PART 7. STYLISTIC DIFFERENTIATION OF ENGLISH WORDS

1. 
   Stylistically neutral words
   
2. 
   Literary-bookish words
   
3. 
   Colloquial words
   

Literary-bookish words belong to the formal style, to the formal category of communication. Literary words are more stable due to the traditions of the written type of speech. The so-termed learned words are used in descriptive passages of fiction, scientific texts, radio and television announcements, official talks and documents, business correspondence, etc. They mark the text as belonging to this or that style of written speech, but when used in colloquial speech or in informal situations, they may create a comical effect. These words are mostly of foreign origin and have polymorphemic structure, e. g. solitude, fascination, cordial, paternal, divergent, commence, assist, comprise, endeavour, exclude, heterogeneous, miscellaneous, hereby, thereby, herewith, wherein, etc.

Literary (bookish) words are not stylistically homogeneous. Besides general-literary (bookish) words, e. g. harmony, calamity, alacrity, etc., we may single out various specific subgroups, namely: 1) terms or scientific words such as, e g. renaissance, genocide, teletype, etc.; 2) poetic words and archaisms such as, e. g. whilom – ‘formerly’, aught – ‘anything’, ere – ‘before’, albeit – ‘although’, fare – ‘walk’, tarry – ‘remain’, nay – ‘no’; etc.; 3) barbarisms and foreign words, such as, e. g., bon mot – ‘a clever or witty saying’, apropos, faux pas, bouquet, etc.; 4) neologisms such as, e. g. teledish (“a dish-shaped aerial for receiving satellite television transmissions”), roam-a-phone (“a portable telephone”), graviphoton (“a hypothetical particle”), etc.

Terms are words or nominal groups which convey specialized concepts used in science, technology, art, etc., e. g. gerontology, phoneme, radar, knee joint, common denominator, periodic table, still life, choreography, etc.

Poetic words are stylistically marked; they form a lexico-stylistic paradigm. In the 17th-18th centuries they were widely used in poetry as synonyms of neutral words. In modern poetry such a vocabulary barely exists.

Poetic words are diverse; they include: a) archaic words (commix – mix); b) archaic forms (vale – valley); c) historic words (argosy – large merchant ship); d) poetic words proper (anarch, brine).

Their main function is to mark the text in which they are used as poetic, thus distinguishing it from non-fiction texts. In modern poetry such words are seldom used. Their stylistic meaning gets more vivid when they are contrasted to neutral words.

Archaisms are words which are no longer used in everyday speech, which have been ousted by their synonyms. Archaisms remain in the language, but they are used as stylistic devices to express solemnity.

Archaisms are obsolete names for existing things, actions, phenomena, etc. All of them can be replaced by neutral synonyms, e. g. hark (“listen”), deem (“think”), glee (“joy”), aught (“anything”), nigh (“near”). Grammatical archaisms represent obsolete grammatical forms: thou, three, thy, thine; ye; he goeth, thou knowest, etc. Among archaic words one should distinguish historical words that denote no-longer existing objects, e. g. yeoman, fletcher, gleeman, galleon, visor, etc. Historical words have no neutral synonyms in Modern English.

Archaic words that denote existing objects are divided into two groups: a) archaic words proper: words which are no longer recognized in modern English. They were used in Old English and have either dropped out of language use entirely or completely changed (troth – faith, losel – worthless); b) archaic forms of the words: corse instead of corpse, an instead of and, annoy instead of аnnоуаnсе.

Sometimes a lexical archaism begins a new life, getting a new meaning, then the old meaning becomes a semantic archaism, e. g. fair in the meaning “beautiful” is a semantic archaism, but in the meaning “blond” it belongs to the neutral style. Sometimes the root of the word remains and the affix is changed, then the old affix is considered to be a morphemic archaism, e. g. beauteous, bepaint, darksome, oft. Here “ous” was substituted by “ful”, “be” and “some” were dropped, “en” was added.
Barbarisms and foreign words. There are many borrowings in every language, some of them being assimilated. We may distinguish three groups of such words in English: foreign words, barbarisms, and exotic words.

