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  The words like gillyflower or sparrow-grass are not actually compounds at all, they are cases of false-etymology, an attempt to find motivation for a borrowed word: gillyflower from OFr girofle, crayfish (small lobster-like fresh-water crustacean, a spiny lobster) from OFr crevice, and sparrow-grass from Latin asparagus.
  May-day (sometimes capitalised May Day) is an international radio signal used as a call for help from a ship or plane, and it has nothing to do with the name of the month, but is a distortion of the French m'aidez 'help me' and so is not a compound at all.
 § 6.8 THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH COMPOUNDS
  Compounding, one of the oldest methods of word-formation occurring in all Indo-European languages, is especially developed in Germanic languages. English has made use of compounding in all periods of its existence. Headache, heartache, rainbow, raindrop and many other compounds of the type noun stem+noun stem and its variant, such as manslaughter   Some compounds (among them all those listed above) preserve their type in present-day English, others have undergone phonetic changes due to which their stems ceased to be homonymous to the corresponding free forms, so that the compounds themselves were turned into root words.
  1 Algonquin is the name of an American Indian tribe.
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 The phenomenon was investigated by Russian and Soviet philologists V.A. Bogoroditsky, L.A. Bulakhovsky and N.N. Amosova, who used the Russian term опрощение основы which may be translated into English as "simplification of stem" (but this translation can be only tentative). Simplification is defined as "a morphological process by which a word of a complex morphological structure loses the meaning of its separate morphological parts and becomes a mere symbol of the notion given."1
  The English grammarians, such as J.C. Nesfield, for instance, used the term disguised compounds, which is inconvenient because it is misleading. In English, when a morpheme becomes the constituent of a compound, this does not affect its sound pattern. Exceptions to this rule signify therefore that the formation cannot be regarded as a compound at the present stage of the language development, although it might have been the result of compounding at some earlier stage.
  The degree of change can be very different. Sometimes the compound is altered out of all recognition. Thus, in the name of the flower daisy, or in the word woman composition as the basis of the word's origin can be discovered by etymological analysis only: daisy   Demotivation (the Russian term is деэтимологизация) is closely connected with simplification, but not identical with it: rather they are different aspects of changes that may occur simultaneously. De-motivation is in fact etymological isolation when the word loses its ties with other word or words with which it was formerly connected and associated, ceases to be understood as belonging to its original word-family. For instance, kidnap 'steal (a child) or carry off a person by illegal practice' literally means 'to seize a young goat'. The second syllable is from an obsolete word nap, probably closely related to nab (a slang word for 'arrest'). In present-day English all associations with goats or nabbing are forgotten, the word is isolated from its etymological relatives and functions as a simple sign.
  The process of demotivation begins with semantic change. The change of sound form comes later. There is for some time a contradiction between meaning and form, but in the long run this contradiction is overcome, as the word functions not on the strength of the meaning of the components but as a whole indivisible structure.
  In many cases the two processes, the morphological and the semantic one, go hand in hand: lady   1 See: Богородицкий В.А. Общий курс русской грамматики. 2-е изд. Казань, 1907. С. 13.
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  There are cases where one of the processes, namely demotivation, is complete, while simplification is still under way. We are inclined to rate such words as boatswain, breakfast, cupboard as compounds, because they look like compounds thanks to their conservative spelling that shows their origin, whereas in meaning and pronunciation they have changed completely and turned into simple signs for new notions. For example, breakfast originates from the verb break 'interrupt' and the noun fast 'going without food'. Phonetically, had it been a compound, it should sound ['breikfa:st ], whereas in reality it is ['brekfastl. The compound is disguised as the vowels have changed; this change corresponds to a change in meaning (the present meaning is 'the first meal of the day').
  To take another example, the word boatswain ['bousn] 'ship's officer in charge of sails, rigging, etc. and summoning men to duty with whistle' originates from Late OE batsweзen. The first element is of course the modern boat, whereas the second swain is archaic: its original meaning was 'lad'. This meaning is lost. The noun swain came to mean 'a young rustic', 'a bucolic lover'.
  All these examples might be regarded as borderline cases, as simplification is not yet completed graphically.
 § 6.9 NEW WORD-FORMING PATTERNS IN COMPOSITION
  An interesting pattern revealing the influence of extra-linguisticfactors on word-formation and vocabulary development are such compounds as camp-in, ride-in, teach-in, work-in and the like. "The Barn-hart Dictionary of New English" treats the second element as a combining form of the adverb in and connects the original appearance of this morpho-semantic pattern with the civil-rights movement of the 60s. It was used to nominate such public demonstrations of protest as riding in segregated buses (ride-in), praying in segregated churches (kneel-in), bathing in segregated swimming pools (swim-in).
  The pattern is structurally similar to an older type of compounds, such as breakdown, feedback or lockout but differs from them semantically including as its semantic invariant the meaning of public protest.
  Somewhat later the word teach-in appeared. The name was used for long meetings, seminars or sessions held at universities for the purpose of expressing criticism on important political issues and discussing them. Then any form of seminar patterned on the university teach-ins was also called by this term. And similar terms were coined for other cases of staging public protest. E. g. lie-in and die-in when blocking traffic.
  The third stage in the development of this pattern proved to be an extension to any kind of gathering of hippies, flower children and other groups of young people: laugh-ins, love-ins, sing-ins. A still further generalisation of meaning may be observed in the compound call-in and its American version phone-in 'period of time on radio or television programme during which questions, statements, etc. from the public are broadcast', big sitdown planned for September 17 ("Daily Worker"), where sitdown stands for sitdown demonstration.
 
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  St. Ullmann follows M. Breal in emphasising the social causes for these. Professional and other communities with a specialised 'sphere of common interests are the ideal setting for ellipsis. Open on for open fire on, and put to sea for put ship to sea are of wartime and navy origin, and bill for bill of exchange comes from business circles; in a newspaper office daily paper and weekly paper were quite naturally shortened to daily and weekly.1 It is clear from the above examples that unlike other types of shortening, ellipsis always results in a change of lexico-grammatical meaning, and therefore the new word belongs to a different part of speech. Various other processes are often interwoven with ellipsis. For instance: finals for final examinations is a case of ellipsis combined with substantivation of the first element, whereas prelims for preliminary examinations results from ellipsis, substantivation and clipping. Other examples of the same complex type are perm : : permanent wave; pop : : popular music;2 prom : : promenade concert, i.e. 'a concert at which at least part of the audience is not seated and can walk about'; pub : : public house 'an inn or tavern'; taxi : : taxicab, itself formed from taximeter-cab. Inside this group a subgroup with prefixed derivatives as first elements of prototype phrases can be distinguished, e. g. coed 'a girl student at a coeducational institution', prefab 'a prefabricated house or structure' (to prefabricate means 'to manufacture component parts of buildings prior to their assembly on a site').
  Curtailed words arise in various types of colloquial speech and have for the most part a pronounced stylistic colouring as long as their connection with the prototype is alive, so that they remain synonyms. E. g.: They present the tops in pops. When the connection with the prototype is lost, the curtailed word may become stylistically neutral, e. g. brig, cab, cello, pram. Stylistically coloured shortened words may belong to any variety of colloquial style. They are especially numerous in various branches of slang: school slang, service slang, sport slang, newspaper slang, etc. Familiar colloquial style gives such examples as bobby, cabbie, mac, maxi, mini, movies. Nursery words are often clipped: gran, granny; hanky from handkerchief; ma from mama; nightie from nightdress; pinnie from pinafore. Stylistic peculiarity often goes hand in hand with emotional colouring as is revealed in the above diminutives. School and college slang, on the other hand, reveal some sort of reckless if not ironical attitude to the things named: caf from cafeteria 'self-service restaurant', digs from diggings 'lodgings', ec, eco from economics, home ecs, lab, maths, prelims, prep, prof, trig, undergrad, vac, varsity. Service slang is very rich in clipped words, some of them penetrate the familiar colloquial style. A few examples are: demob v from demobilise; civvy n from civilian, op n from operator; non-com n from non-combatant; corp n from corporal; sarge n from sergeant.
 1 See: Ullmann St. The Principles of Semantics, p.p. 116, 239.
 2 Often used in such combinations as pop art, pop singer, pop song.
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  The only type of clippings that belong to bookish style are the poetical contractions such as e'en, e'er, ne'er, o'er.
