three types are distinguished: neutral, morphological and syntactic. Neutral compounds In neutral compounds the process of compounding is realized without any linking elements, by a mere juxtaposition of two stems.

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There are three subtypes of neutral compounds depending on the structure of the constituent stems. • simple neutral compounds e.g.

sunflower, bedroom, tallboy

The examples above represent the subtype which may be described as simple neutral compounds :they consist of example affixl •

derivational compounds

Compounds which derirational compounds. e.g.

haveaffixes

absent-mindedness, blue-eyed,

The productivity of this type is confirmed by a considerable number of comparatively recent formations. Numerous nonce-words are coined on this pattern which is another proof of its high productivity: e.g. attention getter in the following fragment: "Dad", I began .. ." I'm going to lose my job". That should be an attention ,getr I figured. (From A Five-Colour Buick by P. Anderson Wood) •

contracted compounds

The third subtype of neutral compounds is called contracted compounds. These words have a shortened (contracted) stem in their structure : e.g.

TV-set, V-day, H-bag

Morphological compounds Morphological compounds are few in number. This type is non-productive, e.g.

Anglo-Saxon, handiwork, spokesman

Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng,

M.A.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Lexic

HUFS

-English Department

Syntactic compounds In syntactic compounds we once more find a feature of specifically English word-structure. These words are formed from segments of speech, preserving in their structure numerous traces of syntagmatic relation typical of speech as in the nouns: lily-of-the-valley,merry-go-round,

e.g.

up-to-date

In this group of compounds, once more, we find a great number of neologisms, and whodunit is one of them. Consider, also, the following fragments which make rich use of modern city traffic terms. "... you go down to the Department of Motor Vehicles tomorrow and take your behind-the-wheeltest.” (I bid) The structure of most compounds is transparent, as it were, and clearly betrays the origin of these words from word-combinations. The fragments below illustrate admirably the very process of coining noncewords after the productive patterns of composition.

"Is all this really true?"he asked. "Or are you pulling my “ Charlielooked slowly around at each of the four old faces... They were quite serious. There was no sign of joking or leg-pulling any them." (From Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by R. Dah) Semantic aspect Another focus of interest is the semantic aspect of compound words, that is, the question of correlations of the separate meanings of the constituent parts and the actual meaning of the compound. To try and answer this question, let us consider the following groups of examples: (1) Classroom, bedroom, working-man, sleeping-car 34 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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This group seems to represent compounds whose meanings can really be described as the sum of their constituent meanings. Yet, the shift of meaning becomes pronounced in the second group of examples: (2) Blackboard, blackbird, football. Pickpocket, chatterbox In these compounds one of the components (or both) has changed its meaning: a blackboard is neither a board nor necessarily black is not a ball but a game. It is clear that in all these compounds the meaning of the whole word can not be defined as the sum of the constituent meanings. Yet, despite a certain readjustment in the semantic structure of the word, the meanings of the constituents of the compounds of this second group are still transparent: you can see through them the meaning of the whole complex. In the third group of compounds the process of deducing the meaning of the whole from those of the constituents is impossible. The key to meaning seems to have irretrievably lost: e.g.

ladybird, tallboy, bluestocking, man-of-war, merry-go-round, horse-marine

The compounds whose meanings do not correspond to the separate meanings of their constituent parts, (2nd and 3rd group listed above) are called idiomatic compounds, in contrast to the first group known as nonidiomatic compounds. The suggested subdivision into three groups is based on the degree of semantic cohesion of the constituent parts, the third group representing the extreme case of cohesion where the constituent meanings blend to produce an entirely new meaning. The following joke vividly shows what happens if an idiomatic compound is misunderstood as non-idiomatic.

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2003 35

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P a t i e n t T : hey tell me, doctor, you are a perfect lady-killer. Doctor: Oh, no, no! I assure you, my dear madam. I make no distinction between the sexes. Aspect of composition A further theoretical aspect o f composition is the criteria for distinguishing between a compound and a word-combination. This question has a direct bearing on the specific feature of the structure of most English compounds which has already been mentioned: with the exception of the rare morphological type, they originate directly from wordcombinations and are often homonymous to them: cf. a tall boy

-a tallboy.

In this case, the. graphic criterion of distinguishing between a word and a word group seems to be sufficiently convincing, yet in many cases it cannot wholly relied on. The spelling of many compounds, tallboy among them can be varied even within the same book. In the case of tallboy the semantic criterion seems more reliable, for the striking difference in the meanings of the word and the word-group certainly points to the highest degree of semantic cohesion in the word: tallboy does not even denote a person, but a piece of furniture, a chest of drawers supported by a low stand. ’’i

T-;

' - i s ]

:'

:

1

H

• '

•

J

‘ ' ■■

-

■

i

■**

r ' f

* ■

The phonetic criterion for compounds may be treated as that of a single stress. The criterion is convincingly applicable to many compound nouns, yet does not work with compound adjectives: Cf: But:

‘ ‘blue- ‘eyed

tallboy,‘slowcoach, ‘ill-mannered

Morphological and syntactic criteria can also be applied to compound words in order to distinguish them from word-groups.

36 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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In the word-group a tallboy each of the constituents is indepen to grammatical changes peculiar to its own category as a part of speech: They were the tallest boys in their class. Between the constituent parts of the word-group other words can be inserted: Heis a

tallhandsome boy.

The compound tallboy - and, in actual fact, any other compound - is not subject to such changes. All this leads us to the conclusion that, in most cases, such criteria as graphic phonetic. semantic, morphological and syntactic, can convincingly classify a lexical unit as either a compound word or a word group. Semi-affixes Consider the following examples. "The Great Glass Elevator is shockproof waterproof, bombproof, bulletproof, and Knidproof'...” (From Charlie and the Great glass Elevator by R. Dahl) Lady Malvern tried to free him with a look, but you can’t do that sort of thing to Jeeves. He is look-proof. (From Carry on, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse) All these words, with -proof for the second component, stand between compounds and derived words in their characteristics. On the one hand, the second component seems to bear all the features of a stem and preserves certain semantic associations with the free form proof. Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.Á.

-

LêQuốc Hạnh, M.Â

L

HUFS

-English Department

On the other hand, the meaning of -proofall the this pattern has become so generalized that it is certainly approaching that of a suffix. The high productivity of the pattern is proved, once more, by the possibility of coining nonce-words after this pattern: look-proof and the second produced from the non-existent stem The component -proof, standing thus between a stem and an affix, is regarded by some scholars as a semi-affix. Other examples of semi-affixes are anni a vast group of English nouns denoting people: -m sportsman, gentleman, nobleman, salesman, seaman. -landni Ireland, fatherland, wonderland -like in ladylike, businesslike, flowerlike, -worthy in seawothy,

praisew

These components, standing between a stem and an affix, are regarded by some scholars as semi-affixes. SHORTENING This comparatively new way of word-building has achieved a high degree of productivity nowadays, especially in American English. Shortenings (or contracted / curtailed words) are produced in three main ways. • • • •

The first - clipping - is to make a new word from a syllable (rarer, two) of the original word. The latter may lose its beginning as in phone made from telephone, car ( clipping) its ending as in lab from laboratory ( clipping) both the beginning and ending as in flu from influenza {Initial-finalclipping)

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• •

the medial part as in maths from mathematics ( clipping) The second way of shortening - abbreviation - is to make a new word from the initial letters of a group: UNO from the United Nations BBC from the British Broadcasting Corporation. UNESCO from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

This type is also called initial shortenings. They are found not only among formal words, such as the ones above, but also among colloquialisms and slang. So,

g.fsi a shortened word made from the compound girl-friend.

The word, though, seem to be somewhat ambiguous as the following conversation between two undergraduates clearly shows: - Who's the letter from ? - My g f . - Didn't know you had girl-friends. A nice girl ? - Idiot! It's from my grandfather! •

The third - blending - is a special type of shortening in which parts of words merge into one to form a new word. binary channel camera television

+ + + +

digit tunnel recorder evangelist

=

bit

- channel = camcorder = televangelist

It is commonly believed that the preference for shortenings can be explained by their brevity and is due to the ever-increasing tempo of modern life. Those types of shortenings are characteristic of informal speech in general and of uncultivated speech particularly.

Nguyen Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A - Lexi

HUFS

-English Department

Here are some more examples of informal shortenings. gent (from gentleman), specs (from spectacles), circs (from circumstances, e.g. under the circs). Undergraduates' informal speech abounds in words of the type: exam (examination) vac(vacation) prof (professor) co-ed (a girl student at a coeducational school or college). MINOR TYPES OF MODERN WORD-BUILDING. •

ONOMATOPOEIA (

echoism)

Words coined by this interesting type of word-building are made by imitating different kinds of sounds that may be produced by animals, insects, human beings and inanimate objects. It is of some interest that sounds produced by the same kind of animal are frequently represented by quite different sound groups in different languages. For instance, English dogs bark or howl and the English cock cries cock-a-doodle-doo. Some names of animals and especially of birds and insects are also produced by sound-imitation: for example, crow, cuckoo, cricket, humming-bird. The following desperate letter contains a large number of sound-immitation words reproducing sounds made by modem machinery: The Baltimore & Ohio R.R Co., Pittsburg, Pa. 40 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

-Lẻ Quốc Hạnh, M.A

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-English Department

Gentlemen: Why is it that your switch engine has to ding and fizz and pit and pant and grate and grind and puff and bump and chug and hoot and toot and whistle and wheel and howl and clang and growl and thump and clash and boom and jolt and screech and snarl and snort and slam and throb and soar and rattle and hiss and yell and smoke and shriek all night long when I come home from a hard day at the boiler works and have to keep the dog quiet and the baby quiet so my wife can quack at me for snoring in my sleep? Yours (From Language and Humour by G.G. Pocheptsov) There is a hypothesis that sound-imitation as a way of word-formation should be viewed as something much wider than just the production of words by the imitation of purely acoustic phenomena. Some scholars suggest that words may imitate through their sound form certain unacoustic features and qualities of inanimate objects, actions and processes or that the meaning of the word can be regarded as the immediate relation of the sound group to the object. Such verbs as to glance, to glide, to slide are supposed to convey by their very sound the nature of the smooth, easy movement over a slippery surface. The sound form of the words shimmer, glimmer, glitter seems to reproduce the wavering, tremulous nature of the faint light. The sound of verbs to rush, todash, to flash may brevity, swiftness and enrgetic nature of their corresponding actions. Some scholars have given serious consideration to this theory. However, it has not yet been properly developed. •

REDUPLICATION

In reduplication new words are made by doubling a stem, either without any phonetic changes as in bye-bye or with a variation of the root-vowel or consonant as in ping-pong, chit-chat.

Nguyen Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Lex

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-English Department

This type of word-building is greatly facilitated in Modern English by the vast number of monosyllables. Stylistically speaking, most words made by reduplication represent informal groups: colloquialisms and slang. e.g. walkie-talkie, riff-raff, chi-chi In a modern novel an angry father accuses his teenager son of doing nothing but dilly-dallying all over the town. Another example of a word made by reduplication may be found in the following quotation from The Importance of Being Earnest by O. Wilde: Lady Bracknell: I think it is high time that Mr. Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or to die. This shilly-shallying with the question is absurb. •

BACK-FORMATION (Reversion)

The earliest example of this type of word-building is the verb to beg that was made from the French borrowing beggar, to from burglar, to cobble from cobbler. In all these cases the verb was made from the noun by subtracting what was mistakenly associated with the English suffix -er. The pattern of the type to work - worker was firmly established in the subconscious of English-speaking people at the time when these formations appeared, and it was taken for granted that any noun denoting profession or occupation is certain to have a corresponding verb of the same root. So, in the case of the verb to beg, to burgle, to cobble the process was reversed: instead of a noun made from a verb by affixation, a verb was produced from a noun by subtraction. That is why this type of word­ building received the name of back-formation or reversion.

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UNIT 4

MEANING WHAT

IS"MEANING"?

The question by the title of this part is one of those questions which are easier to ask than answer. The linguistic science at present is not able to put forward a definition of meaning which is conclusive. However, there are certain facts of which we can be reasonably sure, and one of them is that the very function of the word as a unit of communication is made possible by its possessing a meaning. Therefore, among the word’s various characteristic, meaning is certainly the most important. Generally speaking, meaning can he more or less described as a component of the word through which a concept is communicated, in this way endowing the word with the ability of denoting real objects, qualities, actions and abstract notions. The complex and somewhat mysterious relationships between concept and word are traditionally represented by the following triangle.

,

Thought or Reference

Symbol

Referent

Nguyễn Manh Hùng, M .Á . - Lé Quốc Hạnh, M.A

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On the other hand, there is a hypothesis that concepts can only find their realization through words. It seems that thought is dormant till the word wakens it up. The mechanism by which concepts are converted into words and the reverse process by which a heard or a printed word is converted into a kind of mental picture are not yet understood or described. Isn't it fantastic that the mere vibrations of a speaker's vocal cords should be taken up by a listener's brain and converted into vivid pictures? If magic does exist in the world, then it is truly the magic of human speech: only we are so used to this miracle that we do not realize its almost supernatural qualities. The branch of linguistics which specializes in the study of meaning is called semantics (semasiology). As with many terms, the term " well, for the expressive aspect of one particular word in all its varied aspects and nuances.

semantics'is ambig of languagein gene

The meanings of all the utterances of a speech community are said by a leading linguist to include the total experience of that community, arts, science, practical occupations, amusements, personal and family life. The modern approach to semantics is based on the assumption that the inner form of the word presents a structure which is called the semantic structure of the word. Yet, before going deeper into this problem, it is necessary to make a brief survey of another semantic phenomenon which is closely connected with it. SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF THE WORD When analyzing the semantic structure of a polysemantic word, it is necessary to distinguish between two levels of analysis: 44 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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a.ofdifferent meaning h. of semantic components within each separate meaning For a monosemantic word the first level is naturally excluded.

On the firstlevel, the semantic structure of a word is treated as a system of meanings. For example, the semantic structure of the noun fire could be roughly presented by this scheme (only the most frequent meanings are given): Fire, n. I Flame III ị

IV ’

r

An instance of destructive burning

Burning material in a stove, fireplace, etc.

1'

The shootine of guns, etc.

V ị Strong feeling passion enthusiasm

The above scheme suggests that meaning I holds a kind of dominance over the other meanings conveying the concept in the most general way whereas meaning II-V are associated with special circumstances, aspects and instances of the same phenomenon. Yet,

it

isnot

inevery polysemantic word that such a centre can h

Some semantic' structures are arranged on a different principle. In the following list of meaning of the adjective dull one can hardly hope to find a generalized meaning covering and holding together the rest of the semantic structure.

Nguyền Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

-Lé Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Le

HUFS - English Department

a c lj.

Dull,

1. Uninteresting, monotonous, boring; 2. Slow in understanding, stupid; 3. Not clear or bright; 4. Not loud or distinct;

5. Not sharp; 6. Not active; 7. Seeing badly; 8. Hearing badly; Yet, one distinctly feels that there is something that all these seemingly miscellaneous meanings have in common, and that is implication of deficiency. The implication of insufficient quality, of something lacking, can be clearly distinguished in each separate meaning. Dull, adj. 1. Uniteresting

---------

►

deficient in interest or excitement.

2. Stupid

---------

►

deficient in intellect.

3. Not bright

---------

►

deficient in light or colour.

4. Not loud

---------

►

deficient in sound.

5. Not sharp

--------

►

deficient in sharpness.

6. Not active

--------

►

deficient in activity.

7. Seeing badly

---------

►

deficient in eyesight.

8. Hearing badly

--------

►

deficient in hearing.

46 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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The transformed scheme of the semantic structure of dull clearly shows that the centre holding together the complex semantic structure of this word is not one of the meanings but a certain component that can be easily singled out within each separate meaning. This brings us to the second level of analysis of the semantic structure of a word. The transformational operation with the meaning definitions of reveals something very significant: the semantic structure of the word is "divisible", as it were, not only at the level of different meanings but, also, at a deeper level. Each separate meaning seems to be subject to structural analysis in which it may be represented as sets of semantic components. In terms of componential analysis, one of the modern methods of semantic research, the meaning of a word is defined as a set of elements of meaning which are not part of the vocabulary of the language itself, but rather theoretical elements, postulated in order to describe the semantic relations between the lexical elements of a given language. The scheme of the semantic structure of dull shows that the semantic structure of a word is not a mere system of meanings, for each separate meaning is subject to further subdivision and possesses an inner structure of its own. Therefore, the semantic structure of a word should be investigated at both these levels: a) of different meanings; b) of semantic components within each separate meaning. For a monosemantic word (i.e a word with one meaning) the first level is naturally excluded. TYPES OF SEMANTIC COMPONENTS The leading semantic component in the semantic structure of a word is usually termed denotative component or denotation. The denotative component expresses the conceptual content of a word.

Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

-Lẻ Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Le

HUFS - English Department

■ -

#

í.

i

*

•

' '

•

«J '

*•

t

M

The following list presents denotative components of some English adjectives and verbs:

Denotative components

lonely, adj.

►

notorious, adj.

--------- >■

celebrated, adj.

--------- ►

to glare, v.

►

to glance, v.

--------- ►

to shiver, v.

--------- ►

to shudder,

V.

►

to tremble

It is quite obvious that the definitions given in the right column only partially and incompletely describe the meanings of their corresponding words. To give a more or less full picture of the meaning of a word, it is necessary to include in the scheme of analysis additional semantic components which are termed connotations or connotative components. Let us complete the semantic structures of the words given above introducing connotative components into the schemes of their semantic structures.

48 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùrig, M.A.

