Основы теории английского языка. Листунова Е.И. - 27 стр.

discovery. This is no doubt quite true. But there are also many words
which were neither inherited from Old English, nor adopted from
any foreign language, nor formed out of any older English or for-
eign words by any process of composition or derivation. It is to in-
stances of this kind that the name of ‘root-creation’ may be fitly
applied.
       One of the princi ple forms of root-creation is that which is
known by the name of Onomatopoeia. The word is Greek, and liter-
ally means ‘name-making’. It was used by the Greeks to express the
fact (common in their own as in other languages) that a noise, or
the object producing it, sometimes makes its own name: that is to say,
is denoted by a word formed in imitation of the sound.
       The number of ‘echoic’ words (as they have been called by Dr.
Murray) which have arisen in Middle and Modern English is very
considerable. We may mention as examples bang, boo, boom, cackle,
cheep, fizz, gibber, giggle, hiss, hum, mumble, pop, quack, rumble,
simmer, sizzle, titter, twitter, whirr, whiz, whip-poor-will...
       The imitation of inarticulate by articulate sounds can never be
accurate...the so-called ‘imitative’ word represents an inarticulate noise
not so much by way of an echo as symbolically. That is to say, the
elements composing the sound of the word combine to produce a men-
tal effect which we recognize as analogous to that produced by the noise.
                                 Henry Bradley. The Making of English.

                             QUESTIONS

     I. 1. Do all lexical units have etymology? 2. Why may original
coinage of words be called ‘root-creation’? 3. Henry Bradley speaks of
onomatopoeia. Can you cite other types of ‘root-creation’?
     IIa. Give sentences to illustrate the usage of the words adduced by
H. Bradley as examples of onomatopoeia.
     IIb. Find Russian equivalents to these words.
     IIc. Give English equivalents to the Russian verbs:
     àõàòü, áîðìîòàòü, âîðêîâàòü, êóêîâàòü, ìÿóêàòü, ìû÷àòü,
óõàòü, õíûêàòü, øàìêàòü, øóðøàòü.




                                 – 27 –