Inherent and adherent connotations of words.

Standard English vocabulary and its constituents

Special literary (bookish) vocabulary ( terms, poetic words, archaic words, barbarism and foreign words, literary coinages).

Special literary vocabulary (Terms, Archaic Words)

A term is generally very easily coined and easily accepted; and new coinages as easily replace out-dated ones.

One of the most characteristic features of a term is its direct relevance to the system or set of terms used in a particular science, discipline or art, i.e. to its nomenclature.

Terms are mostly and predominantly used in special works dealing with the notions of some branch of science. Therefore it may be said that they belong to the style of language of science. But their use is not confined to this style. They may as well appear in other styles—in newspaper style, in publicistic and practically in all other existing styles of language. But their function in this case changes. They do not always fulfill their basic function, that of bearing exact reference to a given concept. When used in the belles-lettres style, for instance, a term may acquire a stylistic function and consequently become a sporadical.

The function of terms, if encountered in other styles, is either to indicate the technical peculiarities of the subject dealt with, or to make some reference to the occupation of a character whose language would naturally contain special words and expressions.

But when terms are used in their normal function as] of belles-lettres, they are or ought to be easily understood the text so that the desired effect in depicting the situation.

Whenever the terms used in the belles-lettres style set the reader at odds with the text, we can register a stylistic effect caused either by a specific use of terms in their proper meanings or by a simultaneous realization of two meanings.

Archaic 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.

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