 7.2 BLENDING
  It has already been mentioned that curtailed words from compounds are few; cases of curtailment combined with composition set off against phrasal prototypes are slightly more numerous, e. g. ad-lib v 'to speak without notes or preparation' from the Latin phrase ad libitum meaning 'at pleasure'; subchaser n from submarine chaser. A curious derivational compound with a clipping for one of its stems is the word teen-ager (see p. 35). The jocular and ironical name Lib-Labs (Liberal Labour MP's, i.e. a particular group) illustrates clipping, composition and ellipsis and imitation of reduplication all in one word.
  Among these formations there is a specific group that has attracted special attention of several authors and was even given several different names: blends, blendings, fusions or portmanteau words. The last term is due to Lewis Carroll, the author of "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass". One of the most linguistically conscious writers, he made a special technique of using blends coined by himself, such as chortle v   Compare also snob which may have been originally an abbreviation for sine nobilitate, written after a name in the registry of fashionable English schools to indicate that the bearer of the name did not belong to nobility. One of the most recent examples is bit, the fundamental unit of information, which is short for binary digit. Other examples are: the already mentioned paratroops and the words bloodalyser and breathalyser for apparatuses making blood and breath tests, slimnastics (blend of slim and gymnastics).
  The analysis into immediate constituents is helpful in so far as it permits the definition of a blend as a word with the first constituent represented by a stem whose final part may be missing, and the second constituent by a stem of which the initial part is missing. The second constituent when used in a series of similar blends may turn into a suffix. A new suffix -on is, for instance, well under way in such terms as nylon, rayon,-silon, formed from the final element of cotton.
 Depending upon the prototype phrases with which they can be
  1 Most of the coinages referred to occur in the poem called "Jabberwocky": "O frabjous day! Calloch! Callay!" He chortled in his joy.
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 correlated two types of blends can be distinguished. One may be termed additive, the second restrictive. Both involve the sliding together not only of sound but of meaning as well. Yet the semantic relations which are at work are different. The first, i.e. additive type, is transformable into a phrase consisting of the respective complete stems combined by the conjunction and, e. g. smog Frenglish; compare also the coinage smaze   The restrictive type is transformable into an attributive phrase where the first element serves as modifier of the second: cine(matographic pano) rama>cinerama. Other examples are: medicare  § 7.3 GRAPHICAL ABBREVIATIONS. ACRONYMS
  Because of the ever closer connection between the oral and the written forms of the language it is sometimes difficult to differentiate clippings formed in oral speech from graphical abbreviations. The more so as the latter often pass into oral speech and become widely used in conversation.
  During World War I and after it the custom became very popular not only in English-speaking countries, but in other parts of the world as well, to call countries, governmental, social, military, industrial and trade organisations and officials not only by their full titles but by initial abbreviations derived from writing. Later the trend became even more pronounced, e. g. the USSR, the U.N., the U.N.O., MP. The tendency today is to omit fullstops between the letters: GPO (General Post Office). Some abbreviations nevertheless appear in both forms: EPA and E.P.A. (Environment Protection Agency). Such words formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts of a phrasal term have two possible types of orthoepic correlation between written and spoken forms.
  1. If the abbreviated written form lends itself to be read as though it were an ordinary English word and sounds like an English word, it will be read like one. The words thus formed are called acronyms
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 (from Gr acros- 'end'+onym 'name'). This way of forming new words is becoming more and more popular in almost all fields of human activity, and especially in political and technical vocabulary: U.N.O., also UNO ['ju:nou] - United Nations Organisation, NATO - the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, SALT-Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. The last example shows that acronyms are often homonymous to ordinary words; sometimes intentionally chosen so as to create certain associations. Thus, for example, the National Organisation for Women is called NOW. Typical of acronymic coinages in technical terminology are JATO, laser, maser and radar. JATO or jato means jet-assisted take-off; laser stands for light amplification by stimulated emission radiation; maser - for micro-wave amplification and stimulated emission radiation; radar - for radio detection and ranging, it denotes a system for ascertaining direction and ranging of aircraft, ships, coasts and other objects by means of electro-magnetic waves which they reflect. Acronyms became so popular that their number justified the publication of special dictionaries, such as D.D. Spencer's "Computer Acronym Handbook" (1974). We shall mention only one example from computer terminology - the rather ironic GIGO for garbage in, garbage out in reference to unreliable data fed into the computer that produces worthless output.
  Acronyms present a special interest because they exemplify the working of the lexical adaptive system. In meeting the needs of communication and fulfilling the laws of information theory requiring a maximum signal in the minimum time the lexical system undergoes modification in its basic structure: namely it forms new elements not by combining existing morphemes and proceeding from sound forms to their graphic representation but the other way round - coining new words from the initial letters of phrasal terms originating in texts.
  2. The other subgroup consists of initial abbreviation with the alphabetical reading retained, i.e. pronounced as a series of letters. They also retain correlation with prototypes. The examples are well-known: B.B.C. ['bi:'bi:'si:] - the British Broadcasting Corporation; G.I. ['dзi: 'ai] - for Government Issue, a widely spread metonymical name for American soldiers on the items of whose uniforms these letters are stamped. The last abbreviation was originally an Americanism but has been firmly established in British English as well. M.P. ['em'pi:] is mostly used as an initial abbreviation for Member of Parliament, also military police, whereas P.M. stands for Prime Minister.
  Abbreviations are freely used in colloquial speech as seen from the following extract, in which СР. Snow describes the House of Commons gossip: They were swapping promises to speak for one another: one was bragging how two senior Ministers were "in the bag" to speak for him. Roger was safe, someone said, he'd give a hand. "What has the P.M. got in mind for Roger when we come back?" The familiar colloquial quality of the context is very definitely marked by the set expressions: in the bag, give a hand, get in mind, etc.
  Other examples of initial abbreviations with the alphabetical reading retained are: S.O.S. ['es'ou'es]-Save Our Souls, a wireless code-signal of extreme distress, also figuratively, any despairing cry for help; T.V. or TV I'tir'vi:] - television; Y.C.L. ['wai'sir'el] - the Young Communist League.
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  3. The term abbreviation may be also used for a shortened form of a written word or phrase used in a text in place of the whole for economy of space and effort. Abbreviation is achieved by omission of letters from one or more parts of the whole, as for instance abbr for abbreviation, bldg for building, govt for government, wd for word, doz or dz for dozen, ltd for limited, B.A. for Bachelor of Arts, N.Y. for New York State. Sometimes the part or parts retained show some alteration, thus, oz denotes ounce and Xmas denotes Christmas. Doubling of initial letters shows plural forms as for instance pplp.p. for pages, ll for lines or cc for chapters. These are in fact not separate words but only graphic signs or symbols representing them. Consequently no orthoepic correlation exists in such cases and the unabbreviated word is pronounced: ll [lainz], pp ['peI8Iz].
  A specific type of abbreviations having no parallel in Russian is represented by Latin abbreviations which sometimes are not read as Latin words but substituted by their English equivalents. A few of the most important cases are listed below: ad lib (Lat ad libitum) - at pleasure', a.m. (Lat ante meridiem) - in the morning', cf. (Lat conferre)
 - compare; cp. (Lat comparare) - compare', e.g. (Lat exempli gratia)
 - for example; ib(id) (Lat ibidem) - in the same place; i.e. (Lat id est)
 - that is; loc.cit. (Lat locus citato) - in the passage cited; ob. (Lat obiit) -he (she) died; q.v. (Lat quod vide) - which see; p.m. (Lat post meridiem) - in the afternoon; viz (Lat videlicet) - namely, sometimes read viz. Actual letters are also read in the following cases: a.m. ['ei'em], e.g., i.e., q.v., p.m.
  An interesting feature of present-day English is the use of initial abbreviations for famous persons' names and surnames. Thus, George Bernard Shaw is often alluded to as G.B.S. ['dзi:'bi:'es], Herbert George Wells as H.G. The usage is clear from the following example: "Oh, yes ... where was I?" "With H.G.'s Martians," I told him (Wyndham).
  Journalistic abbreviations are often occasioned by a desire to economise head-line space, as seen from the following example "CND Calls Lobby to Stop MLF" ("Daily Worker"). This means that a mass lobby of Parliament against the NATO multilateral nuclear force (MLF) is being called by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).
