A brief analysis on English etymology

說(shuō)文解字文藝生活LITERATURE LIFE2015-02A brief analysis on English etymology李明珠(北京人文大學(xué)外國語(yǔ)學(xué)院,北京101300)Abstract:In the process of learning English, proficiency in vocabulary is the key point to study a language well. Obviously, it' s verycrucial to know about the origin and history of the words. Research on English etymology is conducive to memory, interpretationand understanding of the words. Generally speaking, English etymology is closely connected with British history. W estern culturealso has exerted profound impact on English etymology, which leads to considerable borrowings pouring into English vocabulary.In brief, this disertation will inquire into English etymology preliminarily.Key words:vocabulary, English etymology, British history, borrowings中圖分類(lèi)號:H319文獻標識碼:A文章編號:1005- 5312(2015 )06- -0068 -02What is English etymology? Why should we explore it? Don' t made England part of Scandinavian empire. So many Scandinavianworry. I will tell you the reasons and the definition. Etymology is a words came into English language. But they don' t bring in new ideadiscipline closely related to the lexicology. However, lexicology is a and new things in that Anglo- Saxon language and Scandinavianbranch of linguistics. As the name implies, it' s not difficult for us to words are all identical, all belong to the Germanic. For example,conclude that etymology is a discipline that chielly studies the origin,‘mother ’，“ summer'，“house' ', etc. The Old English is a typicalknowledge of etymology contributes to memorizing the English words adverbs all have complicated endings and/or vowel inflection.for students effectively. In general, this thesis will cite some specifie(二)Middle English (1150- 1500)examples to deal with English etymology in details from the followingIn 1066， French Norman invaded Britain. Old Englishaspects.underwent great change. Although English borrowed words from Latin-、the impact of British history on the evolution of before, English language was primarily afected by the Germanic. Inits vocabularythe reign of the Norman kings, the Norman culture flowered on theThe earlier sttler in Britain was Celts. The Celtic belongs to theBritain continent. A large quantity of French words input EnglishCeltic group of Indo-Eurpean language family. The second major language continuously,language of England was Latin of Romans. The Brtish history starts prince, etc. French became the oficial language used by thewith the Romans invasion. In 55 BC, the Romans invaded Britain forupper- -class. Almost everyone learned French in that English had nothe frst time. But the Romans didn't oceupy the whole Britain market. Latin was employed in the church and scool. French, Latinsesauly unil AD 43. When the Roman Empire began to dedine, and English coexisted for over a century. In the 14h cntury, Wyelifthey decided to withdraw for several reasons in AD 410. In thetranslated the Bible into English. Chaucer and Langland began tomid-5th century, as the Germanic tribes came to Britain and brought create lierature in English. So Englsh returned to the importatit under their absolute control, the Celie faded away gradually position agin and was respected as a crucial language. Word endingTherefore, the Celtic left only a small number of words to Englishinflection in Middle English was reduced, much fewer than OldEnglish.vocabulary, such as London, Kent, crag, etc.