Лекции по лексикологии английского языка. Гусева Г.В. - 51 стр.

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Lecture 13

Classification of Language Units According to the Period of Time They

Live in the Language

Words can be classified according to the period of their life in the language.

We can have archaisms, words which have come out of active usage, and

neologisms, words which have recently appeared in the language.

I. Archaisms and Historisms

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.

Most of these words are lexical archaisms and they are stylistic synonyms of

words which ousted them from the neutral style: steed (horse), slay (kill),

perchance (perhaps), betwixt (between). These lexical archaisms belong to the

poetic style.

Whe the causes of the word‘s disappearance are extra-linguistic, e.g. when

the thing is no longer used, its name becomes a historism. Historisms are very

numerous as names for social relations, institutions, objects of material culture of

the past. here belong such transport means as brougham, berlin, fly, gig; also such

vehicles as prairie schooner, also such boats as caravel, galleon, and such

weapons as breastplate, crossbow, arrow, vizor.

II. Neologisms

At the present moment English is developing very swiftly and there is so

called neology blowup. The two greatest influences on the formation, adaptation