  These regular developments are in some cases combined with occasional jocular or accidental distortions. The National Economic Development Council is facetiously termed Neddy. Elementary education is colloquially referred to as the three R's - reading, (w)riting and 'rithmetic. Some kind of witty folk etymology is at play when the abbreviation C.B. for construction battalions in the navy is respelt into sea bees. The two well-known Americanisms jeep and okay may be mentioned in this connection. Jeep meaning 'a small military motor vehicle' comes from g.p. ['dзi:'pi:] (the initials of general purpose). Okay, OK may be an illiterate misinterpretation of the initials in all correct. Various other historic anecdotes have been also offered by way of explanation of the latter.
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  It must be emphasised that initial abbreviation, no less than other types of shortening, retains the valency, i.e. the combining possibilities of the prototypes. The difference in distribution is conditioned only by a change of meaning (lexical or more rarely lexico-grammatical). Abbreviations receive the plural and Possessive case inflections: G.I.'s, M.P.'s, P.O.W.'s (from prisoner of war), also the verb paradigm: okays, okayed, okaying. E. g. A hotel's no life for you... Why don't you come and P.G. with me? (A. Wilson) Here P.G. is an abbreviation for paying guest. Like all nouns they can be used attributively: BBC television, TV program, UN vote.
  A specifically English word pattern almost absent in the Russian language must be described in connection with initial abbreviations in which the first element is a letter and the second a complete word. The examples are: A-bomb for atomic bomb, V-sign - a sign made by holding the hand up with the first two fingers spread with the palm facing forward in the shape of a V used for expressing victory or the hope for it. A like sign made with the back of the hand facing forward expressed dislike and is considered very rude. The example is interesting, because it shows the connection between the lexical system and paralinguistic means of communication, that is gestures, mimics and prosodic means (from para 'beyond').
  There is no uniformity in semantic relationships between the elements: Z-bar is a metallic bar with a cross section shaped like the letter Z, while Z-hour is an abbreviation of zero-hour meaning 'the time set for the beginning of the attack', U is standing for upper classes in such combinations as U-pronunciation, U-language. Cf.: U-boat 'a submarine'. Non-U is its opposite. So Non-U speakers are those whose speech habits show that they do not belong to the upper classes.
  It will have been noted that all kinds of shortening are very productive in present-day English. They are especially numerous in colloquial speech, both familiar colloquial and professional slang. They display great combining activity and form bases for further word-formation and inflection.
 § 7.4 MINOR TYPES OF LEXICAL OPPOSITIONS. SOUND INTERCHANGE
  Sound interchange may be defined as an opposition in which words or word forms are differentiated due to an alternation in the phonemic composition of the root. The change may affect the root vowel, as in food n : : feed v; or root consonant as in speak v : : speech n; or both, as for instance in life n : : live v. It may also be combined with affixation: strong a : : strength n; or with affixation and shift of stress as in 'democrat : : de'mocracy.
  The process is not active in the language at present, and oppositions like those listed above survive in the vocabulary only as remnants of previous stages. Synchronically sound interchange should not be considered as a method of word-building at all, but rather as a basis for contrasting words belonging to the same word-family and different parts of speech or different lexico-grammatical groups.
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  The causes of sound interchange are twofold and one should learn to differentiate them from the historical point of view. Some of them are due to ablaut or vowel gradation characteristic of Indo-European languages and consisting in a change from one to another vowel accompanying a change of stress. The phenomenon is best known as a series of relations between vowels by which the stems of strong verbs are differentiated in grammar (drink - drank - drunk and the like). However, it is also of great importance in lexicology, because ablaut furnishes distinctive features for differentiating words. The examples are: abide v : : abode n; bear v : : burden n; bite v : : bit n; ride v : : road n; strike v : : stroke n.
  The other group of cases is due to an assimilation process conditioned by the phonemic environment. One of these is vowel mutation, otherwise called umlaut, a feature characteristic of Germanic languages, and consisting in a partial assimilation to a succeeding sound, as for example the fronting or raising of a back vowel or a low vowel caused by an [i] or [j] originally standing in the following syllable but now either altered or lost. This accounts for such oppositions as full a : : fill v; whole a : : heal v; knot n : : knit v; tale n : : tell v. The process will be clear if we follow the development of the second element in each pair. ModE fill   The consonant interchange was also caused by phonetic surroundings. Thus, the oppositions speak v : : speech n; bake v : : batch n; or wake v : : watch n are due to the fact that the palatal OE [k] very early became [tS] but was retained in verbs because of the position before the consonants [s] and [?] in the second and third persons singular.
  A voiced consonant in verbs contrasting with an unvoiced one in nouns results from the fact that in ME verbs this final of the stem occurred in intervocalic positions which made it voiced, whereas in nouns it ended the word or was followed by a consonant ending. After the loss of endings the voicedness was retained and grew into a distinctive feature. There is a long series of cognate verbs and nouns and also some adjectives differing in this way. Observe, for example, the opposition of voiced and unvoiced consonants in the following: advise v : : advice n; bathe v : : bath n; believe v : : belief n; clothe v : : cloth n; glaze v : : glass n; halve v : : half n; live v : : life n; loathe v : : loath n and a; lose v : : loss n, loose a; prove v : : proof n and a; serve v : : serf n; shelve v : : shelf n; wreathe v : : wreath n.
  As to the difference in the root vowels of these verbs and nouns, it is caused by the fact that the root syllable in verbs was open, whereas in nouns it was closed. Observe the analogy between plurals in [-vz] correlated with singulars in [-f] and verbs in [-v] correlated with nouns in [-f ]: shelf n sing. - shelves n pl. - shelve v.1
  1 O. Jespersen in "A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles" (pt. VI, p. 200) points out that if the plural of a noun ends in -fs, a derived verb never has a voiced final consonant: dwarf n - dwarf v; roof n -roof v.
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  It will be recalled in this connection that the systematic character of the language may manifest itself in the analogy between word-building processes and word inflection. It is worthy of note that not only are these processes similar, but they also develop simultaneously. Thus, if some method is no longer productive in expressing grammatical categories, we shall also observe a parallel loss of productivity in expressing lexical meaning. This is precisely the case with root inflection. Instances of root inflection in the formation of the plural of nouns (goose - geese, foot - feet, tooth-teeth) or the Past Indefinite and Participle II of verbs (sing - sang - sung, drive - drove - driven, tear - tore - torn) exist in the language as the relics of past stages; and although in the case of verbs the number of ablaut forms is still very great, no new verbs are inflected on this pattern.
  The same may be said about word-building by sound interchange. The type is not productive. No new words are formed in this way, yet sound interchange still stays in the language serving to distinguish one long-established word from another.
  Synchronically, it differentiated parts of speech, i.e. it may signal the non-identity of words belonging to different parts of speech: full a : : fill v; food n : : feed v; or to different lexico-grammatical sets within the same part of speech: fall intransitive v : : fell causative v; compare also lie : : lay, sit : : set, rise : : raise.
  Derivation often involves phonological changes of vowel or consonant: strong SL : : strength n; heal v : : health n; steal v : : stealth n; long a : : length n; deep a : : depth n.
  Major derivative alternations involving changes of vowel and /or consonant and sometimes stress shift in borrowed words are as follows: delicacy n : : delicate a; piracy n : : pirate n; democracy n : : democrat n; decency n : : decent a; vacancy n : : vacant a; creation n : : create v; edify v : : edification n; organise v : : organisation n; agnostic a : : agnosticism n.
  Some long vowels are retained in quality and quantity; others are shortened, and there seems to be no fixed rule, e.g. [a:] tends to be retained: artist n : : artistic а; [э:] is regularly shortened: 'permit n : : per'mit v.
 § 7.5 DISTINCTIVE STRESS
  Some otherwise homographic, mostly disyllabic nouns and verbs of Romanic origin have a distinctive stress pattern. Thus, 'conduct n 'behaviour' is forestressed, whereas con'duct v 'to lead or guide (in a formal way)' has a stress on the second syllable. Other examples are: accent, affix, asphalt, compact (impact),1 compound, compress (impress), conflict, contest, contract (extract), contrast, convict, digest, essay, export (import, transport), increase, insult, object (subject, project), perfume, permit, present, produce, progress, protest, rebel, record, survey, torment, transfer.2 Examples of words of more than two syllables are very few:
 1 Words of the same root are given in brackets.
 2 There are some meanings in which the verb is also forestressed.
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 'attribute n : : a'ttribute v. Historically this is probably explained by the fact that these words were borrowed from French where the original stress was on the last syllable. Thus, ac'cent comes through French from Latin ac'centus. Verbs retained this stress all the more easily as many native disyllabic verbs were also stressed in this way: be come, be'lieve, for'bid, for'get, for'give. The native nouns, however, were forestressed, and in the process of assimilation many loan nouns came to be stressed on the first syllable.