Foreign words are close to barbarisms, but they are characterized by occasional usage only, mainly in literary speech. They do not form a lexico-stylistic paradigm, though they may be used to create some stylistic effect.

Barbarisms are words of foreign origin which have not been entirely assimilated into the English language preserving their former spelling and pronunciation. Most of them (e. g. chic, chagrin, en passant) have corresponding English synonyms.

Neologisms are the main problem of modern scientific research. A neologism is a word, term, or phrase which has been recently created (“coined”) – often to apply to new concepts, to synthesize pre-existing concepts, or to make older terminology sound more contemporary. Neologisms are especially useful in identifying inventions, new phenomena, or old ideas which have taken on a new cultural context. Most frequently, neologism is explained and defined as “a new word”. This term was coined around 1800 and is also referred to an existing word or phrase which has been assigned a new meaning.

At the present moment English is developing very swiftly and there is so called “neology blowup”. R. Berchfield who worked at compiling a four-volume supplement to NED says that averagely 800 neologisms appear every year in Modern English. It has also become a language-giver recently, especially with the development of computerization. New words, as a rule, appear in speech of an individual person who wants to express his idea in some original way. This person is called “originater”. New lexical units are primarily used by university teachers, newspaper reporters, by those who are connected with mass media. Neologisms can develop in three main ways: a lexical unit existing in the language can change its meaning to denote a new object or phenomenon. In such cases we have semantic neologisms, e. g. the word umbrella developed the meanings: “авіаційне прикриття”, “політичне прикриття”. A new lexical unit can develop in the language to denote an object or phenomenon which already has some lexical unit to denote it. In such cases we have transnomination, e. g. the word slum was first substituted by the word ghetto then by the word-group inner town. A new lexical unit can be introduced to denote a new object or phenomenon. In this case we have a proper neologism, many of them are cases of new terminology.

We can point out several semantic groups when we analyze the group of neologisms connected with computerization, and here we can mention words used: a) to denote different types of computers, e. g. PC, super-computer, multi-user, neurocomputer, etc.; b) to denote parts of computers, e. g. hardware, software, monitor, screen, data, etc. c) to denote computer languages, e. g. BASIC, Algol FORTRAN, etc; d) to denote notions connected with work on computers, e. g. computerman, computerization, computerize, to troubleshoot, to blitz out, etc. There are also different types of activities performed with the help of computers, many of them are formed with the help of the morpheme “tele”, e. g. to telework, to telecommute. There are also such words as telebanking, telemarketing, teleshopping. In the sphere of biometrics we have computerized machines which can recognize characteristic features of people seeking entrance: finger-print scanner, biometric eye-scanner, voice verification and others.

There are different semantic groups of neologisms belonging to everyday life: a) food e. g. starter instead of hors d’oevres, macrobiotics, longlife milk, microwave stove, consumer electronics, fridge-freezer, hamburgers /beef-, cheese-, fish-, veg-; b) clothing, e. g. catsuit (one-piece clinging suit), slimster, string (miniscule bikini), hipster (trousers or skirt with the belt on hips), completenik (a long sweater for trousers), sweatnik (a long jacket); c) footwear e. g. winklepickers (shoes with long pointed toes), thongs (open sandals); backsters (beech sandals with thick soles); d) bags, e. g. bumbag (a small bag worn on the waist), sling bag (a bag with a long belt), maitre (a small bag for cosmetics). There are also such words as: dangledolly (a dolly-talisman dangling in the car before the windscreen), boot-sale (selling from the boot of the car), touch-tone (a telephone with press-button).

Among neologisms one can find the so-termed occasional words (or nonce-words) coined for a particular situation or context and aimed at a certain stylistic effect, e. g. “A what?” – “Moneyholic. A word I’ve just made up to describe someone with an uncontrollable addiction to money”. We can say that author's neologisms (of course it's considered to be only the part of some definite text) are among occasional words.

