1. Classification of loan words according to their origin (Latin, Greek, French, German, Italian,
etc.)
About 75 percent of the English vocabulary are borrowed words. Words were borrowed, first of
all, from Latin, Scandinavian and French.
There are three layers of Latin borrowings in English.
The first layer goes back to the time of the Roman Conquest of the British Isles, the 5th century AD
(нашей эры (ср.: BC)). The Romans brought with them some names of objects that were new to
the population of Britain: names of food (wine, butter, cheese, pepper, pear, plum, etc.), words,
naming objects of material culture such as household articles (kitchen, kettle, cup, dish), measures
(pound, inch), civil and military constructions (mill, street, camp, port). Some Latin words of the
last thematic group are retained in place names. Thus, such Latin words as colonia and castra are
reflected in the following names: Lincoln, Manchester, Glouster, Leicester [lestə]. The borrowings
of the first layer are known as spoken Latin borrowings.
The second layer of Latin borrowings is connected with Christianity which was introduced by the
Latin clergy at the end of the 6th century AD. Latin was the language of the Catholic Church and
contained a great number of words connected with religion: abbot, altar, angel, anthem, candle,
canon, deacon, devil, martyr, mass, nun, pope, priest, psalm, rule, shrine, temple. Some of these
words are actually Greek by their origin, but they came to English through the medium of Latin.
Thus, the word devil, came from Greek and was latinized (Old English dēofol, from Latin diabolus ,
from Greek diabolos “enemy, accuser, slanderer”, from diaballein, literally: “to throw across”,
hence, “to slander”). The word church also came through Latin, though, like many of the early
Christian terms in Latin, it is of Greek origin (kuriakon “Lord’s house”).
Many Latin borrowings were related to education as churches and monasteries were the centre of
education: school (Gk), verse, master, circle, grammatical, meter, etc. The second layer of Latin
borrowings is known as Church Latin borrowings.
The third layer of Latin borrowings dates back to the 14th – 16th centuries AD, the Renaissance
period. A lot of words with abstract meaning and of scientific character appeared in the English
language. They were borrowed from written sourses and preserved their Latin form: accent, idea,
effect, fate, history, memory, to adopt, to celebrate, to describe, to collect, to decorate, absent,
accurate, direct, equal, fatal, future, humane, literary, neutral, solar, etc. These are the Renaissance
Latin borrowings.
In modern times Latin continues to influence English in the sphere of scientific, technical, political
and art terminology. New terms are often built on the basis of Latin
morphemes: humanoid, multinational, microwave, transatlantic, etc. The fourth layer of Latin
borrowings is never ending.
Latin borrowings have specific features by which they can be recognized. To Latin borrowings
belong: 1) verbs ending in –ate, derived from Latin participles in –atum (narrate, separate, etc.), 2)
verbs in –ute, derived from Latin participles in –utum(constitute, execute, prosecute, etc.), 3) verbs
and verbal nouns, derived from Latin infinitival and participial forms (permit/permission,
admit/admission, compel/compulsion, reduce/reduction, etc.), 4) adjectives in –ant, –ent (reluctunt,
evident, obidient, etc.), 5) adjectives in –ior, formed from Latin stems of the comparative degree
(superior, inferior, major, minor, senior, junior),6) words with x, pronounced [gz] (exam, exert), 7)
words with beginning with v (they are either French or Latin, but never native: van, vocabulary.
As for Greek borrowings, the majority of them came into English through Latin. Many Greek
words were borrowed in the epoch of the Renaissance. They are mostly bookish words such
as: athlete, lexicon, idiom, scene, catastrophe, catalogue, myth, rhyme, theatre, drama, tragedy,
geography, psychology, philosophy. Of Greek origin are also such indispensable personal names
as Alexander, Catharine, Christopher, Dorothea, Eugene, George, Helen, Irene, Margaret, Myron,
Nicholas, Peter, Philip, Sophia, Stephen, Theodore.
The peculiarities of Greek borrowings are as follows: 1) the sound [k] is rendered through the letter
combination ch (Christ, character), 2) the letter p is mute before s (psychic) and n (pneumonia), 3)
the sound [f] is rendered in writing through ph(alphabet, emphasis), 4) the sound [r] – by letter
combinations rh, rrh (diarrhea, rhetoric), 5) in the middle of the word, instead of i, y is written
(system, sympathy), 6) the letter x is read as [z] (xenophobia, xenon, Xerox).