  A similar phenomenon is observed in some homographic pairs of adjectives and verbs, e.g. 'absent a : : ab'sent v; 'frequent a : : fre'quent v; 'perfect a : : per'fect v; 'abstract a : : ab'stract v. Other patterns with difference in stress are also possible, such as arithmetic [э'ri?-mэtik] n : : arithmetical) [эп?'metik(эl)] a. The fact that in the verb the second syllable is stressed involves a phonemic change of the vowels as well: [э/ае] and [э/i].
  This stress distinction is, however, neither productive nor regular. There are many denominal verbs that are forestressed and thus homonymous with the corresponding nouns. For example, both the noun and the verb comment are forestressed, and so are the following words: exile, figure, preface, quarrel, focus, process, program, triumph, rivet and others.
  There is a large group of disyllabic loan words that retain the stress on the second syllable both in verbs and nouns: accord, account, advance, amount, approach, attack, attempt, concern, defeat, distress, escape, exclaim, research, etc.
  A separate group is formed by compounds where the corresponding combination of words has double stress and the compound noun is forestressed so that the stress acquires a word-building force: 'black 'board : : 'blackboard and 'draw'back : : 'drawback.
  It is worth noting that stress alone, unaccompanied by any other differentiating factor, does not seem to provide a very effective means of distinguishing words. And this is, probably, the reason why oppositions of this kind are neither regular nor productive.
 § 7.6 SOUND IMITATION
  The great majority of motivated words in present-day language are motivated by reference to other words in the language, to the morphemes that go to compose them and to their arrangement. Therefore, even if one hears the noun wage-earner for the first time, one understands it, knowing the meaning of the words wage and earn and the structural pattern noun stem + verbal stem+ -er as in bread-winner, skyscraper, strike-breaker. Sound imitating or onomatopoeic words are on the contrary motivated with reference to extra-linguistic reality, they are echoes of natural sounds (e. g. lullaby, twang, whiz.) Sound imitation (onomatopoeia or echoism) is consequently the naming of an action or thing by a more or less exact reproduction of a sound
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 associated with it. For instance words naming sounds and movement of water: babble, blob, bubble, flush, gurgle, gush, splash, etc.
 The term onomatopoeia is from Greek onoma 'name, word' and poiein 'to make1 > 'the making of words (in imitation of sounds)'.
  It would, however, be wrong to think that onomatopoeic words reflect the real sounds directly, irrespective of the laws of the language, because the same sounds are represented differently in different languages. Onomatopoeic words adopt the phonetic features of English and fall into the combinations peculiar to it. This becomes obvious when one compares onomatopoeic words crow and twitter and the words flow and glitter with which they are rhymed in the following poem:
 The cock is crowing,
 The stream is flowing.
 The small birds twitter,
 The lake does glitter,
 The green fields sleep in the sun (Wordsworth).
  The majority of onomatopoeic words serve to name sounds or movements. Most of them are verbs easily turned into nouns: bang, boom, bump, hum, rustle, smack, thud, etc.
  They are very expressive and sometimes it is difficult to tell a noun from an interjection. Consider the following: Thum - crash! "Six o'clock, Nurse," - crash] as the door shut again. Whoever it was had given me the shock of my life (M. Dickens).
  Sound-imitative words form a considerable part of interjections. Сf . bang! hush! pooh!
  Semantically, according to the source of sound, onomatopoeic words fall into a few very definite groups. Many verbs denote sounds produced by human beings in the process of communication or in expressing their feelings: babble, chatter, giggle, grunt, grumble, murmur, mutter, titter, whine, whisper and many more. Then there are sounds produced by animals, birds and insects, e.g. buzz, cackle, croak, crow, hiss, honk, howl, moo, mew, neigh, purr, roar and others. Some birds are named after the sound they make, these are the crow, the cuckoo, the whippoor-will and a few others. Besides the verbs imitating the sound of water such as bubble or splash, there are others imitating the noise of metallic things: clink, tinkle, or forceful motion: clash, crash, whack, whip, whisk, etc.
  The combining possibilities of onomatopoeic words are limited by usage. Thus, a contented cat purrs, while a similarly sounding verb whirr is used about wings. A gun bangs and a bow twangs.
  R. Southey's poem "How Does the Water Come Down at Lodore" is a classical example of the stylistic possibilities offered by onomatopoeia: the words in it sound an echo of what the poet sees and describes.
 Here it comes sparkling, And there it flies darkling ... Eddying and whisking,
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 Spouting and frisking, ...
 And whizzing and hissing, ...
 And rattling and battling, ...
 And guggling and struggling, ...
 And bubbling and troubling and doubling,
 And rushing and flushing and brushing and gushing,
 And flapping and rapping and clapping and slapping ...
 And thumping and pumping and bumping and jumping,
 And dashing and flashing and splashing and clashing ...
 And at once and all o'er, with a mighty uproar,
 And this way the water comes down at Lodore.
  Once being coined, onomatopoeic words lend themselves easily to further word-building and to semantic development. They readily develop figurative meanings. Croak, for instance, means 'to make a deep harsh sound'. In its direct meaning the verb is used about frogs or ravens. Metaphorically it may be used about a hoarse human voice. A further transfer makes the verb synonymous to such expressions as 'to protest dismally', 'to grumble dourly', 'to predict evil'.
 § 7.7 BACK-FORMATION
  Back-formation (also called reversion) is a term borrowed from diachronic linguistics. It denotes the derivation of new words by subtracting a real or supposed affix from existing words through misinterpretation of their structure. The phenomenon was already introduced in § 6.4.3 when discussing compound verbs.
  The process is based on analogy. The words beggar, butler, cobbler, or typewriter look very much like agent nouns with the suffix -er/-or, such as actor or painter. Their last syllable is therefore taken for a suffix and subtracted from the word leaving what is understood as a verbal stem. In this way the verb butle 'to act or serve as a butler' is derived by subtraction of -er from a supposedly verbal stem in the noun butler. Butler (ME buteler, boteler from OFr bouteillier 'bottle bearer') has widened its meaning. Originally it meant 'the man-servant having charge of the wine'. It means at present 'the chief servant of a rich household who is in charge of other servants, receives guests and directs the serving of meals'.
  These examples are sufficient to show how structural changes taking place in back-formation became possible because of semantic changes that preceded them. In the above cases these changes were favoured by contextual environment. The change of meaning resulted in demotivation, and this paved the way for phonic changes, i.e. assimilation, loss of sound and the like, which in their turn led to morphemic alternations that became meaningful. Semantic changes often influence the morphological structure by
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 modifying the relations between stems and derivational affixes. Structural changes, in their turn, depend on the combined effect of demotivation and analogy conditioned by a higher frequency of occurrence of the pattern that serves as model. Provided all other conditions are equal, words following less frequent structural patterns are readily subjected to changes on the analogy of more frequent patterns.
  The very high frequency of the pattern verb stem+-er (or its equivalents) is a matter of common knowledge. Nothing more natural therefore than the prominent part this pattern plays in back-formation. Alongside the examples already cited above are burgle v  teacher = painter = butler teach paint x
 then x = butle, and to butle must mean 'to act as butler'.
  The process of back-formation has only diachronic relevance. For synchronic approach butler : : butle is equivalent to painter : : paint, so that the present-day speaker may not feel any difference between these relationships. The fact that butle is derived from butler through misinterpretation is synchronically of no importance. Some modern examples of back-formation are lase v - a verb used about the functioning of the apparatus called laser (see p. 143), escalate from escalator on the analogy of elevate - elevator. Cf. also the verbs aggress, automate, enthuse, obsolesce and reminisce.
