4. Special literary vocabulary

The literary vocabulary consists of the following groups of words:

1. common literary;

2. terms and learned words;

3. poetic words;

4. archaic words;

5. barbarisms and foreign words;

6. literary coinages including nonce-words.

Literary words, both general (also called learned, bookish, high-flown) and special, contribute to the message the tone of solemnity, sophistication, seriousness, gravity, learnedness. They are used in official papers and documents, in scientific communication, in high poetry, in authorial speech of creative prose.

a) Terms i.e. words denoting objects, processes, phenomena of science, humanities, technique.

The most essential characteristics of a term are

1. its highly conventional character. A term is generally very easily coined and easily accepted; and new coinages as easily replace out-dated ones.

2. its direct relevance to the system or set of terms used in a particular science, discipline or art, i. e. to its nomenclature. When a term is used our mind immediately associates it with a certain nomenclature. A term is directly connected with the concept it denotes. A term, unlike other words, directs the mind to the essential quality of the thing, phenomenon or action.

Terms are mostly and predominantly used in special works dealing with the notions of some branch of science.

b) Poetic and Highly Literary Words

Poetic words are mostly archaic or very rarely used highly literary words which aim at producing an elevated effect. Poetic words and expressions are called upon to sustain the special elevated atmosphere of poetry. This may be said to be the main function of poetic words.

V. V. Vinogradov gives the following properties of poetic words: poetic words and images veil the reality, stylizing it according to the established literary norms and canons. A word is torn away from its referent.

Poetical tradition has kept alive such archaic words and forms as yclept (p. p. of the old verb clipian—to call, name); quoth (p. t. of cweð-an — to speak); eftsoons (eftsona,— again, soon after), thee (you) which are used even by modern ballad-mongers.

Poetical words in an ordinary environment may also have a satirical function, showing them as conventional metaphors and stereotyped poetical expressions.

c) Archaic, Obsolescent and Obsolete Words

The word-stock of a language is in an increasing state of change. Words change their meaning and sometimes drop out of the language altogether. New words spring up and replace the old ones. Some words stay in the language a very long time and do not lose their faculty of gaining new meanings and becoming richer and richer polysemantically. Other words live but a short time and are like bubbles on the surface of water — they disappear leaving no trace of their existence.

We shall distinguish three stages in the aging process of words:

The beginning of the aging process when the word becomes rarely used. Such words are called obsolescent, i.e. they are in the stage of gradually passing out of general use. To this category first of all belong morphological forms belonging to the earlier stages in the development of the language. In the English language these are the pronouns thou and its forms thee, thy – ‘your’ and thine - 'yours'; the corresponding verbal ending -est and the verb-forms art, wilt (thou makest, thou wilt); the ending -(e)th instead of -(e)s (he maketh) and the pronoun ye - 'you', used especially when you are speaking to more than one person

The second group of archaic words are those that have already gone completely out of use but are still recognized by the English-speaking community: e. g. methinks (=it seems to me); nay (—no). These words are called obsolete.

The third group, which may be called archaic proper, are words which are no longer recognizable in modern English, words that were in use in Old English and which have either dropped out of the language entirely or have changed in their appearance so much that they have become unrecognizable, e. g. troth (=faith); a losel (=a worthless, lazy fellow).

Another class of words here is historical words, denoting historical phenomena which are no more in use (such as "yeoman", "vassal", falconet"). They never disappear from the language. They have no synonyms, whereas archaic words have been replaced by modern synonyms.

Archaic words are used to create a realistic background to historical novels. They carry a special volume of information adding to the logical aspect of communication. They also appear in the poetic style as special terms and in the style of official documents to maintain the exactness of expression: hereby, aforesaid, therewith. The low predictability of an archaism when it appears in ordinary speech produces the necessary satirical effect.

d) Barbarisms and Foreignisms:

Barbarisms are words of foreign origin which have not entirely been assimilated into the English language. They bear the appearance of a borrowing and are felt as something alien to the native tongue. Nevertheless most of what were formerly foreign borrowings are now, from a purely stylistic position, not regarded as foreign. But still there are some words which retain their foreign appearance to a greater or lesser degree. These words, which are called barbarisms, are, like archaisms, also considered to be on the outskirts of the literary language.

Most of them have corresponding English synonyms; e. g. chic (=stylish); Weltanschauung (=world-view); en passant (= in passing); ad infinitum (= to infinity) and many other words and phrases.

e) Literary Coinages (Including Nonce-Words)

Neologism - 'a new word or a new meaning for an established word.'

Every period in the development of a language produces an enormous number of new words or new meanings of established words. Most of them do not live long. They are not meant to live long. They are coined for use at the moment of speech, and therefore possess a peculiar property —that of temporariness. The given word or meaning holds only in the given context and is meant only to "serve the occasion."

However, such is the power of the written language that a word or a meaning used only to serve the occasion, when once fixed in writing, may become part and parcel of the general vocabulary.

The coining of new words generally arises first of all with the need to designate new concepts resulting from the development of science and also with the need to express nuances of meaning called forth by a deeper understanding of the nature of the phenomenon in question. It may also be the result of a search for a more economical, brief and compact form of utterance which proves to be a more expressive means of communicating the idea.