Nowadays Greek morphemes, like Latin ones, are used in the formation of new
terms: antiglobalist, hyperactive, paralinguistic, Pan-American, etc.
The first Scandinavian words began to penetrate into the English vocabulary at the beginning of
our era during the occasional raids of the vikings. A great number of Scandinavian borrowings
pertain to the period which lasted from the end of the 8th century to the middle of the 11th century.
The languages and the cultures of the vikings and the Britons did not differ much which made the
borrowing process easy. Many Scandinavian words used in everyday life entered the English
language: egg, husband, root, wing, anger, weak, loose, wrong, happy, ugly, die, cut, take, give, call,
want, they, their, them, both, same, till. Some Scandinavian words eventually replaced the native
ones. Thus, the pronoun they (Þa) replaced the native pronoun hi, the verb take – the verb niman.
Occasionally both the English and Scandinavian words were retained with a difference in meaning
or use: no/nay (отказ, отрицательный ответ), hide/skin, craft/skill, etc.
The Viking invasion left its imprint in place names. The Scandinavian element is found in place
names in –by: Derby [a:], Rugby; –thorp: Althrop, –toft: Eastoft, etc.
Scandinavian borrowings can be recognized by sound combination [sk] sk/sc (sky, skill, ski, scrape,
scare), [i:], [i] and [e] after k (kettle, key, kilt, kid).
The French language is probably the third largest source of borrowings in English (after Latin and
Scandinavian). French borrowings are subdivided into two main layers. The first layer is connected
with the Norman conquest which started at the end of the 11th century (1066). At the time of the
Norman conquest common people spoke Anglo-saxon, while the government, the military, the
church – and therefore education – were all dominated by the French speaking Normans. The
Norman dialect of the French language penetrated into every aspect of social life.
French borrowings can be divided into several major groups:
1) religious terms: religion, clergy, paradise, prayer, saint, sacrifice, vice, virtue, preach;
2) administrative terms: state, government, parliament, nation, reign, country, power, authority,
peer, baron, duke, prince;
3) legal terms: court, judge, justice, jury, plaintiff, defendant, crime, penalty, prison, accuse, marry,
marriage;
4) military terms: army, war, battle, officer, enemy
5) educational terms: pupil, lesson, library, pen, pencil
6) terms of art, architecture and literature: art, literature, architecture, poet, prose, story, to paint
7) words denoting pleasures: pleasure, joy, delight, comfort, flower, leisure, sport, cards;
8) words denoting food and ways of cooking: beaf, mutton, veal, pork, bacon, sausage, biscuit,
cream, sugar, fruit, grape, orange, peach, pastry, tart, jelly, mustard, vinegar, soup, boil, fry, roast,
stew, dinner, supper; etc.
Words of the second layer of French borrowings pertain to the 17th century and are known as
Parisian [z] French borrowings. They are borrowings from the Parisian dialect of the French
language which preserved the peculiarities of their pronunciation and spelling: machine, bourgeois,
ballet, naive, fatigue, grotesque. Among them are commercial terms (capital, manufacture), political
terms (capitalism, regime, police), military terms (blockade, corp, marine), terms of literature and
art (critique, miniature, memoir). Many of these borrowings denoted abstract notions and were
borrowed from written texts, and therefore they were not completely assimilated unlike the words of
the first layer of French borrowings which were borrowed in the process of oral communication.
Unassimilated French borrowings are termed gallicisms.
Celtic borrowings. Celts were the original inhabitants of the British Isles before the Angles, the
Saxons and the Jutes came to the Isles in the 5th century. Celts were moved to Scotland, Wales and
Cornwall. Celtic borrowings were not numerous in the English language: down, cradle [ei], bard,
brat, druid, bald. But Celtic elements are well preserved in place-names. The names of some British
rivers contain the Celtic word uisge (вoда): Exe, Esk, Usk. It is also contained in the word whiskey,
formerly meaning “the water of life”. The Celtic dun (крепость) is found in the town
names Dundee, Dunbar; cum (долина) – Duncombe, Boscombe; llan (церковь) –
in Llandovery, Llanely, Llangefni. London is of Celtic origin, too: llyn (река) and dun(крепость).
