Coinages: the art o makting new words

To coin new words means to make them up. We also speak of minting words and even borrowing them, as if they were coins of the realm. If words were worth their weight in money, we’d all be rich. Still, it has become customary to speak of new or invented words as coinaes.

Coinages that name new concepts arc rarely completely new creations. The classic example googol was coined by Milton Sirotta, a boy of nine who was the nephew of the U.S. mathematician Edward Kasner. In the book Mathematics and the Imagination, written with James Newman, Kasner relates that, when he asked his young nephew to name a very large number, larger than the number of elementary particles in the entire universe (estimated to be 10 to the 80th power), Milton thought a moment, then exclaimed, “a googol! ”

A modern example of an obscure coinage that has been traced to an equally obscure source is the word quark. A quark is a fundamental nuclear particle from which protons and other subatomic particles arc composed. Quark was coined in 1961 by an American particle physicist, Murray Gellmann, who took the word from the line “Three quarks from Muster Mark! ” in James Joyce’s masterpiece Finneans Wake (1939). The line reflected Gell-Mann’s theory that there arc three types of quarks (named down quark, up quark, and strange quark) that combine in various ways to make up all subatomic particles. As to where Joyce got the word, it has been suggested that he borrowed it from the German slang term Quark, meaning a trifling thing, trash, rubbish.

In his 1949 novel, Nineteen Eighty—Four, George Orwell coined the word Newspeak (for a language designed to distort the truth) by combining the adjective new with the verb speak.

COINAGES IN CIPCULATION

Successful coinages by individuals are relatively rare, though certain words known to have been coined by particular people have succeeded in making their way into dictionaries.

ECDYSIAST: A stripteaser. Coined by the writer and social critic I-I. L. Mencken (1880-1956) from ecdysis, the technical term for the shedding of the outer skin by a reptile or insect + the ending -ast in enthusiast. Mencken, author of The American Language (1921), coined the word with tongue in cheek as a euphemism for moralists who found the word “stripteaser” too racy.

FACTOID: An unsubstantiated statement, account, or report published as if it were factual. Coined by the novelist Norman Mailer from fact + -oid (as in android, humanoid), in reference to his fictionalized biography of Marilyn Monroe.

PSYCHEDELIC: Any of a class of drugs that alter one’s perception of reality. Coined in the late 1950s by Humphry Osmond, a British psychiatrist who researched the effects of mescaline and LSD, from a Greek word for “mind-revealing” or “mind-manifesting.” The term is still used by believers in the curative powers of mind-altering chemicals, such as LSD, psilocybin, DMT, and others. Nonbelievers refer to psychedelic drugs as hallucinogens.

SERENDIPITY: An aptitude for making unexpected discoveries by accident. Coined by the English author I—brace Walpole (1717-97) from Serendip, a former name of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) + the suffix -ity. In a letter dated January 28, 1754, Walpole explains that he coined the word after the title of “a silly fairy-tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip; as their highnesses travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.” The Oxford English Dictionary points out that the word was formerly rare, but it gained wide currency in the 20th century.

WORKAHOLIC: A person addicted to work, obsessed with one’s job, or having a compulsive need to work constantly. Coined in the late 1960s by Wayne Oates, an American pastoral counselor, from work + a(lco)holic. The word spawned the combining forms -aholic and

-oholic.

nonce words:

Nonce words is is one that is constructed to serve a need of the moment. The writer is not seriously putting forward his word; he merely has a fancy to it for this once. The motive may be laziness, love of precision, or desire for a brevity or pregnancy that the language as at present constituted does not seem to him to admit of. Among the examples the authors cite (and correct parenthetically) are remindful (mindful), insuccess (failure), deplacement (displacement), correctitude (correctness), briskened (quickened), and unquiet (unrest). Most nonce words are transparent. formed from established words, and their meanings grasped at a glance

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Read the extract from A.Milne “Winnie-the-Pooh” based on childish creativeness. Comment on its linguistic mechanism:

Chapter IV

IN WHICH EEYORE LOSES A TAIL

AND POOH FINDS ONE

The Old Grey Donkey, Eeyore, stood by himself in a thistly corner of the forest, his front feet well apart, his head on one side, and thought about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, “Why? ” and sometimes he thought, “Wherefore? ” and sometimes he thought, “Inasmuch as which? ” — and sometimes he didn’t quite know what he was thinking about. So when

Winnie-the-Pooh came stumping along, Eeyore was very glad to be able to top thinking for a little, in order to say “How do you do? ” in a gloomy manner to him.

