Lexical Variability Flashcards
What types of lexical variability do we know?
Temporal
Stylistic
Geographical
1.1. name the types of temporal LV and describe them
1.1. New Words
neologisms: felt by the speaker as something new; in science, fiction, films and television, branding, literature, jargon, online communication.
derived, compounded, blended
covidiot party, covexit, cove-dweler, lockstalgia, twindemic, anti-masker, corronial, coroneologism,
quarantrolls, locktail, vacctivist, corona news, face naked, covidpreneur,
borrowed (in Slovak)
What are nonce words?
- occasionalisms, hapax legomena
William Faulkner: “the wagon beginning to fall into its slow and mileconsuming clatter” mammonolatry – Samuel Taylor Coleridge Jabberwocky – poem by Lewis Carrol
Bokononism - in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle, a religion secretly practiced by the people of San Lorenzo
James Joyce: Ulysses - a number of invented words including ringroundabout (completely surrounding something), poppysmic (the sound of someone smacking their lips), mrkgnao (a version of meow)
Slovak:
škola – infocuc, nervokaz, ľudotábor, infobúdka, žiakomorička, dieťomor, učibúdka,
učiteľ – nervolez, amosák, žiakotrápič, hlavolámač, úlohodávač
Puns – playing with language
Temporal LV - desrcibe and categorise 1.2. Old Words
Archaisms – not in common use; have modern equivalents
lexical: welkin, billow, leech, fowl, kine, slay
grammatical: thou, hath, yon, didst
semantic: curious (careful), nice (foolish)
Historicisms – have no modern equivalents, name things which are no longer in common use: peddlar, stagecoach, chandler, highwayman Slovak: dereš, panské, dráb
English - baldric (type of belt), caravel (ship), landau (koč)
Obsolete words – no longer acceptable or useful; substituted by newer equivaltens: jargogle (confuse, to jargogle one´s brain), kench (laugh loudly), brabble (to argue stubbornly about trifles), younker (youngster), bever (beaver), meed (reward, a person’s deserved share of praise, honour, etc.).
Compare to archaisms →
Obsolescent words: wireless (semantic), aerodrome, school-fellow, bathing costume
How do we categorise Stylistic LV
- Stylistically unmarked words (neutral, basic vocabulary) – can be used in any style; refer to everyday phenomena, used by all social and age classes of people, have mostly a Germanic or IE origin (e.g., father, house, eat, dog, …)
- Stylistically marked words
a. Formal expressions
proper formal words (officialese, learned words) – administration, official papers, business letters, public speeches (e.g., hereafter, domicile, residence, obese, efficacious, acquiesce, matrimony, moreover)
technical vocabulary – specific fields of science (e.g., phoneme, lexeme, subjunctive, chromosome, molecule)
bookish words – literature; often archaic (e.g., slay, albeit, brine, morn, hapless,
steed, wedlock)
Define and name types of informal Stylistically marked Infromal expression (2.2.2.)
communication with friends and family
concerned with different w-f processes: univerbation (washer), shortening (ad), conversion + ellipsis (semidetached); collocate with emphatic words (terribly) or constitute phrasal verbs (put up with).
colloquial words – used by all people regadless of their education, occupation or age: idioms, conversational collocations, and informal speech patterns often common in a particular region or nationality (e.g., kid, pal, pro, tanked, mum, guy, hankie); Slovak: doktor – lekár, panelák – panelový bytový dom, gate - nohavice
substandard expressions – mainly spoken; low colloquial words regarded as incorrect by most educated people (e.g., dunno – do not know; ain´t – is not; gotta – have got to)
slang words – used by specific social and age groups; some may be metaphorical, expressive, jocular, ironic (the kisser – mouth; the fuzz – police; the nick – prison; dough – money)
Cokney rhyming slang – words replaced with rhyming expressions (e.g., kidney punch – lunch, trouble and strife – wife,
apples and pears – stairs, Gregory Peck – neck)
back slang – reversed spelling (e.g., reeb – beer, toheno – hot one, yob – boy, delo diam – old maid, ecilop - police, often modified to esclop or slop - The slops are after you
central slang – switched/modified syllables (e.g., amscra – scram,
astard-ba – bastard, ellybay – belly, ietqui – quiet, anguagela – language); Slovak: chodza
- záchod
argot – slang used by the lowest social classes; cryptic (picker – small town gambler, skiv – knife); Slovak: bager - lyžica, nafta - káva
jargon - professional slang (internet: BTW, LOL, BFF; politics: left wing, right wing,
POTUS; business: 9-to-5); Slovak: lexa, morfola
2.3. Define and name types of Emotionally marked words
Express the user´s attitude and feelings (surprise, annoyance, anger, joy, …)
Positive words:
familiarisms (e.g., auntie, mum, Betty) diminutives (e.g. doggy, duckling, starlet) euphemisms (e.g., pass away, restroom)
humorous words (e.g., smellfungus, vomitory, bamboozle) Slovak: hrmotruhlica (klavír), cibule (hodiny)
Negative words:
ironic expressions (e.g., pretty good + context)
offensive words (e.g., good-for-nothing, WASP, Frog, Kraut) vulgarisms (e.g., crapper, …)
Emphatic words:
intensify the sense of another expression (terribly, pretty, awfully, wonderfully)
Evaluatory words:
neutral words whose emotionality is given by the context (e.g., pig, snake)
permanently evaluatory (e.g., devil, scoundrel)
How do we categorise Geographical LV
Geographical varieties
National standards
Standard British English (basis for UK, Australia, NZ, SA) Standard American English (basis for USA, Canada)
Other geographical varieties
Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, South Asian, Indian 🙴
Pakistani English, …
What is pidgin and Creole?
Pidgin – bridge language among different neighbouring language communities; simplified vocabulary and grammar
Creole – nativized form of pidgin (mother tongue)
Examples of West African (Nigerian) Pidgin:
I wan chop (I want to eat)
Wetin dey ‘appen? (What is happening?)
I no no (I do not know)
Where you dey? (Where are you)
Local dialects of English (BrE and AmE)
BrE
South Eastern, East Middland, South Western, West Middland, Northern, Lowland Scots Cockney, … + many more accents
AmE:
Western, Middland, North Central, Northern, Northern New England, Southern, New York, African American, Hispanic (e.g. Chicano English, …); Ethnolects
What are some differences between BrE and AmE?
Pronunciation (BrE non-rhotic – AmE rhotic)
Spelling (AmE simplified)
Semantic differences:
different lexemes to denote the same ELR:
teaching staff BrE vs. faculty AmE; hire purchase BrE vs. instalment plan AmE; aubergine
BrE – eggplant AmE
the same lexeme to denote different ELR:
pavement (path for pedestrians at the side of a road; paved area or surface BrE - the hard surface of a road or street AmE)
homely (domestic BrE - ugly AmE)
subway (a tunnel under a road for use by pedestrians BrE - an underground railway AmE)
different lexemes to denote different ELR/realia with no genuine equivalent:
junior high school, the House of Lords
