Where do English words come from? Lexical Borrowing
While word formation is an internal cause of language change/innovation, borrowing is an
external cause of language change/innovation.
Language contact =
English is always borrowed, it has in the past and still does to this day, although, starting
from the 15th century English, it has started lending to other languages.
1775-99 : French is the major donor language to present english vocabulary, then Latin, then
German,..
1875-99 : Laying, German, French,..
1975-99 Latin, French, Japanese,..
How lexical borrowing relates to new leximes?
1. lexis > lexical borrowing
2. spelling conventions/graphemes : <-ch->, <-ie->, <-c-> for /s/)
3. morphology : suffixes, prefixes
4. syntax : word order, invention,
Lexical borrowing
- loan words : form+meaning > new lexemes
- loan translations : only form but not meaning
- semantic loans : only copy the meaning of foreign word > semantic borrowing
Loan words
1. donor language > receiving/borrowing language
2. adaptation to phonology/orthography/grammar of B
!!! varying degrees of adaptation time !!! > CHURCH vs ARCHIVE > the spelling (grafia) is
the same but the pronunciation is different so that means that the two words entered English
in two different historical moments.
The moment where a foreign language enters the language
Loan translations
Semantic loans (calchi semantici)
Language A (es Latin) = donor language
Language B (es English) = receiving language
Parola in latino ha due significati, uno corrisponde con il significato di una parola in inglese,
l’altro no, ha un significato solo in latino
By means of semantic loan anche il secondo significato della parola latina va a
corrispondere con l’inglese e quindi vuol dire qualcosa anche in inglese????
Latin “lingua” = “tongue” : organ of speech > Old English “tonge”
