Main types of English dictionaries.

Lecture 1. Main types of English dictionaries.

ENCYCLOPAEDIC AND LINGUISTIC DICTIONARIES. The choice of words: thing-books vs wordbooks;

all words of the language vs words of designative character (names for substances, diseases, animals,

institutions, terms of science, biographical data). The information about a word in an entry: spelling,

pronunciation, meaning, examples of use vs extensive extralinguistic information. Cf the entries for CAT:

CAT (family Felidae), any of a group of carnivorous mammals that includes the true cats—lion, tiger,

jaguar, leopard, puma, and domestic cat—and the cheetah (see photograph). Cats typically have soft fur,

often strikingly patterned. See also domestic cat. The history of the cat family can be traced through the

fossil record to the Late Eocene Epoch (43.6 to 36.6 million… (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

cat [kæt] 1. small , domestic, fur-covered animal often kept as a pet, to catch mice, etc. (=wild cat) any

animal of the group that includes tigers, lions, panthers and leopards. bell the cat see bell (2). Let the

cat out of the bag see bag (1). Like a cat on hot bricks, very nervous or jumpy… (A.S. Hornby. Oxford

Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of current English).

Most well-known encyclopaedias: The Encyclopaedia Britannica (in 24 vos.); Encyclopaedia Britannica

Macropaedia and Micropaedia. The Encyclopaedia Americana (in 30 vols); Collier’s Encyclopaedia (in 24

vols)(for teachers and students); Chamber’s encyclopaedia (familry type reference book); Everyman’s

Encyclopaedia (for all-round use).

Specialized encyclopaedias : The Oxford Companion to English Literature, the Oxford Companion to

Theatre, Cassell’s Encyclopaedia of World Literature, etc.

Overlapping of information: the word origin in encyclopaedic dictionaries; the encyclopaedic definitions in

linguistic dictionaries; encyclopaedic parts (appendici) in linguistic dictionaries, e.g. geographical names,

names and dates of birth and life of famous people.

American dictionaries tend to be encyclopaedic; British dictionaries tend to exclude the extralinguistic

information from the entries.

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TYPES OF LINGUISTIC DICTIONARIES. Criteria for classification:

a. The nature of word lists: general (unrestricted) and restricted dictionaries.

b. The kind of information: explanatory, translation, pronouncing , etymological, ideographic

dictionaries, etc.

c. The language in which the information is given: Monolingual vs bilingual dictionaries.

c. The prospective user, e.g. advanced learners of English; children, students, etc.

Example: A.P.Cowie, R. Mackin. Oxford dictionary of Current Idiomatic English. Vol.1. Verbs

with prepositions and particles. Oxford University Press, 1975.

1. Explanatory dictionaries. Deal with the form, usage and meaning of lexical units. Synchronic

vs diachronic presentation of word meanings: from basic to derived vs from historically earlier

to those that appeared later, e.g. table ‘a piece of furniture’ / ‘a slab of stone’.

Diachronic: NED (The New English Dictionary on Historical Principles); SOD (The Shorter

Oxford Dictionary on Historical Principles)

Synchronic: COD (the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English); Webster dictionaries;

Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary (COBUILD – Collins Birmingham University

International Language Database)

2 Translation dictionaries. The New English-Russian Dictionary. (In 3 vols.) Ed. By

E.M.Mednikova & Ju.D.Apresjan. (250 000 words; V.K.Muller. English-Russian Dictionary. 53

000 words; A.M.Taube, A.V.Litvinova, A.D.Miller, R.S.Daglish. Russian-English Dictionary.

(34 000 words); English-Russian Dictionary ed. Under general direction of A.I.Smirnitsky; A

Phrase and Sentence Dictionary of Spoken Russian. Russian-English- English-Russian. N.Y.:

Dover Publications. E.g. любопытный curious. Ишь какой любопытный, всюду свой нос

сует. He’s so damned curious, he sticks his nose in everywhere. Odd. Это любопытное

совпадение. It’s an odd coincidence.

3 Specialized dictionaries.

a. Phraseological dictionaries. Dictionaries published abroad contain all sorts of

“anomalies”: idioms, colloquial word groups, proverbs. An Anglo-Russian Phraseological

Dictionary by A.V.Koonin.

b. Pharasal verbs dictionaries. Longman Dictionary of Phrasal verbs.

c. New Words dictionaries. The Barnhart Dictionary of New English (1st ed. L. 1973).

d. Slang dictionaries. Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English by E.Partridge; The

Dictionary of American Slang by H.Wentworth and S.B.Flexner.

e. Usage dictionaries : give advice to native learners about what is right and what is wrong.

