3.2. Morphological borrowing
Morphological borrowing is an uncertain category, since some scholars have denied the
possibility of direct transference of morphemes. Several scholars, from H. Schuchardt on,
have stated that borrowing of morphemes is only possible by indirect means: certain
borrowed morphemes are felt to be particularly common within the mass of loanwords
introduced into a given language; thus, the speakers of that language analyse these
loanwords, identify these morphemes, and become acquainted with them; later on, these
morphemes become productive or generative in the receiving language. Weinreich also
indicates that the morpheme is easily identified when the language receives pairs of words,
with and without the morpheme: statue/statuette, cigar/cigarette (31-37). On the other
hand, Humbley considers these phenomena to be more likely with semi-bound morphemes,
such as -man or -ing, both common in anglicisms of French (54-55). This indirect process
is thoroughly explained by R. Gusmani, who calis it "induction of morphemes" and draws
attention to the criterion of productivity of foreign morphemes in the receiving language. As instances of this fuzzy category, we can cite:
a) Mingling of affixes or derivational patterns in the learned vocabulary. Darbelnet and
Meney quote some examples of anglicisms in French: tranquilliseur instead of
tranquillisant, détergent instead oí détersif (Darbelnet 81-82 and Meney 933).
b) Interference in the formation and use of singular and plural, also mentioned by J.
Darbelnet: French banlieues, in plural, because its English equivalent, suburbs, is plural
(84). In Latin American Spanish, J. J. Montes Giraldo notices the pluralisation of abstract
nouns according to the English patterns: políticas, calquing the English policies "plan of
action", ideologías following English ideologies; tecnologías following English
tecnologies ("Calcos recientes del inglés" 37-39 and "Otros calcos del inglés" 383-389). 86 Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses
It is also a "morphological loan" the diffusion of English-French plurals in consonant+í
in Spanish when applied to foreignisms from languages other than English and French:
albums, boers, déficits, Führers, lieders (Lorenzo El español de hoy 82-84).
c) Clyne draws a clear distinction between "morphemic borro wing" (transference of bound
morphemes) and "morphological borrowing" (transference of morphological patterns).
According to this distinction, the instances above mentioned belong to the category of
"morphemic borrowing" ("Sprachkontakt/Mehrsprachígkeit" 641). As instances of proper
"morphological borrowing", in Clyne's terminology, we have found certain Spanish
constructions influenced by English patterns: o+substantive {la no intervención) and
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¿míí'+substantive {ley antimonopolio) (Marcos Marín 110-111 and Alfaro 74-75)
BORROWINGS
Contemporary English is a unique mixture of Germanic & Romanic elements. This mixing has resulted in the international character of the vocabulary. In the comparison with other languages English possesses great richness of vocabulary.
All languages are mixtures to a greater or lesser extent, but the present day English vocabulary is unique in this respect.
A brief look on various historical strata of the English vocabulary:
1) Through cultural contacts with Romans partly already on the continent and all through the influence of Christianity a very early stratum of Latin-Greek words entered the language.
Their origin is no longer felt by the normal speaker today in such word: pound, mint, mustard, school, dish, chin, cleric, cheese, devil, pepper, street, gospel, and bishop.
The same can be said about some Scandinavian words (from about the 10th century) that today belong to the central core of the vocabulary.
It means that their frequency is very high.
They, their, them, sky, skin, skill, skirt, ill, dies, take...
They partly supersede the number of OE words
OE
heofon heaven (sky)
Niman take
Steorfan die
A more radical change & profound influence on the English vocabulary occurred on 1066 (Norman Conquest). Until the 15th cent., a great number of French words were adopted. They belong to the areas of court, church, law, and state.
Virtue, religion, parliament, justice, noble, beauty, preach, honour...
The influx of the words was the strongest up to the 15th cent., but continued up to the 17th cent.
Many French borrowings retained their original pronunciation & stress
Champagne, ballet, machine, garage...
Separate, attitude, constitute, introduce...
Adjectives in English arrogant, important, patient
Sometimes with their derivatives:
Demonstrative demonstration
Separate separation
17-18 cc. due to the establishing of cultural, trade relations many words were borrowed from Italian, Spanish, Dutch, French.
Italian: libretto, violin, opera
Spanish: hurricane, tomato, tobacco
Dutch: yacht, dog, landscape
French: bouquet, buffet
From the point of view of their etymology formal words are normally of classical Romanic origin, informal Anglo-Saxon.
Nowadays many Americanisms become familiar due to the increase of transatlantic travel & the influence of broadcast media.
Even in London (Heathrow airport) baggage instead of luggage
The present day English vocabulary is from being homogeneous.
Borrowing 1) (process) resorting to the word-stock of other languages for words to express new concepts, to further differentiate the existing concepts and to name new objects, etc.; 2) (result) a loan word, borrowed word a word taken over from another language and modified in phonemic shape, spelling, paradigm or meaning according to the standards of the English language. See Assimilation, Source of borrowing, Origin of borrowing. The following types of borrowings can be distinguished:
- loan words proper words borrowed from another language and assimilated to this or that extent;
- loan translation 1) (process) borrowing by means of literally translating words (usu. one part after another) or word combinations, by modelling words after foreign patterns; 2) (result) translation loans (calques) words and expressions formed from the material already existing in the English language but according to patterns taken from another language by way of literal word-for-word or morpheme-for-morpheme translation: e.g. chain smoker::Germ Kettenraucher; goes without saying::Fr. va sans dire; summit conference:: Germ. Gipfel Konferenz, Fr. conférence au sommet;
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- semantic borrowings/loans the term is used to denote the development in an English word of a new meaning due to the influence of a related word in another language (e.g. policy).