Some male names are of Celtic origin: Arthur (благородный), Donald (гордый
вождь), Evan (молодой воин).
Late Celtic borrowings are more numerous and they came into the English language from Scottish,
Irish and Welsh: clan, flannel, lock, shamrock (трилистник), slogan, Tori, whiskey. Some Celtic
words came into English via French: tunnel, carry, cargo, gravel, etc.
In the 15th – 16th centuries many words were borrowed by the English language from Italian, Dutch,
Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian and other languages.
The process of borrowing from Italian started in the epoch of the Renaissance. Borrowings from
the Italian language can be divided into several groups:
1) words from the sphere of art, (music, theatre, literature, architecture): aria, baritone, concert,
opera, piano, violin, sonata [a:], tempo, scenario, fresco, studio, novel, sonnet, balcony, arcade,
corridor, villa
2) military terms: alarm, cartridge, cavalery, regimen, captain, colonel, pistol, campaign, brave,
ambush, attack;
3) names of food: ravioli, spaghetti, macaroni, pizza, chianti.
4) festive terms: confetti, costume, masquerade, carnival, carrousel, tarantella;
5) religious terms (Madonna, nuncio, cardinal);
6) words denoting aspects of crime: vagabond, charlatan, ruffian, bandit, assassin, contraband,
vendetta, mafia, stiletto;
7) banking terms: cash, debit, credit, deposit, bank, bankrupt;
etc.
Dutch borrowings. As early as the Middle Ages there were close contacts between the British and
Dutch traders, fishermen and seamen. Dutch borrowings are connected with weaving (to gloss –
придавать блеск ткани, rock – прялка, spool – шпулька, stripe – лоскут ткани), seafaring and
shipbuilding (deck, yacht, skipper, dock, reef), art, especially painting (sketch, landscape, easel, to
etch), and everyday matters (luck, wagon, brandy, boss, booze, snatch).
Spanish and Portuguese borrowings. Early Spanish borrowings are connected with fighting for
domination on the sea and in the world in general which took place in the 16th –
17th centuries: armada, galleon, grenade, escalade, etc.
A great number of Hispanic words penetrated into the English language in the 16th – 19th centuries
due to the American settling of the West and contacts between Americans and speakers of Mexican
Spanish: cannibal, negro, mulatto, quadroon, alligator, mosquito, ananas, cockroach, turtle, vanilla,
canyon, lasso, hurricane, etc.
In dealing with Spanish borrowings we must consider not merely words of originally Spanish and
Portuguese stock, but also those which the Hispanic tongues themselves borrowed first from Arabic,
later from the American Indian languages with which the Portuguese navigators and the Spanish
conquistadors were the first to come in contact and which they later transmitted to English. Thus,
such words as canoe, hammock, coyote, poncho were passed by Spanish from the Indian languages;
the words carafe, alcove, tariff, bizarre were transmitted from Arabic.
Thematically, many Hispanic borrowings are connected with national traditions and activities
(rodeo, corrida, torero, picador, matador, fiesta, bolero, flamenco) social and political reality
(senor, caballero, don, dona, hidalgo, infanta, junta, guerilla). They also denote phenomena and
objects of everyday life: cigarette, mantilla, sombrero, guitar, machete, mustang, potato, maize,
tobacco, tomato, chocolate, banana, etc.
The most widespread Portuguese borrowings are fetish, mango, verandah, cobra, Madeira.
German borrowings. The process of borrowing from German bagan in the 16th century in
connection with the establishment of cultural and economic ties between England and Germany. The
Germans gave the English language a number of geological terms: zinc, quarz, calcit, cobalt,
wolfram, nickel. Some biological, chemical, physical and terms of other sciences were borrowed as
well: dahlia, kohlrabi, plankton, alkaloid, aspirin, polymer, function, monad, satellite, etc. A great
number of German borrowings are words denoting social, political and philosophical
terms: objective, determinism, intuition, dialectic, transcendental, class struggle, etc. During the
Second World War some words characterizing the fascist army and regime entered the English
vocabulary: wehrmacht, blitzkrig, gestapo, nazi, etc. Among German borrowings are also some
words pertaining to the sphere of everyday life: sauerkraut, vermouth, schnaps, poodle, marzipan,
waltz, swindler, lobby, iceberg, kindergarden, rucksack.