Several occasional words coined by famous English authors have penetrated to the Standard English vocabulary and are registered in dictionaries, e. g. snob (W. M. Thackeray), to chortle (L. Carrol). There are two authors who can give us the great amount of examples, as they have created their own separate worlds – Lewis Carroll and J. R. R. Tolkien, the mother of particular hobbit. This word denotes completely new race of creatures and after some time we can hear it on every corner of the street. It's one of the perfect examples of perfect injection new literary word in the ordinary life and book-life itself.

One shouldn’t confuse occasional words with potential words based on productive word-formation patterns and devoid of any stylistic colouring. Typical cases of potential word-formation are composite numerals (thirty-two, five hundred and twelve), numerous adjectives with semi-suffix – like (soldier-like, moth-like) and some other widely-distributed patterns. Being easily coined and understood, potential words are not registered in dictionaries.

1. A condition known to doctor as a flatulence, may a company heart burn or appear independently. 2. Chatting on the Internet can be fun and exhilarating, but selecting a chat room can also be risky, and especially in Web chat. 3. She sent the information on my e-mail. 4. The IPhone has been touted by some as great device for consuming media. 5. The work for such a Net by-product is spam. 6. David was coffee, and nobody wanted to agree with him. 7. Frisbeetarianism, as it is listed in the contest, is not a common word and the meaning was not conceived by a reader. 8. You've probably seen gargoyles at one time or another, whether in pictures or in person. 9. He tried to esplanade but he did not.

Colloquial words are characteristic of the informal style of spoken English. Colloquialisms are common sayings that people use in everyday speech and some are very old expressions. Colloquialisms are expressions appropriate to informal, conversational occasions. Colloquial words are characteristic of the informal style of spoken English. For example, I felt “down in the dumps” is a colloquialism for feeling depressed or miserable.

The etymology of the term “colloquialism” can be traced to the Latin word “colloqui”, which in turn is derived from the words “com” meaning “with” and “loqui” meaning “conversation”. The phrase is used to refer to language that is normally used in casual conversation. Authors and playwrights often use colloquial language while writing, and therefore you may often come across instances of colloquialism in novels and plays. Consequently, colloquialisms appear frequently in literature because they provide an impression of actual or genuine talk and make use of the grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, and terms of everyday speech.

Colloquialisms include words (such as y'all, gonna, and wanna), phrases (such as old as the hills, raining cats and dogs, and dead as a doornail) and aphorisms (such as there's more than one way to skin a cat).

Generally, colloquialisms are specific to a geographical region. They are used in “everyday” conversation and, increasingly, through informal online interactions. An example of the regional specificity of colloquialisms is the term used when referring to “soft drinks”. In the Upper Midwestern United States and Canada, soft drinks are called “pop”, whilst in other areas, notably the Northeastern and far Western United States; they are referred to as “soda”. In some areas of Scotland, the term “ginger” is used.

Words that have a formal meaning can also have a colloquial meaning. For example, “kid” can mean “young goat” in formal usage and “child” in colloquial usage.

An example of a colloquialism and how it migrates to other areas is the Indian phrase, "Please do the needful", meaning, "Please do what is implied and/or expected". As the global workplace expands, this once regional phrase is now being used outside the area in which it originated.

One should distinguish between literary colloquial words (which are used in every day conversations both by educated and non-educated people) and non-literary colloquialisms (which include slang, jargonisms, professionalisms and vulgarisms). A distinction between colloquialisms and slang is the most interesting part that may give you some kind of misunderstanding in definition of the special kind of word or word-combination. And it would be right to pay attention to some words of famous linguist Ghil’ad Zuckermann, which will explain the difference to us:

Slang refers to informal (and often transient) lexical items used by a specific social group, for instance teenagers, soldiers, prisoners, or surfers. Slang is not considered the same as colloquial (speech), which is informal, relaxed speech used on occasion by any speaker; this might include contractions such as you’re, as well as colloquialisms. A colloquialism is a lexical item used in informal speech; whilst the broadest sense of the term colloquialism might include slangism, its narrow sense does not. Slangisms are often used in colloquial speech but not all colloquialisms are slangisms. One method of distinguishing between a slangism and a colloquialism is to ask whether most native speakers know the word (and use it); if they do, it is a colloquialism. However, the problem is that this is not a discrete, quantized system but a continuum. Although the majority of slangisms are ephemeral and often supplanted by new ones, some gain non-slang colloquial status (e. g. English silly – cf. German selig ‘blessed’, Middle High German sælde ‘bliss, luck’, and Zelda, a Middle Eastern female first name) and even formal status (e. g. English mob).

