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

the borrowed stock of words (70-75%) – words taken over from other languages and modified in phonetic shape, spelling, paradigm or / and meaning according to the standards of the English language.

Motivation for borrowing a word:

-to fill a gap in the vocabulary, e.g. butter (Latin), yogurt (Turkish), whisky (Scottish Gaelic), tomato (Nahuatl /’na: watl/ - the Aztec language), sauna ( /’so:nə/ Finnish) etc.;

-to represent the same concept in a new aspect, supplying a new shade of meaning or a different emotional colouring, e.g. cordial (Latin), a desire (French), to admire (Latin) etc.;

-prestige, e.g. picture, courage, army, treasure, language, female, face, fool, beef (Norman French); in many cases these fashionable words simply displaced their native English equivalents, which dropped out of use.

The term source of borrowing is applied to the language from which the loan word was taken into English.

The term origin of borrowing refers to the language to which the word may be traced.

paper < Fr papier < Gr papyros ‘paper made of papyrus stalks’

umbrella < It ombrella < L umbra ‘shade, shadow’ (cf. Ukr. парасоля).