The first type of newly coined words, i.e. those which designate newborn concepts, may be named terminological coinages. The second type, i.e. words coined because their creators seek expressive utterance may be named stylistic coinages.

Among new coinages of a literary-bookish type must be mentioned a considerable layer of words appearing in the publicistic style, mainly in newspaper articles and magazines and also in the newspaper style— mostly in newspaper headlines.

Another type of neologism is the nonce-word – a word coined to suit one particular occasion. They rarely pass into the standard language and remind us of the writers who coined them.

SPECIAL LITERARY VOCABULARY

• terms

• poetic and highly literary words

• archaic, obsolescent and obsolete words

• barbarisms and foreignisms

• literary coinages

1. Terms are mostly and predominantly used in special works dealing with the notions of some branch of science. They belong to the style of science language. It is here that they are perceived as natural application.

The function of terms in other styles is to make some reference to the occupation of a character. For example, “There was a long conversation – a long wait. His father came back to say it was doubtful whether they could make a loan. Eight per cent, then being secured for money, was a small rate of interest, considering its need. For ten per cent Mr. Kuzel might make a call-loan. Frank went back to his employer, whose commercial choler (anger) rose at the report. (Dreiser, “The Financier”)

Stylistic function of terms might be that of mockery, sarcasm, e.g. “What a fool Rawdon Crawley has been,” Clump replied, “to go and marry a governess. There was something about the girl too.” – “Green eyes, fair skin, pretty figure, famous frontal development,” Squill remarked (Thackeray). “Frontal development” is a term used in natural sciences to describe biological species. In the extract it is used to describe the breast of a woman. The way it is done reveals the attitude of the speaker who is guided either by envy, or jealousy, or displeasure.

2. Poetic words are a rather insignificant layer of the special literary vocabulary. They are mostly archaic or very rarely used highly literary words which aim at producing an elevated effect. They are chiefly used in poetry. Poetical tradition has kept alive such archaic words and forms as yclept (call, name); quoth (speak); eftsoons (again, soon after), e.g. Whilome (at some past time) in Albion’s isle (the oldest name of the island of Britain) there dwelt (lived) a youth” (Byron).

Poetical words and set expressions make the utterance hard to understand to the majority of people. That is why they are often called poetical jargon. In modern English poetry there is a strong tendency to use words in strong collocations: the sound of shape, night-long eyes, wings of because (Cummings).

3) The word-stock of the language is in a constant state of change. The process of ‘aging’ in words starts with obsolescent units (выходящий из употребления ) that are in the stage of gradual pass out of general use, e.g. the pronouns thou and thee, thy, thine; the ending – (e)th in verbal forms – maketh; the Germanic ending –est in verbs – thou makest and the like. To obsolescent words belong many borrowings of French origin, e.g. pallet (a straw mattress), garniture (furniture), etc.

The second group of ‘aged’ vocabulary are obsolete words that have already gone completely out of use but are still recognized by native speakers, e.g. methinks (it seems to me); nay (not).

The third group make up archaic words proper which were in use in Old English, e.g. troth (faith); a losel (a worthless, lazy fellow).

Archaic words are used for the creation of the realistic background in historical novels chiefly.

Archaic words should be distinguished from historical terms which do not disappear from the language but name the things that have already seized existing, e.g. mace (булава).

Archaic words and expressions are often found in the style of official documents, poetry. Their function is terminological in character as they do not acquire new meanings. In literary works they might describe things satirically, e.g. in B. Shaw’s play “How He Lied to Her Husband” a youth of 18 speaks of his feelings towards a ‘female of 37’ in the following words: “Perfect love casteth off fear”.

The most frequently met function of archaic words is the creation of elevated atmosphere.

4) Words of foreign origin which have not entirely been assimilated into the English language are called barbarisms. Most of them have corresponding English synonyms, e.g. chic – stylish; bon mot – a clever witty saying. Barbarisms are closely connected with foreignisms – words that reflect concepts not familiar or not existing in English culture, e.g. ukase, kolkhoz. Some other foreign words are terms, e.g. solo, Luftwaffe (the German air force). They have no English equivalents. Both barbarisms and foreignisms are used to give local colouring, to characterize the character from the point of view of his origin, to reproduce actual speech of local people in imitating or naming strange or unknown objects, e.g. “And the Cretans were very willing to feed and to hide the Inglisi (English)” (Aldridge).

5) Literary coinages are words that are produced against the general rules of word-formation, that is that the components (morphemes) do function in the language but their application is doubtful for regularity, semantics and the like. Such coinages are immediately seen against the background of patterned word-production, e.g. orbiter – a spaceship designed to orbit a celestial body; missileer – a person skilled in launching and controlling missiles. A productive suffix –ize is very often employed to produce words such as accessorize, villagize. The suffixes –ship, -dom are used in literary coinages, e.g. gangdom (мафия), musicdom, showmanship (умение привлечь внимание, произвести эффект), lifemanship (умение преодолевать тяжёлые ситуации умение жить). Though the words sound correct it is still a question whether they will be accepted by the language or will remain close to occasional coinages only for the situation given.