There are also some examples from the literary texts, that content quite clear types of colloquial words. We can find them in works by Irvine Welsh, J. D. Salinger, Mark Twain and others, e. g. I would bring some drink and we would eat whatever there was and spend many happy hours whiling the world away. The usage of this unusual form of word “while” is justified by the fact that exactly this word is a linking part between two worlds that are shown in the definite text. The blink of red torches could be seen behind them in the tunnel they were following; and they were getting deadly tiered. The word “deadly” usually uses in everyday informal speech and denotes, as it does now too, the highest degree of some feeling.

Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered acceptable in certain social settings. As a rule, their meanings are based on metaphor and often have ironic colouring, e. g. attic (“head”), beans (“money”), saucers (“eyes”), etc. Such words are easily understood by all native speakers, because they are not specific for any social or professional group.

Jargon is words or phrases used by people in a particular job or group that can be difficult for others to understand. Such words are usually motivated and, like slang words, have metaphoric character, e. g. bird (“spacecraft”) /astronauts’ jargon/; to grab (“to make an impression on smb.”) /newspaper jargon/; grass, tea, weed (“narcotic”) / drug addicts’ jargon/, etc. Words such as “backup”, “chatroom” and “browser” are computer jargon. Jargon is often referred to as “technical language”. It makes communication quicker and easier among members of a group who understand it.

Among social jargons cant or argot (thieves jargon) stands somewhat apart. Cant words are non-motivated and have special “agreed-upon”, secret meanings, e. g. book (“life sentence”), splosh (“money”), to rap (“to kill”), etc.

Professionalisms are sub-standard colloquial words used by people of a definite trade or profession. Such words are informal substitutes for corresponding terms, e. g. Hi-Fi (“high fidelity”), smash-up (“accident”), anchor (“brakes”), etc.

A vulgarism also called scurrility, is a colloquialism of an unpleasant action or unrefined character, which substitutes a coarse, indecorous word where the context might lead the reader to expect a more refined expression. Vulgarisms include: a) expletives and swear words of abusive character, like damn, bloody, etc.; b) obscene (or taboo, four-letter) words which are highly indecent.
Exercise 3. Pick out colloquialisms from the sentences below and comment on their meaning.

1. So they appealed for people to come forward with their holiday snaps, see if anybody might have got a picture of this bloody accidentally. 2. Hobbits have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it). 3. “Escaping goblins to be caught by wolves!” he said, and it became a proverb, though we now say “out of the frying-pan into the fire” in the same sort of uncomfortable situations. 4. Someone wanted to mete out punishment of his own. 5. You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain’t no matter. 6. But Mrs. Rachel Lynde was one of those capable creatures who can manage their own concerns and those of their folks into the bargain. 7. “What do you want?” – “I don`t wanna nothing. Just go along by, but the dogs won`t let me.” 8. I`d rather look at people to be sure they seem contented enough. 9. She was recently dumped by her fiancé. 10. Oh, I like things to have handles even if they are only geraniums. 11. Sam Boulter had sassed Mr. Phillips in class and Mr. Phillips whipped him and Sam's father came down to the school and dared Mr. Phillips to lay a hand on one of his children again. 12. She had had one of her headaches that afternoon, and although the pain had gone she felt weak and tuckered out, as she expressed it. Anne looked at her with eyes limpid with sympathy. 13. I have one kid, it’s a boy. 14. Finally, Charlie Sloane fought Moody Spurgeon MacPherson, because Moody Spurgeon had said that Anne Shirley put on airs about her recitations, and Moody Spurgeon was licked; consequently Moody Spurgeon’s sister, Ella May, would not “speak” to Anne Shirley all the rest of the winter.