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Denotative components

Connotative components (Emotive connotation) (Evaluative connotation, negative) (Evaluative connotation, positive) ( 1) Connotation of duration 2) Emotive connotation (Connotation of duration) 1) Connotation of duration 2) Connotation of cause 1) Connotation of duration. 2) Connotation of cause 3) Emotive connotation

Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, MA.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Le

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The above examples show how by singling out denotative and conotative components one can get a sufficiently clear picture of what the word really means. The schemes presenting the semantic structures of shiver, shudder also show that a meaning can have two or more connotative components. The given examples do not exhaust all the types of connotations but present only a few: emotive, evaluative connotations, and also connotations of duration and of cause. (For a more detailed classification of connotative components of a meaning, see Unit 6). POLYSEMY The semantic structure of the word does not present an indissoluble unity, nor does it necessarily stand for one concept. It is generally known that most words convey several concepts and thus possess the corresponding number of meanings. Two somewhat naive but frequently asked questions may arise in connection with polysemy: 1. Is polysemy an anomaly

ora general ride

2. Ispolysemy an advantage or a disadvantage so far as the process communication is concerned? Let us deal with both these questions together. Polysemy is certainly not an anomaly. Most English words are polysemantic. It should be noted that the wealth of expressive resources of a language largely depends on the degree to which polysemy has developed in the language. Sometimes people who are not very well informed in linguistic matters claim that a language is lacking in words if the need arises for the same word to be applied to several different phenomena.

50 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, MA. - Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Lexicology

2003

Englis

HUFS - English Department

In actual fact, it is exactly the opposite: if each word is found to be capable of conveying, let us say, at least two notions instead of one, the expressive potential of the whole vocabulary increase twofold. On the other hand, it should be pointed out that the number of sound combinations that human speech organs can produce is limited. Therefore, at a certain stage of language development the production of new words by morphological means becomes limited, and polysemy becomes increasingly important in providing the means for enriching the vocabulary. The system of meanings of any polysemantic word develops gradually, mostly over the centuries, as more and more new meanings are either added to old ones, or oust some of them. So the complicated processes of polysemy development involve both the appearance of new meanings and the loss of old ones. Yet, the general tendency with English vocabulary at the modern stage of its history is to increase the total number of its meaning and in this way to provide for a quantitative and qualitative growth of the language’s expressive resources.

MEANING AND CONTEXT In the beginning of the paragraph entitled "Polysemy" we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of this linguistic phenomenon. One of the most important "drawbacks" of polysemantic words is that there is sometimes a chance of misunderstanding when a word is used in a certain meaning but accepted by listener or reader in another. It is only natural that such cases provide stuff of which jokes are made, such as the one that follows: Customer: I would like a book, please. Bookseller: Something light? Customer: That doesn't matter. I have my car with me. Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A. - Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Lexicology -2003 51

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In this conversation the customer is honestly misled by the polysemy of adjective lighttaking it in the literal sense whereas the bookseller uses the w ord in Us fig u r a tiv e m e a n in g "notserious: entertaining". G e n e r a lly sp e a k in g , tt is c o m m o n k n o w le d g e that c o n te x t is a p o w e r fu l

preventative against any misunderstanding of meanings.

For instance, the adjective dull,if used out of context, woul things to different people or nothing at all. It is only in combination with other words that it reveals its actual meaning: a dull play, a dull razor-blade, dull weather, etc. Sometimes, however, such a minimum context fails to reveal the meaning of the word, and it may be correctly interpreted only through what Professor N. Amosova termed a second-degree context, as in the following example: The man was large, but his wife was even fa tier. The word fatter here serves as a kind of indicator pointing that targe describes a stout man and not a big one. FOUNDATION FOR CURRENT RESEARCH IN SEMANTICS Current research in semantics is largely Based on the assumption that one of the more promising methods of investigating the semantic structure of a word is by studying the word's linear relationships w'ith other words in typical contexts, i.e. its combinability or F or in sta n c e , a stu d y o f ty p ic a l c o n te x ts o f the a d je c tiv e

in th e first

pattern w ill g iv e tis th e f o llo w in g sets:

bright c o l o u b) bright metal, c) bright student, d) bright face and some others. a)

52 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

r

,

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

L

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-English Department

These sets will lead us to singling out the meaning of the adjective related to each set of combinations. There is an interesting hypothesis that the semantics of words regularly used in common contexts are so intimately correlated that each of them casts, as it were, kind of permanent reflection on the meaning of its neighbour. If the verb to compose is frequently used with the object music, isn't it natural to expect that certain musical associations linger in the meaning of the verb to ?com pse All this lead us to a conclusion that context is a good and reliable key to the meaning of the word. Yet, even the joke given above show how misleading this key can prove in some cases. And here we faced with two dangers'. The first is that of sheer misunderstanding, when the speaker means one thing and the listener takes the word in its other meaning. The second danger has nothing to do with the process of communication but with research work in the field of semantics. A common error with the inexperienced research worker is to see the different meaning in every new set of combinations. Here is the puzzling question to illustrate what we mean: Cf.: an angry man, an angry letter. Is the adjective angry used in the same meaning in both these contexts or in two different meanings? Some people will say "two" and argue that, on the one hand, the combinability is different (man- name of person; letter - name of object) and, on the other hand, a letter cannot experience anger. True, it cannot; but it can very well convey the anger of a person who wrote it. As to the combinability, the main point is that a word can realize the same meaning in different sets of combinability.

Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Lex

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The task of distinguishing between the different meanings of a word and the different variations of combinability is actually a question of singling out the different denotations within the semantic structure of the word. Cf.: 1. a sad woman, 2. a sad voice 3. a sad story, 4. a sad scoundrel 5. a sad night

sadcan you identify in these context

How many meanings of

Obviously the first three contexts have the common denotation of sorrow whereas in the fourth and fifth contexts the denotations are different. So, in these five contexts we can identify three meanings of All this leads us to the conclusion that context is not the ultimate criterion for meaning and it should be used in combination with other criteria. Nowadays, different methods of componential analysis are widely used in semantic research. Yet, contextual analysis remains one of the investigative methods for determining the semantic structure of a word. .

HOW WORDS DEVELOP NEW MEANINGS There are two aspects to this problem, which can be generally described in the following way: a) Why should new meanings appear at all? What circumstances cause and stimulate their development? b) How does it happen? What is the nature of the very process of development of new meanings? •

.

■

• j s

Let us deal with each of these questions in turn.

54 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M A.

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CAUSES OF DEVELOPMENT OF NEW MEANINGS Two groups of causes are often dealt w • The first group of causes is traditionally termed historical or extra linguistic. Different kinds of changes in a nation's social life, in its culture, knowledge, technology, arts lead to gaps appearing in the vocabulary which beg to be filled. Newly created objects, new notions and phenomena must be named. We already know of two ways for providing new names for newly created notions: making new words (word-building) and borrowing foreign ones. One more way of filling such vocabulary gaps is by applying some old word to new object or notion. The word carriage had (and still has) the meaning "a vehicle drawn by horses" but, with the first appearance of railways in England, it received a new meaning, that of "a railway car". •

New meanings can also be developed due to linguistic factors (the second group of causes).

Linguistically speaking, the development of new meanings and also a complete change of meaning, may be caused through the influence of other words, mostly of synonyms. Let us consider the following examples:

The Old English verb steorfan meant "to perish". When the verb to die had been borrowed from the Scandinavian, these two synonyms, which were very close in their meaning, collided, and, as a result, to starve gradually changed into its present meaning: "todie" (or suffer The history of the noun deer is essentially the same. In old English (O.E. deor) it had a general meaning denoting any beast. In that meaning it collided with the borrowed word animal and changed its meaning to the modem one “ a certainkind of beast”.

Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Lex

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PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE OF MEANING The second question we must answer in this part is how new meanings develop. To find the answer to this question we must investigate the inner mechanism of this process, or at least its essential features. Let us examine the examples given above from a new angle, from within, so to speak. In actual fact, all cases of development or change of meaning are based on some association. In the history of the word carriage, the new travelling conveyance was also naturally associated in people's minds with the old one; horse-drawn vehicle > part of a railway train. Both these objects were related to the idea of travelling. The job o f both, the horse-drawn carriage and the railway carriage, is the same: to carry passengers on a journey. So the association was logically well-founded. The process of development of a new meaning (or a change of meaning) traditionally termed transference. Some scholars mistakenly use the term "transference of meaning" which is a serious mistake. It is very important to note that in any case of semantic change it is not the meaning but the word that is being transferred from one referent onto another (e.g. from a horse - drawn vehicle onto a railway car). The result of such transference is the appearance of a new meaning. Two types of transference are distinguishable depending on the two types of logical associations underlying the semantic process: •

Transference Based on Resemblance (similarity)

This type of transference is also referred to as linguistic metaphor. A meaning appears as a result o f associating two objects (phenomena, qualities, etc.) due to their outward similarity. Carriage is an example of this type of transference. 56 Nguyền Mạnh Hùng, M A.

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Other examples can be given in which transference is also based on the association of two physical objects: The noun eyefor instance, has for one of its meaning " the end of a needle", which also developed through transference based on resemblance.

The noun drop (mostly in the plural form) has, in addition to its main meaning “a sm all particle of water or othe shaped as drops of water and candy of the same shape. It is quite obvious that both these meanings are also based on resemblance. The noun bar from the original meaning barrier developed a figurative meaning realized in such contexts as social bars, colour bar. The meanings formed through this type of transference are frequently found in the informal strata of the vocabulary, especially in slang (see Unit 8). The slang meanings of words such as saucers (eyes), hoofs (feet) and very many others were all formed by transference based on resemblance. •

Transference Based on Contiguity

Another term for this type of transference is linguistic metonymy. The association is based upon subtle psychological links between different objects and phenomena, sometimes traced and identified with much difficulty. The two objects may be associated together because they often appear in common situations, and so the image of one is easily accompanied be the image of the other; or they may be associated on the principle of cause and effect, of common function, of common position, of some material and an object which is made of it, etc. Let us consider some cases of transference based on contiguity. You will notice that they are of different kinds. •

Name of a container for what is contained: One more pint, please. Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

-Lé Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Le

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• Geographical names for the products: china, tweed, cheviot Tweed ("a coarse wool cloth") got its name from the river Tweed. Cheviot (another kind of wool cloth) from the Cheviot hills in England. •

Proper names as common names: sandwich, volt, watt

•

Names of material for the product: mink, iron, taffeta

•

Names of a separate part for a whole thing or vice versa: They live under the same roof. Your car needs servicing

The Old English adjective glad meant " shining” (it was applied to the sun, to gold and precious stones, to shining armour, etc.). The later (and more modern) meaning "joyful" developed on the basis of the usual association of light with joy. The meaning of the noun hand realized in the context hand of the dock (watch) originates from the main meaning of this noun part o f human body. It developed due to the association of common function. GENERALIZATION (BROADENING) (NARROWING) OF MEANING

AND

SPECIALIZATION

Sometimes, the process of transference may result in a considerable change in range of meaning. For instance, the verb to arrive (French borrowing) began its life in English in the narrow meaning "to come to shore, to land". In Modern English it has greatly widened its combinability and developed the general meaning "to come": e.g. to arrive in a village, town,

58 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

at a hotel, hostel, etc.

-Lé Quốc Hạnh, M.A

L

HUFS - English Department

The meaning developed through transference based on contiguity, but the range of the second meaning is much broader. Another example of the broadening of meaning is pipe. Its earliest recorded meaning was a musical instrument. Nowadays it can denote any hollow oblong cylindrical body (e.g. water pipes). This meaning developed through transference based on the similarity of shape which finally led to a considerable broadening of the range of meaning. The word bird changed its meaning from the young bird to its modern meaning through transference based on contiguity (the association is obvious). The second meaning is broader and more general. Here are some more examples of narrowing of meaning: deer:

any beast

>

a certain kind of beast

meat:

any food

>

a certain food product

any young person of the male sex

>

servant of the male sex

boy:

It should be pointed out once more that in all these words the second meaning developed through transference based on contiguity, and that when we speak of them as examples of narrowing of meaning we simply imply that the range of the second meaning is more narrow than that of the original meaning. DEGENERATION ¡DEGRADATION AND ELEVATION OF MEANING These terms are open to question because they seem to imply that meaning can become "better" or "worse" which is neither logical nor plausible. However, as a matter-of-fact, scholars using these terms do not actually mean the degeneration or elevation of meaning itself, but of the referent onto which a word is transferred, so that the term is inaccurate. Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

-Lẻ Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Lex

HUFS - English Department

But let us try and see what really stands behind the examples of change of meaning which are traditionally given to illustrate degeneration and elevation of meaning. 1. "

Degeneration " o f meaning.

knave:

villain:

farm-servant, serf

>

swindler, scoundrel

>

base, vile person

These examples show that the second meaning, in contrast with the one from which it developed, denotes a person of bad repute or character. Semantically speaking, the second meaning developed a negative evaluative connotation which was absent in the first meaning. Elevation

2. "

o f meaning. "

fond:

foolish

>

loving, affectionate

nice:

foolish

>

fine, good

In these two cases the situation is reservèd: the first meaning has a negative evaluative connotation, and the second meaning has not. It is difficult to see what is actually "elevated" here. Certainly, it is not the meaning of the word. Here are tw o m ore exam ples.

Tory:

knight:

brigand, highwayman

>

member of the Tories

manservant

>

noble, courageous man

In the case of Tory, the first meaning has a pronounced negative connotation which is absent in the second meaning. But why call it

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"elevation"? Semantically speaking, the first meaning is just as good as the second, and the difference lies only in the connotative structure. The case of knight, if treated linguistically, is quite opposite to that of the second meaning acquired a positive evaluative connotation that was absent in the first meaning. So, here, once more, we are faced with a mere readjustment of the connotative components of the word. There are also some traditional examples of elevation in which even this adjustment cannot be traced. marshal: manservant attending horses > the highest rank in the army lord: master of the house, head o f the family > baronet lady: mistress of the house, married woman > wife or daughter of baronet In these words the second meaning developed due to the process of transference based on contiguity. Lord and lady are also examples of narrowing of meaning if we compare the range of the original and of the resultant meanings. No connotations of evaluation can be observed in either of the meanings. The fact that in all these three cases the original meaning denoted a humble ordinary person and the second denotes a person of high rank is absolutely extra-linguistic. All that has been said and the examples that have been given show that the terms "degradation" and "elevation" of meaning are imprecise and do not seem to be an objective reflection of the semantic phenomenon they describe. It would be more credible to state that some cases of transference based on contiguity may result in development or loss of evaluative connotations.

Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Lexico

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-English Department

UNIT 5

HOMONYMS WHAT ARE

H O M N Y S ?

Homonyms are words which are identical sound and spelling, or, at least, in one of these aspects, but different in their meaning. e.g. ball, n. - a sphere; any spherical body bal,n. - a large dancing party sent - cent - scent site - cite - sight right -

- write - wright

English vocabulary is rich in such pairs and even groups of words. Their identical forms are mostly accidental: the majority of homonyms coincided due to phonetic changes which they suffered during their development. If synonyms and antonyms can be regarded as the treasury of the language's expressive resources, homonyms are of no interest in this respect, and one cannot expect them to be of particular value for communication. In the process of communication they are more of an encumbrance, leading sometimes to confusion and misunderstanding. Yet it is this very characteristics which makes them one of the most important sources of popular humour. TYPES OF HOMONYMS Homonyms proper Homonyms which are the same in sound and spelling (as the example given in the beginning of this unit) are traditionally termed homonyms proper. 62 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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Consider this pun "Atailor guarantees to give each of his customers a perfect fit.'' Homophones The following joke is based on a pun which makes use of another type of homonyms: "Waiter!" "Yes, sir" "What's this?" "It's bean soup, sir" "Never mind what it has been. I want to know what it is now." Bean, n. and been, past part, of to be are homophones. As the example shows they are the same in sound but different in spelling. Here are some more examples of homophones: ight,nn.- knight, n.; piece, n.- peace, n.; scent, n.- cent, n.- sent, v. (past part, of to send) Homographs The third type of homonyms is called homographs. These are words which are the same in spelling but different in sound. e.g. bow

[bau], v. - to incline the head or body in salutation.

bow

[bou], n. - a flexible strip of wood for propelling arrows.

lead

[li:d], v. - to conduct on the way, go before to show the way.

lead

[led], n. - a heavy, rather soft metal.

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-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A - Lexico

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SOURCE OF HOMONYMS • Phonetic changes One source of homonyms has already been mentioned: phonetic changes which words undergo in the course of their historical development.

Night and k n i g h t ,for instance, were not homonyms in Old Engl initial k in the second words was pronounced, and not dropped as it is in its modern sound form: O. E. kniht (cf. O. E. niht). A more complicated change of form brought together another pair of homonyms: to knead (O. E. cnedan) and to need (O. E. neodian).