Dictionary of Usage and Abusage by E.Partridge: the difference between words, e.g. daily vs

diurnal; restrictions on the usage of certain words, e.g. responsible should be restricted to

human beings; the meaning of “difficult” words, e.g. vicinage ‘neighbourhood’; words easily

confused, e.g. venal and venial ; the use of certain constructions, e.g. split infinitive , etc.

f. Frequency dictionaries: to make lists of words suitable as the basis for teaching English to

foreign learners. M. West’s General Service List.

g. Pronouncing dictionaries: record variants of contemporary pronunciation. English

Pronouncing Dictionary by Daniel Jones.

h. Etymological dictionaries: The word’s primary meaning; the immediate source of borrowing

and its origin. Etymological English Dictionary by W.W.Skeat.

i. Ideographic dictionaries. P.M. Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases.

A new parameter: The form of the dictionaries: ‘hard’ dictionaries and ‘soft’ (electronic) dictionaries, e.g.

Linguo, Multitran. Electronic encyclopaedias.

List of terms:

definition – словарное толкование;

designative [‘dezigneitiv ] номинативный

entry – словарная статья;

explanatory dictionary – толковый словарь

frequency - частотность

Lecture 2. Etymological survey of English vocabulary

1. Some important landmarks of British history

a) Celtiс tribes inhabiting Britain: Britons and Gaels. Languages: Welsh, Cornish (now extinct), Irish,

Scots, Manx .

b) the Roman conquest : 55-54 B.C. - Julius Caesar’s landings and short stays; 43 A.D. - permanent

conquest of Britain under the emperor Claudius.

c) the Anglo-Saxon conquest: mid-5th century - the invasion of Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons and

Jutes):

The start of the history of the English language.

d) the Scandinavian conquest (the 8th - the 11th cent): the 8th cent. - first inraids; the 9th cent. -

occupation of the territory north of the Thames; 878 - King Alfred’s peace treaty and ‘Danish law’ (the

North-east of England)

e) the Norman conquest: 1066.

2. Some basic notions

a) Native: various interpretations of the term

- words of Anglo-Saxon origin brought by Germanic tribes

- and words of unknown origin (big, path)

- and words derived on the basis of the Anglo-Saxon stock. Where does eatable belong?

- all words existing in the English word-stock of the 7th cent.

b) Borrowed.

- synchronic and diachronic point of view: wine, cheap, pound vs alibi, memorandum, stratum.

-the source of borrowing and the origin of the borrowed word: table - Fr. source, Lat. origin; school - Lat.

source, Greek origin; ink - Fr. source, origin unknown.

3. Native (Anglo-Saxon) words.

25-30% of the English vocabulary, its basic syncategorematic words and most important semantic

groups:

- most of auxiliary and modal verbs (shall, will, should, must, can, may), pronouns (I, you, he, my, your,

his), numerals, conjunctions (and, as, but, till).

- notional words: parts of body (head, hand, arm, back),kinship terms (mother, father, son, wife), natural

phenomena (snow, rain, wibd, frost), planets (sun, moon, star), animals (horse, cow, sheep, cat), basic

physical qualities (old, young, hot, heavy, light, dark, white, long), basic physical actions (do, make, go,

come, see, hear, eat).

Highly polysemantic, derivationally active, rich combinability.

Exceptions: archaic words (lore, methinks, quoth); poetic (whilom, ere, welkin); historical terms (thane,

yeoman).

Monosemantic words: ax, ash, dale. Words with limited word-building capacity: hound - to hound.

4. Borrowings.

a) from Old Norse (Scandinavian). Personal pronouns: they, their, them; political terms: law, wrong;

everyday words: husband, sister, call, take, fellow, sky. In placenames by ‘village’: Kirksby, Whitby,

Derby; spot’, ‘hill’: ness ‘cape’ : Inverness, Caithness. In proper names son: Johnson

Which word came first? OE fisc/Scand. fiskr, treo/ trē, ic /ek ‘I’, bitan / bita ‘bite’ .

c) from French.

‘Thus came England under Normandy’s power. And the Normans could not speak any language but their

own, and spoke French as they did at home, and taught thier children so. So that noblemen of this land

who came from their blood stick to the same language, which they brought from home. For unless a man

speaks French people think low of him; but low men stick still to English and to their own language. I

believe there are in all the world no other countries which do not stick to their own language, except

England alone’.(Robert Gloucester, the chronicle of the 13th century).