(一)Old English (450-1150)(三)Modern Engish (1500 to present)Afer the Romans, Angle, Saxon and Jutes, three GermanicModern English began with the establishment of printing. In thetribes, came to Britain. Their language, known as Angle- Saxon,14th century, European countries initiated the revival of interest indominated and totally replaced the Celtic. Generally people regard theancient Greek and Roman classics, which was called Renaissance inAngle- -Saxon as Old English. At the end of the 6th century, thehistory. At that time, Latin and Greek was regarded as the worldLatin-speaking Roman missionaries, St. Augustine' s followers,literature heritage. The English scholars translated these classics intogrealy contributed to the convesion of common peple to English and brrowed numerous Latin words which have become partChristianity，laying a good foundation for well-establishedof English vocabulary. After the Second World W ar, with the advanceChristianity. The introduction of Christianity had a big impact onof science and technology, thousands of new words were created toEnglish vocabulary. With many new thoughts and customs broadly express new ideas in politics. conmerce, technology, eltc. It deservesspread, some rligous terms entered in. For example, “amthem”， noing that even if borowings indeed have played a vital role in the“priest”，“nun’ ，‘altar' ，“ abbot”, etc. In the 9th century, Vikings中國煤化工d, more words areand Danes invaded Britain. They plundered and conquered Britainborn from word: -f(YHCNMH Gwe all know Oldbrutally. At last, British once chose a Danish leader as King who English is a highly Ttteted language, whereas Modem English tends682015- -02.文藝生活LITERATURE LIFE說(shuō)文解字to become the analytic language with words endings mostly lost. They“kulak”is from“kyrak”(Russian)are quite different from each other.4.Semantic-loans二.the influence of foreign words on the Englishvocabularying instead of the form. Their form is native. In other words, the exist-(一) What is the foreign wordsing words of English are endowed with new meanings. Take“ dream”"By origin, English words can be divided into natve words and for example. Its original meaning was‘hppnes" and' 'music ，foreign words. Native words are originated from the Germanic tribes whereas its modem meaning was borowed from Old Norse. Besides,including Angle, Saxon and Jutes, also known as Angle- Saxon lan-“bridge”is an English word. When it means a sort of playing cardguage. The number of Angle- Saxon words is small, but it constitutesgames, its meaning was borrowed from' ponte” of Italian.the core of English vocabulary. Conversely, the words coming from(三) Borrowings are one of the most important reasons thatother languages are defined as foreign words or borrowings, also bor-change in word meanings and the production of synonymsrowed words or loan words. The browv ings from Latin and French are and homonyms of Engish vocabulary.full of literary flavor, being very formal and poetic, always employedThe patterns of semantic change follow several ways, mainlyby man of ltterse. Borrowing can be conducted directly or indirectly. such as extension, narrowing, elevation, degradation, analogy andTake the word,“feast", for instance. It was borrowed from French in transfer. From the diachronic angles, semantic change gives rise to theMiddle age directly, while “ algebra ' was borrowed from Arabicpolysemy of English words. Nevertheless, the influx of borrowingsthrough Spanish idiretly. A lot of English words derived from Greek partly results in the narrowing of word meaning. For example,“deer”"were borrowed via Latin or French indirectly.originally meant' animal ' , but‘ animal" was borrowed from Latin and(二)Cssification of borrowings“beast" was borrowed from French. These three words were synony-Throughout the whole history, English has adopted considerablemous. Hence，‘ animal" remained the primary meaning.