Lexical layers of the English language

Vocabulary –a set of words of any language, the vocabulary of the language. It can be divided into interacting layers, which differ in their origin, functionality and use.

In General, the whole vocabulary is divided into two large layers: common vocabulary (understandable to all speakers of this language, also known as literary language) and special vocabulary, which includes a number of layers, such as:

Archaisms, historicism or obsolete words;

Barbarism;

Professional vocabulary, which is used by people of a certain profession in working situations;

Dialectics:

– Social dialects (slang, Argo);

• –    Territorial dialects (words common in a certain part of the prevalence of the language);

Colloquial vocabulary;

The theme, as we thought, is very relevant and interesting, so we all started to "climb into the jungle" of English vocabulary. It turned out that there are a lot of lexical layers and you can talk about them endlessly, because English, like the language of any other country, is very rich in its vocabulary. Every day we see an increase in the number of new words. This is especially observed in the colloquial vocabulary of young people. But also we must not forget about the ancient words that gave rise to the whole world of the English language, and which are used to this day. The most fascinating, as it seemed to us, are the layers relating to special vocabulary, because many of them are incomprehensible or not known to people at all. Therefore, let's try to analyze and consider the most interesting of them.

So the first thing we're going to start with is so-called historicism or obsolete words. They are also called "archaisms". The number of new words in a living language always exceeds the number of words disappearing from the language. Dying, words pass into the category of archaisms.

Archaisms are obsolete words that have been preserved in the language, but are no longer used in ordinary colloquial speech. They are used in the literature, especially in poetry as a stylistic device to give the solemnity and loftiness of speech or to create a realistic flavor to the depiction of antiquity. As examples of archaisms, often found in the poetry of the XIX century and having a stylistic function, we can cite the following: billow (wave), behold (see), ire (anger), slave (kill), steed (horse), woe (grief), yon (yonder) (that). In our time, all these words are replaced by synonyms, which were formed from another root. They are also called lexical archaisms. Synonyms of the above words are: wave, see, anger, kill, horse, sorrow, that. It also happens that in the vocabulary of the place of the obsolete word is synonymous with him the word of the same root, but different from it by affix, affixes or, in General, the absence of them.

For example, can serve such pairs as: beautiful-beautiful (beautiful); darksome-dark (dark); even-evening (evening); morn, morrow-morning (morning); oft-often); bepaint-paint (paint). Such archaisms are also called word-formative. From the archaisms that have been replaced in modern language, distinguish historicism. These are words that are outdated, and out of use objects and concepts that they were designated.

In modern English historicism synonyms do not have and are the only expression of the corresponding concept relating to the past of the English people. They can be combined thematically. Here are some examples:

• –    Words denoting ancient weapons, equipment and armor of a warrior: battleax (battle ax), sword (sword), cross-bow (crossbow) (allebard), musket (musket), coatofmail (chain mail);

• –    Names of ancient musical instruments: lyre (lyre), harpsichord (clavichord), lute (lute);

• –    Words denoting out of use types of carts: brougham (harpsichord); hansom (double carriage), chaise (light carriage with convertible top);

• –    words, denoting the types of ships that sailed in the old days: Galley (galley), caravel (Caravel), frigate (frigate). In the English language, the number of such historicism, denoting social relations and material culture of the past centuries, a huge set.

The next layer we take "barbarism". Barbarism is a foreign word or expression that has not yet been fully mastered by the language and is perceived as alien and as a violation of the generally accepted linguistic norm. English in its vocabulary has a significant number of words that have been borrowed from other languages, and also played a more or less prominent role in its formation at different stages of the development of literary English. It was known that more than half of the words of modern English are words of Romanesque and Latin origin. Many of these words in our time are not considered as alien, because firmly established in the vocabulary of the English language.

For example, table (Desk), chair (chair), conversation, telephone (phone) television (TV). Another matter such words as bouquet (bouquet) (from Franz.), en route(EN route)(from Franz.), pas (no )(from Franz.). Despite the fact that these words are often used in limited areas of use, they are still felt as foreign borrowings that have not lost their foreign appearance. These are usually words that exist in the language unnecessarily, since they have exact equivalents (synonyms) in the borrowing language. As an example, the following barbarisms and their synonyms, which are often used by society: chagrin (vexation); chic (stylish); bon mot (a clever or witty saying) - chagrin (annoyance); chic (stylish); bon mot (smart or witty saying), etc. Barbarisms are part of the vocabulary of the English language, unlike other foreign words that cannot be found in dictionaries.

