Borrowed World　

Borrowed World　 Borrowed Word 班级:20094142 学号:2009424102 姓名:黄容 Abstract: Lexical borrowing is a typical type of linguistic borrowing. Words taken from other tongues are referred as “loanwords”, “borrowed words” or simply “borrowings”. It is estimated that about 80 percent of English vocabulary were borrowed from numerous languages. English has freely borrowed, so to speak, all over the world, and it can be safely said that English is a mixture of many languages. Key words: borrowed words Brian Foster once said, “The English language has always been hospitable to words from other tongues and it is doubtless true to say that all forms of English of human speech have to some extent borrowed from outside models. There are grounds for thinking that English is more than open to foreign influence as compared with other great languages.” English is able to adopt the most no descriptive expressions from foreign languages and set them to work a minimum of fuss. That foreign words make themselves at home in English. Therefore, this thesis mainly focus on the sources of borrowed words，the ways of borrowings and types of words likely to be borrowed. 一、 Sources of borrowed words The borrowed words of other language may vary from period from period. Different periods may borrowings from different sources and on different scales. Generally speaking, borrowed words are usually formed by invasion, military, occupation and colonization, as well as trade. (一)、The period of Christianity The English of this period was Old English. The borrowed language was Latin. thFrom the middle of the 5 century three Tewtonic groups, later to be known as thAnglo-Saxon, began to settle in England. By the end of the 7 century, all England has been Christianized. Through a gradual progress, they succeeded n converting the Anglo-Saxons from their Teutonic outlook to Christianity. During this period, many words related to religion came into Old English from Latin, such as abbot, angel, devil, apostle, candle, bishop, priest, disciple, church, minister, mass, monk, pope, cowl, etc. (二)、The period of invasion and occupation of Scandinavians In the Old English period from 787 on, England suffered from continual invasion thby the Scandinavians. In the late 8 century, the Scandinavians began to attack the English coast. From 1017 to 1042 Danish king ruled England, the occupation and invasion of Scandinavians lasted for nearly three hundred years. During this long period English borrowed a good deal from the Scandinavians languages. In the north and east past of England, numerous names of places ending in thorp, -toft -back, -fell, -keld, -gill, etc, are of Scandinavians origin, for example, althorp, woodthorp, linthorp (Scandinavians “thorp” means English “village”). What is more, many English names of persons ending in son are also of Scandinavians origin, e.g. Jackson, Thompson, Stevenson, and Johnson. Obviously, the invasion and occupation of the Scandinavians exerted a great influence on Old English. (三)、The period of the Renaissance The English of this period was Early Modern English. The borrowed words were mainly from Latin and Greek. Many English writers in this period wrote in Latin words into English. Most Greek words have entered English though Latin, or have been Latinized in spelling and endings before being used in English. So there is no occasion to deal separately with the two stocks. During the Renaissance Latin and Greek words relating to science, philosophy, arts, astronomy and many other domains flooded into English. Examples are formula, focus, maximum, minimum, momentum, pendulum, apparatus, status, complex, curriculum, folio, area, radius, virus, circus, vacuum, species. It is roughly estimated that about one in four or five of all the words in the English vocabulary of this period were of Latin origin. So it is quite obvious that a large portion of the Latin and Greek vocabulary passed into English during and shortly after the Renaissance. (四)、The period of Restoration thth This period dated from the late 17 century to the early 18 century. The English of this period was Modern English (late Early Modern English and early Later Modern English). The borrowed words were again French. During the English bourgeois revolution under Oliver Cromwell, the son of Charles First and many other Royalists took refuge in France. In the 1650 when the Protectorate came to a sudden end, the son of Charles First was proclaimed King Charles Second of England. The House of Stuart was restored. France once again revived as a “fashioned language” in England, and, for a second time, French words entered English on a large scale. Many English words still used today such as ballet, boulevard, canteen, cartoon, champagne, chercille, cohesion, coiffure, denstist, routine were borrowed from French during this period. (五)、The period of Colonization The English of this period is Later Modern English. In this period, English borrowed from many languages, particularly from the languages of its colonies. th Early in the 17 century England had already set up quite a lot of colonies in many places of the world, for example, in the West Indies and North America. Owing to the rapid development of capitalist farming and industry, England enjoyed a flourishing ththforeign trade. In the 18 and 19 centuries, more British colonies were set up in Canada, Australia, India, Africa, South America, and many other places. Along with all these---the colonial expansion, the growing foreign trade and slave trade and many other factors, English borrowed quite a lot from the languages of its colonies and other countries and regions, for example: From America Indians and Eskimo: caribou, chocolate, hickory, igloo, moose, papoose, parka, raccoon, skunk, squaw, toboggan, totem, wampum and wigwam, etc. From Cuba and the West Indies: babecue, cannibal, canoe, hammock, hurricane, maize, potato, tobacco, etc. From Peru, Brazil and other South American areas: alpaca, buccaneer, cayenne, condor, jaguar, jerky, llama, pampa, petunia, puma, tapicca, etc. From Africa: banana, boorish, chimpanzee, gorilla, gumbo, zebra, etc. From India: baboo, bandana, bangle, begum, bungaloo, palaver, candy, calico, cashmere, cheroot, chit, coolie, cot, curry, dumdum, pajamas, pariah, pucka, rupee, shampoo, etc. From Australia: boomerang, kangaroo, etc. From China: cheongsam, kaoliang, lama, loquat, kumquat, litchi, mango, tai chi, weichi, yang ko, yukin, logyan, etc. 