Semantic groups:

-government, the court and the law: prince, baron, noble, govern, government, court, justice, judge.

-army and military life: war, army, battle, regiment, mail, castle, banner, harness, siege.

-religion and church: religion, saint, sermon, conscience, chapel, cloister.

-town professions: butcher, painter, tailor (vs OE words denoting country professions: miller, shoemaker,

shepherd, smith).

-art: art, colour, figure, image, column, ornament

-amusements: pleasure, leisure, ease.

-meals: dinner, supper, roast.

Non-specific: air, place, cover, river, large, change.

Latinized words: debt<Fr. dette (fr. Lat. debitum), perfect <Fr. parfait (fr. Lat. perfectum).

Derivatrional affixes:

Suffixes: -ance, -ence, -ment (ignorance, dependence, government); -ess (princess), -et (cabinet), -age

(courage, marriage), -ard (coward), -able (admirable).

Prefixes: dis- (disappoint, disagree); en- (encage, encompass).

Hybrids: bewilderment, goddess, shepherdess.

с)from Latin: the Renaissance (the 16th cent.). Abstract words having to do with science. Verbs in -ate:

aggravate, alleviate, abbreviate, exaggerate; verbs in -ute: constitute, attribute, contribute, pollute; adj. in

-ant: arrogant, reluctant, evident.

Etymological doublets:

-English-Scandinavian (skirt/shirt; scatter/shatter; road/ raid)

-English-French (frere>friar /brother fr. Lat. frater)

paternel>paternal/fatherly fr. Lat. paternus

Literature:

Смирницкий А.И. История английского языка. М., 1965. Гл. I (ч.1,2).

Lecture 3. Ways of replenishment Modern English vocabulary. A. Assimilation of Borrowings.

1. Changes in the vocabulary

a) disappearance: OE wunden-stefna 'a curved-stemmed ship'

b) ousting by borrowed words:Scand.take and die vs

OE niman and sweltan; Fr. army and place vs OE hēre and staθs.

c) words become obsolete, go to the periphery and are used in poetry only:

steed 'horse', slay 'to kill'.

d) new words appear constantly.OE vocabulary:30-40 thousand words; ModE vocabulary - 400-500

thousand words.

2. Ways of enriching the ModE vocabulary:

a) vocabulary extension

b) semantic extension

A.Vocabulary extension: New vocabulary units may be a result of

a) productive (patterned) ways of word-formation

b) non-patterned ways of word-creation

c)borrowing from other languages

Borrowing is less productive both than in OE and ME and than other means of enriching the vocabulary. It

is active in terminology.

Non-true borrowings: words made up of morphemes of Greek and Latin origin, e.g. cyclotron,

telecommunication, telelecture, protein, penicillin, metalanguage, mataculture, paralinguistic,

parapsychology, videotaperecorder, videocassette.

True borrowing: Russ. dacha, bolshevik, pogrom, step', babushka. Germ.(of the WWII period): Blitzkrieg,

Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe .

Loan-translations: self-criticism (fr. Russian).

Assimilation of borrowed words

1. Types of changes

a) changes peculiar of borrowed words alone:

Greek pn, pt, ps > n, t, s, e.g. pneumatics, psychology, ptomain [‘toumein] vs Engl. condemn, stops, slept.

b) changes typical both of borrowed and native words, e.g. simplification of the inflectional system of OE

to three forms in ME - common case & possessive case sing. & plur.

2. Types of assimilation

a) phonetic assimilation

-change in sound-form:

Fr. long e>ei, e.g. communique, cafe

Germ. spits [ špits]>[spits]

- stress change: Fr. honn’eur – Engl. ’honor, rais’on>’reason, chauff’er – ‘chaffeur, cf. father, mother, etc.

b) grammatical assimilation:

Greek phenomenon – phenomena, parenthesis - parentheses.; Lat. addendum - addenda;

Two forms: Lat. vacuum - vacua, vacuums; It. virtuoso - virtuosi, virtuosos.

c) changes in morphological structure:

-divisible>indivisible: saunter (saunters, sauntered, sauntering)<Fr. s’aunter; It. -etto, -otta, -ello (ballot,

stiletto, umbrella)

.-suffix substitution: Lat. -us>-ous / -al., e.g. multifarious fr. Lat. maltifarius; historical, medical.

d) lexical assimilation:

- reduction of semantic structure: Fr.timber; Sp. cargo; cask .