‘ deer”wasborrowings from various languages. On the basis of the degree of as-specialized and "beast" was changed in word color. Another phe-similation and the means of borrowing, we could classifty the foreign nomenon is that the form or meaning of foreign words is identical towords into four classes.native words accidently. Consequently, owing to borrowings, modern1.DenizensEnglish possesses the extremely abundant synonyms and homonyms.Denizens denote the words which were borrowed from other lan-The synonyms related to borrowings can be exemplified as:"ask"guages in the early period but have been assimilated by English now,(native words),‘'question' (F rench), and‘ interrogate" (Latin) all meanaccording with the spelling and pronunciation of English. Some wordsare asmilaled so very well that only a few prlessionals can idenify can be exemplfied as:' fair' ”which means‘"market" is from“feria”" oftheir origin. These words were borrowed from Latin, Greek, FrenchLatin;“fair”which means“beautiful”is from“foeger”of Old Eng-and Scandinavian earlier in the past. For example:“port” is fromlish.“portus”(Latin), “shirt" is from“skytra”(Old Norse),“pork" is from三、Etymological Motivation“pore”(French).2.Aliensthe linguistic sign and meaning. The meaning of many words is di-The form and meaning of aliens are both borrowed. They pre- retly associated with their origin. Most English words meaning hasserve the original sound and spelling. We can make out it as alien undergone a long historical evolution. In other words, the history ofmerely in terms of its form. Sometimes in order to conform to the the words expounds the sense of the word. That is the implication ofphonological rules of new language, it may go through a slight change. etymological motivation. For instance,“butcher” is originated fromThey can be exemplifed as: d e cor (French), status quo (Latin), kow-‘bochier" of French. It was said that a queen was married to a butch-tow (Chinese), bazaar (Persian), etc.er. Since then, the profession as a butcher was very respected. The3. Translation -loansroot“boc" of“bochier” means he- goat. Hence,“butcher" in EnglishTranslation-loans, also called loan translation or calque, refer to .formerly means“the man who kills the goat or the man who sells theusing the English words to create the expressions modeled after for- goat meat . Afterwards, this meaning is extended. Furthermore, all ofeign language. I's a very special kind of borrowings. Properly speak- the words commonized from proper noun can be explained in light ofing, every morpheme or word is all translated from the counterpart of their origin. An example will sufice to iustrate this point. “boycot"another language correspondingly. It can be a word, a phrase, or even means‘ to resist' '， derived from a man' s name called Charles Cun-a sentence. On the whole, they can be subdivided into two categories: ningham Boycott. The history of this word can be traced back to theW ords translated according to the meaning:19th century in County