Foreign Words and Phrases
Foreign Words and Phrases. Irina Vardanyan
Foreign words and phrases shouldn't become a bête noire, but, ceteris paribus, English sentences should be in English… (Jack Lynch 2008)
Throughout its history, English has been shaped and enriched by words and phrases of French, Scandinavian, Italian, Latin, Greek and German origin. When cultures come into contact with one other, borrowing takes place primarily in the realm of lexical terms (Anderson 1973). As A. I. Smirnitsky points out, a foreign word is a shapeless piece of material, which gains its shape only by means and in the system of the new language (Смирницкий 1954). Many words of foreign origin have been in the English language for so long that they have been freely integrated and can no longer be distinguished from English words and may not trigger a sense of “foreignisms”. However, there are cases, when the word is not assimilated and retains its foreign language spelling, pronunciation as well as foreign language connotation. Such cases are perceived as “organic inclusions” (Смирницкий 1954). Depending on the degree to which the originally “alien” word has been adapted to its new linguistic surroundings, linguists distinguish between foreign words and loanwords. However, the borderline between them is blurred and a concise classification is not always an easy task. In this article the word foreign is used for those borrowed words, which had not been accepted by the English as “part and parcel” of their language, in other words, which had not been naturalized yet (Lindgren 1943:240). The use of foreign words and word combinations in film reviews has direct connection with the peculiarity of the newspaper style. Along with informing the reader about the film, it gains the readers’ attention and makes an impression on him. For this purpose, the reviewer uses some foreign words and phrases in the text being aware of their expressive power.
Foreign words and phrases shouldn't become a bête noire, but, ceteris paribus, English sentences should be in English… (Jack Lynch 2008)
Throughout its history, English has been shaped and enriched by words and phrases of French, Scandinavian, Italian, Latin, Greek and German origin. When cultures come into contact with one other, borrowing takes place primarily in the realm of lexical terms (Anderson 1973). As A. I. Smirnitsky points out, a foreign word is a shapeless piece of material, which gains its shape only by means and in the system of the new language (Смирницкий 1954). Many words of foreign origin have been in the English language for so long that they have been freely integrated and can no longer be distinguished from English words and may not trigger a sense of “foreignisms”. However, there are cases, when the word is not assimilated and retains its foreign language spelling, pronunciation as well as foreign language connotation. Such cases are perceived as “organic inclusions” (Смирницкий 1954). Depending on the degree to which the originally “alien” word has been adapted to its new linguistic surroundings, linguists distinguish between foreign words and loanwords. However, the borderline between them is blurred and a concise classification is not always an easy task. In this article the word foreign is used for those borrowed words, which had not been accepted by the English as “part and parcel” of their language, in other words, which had not been naturalized yet (Lindgren 1943:240). The use of foreign words and word combinations in film reviews has direct connection with the peculiarity of the newspaper style. Along with informing the reader about the film, it gains the readers’ attention and makes an impression on him. For this purpose, the reviewer uses some foreign words and phrases in the text being aware of their expressive power.