Content introduction chapter I. The origin and usage of barbarisms in modern english

CHAPTER II. STYLISTIC DIFFERENTIATION OF ENGLISH VOCABULARY
2.1 Stylistic functions of conversational words
In modern English new words are also coined by contractions or abbreviations which should be distinguished from initialisms, a sequence of the first letters of a series of words, each pronounced separately. Lexicographers make a careful distinction between these and the two other types of shortenings. An acronym is a word group created in a similar way to an initialism but which is pronounced as a word. So HIV is an initialism, but AIDS is an acronym. An abbreviation is any contraction of a word or phrase, but it's applied particularly to contractions such as e.g. Signs for units of measurement, such as kg, are technically not abbreviations but symbols, though they commonly use alphabetic characters for ease of reproduction, and they never include stops. But some people just call them all abbreviations, though there's a tendency to use acronym instead, as being a more important-sounding word. [4,62]
Barbarisms and foreign words are used in various styles of language, but are most often to be found in the style of belles-lettres and the publi-cistic style. In the belles-lettres style, however, foreignisms are sometimes used not only as separate units incorporated in the English narrative. The author makes his character actually speak a foreign language, by putting a string of foreign words into his mouth, words which to many readers may be quite unfamiliar. These phrases or whole sentences are sometimes translated by the writer in a foot-note or by explaining the foreign utterance in English in the text. But this is seldom done.
Barbarisms have still another function when used in the belles-lettres style. We may call it an "exactifying" function. Words of for-seign origin generally have a more or less monosemantic value. In other words, they do not tend to develop new meanings. The English So long, for example, due to its conventional usage has lost its primary meaning. It has become a formal phrase of parting. Not so with the French "Au-revoir." When used in English as a formal sign of parting it will either carry the exact meaning of the words it is composed of, viz. 'See you again soon', or have another stylistic function.
No translation is given, no interpretation. But something else must be pointed out here. Foreign words and phrases may sometimes be used to exalt the expression of the idea, to elevate the language. This is in some respect akin to the function of elevation mentioned in the chapter on archaisms. Words which we do not quite understand sometimes have a peculiar charm. This magic quality in words, a quality not easily grasped, has long been observed and made use of in various kinds of utteran­ces, particularly in poetry and folklore.
But the introduction of foreign speech into the texture of the Eng­lish language hinders understanding and if constantly used becomes irritating. It may be likened, in some respect, to jargon. Soames For­syte, for example, calls it exactly that. The introduction'of actual foreign words in an utterance is not, to our mind, a special stylistic device, inasmuch as it is not a conscious and intentional literary use of "the'facts of the English language. How­ever, foreign words, being alien to the texture of the language in which the work is written, always arrest the attention of the reader and there­fore have a definite stylistic^function. Sometimes the skilful use of one or two foreign wordsvwill be sufficient to create the impression of an utterance made in a foreign language. Thus in the following example:
"Deutsche Soldaten ~^a little while agd, you received a sample of American strength'." (Stefan Heym, "The Crusaders")
The two words 'Deutsche Soldaten' are sufficient to create the im­pression that the actual speech was made in German, as in real life it would have been. We may remark in passing that Dreiser was particularly fond of using barbarisms not only in his essays and articles but in his novels and stories as well. And this brings us to another question. Is the use of barbarisms and foreign words a matter of individual preference of expression, a certain idiosyncrasy of this or that writer? Or is there a definite norm regulating the usage of this means of expression in dif­ferent styles of speech? The reader is invited to make his own observa­tions and inferences on the matter.[5,87]
Barbarisms assume the significance of a stylistic device if they display a kind of interaction between different meanings, or functions, or aspects. When a word which we consider a barbarism is used so as to evoke a twofold application we are confronted with an SD. In the example given above — "She had said 'au revoirV Not good­bye!" the 'au revoir' will be understood by the reader because of its frequent use in some circles of English society. However, it is to be understood literally here, i. e. 'So long' or 'until we see each other again.' The twofold perception secures the desired effect. Set against the English 'Good-bye' which is generally used when, people part for an indefinite time, the barbarism loses its formal character and re-establi­shes its etymological meaning. Consequently, here again we see the clearly cut twofold application of the language unit, the indispensable re­quirement for a stylistic device. Etymologically the vocabulary of the English language is far from being homogeneous.
` It consists of two layers - the native stock of words and the borrowed stock of words. Numerically the borrowed stock of words is considerably larger than the native stock of words. In fact native words comprise only 30 % of the total number of words in the English vocabulary but the native words form the bulk of the most frequent words actually used in speech and writing. Besides the native words have a wider range of lexical and grammatical valency, they are highly polysemantic and productive in forming word clusters and set expressions. In many cases a borrowed word especially one borrowed long ago is practically indistinguishable from a native word without a thorough etymological analysis (street, school, face).
The number of borrowings in the vocabulary of a language and the role played by them is determined by the historical development of the nation speaking the language. The most effective way of borrowing is direct borrowing from another language as the result of contacts with the people of another country or with their literature. But a word may also be borrowed indirectly not from the source language but through another language. When analysing borrowed words one must distinguish between the two terms - "source of borrowing" and "origin of borrowing". In many cases one and the same word was borrowed twice either from the same language or from different languages. This accounts for the existence of the so called etymological doublets like canal - channel (Latin -French), skirt - shirt (Sc. - English), balsam - halm (Greek - French). The segmentation of words is generally carried out according to the method of Immediate and Ultimate Constituents.
This method is based upon the binary principle, i.e. each stage of procedure involves two components the word immediately breaks into. At each stage these two components are referred to as the Immediate Constituents (IC). Each IC at the next stage of analysis is in turn broken into smaller meaningful elements. The analysis is completed when we arrive at constituents incapable of further division, i.e. morphemes. These are referred to as Ultimate Constituents (UC). Conversion is a highly productive way of coining new words in Modern English. Conversion is sometimes referred to as an affixless way of word-building, a process of making a new word from some existing root word by changing the category of a part of speech without changing the morphemic shape of the original root-word. The transposition of a word from one part of speech into another brings about changes of the paradigm.
The difference between meaning and concept can also be observed by comparing synonymous words and word-groups expressing the same concept but possessing linguistic meaning which is felt as different in each of the units, e.g. big, large; to die to pass away, to join the majority, to kick the bucket; child, baby, babe, infant.[5,87]