Arabic and Persian borrowings. In the Middle Ages the Arabs had a highly developed science
which influenced the development of European science. Many medical, astronomical, mathematical,
botanical, chemical and other terms were borrowd by the English language: elixir, hakeem, mummy,
zenith, azimuth algebra, algorithm, zero, apricot, coffee, cotton, , sandal, spinach, alchemy, alcohol,
arsenic, zircon, etc. Many other borrowings are connected with Arabian reality: harem, hashish,
islam [ ́izla:m], Moslem, gazelle, giraffe, zebra, baldachin, mohair, muslin, sherbet, kibitka, sirocco,
typhoon, chess, kalian, bedouin, nabob, etc. To Persian borrowings are usually referred such words
as divan, lemon, shah, dervish, caravansary (большая гостиница).
Russian borrowings. The process of borrowing words from Russian started in the reign of Ivan the
Terrible. Early Russian borrowings reflect the peculiarities of Russian reality: tsar, kvass, vodka,
telega, shuba, rouble, muzhik, steppe, taiga, samovar, troika, etc. In the 19th century words of
different semantic spheres penetrate into the English vocabulary: narodnik, nihilist, Decembrist,
intelligentsia, Periodic law, chernozem. After the Great October Socialist Revolution a number of
Sovietisms were borrowed by English: Soviet, Bolshevik, Komsomol (rendered also as Young
Communist League), kolkhoz, etc. The new epoch of borrowing from Russian began in the 90s of the
20th century and still continues: perestroyka, uskoreniye, hozraschet, etc.
With the beginning of England’s colonial expansion in the 16th – 17th centuries many words
penetrate into the English vocabulary from the languages of colonial countries.
From the Indian language came bandana, calico, cashmere, chintz, bungalow, jungle, khaki,
nirvana, shampoo. Malayan – bamboo, gong, orang-outang; Chinese – ginseng, silk, nankeen,
kaolin, serge; Japanese – geisha, harakiri, riksha, kimono, jiu-jitsu; Australian – boomerang,
kangaroo; Polynesean – tattoo, taboo; African – baobab, chimpanzee, gorilla, guinea; the languages
of North-American Indians – hickory, moccasin, oppossum, racoon, skunk, toboggan, tomahawk,
etc.
English also contains a number of Hebrew words coming mostly due to the Hebrew text of the Old
Testament (manna, Satan [ei], amen, Messiah, pharisee, halle luja, jubilee, etc.), Polish words
(polka, mazurka), Hungarian words (goulash, tokay) and words of some other languages.
2. Derivation. The structure of word. Suffixes. Productivity of suffixes, prefixes.
Morphological derivation, in linguistics, is the process of forming a new word from an existing word, often
by adding a prefix or suffix, such as -ness or un-. For example, happiness and unhappy derive from the root
word happy.
It is differentiated from inflection, which is the modification of a word to form different grammatical
categories without changing its core meaning: determines, determining, and determined are from the
root determine.
Derivational patterns
Derivational morphology often involves the addition of a derivational suffix or other affix. Such an affix
usually applies to words of one lexical category (part of speech) and changes them into words of another
such category. For example, the English derivational
suffix lychanges adjectives into adverbs (slow → slowly).