- specialization of meaning, e.g. Fr. hangar ‘shed’ > Engl. ‘a shed for aeroplanes’

- generalization of meaning, e.g. It. umbrella ‘sunshade’ > Engl. ‘any protection’

- change of the order of meanings, e.g. fellow ‘comrade, companion’ -’man, boy’

- reinterpreting (folk etymology), e.g. surounder ‘overflow’> surround ‘to encircle’; Ofr estandard ‘banner’ >

Engl. standard ‘stable, oficially accepted’

3. Degree of assimilation

- easily recognizable words façade, Zeitgeist, ballet

- thoroughly assimilated pupil, master, etc.

- partially assimilated: phenomenon - pl. phenomena; graffito - graffiti; communi’que - communiques.

Factors of assimilation:

- period of borrowing, early vs late, e.g. chair< OFr cathedra; window < Scand. vindauga;

- frequency of use: turbine, clinic, exploitation, diplomat vs nobless, annui [a:n’wi] ‘apathy’, coup [ku:],

coup d’etat

-oral use vs written.

Manifestation of the degree of assimilation: the ability of the word to take part in the word-derivation.

Lecture 4. Ways of replenishment Modern English vocabulary. B. Semantic extension.

In the course of the historical development of language the word meaning is liable to change, e.g.

fond ‘foolish’, ‘foolishly credulous’ – ‘feeling strong affection to smth’; glad ‘bright, shining’ – ‘happy and

pleased about smth’.

Causes of semantic change:

a. extra-linguistic: car ‘a four-wheeled van’ (from Lat. carrus), now ‘a motor car’, ‘a railway carriage’

b. linguistic:

• ellipsis (the omission of one of the two words habitually used togetheraccompanied by the

transfer of its meaning to a remaining partner, e.g. to starve (OE steorfan)‘to die’ > ME sterven of

hunger 'to die of hunger'.

• discrimination of synonyms, e.g. OE steorfan and dēgan (fr. Sc. to die;

to starve ‘to die of

hunger’, to die ‘to stop to live’ land in OE ‘a solid part of the earth’s surface’ ; the territory of a

nation’; ME country (fr. French countree)

land ‘a solid part of the earth’s surface, country

‘the territory of a nation’.

• Analogy: synonymous words acquire the like meanings, e.g. verbs of getting hold with a hand

(catch, grasp, get) develop the meaning ‘to understand’

Nature of semantic change:

• Metaphor (similarity of meaning): associating two concepts, e.g. hand ‘a human organ’; ‘a pointer

on a clock’; cold ‘having low temperature’: cold hand; ‘unemotional’ : a cold glance; cool ‘having

temperature lower than the norm’; ‘unemotional’; term of positive evaluation.

• Metonymy (contiguity of meaning): tongue ‘an organ’, e.g. The doctor asked him to show his

tongue; ‘the language one speaks from birth’ , e.g. His mother tongue was French;

Results of semantic change:

• Changes in the denotational component of meaning

• Specialization (restriction) of meaning, e.g. hound ‘the dog of any breed’ > ‘the dog able to

chase’; Foul ‘any bird’> domestic bird.

• Generalization of meaning: camp ‘the place where troops are lodged in tents; > any

temporary quarters.’

• Changes in the connotational component (accompanying the changes in denotation):

• Pejorative development: boor ‘a villager’ > ‘a clumsy or ill-bred fellow’

• Ameliorative development: minister a servant > acivil servant of higher rank.

Semantic extension and numerical growth of the vocabulary.

Semantic extension and homonymy,cf.:

Shave 1. to cut hair from one’s face, very close to the skin, using a razor or shaver. When he had

shaved, he dressed and went down to the kitchen. …n.to reduce smth by a small amount. We could

shave prices a bit.

…(slang) to defeat, esp. by a small margin; to take advantage of.

Horse 1. An animal …N. (slang) heroine.

Words historically related can be apprehended as homonyms, e.g.:

• Flower 1. The part of the plant which is often brightly colored, grows on a stem…

Flour 1. A white or brown powder that is made by grinding wheat… used for making bread.

Etymologically they go back to OF flur, flour > ME flour ‘flower, the best part of anything.

Words unrelated can be apprehended as meanings of the same word:

• Ear 1.‘the ears of a person or an animal are two matching parts of their body, one on each side of

their head…’ (OE ēare,Lat auris) 4. The ears of a cereal plant such as wheat or barley are the

parts at the top of the stem, which contain the seeds or grains….’ (OE ēar, cf Lat acus, aceris).

weed ‘wild useless plant (OE wēod)

weeds ‘mourning garments worn by a widow’ (OE woed ‘garment’)

Polysemy, frequency and word structure, e.g. Heart (6), hearty (3), heartily (2), heartless, heartiness,

heartsick.