The third layer is "professionalism". These are monosemantic words that are used in a certain professional sphere by people who have common interests. The difference between professionalism and terms is that the terms are mainly used to name new objects and concepts in various branches of science and technology, while professionalism gives new names to already existing objects, concepts, subjects and tools. Consider some examples of professionalism: tin-fish (submarine), piper (a specialist who decorates paste with the help of a cream-pipe), outer (a knock-out blow)- tin fish (submarine).

The fourth stratum will be "dialectics". As a rule, there are two types of dialects, one of which is territorial, and the other - social.

Territorial dialect is a kind of language that is used in a particular area as a means of communication of local residents. A social dialect is a language spoken by a particular social group. English can surprise with a wide variety of dialects. There are two most common dialects of English. One of which is "British (Royal) English" which originated from the southern British dialect. The second dialect is "American (common American) English", based on the Midwestern American dialect. In addition to these, there are other regional variants of English, which in turn include many sub-dialects and dialects, such as Cockney (one of the most famous types of London vernacular), Scouse (a dialect of English, common in the Metropolitan County of Merseyside) and Jordi in the UK; Newfoundland English in Canada or African American and southern American English in the United States.

For example, there are small differences in formal written English in the UK (for example, the words wee-"small" and little-"small" can be used interchangeably, however, it is frequently the first can be read in the writing of a man from the North of England or Northern Ireland (mostly Scotland) than in the letter of a man from the southern parts of the country or Wales).

There are many regional dialects in the English language. Every County in the UK and many major cities use their own dialect. Let's return to social dialects. And the first with what we start will English "slang." This is a variant of colloquial speech (usually expressive and emotional), which does not coincide with the norm of the literary language. Some linguists believe that slang adorns the language, brings brightness to it, adds sharpness. As a rule, English slang is not used in formal speech and writing. For example, take the word "ACE" (p. bro, best friend. In the fifties, this treatment was particularly common among American blacks and white proletarians of the United States. Then "ACE" spread and in Europe: - Neu, ACE! -Hey, buddy! In tennis, "ACE" means a powerful serve that is impossible to take. ACE is an ACE in the cards. See, ACE is something powerful and strong and good. So if you are called ACE in America, you know that it is very good). In the last decades of the XX century the main source of replenishment of slang became Argo (thug language).

For example, in prisons there is a special prison Argo, in which sand - they mean 'sugar' (sand-sand, gravel), big house - 'prison' (big house-big house), college - 'penal colony' (college - College). And last, let's look at everyday English vocabulary. English has a very large vocabulary compared to other languages in the world. But there is one curious fact. To simply talk about weekdays with an Englishman, you need to know clearly only about 700 words. And this is not just someone's assumption, but a well-established fact. Many have met with examples of spoken English, but not everyone understands it. In the world, there are even some techniques for the study of spoken language, as it is difficult to understand the subject. Basically, English everyday speech is divided into standard English (used in the world of business and academic world) and spoken everyday speech.

Colloquial speech consists of already created colloquial phrases, slangs used in speech. One distinctive feature of this speech is a reduction in the phonetics of words (because =of’coz). The same feature is the emphasis on reduction to change the speech (want to - wanna-want to; going to - gonna-going to). Many people have noticed that it is not so easy to quickly construct sentences or conduct a dialogue on it, especially in only the studied language. The fact that the understanding of the interlocutor our thoughts are in a fast manner, and in your native language. But you then need to answer in a foreign language, so speech is slowed down, and the sentences come out with syntax violations. And all this happens because people speak in the translation of the sentence in the same order as in their native language. But in English there is oral Dialogic speech, which can also be violations of syntactic norms.

An example of a violation of the rule may be the use of the affirmative of the scheme proposal with the question:

• -    have You done the homework?

• -    Did you do your homework?

  -Yes I have.

• -    Yeah. Sometimes the auxiliary verb "to do" is omitted to ask the question:

  -(Do)You think it is true?

• -    Do you think it's true? One of the important aspects of English oral speech are abbreviations, which have become an integral part of word formation for everyone. As a rule, in speech the abbreviation is used for accelerated pronunciation of complex words consisting of a large number of characters, and a combination of words. For example, a combination of the words "I will" on "I'll" (I will), "he is" on "he's"(he), "should not" on "should not". As we found out, in General, all the vocabulary is divided into two large layers: common vocabulary (understandable to all native speakers of this language, also known as the literary

language) and special vocabulary. The latter include a large number of interesting to study a number of layers that differ in their origin, functionality and use. You can talk about them endlessly, because English, like the language of any other country, is very rich in its vocabulary.

Changes in the lexical composition of this language occur constantly: some words become obsolete and leave the language, others appear - are borrowed or formed according to existing models, so today we see the formation of such a large number of lexical layers. Perhaps this is not the limit, and someday in the future there will be more and more layers of the English language.