Special Colloquial Vocabulary
1. Slang is a) a special vocabulary used by any set of persons of low or disreputable character; language of a low and vulgar type; b) the cant or jargon of a certain class or period; c) language of a highly colloquial type considered as below the level of standard educated speech; and consisting either of new words or of current words “employed in some special sense”. (New Oxford English Dictionary); e.g. “bread basket” – stomach; “rot” – nonsense; “the cat’s pyjamas” – the correct thing. There are many kinds of slang: public, home, commercial, military, theatrical, parliamentary etc.
2. Jargonisms. Jargon is a term for a group of words that exist almost in every language and whose aim is to preserve secrecy within one or another social group. They are generally old words with entirely new meanings imposed on them, e.g. grease – money; a tiger hunter – gambler, lexer – a student preparing for a law course. Jargonisms need translation. They may migrate into other social strata and become recognizable in the literary language e.g. queer, bluff, sham, humbug, etc.
When a jargon becomes common it may be classified as slang or colloquial, e.g. Dar (from damned average raiser) “a persevering and assiduous student” (university jargon). Man and wife – “a knife” (rhyming slang). Brass – money in general, cash; drag – to rob vehicles, to soap–box (to make speeches out-of-doors standing on a soap-box). “Soap” and “flannel” meaning “bread” and “cheese” (naval) which cannot be understood by all the language community can be classed as jargonisms. Jargon distorts words, it does not create them. British slang and jargon differ from those of America and Canada.
3. Professionalisms are the words used in a definite trade, profession or calling by people connected by common interests both at work and at home. But terms belong to the literary layer of the words while professionalisms are special words in the non-literary layer of the English vocabulary. Their meanings are often based on metaphors and metonymies. They are usually mono-semantic, e.g. tinfish – (submarine), blockbluster – (a bomb designed to destroy blocks of buildings), piper – (a specialist who decorates pastry with the use of cream-pipe).
They are not aimed at secrecy. They are often written in converted commas to stress their peculiar idiomatic sense or are italicized.
4. Dialectal words are the words confined to a definite locality. In emotive prose they are used to characterize the speaker as a person of a certain locality, breeding, education etc. There is some difficulty in distinguishing dialectal words from colloquial words (lass, lad, daft, (silly) from Scottish).
|
|
|
These words are universally accepted as recognized units of standard English. But here are some corrupted English standard words: hinney – honey, tittie – sister. The southern dialectal words have phonetic peculiarity that distinguishes them from other dialects: initial “s” and “f” are voiced; e.g. Volk – folk; vound – found; zee – see; zurely – surely. They can be found in the style of emotive prose.
5. Vulgar words or Vulgarisms 1) are expletive and swear words of abusive character (damn, bloody to hell, goddam etc.). 2) Obscene words, these are known as “four – letter” words. The use of which is banned in any form of intercourse as being indecent. The function of expletive is almost the same as that of interjections; i.e. to express strong emotions, annoyance, anger, vexation.
6. Colloquial coinages. Nonce words unlike coinages of a literary bookish character are spontaneous and elusive. They are not fixed in the dictionaries. They are not built by any affixes but are based on certain semantic changes of words.
Nonce coinages appear in all spheres of life. They may become permanent and generally accepted terms.
Words and expressions
word stock – словарный состав
layer – слой
common property – общее свойство
unstable – нестабильный
to fleet – плыть
to restrict – ограничивать
coinage – новое слово
nonce-words – слова, образованные только для данного случая
bulk – основная часть
range – область
to approach – приближаться
to sustain – поддерживать
hackneyed – устарелый, зачерствелый
diction – стиль, манера
obsolescent – устаревающий
obsolete – вышедший из употребления
|
|
|
proper – свойственный
goblet – кубок, бокал
to penetrate – проникать
obscure – тёмный, неясный
to designate – обозначать
to cease – прекращать
to eliminate – устранять
to acquire – приобретать
to blend – смешивать
smooth – гладкий
to curtail – урезать, сокращать
contraction – сокращение
disreputable – имеющее дурную репутацию
current – настоящий, текущий
to impose – накладывать
queer – странный
bluff – резкий, крутой
sham – притворство, подделка
humbug – обманщик
persevering – упорный
assiduous – усердный
vehicle – транспортное средство
soap – мыло
flannel – фланель, тонкая лепёшка
submarine – подводная лодка
tin – консервная банка
pipe – трубка
converted commas – кавычки
to italicize – выделить курсивом
breeding – воспитание
daft – сумасшедший
to corrupt – искажать, портить
to distort – искажать
voiced – звонкий
unit – единица
expletive – бранное выражение
swear words – проклятия, бранные слова
abusive – оскорбительный
obscene – неприличный
to ban – запрещать
indecent – неприличный
annoyance – раздражение
vexation – досада
interjection – междометье
elusive – неуловимый
Questions to the lecture
1. What are the main three stylistic layers of English word stock?
2. What are the main special literary groups?
3. What are terms?
4. What can you say about poetic words?
5. What are archaic words?
6. What do you know about barbarisms and foreign words?
7. What are literary coinages?
8. What are special colloquial groups?
|
|
|
9. What do you know about slang?
10. What words are called jargonisms?
11. What’s the difference between terms and professionalisms?
12. What words are called dialectal words?
13. What do you know about vulgarisms?
14. What’s the difference between literary and colloquial nonce-words?
Lecture 5
Дата добавления: 2018-05-31; просмотров: 614; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!