Here are examples of English derivational patterns and their suffixes:
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adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → slowness)
adjective-to-verb: -ise (modern → modernise) in British English or -ize (final → finalize) in American
English and Oxford spelling
adjective-to-adjective: -ish (red → reddish)
adjective-to-adverb: -ly (personal → personally)
noun-to-adjective: -al (recreation → recreational)
noun-to-verb: -fy (glory → glorify)
verb-to-adjective: -able (drink → drinkable)
verb-to-noun (abstract): -ance (deliver → deliverance)
verb-to-noun (agent): -er (write → writer)
However, derivational affixes do not necessarily alter the lexical category; they may change merely the
meaning of the base and leave the category unchanged. A prefix (write → re-write; lord → over-lord) rarely
changes the lexical category in English. The prefix un-applies to adjectives (healthy → unhealthy) and some
verbs (do → undo) but rarely to nouns. A few exceptions are the derivational prefixes en- and be-. En(replaced by em- before labials) is usually a transitive marker on verbs, but it can also be applied to
adjectives and nouns to form transitive verbs: circle (verb) → encircle (verb) but rich (adj)
→ enrich (verb), large (adj) → enlarge (verb), rapture (noun) → enrapture (verb), slave (noun)
→ enslave (verb).
When derivation occurs without any change to the word, such as in the conversion of the noun breakfast into
the verb to breakfast, it's known as conversion, or zero derivation.
Derivation that results in a noun may be called nominalization. It may involve the use of an affix (such as
with employ → employee), or it may occur via conversion (such as with the derivation of the noun run from
the verb to run). In contrast, a derivation resulting in a verb may be called verbalization (such as from the
noun butter to the verb to butter).
Technically, a word is a unit of language that carries meaning and consists of one or
more morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together, and has a phonetic value. Typically a word
will consist of a root or stem and zero or more affixes. A word consisting of two or more stems joined
together is called a compound.
If a word is a unit of language that consists of one or more morphemes, then we need to know what a
morpheme is.
A morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning
E.g
Rude, un-true, smooth-ly, dis-organize-d
A word can consists of:
one morpheme (simple)
cat travel appear
more than one morpheme (complex)
cat-s travel-ed dis-appeare-d
There are 6 main types of morphemes:
Free morphemes can constitute a word on their own:
Will, a
Bound morphemes must appear with one or more morphemes to form a word:
help–ed, en–able
Words often consist of a free morpheme with one or more bound morphemes attached to it:
en-danger-ed
In this sort of word, the free morpheme is called the root or stem, and the bound morphemes are affixes
An affix attached to the front of a word is called a prefix
An affix attached to the back of a word is called a suffix
lexical morphemes have lexical (semantic) meanings:
help, impressive, race
Grammatical morphemes provide grammatical information:
help-ed, en–danger
Lexical morphemes tend to be free morphemes:
Jump, afternoon
Grammatical morphemes may be either free or bound:
jump-ed, afternoon-s
Inflectional & Derivational Morphemes
Bound grammatical morphemes seem to come in (at least) two types:
Inflectional
derivational
The precise difference between inflectional and derivational morphemes is hard to define
But the most obvious difference is:
derivational morphemes build new words by changing the meaning and/or syntactic category of the word
inflectional morphemes permit a word to agree with other words in its context by providing grammatical
information
Affixation is one of the most productive ways of word-building throughout the history of English. It consists
in adding an affix to the stem of a definite part of speech. Affixation is divided into suffixation and
prefixation.
The main function of suffixes in Modern English is to form one part of speech from another, the secondary
function is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech. ( e.g. «educate» is a verb, «educatee» is
a noun, and « music» is a noun, «musicdom» is also a noun) .
Suffixes can be polysemantic, such as : -er can form nouns with the following meanings : agent,doer of the
action expressed by the stem (speaker), profession, occupation (teacher), a device, a tool (transmitter). While
speaking about suffixes we should also mention compound suffixes which are added to the stem at the same
time, such as -ably, -ibly, (terribly, reasonably), -ation (adaptation from adapt).
There are different classifications of suffixes in a linguistic research. Affixes have been classified according
to their origin, parts of speech they served form, frequency, productivity and other characteristics.
Productivity of suffixes:
a) productive: -er dancer, -ize specialize, -ly wetly, -ness closeness;
b) semi-productive: -ette kitchenette, -ward sky-ward;
c) non-productive: -ard drunkard, -th length.
3. Composition. Types of composition. The criteria of compounds.
Word-composition is a productive type of word-building, in which new words are produced by combining
two or more stems. E.g.: campsite, bluebird, whitewash, in-laws, jumpsuit.
Types of composition:
-------Neutral
-------Morphological
-------Syntactic
Neutral compounds- two stems are joined together without any connecting elements: scarecrow, goldfish,
crybaby (плакса).
