一。The Development of English Vocabulary
There are about one million English words in all. English is also an international language in this society. You can see English words almost every where, even in non-English-spoken countries.
How does English come into being? Why it has so many vocabularies? In the following passage, I will give you a general picture about these two questions.
The English people are of a mixed blood. The early inhabitants of the island we now call England were Britons, but in fact all the races were the invaders came from Europe. Nobody knows very much about Britain before the Romans came during the first century BC, but there had been at least three invasions before that. The first of these was by a dark-haired Mediterranean race called the Iberians. The other two were by Celtic tribes: one is Gaels, whose descendants are the modern Scots and Irish; another is the Britons, who gave their name to the whole island of Britain. These were the people whom the Romans conquered. The Romans gave the Britons a good deal of their civilization. Then at the beginning of the fifth century Britain was invaded by three tribes from the northern Europe: the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes. These three tribes merged into one people, and the three dialects they spoke naturally grew into a single language, the English language.
But at first, the English word made up of only a small part of native words and some borrowed words. The native words were the core words of English. According to a kind of classification of language, English is classified as a Teutonic language, which is a Germanic language. To be more exact, English belongs to the low West Germanic branch of the Indo-European family. Because of the complex history of Briton, the language of English is of a mixed character. On one hand, it shares with West Germanic languages many common words and similar grammatical structures. On the other hand, more than half of the English vocabulary is derived from Latin and French. Besides, English has accepted words from other languages of the world in the course of its historical development.
The history of English language is divided into three periods:
1. the old English period ( from 450AD to 1150 AD )
2. the middle English period ( from 1150AD to 1500AD )
3. the modern English period ( from 1500AD up to now )
As I mentioned above, in fact, that there is also a period we can call it the pre-old English period, which includes the Celts, the Scottish and Irish races and culture, and also Welsh race and culture were brought by the Celts. Then the Romans brought Latin alphabet and civilization to this land. After these two were the formation of the Anglo-Saxons people, which is the original English race and language.
Old English consists mainly about the native language of Anglo-Saxons people. The period from 450AD to 1150AD is known as the old English period, and it is also been called Anglo-Saxons period. It is described as the period of full inflections, since during most of this period the case endings of the noun, the adjective, and the conjugation of the verb were not weakened. Also during this period, when the Norman Conquest in 1066AD brought French to England, and much of the English vocabulary was replaced by words borrowed from French and Latin.
Old English is a synthetic language. (There are two classes of languages in the world: synthetic and analytic. A synthetic language is one which shows the relation of words in a sentence largely by means of inflections. An analytic language is one which indicates the relation of words in a sentence by means of word order, prepositions or auxiliary verbs, rather than by inflections.) Old English nouns and adjectives have four cases: the nominative case, the genitive case, the dative case and the accusative case. Apart from these four cases, Latin nouns have the ablative and locative cases.
Middle English period is from 1150AD to 1500AD. During this period the inflections which had begun to break down towards the end of the old English period, became greatly reduced, and it is known as the period of leveled inflections. The Norman Conquer was the cause of this change. The change of this period had a great effect on both grammar and vocabulary. In grammar English has changed from a highly inflected language to an analytic language. In this period many old English words were lost, but thousands of words borrowed from French and Latin appeared in the English vocabulary. French influence on the English vocabulary is much more direct and observable. The number of French words that came into English was very numerous. More than half of the English vocabulary is derived from Latin.
Modern English period is from 1500 to the present. A large part of the original inflectional system has disappeared, and it is known as the period of lost inflections. We may divide this period into two parts: the early Modern English period and the Late Modern English period.
The early modern English period extends from 1500AD to 1700AD. The chief influence of this time was the great humanistic movement of the Renaissance. In this period the study of the Latin and Greek classics was stressed, so the influence of Latin and Greek on English was great.
The late modern English period started after 1700AD. The eighteenth century in England was a time of stabilizing and purifying the English language. The publication in 1755AD of A Dictionary of the English Language edited by Samuel Johnson was a typical example of consolidating and purifying the English language in this period. He set a standard for using English words in spelling, meaning and usage. In the eighteenth century French greatly influenced English. The number of French words in the period from 1650AD to 1800AD increased rapidly. Such as: ballet, cartoon, champagne, cohesion, dentist, patrol, publicity, routing, etc.
Meanwhile the territorial expansion of the English empire in this period resulted in the expansion of the English vocabulary. Thus, there are many words flow into English vocabulary, which includes American Indian words, Mexican words, Peru words, Brazil words, India and African words.
The nineteenth and twentieth centuries are a period of rapid expansion for the English vocabulary in the history of the English language. In this period many changes have taken place. Especially the great development of science and technology is reflected in the English vocabulary.
Besides, the great changes in industry, in political and social lives, in sports and amusements all have contributed a great deal to the English vocabulary.
Since the Second World War the English vocabulary has been affected powerfully by social, political, economic, especially scientific and technical changes. The English vocabulary not only changes, but also changes quickly in this period. Thousands of new words are added, existing words acquire new meaning and old words die out.
Till now, the English vocabulary is still changing, some words come out and some die out. In a word, as society is constantly in a state of development, so is language. Society depends on language for its existence. As society develops new objects are created that require the invention of new words and expressions. Therefore, the changing of English vocabulary is an endless changing process.
