Lexico-Semantic Change in English: Borrowing and Semantic Shifts - Prof. Laura Rodríguez R, Apuntes de Idioma Inglés

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Lexico-semantic change

History of English Language

Lexico-semantic change

If the vocabulary of a language reflects the

perception of the world by a speech

community, it will have to be constantly

adapted to its changing needs…And the

history of the vocabulary of a speech

community is a reflection of its general history

(Kastovsky, 2006:201)

Lexico-semantic change:

borrowing

• Language contact

• Situation:
  • Speech community contact
• Borrowing
  • Acceptance of words from other languages
• English language vocabulary
  • Massive borrowing of vocabulary
  • Significant amount of language contact situations
    • X-XI centuries onwards » Latin » Scandinavian » French » Latin and Greek » Any language

Lexico-semantic change:

borrowing

• As a result:

– English is far less resistant to borrowing than any

other European language

– 17 th^ century battle against hard words

– About 70% of Present-Day English vocabulary

consists of loans

– Over 350 languages have contributed to this

wealth

• 3% loanwords in OE
• 40-50% loanwords in EME

Lexico-semantic change:

borrowing

• Consequence of all this borrowing

• Esp. French, Latin and Greek
  • Heterogeneous word formation systems in PDE
    • They involve different strata

» Native and non-native word formation systems

This is obvious in Lexical families based on common meanings

Lexico-semantic change:

borrowing

• Etymological formal-morphological ties between the

members of lexical families

• Between those lexical items that are derived using word-formation

processes from a common basis.

Vocabulary is “associated”

gallis

Mund

Auge

Vater

Mond

mündlich

Augenarzt

väterlich

Mondfahrzeug

Galle

Vocabulary is “dissociated”

Gall

Mouth

Eye

Father

Moon

bilious

oral

oculist

paternal

lunar vehicle

• Preservation of Indo-European ablaut alternations
  • OE strong verbs
    • wrītan : wrāt : writon : ( ġe)writen
    • PDE write : wrote : written
  • Related nouns and verbs
  • drincan:
    • drinc 'drink, drinking'
    • gedrinca one who drinks with another'
    • drincere 'drinker'
    • drenċ 'drink, drinking'
    • drenċan 'give to drink'
    • drenċ-hūs 'drinking-house'
    • druncen 'drunkeness'
    • druncennis 'drunkenness’
    • druncnian 'get drunk'
    • druncning 'drinking'
    • drynċ 'drink, potion, drinking'

Lexico-semantic change:

borrowing

• Almost all of these nouns and adjectives were

lost in ME

• a few survivors

– song, writ, breach, drunk

– In the other Germanic languages these nouns and

adjectives are still part of the core vocabulary

• Important topic of study for HEL

– The loss and/or replacement of a substantial part

of the Germanic core vocabulary of English

Lexico-semantic change:

borrowing

• Important concepts when dealing with borrowing

• Popular and learned loanwords
  • Popular loanwords
    • through oral transmission
    • They are part of the vocabulary of everyday communication

Continental Germanic

• Latin loanwords
  • PDE. Wine < OE wīne < Lat. Vīnum (wine)
    • German Wein
    • PD Dutch wij
    • Danish and Swedish vin
  • PDE. Butter < OE butere < Lat būtyrum
  • PDE. Cheese < OE cēse < Lat cāseus
  • PDE. Pound < OE pund < Lat pondō

Lexico-semantic change:

borrowing

• Important concepts when dealing with borrowing
  • Popular and learned loanwords
    • Learned loanwords
      • They were adopted due to a more or less scholarly influence
      • They may in time become part of the living vocabulary
      • They may be restricted to certain environments, classes or groups
• OE: the church
• OE cleric, clerc < Lat clericus ( clergyman )
• PDE: clerk
  • Worker
  • (USA) Shop assistant / sales clerk

Lexico-semantic change: borrowing

• Important concepts when dealing with borrowing

– Semantic contamination

• The meaning of two obviously related words, one native and another borrowed from a related language, differ.

OE drēam ( joy )

Sc draumr ( vision in sleep)

PDE: dream

Lexico-semantic change: borrowing

• Important concepts when dealing with borrowing

– Doublets

• two words derived from the same etymon

– But

• They enter the language through different

channels

Lexico-semantic change: borrowing

Middle English

Norman French

Central French

Chattel

Cattle

Lat. Capitāle

Lexico-semantic change: borrowing

• Important concepts when dealing with borrowing

• Loan translation /Calque
  • the parts of a foreign expression are translated
  • It usually produces a new idiom in the native language

From French:

mariage de conveyance

ça va sans dire

marriage of convenience

that goes without saying