Etymology of the English Word-Stock

A. Points for discussion

1. The origin of English words.

2. Causes and ways of borrowings.

3. Assimilation of loan words.

4. Loan words impact upon the English vocabulary.

5. Etymological doublets in English.

6. International and pseudo-international words in the English language.

 

Recommended References:

Antrushina et al. Ibid., Chapters 3 & 4, pp. 44-70.

Arnold I.V. Ibid. pp.252- 255, 259-261

Дубенец Э.М. Ibid., pp. 98 – 123.

Glossary: borrowing, loan word, etymology, etymological doublets, assimilation, international word, cognate

B. Assignments

Exercise 1. Subdivide the following words of native origin into a) Indo-European; b) Germanic; c) English proper.

daughter, woman, land, cow, moon, red, three, lady, always, bear, lord, nose, glad, heart, hand, night, to eat, to see, to make

Exercise 2. Explain the etymology of the following words. Write them down in 3 columns as a) fully assimilated; b) partially assimilated; c) unassimilated. State the type of assimilation (phonetical, graphical, lexical), if necessary.

pen, hors’d’oeuvre, ballet, beet, butter, skin, take, cup, police, distance, monk, garage, phenomenon, wine, large, justice, lesson, criterion, nice, coup’detat, sequence, gay, port, river, loose, autumn, low, uncle, lunar, bishop, regime, eau-de-Cologne

Exercise 3. Using an etymological dictionary compare the meanings of the following pairs of words and explain why they are called etymological doublets.

captain – chieftain, canal – channel, goal – jail, shadow – shade, pauper – poor, scar – share

Exercise 4. a) Do the etymology exercise at http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/Etymology-Exercise.htm. Consult the online dictionaries: http://www.etymonline.com and www.merriam-webster.com

b) Do the etymology matching quiz at http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/etymolquiz.htm. Check your answers.

Exercise 5. State the etymological composition of the following words and explain why they are called hybrids

avidly, countless, courtly, faintness, goddess, hindrance, joyful, relationship, unquestionable

Exercise 6. Give at least 10 examples of international words belonging to different spheres of human activity

SEMINAR No. 3

Semantic Structure of the English Word.

A. Points for discussion

1. The object of semasiology. The concept and definition of meaning.

2. Types of meaning in English: a) lexical meaning vs the notion; b) grammatical meaning and part-of-speech meaning; c) word meaning and motivation.

3. Word meaning and usage.

Recommended References:

Antrushina et al. Ibid. Chapters 7, pp.129-

Arnold I.V. Ibid, pp, 37-39, 42-47.

Дубенец Э.М. Ibid., pp.123-125.

Glossary: semasiology, lexical meaning, part-of-speech meaning, denotation, connotation

B. Assignments:

Exercise 1. Is there any lexical difference between day, day’s, days, days’? What is the grammatical meaning of these units? Proceeding from the working definitions of the concepts of lexical meaning and grammatical meaning explain the difference between them

1) tree, tree’s, trees, trees; 2) write, wrote, writing, written; 3) writes, sings, runs, goes; 3) boys, girls, students, teachers; 5) colour, colours; colours; 6) bead, beads; beads.

Exercise 2. Explain why the following words are treated as motivated or non-motivated. State the type of motivation (phonetic, grammatical, or semantic) where necessary:

splash, unanswerable, to winter, a bee (трудолюбивый человек), skin-deep, big, to read, baker’s dozen.

Exercise 3. Look up the italicized words in the English-English dictionary. Identify the denotative and connotative components of the meaning in the following words. Use the words in the sentences that follow. (Choose either (a) or (b)

a) murmur, mumble, grumble, mutter, whine, scream

1. She _____ when she saw the snake. 2. The breakfast was spoilt; everybody was _______ the porridge was burnt. 3. The child was ____ for a toy. 4. “Do you really care for me,” Eve ______. 5. “I don’t know what the world is coming to”, he ____. 6. The stranger _____ something but so indistinctly that I could not make anything out.

b) walk, stroll, wander, stagger, shuffle, creep, slip, dash

1. The old man was ____ down the corridor. 2. For a long time he ___ about the town. He _____out of the room unnoticed. 4. He _____ towards the door, trying to make no noise. 5. He was bumped into by the women who ____ out of the shop doors with their purchases, without looking first to right or left. 6. Now I was quite content to ____ mile after mile through this silent moonlit wood. 7. He ____ towards the door clutching at his wound, and then fell to the door. 8. They ____ down the land hand in hand.

Seminar No.4