Polysemy and stylistic reference, e.g. break (35), demolish (2); face (10), countenance (1).

Polysemy, frequency and etymology.

Late borrowings (regime, bourgeoisie, genre) vs early borrowings. The difference between words in

synonymic groups: small, little, diminutive, petite, wee, tiny, minute, miniature, microscopic.

Polysemy of affixes: non- a)'negative' non-human; non-existence. b)'pretended','pseudo',e.g. non-book;

non-event.

Monosemantic words are usually terms, e.g.: hydrogen, molecule.

A polysemous word can have from five to one hundred meanings. Highly polysemous words: go (40

meanings), get, put, take – 30 meanings.

Polysemy from a diachronic point of view (Which meaning came first?)

table 1. A flat slab of stone or wood. (OE tabule)

Polysemy from a synchronic point of view (which meaning is the basic one?)

Hornby: table 1. a piece of furniture; 2. people seated at a table: a ~ of card-players; 3. food provided at a

~ : He keeps a good ~; 4. Plateau, level land; 5. List, orderly arrangement of facts: ~ of contents; 6. (in the

Bible) Flat slab of stone

Collins Cobuild: table 1. A piece of furniture; 2. A chart of facts and figures which are shown in rows 3. A

list of multiplication of numbers between one and and twelve: She knows her tables already.

Criteria of the comparative value of individual meanings.

a) frequency of their occurrence in speech: table 1 - 55% .

b) stylistic neutrality

hand 1. The part of the body which is at the end of your arm… -72%

7. Someone, usu. A man who does hard physical work: farm hands …- 2,8%

c) ability to explain other meanings

c)psychological salience

Order 1. n. Arrangement in sequence - 77%; 2. v. to request smth to be made for payment - 76%.

Cf Cobuild 1. In order to; 2.3 Smth that you are told to do; 3.1 arrangement in sequence

Systematic relationships between semantics and syntax (Works of Beth Levin, Sue Atkins, Malka

Rappaport):

bake

1. Every morning they baked their own baguettes and croissants; as we baked we talked a great deal

(The indefinite object alternation; cf other creation verbs: Mrs Babcock is embroidering a sampler).

2. Jennifer has baked a special cake for Alexander (the benefactive alternation; cf She boiled some tea

for me)

3. They baked unleavened bread from dough (The material/product alternation)

4. Bake it whole in the oven (the instrumental subject alternation)

5. Bake the pastry for ten minutes (the instructional imperative) alternation)

6.

Vocabulary:

alternation – зд. диатеза, трансформация

contiguity [,konti’gjuiti] смежность

diathesis [dai’æΘisis] диатеза

ellipsis [ i’lipsis] эллипсис, опущение ( какой-л. части текста или грамматической конструкции )

salience – значимость, букв. выпуклость

Lecture 5. Homonymy.

• The definition: Words identical in sound-form but different in meaning are called homonyms, e.g.

can ‘to be able’, ‘a tin container’ . In contrast to polysemy, homonymy is irregular and non-

predictable.

• Languages where short words abound have more homonyms than those where long words are

prevalent. The abundance of homonyms in Modern English can be accounted for by the

abundance of monosyllabic words in it.

Causes of homonymy:

a) divergence of word meanings

e.g.: Lat.flos, florem, OFr.flour, flor > ME flour 1.'flower' 2. 'the finest part of wheat'. In ModE flower and

flour are synchronycally unrelated.

staff 1. A strong stick or pole (жезл); staff 2. People who work somewhere (. Historically these meanings

were related through the custom to give staffs to military officers as a sign of their high rank. Officers

worked in staffs ‘headquarters’.

Toast 1. a slice of bread made brown and crisp by cooking in high temperature; toast 2. a wish

pronounced while drinking alcohol . Historically related through the custom to put a piece of toasted bread

into a glass of wine.

b) convergent sound development, e.g. of native words: OE ic and eaze > ModE I and eye [ai];

The disappearance of the sound k before n, .g. knight –night, knot –not; the convergence of the ME ā, ai,

ei: fair – fare, pale – pail, wait – weight.

of borrowed words: Old Norse rās 'running' and OFr race 'ethnic group' - MOdE race 1 and race 2; Fr.

mèche ‘wick’ (фитиль), OE meche ‘partner’ > match 1‘спичка’, match 2 ‘a relationship, a partnership’ , as