Курсовая работа: Intercultural communication of Russian and English languages
For example: “non-stop”
1.3 Assimilation of new words
All words getting from one language (from which the word is borrowed- Source language) into another (language that adopts a word – Target language) come through the first stage of assimilation. On this stage words are still connected with the reality that created them. Also when the word hasn’t got yet acclimatized in the target language it can have variants of pronunciation and spelling; for example: “доллар”, “доллер”, “долар” (Eng. “dollar”)[6]
The characteristic features of these lexical units at the survey period are their mass character, novelty and uniformity against the source language. The overwhelming majority of new words are to be borrowed from English language. The sphere where loan-words usually assimilate is quite specific. First of all, it is a “professional terminology” of any sphere specialists’ (computer engineering, financing activities, trade business, sports) and also spheres of politics, art, fashion, music, dancing and others.
Total computerization has leaded to the appearance, in Russian language and especially in the youth midst, a peculiar computerese jargon. It is obvious, that all innovations are held inside the system of the language and are formed up by means of Russian language grammatical rules. Consequently, the users of this jargon, aimed at making their speech distinctive and colorful can not manage without normal Russian language and rules mentioned above. There are a great number of computerese jargonisms which were changed or purposely mangled. English verb “to crack” (раскалывать) was changed into “крекнуть” or in humorous form “крякнуть”, a verb “to hack” (кромсать, разбивать) – became “хакнуть” with the help of Russian suffix “-ну”, which serves to denote a momentary action (that is to do something once; for example: “стукнуть” – to knock once and “стучать” – to knock during some time). By the way, there is no category of such kind in English, but in Russian language it is very common. Two ways of reproduction of one English word “game” (игра) have resulted into two varieties of its handing over:
1) After the way of writing:
“гамесы” that is “игры” (games, plural form);
2) After the way of pronunciation:
“геймер” that is “игрок” (player, a person).
On the whole, English suffix “-er” turned out to be very customary for denomination of any kind figures; for example: “юзер”, “дилер”, “киллер”. Nowadays labour-market becomes wider by means of new professions which come from the most developed countries. There is an interesting and a very up-to-date profession called “фрилансер” (from English freelancer – “free lance”, a person working out of stuff). This nomination refers to the number of words which have never existed in Russian language. So that mass media as the most sensitive organ of modern society tries to introduce us with such notions:
«…но в душе уже тогда знала, что стану фрилансером…»[7]
A lot of words like “компьютер”, “дисплей”[8] , “файл”, “интерфейс”, “принтер”, “сканер”, “ноутбук”, “браузер”, “сайт”, “провайдер” and many others are reflections of new lifestyle generated by total computerization.
On the whole, computerese jargon is very similar to a general jargon (Jargon – is a speech of any social or professional group which contains a large number of terms and expressions peculiar to only such group, including imitation or relative words.)[9] and is developing within its rules. Research workers of Russian language strive for fixing novelties emerging in a system of language. Special dictionaries of neologisms serve to this problem realization. There are annual and anniversary dictionaries were observations about borrowings are collected together. It is significant that neologisms are new words which have not yet became day-to-day objects or concepts or corresponding items or notions. They are to be generated by two ways: firstly, neologisms appear on the original base of a language and secondly, some notions come from one language to another in one of the forms of borrowings.
Gradually foreign term gets assimilated due to its frequent usage in spoken language and in written form. Its morphological shape acquires stable form and as a result the adaptation, according to the norms of language, occurs. On this stage of foreign word assimilation in the sphere of native speakers’ popular etymology begins its operation. When a foreign word considered being incomprehensible people usually make an effort to fill its sound form with the contents close and most easily understood to the users of borrowing language. For example: the word “пиджак”. When it was just borrowed from English “pea-jacket” it sounded as “спинжак” in respect to the Russian notion “спина”.
And the last stage of foreign word penetration is striking root, when the word becomes widely used in the vocabulary system of native speakers and completely adapts within the grammatical rules of this language. From then on the word is included into all processes that occur with other words of the word-stock: it can produce words of the same root, abbreviations, acquire new nuances of definition. For example the English word “попса” that is popular music, pop music. This word is very frequent in usage, so it produced a lot of word-forms and combinations: “популярный”, “поп-культура”, “попсовый” and “поп-звезда”.
Sometimes words of English origin in Russian language can be defined by the ending:
- with the ending “-ер” or “-ор” is presents the largest group: “бартер”, “блейзер”, “брокер”, “ваучер”, “гамбургер”, “спонсор”, “компьютер”, “триллер”, “инвестор”;
- with the ending “-инг”, stress is placed on the first syllable: “брифинг”, “лизинг”, “рейтинг”, “серфинг”, “холдинг”;
- with the ending “-мент”, always trisyllable or tetrasyllable nouns: “импичмент”, “истеблишмент”, “менеджмент”;
- ending with a vowel sound: “лобби”, “шоу”, “ноу-хау”.
1.4 Stresses in loan-words
One of the most important aspects in the process of borrowing is placing stresses . In most cases a stress, correspond to the original language is the same in its borrowed variant. There are a lot of examples: “менеджмент”, “дефолт”, “спикер”, “сайт”, “инвестор” and so on. Unstable character of stresses in loan-words is inevitable; it proves that borrowed words come into cooperation with Russian vocabulary and gradually assimilate with it becoming a system-defined phenomenon. Nevertheless, a great number of new words which came from English language do not reveal unstable character of stresses. The exception is the word “маркетинг” (in English [` mɑːkɪtɪŋ]) where the stress can change its position from the first syllable to the following one.
II. Loan words in English language
Contemporary English language with its specific sound structure, grammatical order and lexis appears before us as the product of long-lasting historical development. Within this process English language was exposed to a many-sided modifications determined by different reasons. Over the history of the language a lot of considerable changes, rapid or more gradual, were made in the areas of sound structure, grammatical order and vocabulary. In most cases it happened by virtue of its internal evolution and sometimes, particularly in its lexical structure, under the influence connected with the historical fortune of English nation. Such changes make an influence on every aspect of linguistic structure but affects differently on each of them.
2.1 Original English vocabulary
It turned up that the vocabulary of a language is to be found in the condition of persistent modification. Such mobility as well as changeability is conditioned by the fact that a language and first of all its vocabulary are directly connected with manufacturing and other social human activities.
It is reasonable that, in order to fulfill its fundamental function – to be the primary means of communication, the language’s word-stock have to react quickly on every modification in all spheres of human activity, reflecting and fixing new concepts and notions.
The vocabulary of modern English is undoubtedly richer then the Old English one. This enrichment of English language proceeded due to its inner resources – wordbuilding, affixation and reformation of definitions as well as over the process of borrowing foreign words.
There are a lot of events which have effected on the process of English vocabulary formation; such as acceptance of Christianity (which pushed English nation into contact with Latin civilization), Scandinavian and Norse conquests (after which English vocabulary have lost a portion of its original lexis, including words of everyday usage), centennial war, the growth of bourgeoisie, the Renaissance, the rise of English nautical dominion, colonial usurpations, the development of trade, industry, science and literature, the development of self-consciousness of the working class and finally the first and the second world wars. As a result the lexis of modern English vocabulary presents the mixture of different elements, including only 30% of originally English words. This circumstance gives occasion to many research workers to exaggerate the significance of borrowings and to reckon English language in a German-Romanic group of languages and not just Germanic. They usually point out the compound character of English lexis as the most significant peculiarity and bring the whole English lexicology to the problem of borrowings. Nevertheless, the majority of borrowed words are perceived by people in contemporary language as English words, whatever real origin they have.