In Old English the verb towrite had the form writan, and th had the forms reht, riht.The noun sea descends from the Old E sae, and the verb to see from O. E. seon. The noun work and the verb to work also had different forms in Old English: wyrkean and weork respectively. •

Borrowing

Borrowing is another source of homonyms. A borrowed word may, in the final stage of its phonetic adaptation, duplicate in form either a native word or another borrowing. So, in the group of homonyms rite, n, - to write, v, - right, adj., the second and third words are of native origin whereas borrowing (< Lat. ritus).

is a Latin

In the pair piece, n,- peace, n, the first originates from O. F. pais, and the second from O. F. (< Gaulish) pettia). Bank, n. a( shore) is a native word, and bank (a financial institution) is a Italian borrowing. Match, n. (a game; a contest of skill and strength) is native, and match, n. (a slender short piece of wood used for producing fire) is french borrowing. 64 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A. - Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

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Word-building

Word-building also contributes significantly to the growth of homonymy, and the most important type in this respect is undoubtedly conversion. Such pairs of words as the following are numerous in the vocabulary. c o m b ,n.- to pale, adj, - to pale, v., to make, v.- make, n.

c o m b ,v.,

Homonyms of this type, which are the same in sound and spelling but refer to different categories of parts of speech, are called homonyms. Shortening is a further type of word-building which increases the number of homonyms. e. g.fan, n. in the sense of “an enthusiastic admirer of some kind of sport or of an actor, singer, etc.” is a shortening produced from fanatic. Its homonym is a Latin borrowing fan,n. which denotes for waving lightly to produce a cool current of air. rep, n (repertory), rep, n. (representative), rep, n. (reputation) During World War II girls serving in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (an auxiliary of the British Royal Navy) were jokingly nicknamed Wrens (informal). This neologistic formation made by shortening has the homonym wren, n. “a small bird with dark brown plumage barred with black” . Words made by sound-imitation can also form pairs of homonyms with other words: e.g. bang, n. bang, n.

a loud, sudden explosive noise a fringe of hair combed over the forehead

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Lexi

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Also: mew, n. mew, n. mew, n. mews, n.

the sound a cat makes a sea gull a pen in which poultry is fattened small terraced houses in Central London

The above-described sources of homonyms have one important feature in common. In almost all of the mentioned cases the homonyms developed from two or more different words, and their similarity is purely accidental. •

Split polysemy

Now we come to a further source of homonyms which differs essentially from all the above cases. Two or more homonyms can originate from different meanings of the same word when, for some reason, the semantic structure o f the word breaks into several parts. This type of formation of homonyms is called split polysemy. From what has been said about polysemantic words, it should have become clear that the semantic structure of a polysemantic word presents a system within which all its constituent meanings are held together by logical associations. In most cases, the function of the arrangement and the unity is determined by one of the meanings (e.g. the meaning “flame” in the noun fire-). If this meaning happens to disappear from the word’s semantic structure, associations between the rest of the meanings may be severed, the semantic structure loses its unity and falls into two or more parts which then become accepted as independent lexical units. Let us consider the history of three homonyms:

• •

board, n. - a long and thin piece of timber. board, n. - daily meals, esp. as provided for pay, e.g. room and board

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•

board, n. - an official group of persons who direct or supervise some activity, e.g. a board o f directors

It is clear that the meanings of these three words are in no way associated with one another. Yet, most larger dictionaries still enter a meaning of board that once held together all these other meanings “a table"'. It developed from the meaning “a piece o f timber" by transference based on contiguity (association of an object and the material from which it is made). The meanings “meals" and “an official group of persons" developed from the meaning “table”, also by transference based on contiguity: meals are easily associated with a table on which they are served; an official group of people in authority are also likely to discuss their business round a table. Nowadays, however, the item of furniture, on which meals are served and round which boards of directors meet, is no longer denoted by the word board but by the French Norman borrowing table, and board in this meaning, though still registered by some dictionaries, can very well be marked as archaic as it is no longer used in common speech. That is why, with the intrusion of the borrowed table, the word board actually lost its corresponding meaning. But it was just that meaning which served as a link to hold together the rest of the constituent parts of the word’s semantic structure. With its diminished role as an element of communication, its role in the semantic structure was also weakened. The speakers almost forgot that board had ever been associated with any item of furniture, nor could they associate the notions of meals or of a responsible committee with a long thin piece of timber (which is the oldest meaning of board). Consequently, the semantic structure of board was split into three units.

Nguyền Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Lexic

HUFS - English Department

The following scheme illustrates the process: Board, n. (development of meanings).

Board, I, II, III n. (split polysemy).

I.

A long, thin piece of timber

A piece of furniture

Seldom used; ousted by the French borrowing table

II.

Meals provided for pay

III.

An o ffic ii SrouP of persons_______

A case of split polysemy may be illustrated by the three following homonyms: Spring, n.- the act of springing, a leap Spring, n.- a place where a stream of water comes up out of the earth Spring, n.- a season of the year

Historically all three nouns originate from the same verb with the meaning of “to jump, to leap”(O.E. springan), so that the meaning of th homonym is the oldest. The meanings of the second and third homonyms were originally based on metaphor. On the other hand, the season of the year following winter could be poetically defined as a leap from the darkness and cold into sunlight and life. 68 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A. - Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A - Lexicology

2003

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Such metaphors are typical enough of Old English and Middle English semantic transferences but not so characteristic of modern mental and linguistic processes. The poetic associations that lay in the bases of the semantic shifts described above have long since been forgotten, and an attempt to re-establish the lost links may well seem far-fetched. It is just the near-impossibility of establishing such links that seems to support the claim for homonymy and not for polysemy with these three words. It should be stressed, however, that split polysemy as a source of homonyms is not accepted by all scholars. It is really difficult sometimes to decide whether a certain word has or has not been subject to the split of the semantic structure and whether we are dealing with different meanings of the same word or with homonyms, for the criteria are subjective and imprecise. CLASSIFICA TION OF HOMONYMS The subdivision of homonyms into homonyms , homophones and homographs is certainly not precise enough and does not reflect certain important features of these words, and, most important of all, their status as parts of speech. The examples given in the beginning of this unit show that homonyms may belong both to the same and to different categories of parts of speech. Accordingly, A. I. Smirnitsky classified homonyms into two large classes: I. Full homonyms Full lexical homonyms are words which represent the same category of parts of speech and have the same paradigm. e. g. match, n. - a game, a contest Nguyễn Manh Hùng. MA. - Lé Quốc Hạnh, M.A - Lexicology

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match, n. - a short piece of wood used for producing fire wren, n. - member of the Women’s Royal Naval Service ren,n. - a bird w 2. Partial homonyms Partial homonyms are subdivided into three subgroups:

A. Simple lexico-grammatical partial homonyms are words which belong to the same category of parts o f speech. Their paradigms have one identical form, but it is neverthe same form, as will be seen from the example e. g. (to) found, v. found, v. (past indef., past part, of to find) to lay, v. lay, v. (past indef., of to lie) B. Complex lexico-grammatical partial homonyms are words of different categories of parts of speech which have one identical form paradigms. e. g.

rose, n. rose, v. (past indef., of

torise)

maid, n. made, v. (past indef.., past part, of to make) left, adj. left,v. (past indef., past part, of to leave) bean, n. been, v. (past part, of

tobe)

C. Partial lexical homonyms are words of the same category of parts of speech which are identical only intheir correspondin e.g.

to lie (lay, lain), v. to lie (lied, lied),

v.

to hang (hung, hung), v. to hang (hanged, hanged), v. 70 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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UNIT 6

SYNONYMS WHAT ARE SYNONYMS Synonyms are words belonging to the same part o f speech and one or more identical or nearly identical denotational meaning, interchangeable in some contexts. Synonymy is one of modem linguistics' most controversial problems. The very existence of words traditionally called synonyms is disputed by some linguists; the nature and essence of the relationship of these words is hotly debated and treated in quite different ways by the representatives of different schools. Even though one may accept that synonyms in the traditional meaning of the term are somewhat elusive and, to some extent, fictitious it is certain that there are words in any vocabulary which clearly develop regular and distinct relationships when used in speech.

In the following extract, in which a young woman rejects a proposal of marriage, the verbs ikel ,admire and love, all describe feelings of attr approbation, fondness: "I have always liked you very much, I admire your talent, but, forgive me, - 1 could never love you as a wife should love her husband." (From The Shivering Sands by V. Halt) Yet, each of the three verbs, though they all describe more or less the same feeling of liking, describes it in its own way: "I like you, i.e. I have certain warm feelings towards you, but they are not strong enough for me to describe it as love". Nguyen Mạnh Hùng, M A. - Lê Quốc Hạnh, M A

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Here are some more extracts which confirm that synonyms add precision to each detail of description and show how the correct choice of a word from a group of synonyms may colour the whole text. The first extract depicts a domestic quarrel: “The infuriated husband shouts and glares at his wife, but his glare suddenly softened into a gaze as he turned his eye on the little girl". The second extract depicts a young father taking his child for a Sunday walk. "Neighbours were apt to smile at the long-legged bare-headed young man leisurely strolling along the street and his small companion demurely trotting by his side." (From Some Men and Women by B. Lowndes) Synonyms are one of the language’s most important expressive means. The above examples convincingly demonstrate that the principal function of synonyms is to represent the same phenomenon in different aspects, shades and variations. And here is an example of how a great writer may use synonyms for stylistic purposes. In this extract from Death a Hero R. Aldington describes a group of survivors painfully retreating after a defeat in battle: “...The Frontshires (name of battalion) staggered rather than walked down the bumpy trench... . About fifty men, the flotsam of the wrecked battalion, stumbled past them... . They shambled heavily along, not keeping step or attempting to, bent wearily forward under the weight of their equipment, their unseeing eyes turned to the muddy ground”. In this extract the verb to walk is used with its three synonyms, each of which describes the process of walking in its own way. In contrast to walk the other three words do not merely convey the bare idea of going on foot but connote the manner of walking as well. A carefully chosen word from a group of synonyms is a great asset not only on the printed page but also in a speaker’s utterance. 72 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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The skill to choose the most suitable word in every context and every situation is an essential part of the language learning process. It is very necessary both to discern the various connotations in the meanings of synonyms and to choose the word appropriate to each context. CRITERIA OF SYNONYMY Synonymy is associated with some theoretical problems which at present are still an object of controversy. Probably, the most controversial among these is the problem of criteria of synonymy. To put it in simpler words, we are still not certain which words should correctly be considered as synonyms, nor are we agreed as to the characteristic features which qualify two or more words as synonyms. •

Notional criterion

Traditional linguistics solved this problem with the notional criterion and defined synonyms as words of the same category of parts of speech conveying the same notion but differing either in shades of meaning or in stylistic characteristics. Some aspects of this definition have been criticized. It has been pointed out that linguistic phenomena should be defined in linguistic terms and that the use of the term “notion” makes this an extralinguistic definition. The term “ lack of precision. •

shadesof meaning" has been condemned for its vagueness an

Semantic criterion

In contemporary research on synonymy semantic criterion is frequently used. In terms of componential analysis synonyms may be defined as words with the same denotation, or the same denotative component, but differing in connotations, or in connotative components. Though not beyond criticism, this approach has its advantages and suggests certain new methods of analysing synonyms. Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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A group of synonyms may be studied with the help of their dictionary definitions ( definitionalanalysis). In this work the data from va dictionaries are analysed comparatively. After that the definitions are subjected to transformational operations ( analysis). In this way, the semantic components of each analysed word are singled out. Here are the results of the definitional and transformational analysis of some of the numerous synonyms for the verb look.

Denotation

Connotations

to stare:

to look

+ steadily, lastingly

+ in surprise, curiosity, etc.

to glare:

to look

+ steadily, lastingly

+

in anger, rage, fury

to gaze:

to look

+ steadily, lastingly

+

in tenderness, admiration, wonder

to glance: to look

+ briefly, in passing

to peep:

to look

+ steadily, lastingly

+

by stealth; through an opening or from a concealed location

to peer:

to look

+ steadily, lastingly

+

with difficulty or strain

The common denotation convincingly shows that, according to the semantic criterion, the words grouped in the above table are synonyms. The connotative components represented on the right side of the table highlight their differentiations. 74 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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Criterion of interchangeability

In modern research on synonyms the criterion of interchangeability is sometimes applied. According to this, synonyms are defined as words which are interchangeable at least in some contexts without any considerable alteration in denotationalm eaning. This criterion of interchangeability has been much criticised. Every or almost every attempt to apply it to this or that group of synonyms seems to lead one to inevitable conclusion that either there are very few synonyms or, else, that they are not interchangeable. It is difficult to accept interchangeability as a criterion of synonymy because the specific characteristic of synonyms, and the one justifying their very existence, is that they are not, cannot and should not be interchangeable, in which case they would simply become useless ballast in the vocabulary. Synonyms are frequently said to be the vocabulary’s colours, tints and hues. Attempts at ascribing to synonyms the quality of interchangeability are equal to stating that subtle tints in a painting can be exchanged without destroying the picture’s effect. All this does not mean that no synonyms are interchangeable. One can find whole groups of words with half-erased connotations which can readily be substituted one for another. The same girl can be described as pretty, good-looking, handsome or beautiful. Yet, even these words are far from being totally interchangeable. Each of them creates its own picture of human beauty. In conclusion, let us stress that even if there are some synonyms which are interchangeable, it is quite certain that there are also others w'hich are not. A criterion, if it is a criterion at all, should be applicable to all synonyms and not just to some of them. Otherwise it is not acceptable as a valid criterion.

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TYPES OF SYNONYMS The only existing classification system for synonyms was established by V.V. Vinogradov, a famous Soviet scholar. In his classification system there are three types of synonyms: 1) ideographic (words conveying the same notion but differing in shades of meaning) 2) stylistic (differing in stylistic characteristic) 3) absolute (coinciding in all their shades of meaning and in all their stylistic characteristics) However, the following aspects of his classification system are open to question. Firstly, absolute synonyms are rare in the vocabulary and, on the diachronic level, the phenomenon of absolute synonymy is anomalous and consequently temporary: the vocabulary system invariably tends to abolish it either by rejecting one of the absolute synonyms or by developing differentiation characteristics in one or both (or all) of them. Therefore, it does not seem necessary to include absolute synonyms, which are a temporary exception, in the system of classification. The vagueness of the term “shades of meaning” has already been mentioned. Furthermore, there seems to be no rigid demarcation line between synonyms differing in their shades of meaning and in stylistic characteristics, as will be shown later on. There are numerous synonyms which are distinguished by both shades of meaning and stylistic colouring. Therefore, even the subdivision of synonyms into ideographic and stylistic is open to question. A more modem and a more effective approach to the classification of synonyms may be based on the definition describing synonyms as words differing in connotations.

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It seems convenient to classify connotations by which synonyms differ rather than svnonvms themselves. •>

TYPES 1.

*r

OFCONNOTATIONS

Connotation of degree of intensity e.g. to surprise to satisfy to shout

- toastonish -to please - toyell - to bellow

-to content

2. Connotation of duration e.g. to stare to flash- blaze

-to glare - to gaze

In this group, all the synonyms except to glance denote a lasting act of looking at somebody or something, whereas to glance describes a brief, passing look.

3. E motiveconnotation e.g. tostare - to glare - to gaze alone -single - lonely - solitary The synonyms to stare - to glare - to gaze are differentiated from the other words of the group in emotive connotations, and from each other by the nature of the emotion they imply, (see the table already shown above). 4. Evaluative connotation e.g. well-known - famous - notorious - celebrated to produce - to create - to manufacture - to fabricate The evaluative connotation conveys the speaker’s attitude towards the referent, labelling it as good or bad.

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So in the group well-known - famous notorious celebrated, the adjective notorious bears a negative evaluative connotation and celebrated a positive one. Cf: but 5.

a notorious murderer, robber, swindler, coward, lady-killer a celebrated scholar, artist, singer,

Causative connotation e.g. to shiver - to shudder to sparkle - to glitter

The causative connotation is also typical of the verbs we have already mentioned, to shiver and to shudder, in whose semantic structures the cause of the act or process of trembling is encoded: to shiver withcold, from a to shudder with fear, horror, etc 6.

Connotation of manner e.g. to stroll - to stride - to trot stumble to like - to admire - to love -

tpace - t

toadore -

The connotation o f manner can be singled out synonyms. The verbs tostroll - to stride - to stagger tostumble all denote different ways and encoding in their semantic structures the length of pace, tempo, carriage, purposefulness or lack of purpose. >) ■

• •:

v ? ." ? i

$' *

w

in some groups trot - pace types of walkin gait and | V -

'■f 6 '

^

7. Connotation of attendant circumstances e.g.

to peepand to peer to pump - to pour -

to funnel- inject

The verbs to peep an to peer have already been mentioned. They are differentiated by connotations of duration and manner. But there is some

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other curious peculiarity in their semantic structures. Let us consider their typical contexts. One peeps at smb/smth through a hole, crack or opening, from behind a screen, a half-closed door, a newspaper, a fan, a curtain, etc. It seems as if a whole set of scenery were built within the word’s meaning. Of course, it is not quite so, because ‘"the set of scenery” is actually built in the context, but, as with all regular contexts, it is intimately reflected in the word’s semantic structure. We shall call this the connotation of attendant circumstances. This connotation is also characteristic of to peer which will be clear from the following typical contexts of the verb. One peers at smb/smth in darkness, through the fog, through dimmed glasses or windows, from a great distance; a short-sighted person may also peer at things. So, in the semantic structure of to peer are encoded circumstances preventing one from seeing clearly. 8. Connotation of attendant features e.g. pretty, handsome, beautiful snack, feast The synonyms pretty, handsome, beautiful have been mentioned as the ones which are more or less interchangeable. Yet, each of them describes a special type of human beauty: beautiful is mostly associated with classical features and a perfect figure, handsome with a tall stature, a certain robustness and fine proportions, pretty with small delicate features and a fresh complexion. 9. Stylistic connotations These stand somewhat apart for two reasons: Firstly, some scholars do not regard the word’s stylistic characteristic as a connotative component of its semantic structure.

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Secondly, stylistic connotations are subject to further classification; namely: colloquial, slang, dialect, learned, poetic, terminological, archaic. Here are some examples of synonyms which are differentiated by stylistic connotations. The word in bold type shows the denotation of the synonyms.

meal

- snack, bite (col/.), snap (dial.), repast, refreshment, feast (formal).

girl

- girlie (coll.), lass, lassie (dial), bird, birdie, jane, fluff, skirt (si.), maiden (poet.), damsel (arch.)

to leave

- to be off, clear out (coll.), to beat it, to hoof it, take the air (si.), to depart, to retire, to withdraw (form.)

DOMINANT SYNONYM The attentive reader will have noticed that in the previous part much use was made of the numerous synonyms of the verb to look, and yet, the verb to look itself was never mentioned. That doesn’t seem fair because it is, certainly, a verb which possesses the highest frequency of use compared 80 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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with its synonyms, and so plays an important role in communication. Its role and position in relation to its synonyms is also of some importance as it presents a kind of centre of the group of synonyms, as it were, holding it together. its semantic structure is quite simple: it consists only of denotative component and it has no connotations. All (or, at least, most) synonymic groups have a “ word kind whose meaning isequal to the denotation common to all the group. This word is called the dominant synonym. Here are examples of other dominant synonyms with their groups: to surprise - to astonish - to amaze - to astound. to shine - to flash - to blaze - to gleam - to glisten - to sparkle - to glitter - to shimmer - to glimmer, to make - to produce - to create - to fabricate - to manufacture, angry - furious engraded. fear - terror - horror. The dominant synonym expresses the notion common to all synonyms of the group in the most general way, without contributing any additional information as to the manner, intensity, duration or any attending feature of the referent. So, any dominant synonym is a typical basic- vocabulary word. Its meaning, which is broad and generalized, more or less “covers” the meanings of the rest of the synonyms, so that it may be substituted for any of them. It seem that here, at last, the idea of interchangeability of synonyms comes into its own. And yet, each such substitution would mean an irreparable loss of the additional information supplied by connotative components of e a c h sy n o n y m .