  Back-formation may be also based on the analogy of inflectional forms as testified by the singular nouns pea and cherry. Pea (the plural of which is peas and also pease) is from ME pese   The most productive type of back-formation in present-day English is derivation of verbs (see p. 126) from compounds that have either -er or -ing as their last element. The type will be clear from the following examples: thought-read v   The semantic relationship between the prototype and the derivative is regular. Baby-sit, for example, means to act or become employed as a baby-sitter', that is to take care of children for short periods of time while the parents are away from home. Similarly, beachcomb is 'to live or act as a beachcomber'; the noun is a slightly ironical word de-
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  The degree of substantivation may be different. Alongside with complete substantivation of the type already mentioned (the private, the private's, the privates), there exists partial substantivation. In this last case a substantivised adjective or participle denotes a group or a class of people: the blind, the dead, the English, the poor, the rich, the accused, the condemned, the living, the unemployed, the wounded, the lower-paid.
  We call these words partially substantivised, because they undergo no morphological changes, i.e. do not acquire a new paradigm and are only used with the definite article and a collective meaning. Besides they keep some properties of adjectives. They can, for instance, be modified by adverbs. E.g.: Success is the necessary misfortune of human life, but it is only to the very unfortunate that it comes early (Trollope). It was the suspicious and realistic, I thought, who were most easy to reassure. It was the same in love: the extravagantly jealous sometimes needed only a single word to be transported into absolute trust (Snow).
  Besides the substantivised adjectives denoting human beings there is a considerable group of abstract nouns, as is well illustrated by such grammatical terms as: the Singular, the Plural, the Present, the Past, the Future, and also: the evil, the good, the impossible. For instance: "One should never struggle against the inevitable," he said (Christie)/
  It is thus evident that substantivation has been the object of much controversy. Some of those, who do not accept substantivation of adjectives as a variant of conversion, consider conversion as a process limited to the formation of verbs from nouns and nouns from verbs. But this point of view is far from being universally accepted.
 § 8.6 CONVERSION IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF SPEECH
  In this paragraph we present the types of conversion according to parts of speech and secondary word classes involved. By secondary word classes we mean lexico-grammatical classes, that is subsets within parts of speech that differ in meaning and functions, as, for instance, transitive and intransitive verbs, countable and uncountable nouns, gradable and non-gradable adjectives, and so on.
  We know already that the most frequent types of conversion are those from noun to verb, from verb to noun and from adjective to noun and to verb. The first type seems especially important, conversion being the main process of verb-formation at present.
  Less frequent but also quite possible is conversion from form words to nouns. E. g. He liked to know the ins and outs. I shan't go into the whys and wherefores. He was familiar with ups and downs of life. Use is even made of affixes. Thus, ism is a separate word nowadays meaning 'a set of ideas or principles', e. g. Freudism, existentialism and all the other isms.
  In all the above examples the change of paradigm is present and helpful for classifying the newly coined words as cases of conversion. But it is not absolutely necessary, because conversion is not limited to such parts of speech which possess a paradigm. That, for example, may be converted into an adverb in informal speech: I was that hungry I could have eaten a horse.
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  R. Quirk and his colleagues extend the notion of conversion to re-classification of secondary word classes within one part of speech, a phenomenon also called transposition. Thus, mass nouns and abstract nouns are converted into countable nouns with the meanings 'a unit of N', 'a kind of N', 'an instance of N'. E. g. two coffees, different oils (esp. in technical literature), peaceful initiatives.
  The next commonest change is changing of intransitive verbs into transitive: to run a horse in a race, to march the prisoners, to dive a plane. Other secondary verb-classes can be changed likewise. Non-gradable adjectives become gradable with a certain change of meaning: He is more English than the English.
  We share a more traditional approach and treat transposition within one part of speech as resulting in lexico-semantic variation of one and the same word, not as coining a new one (see § 3.4).
 § 8.7 CONVERSION AND OTHER TYPES OF WORD-FORMATION
  The flexibility of the English vocabulary system makes a word formed by conversion capable of further derivation, so that it enters into combinations not only with functional but also with derivational affixes characteristic of a verbal stem, and becomes distributionally equivalent to it. For example, view 'to watch television' gives viewable, viewer, viewing.
  Conversion may be combined with other word-building processes, such as composition. Attributive phrases like black ball, black list, pin point, stone wall form the basis of such firmly established verbs as blackball, blacklist, pinpoint, stonewall. The same pattern is much used in nonce-words such as to my-dear, to my-love, to blue-pencil.
  This type should be distinguished from cases when composition and conversion are not simultaneous, that is when, for instance, a compound noun gives rise to a verb: corkscrew n : : corkscrew v; streamline n : : streamline v.
  A special pattern deserving attention because of its ever increasing productivity results as a combined effect of composition and conversion forming nouns out of verb-adverb combinations. This type is different from conversion proper as the basic forms are not homonymous due to the difference in the stress pattern, although they consist of identical morphemes. Thanks to solid or hyphenated spelling and single stress the noun stem obtains phonetical and graphical integrity and indivisibility absent in the verb-group, сf. to 'draw 'back : : a 'drawback. Further examples are: blackout n : : black out v; breakdown n : : break down v; come-back, drawback, fall-out, hand-out, hangover, knockout, link-up, lookout, lockout, makeup, pull-over, runaway, run-off, set-back, take-off, takeover, teach-in.
  The type is specifically English, its intense and growing development is due to the profusion of verbal collocations (see p. 120 ff) and con- or unchangeable, whether the meaning of the one element remains free, and,
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 more generally, on the interdependence between the meaning of the elements and the meaning of the set expression. Much attention is devoted to different types of variation: synonymic, pronominal, etc.
  After this brief review of possible semantic classifications, we pass on to a formal and functional classification based on the fact that a set expression functioning in speech is in distribution similar to definite classes of words, whereas structurally it can be identified with various types of syntagmas or with complete sentences.
  We shall distinguish set expressions that are nominal phrases: the wot of the trouble', verbal phrases: put one's best foot forward; adjectival phrases: as good as gold; red as a cherry; adverbial phrases: from head to foot; prepositional phrases: in the course of; conjunctional phrases: as long as, on the other hand; interjectional phrases: Well, I never! A stereotyped sentence also introduced into speech as a ready-made formula may be illustrated by Never say die! 'never give up hope', take your time 'do not hurry'.
  The above classification takes into consideration not only the type of component parts but also the functioning of the whole, thus, tooth and nail is not a nominal but an adverbial unit, because it serves to modify a verb (e. g. fight tooth and nail); the identically structured lord and master is a nominal phrase. Moreover, not every nominal phrase is used in all syntactic functions possible for nouns. Thus, a bed of roses or a bed of nails and forlorn hope are used only predicatively.
  Within each of these classes a further subdivision is necessary. The following list is not meant to be exhaustive, but to give only the principal features of the types.
 I. Set expressions functioning like nouns:
  N+N: maiden name 'the surname of a woman before she was married'; brains trust 'a committee of experts' or 'a number of reputedly well informed persons chosen to answer questions of general interest without preparation', family jewels 'shameful secrets of the CIA' (Am. slang).
  N's+N: cat's paw 'one who is used for the convenience of a cleverer and stronger person' (the expression comes from a fable in which a monkey wanting to eat some chestnuts that were on a hot stove, but not wishing to burn himself while getting them, seised a cat and holding its paw in his own used it to knock the chestnuts to the ground); Hob-son's choice, a set expression used when there is no choice at all, when a person has to take what is offered or nothing (Thomas Hobson, a 17th century London stableman, made every person hiring horses take the next in order).
  Ns'+N: ladies' man 'one who makes special effort to charm or please women'.
 N+prp+N: the arm of the law; skeleton in the cupboard.
  N+A: knight errant (the phrase is today applied to any chivalrous man ready to help and protect oppressed and helpless people).
 N+and+N: lord and master 'husband'; all the world and his
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 wife (a more complicated form); rank and file 'the ordinary working members of an organisation' (the origin of this expression is military life, it denotes common soldiers); ways and means 'methods of overcoming difficulties'.
  A+N: green room 'the general reception room of a theatre' (it is said that formerly such rooms had their walls coloured green to relieve the strain on the actors' eyes after the stage lights); high tea 'an evening meal which combines meat or some similar extra dish with the usual tea'; forty winks 'a short nap'.
  N+subordinate clause: ships that pass in the night 'chance acquaintances'.
 II. Set expressions functioning like verbs: V+N: take advantage
 V+and+V: pick and choose V+(one's)+N+(prp): snap ones fingers at V+one+N: give one the bird 'to fire sb'
  V+subordinate clause: see how the land lies 'to discover the state of affairs'.