“And how are you? ” said Winnie-the-Pooh. Eeyore shook his head from side to side.

“Not very how, ” he said. “1 don’t seem to have felt at all how for a long time.

“Dear, dear, ” said Pooh, “I’m sorry about that. Let’s have a look at

So Eeyore stood there, gazing sadly at the ground, and Winnie-the-Pooh walked all round him once.

“Why, what’s happened to your tail? ” he said in surprise.

“What has happened to it? ” said Eeyore.

“It isn’t there! ”

“Are you sure’? ”

“Well, either a tail is there or it isn’t there. You can’t make a mistake about it. And yours isn’t there! ”

“Tlieii what is? ”

“Nothing.

“Let’s have a look, ” said Eeyore, and he turned slowly round to the place where his tail had been a little while ago, and then, finding that he couldn’t catch it up, he turned round the other way, until he came back to where he was at first, and then lie put his head down and looked between his front legs, and at last he said, with a long, sad sigh, “I believe you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right, ” said Pooh.

“That Accounts for a Good Deal, ” said Eeyore gloomily, “It Explains Everything. No Wonder.”

“You must have left it somewhere, ” said Winnie-the-Pooh.

“Somebody must have taken it, ” said Eeyore. “How Like Them, ” he added, after a long silence.

Pooh felt that he ought to say something helpful about it, but he didn’t quite know what. So he decided to do something helpful instead.

“Eeyore, ” he said solemnly, “I, Winnie-the-Pooh, will find your tail for you, ”

Thank you, Pooh, ” answered Eeyore. “You’re a real friend, ” said he. “Not like Some, ” he said.

So Winnie-the-Pooh went off to find Eeyore’s tail.

It was a fine spring morning in the forest as he started out. Little soft clouds played happily in a blue sky, skipping from time to time in front of the sun as if they had come to put it out, and then sliding away suddenly so that the next might have his turn. Through them and between them the sun shone bravely; and a copse which had worn its firs all the year round seemed old and dowdy now beside the new green lace which the beeches had put on so prettily. Through copse and spinney marched Bear; down open slopes of gorse and heather, over rocky beds of streams, up steep banks of sandstone into the heather again; and so at last, tired and hungry, to the Hundred Acre Wood. For it was in the Hundred Acre Wood that Owl lived.

“And if anyone knows anything about anything, ” said Bear to himself, “it’s Owl who knows something about something, ” he said, “or my name’s not Winnie-the-Pooh, ” he said. “Which it is, ” he added. “So there you are.”

Owl lived at The Chestnuts, an old-world residence of great charm, which was grander than anybody else’s, or seemed so to Bear, because it had both a knocker and a bell-pull. Underneath the knocker there was a notice which said:

PLES RING IF AN RNSR IS REQIRD.

Underneath the bell-pull there was a notice which said:

PLEZ CNOKE IF AN RNSR IS NOT REQID.

These notices had been written by Christopher Robin, who was the only one in the forest who could spell; for Owl, wise though he was in many ways, able to read and write and spell his own name WOL, yet somehow went all to pieces over delicate words like MEASLES AND BUTTEREDTOAST.

Winnie-the-Pooh read the two notices very carefully, first from left to right, and afterwards, in case he had missed some of it, from right to left. Then, to make quite sure, he knocked and pulled the knocker, and the pulled and knocked the bell-rope, and he called out in a very loud voice, “Owl! I require an answer! It’s Bear speaking.” And the door opened, and Owl looked out.

“Hallo, Pooh, ” he said. “How’s things? ”

“Terrible and Sad, ” said Pooh, “because Eeyore, who is a friend of mine, has lost his tail. And he’s Moping about it. So could you very kindly tell me how to find it for him? ”

“Well, ” said Owl, “the customary procedure in such cases is as follows.”

“What does Crustimoney Proseedcake mean? ” said Pooh. “For I am Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words Bother me.”

“It means the Thing to Do.”

“As long as it means that, I don’t mind, ” said Pooh humbly.

‘The thing to do is as follows. First, Issue a Reward. Then —“

“Just a moment, ” said Pooh, holding up his paw. “What do we do to tt what you were saying? You sneezed just as you were going to tell me.”

“I didn ‘t sneeze.”

“Yes, you did, Owl.”

“Excuse me, Pooh, I didn’t, You can’t sneeze without knowing it.”

“Well, you can’t know it without having been sneezed.”

“What I said was, ‘First Issue a Reward’.”

“You’re doing it again, ” said Pooh sadly.

“A Reward! ” said Owl very loudly. “We write a notice to say that we give a large something to anybody who finds Eeyore’s tail.”

