12 Basic Vocabulary

These words are stylistically neutral, and, in this respect, opposed to formal and informal words described above. Their stylistic neutrality makes it possible to use them in all kinds of situations, both formal and informal, in verbal and written communication. The basic vocabulary is the central group of the vocabulary, its historical foundation and living core. That is why words of this stratum show a considerably greater stability in comparison with words of the other strata, especially informal.

Basic vocabulary words can be recognised not only by their stylistic neutrality but, also, by entire lack of other connotations (i. e. attendant meanings). Their meanings are broad, general and directly convey the concept, without supplying any additional information. The basic vocabulary and the stylistically marked strata of the vocabulary do not exist independently but are closely interrelated. Most stylistically marked words have their neutral counterparts in the basic vocabulary. (Terms are an exception in this respect.) On the other hand, colloquialisms may have their counterparts among learned words, most slang has counterparts both among colloquialisms and learned words. Archaisms, naturally, have their modern equivalents at least in some of the other groups.

13vocabulary of the american english American English (AmE) is the form of English used in the United States. It includes all English dialects used within the United States.An unofficial standard for spoken American English has also developed, as a result of mass media and geographic and social mobility, and broadly describes the English typically heard from network newscasters, commonly referred to as non-regional diction, although local newscasters tend toward more parochial forms of speech.Despite this unofficial standard, regional variations of American English have not only persisted but have actually intensified, according to linguist William Labov.Regional dialects in the United States typically reflect the elements of the language of the main immigrant groups in any particular region of the country, especially in terms of pronunciation and vernacular vocabulary. Scholars have mapped at least four major regional variations of spoken American English: Northern, Southern, Midland, and Western. After the American Civil War, the settlement of the western territories by migrants from the east led to dialect mixing and levelling, so that regional dialects are most strongly differentiated in the eastern parts of the country that were settled earlier. Localized dialects also exist with quite distinct variations, such as in Southern Appalachia and New York.

15 Phonetic and grammar peculiarities of AE.

In phonetics. In the system of consonants r articulation , in Br.english r is cacuminal, in amer. It is retroflexed. [t] is voiced before an unstressed syllable or between a stressed vowel or sonorant:kettle, bottle. But there is no voicing before a stressed syllable:return, curtail. [w] as hw:which, hwill. Letter s before o, i, n is read as ш in br.; as ж in am:Persia. In asked [k] is not pronounced before d. In the system of vowels:1)э instead of a before s, st, nt, ft, з, ф: grant, dance, past, but father, palm are not changed. 2)a instead of o before b, p, t, l, ш, ж: stop, rock, lot. 3) j lost out before [u]: student; 4) шэн instead of шн:animation; 5) i is dropped in the words followed by le: мисл, хосл, досл. 6)2 stresses are characteristic to the amer.lang-ge in words which have one stress in br.:tErittOry, lAboratOry. In grammatical the peculiarities are not numerous and not sysrematic:1) The 3d form of some verbs are different: got-gotten, proved-proven;2) Syntactic forms of subjunctive and suppositional mood are used:he suggested that we(should)go; 3)pres.perfect is seldom used, past tense is used; 4) will instead of shall for all the persons.

17 The fifth century A. D. Several of the Germanic tribes (the most numerous amongst them being the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes) migrated across the sea now known as the English Channel to the British Isles. There they were confronted by the Celts, the original inhabitants of the Isles. The Celts desperately defended their lands against the invaders, but they were no match for the military-minded Teutons and gradually yielded most of their territory. They retreated to the North and South-West (modern Scotland, Wales and Cornwall). Through their numerous contacts with the defeated Celts, the conquerors got to know and assimilated a number of Celtic words (Mod. E. bald, down, glen, druid, bard, cradle). Especially numerous among the Celtic borrowings were place names, names of rivers, bills, etc. The Germanic tribes occupied the land, but the names of many parts and features of their territory remained Celtic. For instance, the names of the rivers Avon, Exe, Esk, Usk, Ux originate from Celtic words meaning "river" and "water".

Ironically, even the name of the English capital originates from Celtic Llyn + dun in which llyn is another Celtic word for "river" and dun stands for "a fortified hill", the meaning of the whole being "fortress on the hill over the river".

Some Latin words entered the Anglo-Saxon languages through Celtic, among them such widely-used words as street (Lat. strata via) and wall (Lat. vallum).

19 Borrowings In 15 century the English language happened to come in contact with several other languages, mainly Latin, French and Scandinavian. A great number of borrowings appeared in the language as a result of a number of historical causes. Due to the great influence of the Roman civilisation Latin was used in England as the language of learning and religion. French was the language denoting new notions of a higher social system. The number and character of borrowed words tell us of the relations between the peoples, the level of their culture. Some borrowings (air, place, brave) can’t be explained by the direct influence of historical conditions. The number and character of borrowings also depend on the degree of the genetic and structural proximity of languages concerned. The closer the language, the deeper is the influence. Thus the personal pronouns (they, their) were borrowed from Scandinavian. Different nations come to the contact due to wars, invasions, conquests, trade international cultural relations. Borrowings enter the language in two ways: 1. through oral speech, by immediate contact between the peoples (inch, mill, street). 2. through written speech, by indirect contact through books (communiqué, belles-lettres). The main groups of borrowings in English: Latin, Greek, Scandinavian, French, Italian.

Some basic criteria of borrowings.

In the English language borrowings may be discovered through some peculiarities. Sometimes they enable us to discover the source of borrowing. There are some basic criteria of borrowings: 1. the pronunciation of the word, its spelling and the correlation between sounds and letters (the initial position of the sounds [v], [dз], [з] or of the letters x, j, z is a sign of borrowed word: vase Fr., gesture L., zero Fr.). 2. the morphological structure of the word and its grammatical forms (the suffixes in the words neurosis (ньюрэyзэс) Gr and violoncello (вайэлэнчелэу), bacteria from bacterium L betray the foreign origin of the words). 3. the lexical meaning of the word. Thus the concept denoted by the word ‘pagoda’ makes us suppose that we deal with borrowings. Sometimes the form of the word and its meaning in ModE enable us to tell the source of borrowing (the digraph ch is sounded as [ш] – chef – Fr borrowings; ch as [k] – archaic – GrB; ch as [ч] – child – Anglo-Saxon origin).