ASSIGNMENTS FOR SEMINARS
SEMINAR No. 1
I. Etymological survey of the English word-stock. Topics for discussion.
1.Definition of
terms native, borrowing, translation loan, semantic loan.
2.Words of native origin and their characteristics.
3.Foreign elements in Modern English. Scandinavian borrowings, classical elements-
Latin and Greek, French borrowings, Russian-English lexical correlations.
4.Assimilation of borrowings. Types and degrees of assimilation.
5.Etymological doublets, hybrids.
6.International words
Exercise 2.
Explain the origin of the following words:
father, brother, mother, dog, cat,
sheep, wolf, house, life, earth, man, apple, live, go, give, begin, strong, long, wide, to,
for, from, and, with, I, he, two, well, much, little.
Exercise 3.
Analyse the following words from the point of view of the type and degree of
assimilation. State which words are: a) completely assimilated; b) partially
assimilated; c) non-assimilated:
prima-donna, ox, caftan, city, school, etc., mazurka,
table, street, they, century, sky, wall, stimulus, reduce, cup, present.
Exercise 4.
Comment on the different formation of the doublets and on the difference in
meaning, if any: balm-balsam,
suit-suite, senior-sir,
legal-loyal, skirt-shirt, emerald-
smaragdus, major-mayor, pauper-poor, of-off, history-story, catch-chase.
Exercise 5.
Read the following text. Find the international words. State to what sphere of
human activity they belong. British dramatists.
In the past 20 years there has been a considerable
increase in the number of
new playwrights in Britain and this has been encouraged by the growth of new theatre
companies. In 1956 the English Stage Company began productions with the object of
bringing new writers into the theatre and providing training facilities for young actors,
directors, and designers; a large number of new dramatists emerged as a result of the
company productions Television has been an important factor in the emergence of
other dramatists
who write primarily for it; both the BBC and IBA transmit a large
number of single plays each year as well as drama series and serials.
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