So, using to look instead of to glare, to stare, to peep, to peer we preserve the general sense of the utterance but lose a great deal in precision, expressiveness and colour. Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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UNIT 7

EUPHEMISMS - ANTONYMS WHAT IS EUPHEMISM? There are words in every language which people instinctively avoid because they are considered indecent, indelicate, rude, too direct or impolite. As the “offensive” referents, for which these words stand, must still be alluded to, they are often described in a round-about way, by using substitutes called euphemisms. The Chambers Dictionary defines Euphemism as a figure rhetoric by which an unpleasant or offensive thing is described or referred by a milder term. EUPHEMISMS IN USE Euphemisms in daily life. • • • •

I ’ma bitslow on my feet. My feet hurt, I can hardly walk. Toanswer the call of nature. Go to the W.C He needs sympathy, his family is less privileged than us. He really needs help; his family is so poor. You are not thebest cook in

‘7 love • • • •

you”becomes

You waken up my days. Things won ’tbe the same without you. You are the apple o f my eyes. You make me feel light inthe darkness.

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Sanitary facilities have, naturally, produced many euphemisms. Here are some of them: • • • •

lavatory, powder room, washroom, restroom retiring room, (public) comfort station ladies' (room), gentlemen's (room) water-closet, w.c, public conveniences and even Windsor castle (which is a comical phrase for “deciphering” w.r).

Pregnancy is another topic for “delicate” references. Here are some of the euphemisims used as substitutes for the adjective pregnant: • inan interesting condition • ina delicate condition • in the family way • (big) with child • expecting • pregger (si.) • knocked up(vulgar) The apparently innocent word trousers, not so long ago, had a great number of euphemistic equivalents, some of them quite funny: • • •

unmentionables, inexpressibles indescribables, unwhisperables you-mustn't-mention 'ems,

s

Nowadays, however, nobody seems to regard this word as “indecent” any more, and so its euphemistic substitutes are no longer in use. Eating is also regarded as unrefined by some minds. Hence, many substitutes have been employed: •

to partake of food (of refreshment)

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• •

to refresh oneself, tobreak bread.

There are words which are easily targets for euphemistic substitution. These include words associated with drunkenness.

The adjective d r u n k ,for instance, has a great number of such some of them “delicate”, but most comical. • • • • • • • •

intoxicated (form), tipsy, mellow, fresh, high, merry, flustered, overcome, full (coll.), drunk as a lord (coll.), drunk as an owl (coll.), boiled (si), fried (si), stiff (si), picked (si), soaked (si), three sheets to the wind (si), high as a kite (si), half-seas-over (si), etc.

The following brief quotation from P.G Wodehouse gives two more examples of words belonging to the same group: “Motty was under the surface. Completely sozzled." (From Right-Ho, Jeeves by P.G Wodehouse) In the following extracts from P.G Wodehouse we find slang substitutes for two other “unpleasant” words: prison and to imprison.

“Oh, no, he isn’t ill” I said: “and as regards accidents, it depends on what you call an accident. He’s in “In what?” “In prison.” “... And now Mr. Sipperley is inthe jug... H because he was jugged for biffing a cop on Boat-Race Night.” (Ibid.) 84 Nguyen Mạnh

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Euphemisms in Business. For chief of a department, to he dismissed is

resign for personal reason.

For workers “ e’pis dism • dehired, • surplused,rightsized, • excessed, •

When a company has to reduce their staff, they say they have “ workforce a d j u s t m e n t " .

•

When they transfer workers to another factory or production lines they say they have to apply “ relocation".

•

The “ annual report as “

losses"a company suffered are referred to its corp

negativecash

“

WHY EUPHEMISM? Euphemisms may, of course, be used due to genuine concern not to hurt someone’s feeling, to he more polite. For instance,

•

A liar can be described as a person who does not always strictly tell the truth. And a stupid man can be said to be not exactly brilliant.

•

Profoundly deaf is, used for deaf mute,

•

• The disabled, the dijferently-abled for the crippled. More people want to work as custodian than guard or janitor Euphemisms prove to be very necessary in many situations. It is certainly more pleasant to hear someone ask where the bathroom or the ladies 7 gentlemen’s room is than where the W.C is, isn’t it? Social taboos Euphemisms are used to avoid the so-called social taboos. Their use, as has already been said, is inspired by social convention. N g u y ễ n M ạ n h H ù n g , M .A .

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For example, children born with a certain genetic disability used to be called Mongoloid idiots. Today these children are more objectively referred to as people with Down’s syndrome. • • • • •

a retarded or mentally handicapped person is called a slow learner and afailing student becomes an underachiever. a fat person is not obese or overweight but heavy, plumb, chubby, big boned, well-built, zaftig. dumb is replaced by mute, deaf by hearing-impaired,

People who were seen as ‘ handicpe ’and ‘ now take on labels for themselves: they are in fact physically challenged, differentlyabled and handi-capable. Mental diseases also cause the frequent use of euphemisms. A mad person may be described as • insane, mentally unstable, • unbalanced, unhinged, • not (quite) right (coll.), not all there (coll.), • off one's head (coll.), • off one's rocker (coll.), • wrong in the upper storey • having bats in one's belfry (coll.), • crazy as a bedbug (si.), loony • a mental case, a mental defective, etc.

(co

A clinic fo r such patients can also be discreetly referred to as, for instance, • an asylum, sanitarium, • sanatorium, (mental) institution, and, less discreetly, as • • 86

a nut house loony bin(si),etc.

N g u y ễ n M ạ n h H ù n g , M .A .

(si),booby hatch (si),

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In the story by Evelyn Waugh “M/\ Loveclay’s Little a clinic of this kind, treating only very rich patients, is described as large private grounds suitable for the charge o f nervous or difficult cases. This is certainly the peak of euphemistic “delicacy”. The great number of humorous substitutes found in such groups of words prove particularly tempting for writers who use them for comical purposes. The following extracts from a children’s book by R.Dahl are, probably, not in the best of taste, but they demonstrate the range of colloquial and slang substitutes for the word mad. “

H e’sgone off his rocked" shouted one of the fathers, aghast, and

the other parents joined in the chorus of frightened shouting. “He’s crazy'."they shouted. “He’s balmy'.” “He’s nutty'." “He’s screwy'.” “He’s batty'." “He’s dippy'." “He’s dotty'." “He’s daffy'.'" “He’s goofy'" “He’s beany'." “He’s buggy'." “He’s wacky'" “He’s loony'." “No, he is not,” said Grandpa Joe. (From Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by R.Dahl) ... “What did I tell you!”- cried Grandma Georgina. “He’s round the twist'. He’s bogged as a !betl He’s dotty as a ! He’s got rats in the roof." (Ibid)

N g u y ễ n M ạ n h H ù n g , M .A .

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H U F S - E n g lis h D e p a r tm e n t

Sex for many reasons has been too delicate a subject to talk about. Words describing physical acts become taboos. So, instead of engaging in sexual intercourse, people: • • • • • • • •

go to bed (with sb) sleep (with sb) contact (with sb) couple enjoy each other possess sb have carnal knowledge (of sb) go all the way

The use of contraceptive devices becomes • be safe, be careful, take preventive measures, • take precautions, wear a raincoat. The house o f prostitution is euphemistically referred to as • bordello, brothel, disorderly house, • house of illrepute, house o f pleasure, • joy house, shagging house, knocking house, • massage parlor, red-light district. Superstitious taboos Superstitious taboos gave rise to the use of another type of euphemisms. The reluctance to call things by their proper names is also typical of this type of euphemisms, but this time it is based on a deeply-rooted subconscious fear. Superstitious taboos have their roots in the distant past of mankind when people believed that there was a supernatural link between a name and the object or creature it represented. Therefore, all the words denoting evil 88

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spirits, dangerous animals, or the power of nature were taboo. If uttered, it was believed that unspeakable disasters would result not only for the speaker but also for those near him. That is why all creatures, objects and phenomena threatening danger were referred to in a round-about descriptive way. So, a dangerous animal might be described as • •

the one-lurking-in-the-wood and a mortal disease as the Black Death.

The Christian religion also made certain words taboo. The proverb Speak of the devil and he will appear must have been used and taken quite literally when it was first used, and the fear of calling the devil by name was certainly inherited from ancient superstitious beliefs. So, the word devil became taboo, and a number of euphemisms were substituted for it: • • • •

the Prince of Darkness, the black one, the evil one, dickens (coll.), deuce (coll.), Old Nick (coll.).

The word god, due to some considerations, had a great number of substitutes which can still be traced in such phrases: • Good Lord! • By Heavens! • (My) Goodness Gracious! • Gracious me! • Good Heaven!

\

A religious person may say ‘ od” and “Jesus” wit G showing anger, strong emotion or for cursing another person. It is a Nguyen Mạnh Hùng, MA.

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blasphemy. Some people find a softer way of swearing by using words of similar sounds with the name of God: • • • • • •

Gee Whiz! Jeepers! Heck\ Go to heck! Christmas! Jiminy Cricket! Golly! Gosh! For crying out loud!

Jesus Hell Go to hell! Jesus Christ! God! For Christ’s sake/

Even in our modern emancipated times, old superstitious fears still lurk behind words associated with death and fatal diseases. People are not superstitious nowadays and yet they are surprisingly reluctant to use the verb to die which has a long chain of both solemn and humorous substitutes. • to pass away, • to be taken, • to breath one's last, • to depart this life, • to close one's eyes, • to yield (give) up the ghost, • to go the way of all flesh, • to go West (si.), • to kick off (si.), • to check out (si.), • to kick the bucket (si.) • to take a ride (si), • to hop the twig • to join the majority • expire, go to heaven, • go to meet one’s maker, 90 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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Dead person, cadaver: - dear departed, loved one, decedent, last r e m a i n s . . . croaker, goner, stiff (si.) Cemetery, grave: final resting place, last home, memorial park... bone orchard, cold storage (si.)

The slang substitutes seem to lack any proper respect, but the joke is a sort of cover for the same old fear: speak of death and who knows what may happen. Political taboos In many countries, people do not always treat all others fairly. There has been unfairness shown to racial, ethnic and religious minorities, as well as unfairness to women, people with physical differences, gay people, children and the elderly. Some unfairness is in the law. Some unfairness is in the people’s hearts. Our history is full of change. This change came from groups of activists who organized to work together to change the laws. They worked to have people become more tolerant of those who are different from themselves. Some groups of these people took new names for themselves. The old names seemed offensive and hurtful because they identified people by their differences and set them apart from “normal” people. A considerate person will no longer use these words because in some context it could be as dangerous as using vulgar language. Speakers and writers are encouraged to use the new politically correct terms. The following are some major changes that are occurring in the English language. If you listen to different people speaking you will hear some using the politically correct terms, other using the traditional terms. For example, Politically incorrect Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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When the gender of the person is not known he him his

•

he or she; she or he him or her;her him his or her;her or

When referring to the entire human race humans, human beings human beings, humankind

Man mankind •

When writing to an unknown person Dear Siror Madam: Dear Person :

Dear Sir:

Various occupation names have been changed so that they may refer to either men or women. fireman police man mail man salesman chair man

-> -> ->

fire fighter police officer letter salesperson chairperson

HOW TO CREATE EUPHEMISMS Refinement or politeness can be achieved by various means. Rawson, in the introduction for the Dictionary of American introduces the following principles: 1.

,

Foreign words

Foreign • • • •

words or terms often sound finer affair, amour, liaison brassiere, lingerie (Fr.) boss (Dutch) copulation, urination (Lat.)

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2. Abbreviations Unpleasant words when abbreviated become more pleasant. • BS (bullshit), SOB (son of a bitch) • BM (bowel movement), BO (bad body odor), • Big C, big H, big A 3. Abstractions Casting ideas in the most general terms could reduce the strength of particular taboos. It,

problem, situation, and thing may refer to anything under the sun: • the child who keeps playing with • problem days, problem drinking

4. Indirection Topics and terms that are too touchy may be alluded to in a variety of ways, most often by mentioning one aspect of the subject, a circumstance involving it, a related subject, or even by saying what it is not. • assembly center • break off contact • negative cash flow • fee for product testing 5. Understatements Since euphemism is, by definition, a mild, roundabout word or expression, it follows logically that its real meaning is worse than its apparent meaning. In some cases a euphemism, though acknowledges part of the truth, conceals the extent of its whole grimness. Therefore, a nuclear reactor that is said to be above critical is actually out of control. Nguyền Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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6. Lengthy expressions As a rule, euphemisms (with very few exceptions) are longer than words they replace. They have more letters, more syllables and frequently, two or more words will be deployed in place of a single one. • • • •

adjustment downward deficit enhancement at this point in time motivationally impaired

BAD EFFECTS OF OVERUSING EUPHEMISMS The abuse of euphemism may sometimes cause difficulties to the native English speakers themselves. A landlady who refers to her lodger as paying guests is also using a euphemism, aiming at half-concealing the embarrassing fact that she lets rooms. The love of affection, which displays itself in the excessive use of euphemisms, has never been a sign of good taste or genuine refinement. Quite the opposite. Fiction writers have often ridiculed pretentious people for their weak attempts to express themselves in a delicate and refined way. “... Mrs. Sunbury never went to bed, she retired, but Mr. Sunbury who was not quite so refined as his wife always said: “Me for Bedford”...”. (From The Kite by W.S. Maugham) (To retire in this ironical passage is a euphemistic substitute for to go to bed). Another lady, in Rain by the same author, easily surpasses Mrs. Sunbury in the delicacy of her speech. She says that there are many mosquitoes on the island where the story is set that at the Governor's parties “all the ladies are given a pillow-slip to put their- their lower extremities in". 94 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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Moreover, in some cases while trying to express themselves in a more refined way. the Americans coin such strange, vague words as:

Our headmistress is a person of mass. • • • •

Positionally challenged Motivationally- impaired Differently clued Follicle-impaired

Two linguistic experts say for fun: “if you want to torture somebody, make them read a mutual fund prospectus” and “Why buy a sleeping pill when you could read a mutual fund prospectus?” In the book " Modem American Usage - A Guide" by Wilson Follett about the recent changes in the American people's habits of using language, Erick Wensberg, its editor said, '7 dream of a day when Americans say what they really think rather than spewing out amorphous buzz words that have become so pervasive

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ANTONYMS WHAT IS AN ANTONYM? We use the term antonyms to indicate words o f the same category o f parts of speech which have contrasting meanings. If synonyms form whole, often numerous, groups, antonyms are usually believed to appear in pairs. Yet, this is not quite true in reality. For instance, the adjective cold may be said to have warm for its second antonym, and sorrow may be very well contrasted with gaiety. On the other hand, a polysemantic word may have an antonym (or several antonyms) for each of its meanings. So, the adjective dull has the antonyms: • • •

interesting, amusing, entertaining for its meaning of “deficient in interest”, clever, bright, capable for its meaning of “deficient in intellect”, and active for the meaning of “deficient in activity”, etc.

DISTRIBUTION OF ANTONYMY Antonymy is not evenly distributed among the categories of parts of speech. Most antonyms are adjectives which is only natural because qualitative characteristics are easily compared and contrasted: high-low, wide-narrow, strong-weak, old-young. Verbs take second place, so far as antonymy is concerned. Yet, verbal pairs of antonyms are fewer in number. Here are some examples of them: to live-to die, to open-to close, to weep-to laugh. Nouns are not rich in antonyms, but even so some examples can be given: friend-enemy, joy-grief, good-evil, heaven-earth. 96 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M A.

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Antonymic adverbs can be subdivided into two groups: 1. adverbs derived from adjectives: merrily- sadly, loudly- softly; 2. adverbs proper: here- there, ever- never, in- out; CLASSIFICATION OF ANTONYMS Antonyms can be classified into two main types: • Root-word antonyms: Rootword antonyms are those words which are completely different in sound and form: in- out here

•

- there

thin -

big fat

give - take

remember -forget

joy

war

- grief

- small - peace

Derivational antonyms:

Derivational antonyms are words which are formed by derivation (they originate form the same root) decisive proper code connect

indecisive improper decode disconnect

In the previous unit dealing with synonymy we saw that both identity and differentiation in words called synonyms can be said to be encoded within semantic structures. Can the same be said about antonyms? Modem research on the field of antonymy gives a positive answer to this question. Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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Nowadays most scholars agree that in the semantic structure of all words, which regularly occur in antonymic pairs, a special antonymic connotation can be singled out.

We are so used to coming across hot and cold together, in the same contexts that even when we find hot alone, we can not help subconsciously registering it as not ,coldthat is, contrast it to its missing antonym. The word possesses its full meaning for us not only due to its direct associations but also because we subconsciously oppose it to its antonym, with which it is regularly used, in this case, to hot. It should be stressed once more that we are speaking only about those antonyms which are characterized by common occurrences, that is, which are regularly use in pairs. When two words frequently occur side by side in numerous contexts, subtle and complex associations between them are not at all unusual. These associations are naturally reflected in the words' semantic structure. Antonymic connotations are a special case of such "

associations".

