2. Classification of borrowings

Borrowings which are included in the vocabulary of a language can be classified into three groups:

1. according to the source of borrowings¹⁰;

2. according to the aspect which was borrowed;

3. according to the level of assimilation.

According to the aspect that was borrowed, loan-words are divided into: phonetic and transcription, when the sound structure is rendered to be completely new, so this is when the sound structure remains unchanged in the borrowed word it only acquires some phonetic peculiarities of the Target language; calque-translations (the blue-print translation of the notion); semantic loan-words and the borrowing of wordbuilding elements.

Under the semantic borrowing we should understand the adoption of new nomination; it is often a figurative meaning to the already existing notion. The words “pioneer” and “brigade” have already existed in English word-stock before the penetration of sovetisms into it, but the definitions “” and “” they acquired under the influence of Russian language of Post October period.

As to the Russian language, in Before October period the words were borrowed mainly referring with the peculiarities of Russian nature, life and objects of trade: sable “соболь”, astrakhan “каракуль”, starlet “стерлядь”, steppe “степь”, verst “верста”, izba “изба”. There are a lot of sovetisms in English. Among them there are phonetic borrowings, where new notion and new sound structure are borrowed together: soviet, sputnik, bolshevik, kolkhoz, activist. After having made the analysis of new word definition with the original language one it turned out that it preserves just a part of definitions, often one of them and besides not the primary, but derivational one and it is quite often becomes a term (for example: sputnik and soviet.)

Calque-making - is the process of borrowing new words within adopting its associative meaning and the structure of the word or word combination 9for example: house of rest – “дом отдыха”, five-year-plan – “пятилетний план, пятилетка”). During the process of calque the words or word combinations are translated separately and then combined together according to the foreign pattern of the word or word combination. According to the structure of the Target language calques can be divided into three groups:

1. word-formative calques – the morphological structure is reproduced;

2. phraseological – the process of blue-print translation of each word;

3. semantic – to attach figurative meaning to the already existed word according to the foreign pattern.

So that the process of calque-making realizes a very important function, being the guide of intercultural influence between languages. Word-formative calques can be inexact: during the translation one of the morphemes can be interpreted with the help of approximate equivalent.

Calque-making and transcription as the means of borrowing should be distinguished from the of the same name methods of translation. They do not differ by the mechanism but they do by the final result: the enlargement of vocabulary doesn’t take place during the process of translation, whereas during the process of borrowing new lexical units appears in the language.