Branches of linguistics. Synchronic vs diachronic approaches to the language study. Lexicology – ‘the science of the word’ Lexicon

native affix (prefix or suffix) + borrowed stem: befool, besiege, beguile; graceful, falsehood, rapidly;

borrowed affix + native stem: drinkable, starvation, wordage; recall, embody, mishandle;

borrowed affix + borrowed stem + native affix: discovering;

native affix + native stem + borrowed affix: unbreakable.

The term folk (false, popular, etymythology) etymology (from German Volksetymologie) refers to erroneous beliefs about derivation and the consequent changes to words.

Sources of folk etymology:

reasonable interpretations of the evidence that happen to be false, e.g. cockroach (as if from cock + roach or caca ‘excrement’) < Sp. cucaracha ‘chafer, beetle’ < cuca ‘kind of caterpillar’;

urban legends, e.g. a rule of thumb ‘rough measurement’ is mistakenly thought to refer to an old English law under which a man could legally beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb (though no such law ever existed);

racism and slavery, e.g. picnic as a shortening for pick a nigger is erroneously thought to refer to an outdoor community gathering during which families ate from box lunches while a randomly-chosen Afro-American was hanged for the diners’ entertainment.
5. Assimilation of borrowings. Types and degrees of assimilation.

The term assimilation of a loan word is used to denote a partial or total conformation to the phonetical, graphical, and morphological standards of the receiving language and its semantic system.

The term type of assimilation refers to the changes an adopted word may undergo:

phonetic assimilation;

graphical assimilation;

grammatical assimilation;

semantic assimilation.

The degree of assimilation depends upon the period of time during which the word has been used in the receiving language, its communicative importance and frequency:

Completely assimilated loan-words are found at all the layers of older borrowings: cheese, street, wall, wine; gate, wing, die, take, happy, ill, low, odd, wrong.