“I see, I see, ” said Pooh, nodding his head. “Talking about l somethings, ” he went on dreamily, “I generally have a small something al now — about this time in the morning, ” and he looked wistfully at the board in the corner of Owl’s parlour; just a mouthful of condensed mill whatnot, with perhaps a lick of honey —“

“Well, then, “ said Owl, “we write out this notice, and we put it over the forest.”

“A lick of honey, ” murmured Bear to himself, “or not, as the c may be.” And he gave a deep sigh, and tried very hard to listen to what I was saying.

But Owl went on and on, using longer and longer words, until at lasi came back to where he started, and he explained that the person to write this notice was Christopher Robin.

“It was he who wrote the ones on my front door for me. Did you them, Pooh? ”

For some time now Pooh had been saying “Yes” and “No” in turn, v

his eyes shut, to all that Owl was saying, and having said, “Yes, yes” I

time, he said, “No, not at all, ” now, without really knowing what Owl v

talking about.

“Didn’t you see them? ” said Owl, a little surprised. “Come and look them now.”

So they went outside. And Pooh looked at the knocker and the notice 1 low it, and he looked at the bell-rope and the notice below it, and the more looked at the bell-rope, the more he felt that he had seen something like somewhere else, somewhere before.

“Handsome bell-rope, isn’t it? ” said Owl.

Pooh nodded.

“It reminds me of something, ” he said, “but I can’t think what. Where d you get it? ”

“I just came across it in the Forest. It was hanging over a bush, anc thought at first somebody lived there, so I rang it, and nothing happened, ai then I rang it again very loudly, and it came off in my hand, and as nobo seemed to want it, I took it home, and —“

“Owl, ” said Pooh solemnly, “you made a mistake. Somebody did want it.”

“Who? ”

“Eeyore. My dear friend Eeyore. He was — he was fond of it.”

“Fond of it? ”

“Attached to it, ” said Winnie-the-Pooh sadly.

So with these words he unhooked it, and carried it back to Eeyore; and when Christopher Robin had nailed it on in its right place again, Eeyore frisked about the forest, waving his tail so happily that Winnie-the-Pooh came over all funny, and had to hurry home for a little snack of something to sustain him. And, wiping his mouth half an hour afterwards, he sang to himself proudly:

Who found the Tail?

“I, ” said Pooh,

“At a quarter to two

(Only it was quarter to eleven really), I found the Tail! ”

 

¿ Collect data on other stylistic aspects

Collect your own examples of stylistic groups of vocabulary to the fallowing form

Example of a sentence(s) with stylistically marked word	Name of a layer, group	Comment on stylistic effect
He was looking very splendid in brown Shetland shorts, a navy-blue jersey, white shirt, and striped necktie.	Super-neutral, elevated	Humorous

 

² Unit 4 Stylistic devices based on phonetic aspect of the language

 

& Read information on the topic

Phonetic sphere of the language includes many units capable of creating stylistic effects. These are sounds, syllables, sentences, words. Syllables are strings of vowel and consonant sounds. And the smallest bits of sound people recognize are vowels and consonants. One of the brightest examples of stylistic effects created by phonetic side of speech is onomatopoeia. Language began with some kind of imitation of sounds, which is what onomatopoeia is about. Onomatopoeic, echoic, or imitative words, then, are those that attempt to reproduce or suggest the myriad sounds made by animals or people, or found in nature and the environment. There are no rules governing the formation of such words. All that is necessary is that the imitative word resembles or suggests the sound, A number ff conventional sound words have developed this way.

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Read the examples of onomatopoeia. Supply similar examples.

Emotions

oh! —of surprise, joy, etc. oho! —of triumph, surprise, etc. ohehoo! —of sneezing ohem! —throaty sound to attract attention boh! —of contempt boo—of disapproval or derision er—of hesitation fie—of disgust hoh? —of suspicion, interrogation, etc. ho-ho! —of laughter ho-hum—of boredom huh? —of disbelief, confusion, etc. humph! —of disbelief oh! —of surprise, sympathy, etc. ouch! —of sudden pain phew! —of disgust or exhaustion pshaw! —of impatience or contempt psst—unobti-usive sound to call someone’s attention sh or shh—of shushing tehee—of snickering laughter tsk-tsk—of pity or commiseration tut-tut—of disapproval or disdain ugh! —of aversion or horror uh-huh--of agreement uh-oh! --of concern or chagrin uh-uh—of disapproval

