Poetic and highly literary words

Their main function is to sustain a special evaluated atmosphere of poetry. Poetic words form an insignificant layer of special literary vocabulary. They are mostly archaic or very rarely used highly literary words. On the whole they are detached from the common literary vocabulary. The use of poetic words doesn't as a rule create the atmosphere of poetry, but it substitutes its expressiveness.

The common way of creating such words is compounding [young-eyed, rosy-fingered]. Poetic words and expressions are understandable to a limited number of readers. In modern poetry words are often used in strange combinations [the sound of shame].

Archaic words

These words are divided into the three groups: archaic, obsolescent, obsolete. There are three stages in the aging processes of words:

• they become rarely used; they are in the stage of gradually passing out from use; these are the morphological forms belonging to the earlier stage of the development of the language [thee, thou], corresponding verbal endings [thou makest], many French borrowings [palfreu]

• they have already gone completely out of use and are still recognised by the English-speaking people. [me thinks = it seems to me, nay = no].

• archaic words proper is no longer recognisable in modern English; such words were in use during the Old English period, are earlier dropped out of the language or have changed in the appearance so much that they have become unrecognizable [losso =lazy fellow].

Obsolescent words are used in different kinds of documents and legal English. Obsolent words are used mostly in poetry. Archaic words are also used to create an evaluated effect. Thus, the use of archaic words is astylistic device. In historical novels they create an atmosphere of the past. In the depiction of events of the present they assume the function of a stylistic device proper. The stylistic functions of the archaic words are based on the temporary perception of the event. Even when used in a terminological aspect they create a special atmosphere in the utterance.

Barbarisms and foreignisms

Barbarisms are words of foreign origin, which haven't been entirely assimilated into the english language. Tey bear the appearance of a borrowing and are felt as something alien to the naitive tongue. They form a great part of the English vocabulary. The science studying such words is called etymology. However they are considered to be on the outskirts of the literary language. Barbarisms have become facts of the English vocabulary.

Foreign words do not belong to the English vocabulary and they are not registered in the english dictionaries and often are to be explained.

Barbarisms are a historical category. Words enter the class of words named barbarisms and many of them gradually merged with the native English vocabulary (conscious, retrogate). Both barbarisms and foreign words are widely used in various styles, but they have mainly local colour, concerning customs and habits describe conditions of life and are referred to concrete events. They are foreignisms in belles-lettres and publicistic.