Summary. Borrowing culture assimilation word

Borrowing culture assimilation word

1. Due to the specific historical development of English, it has adopted many words from other languages, especially from Latin, French and Old Scandinavian, though the number and importance of these borrowings are usually overestimated.

2. The number and character of borrowings in Modern English from various languages depends on the historical conditions and also on the degree of the genetic and structural proximity of the languages in question.

3. Borrowings enter the language through oral speech (mainly in early periods of history) and through written speech (mostly in recent times).

4. In the English language borrowings may be discovered through some peculiarities in pronunciation, spelling, morphological and semantic structures. Sometimes these peculiarities enable us even to discover the immediate source of borrowing.

5. All borrowed words undergo the process of assimilation, i. e. they adjust themselves to the phonetic and lexico-grammatical norms of the language. Phonetic assimilation comprises constitution of native sounds and sound combinations for strange ones and for familiar sounds used in a position strange to the English language, as well as shift of stress. Grammatical assimilation finds expression in the change of grammatical categories and paradigms of borrowed words, change of their morphological structure. Lexical assimilation includes changes in semantic structure and the formation of derivatives.

Literature:

1. Арнольд И.В. Лексикология современного английского языка. – М.: Высш.шк., 1986. – 288 с.

2. Антрушина Г.Б., Афанасьева О.В., Морозова М.М. Лексикология английского языка. – М.: Дрофа, 1999. – 288 с.

3. Гвишиани Н.Б. Современный английский язык. Лексикология. – М.: Изд-во

МГУ, 2000. – 221 с.

4. Смирницкий А.И. Лексикология английского языка. – М.: НТУ, 1998. – 260 с.