英语词汇学论文(1).doc

On native words and borrowings in the English vocabularyAbstractAs time goes on, great changes have taken place in native English vocabulary. In addition to the inner evolvement of itself, it has also absorbed more and more borrowings from other culture. This essay will focus on exactly this subject. The main parts in this paper are: to exhibit the basic conceptions regarding native words and borrowings in English vocabulary; to discuss the major features of English native words; to discuss the major sources and features of borrowings in the English vocabulary; to explore the interrelation between the native and foreign elements in the English vocabulary. to make a conclusion of the whole paper. Key words native words borrowings English vocabulary Chapter 1 Basic Information about Native Words in English Vocabulary1、1 Definition of Native WordsWe should first make clear the exact definition of native words or borrowings no matter what we are going to discuss about them next. According to some dictionaries and books of lexicology, native words refer to words which originated in the region where it is used. To put it simple, native words are words that are not foreign or imported.Specifically, as for English vocabulary, native words are words brought to Britain in the fifth century by the Germanic tribes, namely the angles, the Saxons, and the jutes, thus known as Anglo-Saxon words. Though words of Anglo-Saxon origin are small in number, they stand at the core of the language.1、2 Features of native wordsGenerally speaking, native words have these features below:First, they are neutral in style. That is to say, native words are usually neither formal nor informal. This is because native words denote the commonest things in human society. Almost all the people use them in all places, on all occasions, and at all times. Take the word begin and commerce for instance. Begin is a typical native word and commerce is a borrowing. Obviously, we use begin neither formally or informally. However we use commerce mostly in formal occasions.Second, they are frequent in use. Native words are the foudation and the core of the English vocabulary. Native words are most frequently used in everyday speech and writing. The percentage of native words in use reaches usually as high as 70 to 90 percent.Third, in structure they are mostly monosyllabic words.Fourth, in meaning they express the fundamental concepts dealing with everyday objects and things. At the same time, they are highly polysemic words, that is, they have many meanings.Fifth, in grammar they include most parts of speech.Sixth, they are of collocability. Many commonly-used expressions and phrases in English are made up of native words.Seventh, they are good at forming word in modern English. Native words in modern English can form a great number of derivatives. For example, watery and waterless are both the derivatives of water. Native words in modern English can also form many compounds. For example, the word fire can form many compounds, such as fireman, firefighter, fireplace and firebrand and so on.Chapter 2 Basic Information about Borrowings in English Vocabulary2.1 Definition and Main Features of BorrowingsBorrowings, or borrowed words, or loan words, refers to the words taken from foreign language. As a language which owns the most speakers, English has adopted words from almost all other major languages in the world. As is stated in Encyclopedia Americana, “the English language has vast debts. In any dictionary some 80% of the entries are borrowed”. Thus the English language is called “a heavy borrower”. Here “borrowing” is not real “borrowing”. It has nothing to with returning. Its merely a metaphor stands for the foreign words from a different culture. But not all foreign words do become borrowings. If they fall out of use before they become widespread, they do not reach the borrowing stage.Through analyzing the borrowings in English vocabulary, we can find some common features among them. First, borrowings in English vocabulary usually do not have relative native words with the same meaning with them. When this is the case, certain concepts, ideas or objects of the “lending” language community are new to the people of the “borrowing” language community. So instead of making up a complete whole new word for the idea or object they simply borrow the word from the people they came in contact with. Second, borrowings are usually words that refer to exotic ideas, concepts or objects. An example of this is how names of animals that do not inherently come from Great Britain are often loanwords in English. The name of the animal is borrowed from the language that is spoken in the country in which the animal originally comes from or lives in.Third, most of the borrowings in English vocabulary are nouns. Nouns and lexical words in general, are borrowed more frequently than grammatical words. An example of this is the word “bagel”. The word was adopted from the Yiddish language, since the Jews were those who introduced bagels to the rest of the world. Many other languages, including English, therefore borrowed the word “bagel”.Fourth, borrowings are often even more widely known than native words since their borrowing served a certain purpose, for example to provide a name for a new invention. An example of such a borrowing is “pizza”. Since the Italians were those who introduce pizzas in England, the England borrowed the word from them.2.2 Major Sources of Borrowings in the English VocabularyTo discuss this question, we should first get to know the exact meaning of “source of borrowing”. Here it refers to the place where the borrowing was borrowed.Generally speaking, Latin, Greek and French are the three languages that have contributed most to the English language. Other foreign languages that have contributed words are of less importance.That is to say, Latin, Greek and French are the three main sources where borrowings in English vocanulary come from. Apart from the three, Scandinavian, Celtic, Dutch, Low German, Arabic, Persian, Portuguese, Spanish are also the main sources of borrowings in English vocabulary. Some examples of borrowings in English voabulary are as follows.Among those borrowings that come from the Germanic are the words father, mother, brother, man, wife, tree, grass, summer, winter, bring, come, get, hear, meet, and think and so on.Such words as constitution, president, parliament, congress, city, place, , diner, caf, liberty, veracity, carpenter, draper, haberdasher, mason, painter, plumber, and tailor are from France.English has acquired many words from Spanish. Some of these have been borrowed directly: cigar, armada, guerrilla, matador, mosquito, and tornado. Borrowings from Latin have been especially numerous. Many of these represent combinations of Latin words: alnutrition, transfer, circumference, supernatural, submarine, suburb, substantial, contemporary, multilingual, conjunction, compassion, and hundreds more. Borrowings from Greek are heavy in the sciences and technology. In addition to macro and micro, often-used prefixes include poly and tele. Among the well-known English words from Greek are alphabet, geometry, geology, photography, psychology, pathology, biology, philosophy, telephone, logistics, and metamorphosis. Among the common English words that have come from Arabic are: alcohol, alchemy, algebra, alkali, almanac, arsenal, assassin, cipher, elixir, mosque, naphtha, sugar, syrup, zenith, and zero. Borrowings in English vocabulary are so numerous that they can not be listed one by oneThe above are the language sources that English vocabulary comes from. Below are the specific sources or wed better say specific channels that borrowings come from. Generally speaking, English vocabulary mainly comes through conquest, commerce, travel, literature, mass media or some other ways. In other words, those borrowings have come into English vocabulary through the spoken word, on one hand, and through the written word, on the other hand.Chapter 3 The Interrelation between the Native and Foreign Elements in the English VocabularyIn fact, no language has so complex and varied a vocabulary as English. The English vocabulary has been adopted from more than fifty languages. As a cosmopolitan language English has no rival. That is to say, up to seventy percent of the English vocabulary consists of loan-words, and only thirty percent are native words.In spite of large-scale borrowings, it is the native words that form the basic stock of modern English vocabulary. And whats more, native words are used in everyday speech and writing more frequently than borrowed words.Generally, the longer a borrowed word has been in the language, and the more frequently it is used, the more it resembles the native words of the language. In the course of historical development borrowed words have extended the total number of