Together with synonyms, antonyms represent the language’s important expressive means. The following quotations show how authors use antonyms as a stylistic device of contrast: How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world. (From Merchant of Venice by W. Shakespeare Act V, Sc.I)

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UNIT 8

FORMAL OR INFORMAL ? BASIC VOCABULARY These words are stylistically neutral, and, in this respect, opposed to formal and informal words. Their stylistic neutrality makes it possible to use them in all kinds of situations, both formal and informal, in verbal and written communication. These are words without which no human communication would be possible as they denote objects and phenomena of everyday importance bread, summer, winter, child, mother, green, difficult, to go, to stand, etc. The basic vocabulary is the central group of the vocabulary, its historical foundation and living core. That is why words of this stratum show a considerably greater stability in comparison with words of the other strata, especially informal. The basic vocabulary and the stylistically marked strata of the vocabulary do not exist independently but are closely interrelated. Most stylistically marked words have their neutral counterparts in the basic vocabulary. On the other hand, colloquialisms may have their counterparts among colloquialisms and learned words. Archaisms, naturally, have their modern equivalents at least in some of the other groups. INFORMAL STYLE Informal vocabulary is used in one's immediate circle: family, relatives or friends. One uses informal words when at home or when feeling at home. Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A. - Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

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But it should be pointed out that the informal talk of well-educated people considerably differs from that of the illiterate or the semi-educated; the choice of words with adults is different from the vocabulary of teenagers; people living in the provinces use certain regional words and expressions. Informal words and word-groups are traditionally divided into three types: colloquial, slang and dialect words and word-groups. •

Colloquial words

Among other informal words, colloquialisms are the least exclusive: they are used by everybody, and their sphere of communication is comparatively wide, at least of literary colloquial words. These are informal words that are used in everyday conversational speech both by cultivated and uneducated people of all age groups. The sphere of communication of literary colloquial words also includes the printed page, which shows that the term "colloquial" is somewhat inaccurate. "You're at some sort of technical ?" she said to Leo, not looking at him... "Yes, I hate it though. I'm not good enough at maths (From The Time of the Angels by I. Murdoch) However, in modern fiction informal words are not restricted to conversation in their use, but frequently appear in descriptive passages as well. In this way the narrative is endowed with conversational features.

"Fred Hardy was a bad lot. Pretty women, chemin de fer, and an unlucky knack for backing the wrong horse had landed him in the bankruptcy court by the time he was twenty-five... ... If he thought of his past it was with complacency; He had had a good e, he had enjoyed his ups and downs; and now, with goo tim 100 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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(From

health and a clear conscience, he was prepared to settle down as a country gentleman, damn it, bring up the kids as kids should be brought up; and when the old buffer who sat for his Constituency pegged out, by George, go into Parliament himself." Rainand Other Short Stories by W. S. Maugham) A considerable number of shortenings are found among words of this type. pram, prop, zip. Verbs with post-positional adverbs are also numerous among colloquialism: put up, put over, make up, etc. Literary colloquial words are to be distinguished from familiar colloquial and low colloquial. The borderline between the literary and familiar colloquial is not always clearly marked. Yet the circle of speakers using familiar colloquial is more limited: these words are used mostly by the young and the semi-educated. e.g. doc (for doctor), hi (for how do you do), goings-on (for behaviour, usually with a negative connotation), to kid somebody (for tease, banter). Low colloquial is defined by G.P. Krapp as uses "characteristic of the speech of persons who may be broadly described as uncultivated". This group is stocked with words of illiterate English which do not present much interest for our purposes.

The problem of functional styles is not one of purely theoretical interest, but represents a particularly important aspect of the language-learning process. So far as colloquialisms are concerned, most students' mistakes originate from the ambiguousness of the term itself. Some students misunderstand the term "colloquial" and accept it as a recommendation for wide usage (obviously mistaking "colloquial" for "conversation"). This misconception

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may lead to most embarrassing errors unless it is taken care of in the early stages of language study. •

Slang "Slang is language which takes off its coat, spits on its hand, and goes to work". (Carl Standburg.)

Slang occurs rather frequently but it is not easy to define the word. sit - in, high - rise, rip - off, grass, pot, pig, fuzz, big brass, etc. Much has been written on the subject of slang that is contradictory and at the same time very interesting. The Oxford English Dictionary defines slang as "Language of a highly colloquial style, considered as below the level o f standard educated speech, and consisting either o f new words or current words employed in some special sense". This definition is inadequate because it equates slang with colloquial style. The qualification "highly” can hardly serve as the criterion for distinguishing between colloquial style and slang. All or most slang words are current words whose meanings have been metaphorically shifted. Each slang metaphor is rooted in a joke, but not in a kind or amusing joke, This is the criterion for distinguishing slang from colloquialisms: most slang words are metaphors and jocular, often with a coarse, mocking, cynical colouring. Then why do people use slang? The answer is for a number of reasons: to be picturesque, arresting, striking and, above all, different from others, to avoid the tedium of outmoded hackneyed "common" words.

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It doesn't mean that all these aims are achieved by using slang. Nor are they put in so many words by those using slang on the conscious level. But these are the main reasons for using slang as explained by modern psychologists and linguists. The circle of users of slang is narrower than that of colloquialisms. It is mainly used by the young and uneducated. Yet, every one uses slang on some occasions. •

Dialect Words

H.W. Fowler defines a dialect as: "A variety of a language which prevails in a district, with local peculiarities of vocabulary, pronunciation and ". England is a small country; it has many dialects which have their own distinctive features (e.g. the Lancashire, Dorsetshire, Norfolk dialects). In the following extract from The Good Companions by J.B Priestley, the outstanding English writer ingeniously and humorously reproduces his native Yorkshire dialect. The speakers are discussing a football match they have just watched. The author makes use of a number of dialect words and grammatical structures and, also, uses spelling to convey certain phonetic features of "broad Yorkshire".

"...'Ah'll tell tha what it is, Jess' said his companion, pointing the stem of his pipe and becoming broader in his Yorkshire as he grew more philosophical, 'lft' United had less brass to lake wi', they'd lake better football.' His eyes searched the past for a moment, looking for the team that had less money and had played better football. ‘ Tha can remember when t’ club had nivver set eyes on two thousand pahnds, when t' job lotwor not worth two thousand pahnds, pavilion an and what sort of football did they lake then? We know, don't we? They could gi’ thee summat worth watching then. Nah, it's all nowt, like ale an baccy they ask so michfor - money fair thrawn away, ah calls it. Well, we mun ’a’ wer teas and get ower it. Behave thi-sen, Jess!’ And he turned away, for that final word of caution was only one of Brudersford's familiar good-byes. 'Ay' replied Mr. Oakroyd dispiritedly. 'So long, Jim!' Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M. A. - Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

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Dialectal peculiarities, especially those of vocabulary, are constantly being incorporated into everyday colloquial speech or slang. From these levels they can be transferred into the common stock and a few of them even into formal speech and into the literary language. FORMAL STYLE •

Learned Words

These words are mainly associated with the printed page. It is in this vocabulary stratum that poetry and fiction find their main resources. The term learned includes several heterogeneous subdivisions of words. We find here numerous words that are used in scientific prose and can be identified by their dry, matter-of-fact flavour (e.g. comprise, compile, experimental, heterogeneous, homogenous, conclusive, divergent, etc.) To this group also belongs 1.officialese These are the words of the official, bureaucratic language. E. Partridge in his dictionary Usage and Abusage gives a list of officialese which he thinks should be avoided in speech and in print. 2. literary Probably the most interesting subdivision of learned words is represented by the words found in descriptive passage of fiction. These words, which may be called , also have a particular flavour of their own, usually described as refined. Their very sound seems to create complex and solemn associations. 3. modes of poetic diction There is one further subdivision of learned words: modes of poetic diction. 104 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A. - Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

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These stand close to the previous group many words from which, in fact, belong to both these categories. Yet, poetic words have a further characteristic - a lofty, high-flown, sometimes archaic, colouring: "Alas'. They had been friends in youth; But whispering tongues can poison truth And constancy lives in realms above; And life is thorny; and youth is vain; And to be wroth with one we love, Doth work like madness in the brain ,v" (Coleridge) Though learned words are mainly associated with the printed page, this is not exclusively so. Generally speaking, educated people in both modern fiction and real life use learned words quite naturally and their speech is certainly the richer for it. On the other hand, excessive use of learned elements in conversational speech presents grave hazards. Utterances overloaded with such words have pretensions of “refinement” and “elegance” but achieve the exact opposite verging on the absurd and ridiculous. Writers use this phenomenon for stylistic purposes. When a character in a book or in a play uses too many learned words, the obvious inappropriateness of his speech in an informal situation produces a comic effect. When Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest recommends Jack “to make a definite effort to produce at any rate one parent, of either sex, before the season is over”, the statement is funny because the seriousness and precision of the language seems comically outof-keeping with the informal situation. The following quotations speak for themselves. (The “learned” elements are italicized).

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Gwendolen in the same play declaring her love for Jack says: ‘The story of your romantic origin as related to me by mamma, with impleasing comments, has naturally stirred the deepest fibres of my nature. Your Christian name has an irresistible fascination. The simplicity of your nature makes you exquisitely incomprehensible to ___ m e... « However, any suggestion that learned words are suitable only for comic purposes, would be quite wrong. What role do learned words play in the language-learning and language­ teaching process? The answer is clear: without knowing some learned words, it is even impossible to read fiction (not to mention scientific articles) or to listen to lectures delivered in the foreign language. •

Archaic and Obsolete Words

These words stand close to the " learnd"words, particularly poetic diction. Learned words and archaisms are both associated with the printed page. Yet, as we have seen, many learned words may also be used in conversational situations. This cannot happen with archaisms, which are invariably restricted to the printed page. Thou and thy, aye "yes" and nay "no" are certainly archaic and long since rejected by common usage, yet poets use them even today. (We also find the same four words and many other archaisms among dialectisms, which is quite natural, as dialects are also conservative and retain archaic words and structures.) Numerous archaisms can be found in Shakespeare, but it should be taken into consideration that what appear to us today as archaisms in the works of Shakespeare, are in fact examples of everyday language of Shakespeare's time. 106 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, MA. - Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

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There are several such archaisms in Viola's speech from Twelfth Night: " There is a

fair behaviour in thee, Captain, And though that nature with a beauteous wall Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee I will believe thou hast a mind that suits With this thy fair and outward character. I prithee - and I'll pay thee bounteously Conceal me what I am , and be my aid For such disguise as haply shall become The form of my intent..." (Act 1. Sc. 2.)

It should be pointed out that the borderline between "obsolete" and "archaic" is vague and uncertain, and in many cases it is difficult to decide to which of the groups this or that word belongs. •

Professional Terminology For example,

FUNCTIONS AND TASKS: Enterology - Surgery - Obstetrics - Oriental medicine - Intensive medical examination - Inter-therapeutics: + Ondonto-stomatology + Otorhinolaryngology + Ophthalmology - Ultrasonic diagnosis - X-ray - Test -

-rehabilitation

Hundreds of thousands of words belong to special scientific, professional or trade terminological systems and are not used or even understood by people outside the particular speciality. Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng,

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There is a special medical vocabulary, and similarly special terminologies for psychology, botany, music, linguistics, teaching methods and many others. There are several controversial problems in the field of terminology. The biggest one is the puzzling question of whether a term loses its terminological status when it comes into common usage. Today this is a frequent occurrence, as various elements of the media of communication (TV, radio, popular magazines, science fiction, etc.) ply people with scraps of knowledge from different scientific fields, technology and the arts. It is quite natural that under the circumstances numerous terms pass into general usage without losing connection with their specific fields. The following table sums up the description of the stylistic strata of English vocabulary. Stylisticallyneutral words

'■ : Basic vocabulary

Stylistically-marked words Informal I. Colloquial words a. literary, b. familiar, c. low II. Slang words

Formal I. Learned words a. literary b. words of scientific prose. c. officialese d. modes of poetic diction

III. Dialect words II. Archaic and obsolete words. III. Professional terminology

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UNIT 9

PHRASEOLOGY OVERVIEW Phraseological units or idioms, as they are called most western scholars, present what can probably be described as the most picturesque, colorful and expensive part of the language's vocabulary. Phraseology is kind of picture gallery in which are collected vivid and amusing sketches of the nation's customs, traditions and prejudices, recollections of its past history, scrap of folk songs and fairy-tales. The phraseology is not only the most colorful but probably the most democratic area of vocabulary and draws its resources mostly from the depths of popular speech. And what a variety of odd and grotesque images, figures and personalities one finds in this amazing picture gallery : dark horses, white elephants, bulls in china shops and green-eyed monsters, dogs braking up the wrong tree and men either wearing their heart on their sleeves or having it in their mouths or even their boots. MAIN CHARACTERISTICS Sometimes this parade of funny animals and quaint human beings looks more like a hilarious fancy-dress ball than peaceful picture gallery and it is really a pity that the only interest some scholars seem to take in it is whether the leading component of the idiom is expressed by a verb or a noun. Nguyen Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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Phraseological units or idioms are characterized by a double sense: the current meanings of constituent words build up certain picture, but the actual meaning of the whole unit has little or nothing to do with that picture in itself creating an entirely new image. •

So, a dark horse mentioned above is actually not a horse but a person about whom no one knows anything defined, so one is not sure what can be expected from him.

•

The imagery of a bull in China shop lies very much of surface: the idiom describes a clumsy person.

•

A white elephant, however is not even a person but a valuable object which involves great expense or trouble for its owner, out of all proportion to its usefulness or value, and which is also difficult to dispose of.

• The green-eyed monster is jealousy, the image being draw from Othello. The ambiguousness of these interesting word-groups may lead to an amusing misunderstanding, especially for children who are apt to accept words at their face value. Little Johnnie (crying): Mummy, mummy my auntie Jane is dead. Mother: Nonsense, child! She phoned me exactly five minutes ago. Johnnie: But I hear Mrs. Brown say that her neighbors cut her dead. Puns are frequently based on the ambiguousness of idioms: “Isn’t our Kate a marvel! I wish you could have seen her at the Harrisons’ party yesterday. If I’d collected the bricks she dropped all over the places, I could build a villa.” So, together with synonymy and antonymy, phraseology represents expressive resources of vocabulary. 110 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A. - Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

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V. H. Collins writes in his Book of English idioms: standard spoken and written English today idiom is an established and essential element that, used with care, ornaments and enriches language". Used with care is an important warning because speech overloaded with idioms loses its freshness and originality. On the other hand, oral or written speech lacking idiom loses much in expensiveness, colors and emotional force. In modern linguistics there is considerable confusion about the terminology associated with these word-groups. Most Soviet scholars use the term " phraseological unit”. The term "idiom” widely used by western scholars has comparatively recently found its way into Soviet phraseology. There are some other terms denoting more or less the same linguistic phenomenon: set-expressions, set-phrases, phrases, fixed word-groups, collocations. The confusion in the terminology reflects insufficiency of positive or wholly reliable criteria by which phraseological units can be distinguished from "free" word-group. It should be pointed out at once that the "freedom" of the free word-groups is relative and arbitrary. Nothing is entirely "free" in speech as its linear relationships are governed, restricted and regulated, on the other hand, by requirements of logic and common sense and, on the other, by the rule of grammar combinability. PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS VERSUS FREE WORD-GROUPS 'This is probably the most discussed - and the most controversial - problem in the field of phraseology. The task of distinguishing between free wordgroups and phraseological units is further complicated by the existence of great number of marginal cases, so-called semifixed or semi-free wordNguyên Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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groups also called non- phraseological word-groups which share with phraseological units their structural stability but lack their semantic unity and figurativeness. There are two major criteria for distinguishing between phraseological units and free word- groups: semantic and structural. 1. Semantic criterion Compare the following two examples: a. Cambridge don: I’m told they're inviting more American professors to this university. Isn't it rather carrying coals to ? To carry coals to Newcastle means "to take something to a place where it is already plentiful and not needed ". b. This cargo ship is carrying coal to Liverpool. The first thing that captures the eye is the semantic difference of two wordgroups consisting of the same essential constituents. In the second sentence the free word-group is carrying coal is used in direct sense, the word coal standing for real hard, black coal and carry for the plain process of taking something from one place to another. The first context quite obviously has nothing to do either with coal or with transporting it, and the meaning of the whole word-group is something entirely new and far removed from the current meanings of the constituents. Academician V. V. Vinogradov spoke of semantic change in phraseological units as "a meaning resulting from a peculiar chemical combination of words". The semantic shift affecting phraseological units does not consist in a mere change of meanings of each separate constituent part of the unit. The meaning of the constituents merge to produce an entirely new meaning: e.g.

to have a bee in one's bonnet

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means

to have to be

an

obsessionabout

eccentricor even

alittle mad.

The humorous metaphoric comparison with a person who is distracted by a bee continually buzzing under his cap has become erased and halfforgotten, and the speakers using the expression hardly think of bees or bonnets but accept it in its transferred sense: “ That is what is meant when phraseological units are said to be characterized by semantic unity. In the traditional approach, phraseological units have been defined as wordgroups conveying a single notion (whereas in free word-groups each meaningful component stands for a separate notion). It is this feature that makes phraseological units similar to words: both words and phraseological units possess semantic unity. Most Soviet scholars today accept the semantic criterion of distinguishing phraseological units from free word- group as the major one and base their research work in the field of phraseology on the definition of a phraseological unit offered by professor A.V.K oonin,the leading authority on problems of English phraseology in their country: "A phraseological completely or partiallytransferred

unit

isa stable word-grou mean

The definition clearly suggests that the degree of semantic change in a phraseological unit may vary (“completely or partially transferred meaning”)- In actual fact the semantic change may affect either the whole word-group or only one of its components. The following phraseological units represent the first • • • • •

to skate on thin ice to wear one's heart on one's sleeve to have one's heart in one's boots to have one's heart inone's mouth to have one's heart inthe right place Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.- Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

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The second type is presented by phraseological units in which one of the components preserves its current meaning and the other is used in a transferred meaning: • • • • •

to lose (keep) one's temper, to fly into a temper, to fall ill, to fall in love (out of love), to stick to one’s word (promise),

Here, though, we are on dangerous ground because the border-line dividing phraseological units with partially changed meanings from the so-called semi-fixed or non-phraseological word-group (marginal cases) is uncertain and confusing. The term “ idom, ”both in this country and abroad, is mostly applied to phraseological units with completely transferred meaning of the whole unit does not correspond to the current meanings of the components. 2. Structural criterion The structural criterion also brings forth pronounced distinctive feature characterizing phraseological units and contrasting them to free word-group. Structural invariability is an essential feature of phraseological units, though, as we shall see, some of them possess it to a lesser degree than others. Structural invariability of phraseological units finds expression in a number of restrictions. a. Restriction in substitution First of all, restriction in substitution: As a rule, no word can be substituted for any meaningful component of a phraseological unit without destroying its sense.

