Introduction to Text Analysis STYLISTIC CLASSIFICATION OF THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY Lesson 4 Friday, March 23, 2018
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General Considerations ď Ž
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The word-stock of any natural language can be roughly divided into three (uneven!) groups, differing from each other by the range of their use. The biggest group contains neutral words, which possess no stylistic connotation and which are suitable for any communicative situation.
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Two smaller groups are literary and colloquial words, respectively. The common literary, neutral and colloquial words are grouped under the term standard English vocabulary.
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Neutral Words
Neutral words form the “lexical backbone” of all functional styles. They are understood and accepted by all English-speaking language users.
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Being the main source of synonymy and polysemy, neutral words easily produce new meanings and stylistic variants. Compare for example:
mouse =
1) a small furry animal with a long tail; 2) a small device that you move in order to do things on a computer screen; 3) someone who is quiet and prefers not to be noticed.
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Literary vs. Colloquial ď Ž
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Literary words serve to satisfy communicative demands of official, scientific, poetic messages, while the colloquial ones are used in non-official everyday communication. There is no immediate correlation between the written and the oral form of speech on the one hand, and the literary and colloquial words, on the other. 6
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Yet, for the most part, the first ones are mainly observed in the written form, as most literary messages appear in writing. And vice versa: though there are many examples of colloquialisms in writing (informal letters, diaries, certain passages of memoirs, etc.), their usage is associated with the oral form of communication.
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Consequently, taking for analysis printed materials we shall find literary words in authorial speech, descriptions, narratives, etc. while colloquialisms will be observed in the types of discourse, simulating (copying) everyday oral communication – for example in the dialogue (or interior monologue) of a prose work.
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When we classify some speech (text) fragment as literary or colloquial it does not mean that all the words constituting it have a corresponding stylistic meaning. More than that: words with a pronounced stylistic connotation are few in any type of discourse, the overwhelming majority of its lexis being neutral.
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Literary Stratum of the Word-stock
The literary vocabulary consists of the following groups of words:
1) common literary; 2) terms and learned words; 3) poetic words; 4) archaic words; 5) barbarisms and foreign words; 6) neologisms or nonce-words.
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Common literary words
Common literary words are chiefly used in writing and in “polished speech”. Literary units stand in opposition to colloquial units. This is especially apparent when pairs of synonyms, literary and colloquial, can be formed within a contrasting relation.
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For example: Colloquial kid daddy chap get out go on
Neutral child father fellow go away continue
Literary infant male parent associate retire proceed
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Terms
Terms are words denoting objects, processes, humanities, technique(s). The domain of their usage is the scientific functional style. The denotative meanings of terms are clearly defined. A term is monosemantic and has no synonyms. 13
Terms of general nature are interdisciplinary (approbation, anomaly, interpretation, definition, monograph, etc.). Semantically narrow terms belong to a defined branch of science (math.: differential, vector, hypotenuse, equation, logarithm). When used in other functional styles, terms produce different stylistic effects. They may sound humorous and make speech “clever” and “scientific-like”. 14
Poetic Words
The stylistic function of poetic words is to create poetic images and make speech “elevated”. They are by nature archaic. Many poetic words have lost their original strength/communocative force and have become conventional symbols due to their constant repetition in poetry (steed for horse; quoth for said; woe for sorrow). 15
Archaisms
Archaisms
a) are words denoting historical phenomena which are no more in use (such as yeoman, vassal, falconet). These are historical words. b) are words which in the course of language history were replaced by newer synonymic words (such as whereof = of which; to deem = to think; repast = meal; nay = no) or forms (maketh = makes; thou wilt = you will; brethren = brothers). These are called archaic words / forms proper. 16
The beginning of the aging process of a word is marked by decrease in its usage. Rarely used words are called obsolescent. To English obsolescent words belong the pronoun thou and its forms thee, thy, thine, the verbs with the ending -est (thou makest) and the ending -th (he maketh), and other similar “historical survivals”. 17
Obsolete words have gone completely out of usage though they are still recognized by the native speakers (methinks = it seems to me; nay = no). Archaic words belong to Old English and are not recognized nowadays. The main function of old words in various functional styles is to create a realistic background to historical works of literature. 18
Barbarisms and Foreignisms
Barbarisms and foreignisms are borrowings from other languages. The greater part of barbarisms was borrowed into English from French and Latin (protégé, a propos, alter ego). Barbarisms are assimilated borrowings. Being part of the English word-stock, they are fixed in dictionaries. 19
Foreignisms are non-assimilated borrowings occasionally used in speech for stylistic reasons. They do not belong to the English vocabulary and are not registered by lexicographers. The main function of barbarisms and foreignisms is to create a realistic background to the stories about foreign habits, customs, traditions and conditions of life.
