2. Latin and French borrowings in Modern English, their periodization and recognition.

Latin borrowings: they are divided into 3 periods:

1) 5 century, words are connected with trade (pound, inch, kitchen, wall, port);

2) The time of Christianity, words are connected with religion (Latin words: alter, cross, dean; Greek words: church, angel, devil, anthem);

3) Time of renaissance, words were borrowed after great vowel shift (17 century) (item, superior, zoology, memorandum, vice versa, AM, PM).

Latin and Greek borrowings appeared in English during the Middle English period due to the Great Revival of Learning. These are mostly scientific words because Latin was the language of science at the time.

Butere – butter – масло

Cirice – church – церква

Disc – dish – блюдо, тарілка

Piper – pepper – перець

Win – wine – вино

Paper – paper – папір

Norman French is the 11th century language of France and England. It is an Indo-European language.In 1066, the Norman king, William the Conquerer, invaded England. Many Norman French words entered the language after this. In general, the Normans were the nobility, while the native English were their servants.

Periods of borowings from french

It is customary to divide the time in which English was in contact with French into two periods, 1) Anglo-Norman and 2) Central French.

The first period lasted from the invasion of 1066 to the loss of Normandy to England under King John in 1204.After this there is little or no direct influence of French on English but the language remained fashionable and the practice of borrowing words from the continental language continued well into the 15th century.

The Central French period can be taken to cease gradually with the introduction of printing at the end of the 15th century and the general resurgence in interest and status of English.

The largest group of borrowings is French borrowings. Most of them came into English during the Norman Conquest. French influenced not only the vocabulary of English but also its spelling, because French scribes wrote documents as the local population was mainly illiterate, and the ruling class was French.

Words were borrowed from French into English after 1650, mainly through French literature, but they were not as numerous and many of them are not completely assimilated.

French continues to be the largest single source of new words outside of very specialized vocabulary domains (scientific/technical vocabulary, still dominated by classical borrowings).

Examples:

• Government: parliament, chancellor, government, country, crown

• Religion: miracle, charity, saint, pardon

• Household Relationships: uncle, aunt, nephew, cousin, father, mother, brother, sister

3. Types of word meaning in English. Polysemy and its sources.

Polysemy is the pivot of semantic analysis. A word having several meanings is called polysemantic, and the ability of words to have more than one meaning is described by the term polysemy.

Polysemy –plurality of meaning

Polysemy is certainly not an anomaly. Most English words are polysemantic. It should be noted that the wealth of expressive resources of a language largely depends on the degree to which polysemy has developed in the language.

The system of meanings of any polysemantic word develops gradually, mostly over the centuries, as more and more new meanings are either added to old ones, or oust some of them. So the complicated processes of polysemy development involve both the appearance of new meanings and the loss of old ones.

When analysing the semantic structure of a polysemantic word, it is necessary to distinguish between two levels of analysis.

On the first level, the semantic structure of a word is treated as a system of meanings.

cool - 1) прохлада, свежесть 2) хладнокровие, спокойствие, невозмутимость 3) ; перемирие, передышка 2) лёгкий, нежаркий 3) жаропонижающий 4) холодный (о цвете)

5) слабый (о запахе, следе) 6) невозмутимый, хладнокровный; неторопливый, спокойный 8) равнодушный, апатичный; сухой, 9) наглый, нахальный 10) целый, круглый (о большой сумме денег) 11) крутой, клёвый, классный 6) приглушать тона 7) пришибить, прикончить, замочить 8) сдохнуть, помереть, отбросить коньки