General principles of standard classification of the English Vocabulary

The vocabulary classification is important for stylistic purposes as some stylistic devices are based on the interplay of different stylistic aspects of words. The wordstock of English can be divided into the three main layers:

· literary

consists of the groups of words, accepted legitimate members of the English Vocabulary; they have no dialectual or local, but bookish character, which made them stable; the literary vocabulary consists of common literary, sewn poetic, archaic words, barbarisms, foreign words and literary coinages.

· neutral

universal character, unrestricted in use; it can be employed in all styles of the languageand in all spheres of activities; it's the most stable layer.

· colloquial

limited to a definite language community or to a special locality; it's aspect is its spoken character, which makes it unstable; this layer consists of common colloquial words, slang, jargonisms, professional words, dialectual words, vulgar words, colloquial coinages.

All these three layers are groupped under the term Standard English Vocabulary. Other groups are regarded as special literary vocabulary [kid - child - infant]. Neutral, common literary and common colloquial vocabulary form the bulk of the English Vocabulary. They are used both in literary and colloquial language. They are the main source of synonimy and polysemy. They are fruitful in the production of the new coinages/meanings. The most neutral English words are those of monosyllabic character. The development of conversion is the most productive means of word-building. Unlike all the other groups, the neutral words can be considered as having a special stylistic colouring. Common literary words are mostly used in writting, literary units, standing in opposition to colloquial units. One can always tell a literary word from a colloquial one. Yet no objective criteria for it have been worked out. The main distinction between the synonyms remains stylistic. Colloquial words are more emotionally coloured than literary. Neutral words have no degree of emotiveness. Both literary and colloquial words have their upper and lower ranges. For literary words the lower range aproaches the neutral layer and has a tendency to pass to the lower layers. The lines of demarkation between these layers are blurred. Common colloquial vocabulary is considered to be a part of the Standard English Vocabulary. It boards on the neutral and special colloquial vocabulary. Some of the lexical items are close to the non-standrard colloquial groups, such as jargonisms. Other words approach the neutral bulk of the English Vocabulary. Thus, the words "teenager" and "hippie" are colloquial words, passing into the neutral English Vocabulary. Thast is because they are losing their non-standard character, becoming wider recognised.

The spoken language is full of set expressions [to be up to sth.]. The stylistic function of the different layers of the English Vocabulary depends on the interaction when they are opposed to each other. It is interesting that anything written assumes a greater degree of significance, than spoken. If the spoken takes place of the written or vice verse, it is a stylistic device.

Slang

Slang seems to mean everything that lays below the Standard English. There's no more or less satisfactory definition of this ambiguious term. No other European language has singled out a special layer of Vocabulary and named it slang.

Slang is:

· a language of a highly colloquial style laying below the level of educated speech and consisting of words or of current words, employed in some special sense.

· the special vocabulary used by any set of persons of a low character; thus, slang is represented both as a special vocabulary and a special language, and so, it causes confussion.

Slang requires constant innovation, so that words are replaced by new slangisms. Many words formally labelled as slang have become units of Standard English [kid]. The term "slang" should be used for those forms of English which are distorted in dsome way - phonetically, morphologically or lexically and also to some elements, that can be called overcolloquial. Slang is a deviation from the established low level of the colloquial vocabulary [to take stock in = to be interrupted, orout = nonsense]. There're many kinds of slang - public, house, commercial, military. There is a standard slang, which is a way of speaking, using special words and phrases in some special sense. Here we speak about jargonisms.

A jargon is a term for a group of words existing in every language, aimed at preserving secrecy within one or another social group.

There are mainly old words with the new meanings [louf = hat, greese = money, tiger hunter = gambler]. Jargonisms are social in character and not regional (the jargon of thieves, sportsmen). Jargon remains a foreign language for the outsiders of any social group. Slang needs no translation, while jargon is a code. It sometimes becomes recognized in the literary language of the country [fan, queer]. But on the whole jargonisms are special groups within the non-literary layer of words. There is a common jargon for all social groups, easily understood by everybody.

Professionalisms are used in a definite trade, profession or by people with common interests. They are correlated to terms.

Professionalisms are special words in the non-literary layer of the English Vocabulary, though terms belong to the literary layer. The thing is that professionalisms remain in circulation within a definite community, while terms belong to science. Professionalism are monosemantic [teens fish = submarin]. Professionalisms are used in emotive descriptions to depict the natural speech of character to show his psychology.

Dialectual words are in the process of the integration into the English Neutral Language, remain beyond its literary boundaries and their use is referred to a definite layer (lower). They are recognised as Standard Colloquial English [lassie = a girl, lad = a young man, duft = silly]. Dialectual words are mostly found in the style of emotive description. Thus they characterised personalities through speech.

Vulgarisms are swear words of an abuisive character [demon, to Hell, goddamn], and obscene words. They are of Anglo-Saxon character and are never to aquire the status of Standard English though they are widely used.

Colloquial coinages or non-words are spontaneous. They are not fixed in dictionaries. They dissapear from the language without a trace. Built by means of affixes they are based on certain semantic changes of words [to be the limit = unbearable]. Semantic changes in word meaning can be really striking [expeculiar = odd].

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