 III. Set expressions functioning like adjectives: A+and+A: high and mighty
 (as)+A+as+N: as old as the hills, as mad as a hatter Set expressions are often used as predicatives but not attributively. In the latter function they are replaced by compounds.
 IV. Set expressions functioning like adverbs:
  A big group containing many different types of units, some of them with a high frequency index, neutral in style and devoid of expressiveness, others expressive.
 N+N: tooth and nail
 prp+N: by heart, of course, against the grain
 adv+prp+N: once in a blue moon
 prp+N+or+N: by hook or by crook
 cj+clause: before one can say Jack Robinson
 V. Set expressions functioning like prepositions: prp+N+prp: in consequence of
  It should be noted that the type is often but not always characterised by the absence of article. Сf: by reason of : : on the ground of.
 VI. Set expressions functioning like interjections:
  These are often structured as imperative sentences: Bless (one's) soul! God bless me! Hang it (all)!
  This review can only be brief and very general but it will not be difficult for the reader to supply the missing links.
  The list of types gives a clear notion of the contradictory nature of set expressions: structured like phrases they function like words.
  There is one more type of combinations, also rigid and introduced into discourse ready-made but differing from all the types given above in so far as it is impossible to find its equivalent among the parts of speech. These are formulas used as complete utterances and syntactically shaped like sentences, such as the well-known American maxim Keep smiling! or the British Keep Britain tidy. Take it easy.
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  A.I. Smirnitsky was the first among Soviet scholars who paid attention to sentences that can be treated as complete formulas, such as How do you do? or I beg your pardon, It takes all kinds to make the world, Can the leopard change his spots? They differ from all the combinations so far discussed, because they are not equivalent to words in distribution and are semantically analysable. The formulas discussed by N.N. Amosova are on the contrary semantically specific, e. g. save your breath 'shut up' or tell it to the marines. As it often happens with set expressions, there are different explanations for their origin. (One of the suggested origins is tell that to the horse marines; such a corps being nonexistent, as marines are a sea-going force, the last expression means 'tell it to someone who does not exist, because real people will not believe it'). Very often such formulas, formally identical to sentences are in reality used only as insertions into other sentences: the cap fits 'the statement is true' (e. g.: "He called me a liar." "Well, you should know if the cap fits. ) Compare also: Butter would not melt in his mouth; His bark is worse than his bite.
 § 9.4 SIMILARITY AND DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SET EXPRESSION AND A WORD
  There is a pressing need for criteria distinguishing set expressions not only from free phrases but from compound words as well. One of these criteria is the formal integrity of words which had been repeatedly mentioned and may be best illustrated by an example with the word breakfast borrowed from W.L. Graff. His approach combines contextual analysis and diachronic observations. He is interested in gradation from free construction through the formula to compound and then simple word. In showing the borderline between a word and a formular expression, W.L. Graff speaks about the word breakfast derived from the set expression to break fast, where break was a verb with a specific meaning inherent to it only in combination with fast which means 'keeping from food'. Hence it was possible to say: And knight and squire had broke their fast (W.Scott). The fact that it was a phrase and not a word is clearly indicated by the conjugation treatment of the verb and syntactical treatment of the noun. With an analytical language like English this conjugation test is, unfortunately, not always applicable.
  It would also be misleading to be guided in distinguishing between set expressions and compound words by semantic considerations, there being no rigorous criteria for differentiating between one complex notion and a combination of two or more notions. The references of component words are lost within the whole of a set expression, no less than within a compound word. What is, for instance, the difference in this respect between the set expression point of view and the compound viewpoint? And if there is any, what are the formal criteria which can help to estimate it?
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  Alongside with semantic unity many authors mention the unity of syntactic function. This unity of syntactic function is obvious in the predicate of the main clause in the following quotation from J. Wain, which is a simple predicate, though rendered by a set expression: ...the government we had in those days, when we (Great Britain) were the world's richest country, didn't give a damn whether the kids grew up with rickets or not ...
 This syntactic unity, however, is not specific for all set expressions.
  Two types of substitution tests can be useful in showing us the points of similarity and difference between the words and set expressions. In the first procedure a whole set expression is replaced within context by a synonymous word in such a way that the meaning of the utterance remains unchanged, e. g. he was in a brown study > he mas gloomy. In the second type of substitution test only an element of the set expression is replaced, e. g. (as) white as chalk > (as) white as milk > (as) white as snow; or it gives me the blues > it gives him the blues > it gives one the blues. In this second type it is the set expression that is retained, although its composition or referential meaning may change.
  When applying the first type of procedure one obtains a criterion for the degree of equivalence between a set expression and a word. One more example will help to make the point clear. The set expression dead beat can be substituted by a single word exhausted. E. g.: Dispatches, sir. Delivered by a corporal of the 33rd. Dead beat with hard riding, sir (Shaw). The last sentence may be changed into Exhausted with hard riding, sir. The lines will keep their meaning and remain grammatically correct. The possibility of this substitution permits us to regard this set expression as a word equivalent.
  On the other hand, there are cases when substitution is not possible. The set expression red tape has a one word equivalent in Russian бюрократизм, but in English it can be substituted only by a free phrase. Thus, in the enumeration of political evils in the example below red tape, although syntactically equivalent to derivative nouns used as homogeneous members, can be substituted only by some free phrase, such as rigid formality of official routine. Cf. the following example:
 BURGOYNE: And will you wipe out our enemies in London, too? SWINDON: In London! What enemies?
  BURGOYNE (forcible): Jobbery and snobbery, incompetence and Red Tape ... (Shaw).
  The unity of syntactic function is present in this case also, but the criterion of equivalence to a single word cannot be applied, because substitution by a single word is impossible. Such equivalence is therefore only relative, it is not universally applicable and cannot be accepted as a general criterion for defining these units. The equivalence of words and set expressions should not be taken too literally but treated as a useful abstraction, only in the sense we have stated.
  The main point of difference between a word and a set expression is the divisibility of the latter into separately structured elements which is contrasted to the structural integrity of words. Although equivalent to words in being introduced into speech ready-made, a set expression is different from them, because it can be resolved into words, whereas words are resolved
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 into morphemes. In compound words the process of integration is more advanced. The methods and criteria serving to identify compounds and distinguish them from phrases or groups of words, no matter how often used together, have been pointed out in the chapter on compounds.
  Morphological divisibility is evident when one of the elements (but not the last one as in a compound word) is subjected to morphological change. This problem has been investigated by N.N. Amosova, A.V. Koonin and others.] N.N. Amosova gives the following examples:
  He played second fiddle to her in his father's heart (Galsworthy). ... She disliked playing second fiddle (Christie). To play second fiddle 'to occupy a secondary, subordinate position'.
  It must be rather fun having a skeleton in the cupboard (Milne). I hate skeletons in the cupboard (Ibid.) A skeleton in the cupboard 'a family secret'.
  A.V. Koonin shows the possibility of morphological changes in adjectives forming part of phraseological units: He's deader than a doornail; It made the night blacker than pitch; The Cantervilles have blue blood, for instance, the bluest in England.
  It goes without saying that the possibility of a morphological change cannot regularly serve as a distinctive feature, because it may take place only in a limited number of set expressions (verbal or nominal).
  The question of syntactic ties within a set expression is even more controversial. All the authors agree that set expressions (for the most part) represent one member of the sentence, but opinions differ as to whether this means that there are no syntactical ties within set expressions themselves. Actually the number of words in a sentence is not necessarily equal to the number of its members.
  The existence of syntactical relations within a set expression can be proved by the possibility of syntactical transformations (however limited) or inversion of elements and the substitution of the variable member, all this without destroying the set expression as such. By a variable element we mean the element of the set expression which is structurally necessary but free to vary lexically. It is usually indicated in dictionaries by indefinite pronouns, often inserted in round brackets: make (somebody's) hair stand on end 'to give the greatest astonishment or fright to another person'; sow (one's) wild oats 'to indulge in dissipation while young'. The word in brackets can be freely substituted: make (my, your, her, the reader's) hair stand on end.