Subtypes of neutral compounds:
--simple neutral compounds - consist of simple affixless stems: sunflower, bedroom, blackbird
--derivational, or derived compounds - have affixes in their structure: long-legged, broad-minded, globetrotter
--contracted compounds - have a shortened stem in their structure (усеченный корень): H-bag (handbag),
TV-set (television set), A-bomb (atomic bomb), V-day (victory day).
Morphological compounds - components are joined by a linking element (‘o’, ‘i’, ‘s’): videophone,
microchip; tragicomic, handicraft; craftsman.
Syntactic compounds are formed by the whole fragments of speech: man-of-war (военный корабль),
forget-me-not, mother-in-law.
Types of compounds according to their meaning
----Non-idiomatic - compounds whose meanings can be described as the sum of the meanings of their
components: classroom, bedroom, homeland, evening-gown.
----Idiomatic - the meaning of the compounds cannot be described as a mere sum of its components:
blackboard, football, lady-killer; ladybird, tallboy (тумбочка), bluestocking.
4.Figures of speech. Metaphor. Kinds of metaphor. Types of similarity.
In literature and writing, a figure of speech (also called stylistic device or rhetorical device) is the use of any
of a variety of techniques to give an auxiliary meaning, idea, or feeling.
Sometimes a word diverges from its normal meaning, or a phrase has a specialized meaning not based on the
literal meaning of the words in it. Examples are metaphor, simile, or personification.
Stylistic devices often provide emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity.
Here is a list of some of the most important figures of speech:
----allusion: Indirect reference to another work of literature or art
----ambiguity: Phrasing which can have two meanings
----analogy A comparision
----humour: Provoking laughter and providing amusement
----hyperbole: Use of exaggerated terms for emphasis
----meiosis: Use of understatement, usually to diminish the importance of something
----metaphor: Stating one entity is another for the purpose of comparing them in quality
----metonymy: Substitution of an associated word to suggest what is really meant
----neologism: The use of a word or term that has recently been created, or has been in use for a short time.
Opposite of archaism
----onomatopoeia: Words that sound like their meaning
----oxymoron: Using two terms together, that normally contradict each other
----simile: Comparison between two things using like or as (He fights like a lion).
----zeugma: The use of a word in both its figurative and literal sense
Metaphor is the most common of the figures of speech.
Unlike simile, metaphor (from the Greek language: meaning "transfer") is language that directly compares
seemingly unrelated subjects. It is a figure of speech that compares two or more things not using like or as.
In the simplest case, this takes the form:
All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their
entrances;
Kinds of metaphor:
---a conceit is a metaphor (or a simile) in which the distance between tenor and vehicle is great
E.g. “my skin bright as a Nazi lampshade” (Sylvia Plath). Here, we have simile rather than metaphor, but the
distance between tenor and vehicle makes the image surpising. ---explicit metaphor (“teljes”): both tenor
and vehicle are there;
---implied metaphor (“csonka”): either tenor or vehicle is missing and has to be suplied by the reader. Such
metaphors are like puzzles or rebuses: we are invited by a surprising statement to guess as to the ground of
the Transposition /identification.
E.g. “The roses kept breathing in the dark”. The tenor is there (roses), but the vehicle is missing and we have
to supply it. In the most successful metaphors, the ground is usually complecx, not simply a single common
feature: this is why many metaphors have more than one “correct” solutions.
nominal metaphor (“névszói”): this is the most frequent type, the “A” = “B” type, idnetification is made
between two nouns (“your skin is velvet”) verbal metaphor (“igei”): usually implied metaphor; the
identification is not explicitly stated but indicated by a verb. e.g. “my heart is flying” = the full, explicit form
of the metaphor is “my heart is a bird”
a dead metaphor: a metaphor that has lost its force and surprise effect, that has ceased to behave as a trope
(e.g. “foot of the hill”); the word “metaphor” is itself a dead metaphor, for it originally means to carry sg.
over in a physical sense
5.Metonymy. Association. Kinds of metonymy. The metonymic usage of words. Common and
different features between metaphor and metonymy.
