English Lexicology. Lecture III. Formal style

1.

Национальный исследовательский
университет «МИЭТ»
English Lexicology
Lecture III. Formal style
Лось А. Л.

2.

Plan
1. Formal style. General characteristics.
2. Learned words.
3. Professional terminology.
4. Archaic and obsolete words.
Historisms.
5. Basic vocabulary.

3.

Formal style. General characteristics
Formal style as opposed to informal is
restricted to formal situations:
the talk of
an employer and employee
a teacher and student
professional talks
official letter / inquiry

4.

Subdivision of the learned words
1) words associated with professional
communication
2) so called learned words
3) obsolete and archaic words (stand
very close to learned words

5.

Main features of learned words
1. mainly associated with printed page
2. further subdivided into literary learned
words, officialese, modes of poetic
diction (! not dictionary!)

6.

Literary leaned words
1. represented by words found in descriptive
passages of fiction;
2. usually described as refined - they are
represented by words drawn from Romance
languages and though fully adapted to the
English phonetic system, still sound foreign;
3. mostly polysyllabic, e.g., cordial, solitude,
elusion, delusion, meditation, fascination and
others.

7.

Officialese (канцеляризмы)
1. these words are used in scientific
prose and can be identified by their dry,
matter-of-fact flavor, e.g., mental,
domestic, sustain, summon, donation,
obtain, comestibles, emoluments,
dispatch, forenoon;
2. they are words of official bureaucratic
language and as to E. Partridge most of
them should be avoided in speech.

8.

Modes of poetic diction
1. these words are lofty, high flown,
possess archaic features which help
creating a certain atmosphere and mood;
2. they are traditionally used only in
poetry and have so called poetic
connotation, e.g., alas, constancy,
realms, doth (instead of does).

9.

What is terminology?
The definition of “TERM”
Terminology is “the set of technical words
used in a particular subject such as physics,
cricket – or language study” (Penguin
dictionary of language ).
Term is a word or word-group which is
specifically used by a particular branch of
science, technology, trade or the arts to
convey a concept which is specific to this
particular activity.

10.

Controversial problems
concerning terminology
Problem 1
Whether a term loses its terminological
status when it comes into common use or
not?
TV, Internet, radio give people knowledge
from different scientific fields, technology
and arts.
E.g. medical diseases (measles, mumps,
quinsy, tonsillitis, chicken-pox).

11.

Controversial problems
concerning terminology
Problem 2
Polysemy and synonymy of terms
Synonymic term pairs:
Breath consonants – voiceless consonants
(глухие согласные звуки);
Spirants – continuants (щелевые);
Rolled – thrilled (дрожащие).

12.

Controversial problems
concerning terminology
Problem 2. Polysemy and synonymy
of terms
jet – 1)струя воды, пара;
2) форсунка, патрубок;
etymology – 1) этимология (раздел
языкознания, изучающий
происхождение слов);
2) происхождение слова

13.

Problem 2. Polysemy and synonymy
of terms
dress - 1) перевязать рану (medical term);
2) готовить землю к посеву (agriculture);
3) выстраиваться в шеренгу (military);
4) обогащать руду (geology);
5) расцвечивать флагами (military);
horse – 1) кавалерия, конница (military);
2) гимнастические козлы (sport);
3) станок, рама (technology);
4) включение пустой породы в руде
(geology).

14.

Main features of terms
1. Terms as a rule are deprived of emotional
color and do not possess any transferred
meaning.
2. Mostly terms are not for general use. They are
used by a narrow circle of specialists and are
recognized only outside their specific sphere.
3. Sometimes a term can obtain more
generalized meaning ( for instance the word
electricity was firstly only a physical term but
then came into general usage.
4. Terms can be polysemantic or monosemantic.

15.

Main features of terms
5. Structurally terms can be simple (out of one
word: substrate) or compound (out of two or
more words: electromotive force).
6. The origin of a great number of terms
concerning natural science, medicine,
mathematics, the Arts are Latin and Greek
(e.g.: index, cerebrum, formula, Present
Indefinite – Latin;
metaphor, bacterium, telescope, hydrometer,
protoplasm, diphthong - Greek).

16.

Main features of terms
7. Terms as common words are built up
according to the rules of word building
and also by endowing some current
words with different meaning (as horse,
to dress) or by using proper names:
diesel, colt.
8.Terms are borrowed from other
languages.

17.

Main features of archaic and obsolete
words
1. stand close to the learned words,
particularly to the modes of poetic diction
2. associated only with printed page (their
usage is restricted to printed page)
3. are moribund, already partly or fully out of
circulation, rejected by living language and
are not used in conversational situations.
4. met in historical novels, in poetry ( authors
use them to create a certain period
atmosphere - so as an expressive means)

18.

Main features of archaic and
obsolete words
5. Sometimes an archaic word can
undergo a sudden revival. So the formally
a formerly archaic kin (for blood
relationship) is now current in American
English usage for family, relatives.
6. There are several names for archaic
words: archaisms, obsolete words and
historisms.

19.

Main features of archaic and
obsolete words
Obsolete word is no longer in use, especially out
of use for at least a century, e. g.: thou, thy, thee
(for you, your); aye (yes); nay (no), eve (evening);
morn (morning).
Archaic word was current in an earlier time but
rare in present usage, e.g.: damsel (girl),
brotherhood, regardless (невнимательный).
Historisms are words denoting objects and
phenomena which are things of the past and no
longer exist, e.g.: knight, king, spear, mail (for
armor).

20.

Main characteristics of basic
vocabulary (BV)
1. BV is the central group of the
vocabulary, its historical foundation
and living core:
BV words show a considerably greater
stability in comparison with words of
other strata, especially informal.
BV undergoes historical changes but
slowly, during centuries.

21.

Main characteristics of basic vocabulary (BV)
Possible changes in BV are due to
1) enriching BV by new words, such as
electricity, computer, internet and others;
2) falling into disuse of some words
because of their archaisation (bow,
knight, sword);
3) obtaining some new stylistic coloring
(foe - враг, naught – ничто / ничего);
4) semantic changes in the word (hound
previously meant dog, its current
meaning is гончая).

22.

Main characteristics
of basic vocabulary (BV)
2. Stylistically BV words are neutral,
they are used in all kinds of situations,
both formal and informal, in verbal
and written communication,
they are used by everybody, everywhere
regardless of profession, occupation,
education, age group or geographical
location.

23.

Main characteristics
of basic vocabulary (BV)
3. These are words without which no human
communication would be possible as they
denote objects and phenomena of every day
importance (house, bread, summer, school,
etc.)
4. BV words are characterized by entire lack of
other connotations (additional meaning)/
their meanings are broad, general and
directly convey the concept without
supplying any additional information.

24.

Short list of BV characteristics
1. denote objects and phenomena of every
day importance;
2. characterized by considerably greater
stability;
3. stylistically neutral (are used in all kinds
of situations);
4. characterized by entire lack of
connotations (their meaning is broad and
directly conveys the concept).
.

25.

Tasks to the lecture
1. Analyze differences between a term and an
ordinary word. What do they have in
common? Illustrate your answer with
examples.
2. What is your opinion on the problems
concerning terminology? Reason your
answer by examples.
3. What are similar features of archaic words
and modes of poetic diction? Are there any
differences between them? Illustrate your
answer with examples.