  The sequence of constant elements may be broken and some additional words inserted, which, splitting the set expression, do not destroy it, but establish syntactical ties with its regular elements. The examples are chiefly limited to verbal expressions, e.g. The chairman broke the ice > Ice was broken by the chairman; Has burnt his boats and ... > Having burnt his boats he ... Pronominal substitution is illustrated by the following example: "Hold your tongue, Lady L." "Hold yours, my good fool." (N. Marsh, quoted by N.N. Amosova)
 All these facts are convincing manifestations of syntactical ties within
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 the units in question. Containing the same elements these units can change their morphological form and syntactical structure, they may be called changeable set expressions, as contrasted to stereotyped or unchangeable set expressions, admitting no change either morphological or syntactical. The examples discussed in the previous paragraph mostly belong to this second type, indivisible and unchangeable; they are nearer to a word than their more flexible counterparts. This opposition is definitely correlated with structural properties.
  All these examples proving the divisibility and variability of set expressions throw light on the difference between them and words.
 § 9.5 FEATURES ENHANCING UNITY AND STABILITY OF SET EXPRESSIONS
  Set expressions have their own specific features, which enhance their stability and cohesion. These are their euphonic, imaginative and connotative qualities. It has been often pointed out that many set expressions are distinctly rhythmical, contain alliteration, rhyme, imagery, contrast, are based on puns, etc. These features have always been treated from the point of view of style and expressiveness. Their cementing function is perhaps no less important. All these qualities ensure the strongest possible contact between the elements, give them their peculiar muscular feel, so that in pronouncing something like stuff and nonsense the speaker can enjoy some release of pent-up nervous tension. Consider the following sentence: Tommy would come back to her safe and sound (O'Flaherty). Safe and sound is somehow more reassuring than the synonymous word uninjured, which could have been used.
  These euphonic and connotative qualities also prevent substitution for another purely linguistic, though not semantic, reason - any substitution would destroy the euphonic effect. Consider, for instance, the result of synonymic substitution in the above alliterative pair safe and sound. Secure and uninjured has the same denotational meaning but sounds so dull and trivial that the phrase may be considered destroyed and one is justified in saying that safe and sound admits no substitution.
  Rhythmic qualities are characteristic of almost all set expressions. They are especially marked in such pairs as far and wide, far and near 'many places both near and distant'; by fits and starts 'irregularly'; heart and soul 'with complete devotion to a cause'. Rhythm is combined with reiteration in the following well-known phrases: more and more, on and on, one by one, through and through. Alliteration occurs in many cases: part and parcel 'an essential and necessary part'; with might and main 'with all one's powers'; rack and ruin 'a state of neglect and collapse'; then and there 'at once and on the spot'; from pillar to post', in for a penny, in for a pound', head over heels; without rhyme or reason', pick of the pops', a bee in one's bonnet', the why and wherefore. It is interesting to note that alliterative phrases often contain obsolete elements, not used elsewhere. In the above expressions these are main, an obsolete synonym to might, and rack, probably a variant of wreck.
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  As one of the elements becomes obsolete and falls out of the language, demotivation may set in, and this, paradoxical though it may seem, also tends to increase the stability and constancy of a set expression. The process is complicated, because the preservation of obsolete elements in set expressions is in its turn assisted by all the features mentioned above. Some more examples of set expressions containing obsolete elements are: hue and cry 'a loud clamour about something' (a synonymic pair with the obsolete word hue); leave in the lurch 'to leave in a helpless position' (with the obsolete noun lurch meaning 'ambush'); not a whit 'not at all' (with the obsolete word whit - a variant of wight 'creature', 'thing' -not used outside this expression and meaning 'the smallest thing imaginable').
  Rhyme is also characteristic of set expressions: fair and square 'honest'; by hook or by crook 'by any method, right or wrong' (its elements are not only rhymed but synonymous). Out and about 'able to go out' is used about a convalescent person. High and dry was originally used about ships, meaning 'out of the water', 'aground'; at present it is mostly used figuratively in several metaphorical meanings: 'isolated', 'left without help', 'out of date'. This capacity of developing an integer (undivided) transferred meaning is one more feature that makes set expressions similar to words.
  Semantic stylistic features contracting set expressions into units of fixed context are simile, contrast, metaphor and synonymy. For example: as like as two peas, as old as the hills and older than the hills (simile); from beginning to end, for love or money, more or less, sooner or later (contrast); a lame duck, a pack of lies, arms race, to swallow the pill, in a nutshell (metaphor); by leaps and bounds, proud and haughty (synonymy). A few more combinations of different features in the same phrase are: as good as gold, as pleased as Punch, as fit as a fiddle (alliteration, simile); now or never, to kill or cure (alliteration and contrast). More rarely there is an intentional pun: as cross as two sticks means 'very angry'. This play upon words makes the phrase jocular. The comic effect is created by the absurdity of the combination making use of two different meanings of the word cross a and n.
  To a linguistically conscious mind most set expressions tend to keep their history. It remains in them as an intricate force, and the awareness of their history can yield rewarding pleasure in using or hearing them. Very many examples of metaphors connected with the sea can be quoted: be on the rocks, rest on the oars, sail close to the wind, smooth sailing, weather the storm. Those connected with agriculture are no less expressive and therefore easily remembered: plough the sand, plough a lonely furrow, reap a rich harvest, thrash (a subject) out.
  For all practical purposes the boundary between set expressions and free phrases is vague. The point that is to be kept in mind is that there are also some structural features of a set expression correlated with its invariability.
  There are, of course, other cases when set expressions lose their metaphorical picturesqueness, having preserved some fossilised words and
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 phrases, the meaning of which is no longer correctly understood. For instance, the expression buy a pig in a poke may be still used, although poke 'bag' (cf . pouch, pocket) does not occur in other contexts. Expressions taken from obsolete sports and occupations may survive in their new figurative meaning. In these cases the euphonic qualities of the expression are even more important. A muscular and irreducible phrase is also memorable. The muscular feeling is of special importance in slogans and battle cries. Saint George and the Dragon for Merrie England, the medieval battle cry, was a rhythmic unit to which a man on a horse could swing his sword. The modern Scholarships not battleships] can be conveniently scanned by a marching crowd.
  To sum up, the memorableness of a set expression, as well as its unity, is assisted by various factors within the expression such as rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, imagery and even the muscular feeling one gets> when pronouncing them.
 § 9.6 PROVERBS, SAYINGS, FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS AND CLICHES
  The place of proverbs, sayings and familiar quotations with respect to set expressions is a controversial issue. A proverb is a short familiar epigrammatic saying expressing popular wisdom, a truth or a moral lesson in a concise and imaginative way. Proverbs have much in common with set expressions, because their lexical components are also constant, their meaning is traditional and mostly figurative, and they are introduced into speech ready-made. That is why some scholars following V.V. Vinogradov think proverbs must be studied together with phraseological units. Others like J. Casares and N.N. Amosova think that unless they regularly form parts of other sentences it is erroneous to include them into the system of language, because they are independent units of communication. N.N. Amosova even thinks that there is no more reason to consider them as part of phraseology than, for instance, riddles and children's counts. This standpoint is hardly acceptable especially if we do not agree with the narrow limits of phraseology offered by this author. Riddles and counts are not as a rule included into utterances in the process of communication, whereas proverbs are. Whether they are included into an utterance as independent sentences or as part of sentences is immaterial. If we follow that line of reasoning, we shall have to exclude all interjections such as Hang it (all)! because they are also syntactically independent. As to the argument that in many proverbs the meaning of component parts does not show any specific changes when compared to the meaning of the same words in free combinations, it must be pointed out that in this respect they do not differ from very many set expressions, especially those which are emotionally neutral.
  Another reason why proverbs must be taken into consideration together with set expressions is that they often form the basis of set expressions. E. g. the last straw breaks the camel's back : : the last straw; a drowning man will clutch at a straw : : clutch at a straw; it is useless to lock the stable door when the steed is stolen : : lock the stable door 'to take precautions when the accident they are meant to prevent has already happened'.
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  Both set expressions and proverbs are sometimes split and changed for humorous purposes, as in the following quotation where the proverb All is not gold that glitters combines with an allusion to the set expression golden age, e . g . It will be an age not perhaps of gold, but at least of glitter. Compare also the following, somewhat daring compliment meant to shock the sense of bourgeois propriety: But I laughed and said, "Don't you worry, Professor, I'm not pulling her ladyship's leg. I wouldn't do such a thing. I have too much respect for that charming limb." (Cary) Sometimes the speaker notices the lack of logic in a set expression and checks himself, as in the following: Holy terror, she is - least not so holy, I suppose, but a terror all right (Rattigan).