Metonymy. The transposition of a name (or identification of two things) on the basis of connection,
contiguity. Thus, metonymy is also an absurd identification (a “lie”) like metaphor, but here the two things
are identified on the basis not of similarity but of logical connection.
Here is a short quote from Charles Dickens’s novel ^ Nicholas Nickleby “ – [I am looking for] Mrs
Nickleby. – said Ralph.
– It’s the second floor, Hannah – said the same voice. – … Is the second floor at
In this example, we use the name of the place the place instead of its inhabitant. Of course “the second
floor” cannot stay at home or go out, it is the occupant of the second-floor flat that the characters are talking
about. The relationship (the ground for the identification) is a spatial relationship between the room and its
occupant. The same metonymical structure works in phrases like “the White House said”, “according to
Washington”, “the Kremlin approves of the negotiations”, “Downing Street has issued an official statement”,
etc. It is a metonymy to say that “the United States and Great Britain have sent troops to Iraq”. home?
Somebody went out just now, but I think it was the attic – replied the girl.”
Because a logical (spatial, temporal, causal) connection already exists between the two identified things,
metonymy is usually not as surprising as metaphor (the surprise effect of metaphors is the result of the
distance between tenor and vehicle). Because metonymy is not based on similarity, thus, the ground of the
identification is not a separate thing or quality (as “brightness” or “having human lips”), we don’t speak of
tenor, vehicle and ground in the case of metonymies. Instead, the analysis of metonymy involves the
identification of the type of connection between the two things.
There are four major types of metonymy:
spatial (the connection is that of space), e.g. the Dickens quote, or “the ship never sleeps” temporal (the
connection is that of time), e.g. “this is a cruel century”material (e.g. saying “gold” instead of money, or
“steel” instead of “sword”) causal (the connection is that of cause and effect), e.g. “this woman will be your
death”
6.Synonyms. Groups of synonyms. Antonnyms. Types of antonyms.
A synonym – is a word of similar or identical meaning to one or more words in the same language. All
languages contain synonyms but in English they exist in superabundance.
They’re no two absolutely identical words because connotations, ways of usage, frequency of an occurrence
are different.
Senses of synonyms are identical in respect of central semantic trades but differ in respect of minor semantic
trades.
Classification:
1. Total synonyms (Absolute) are very rare in the language. They are mostly different names for one and the
same plant, animal, disease etc. (absolute) which can replace each other in any given context
--Ex.: the flu :: grippe; сiм’я ::родина; відсоток :: процент.
2. Ideographic synonyms.
--They bear the same idea but not identical in their referential content.
--Ex.: to ascent – to mount – to climb; To happen – to occur – to befall – to chance; Look – appearance –
complexion – countenance
3. Dialectical synonyms.
--Ex.: lift – elevator; Autumn – fall
4. Contextual synonyms.
--Context can emphasize some certain semantic trades & suppress other semantic trades; words with
different meaning can become synonyms in a certain context.
--Ex.: tasteless – dull; Active – curious;
--Synonyms can reflect social conventions.
5. Stylistic synonyms.
--Belong to different styles.
Ex.: To die (neutral) - to kick the bucket (colloquial)
An antonym is a word that is the opposite meaning of another. They are identical in style and belong to the
same part of speech.
Classification:1.absolute or root antonyms.eg:to love-to hate, late-early, big-little
.2.derivational (express contradictionary notions)formed with negative prefixes dis-, un-, non-.eg:to pleaseto displease. b)antonymous suffixes full, less.eg:painfull-painless.
3) complementary antonym is one of a pair of words with opposite meanings, where the two meanings do
not lie on a continuous spectrum. There is no continuous spectrum between push and pull but they are
opposite in meaning and are therefore complementary antonyms. Other examples include: dead, alive; off,
on; day, night; exit, entrance; exhale, inhale; occupied, vacant; identical, different.
4) relational antonym is one of a pair of words with opposite meanings, where opposite makes sense only in
the context of the relationship between the two meanings. There is no lexical opposite of teacher, but teacher
and pupil are opposite within the context of their relationship. This makes them relational antonyms. Other
examples include: husband, wife; doctor, patient; predator, prey; teach, learn; servant, master; come, go;
parent, child.