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The idiom togive somebody the cold shoulder means “to treat somebod coldly, to ignore or cut him”, but a warm shoulder or a cold elbow makes no sense at all. The meaning of a bee in smb’s bonnet was explained above, but a bee in his hat or cap would sound a silly error in one’s choice of words, one of those absurd slips that people are apt to make when speaking a foreign language. At the same time, in free word-group substitution does not present any dangers and does not lead to any serious consequences. b. Restriction in introducing any additional components The second type of restriction is the restriction in introducing any additional components into the structure of a phraseological unit. In a free word-group such changes can be made without affecting the general meaning of the utterance: This big ship is carrying a large cargo of coal to the port of Liverpool. In the phraseological unit to carry coals to Newcastle no additional components can be introduced. Nor can one speak about the big white elephant (when using the white elephant in its phraseological sense) or about somebody having his heart in his brown boots. Yet, such restrictions are less regular. In Vanity Fair by W.M. Thackeray the idiom to build a castle in the air is used in this way:

for herself a mo

“While dressing for dinner, she built the air of which she was the mistress..."

In fiction such variations on idioms created for stylistic purposes are not rare thing. In oral speech phraseological units mostly preserve their traditional structures and resist the introduction of additional components. c. Grammatical invariability The third type of structural restrictions in phraseological units is grammatical invariability. A typical mistake with students of English is to Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A. - Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

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use the plural form of fault in the phraseological unit somebody.

fault with

e.g. The teacher always found faults with the boy. Though the plural form in this context is logically well-founded, it is a mistake in terms of grammatical invariability of phraseological units. A similar mistake often occurs in the unit from head to foot. Students are apt to use the plural form of foot in this phrase thus erring once more against the rigidity of structure which is so characteristic of phraseological units. Yet again, as in the case of restriction in introducing additional components, there are exceptions to the rule, and these are probably even more numerous. One can build a castle in the air, but also castles. A shameful or dangerous family secret is picturesquely described as a skeleton in the cupboard, the first substantive component being frequently and easily used in the plural form, as in: I'm sure they have skeletons in every cupboard! A black sheep is a disreputable member of a family who, in especially serious cases, may be described as the blackest sheep o f the family. PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION It would be interesting now to look at phraseology from a different angle, namely: how are all these treasures of the language approached by the linguistic science? The very miscellaneous nature of these units suggests the first course of action: they must be sorted out and arranged in certain classes which possesses identical characteristics. It should be clear from the previous description that a phraseological unit is a complex phenomenon with a number of important features, which can therefore be approached from different points of view. Hence, there e^ist a considerable number of classification systems devised by different scholars and based on different principles. 116 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A. - Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

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tỉư F S

-E n g lis h D e p a r tm e n t

l. The traditional principle The traditional and the oldest principle for classifying phraseologic s! units is based on their original content and might be alluded to as “ (although the term is not universally accepted). The approach is widely used in numerous English and American guides to idiom, phrase books, etc. (see, for instance, English Idioms by L.P. Smith, London, 1922). L.P. Smith gives in his classification groups of idioms used by sailors, fishermen, soldiers, hunters and associated with domestic and wild animals and birds, agriculture and cooking. There are also numerous idioms drawn from sports, arts, etc. This principle of classification is sometimes called etymological. The term does not seem appropriate since we usually mean something different when we speak of the etymology of a word or word- group: whether the word (or word-group) is native or borrowed, and, if the latter, what is the source of borrowing. It is true that Smith makes a special study of idioms borrowed from other languages, but that is only a relatively small part of his classification system. The general principle is not etymological. Smith points out that word-group associated with the sea and the life of seamen are especially numerous in English vocabulary. Most of them have long seen developed metaphorical meanings which have no longer any association with the sea or sailors. Here are some examples. • • • • •

To be alt at sea To sink or swim In deep water In low water, on the rocks To be in the same boat with somebody

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To sail under false colours To show one’s colors To strike one's colors To weather (to ride out) the storm To bow to the storm Three sheets in (to) the wind (si.) Half seas over (si.)

Though, as has been said, direct associations with sea-faring in all these idioms have been severed, distant memories of the sea romance and adventure still linger in some of them. The faint sound of the surf can still be heard in such phrases as to ride out the storm or breakers ahead! (~ Take care! Danger!). Such idioms as to sail under false colours, to nail one’s colours to the mast (~ to be true to one's convictions, to fight for them openly) bring to mind the distant past of pirate brigs, sea battles and great discoveries of new lands. It is true, though, that a foreigner is more apt to be struck by the colourfulness of the direct meaning of an idiom where a native speaker sees only its transferred meaning, the original associations being almost fully forgotten. The thematic principle of classifying phraseological units has real merit but it does not take into consideration the linguistics characteristic features of the phraseological units. 2. Semantic principle The classification system of phraseological units devised by Vinogradov is considered by some linguists of today to be outdated, and yet its value is beyond doubt because it was the first classification system which was based on the semantic principle. Vinogradov’s classification system is founded on the degree of semantic cohesion between the components of a phraseological unit. Units with a partially transferred meaning show the weakest cohesion between their components. The more distant the meaning of a phraseological unit from the 118 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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current meaning of its constituent parts, the greater is its degree of semantic cohesion. Accordingly, Vinogradov classifies phraseological units into three classes: • phraseological combinations, • unities and • fusions Phraseological combinations are word-groups with a partially changed meaning. They may be said to be clearly motivated, that is, the meaning of the unit can be easily deduced from the meanings of its constituents. e.g. • to be at one's wits' end, • to be good at something, • to be a good hand at something, • to have a bite, • to come off a poor second, Phraseological unities are word-groups with a completely changed meaning, that is, the meaning of the unit does not correspond to the meanings of its constituent parts. They are motivated units. e.g. • to stick to one’s guns • to sit on the fence • to catch /clutch at a straw/ straws • to lose one's head • to lose one’s heart to smb. Phraseological fusions are word-groups with a completely changed meaning but, in contrast to the unities, they are demotivated, that is, their meaning cannot be deduced from the meanings of the constituent parts. eg. to come a cropper neck and crop Nguyền Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

-Lẻ Quốc Hạnh, M.A

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• at sixes and sevens • to set one's cap at smb. • to leave smb in the lurch • to dance attendance on smb. It is obvious that this classification system does not take into account the structural characteristics of phraseological units. On the other hand, the border-line separating unities from fusions is vague and even subjective. One and the same phraseological unit may appear motivated to one person (and therefore be labelled as a unity) and demotivated to another (and be regarded as a fusion). The more profound one's command of the language and one's knowledge of its history, the fewer fusions one is likely to discover in it. 3. The structural principle The structural principle of classifying phraseological units is based on their ability to perform the same syntactical functions as words. In the traditional structural approach, the following principal groups of phraseological units are distinguishable.

A. Verbal. e.g. • • • • •

to run for one's (dear) life, to get. (win) the upper h a n to talk through one's hat, to make a song and dance about something , to sit pretty (Amer. si.)

d

,

B. Substantive. e.g. • • • •

dog's life, cat-and-dog life, calflove, white lie, tall order, birds of passage, red tape, brown study .

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c . A d je c tiv a l. eg-

• high and mighty, • spickand span, • brand new, • safeand sound. In this group the so-called com parative word-groups are particularly expressive and som etim es am using in their unanticipated and capricious associations:

• (as) cool as a cucumber, • (as) nervous as a cat, • (as) weak as a kitten , • (as) good as gold (usu. spoken about children), • (as) pretty as a picture, • (as) large as life, • (as) slippery as an eel, • (as) thick as thieves, • (as) drunk as an owl (si.), • (as) mad as a hatter la hare

inMarch.

D. A d v e rb ia l. e.g .

• high and low • by hook orby crook • for love or money • in cold blood • inthe dead o f night

,

E. In te rje c tio n a l. eg-

ng, M.A.

• • •

My god! By Jove! By George! Goodness gracious! Good heavens! Sakes alive! (A m er.) -Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

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Sm irnitsky offered a classification system for E nglish phraseological units w hich is interesting as an attempt to com bin e the structural and the sem antic principles. Phraseological units in this cla ssifica tio n system are grouped according to the number and sem antic sig n ifica n ce o f their constituent parts. A ccordingly tw o large groups are established: A . O n e -su m m it u n its, w hich have on e m eanin gfu l constituent e.g.

• • • • •

to give up, to make out, to pull out, to he tired, to he surprised.

B.

T w o -su m m it a n d m u lti-su m m it u n its w hich have tw o or more m eaningful constituents

e.g.

• black art, • first night, • common sense, • to fish in troubled waters. W ithin each o f these large groups the p h raseological units are cla ssified according to the category o f parts o f sp eech o f the sum m it constituent. So, one-sum m it units are subdivided into: a) V e rb a l-a d v e rb ia l u n its e q u iv a le n t to v e rb s in w hich the sem antic and the gram m atical centres coin cid e in the first constituent, e.g.

to give up.

b) U n its e q u iv a le n t to verbs w hich have their sem antic centre in the secon d constituent and their gram m atical centre in the first. e.g.

to be tired.

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c) Prepositional-substantive units equivalent either to adverbs or to copulas and having their sem an tic centre in the substantive constituent and no gram m atical centre, e.g. by heart, by means of.

•

Two-summit and multi-summit phraseological units are cla ssified into:

a)

Attributive-substantive two-summit units equivalent to nouns e.g. black art.

b)

Verbal-substantive two-summit units equivalent to verbs, e.g. to take the floor.

c)

Phraseological repetitions equivalent to adverbs, e.g. now or never.

d)

Adverbial multi-summit units, e.g. every other day.

Sm irnitsky also d istingu ishes proper phraseological units, w hich, in his classification system , are units with non-figurative m eanin gs, and id iom s, that is, units with transferred m eanings based on a metaphor.

PROVERBS Consider the follo w in g exam p les o f proverbs:

• • •

We never know the value of water till the well dry. You can take the horse to the water, but you can not make him drink. Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Even these few exam ples clearly sh ow that proverbs are different from those phraseological units w hich have been d iscu ssed above. The first distinctive feature that strikes one is the ob vious structural dissim ilarity. Phraseological units, as w e have seen, are a kind o f ready-m ade blocks w hich fit into the structure o f sentence perform ing a certain syntactical function, more or less as words do.

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George liked her for she never put on airs (predicate). Big bugs like him care nothing about small fry like ourselves (a) subject, (b) prepositional object.

Proverbs, i f view ed in their structural aspect, are sen ten ces, and so can not be used in the w ay in w hich phraseological units are used in the above exam p les. If one com pares proverbs and phraseological units in the sem antic aspect, the. d ifferen ce seem s to b ecom e ev en m ore obvious. Proverbs could be best com pared w ith m inute fables for, lik e the latter, they sum up the co llectiv e exp erien ce o f the com m unity. T hey •

m oralize:

Hell is paved with good intentions. •

g iv e advice:

Don't judge a tree by its bark. •

g iv e warning:

If you sing before breakfast, you will cry before night. •

adm onish:

Liars should have good memories. •

criticize:

Everyone calls his own geese swans. N o phraseological unit ever d oes any o f these things. T hey do not stand for w h ole statem ents as proverbs do but for a sin g le concept. Their function in sp eech is purely nominative (i.e. they denote an object, an act, etc.). The function o f proverbs in sp eech, though, is communicative (i.e. they impart certain inform ation). The question o f whether or not proverbs should be regarded as a subtype o f phraseological units and studied together with the phraseology o f a language is a controversial one. K oonin includes proverbs in his classification o f phraseological units and labels them communicative phraseological units. From his point o f view , one o f the m am criteria o f a phraseological unit is its stability. If thee quotient o f phraseological stability in a w ord-group is not b elow the

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minimum, it means that we are dealing with a phraseological unit. The structural type - that is, whether the unit is a combination or a sentence - is irrelevant. The criterion of nomination and communication cannot be applied here either, says Koonin, because there are a considerable number of verbal phraseological units which are word-groups (i.e. nominative units) when the verb is used in the Active Voice, and sentences (i.e. communicative units) when the verb is used in the Passive Voice.

e.g. to crossed / passedthe Rubicon - the Rubicon is crosse to shed crocodile tears - crocodile tears are shed. Hence, if one accepts nomination as a criterion of referring or not referring this or that unit to phraseology, one is faced with the absurd conclusion that such word-groups, when with verbs in the Active Voice, are phraseological units and belong to the system of the language and when with verbs in the Passive Voice, are non-phraseological word-groups and do not belong to the system of the language. It may be added, as one more argument in support of this concept, that there does not seem to exist any rigid or permanent border-line between proverbs and phraseological units as the latter rather frequently originate from the former.

So, the phraseological unit the last straw originated from the proverb The last straw breaks the camel's back, the phraseological unit bir from the proverbs Birds of a feather flock , the phraseological unit to catch at a straw (straws) from A drowning man catches at straws. What is more, some of the proverbs are easily transformed into phraseological units. e.g. Don't put all your eggs in one basket > to put all one's eggs in one basket; Don't cast pearls before swine > to cast pearls before swine.

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-Lê Ouốc Hạnh, M.A

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UNIT 10

REGIONAL VARIETIES OF ENGLISH ENGLISH IN AMERICA D o the E n glish and the A m erican s speak the sam e language or tw o different languages? D o es the U nited States o f A m erica p o ssess its ow n language? Or A m erican E n glish is just "a regional variety" o f the E nglish language as labelled by som e scholars. To answ er th ese q uestion s, it is n ecessary to find out w hether or not A m erican E nglish , in its m o d em stage o f developm ent, p o sses th ose characteristics w hich w ould support its status as an independent language. V O C A B U L A R Y O F A M E R IC A N E N G L IS H It is quite true that the vocabulary used by A m erican speakers has d istinctive features o f its ow n . M ore than that, there are w h o le groups o f w ords w h ich b elon g to A m erican E n glish ex c lu siv e ly and constitute its sp ecific feature. T hese w ords are called A m erican ism s.

•

H is to r ic a l A m e r ic a n is m s

A t the b egin n in g o f the 17th c. the first E n glish m igrants began arriving in A m erica in search o f n ew and better liv in g conditions. It w as then that E n glish w as first spoken on A m erican so il, and it is but natural that it w as spoken in its 17th century form . For exam p le,

fall m eans autumn, to guess m eans to think, sick m eans ill, unwell.

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HUFS - English Department In A m erican usage these words still retain their old m eanin gs w h ile in British E nglish their m eanings have changed.

•

P ro p e r A m e ric a n ism s

Proper Americanisms includes words which one is not likely to discover in British English. T hey are sp ecifica lly A m erican. The old est o f these were formed by the first m igrants to the A m erican continent and reflected, to a great extent, their attempts to cop e with their n ew environm ent. A m erica w as for them a truly new world in w hich everything w as strikingly and bew ild erin gly different from what it had been in the O ld Country (England): the landscape, clim ate, trees and plants, birds and anim als. Therefore, from the very first, they were faced with a serious lack o f w ords on their vocabulary w ith w hich to describe all these n ew and strange things. Gradually such words w ere form ed. Here are so m e o f them:

backwoods (w ood ed , uninhabited districts) cold snap (a sudden frost) blue-jack (a sm all A m erican oak) egg-plant (a plant with ed ib le fruit) sweet potato (a plant w ith sw eet ed ib le roots) redbud (an A m erican tree having sm all budlike pink flow ers; the state tree o f O klahom a) cat-fish (called so because o f spines likened to a cat’s cla w s) sun-fish (a fish with round flat go ld en body) If w e consider all these words from the point o f v iew o f the "building materials" o f w hich they are m ade w e shall see that these are all fam iliarly English. T hough the words th em selves cannot be found in the British E nglish, both the w ord-building pattern o f com p osition and the constituents o f these com pounds are ea sily recognized as essen tia lly E nglish. Later proper A m ericanism s are represented by nam es o f objects w hich are called differently in the U nited States and in E ngland, for exam p le.

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B ritish E n g lish

chemist's lift railway carriage car sweet luggage underground

A m e ric a n E n g lish is called

drug store or druggist's elevator railroad car automobile candy baggage subway

If historical A m erican ism s have retained their 17th century m eanings there are also words w h ich , though they can be found both in British English and A m erican E n glish , have d evelop ed m eanings characteristic o f Am erican usage.

date is used both in British and A m erican E nglish in the m eanings the time of some event', the day o f the week or month', the year. On the basis

The noun

o f these m ean in gs, in A m erican E nglish only, another m eaning developed: an appointment for a particular tim e.