  Taking a familiar group of words: A living dog is better than a dead lion (from the Bible) and turning it around, a fellow critic once said that Hazlitt was unable to appreciate a writer till he was dead - that Hazlitt thought a dead ass better than a living lion. A. Huxley is very fond of stylistic, mostly grotesque, effects achieved in this way. So, for example, paraphrasing the set expression marry into money he says about one of his characters, who prided herself on her conversation, that she had married into conversation.
  Lexicology does not deal more fully with the peculiarities of proverbs: created in folklore, they are studied by folklorists, but in treating units introduced into the act of communication ready-made we cannot avoid touching upon them too.
  As to familiar quotations, they are different from proverbs in their origin. They come from literature but by and by they become part and parcel of the language, so that many people using them do not even know that they are quoting, and very few could acccurately name the play or passage on which they are drawing even when they are aware of using a quotation from W. Shakespeare.
  The Shakespearian quotations have become and remain extremely numerous - they have contributed enormously to the store of the language. Some of the most often used are: I know a trick worth two of that; A man more sinned against than sinning ("King Lear"); Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown ("Henry IV"). Very many come from "Hamlet", for example: Frailty, thy name is woman', Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice', Something is rotten in the state of Denmark; Brevity is the soul of wit; The rest is silence; Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, I Than are dreamt of in your philosophy; It out-herods Herod; For to the noble mind / Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
  Excepting only W. Shakespeare, no poet has given more of his lines than A. Pope to the common vocabulary of the English-speaking world. The following are only a few of the best known quotations: A little learning is a dangerous thing; To err is human; To forgive, divine; For fools rush in where angels fear to tread; At every word a reputation dies; Who shall decide when doctors disagree?
 Quotations from classical sources were once a recognised feature of
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 public speech: de te fabula narratur (Horace) 'the story is about you'; ternpora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis 'times change, and we change with them'; timeo Danaoset dona ferentes (Virgil) 'I fear the Greeks, even when bringing gifts'. Now they are even regarded as bad form, because they are unintelligible to those without a classical education. So, when a speaker ventures a quotation of that kind he hastens to translate it. A number of classical tags nevertheless survive in educated speech in many countries, in Russian no less than in English. There are the well-known phrases, such as ad hoc 'for this special reason'; bona fide 'in good faith'; cum grano salts 'with a grain of salt'; mutatis mutandis 'with necessary changes'; tabula rasa 'a blank tablet' and others of the same kind. As long as they keep their Latin form they do not belong to English vocabulary. Many of them, however, show various degrees of assimilation, e.g. viva voce ['vaiva 'vousi] 'oral examination', which may be used as an adjective, an adverb and a verb. Viva voce examination is colloquially shortened into viva (noun and verb).
  Some quotations are so often used that they come to be considered cliches. The term comes from the printing trade. The cliche (the word is French) is a metal block used for printing pictures and turning them out in great numbers. The term is used to denote such phrases as have become hackneyed and stale. Being constantly and mechanically repeated they have lost their original expressiveness and so are better avoided. H.W. Fowler in a burst of eloquence in denouncing them even exclaims: "How many a time has Galileo longed to recant his recantation, as e pur si muove was once more applied or misapplied!"1 Opinions may vary on what is tolerable and what sounds an offence to most of the listeners or readers, as everyone may have his own likes and dislikes. The following are perhaps the most generally recognised: the acid test, ample opportunities, astronomical figures, the arms of Morpheus, to break the ice, consigned to oblivion, the irony of fate, to sleep the sleep of the just, stand shoulder to shoulder, swan song, toe the line, tender mercies, etc. Empty and worn-out but pompous phrases often become mere verbiage used as a poor compensation for a lack of thought or precision. Here are some phrases occurring in passages of literary criticism and justly branded as cliches: to blaze a trail, consummate art, consummate skill, heights of tragedy, lofty flight of imagination. The so-called journalese has its own set of overworked phrases: to usher in a new age, to prove a boon to mankind, to pave the way to a bright new world, to spell the doom of civilisation, etc.
  In giving this review of English set expressions we have paid special attention to the fact that the subject is a highly complex one and that it has been treated by different scholars in very different ways. Each approach and each classification have their advantages and their drawbacks. The choice one makes depends on the particular problem one has in view, and even so there remains much to be studied in the future.
  1 E pur si muove (It) 'yet it does move' - the words attributed to Galileo Galilei. He is believed to have said them after being forced to recant his doctrine that the Earth moves round the Sun.
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 Part Two
 ENGLISH VOCABULARY AS A SYSTEM
  Chapter 10
 HOMONYMS. SYNONYMS. ANTONYMS
 § 10.1 HOMONYMS
  In a simple code each sign has only one meaning, and each meaning is associated with only one sign. This one-to-one relationship is not realised in natural languages. When several related meanings are associated with the same group of sounds within one part of speech, the word is called polysemantic, when two or more unrelated meanings are associated with the same form - the words are homonyms, when two or more different forms are associated with the same or nearly the same denotative meanings - the words are synonyms.
  Actually, if we describe the lexical system according to three distinctive features, each of which may be present or absent, we obtain 23 = 8 possible combinations. To represent these the usual tables with only horizontal and vertical subdivisions are inadequate, so we make use of a mapping technique developed for simplifying logical truth functions by E.W. Veitch that proved very helpful in our semantic studies.
  In the table below a small section of the lexico-semantic system of the language connected with the noun sound (as in sound of laughter) is represented as a set of oppositions involving phonetical form, similar lexical meaning and grammatical part-of-speech meaning. Every pair of words is contrasted according to sameness or difference in three distinctive features at once.
  A maximum similarity is represented by square 1 containing the lexico-semantic variants of the same word. All the adjoining squares differ in one feature only. Thus squares 1 and 2 differ in part of speech meaning only. Some dictionaries as, for instance "Thorndike Century Junior Dictionary" even place sound1 and sounds3 in one entry. On the other hand, we see that squares 2, 3 and 4 represent what we shall call different types of homonymy. Square 7 presents words completely dissimilar according to the distinctive features chosen. Square 5 is a combination of features characteristic not only of synonyms but of other types of semantic similarity that will be discussed later on. But first we shall concentrate on homonyms, i.e. words characterised by phonetic coincidence and semantic differentiation.
  Two or more words identical in sound and spelling but different in meaning, distribution and (in many cases) origin are called homonyms. The term is derived from Greek homonymous (homos 'the same'
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 Table 1
 
 SIMILAR LEXICAL MEANING DIFFERENT LEXICAL MEANING SIMILAR SOUND FORM 1. Polysemy 2. Patterned Homonymy 3. Partial Homonymy .4. Full Homonymy
  sound2 n : : sound2 n sound2 as in : a vowel sound sound1 n : : sounds3 sounds as in: to sound a trumpet sound1 n : : sound4 a sound4 as in: sound argument sound1 n: : sound5 n sound5 as in: Long Island Sound DIFFERENT SOUND FORM 5. Synonymy and Hyponymy 6. Word-Family 7. Any English Words 8. Words of the Same Part of Speech
 
 
  sound1: : noise sound1:: whistle sound1 n soundless a soundproof a sound3 v sound n simple a sound n simplicity n
  SAME PART OF SPEECH DIFFERENT PART OF SPEECH SAME PART OF SPEECH and onoma 'name') and thus expresses very well the sameness of name combined with the difference in meaning.
  There is an obvious difference between the meanings of the symbol fast in such combinations as run fast 'quickly' and stand fast 'firmly'. The difference is even more pronounced if we observe cases where fast is a noun or a verb as in the following proverbs: A clean fast is better than a dirty breakfast; Who feasts till he is sick, must fast till he is well. Fast as an isolated word, therefore, may be regarded as a variable that can assume several different values depending on the conditions of usage, or, in other words, distribution. All the possible values of each linguistic sign are listed in dictionaries. It is the duty of lexicographers to define the boundaries of each word, i.e. to differentiate homonyms and to unite variants deciding in each case whether the different meanings belong to the same polysemantic word or whether there are grounds to treat them as two or more separate words identical in form. In speech, however, as a rule only one of all the possible values is determined by the context, so that no ambiguity may normally arise. There is no danger, for instance, that the listener would wish to substitute the meaning
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