Bibliography:
陆国强，published in 1999，
Modern English Lexicology (new edition)
Adams, Valerie, published in1982,
An Introduction to Modern English Word-formation
戴炜栋，published in 2002，
A New Concise Course on Linguistics for Students of English
朱永涛，published in 1997，
The Society and Culture of Major English-speaking Countries
林承璋，published in 1987，
An Introduction to English Lexicology
也可以写广告中的词汇特点：
The Lexical Features of Advertisement on Newspaper
Newspapers are generally the cheapest way to reach a mess audiences,and the timing is fast.Adverments make an important part on English Newspaper.We live in a world of advertising.Advertising provides a valuable service to society and its members,because it defines for consumers the meaning and the role of products,services and institutions.Newspaper advertisements’ main text use words for the spread of vector,and must must be simple eye-catching,because of the layout of resources.To some extent,the newspaper advertisements content mainly rely on language to express.Advertising language ,playing a role of communication and persuasion,has developed its own features.Naturally,advertisements in English have become an important means of communicating ideas,demoinstrating a variety of linguistic features of its own.The present study discusses some lexical features of English advertisement texts.
ⅠChoose the simple words
Advertiment language must be easily understood terms so that readers can get information as soon as possible.In advertising,simple words can win the consumers by their exact,effective expression an d a kind of closeness.E.g.
① Take time.Any time.
Continuous using two “time” can make the language simple and clear.
② Once tasted,always loved.
The article should be clearly and concisly understood in order to arouse the interest of customers on food which make them mouth-watering.
③ My goodness!My Guinness!
Common language facilitate people to memory and speak,this reproduce the scene of people driking the Guinness beer which is full of praise.
ⅡFrequent Employment of Simple Verbs
Simple verbs are frequently employed in English advertisements, which is an obvious wording characteristics of English advertising texts.Verbs are the most important part of language.It is a prominent feature in adervertising english that verbs are regularly used for the ultimate goal of advertising ,which is to enable consumers to buy their goods.So in terms of the using of words,dynamic and strong word will produce a better feeling effects.Verbs can be used to “touch”the consumer's heart.In this way,they will have impules to buy the goods.E.g.
① Drink Coca-Cola.
② I want you to sponsor a Rice Paddy Baby.
③ For incredible speed and accuracy, try the Minolta 7000, the world’s first body-integral auto-focus SLR.
In the above examples, “try”,”sponsor” and “drink”are to fulfill the “get action” requirement seem more euphemistic and even more attractive.
④ Get noticed. Get results.
⑤ Feel the Hyatt Touch.
⑥ Send today for your free sample, and try the new flavor.
After reading the above ads, we feel encouraged to take buying action or make repeated purchases. The active voice doesn’t force people to take the passive action while it makes people feel that they do something of their own accord.
Ⅲ. Adjectives
⑴It is hard for us to think of any really persuasive message without the use of descriptive and vivid adjectives. Copywriters like to use a large number of adjectives not only to describe the quality and features of the products or services, but to a great extent to praise and beautify them.
E.g.
For people who care about their bodies, Dairy Farm brings fresh skimmed milk. With almost no fat, it keeps your body fit inside and outside, fresh skimmed milk. Fresh Dairy Farm.
The adjective “fresh” in Example appears three times to emphasize how fresh the product is, making its quality particularly attractive. And the adjective “fit” points out the remarkable function of the product.
⑵The copywriter tends to select the superlative or comparative forms of adjectives that carry positive meanings so as to make a comparison and stress the wonderful qualities of the advertised product. E.g.
① Using Dove, I do feel 20 years younger.
“Younger” just emphasizes the magic power of the product.
② Discover the season’s newest splendor.
The word “newest” , which is an advertisement of a kind of perfume, means “fashionable to the highest degree”.
Of course, the advertisers must make sure that the advertised goods or services are actually the best in the same category.Sometimes people do not know how superb the goods or the services are in quality. Anyhow, people tend to believe what is said in advertisements.
Ⅳ.New Words Constantly Appear
In order to attract people’s attention, copywriters like to create some new words which are more active. The new words are mainly used for truthfulness, humor or emphasis in English advertising texts. E.g.
① Surefit Shoe Ltd.
“Surefit” is a new word which makes consurms thing of a sentence”Surely to fit your feet”.That means the shoes are fot for your feet.
② Give a Timex to all, and to all a good time.
The well-known watch brand “Timex” is a variation of “Time + Excellent”, which persuasively shows the merit of the watch brand. Thus, brand names get and retain a unique image.
Ⅴ.Pronous
Pronouns of the first and second person: we, I and you outnumber the other pronouns in advertisements. It is because that you, we and I help create a friend-like intimate atmosphere to move and persuade the audience. The audience will easily accept a product, a service or an idea as if a good friend recommended them.Sometimes,we use infinitive pronouns,such as all,everyone,none,nothing and so on in order to feflect the extraordinary characteristics of a particular commodity or it has been spending and receiving most of people.E.g.
Our finest time.
It is about a well-known red wine.A pair of lover drink together at romantic atmosphere.
Ⅵ.Compound words
A compound word is often a noun or an adjective made up of two or more words which are frequently used to express more information in limited space. Especially,compound adjectives are often seen in advertisements.E.g.
Kodak Single-use-cameras take pictures where you wouldn’t normally take your camera.
It used the compound word skillfully and describe the capability and function of the product incisively and vividly.
Now we have briefly discussed the six wording characteristics of English advertisements. We have got to know that simple verbs and concise adjectives are very important words in English advertising, and that new words which are attractively used to stress the new and special qualities or functions of the advertised products. Language in advertising presents us with a colorful, interesting and wonderful world in order to serve the purpose of attracting advertising readers. Of course, besides the above features discussed in this study, there is much more for further study in advertising language.
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