•

B o r r o w in g s

A m erican E nglish is rich in borrow ings. The principle groups o f borrowed words are the sam e as w ere pointed out for E nglish vocabulary. Y et, there are groups o f sp ecifica lly A m erican borrowings w h ich reflect the historical contacts o f the A m ericans with other nations on the A m erican continent. T hese are, for instance Spanish borrowings: e.g. canyon, ranch, sombrero N egro borrow ings: e.g. banjo and, esp ecia lly , Indian borrow ings w hich are rather num erous and have a peculiar flavour o f their own:

canoe, moccasin, toboggan, tomahawk, caribou There are also so m e translation-loans o f Indian origin:

pale-face 128 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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These words are used metaphorically in both American and British modern communication: For example, a woman who is too heavily made up may be said to wear war paint and a person may be warned against an enemy by: Take care: he is the war path. Many of the names of places, rivers, lakes, even of states, are of Indian origin, for instance, Ohio,Michigan, Tennessee. These words seem to retained in their sound the free wind blowing over the prairie or across the great lakes, the smokes rising over wigwams, the soft speech of darkskinned people. •

S h o r te n in g s

One more group of Americanisms is represented by American shortenings. It should be immediately pointed out that there is nothing specifically American about shortening as away of word-building. It is a productive way of word-building typical of both British and American English. The following shortenings were produced on American soil: auto, mgy ,movies, mo ( for oent,e. g. Just a mo), m cert ( for certainty, e. g. That’s a cert) h. f. (for boy-friend), g. m. ( for grand-mother) Many Americanisms easily penetrate into British speech, and, as a result, some of the distinctive characteristics of American English become erased, so that the differentiations seem to have a tendency of getting levelled rather than otherwise. G R A M M A R S Y S T E M O F A M E R I C A N E N G L IS H

The first distinctive feature is the use of the auxiliary verb in the first person singular and plural of the Future Indefinite Tense, in contrast to the British normative shall: Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M A

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The A m erican I will go there does not im ply m odality, as in the sim ilar British utterance (where it w ill mean ‘7 am willing to go there"), but pure futurity. Som e scholars seem to think that the British E nglish Future In definite show s the sam e ten d en cy o f substituting will for shall in the first person singular and plural.

Another distinctive feature con sists in a tendency to substitute the Past Indefinite T en se com m unication.

for

the

Present

Perfect

T ense,

esp ecia lly

in

oral

Both the British and the A m ericans use the present perfect for som ethin g in the past, w hich is seen as related to the present. BE/ A E :

I veust j come back from France. She has already done this exercise. Have you ever m et his girlfriend? W e haven ’tseen that film yet. H e has never read such an interesting book.

But A m ericans som etim es use the past sim ple in such contexts esp ecia lly with just, already ,y e t ,ever and never M ainly A E :

I just came back from France. She already did this exercise. Did you ever m eet his girlfriend? We din’t see that film yet. He never read such an interesting book.

It is som etim es d ifficu lt to predict what A m ericanism s on e is lik ely to hear on the British Isles. Even m ore so with the substitution o f the Past Indefinite for the Present Perfect w hich is also rather typical o f so m e English d ialects. Just as A m erican usage has retained the old m eanings o f som e E n glish words ( f a l l g, uess, sick), it has also retained the old form o f the Participle o f the verb to get: to get-got-gotten (cf. the British got).

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Som e verbs have both regular and irregular form s: learned and learnt, dreamed and dreamt... The irregular form s are not very usual in A m erica. The British say dreamed or dreamt, the A m ericans say dreamed. The verbs Am erica. BE/ A E : AE o n l y :

dive and fit are regular in Britain but they can be irregular in

dive-dived-dived dive-dove-dived

fit-fitted-fitted fit-fit-fit

N ote : Fit is irregular in A m erica only w hen it m eans “be the right siz e ”. BE: AE:

The suit The suit fit him very w ell.

fitted him very w ell.

It is alw ays regular w hen it m eans “m ake som eth in g the right siz e ” or “put som ething in the right p la ce” BE/AE:

The tailor fitted him with a n ew suit.

Further gram m atical differences can be clearly seen in the fo llo w in g instances. D iffe re n c e s w ith p u n c tu a tio n

•

Periods in abbreviations

A m erican new spapers tend to write "U.S.", "U.N.", etc., w h ile m ost British newspapers w ill write "US", "UN", etc.

•

Quoting

A m ericans w ill usually put punctuation inside quotation marks ("hello world," I said), whereas Britons put the punctuation outside ("hello world", I said) A m ericans start w ith double quotation marks (") and use sin g le quotation marks (') for quotations within quotations. E nglish generally do the opposite.

Nguyin Manh Hung, M.A. -

Le Qudc Hanh,- Lexicolog

HUFS - English Department

Differences with verbs Linking verb + noun phrase:

•

The British can use a noun phrase after a linking verb such as:

be, seem,

look, and feel. M ainly BE :

It looks a n ice day. She seemed ( to be) a good teacher.

The A m ericans do not use this pattern excep t w ith AE:

be and become:

It looks like/It looks to be a nice day. She seemed to be a good teacher.

Do for an action

•

The British som etim es use BE:

do to refer to an action.

I play tennis, but not as often as I used to (do). Y ou have to learned by heart this lesso n if you haven’t already.

(done)

This usage is not found in A m erican E nglish. AE:

I play tennis, but not as often as I used to. Y ou have to learned by heart this lesson if you

But A m ericans use

haven’t already.

do so.

BE/AE: Y ou have to learned by heart this lesso n if you haven’t

done so

already. •

Question tag

A m ericans use tags m uch less often than the British. The British m ay use them several tim es in a conversation, but this w ould sound strange to an

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HUFS - English Department Am erican. A m ericans use tags w hen they exp ect agreem ent. They do not often use them to persuade or argue. : Y ou are playing piano, aren’t you? : Y o u ’ll g o with us , won you ? A m erican often use the tags right ? and : Y o u ’re goin g to Australia , L et’s have a cup o f co ffee, OK?

BE/AE BE only M ainly A E

•

OKI right?

H a ve, h a v e g o t a n d h a ve g o tte n

a. Have and have got : I ’ve got / 1 have tw o sisters . : I have got tw o sisters . : I have tw o sisters.

BE AE (spoken) A E (written)

h. Negatives and questions with have and have got BE/A E M ainly BE BE only

:I :I :I

don haven’t got any sister. haven

’thave any sister. Do you have any Have you got any sister ? ’ta ny sister. Have you any s

c. Negatives and questions with have to and have got to B E /A E BE on ly

: She : She

doesn hasn’t got to stay here.

’thave to s ta y h ere. Does she have to sta Has she got to stay here ?

d. Get someone to do something and have something do something B E /A E : He M ainly A E : H e

•

got his father to repair the b icycle. had his father repair the b icycle.

G o n e a n d b een

The British use use gone.

been for "gone and com e back", but the A m ericans m ostly

B E /A E A E on ly

Have you ever been to France? Have you ever gone to France?

: :

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•

Will and shall

The British use w ill or shall in the first person. A m erican s do not often use shall. BE : I will!shall tell him about this. A E : I will tell him about this. The British use shall in offers , but A m ericans prefer M ainly BE : Shall I play with you? Mainly U S : Should I play with you?

should.

The British can also use Shall w e ... ? in su ggestion s. M ainly BE : Shall w e have a sandw ich? A m erican s w ould say: How about a sandw ich? or Would you like to have a sandw ich? •

Can’t and mustn’t

In Britain o n e use o f must is n egative is can’t . A m ericans B E /A E : T h ere’s no reply. A E on ly : T h ere’s no reply. •

to say that som ething is n ecessarily true. The can also use mustn 7 . T hey can be hom e. They musn be hom e.

The subjunctive

W e can so m etim es use the subjunctive in a that - clau se. In Britain the subjunctive is rather form al. A m ericans use it m ore often . M ain ly BE : M y parents prefer that m y brother lives!should live at h om e. M ain ly A E : M y parents prefer that m y brother live at hom e. •

Group nouns

The British can use a singular or a plural verb after a group noun: M y fa m ily has/have four people The A m erican s prefer a singular verb: M y fa m ily has four people. A fter a nam e the A m ericans alw ays use a singular verb. A E : T he U nited N ations is th e largest international or

134 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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HUFS - English Department •

T w o n o u n s to g e th e r

W hen we use tw o nouns together, the first is not norm ally plural: a grocery store, a word processor. These are som e excep tion s in Britain (A m ericans alm ost alw ays use singular noun). BE : a c a re e rs adviser an ant AE •

:

career adviser

an

antique dealer

T h e with m usical instrum ents

The British use th e w ith a m usical instrument (play th e piano), but A m ericans som etim es leave it out (play piano).

•

T he pronoun o n e

A m ericans do not often use o n e m eaning “people in gen eral“, and they do not use one ’so r oneself. BE : One can solve this problem. M ainly A E : You can solve this problem

•

N u m b e rs

The British use and betw een hundred and the rest o f a number, but A m ericans can leave it out. B E /A E : one hundred and eighty A E on ly : one hundred eigh ty

•

D a te s

There are a num ber o f different w ays o f sayin g and writing dates. A m ericans often say July fourth. In Britain the fourth o f July and July the fourth are the m ost usual. D iffe re n c e s w ith a d je c tiv e s a n d a d v e rb s The adjectives well, predicative position.

fine, ill and unwell refers to health usually com e in

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HUFS - English Department B E /A E : M y father is But they can be attributive, esp e c ia lly in A m erica. M ainly A E : an ill m an

•

A d je c tiv e s

ill.

and a d v e rb s

In inform al sp eech w e can so m etim es use an adjective form instead o f an adverb. A m ericans do this m ore than the British . B E /A E : That w as really n ice o f her. M ainly A E : That w as real n ice o f her.

•

S o m e w h e re

and s o m e p la c e

In inform al A m ericans E n glish everywhere, as, everywhere , somewhere and nowhere. B E /A E : L et’s g o out somewhere. A E on ly : Let’s go out someplace.

someplace can be used as well

D iffe re n c e s w ith p r e p o s itio n s •

O u t (o f)

and r o u n d / a r o u n d

The British norm ally say look o u t o f the w indow , although look o u t the w in dow is p ossib le in inform al sp eech. A m ericans prefer lo o k o u t the

window. T he British say either around the park.

•

E xcept fo r

round the park or around the park. A m ericans prefer

and a sid e f r o m

W here the British use except for, A m erican s can also use B E /A E : I’m alright now , except for a headache.

AE only •

aside from.

: I ’m alright now , aside from a headache.

T h ro u g h a n d

till 1u n til

A m ericans can use through for the tim e when som ething fin ishes.

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HUFS - English Department

AE : / ’llstay in Hanoi through April. BE/AE : I ’ll stay in Hanoi April. D iffe re n c e s w ith c o n ju n c tio n •

G o !co m e

and. ..

A m ericans can leave out and from this pattern. BE : Go and take a look outside. M ainly A E : Go take a look outside.

•

In c a se and lest

The British use in case m eaning “b eca u se som eth in g m ight happen” A m ericans use so and lest. Lest is form al. M ainly BE: G o quietly B E/A E : G o quietly M ainly AE: G o quietly

in case anyone hears y o u . so no one can hear you. lest anyone hear you .

A M E R I C A N E N G L I S H P H O N E T I C P E C U L IA R IT IE S Am erican E nglish is marked by certain phonetic peculiarities. Y et, these consist in the way som e words are pronounced and in the intonation patterns. The system o f phonem es is the sam e as in British E nglish, with a few excep tion s : Som e w ords which are pronounced with /u :/ in m ost varieties o f A m erican E nglish have /ju:/ in British E nglish. (In these words th, d, t or n (and som etim es a- or /) are fo llo w ed by u or ew.) duty A E /d u :ti/ B E /d ju :ti/ tune A E /tu :n / B E /tju :n / new A E /n u :/ B E /n ju :/ illuminate A E / i ’lu: m in eit/ BE / i ’lju: m ineit / •

In British E nglish, m any speakers pronounce the sound o f the sam e way:

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Which and witch are identical The sam e happens to where and wear, whether and weather. In A m erican E nglish wh generally has a different sound from / mV.

/hw/ and

•

B ritish E n g lish has broad “a ” in such words as pass, laugh, plant, half w h ile that sound in A m erivan E nglish is identical with the the sound (flat / a e / ) in cat

•

W ords lik e cot, dog, got, gone, off, stop, lost are pronounced w ith a rounded v o w el in British E nglish w h ile the A m erican usually pronounce it as an unrounded v o w el.

•

In standard southern British, r is on ly pronounced before a vow el sound. In m o st kinds o f A m erican E n glish , r is pronounced in all p ositions w here it is written in a word, and it changes the quality o f a v o w el that c o m es before it. So w ords like car, turn, offer sound very different in British and A m erican speech.

•

In m an y varieties o f A m erican E n glish , t and d have very light v o iced pronunciation /d / b etw een v o w els - so writer and rider, for exam ple, can sound the sam e. In British E nglish they are quite different: / ‘raitS/ and / ‘raitd(r)/.

AMERICAN ENGLISH SPELLING In A m erican E n g lish , w ords tend to be spelled m ore sim ply or more lik e the w ay th ey are pronounced, for exam p le behavior, center and jewelry instead o f behaviour, center and jewellery.

British English v.s American English •

-our v.s -or arm our colou r glam our honour n eighbour

am or color glam or honor neighbor

138 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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HUFS •

•

•

•

-English Department -lv . i ’

jewellery

jew elery

m arvellous

m arvelous

w ollen

w olen

-re v.s centre

center

litre

liter

metre

meter

sombre

som ber

- /v .s

-11-

distil

distill

enrol

enroll

instal

install

instil

instill

skilful

killful

-ae / -oe v.s -e 1

•

anaesthetic

anesthetic

archaeology

archeology

encyclopaedia

en cyclop ed ia

foetus

fetus

m anoeuvre

m aneuver

-ence v.s -ensedefence

defense

offen ce

offen se

pretence

pretense

licen ce (n)

licen se (n)

Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Lexico

HUFS

•

-English Department

-ogue v.s -og analogue catalogue dialogue prologue

•

-amme

analog catalog dialog prolog -am

aerogramme programme

aerogram program

As a rule, hyphens are less frequently used in American English than in British English: dining room rather than dining-room, bitterrootrather than bitter-root. jf

From the above review we may come to conclusion that British and American English, while sharing major similarities, have some differences in pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary and grammar. Such differences lend some credence to Bernard Shaw’s remark: “England and America are two great nations separated by the same language”. However, learners of English should bear in mind that, although British and American people have different preferences in using the English language, the language spoken in the USA can only be regarded as a regional variety of English. It is also important to notice these differences while encountering native speakers if we want successful communication.

140 Nguyen Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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ENGLISH IN ASIA E nglish in A sia now adays has its such a distinctive identity that it cannot be m ixed up with any other variety o f E nglish. It is neither Am erican E nglish nor the British English that Londoners are speaking. Statistics show , at present the A sian population speaking English am ounts to 300 m illion , larger than the population o f the United States and the U nited K ingdom added together. This g o es so far that in a recent sym p osium on E nglish language held in M anila, G erm ino Abad, a Philippine poet eloquently declared:

“

English

isnow ours. We have colonized this

That w as som ew hat an exaggeration. Y et, in reality, there has existed a kind o f “sin icin ed ” English called Pidgin English. In Singapore, young Singaporeans use Singlish. Sim ilarly, Indian people adopt their ow n English. M alaysians also “ ” a kind o f E nglish Taglish -for them selves. If you have a chance to attend a con feren ce in the region you w ill find out that the speakers as w ell as all other participants speak E nglish with a w ide variety o f accents and word usages. The M acquarie D ictionary has cooperated with the D e Salle U niversity (P hilippines) to com pile a dictionary w hich includes com m on E nglish words that are not recognized by Am erican and E nglish lexicographers. For exam ple, they refuse such entries as dirty kitchen (an extra-kitchen for daily m eals) or bride-price (very popular in H ong K ong) w hich is the m oney the b o y ’s fam ily paid for the girl. F ilip in os still use words like solon, viand w hich for long have no longer been heard in A m erica or Britain. W hat is m ore, they have coined such words as American time (right tim e), green joke (sexually-related joke).

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HUFS - English Department Pidgin English has b ecom e popular since marine trade betw een British and C hinese merchants w as in bloom throughout A sia. T his is the kind o f E nglish which is deliberately sim p lified and “ ’ w ith certain changes o f gram m atical structures to enable the learners to catch it the sooner the better (pidgin E nglish is now flourishing in A frica). For exam ple: In H ong K ong the verb m eaning o f be. M alaysians m ake it

belong is converted into blong and it gets the

bilong m eaning of.

A number o f n ew ly-coin ed words sound quite fun, for exam ple, bilong klaut (light o f cloud) instead o f lightning.

lait

W hy bother to talk about this m ixed stuff? Y e s, it is very interesting that A m ericans and E n glish people can e a sily understand Pidgin English w hile they m isunderstand each other som etim es for the different use o f words. L ook at a sentence typical o f Singlish:

“Pm starving. Let's meet in the void deck in half an hour and fetch you to the hawker centre to eat the ”. In this sentence there are so m e words that sound strange to native E n glish speakers. Y et, they are so popular am ong the Singaporeans.

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HUFS - English Department E N G L IS H IN A U S T R A L IA A N D N E W Z E A L A N D The spread o f the E nglish language over w idely-dispersed regions led to m any areas d evelop ing an independent variety. Australians and N ew Zealanders have exhibited sim ilar dependence, both in vocabulary and in idiom . The E nglish o f A ustralia is very dom inantly the English o f Britain. But the English that w as brought into these form er co lon ies has been altered and expanded during the past tw o hundred years. A n ew country dem ands a n ew vocabulary for new exp eriences, new landscapes, a n ew sk y, n ew flora and fauna, and new manners. W ords have been created. Others have had to be adapted to form m eanings different from those o f their E nglish originals. In both countries, lively colloq u ialism s are com m on at all points in the social spectrum. O ne o f the hom ogen eity, distance from im p ossib le to d ifferen ces o f

truly remarkable things about Australian E nglish is its con siderin g the vast reaches across which it is spoken. The Sydn ey to Perth is over 3 ,0 0 0 kilom etres, yet it is practically distinguish the accent o f people from the tw o cities. Several vocabulary usage do occur from state to state.

For instance, the light collap sib le chair on w h eels used for carrying sm all children is know n as a stroller in N ew South W ales, a pusher in Victoria; the sandw ich spread w hich is called peanut butter in N ew South W ales is referred to as peanut paste in South A ustralia and Q ueensland. W herever E nglish is spoken in A ustralia, in fact one finds a scale o f different varieties, or styles, o f pronunciation. In describing present-day Australian pronunciation it is usual, follow in g M itchell and D elbridge (1 9 6 5 ) to distinguish three main varieties along this scale: Broad, General and Cultivated.

Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M

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A

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- Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Lexicolog

HUFS - English Department Australian E nglish is characterized by a distinctive vocabulary, as w ell as accent. W hen you m eet your Australian friend, you can very often hear such phrases as:

ow‘ H

“G ’ day, mate", “ A nd if you ask him or her:

“How

’sthings? ”

you m ay get the answer:

“

She'llbe right" w hich m eans “

is OK."

Som e m ore words and phrases can be nam ed here for exam ple:

* The tallest guy with a kepi on is • •

a copper (a policem an).

Technicolouryawn: to vom it About right: absolutely correct.

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• Sheila: a member of the female sex. • Top night: one has been blind drunk. • Tinned dog: corned beef or mutton. • Baked dinner: traditional Sunday midday meal. • To take a shine to: to take a liking to someone. • Shout: to stand a round in a school of drinkers in a pub. • Happy as a bastard on father's day: extremely unhappy. As in Australia, In New Zealand the English language became established around the beginning of the nineteenth century. As a result, the New Zealand and Australian accents are, despite one or two phonological differences, so similar that most outsiders have difficulty distinguishing them. When we return to the vocabulary of New Zealand English, once again we find the resemblances with the Australian English more striking than the differences. Links between the two countries have always been close. In the early days of sealing and whaling, New Zealand was simply part of the Australians’ area of operation and later on, when New Zealand had become more settled, Australian sheepfarmers began to cross the Tasman. The gold rushes brought a further wave of Australians. Yet, occasionally one finds minor variations in common words and expressions. For example: A weekender in Australia is a and hiking is referred to as tramping.

bachin New Zealand, a

Australian rough as bags has become rough as sacks in New Zealand, etc. The spelling of Australian and New Zealand English traditionally that of British English but American spelling is now sometimes also found. Although there are differences between the English of Australia and that of New Zealand, the two varieties are sufficiently similar to be treated together.

Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, MA. -

Lê Quốc Hạnh,Lexicolo

HUFS

-English Department

CANADIAN ENGLISH In spelling, Canadian usage stands m id w ay betw een A m erican E n glish and British E nglish. The usage is h ow ever far from uniform and varies from province to province and even from person to person. H ence sp ellin g s such as color, traveler and center, and colour, traveller and centre, are to be found alongside each other. In pronunciation, Canadian E n glish exh ib its features found in both A m erican E nglish and British E nglish although it is more co m m on ly fo llo w s A m erican English. Like A m erican E nglish, Canadian E nglish pronounces position and before a consonant.

r in w ord-final

In the pronunciation o f m any C anadians, w ords such as rhym e, as in A m erican English.

matter, madder

ENGLISH IN THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT E nglish in India, Pakistan and B angladesh is norm ally learned as a secon d language, and is often greatly in flu en ced by the speaker’s first language. Thus no hom ogen ou s Indian E n glish can be described here but on ly a num ber o f features about w hich one m ay m ake so m e general remarks. T w o com m on features o f Indian E n glish are the u se o f retroflex t, British E nglish t, d, etc. and the substitution o f p, t, d f o r th, dh.

d, etc. for

Speakers w h ose native language is H indi or Urdu tend to insert an i before the initial consonant clusters in w ords such as speech, school, b ecau se th ese consonant groups do not occur in initial position in Hindi or Urdu. Indian E nglish pronounces w ord-final and pre-consonantal V o w els in unstressed syllab les are often pronounced in the sam e w ay they w ould be in stressed syllables.

146 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A. -

Lê QuốcLexicology

HUFS - English Department G lossary A bsolute synonym s: các từ đồng nghĩa tuyệt đối adjectival phraseological units: đơn vị ngữ cú thuộc tính từ adverbial phraseological units: đơn vị ngữ cú thuộc trạng từ affixation: phương thức thêm phụ tố A m ericanism s: đặc ngữ M ỹ antonym s: các từ đối nghĩa anachcronism : từ ngữ lỗi thời archaic words: các từ cổ assim ilation (adaptation) o f borrowings: đồng hoá từ vay mượn Back form ation (reversion): tạo ngược (cách tạo từ) barbarism: (việc sử dụng) từ lai căng, dung tục basic vocabulary: vốn từ vựng cơ bản blending: cấu tạo từ lồn g ghép bookish words: các từ sách vở borrowed elem ent: yếu tố vay mượn broadening (generalization) o f m eaning: sự m ở rộng nghĩa C eltic borrowings: từ mượn từ tiếng của người Celt cliché: sáo ngữ com binability: khả năng kết hợp (collocab ility) colloq u ial words (colloq u ialism s): từ thông tục com m unicative phraseological units: đơn vị thành ngữ giao tiếp com ponential analysis: phân tích thành tố nghĩa com position: cấu tạo từ ghép com pounds: các từ ghép connotation: nghĩa hàm ẩn, nghĩa biểu cảm connotative com ponent o f m eaning: thành tố nghĩa hàm ẩn, biểu cảm context: ngữ cảnh contracted com pounds: các từ ghép rút gọn conversion: chuyển loại D egeneration (degradation) o f m eaning: thoái hoá nghĩa denotative m eaning (denotation): nghĩa chỉ định, biêu đạt derived (derivational) com pounds: từ ghép phái sinh d evelopm ent o f m eaning: phát triển nghĩa diachronic approach: cách xem xét lịch đại

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dialect: phương ngữ d ialect words (dialectism s): từ địa phương dom inant synonym : từ (đồng nghĩa) chủ đạo E levation o f m eaning: g ia tăng nghĩa E nglish proper elem ent: các yếu tố đ ích thực của tiếng Anh ety m o lo g ica l doublets: từ sinh đôi (từ đúp) cùng g ố c ety m o lo g y o f words: từ nguyên học của từ euphem ism : (việc sử dụng) uyển ngữ, nhã ngữ external structure o f the word: cấu trúc bên ngoài của từ external (form al) unity o f the word: tính thống nhất bên ngoài (hình thức) của từ F orm al style: phong cách trang trọng free word-groups: cá c nhóm từ tự d o French affixes: các biến tô c ó g ố c từ tiến g Pháp French borrowings: các từ vay mượn tiếng Pháp functional style: phong cách chức năng fusion: thành ngữ hoà kết G erm anic elem ent: các yếu tô thuộc ngôn ngữ G erm anic G reek borrowings: từ vay mượn từ tiến g H y lạp graphic : thuộc về cách viết //isto r ism s: từ cổ chi' (các vật nay không cò n tồn tại) hom ographs: các từ đ ồng tự h om on ym s proper: từ đồng âm hoàn toàn (cả âm và tự) hom ophones: các từ đồng âm (h yp onym s) /d eograp h ic synonym s: các từ đồng nghĩa theo ý idiom : thành ngữ idiom atic (com pounds): (các từ gh ép ) c ó tính thành ngữ idiolect: ngôn ngữ cá nhân Indo-European elem ents: các yếu tố Â n - Âu inform al style: phong cách thông tục interjectional phraseological units: cá c đơn vị thành ngữ thán từ internal structure o f the word: cấu trúc bên trong của từ Juxtaposition: đặt kề nhau

148 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A.

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H U F S - E n g lis h D e p a r tm e n t

Learned words: từ sách vở lexico-grammatical homonyms: đồng âm ngữ nghĩa - ngữ pháp lexicology: từ vựng học literary colloquial words: từ thông tục đích thực low colloquial words: từ thông tục tầm thường M eaning: nghĩa metaphor: ẩn dụ m etonym y: hoán dụ m odes o f poetic diction: lớp từ vựng thi ca. morpheme: hình vị m orphological com pounds: các từ ghép hình vị m ulti-sum m it phraseological units: các đơn vị thành ngữ đa đỉnh N arrow ing (sp ecialization ) o f m eaning: thu hẹp nghĩa native elem ent: yếu tố bản ngữ native suffixes: các hậu tố bản ngữ * n eologism : từ mới đặt ra, từ m ới tạo ra neutral com pounds: các từ ghép trung hoà nom inative phraseological units: các đơn vị thành ngữ danh từ non-productive affixes: các biến tố không hữu sinh nonce-w ords: các biệt từ (từ đặt ra đề dùng trong trường hợp đặc biệt) O bsolete words: các từ lỗ i thời officialese: ngôn ngữ quan cách, từ ngữ cô n g văn on e sum m it phraseological units: các đơn vị thành ngữ m ột đỉnh onom atopoeia: từ tượng thanh Paradigm : hệ biến hoá, hệ từ paradigm atic level: bình diện hệ hình palindrome: từ đọc xu ôi ngược như nhau phraseological com binations: các thành ngữ kết hợp phraseological fusions: các thành ngữ hoà kết polysem antic word: từ đa nghĩa p olysem y: hiện tượng đa nghĩa productive affixes: các biến tố hữu sinh professional term inology: thuật ngữ nghề nghiệp proper A m ericanism s: đặc ngữ M ĩ chính thống pun: chơi chữ

Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A. - Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

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2003 149

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Reduplication: hiện tượng láy referent: sự vật, hiện tượng m à từ biểu thị, cái sở chỉ. root word: từ g ố c (base, radical) Sem antic com ponent: thành tố nghĩa sem antics: ngữ nghĩa học (sem a sio lo g y ) sem antic unity o f the word: tính thống nhất về n gh ĩa sem i-affixes: cá c bán biến tố sem i-fix ed (sem i-free) word-groups: nhóm từ bán c ố định (bán tự do) shortening (contraction): rút g ọ n slang: tiếng lóng sim ple neutral com pounds: cá c từ gh ép trung tính đơn giản social taboo: từ k iên g thuộc v ề m ặt x ã hội sound im itation (onom atopoeia): từ tượng thanh split p olysem y: hiện tượng đa nghĩa tách biệt standard EnglisJj: tiếng A nh chuẩn m ực stem: thân từ stylistic synonym s: các từ đ ồng nghĩa thuộc phong cách substantive phraseological units: cá c đơn vị thành ngữ danh từ superstitious taboos: các từ k iên g kị d o m ê tín synchronic approach: cách x em xét đ ồng đại synonym s: cá c từ đồng nghĩa syntactic com pounds: các từ gh ép cú pháp syntagm atic level: bình diộn n gữ đoạn Term: từ, thuật ngữ taboo : (sự, đ iều ) k iên g kị transference: sự chuyển đổi n ghĩa transference based on con tigu ity (m etonym y): transference based on resem blance: translation loans:

sự chuyển đổi nghĩa do quan hệ gần gũi (hoán dụ) sự ch u yển đổi do g iố n g nhau về hình thức

các từ sao phỏng

Verbal phraseological units: cá c đơn vị thành n g ữ động từ vocabulary o f a language: vốn từ vựng củ a m ột ngôn ngữ w ord-building: cấu tạo từ vulgarism : từ ngữ thông tục

150 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A. - Lé Quốc Hạnh, M.A

Lexicology

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-E n g lis h D e p a r tm e n t

LANGUAGE AND HUMOUR Limericks Edward Lear (1 8 1 2 -1 8 8 8 ) did not invent the lim erick, but he m ade the form popular. •

A fellow w h ile eating at Crewe Found a very large m ou se in his stew. Said the waiter, D o n ’t shout And w ave it about, Or the rest w ill be w anting one too."

•

There was a young fe llo w o f Perth, W ho was born on the day o f his He was married, they say, On his w ife ’s w edding day, And died - when he quitted the earth.

birth

H u m o u r in verse Funny verse lines are usually regular in form , with clear rhym es (lik e honey/funny, life/k n ife b elow ). But so m e poets enjoy using false rhym es, like this O gden Nash exam ple: •

I sit in an o ffic e at 224 M adison Avenue And say to m y self, “Y ou have responsible job, ‘ And others m ake the lin es irregular for fun, like this lim erick:

•

A n accident happened to m y brother W hen som ebody threw som e tom atoes at Tom ato are ju icy and d on ’t hurt his skin, But these had been carefully packed in a

S m a ll a d s

Accommodation •

O ne room in a quiet house with cup board for m id dle-age wom an.

Wanted •

Sm all table for kitchen w ith m etal legs.

For s a le •

g, M.A.

Grand piano for sale by a lady with very fin e legs.

-Lê Quốc Hạnh, M A

Lexicology

2003 151

HUFS

• •

-English Department

Leather coat for lady in very good condition.

GUERNSEY COW that g iv es 5 litres o f m ilk, four p igs, one w ooden hat stand and a leather ROMEO and JULIET.

Lost •

An um brella travelling by bus from L ondon to Brighton.

Odd announcements Y ou m iss a lot o f fun if you d o n ’t read the n otices in loca l newspapers and (in Britain) on cards pinned up in the sm all local new spaper shop, sw eet shop, etc.

H om e help com pany Let us: •

Clean carpets in your hom e

•

M end broken w indow s

•

Repair electrical things

•

M ove heavy cupboards. Etc. etc. etc.

D on ’t kill your w ife w ith hard w ork Let us do it for you !

Ambiguity •

Dr. G eorge Smith gave an interesting talk on w ild anim als. There were about one hundred o f them present.

•

Y ou cannot look beautiful if you have a shiny nose. T o d a y ’s advice tells you how not to have a shiny nose. Why not cut it out and stick it on a card, then hang it up in the bath room ?

Spoonerisms Here are som e exam p les that the dictionaries word spoonerism . •

g iv e w hen th ey explain the

Let m e sew you to a sheet, (for: let m e sh ow you to a seat)

Longman Dictionary o f Contemporary English •

Y ou have h issed the m ystery lectures, (for: m issed the history)

Concise Oxford Dictionary •

Our queer dean, (for: dear queen).

Encyclopedic World Dictionary 152 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M A.

-Lẻ Quốc Hạnh, M.A

HUFS

- E n g lis h

D e p a r tm e n t

Quotations S o m e w e ll-k n o w n w riters and o th er h a v e had a taste for fu n , and w e e n j o y q u o ta tio n s from th e ir b o o k or s a y in g s . •

T a k e ca re

to g et w h at y o u lik e , or y o u w ill b e fo rce d to lik e w h a t y o u

get.

George Barnard Shaw •

W h en a d ip lo m a t s a y s ” Y e s ” , h e m e a n s “ P erh ap s” ; w h en h e s a y s “ P erh ap s” , h e m e a n s ”N o ” ; an d if h e s a y s “ N o ” , h e is not a d ip lo m a t.

•

W h en a la d y s a y s “ N o ” , sh e m e a n s “ P erh ap s” ; w h e n sh e s a y s “ P er h a p s” , h e m ea n s ” Y e s ” ; and if sh e s a y s “ Y e s ” , sh e is n o t a lad y.

A n a g ra m s

A word

or

aphrase formed by the letters of another in different dirtyroom

D o rm ito ry L iste n -

silent

detectthieves E le v e n p lu s tw o - twelve plus one M o th e r -in -la w - woman Hitler G e o r g e B u sh - He bugs Gore S lo t m a c h in e s - cash lostin them T h e M o r se C o d e - here comes dots S c h o o lm a ste r - the classroom A te le p h o n e girl - repeating "Hello" T h e co u n tr y sid e - No City Dust here A str o n o m e r s - Moon starers T h e G reat N e w Y o rk R ap id T ran sit T u n n e l - Giant work in street, partly underground D a rlin g I lo v e y o u - Leaving your idol H e a v y rain? - Hire a navyl A r o llin g sto n e g a th e rs n o m o s s - Stroller on go, amasses nothing S o ftw a re - swear oft (s h o r te n e d fo rm o f often) A d m ir er - married D e b it card (tín d ụ n g trả trư ớc) - bad cre T h e d e te c tiv e -

Nguyen Mạnh Hùng, M.A. -

Lê Quốc Hạnh, MLexicolog

HUFS

-English Department

References Antrushina G .B ., A fanasyeva O .V ., M orozova N .N . (1 9 8 5 )

The

Arnold I.V . (1 9 8 3 ) Bradley H. (1 9 9 3 ) Claire E. (1 9 9 8 )

M oscow . M oscow .

The Making of English. Ldn.

Dangerous English 2 0 0 0 .

Crystal D . (1 9 9 2 ) E lgin H.

EnglishWord.

English

D elta P ublishing C om pany, U SA .

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. CUP.

s. (1 9 7 3 ) What

is

From kin V ., Rodm an R., C ollins p. Blair D . (1 9 8 8 )

linguistics“?, N.J An Introduction to Language. Syd.

Gordon A .I., W ilk es A .G . (1 9 8 3 )

Word

The N S W 2010.

K oonin A . (1 9 8 0 ) Partridge E. (1 9 9 4 ) Swan M . (1 9 9 7 ) Turner

English Lexicology.

M oscow .

The World of Words. London.

Practical English Usage. O xford

G.w. (1 9 9 3 )

N guyễn N hư Ý. (1 9 9 6 ) N guyễn V ãn Tư. (1976)

Stylisc.London. Từ điển

Giải

thíchngữ Ngôn

Từvà vốn

154 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A. - Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A - Lexicology

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CHỊU TRÁCH NHIỆM XUẤT BẢN Giám đốc: NGÔ TRAN á i Tổng biên tập: v ũ DƯƠNG THỤY Biên tạp tái bản: TRAN t h ị k h á n h

CHỊU TRÁCH NHIỆM NỘI DUNG Hiệu trưởng Trường ĐHNN: NGUYÊN XUÂN VANG

Sửa bài: Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, Nguyễn Văn Nghĩa Trình bày sách: Nguyễn Văn Nghĩa Trình bày bìa: Nguyễn Văn Nghĩa, Nguyễn Minh Chính Chế bản tại: Xưởng in Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ

In 1000 cuốn khổ 17x24 tại Xưởng in trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ. Số xuất bản 289/CXB; cấp ngày 1 1 - 7 - 2003. In xong và nộp lưu chiểu tháng 9 năm 2003. 156 Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, M.A. - Lê Quốc Hạnh, M.A

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