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Neologisms
Neologisms (or nonce-words) are newly introduced words. Most of them are terms. The layer of terminological neologisms has been rapidly growing since the start of the technological revolution. The sphere of the Internet alone gave birth to thousands of new terms which have become international (network, server, browser, e-mail, provider, site, Internet Message Access Protocol, Hypertext Transfer Protocol, etc.). 21
Recent discoveries in biochemistry, genetic engineering, plasma physics, microelectronics, oceanography, cosmonautics and other sciences also demanded new words to name new concepts and ideas. However, the vocabulary of our everyday usage is also being enlarged by neologisms. Bankomat means “a European system of automatic cash-ejecting machines”. Bank card means “a small plastic card that you use for making payments or for getting money from the bank”, etc. 22
Colloquial Stratum of the Word-stock
Colloquial words mark the message as informal, non-official, conversational. The colloquial vocabulary falls into the following groups:
1) common colloquial words; 2) slang; 3) jargonisms; 4) professional words; 5) dialectal words; 6) vulgar words. 23
Common colloquial words
Common colloquial vocabulary is part of standard English word-stock. It borders both on neutral vocabulary and on special colloquial vocabulary. Colloquialisms are familiar words and idioms used in informal speech and writing, but unacceptable in formal or polite conversation or business correspondence.
“Sir, you speak clearly and to the point” vs. “Bro, you talk plain and hit the nail right on the head”. 24
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Many colloquial words are extremely emotional and image-bearing. For example, the interjections oops, oh, gee, wow, alas are capable of rendering dozens of contextual subjective modal meanings, such as gladness, rapture, disappointment, resentment, admiration, etc.
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Slang
Slang is sometimes described as the language of sub-cultures or the language of the streets. Linguistically, slang can be viewed as a sub-dialect. It is hardly used in writing – except for stylistic effect. Slang words, used by most speakers in very informal communication, are highly emotive and expressive and as such, they lose their originality rather fast and are replaced by newer formations. This tendency to synonymic expansion results in long chains of synonyms of various degrees of expressiveness, denoting one and the same concept. 26
The substandard status of slang words and phrases, through universal usage, can be raised to the standard colloquial: pal, chum, crony for friend; heavies, woollies for thick panties; booze for liquor; dough for money; how’s tricks for how’s life; beat it for go away and many more – are examples of such a transition. The vast majority of slangy words and expressions are neither taboo, vulgar, derogatory, nor offensive in meaning, sound or image. Picturesque metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole and irony make slangy words spicy. 27
Jargonisms ď Ž
Jargonisms stand close to slang, also being substandard, expressive and emotive, but unlike slang they are used by limited groups of people, united either professionally (in that case we deal with professionalisms), or socially (here we deal with jargonisms proper).
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In distinction from slang, jargonisms of both types cover a narrow semantic field. In the case of professionalisms they are connected to the technical side of some profession. Covering the field of special professional knowledge, which is semantically limited, they offer a vast variety of synonymic choices for naming one and the same professional item. 29
For example, in industry for the terminological driller, there exist borer, digger, wrencher, hogger, brake weight; for pipeliner– swabber, bender, cat, old cat, collar-pecker, hammerman; for geologist in science – smeller, pebble pup, rock hound, witcher, etc. From all the examples at least two points are evident:
professionalisms are formed according to the existing word-building patterns; they present existing words in new meanings.
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Jargonisms proper are characterized by similar linguistic features, but differ in function and domain of application. They originated from the thieves’ jargon (argot) and served to conceal the actual significance of the utterance. Their major function thus was to be cryptic, secretive. 31
This is why among them there are cases of intentional and conscious “deformation” of the existing words. The so-called back jargon (or back slang) can serve as an example: in their effort to conceal the machinations of dishonest cardplaying, gamblers used numerals in their reversed and/or altered form: ano for one, owt for two, erth for three. 32
Vulgarisms and obscene words
Vulgarisms or obscene words are coarse words with a strong emotive meaning, mostly derogatory, normally avoided in polite conversation. They may be viewed as part of slang. The most popular images are food, money, sex and sexual attraction, people’s appearances and characters. Because they are not standard, formal or acceptable under all conditions, these words are usually considered vulgar, impolite and unacceptable. 33
History of vulgarisms reflects the history of social ethics. So, in Shakespearian times people were much more linguistically frank and dysphemistic in their communication than in the age of Enlightenment or the Victorian era, famous for its prudish and reserved manners. Nowadays words which were labelled vulgar in the XVIIIth and XIXth centuries are not considered as such any more. 34
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In fact, at present we are faced with the reverse of the problem: there are practically no words banned from use by the modern permissive society.
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Such intensifiers as bloody, damned, cursed, hell of, formerly deleted from literature and not allowed in conversation, are not only welcomed in both written and oral speech, but, due to constant repetition, have lost much of their emotive impact and substandard quality. 35