Speech

babble—speak meaninglessly blab—talk too much blah—meaningless chatter blah-blah-blah—continuous meaningless chatter chatter—talk rapidly or pointlessly gab—chat idly ha//c or hel/o! —call or answer someone hey! —call attention; express surprise hi—greeting ho! —call to attract attention ho//er_yell hushi--urge to be quiet jabber—chatter murmur—low, indistinct speech mutter—speak in a murmur natter—talk on and on prattle—chatter or babble shush! —urge to be quiet squeal—a sharp, shrill cry stutter—speak spasmodically susurrate—whisper tattle—talk idly whimper—speak low whine—make a low, complaining sound yada-yada-yada—continuous meaningless or predictable chatter yap—talk snappishly

Animal Sounds

buzz—of a bee cow—of a crow chirp—of a bird chirr—of a grasshopper chirrup—of a bird cluck—of a hen cock-a-doodle-doo—of a rooster coo—of a dove or pigeon gobble—of a turkey he how—of a donkey hiss—of a snake honk—of a goose hoot—of an owl meow—of a cat moo—of a cow neigh_of a horse oink—of a pig peep—of a small bird purr—of a cat boa—of a sheep bow-wow—of a dog quack—of a duck tweet—of a small bird whinny—of a horse woof—of a dog

Sound Words

Bawl fizz rattle wheeze belch flick sizzle whiz bump burp flutter hiss splatter squawk whoosh chuff huff squeal whump chug hush squish wow crackle gargle thud yahoo crash gurgle thump Yawp crinkle guzzle thwack yikes croak jangle titter yip croon jingle twitter yoa-hoo crush patter ululate zap drone putter whack zing

Sound Effects Bang boing boom click clip-clap beep boo-boo clang clink clunk

Echoic words

An oft-noted characteristic of echoic words is their tendency to take an iterative or frequentative form, as in itsy-bitsy, teeny— weeny, truly—uly. These words take on various forms:

(i) They repeat exactly a base form, e.g., gobble-gobble, tweet-tweet, woof-woof,

(2) They alter the repeated form, e.g., bow-wow, pitter-poitter, tick-Lock, zigzag;

(3)The repeated form serves as an intensifier (mostly in slang words), e.g., jeepers -creepers, okey-dokey, teenyweeny, tip-top;

(4)The iterative word is an alteration of a standard phrase, e.g., itty-bitty (alteration of little bit, further altered to itsy bitsy), hokey-pokey (alteration of hocus-pocus).

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Stydy the phonostemes and their meaning. Supply similar examples.

 

The phonestheme gl-, for example, is associated with the meaning “light” or “shining” in such words as glare, gleam, slim— inei £ lint, glisten, gloss, dlow, slower;

the cluster fl — is associated with “moving light” in words like flame, flare, flash, flicker, flimmer, and with “quick motion” in words like flee, flip, flit, flop, flow, flurry, fluttei fly;

the cluster — ash suggests “violent motion” in words like bash, clash, crash, dash, nash, mash, slash, splash; and the cluster mp suggests a clumsy action or thing, as in bump, dump, hump, lump, rump, slump, stump, thump.

— i —, which suggests smallness or slightness, as in bits imp, k1d littl slim, slip, thin; or the initial consonant j-, suggesting up-and-down motion, as in j, jinl jo, jounc jule jump; or final —p, - - k, suggesting a sudden stop, in words like clip, crack, hack, pat, rap, snip.

 

 

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Name phonetic stylistic devices in these exstracts.

1.

When roasted crabs hiss in the howl,

Then nightly sings the staring owl,

Tu-whit, tu-who a merry note,

While greasy Joan cloth keel the pot. (William Shakespeare, “Winter”)

2.

We’re poor little lambs who’ve lost our way, Baa! Baa! Baa!

We’re little black sheep who’ve gone astray, Baa—aa—aa!

(Rudyard Kiplmg, “Gentlemen-Rankers”)

3/

Keeping time, time, time

In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells

From the bells, bells, bells, bells

Bells, bells, bells— From the jingling and the tingling of the bells.

(Edgar Allan Poe, “The Bells”)

J Offer your variant of translating the poems.

 

" Make practical stylistic tasks

1. Read the story, comment on it’s rhythm

2. Make a syllabic scheme of the extract

Ex.: In the coldest part of the Arctic Zone, '--\-\--\-\

the Eskimos have a legend they tell -\----\--\

when the long winter nights are at their worst --\\-\\-\\

3. Name phonetic stylistic devices in the text.

Louis Untermeyer

The Eskimo widow

In the coldest part of the Arctic Zone, ' the Eskimos have a legend they tell when the long winter nights are at their worst. The story is about a little old woman who lived in the northernmost part of Alaska³ and who lived alone. Unable to do her own hunting or fishing, she lived on what her neighbors gave her. It was a poor village. The neighbors had little to spare. So most of the time, she was as hungry as she was lonely.