二、 Ways of borrowings (一)、Bidirectional or mutual borrowing Linguistic borrowing may be bi-directional or mutual. This always happens in what is called “cultural borrowing”. Every speech community learns from its neighbors. Objects, both natural and manufactured, pass from one community to the others, and so do patterns of action, such as technical procedures, warlike practices, religious rites, or fashions of individual products. Cultural borrowing of speech forms is ordinarily mutual; that is to say, as far as cultural borrowing is concerned, all languages are equal and have the same chance to lend to, or borrow from, all or most of other languages, regardless of the cultural intimacy or topographical closeness between or among the languages. Usually such borrowing involves the adoption of words denoting animals, plants, procedures, institutions or localities originally peculiar to one part of the world, such as the English gondola, macaroni, and lava from Italian, matador, siesta and sherry from Spain, steppe and verst from Russian, caravan and dervish from Persian, hussar and shako from Hungarian, bey and caftan from Turikish, taboo from Polynesian, bamboo and orangutan from Malay, boomerang and wombat from Australian, chocolate and tomato from Mexican. All these words now actually belong to the whole of the civilized world. The same products and to a great extent the same ideas are now known all over the globe and many of team have in many languages identical names. English has contributed a lot to other languages, for example, roast beef and beefsteak and some terms of elegant life, such as club and fashionable, and terms of sports such as golf, football and rugby. The ultimate origin of such a word may not always be the source whence it has penetrated into the borrowing language. Cultural loans may spread over a vast territory, from language to language, along with articles of commerce. Some originally Indian words have come to English through French. Many exotic and words, particularly African and South American words, have come into English through Spanish or Portuguese. For example, rumba, tango and tobacco are through Spanlish, and cruzeiro and milreis are through Portuguese. Now words like coffee, tea and tobacco have spread all over the world. (二)、Unidirectional or one-sided borrowing Intimate borrowing is ordinarily unidirectional or one-sided. Usually the lower language borrows from the upper language, the upper language may be introduced by a body of conquerors. The borrowing speed seems to depend upon a number of facrors. If the invaders are fewer in number and inferior in culture, the pace of borrowing maybe slower. The language may even servive and the upper language may die out. If the conqurors are not numberous, this will turn out to be the most likely outcome. The whole terrioty may end by speaking the lower language: Norman French, brought into England by the conqurors, was crowed out by English in three hundred years. This is alo what happened with the Goths and in Spain, with the Franks in France and with Danes in Normandy; in all of these cases the Germanic tongues of the intruders natives were absorbed into the Rmanic languages of the defeated natives. In the case of conquest, the culture loans that ramain in the surviving upper language are chiefly place names, for example, Amercian Indian place names such as Massachuesetts, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Chicago, Milwaukee, Oshkosh, Waukegan, and Muskgon. Place names give valuable testimony of extinct languages. Thus, a broad band of Celtic place names steches across Europe from Bohemia to England: Vienna, Paris, and London are all Celtic names. If the lower language survives, it usually bears the marks of copious borrowings. English is a good example. In 1362, the use of languagewas prescribed for law courts and Parliament was opened in English. Culture borrowing is one-sided only to the extent that one nation has more to give ththan the other. For example, in the missonary period, from the 7 century onward, Latin gave Old Englishe many terms related to Christinaity, but Old English gave onthing return.The language of a people that is looked upon as a centre of culture is naturally far more likely to exert an appreciable infuence on other languages apoken associations. The Polynesian tatoo was first made known to Englishmen in the third quarter of the eighteenth century by Captain Cook; the German plunder reminds them of the devastating Thirty Year’s war and and the Prince Rupert’s marauders in England dering the civil war; words like easel and sketch ,smack and yacht recall the painters and sailors of Holland. (三) Types of words likely to be borrowed In general, there is a greater inclination to borrow “full” words(nouns, adjectives, notional verbs) than “empty” words(pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliart verbs). Basic vocabulaeries are rarely borrowed in ordianry cases. Foreign elements may also come into the basic vocablary of the borrowing language. For such borrowing there must be a very constant, close contact between the language involved. For instance, English has adopted the Scandinavians forms they, them and their. The object form her corresponding to the subject from she is not, as it turns to be, a native English pronoun. It is Danish. In lexical borrowing there is a special group of words to be noted, namely, international words are words of identical origin that occur in several language as a result of simultaneous or successive borrowings from one ultimate source. Scientific, technical, social, and political nomenclature is to a great extent universal, and there is little reason for a language to have its own terminology for things or notions of universal popularity. Summary Cultural contacts necessarily breed lingustic contacts. No matter what the degree or nature of contact between neighboring people may be, it is gernerally sufficicent to lead to some kind of linguistic interinfluecing. Besided, no languages are sufficient borrowing must be considered an inevitable nescessity. As Jespersen said: The question of the value of loanwords can not be dismissed offhand, as the “puristss” in may countries as inclinded to imagine, with the dictum that foreign words should be shunned like the plague, but requires for its solution a careful consideration of the merits and demerits of each separate foreign term viewed in connectin with the native resources for expressing a particular idea. Bibliography: “language contact and lexical borrowing” “lexicology”