STRATIFICATION
of English Vocabulary
Literary and Colloquial Strata of
Words
King Solomon’s Verse
What is man, that Thou are mindful of him?
And the son of man, that Thou visitest him?
Thou madest him lower than the angels;
To crown him with glory and worship.
Thou makest him to have dominion of Thy hands;
Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet;
All sheep and oxen; yea, and the beasts of the field;
The fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea;
And whatsoever walketh through the paths of the seas.
William Shakespeare,
HAMLET, 1601
What piece of work is a man! How noble
in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form
and moving how express and
admirable! In action how like an angel!
In apprehension how like a god! The
beauty of the world! The paragon of
animals!
Dr. L.A.Borrodaile, 1912
Man is metazone, tribloblastic, chordate,
vertebrate, pentadactyle, mammalian,
eutherian, primate… . The main outlines
of each of his principal systems of
organs may be traced back, like those of
other mammals, to the fishes.
Stylistic Classification of
English Vocabulary
General considerations
Is it possible to classify the
vocabulary?
Differences of opinion
Three layers of English
vocabulary
1. Neutral layer
2. Literary layer
(Super-neutral words)
3. Colloquial layer
(Sub-neutral words)
Study the following
examples:
Colloquial
Neutral
Literary
kid
child
infant
comfy
comfortable
commodious
get out
go away
retire
flapper
young girl
maiden
daddy
father
parent
LITERARY STRATUM OF WORDS
1. Archaisms
2. Alienisms and foreign words
3. Terms and learned words
4. Poetic words
5. Literary coinages (including
nonce - words)
ARCHAISMS
a) obsolete words: methinks (it seems to
me), nay (no); a palfrey (a small horse),
aforesaid, hereinafternamed;
b) archaisms proper (Fr.): troth (faith);
c) historical words: knight, spear; worrier;
d) poetic words: woe (sorrow), haply
(perhaps);
e) morphological forms: singest, brethren,
thou, thou makest.
Alienisms and Foreign Words
1. Alien words - borrowings that have English
equivalents: chic (stylish), ad infinitum (to
infinity), babushka (kerchief tied under the chin).
2. Foreign words - do not belong to the English
vocabulary: udarnik, a propos, perestroika,
Deutsche Soldaten. Ex.: 1) «She had said ‘Au
revoir!’ Not good-bye!» (J.Galsworthy)
2) «We have time, Herr Zippmann, to try your
schnapps.” (Heim)
Alien or foreign?
1. Ivan Ilyich was le phenix de la famille, as
they used to say (L.Tolstoy).
2. Canada has a per capita income of about
$17,000.
3. «I’ll go upstairs to get shmotki», I said
(A.Burgess. A Clockwork Orange).
4. «Avanti, my dear and welcome. Get her a
glass, Oliver» (B.Trapido. Brother of the
more famous Jack).
TERMS
Terms - words denoting objects, processes,
phenomena of science, humanities,
technique.
1) Single terms: psychology, equity, function.
2) Terms consisting of several words:
subject-matter, computer-aided system,
belles-lettres style.
Within a literary work terms may acquire a
satirical effect.
Terms in a satirical function
«What a fool Rawdon Crawley has
been», Clump replied, «to go and marry
a governess! There was something
about the girl too.»
«Green eyes, fair skin, pretty figure,
famous frontal development», Squills
remarked (W.M.Thackeray, Vanity Fair).
Literary coinages (including
nonce-words)
Two types of literary neologisms:
1. Designate new-born concepts,
terminological coinages: intertextuality,
профессиограмма, immunodeficiency,
ecosystem.
2. Create expressiveness of the utterance
(nonce-words): anti-globalist, musicdom,
bananarama, LASER (light amplification by
stimulated emission of radiation).
NONCE WORDS
Nonce-words are chance words, occasional
words, words created for the given occasion
with the existing words by means of
affixation, composition, conversion, etc. Ex.:
There was a balconyful of gentlemen…
The word balconyful was coined by analogy
with the words “mouthful”, “spoonful”,
“handful”. Nonce-words produce a
humorous effect. Being used just once, they
disappear completely.
Colloquial Stratum of Words
Sub-neutral Words
1. Slang
2. Vulgarisms
3. Jargonisms
4. Dialectal words
SLANG
Slang is a non-standard colloquial layer,
outside the literary language but
forcing its way into it.
Function - to characterize the
personage, to create a certain
atmosphere (that of scandal, violence
or intolerance or humor) in the literary
text.
WHY SLANG?
1. Striving for novelty of expression:
intentional substitutes of neutral and elevated
words and expressions: cripes instead of
Christ.
2. Disguising from outsiders the meaning of
what was said: Look at that chick! She’s
really on fire. Посмотри на эту бабу.
Клевая, не правда ли?
Stylistic Sources of Slang
1/ Metaphor: He snaked out of here without
his overcoat. Он выскользнул отсюда,
оставив свое пальто.
2/ Metonymy: skirt (girl)
3/ Hyperbole: killing (astonishing)
4/ Understatement: whistle (flute)
5/ Clear as mud (irony).
VULGARISMS
(SWEAR WORDS)
Vulgarisms: stylistically lowest group of
words which are considered offensive
for polite usage.
a) abusive words, e.g. son of a bitch;
b) hackneyed vulgar words: devil,
bloody.
Function: to express strong emotions,
mainly annoyance, anger, vexation and
the like. Found in direct speech.
ANSWER THE QUESTION
How are vulgarims euphemistically
called?
(A euphemism - is a word or phrase used to
replace an unpleasant word or expression by
a conventionally more acceptable one:
to die ---> to pass away, to be no more, etc.
Answer: sdrow rettel-ruof (mirror-reading)
JARGONISMS
Jargonisms: words functioning in
limited spheres of society:
a) professional jargonisms;
b) social jargonisms.
Function: to replace those words which
already exist in the language in order to
make their speech incoherent to
outsiders.
Professional Jargonisms
Professional jargonisms are denominations
of things, phenomena and process
characteristic of given profession opposed
to the official terms of this professional
sphere.
Function: They are used by representatives
of the profession to facilitate the
communication.
Social Jargonisms
Social jargonisms are made of words used to
denote non-professional thing relevant for
representatives of the given social group
with common interests (e.g., music fans,
drug addicts and the like).
Function: they are used by representatives of
the given group to show that the speaker
also belongs to it and sometimes for the
purpose of making speech incoherent to
outsiders.
DIALECTAL WORDS
Dialectal words are words and phrases
characteristic of a certain locality.They
reflect peculiarities of provincialism in
phonetics and vocabulary.
Of special significance for English
literature is Cockney - the dialect of
the uneducated people in London.
COCKNEY
1) The diphthong [ei] is replaced by [ai]: to sy,
to py instead of to say, to pay;
2) the diphthong [au] is replaced by
monophthong [a:]: nah then instead of
«now then»;
3) words like «manners», «thank you» are
pronounced as menners, thenk you.
4) the suffix ”- ing” is pronounced as [n]:
sittin’, standin’.
HOME ASSIGNMENT
1. Ивашкин М.П. и др. A Manual of English
Stylistics. - Pp.22-28.
2. Galperin I.R. STYLISTICS. - Pp. 62-95;
103-117. Copy the drawing on p.63.
3. Глазунов С.А. Новый нагло-русский
словарь современной разговорной
лексики. - М.: Рус. яз., 1998. - 776 с.
4. Make a copy of Test No 2: Stylistic
Lexicology and answer all the points. From
№ 1 of this list of literature. Pp.36-37.