One morning, she heard a noise that sounded like a child crying. When she could no longer ignore it, she went outside and found a bundle of matted fur on the ice. It was a baby polar bear whose mother had been caught and who had managed to crawl away before the hunters could kill him. The helplessness of the cub moved the old wom­an's lonely heart. Without thinking how she might care for him, she carried him in and gave him some scraps that she had been sav­ing for her next meal. He ate them eagerly, yawned, and fell asleep.

Now she was no longer alone. She cared for the cub as though he were her child. She gave him half of what little food she got. As a result, she was hungrier than ever. But she was happy. Once in a while, when the Eskimos made a great catch, everyone in the village was given part of it, and the old woman and her cub would feast for a few days. Most of the time, though, everyone went hungry.

Somehow, the old woman survived, and somehow, the cub got fat. Then he grew lean and tall. One day, after he had become the most important thing in her life, he dis­appeared. That night the old woman could not sleep. " My child! My child! " she moaned. The next morning, she cried again, but this time it was a cry of joy. Her cub had returned with a fine catch of sal­mon. He had taught himself how to fish.

As he grew up, he became a clever hunter. No longer a cub, the young bear caught not only fish but, once in a while, small seals. There was plenty now for both of them. Soon there was enough to share with the neighbors. Everyone remarked what a smart bear he was. " My child, " she repeated proudly.

But the good days did not last long. Sud­denly the weather changed. For weeks, blinding snowstorms swept over the village. Not a fish could be caught. The seals seemed to have swum away.

It was then that one of the villagers had a plan. " Why should we starve, " he said, " when we have food right here? The old woman's bear has plenty of flesh beneath that fur. He should make good eating."

The others said nothing, but they plowed through shoulder-high snowdrifts to the old woman's house. There they found the widow weeping. The bear had disappeared again. The villagers slowly walked back to their homes. There was nothing to say, nothing to do. The storms grew worse. There seemed to be no hope for the starving village.

Then one day the wind changed, and the bear came back. Everyone stared at him. No one spoke. The widow, a little bundle of bones, was too weak to call out, but she man­aged a cracked smile. The bear did not stir from where he stood. But he lifted his head again and again.

He's trying to tell us something, " said a villager. " I think he wants us to go with him, " said one of the others. " He seems to be pointing."

The bear started to walk away. The villag­ers followed him. He led them over hills of ice, skirting wide deep cracks. Finally he stopped. A hundred yards in front of him, there was a dark mass barely moving on a large piece of ice. As the villagers went closer, they saw it was a wounded but still fe­rocious animal, a huge bull seal. The seal was larger than any one of them had ever caught. Here was food to last a long, long time – plenty of meat and an endless supply of blubber, the fat that would put new life into the people of the whole village.

It was a happy group that brought back the food and the bear. Both were welcomed, especially the bear.

" He knew what we needed, " the people told each other, " and he found it for us."

" He didn't just find it, " said one of the vil­lagers. " He fought it for us. We owe every­thing to him."

" We owe everything to him, " the people repeated. " And we will never forget him."

The widow waited until the bear walked over and put his head in her hand. Then she patted the furry head. " My child, " she said softly.

¿ Collect data on other stylistic aspects

Collect your own examples of phoneticstylistic devices of vocabulary to the following form

Example of a sentence(s) with stylistically marked word	Name of a device	Comment on stylistic effect
For weeks, blinding snowstorms swept over the village.	Indirect onomatopoea	Realistic, emotional

 

 

² Unit 5 Stylistic devices based on lexical aspect of the language

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1. And now some words in conclusion.
2. Comment on the peculiarities of the words and forms marked
3. Ex. 10. In the sentences below, replace the words in italics with a word (or words) from the text. Translate the sentences into Russian.
4. Ex. 13. Put special questions. Begin with the question-words in brackets.
5. Ex.10. Write the Essay on the topic «My future career of a radio electrician» (minimum 200 words)
6. Exc. 1. Read the international words and guess their meaning
7. Exercise 1 Practice reading the following words and word combinations. Be sure in their pronunciation. Learn them by heart.
8. Exercise 3 Render the contents of the dialogue in indirect speech with the use of the highlighted words.
9. Exercise A. Match the words with their definitions:
10. Fill in the gaps with the words from the box.
11. Find these words in the text.