Mayo of lreland. Charles Cunningham Boy-“black humour" is translated from“humour hoir”(French)cott, a retired captain, was a manager of tenants-in-chief. In 1880,“long time no see”is translated from“hajubujian" (Chinese)the famine resulted in crop failure in Ireland. The peasants couldn' t“free verse”is translated from“verse libre" (I atin)make a living. This man reiected to reduce the land rent and withdrew“masterpiece" is translated from“Meisterstuck" (German)parts of the rented中國煤化工ts. Under the ini-W ords translated according to the sound:tiative of the IrishIYHCNMHGofCharleStewart“Lama”is from“lama”(Tibetan)Partnell, the Irish nationalist politician, the residents (下轉第97頁(yè))592015-02.文藝生活LITERATURE LIFE樂(lè )舞歌賦光月影宜相照;時(shí)而又是一江春水向東流;既能表現自嗟自嘆、(二)剛柔并濟反映出袖舞的審美特征傷感.無(wú)奈的情緒,又能表現靈巧、喜悅的情緒。那么袖勁是如何剛勁與柔勁是對立統一- ,缺- - 不可的。水袖質(zhì)料柔軟,它可達出人物情感的。袖勁力度的大小直接影響著(zhù)袖姿和袖技。力度以借助手臂的帶動(dòng)在空間中產(chǎn)生飄逸柔韌、爆發(fā)、連綿不斷的較小的袖技有揚袖、繞袖，以氣帶腰,腰帶肘,肘帶腕,水袖在空變換力度,也可以形成上下翻飛、婉轉起伏、線(xiàn)條交錯的動(dòng)勢形中產(chǎn)生出有弧度的袖姿。動(dòng)作靈巧、輕柔.優(yōu)美,通常能表現出歡態(tài)。 柔勁產(chǎn)生出清新、典雅、婉秀、飄逸的柔情美,而剛勁產(chǎn)生出快喜悅的情緒。放縱磅礴、激昂、剛毅的剛性美。無(wú)論是剛與柔,都能反映出袖反之,力度較大的袖技有沖袖、抓袖等。除了與其他袖技一舞獨特的意境美。剛柔并濟的勁力使得動(dòng)作與動(dòng)作之間形成強樣的發(fā)力方式外,重要的是手腕給予水袖的爆發(fā)力,沖袖的要求烈對比和映襯，使之具有高度的含蓄性和想象力,同時(shí)反映出袖是水袖需在空中像箭一樣挺 直,抓袖則利用“反襯勁”與收袖的舞“剛健挺拔 、含蓄柔韌”的氣質(zhì)美。袖舞的美感和韻味就是在圓慣性,瞬間用反力將水袖收住。這兩個(gè)動(dòng)作具有較強的沖擊力，曲的體態(tài),起承轉合的袖勢,忽展忽疊的形態(tài)以及或強或弱的勁在組合或作品中表現出憤怒、剛烈并帶有反抗的情緒?？梢?jiàn),袖力中,通過(guò)動(dòng)靜、高低、強弱的對比,將袖和身體的韻律融為-技在空間流動(dòng)過(guò)程中能表現出不同的水袖形態(tài)，也就能表達出體,并將袖舞對中國古典舞圓、游之美的崇尚,通過(guò)袖的變化婉人物變化.復雜的情緒。如果袖勁在袖技流動(dòng)過(guò)程中再加以強弱轉 地展現出來(lái)。的對比,那么揚袖與繞袖不僅能表現出喜悅之情,還能產(chǎn)生出哀四、結語(yǔ)怨、掙扎與糾結的心理;像沖袖和抓袖此類(lèi)強度較大的袖技,也袖舞的歷史源遠流長(cháng)。沿著(zhù)“長(cháng)袖善舞”的歷史長(cháng)河,它繼承能表現出思念.激動(dòng)地情緒。了中國古代歌舞水袖的表現形式，吸收了中國傳統文化精神的所以,袖勁是人物情感表現力的基礎，它能表達以及轉換袖內涵與意蘊,融合了中國古典舞身韻的“形神勁律”,經(jīng)歷了歷史技在不同場(chǎng)景中應產(chǎn)生的人物情緒與場(chǎng)景效果。由此可見(jiàn)，袖勁的 不斷演變。袖舞是世界上獨一無(wú)二并最具有民族代表意義的不光產(chǎn)生出水袖的舞蹈動(dòng)作,也賦予了水袖“生命”。它將舞者內舞蹈形式。通過(guò)袖勁的產(chǎn)生、運用以及對中國古典舞審美性的影心的情感以及情緒的波動(dòng)都通過(guò)水袖展現了出來(lái)。響,從不同角度進(jìn)行了深入的研究與分析。三、袖勁反映出袖舞的審美特征總而 言之,袖勁在袖舞中的運用是豐富多變,并且具有決定水袖通過(guò)袖勁能表現出“行云流水”般的美感。正因為袖舞性作用的。 袖舞作為中國最具有代表性的傳統文化藝術(shù),會(huì )隨著(zhù)獨特的審美性,以至于自古水袖便運用于古代歌舞之中,以供帝不同時(shí)代的文化背 景和審美意蘊發(fā)展、繼承下去。王賞悅。如何將水袖產(chǎn)生出圓游之美的意境,這就需要我們掌握好袖勁的剛柔并濟。參考文獻:(一)剛勁與柔勁[]邵未秋.中國古典舞袖舞教程[M].上海:上海音樂(lè )出版社200.從勁的力度與速度區別出,發(fā)勁快而猛,表現為剛，而動(dòng)作[2]唐滿(mǎn)城,金浩中國古典舞身韻教學(xué)法[M].上海:上海音樂(lè )出版社,慢而輕,表現為柔。發(fā)勁時(shí),是- - 種能量爆發(fā)性的釋放,外形剛2006.猛,主要是動(dòng)能,則為剛勁;而運動(dòng)時(shí)是緩慢的釋放,外形柔美，[3]李珍. 中國古典舞教材新編:技巧.劍舞.長(cháng)袖[M].北京:人民音樂(lè )出主要是力在作用距離上做的功,則為柔勁。我們用眼睛是很難看版社.2001.到柔勁的,但從袖勢的變化是能感覺(jué)到其存在的。[4]夏夢(mèng).淺談袖舞的審美感和文化感[J].中國體衛藝教育論壇200705).(上接第69頁(yè))in the whole county took a joint action. They didn' t English. This fusion produces many synonyms and homonyms ofwork for him. The shop didn' t sale the commodity to him. His house English vocabulary, the division of which is very difficult for students.was attacked. His property was robbed and destroyed. He even was Nevertheless, almost the birth of every word has its unique story. Ifshot, nearly dying and fleeing to England finally. This event became you know about its origin, it will be easy to remember it. Admittedly,the headline of newspaper at that time. So the meaning of "boycot' "isresearch on the English etymology is of great help and significance fortaken from this man' s behavior.us to be aware of the relationship between language and society.四、ConclusionWhen exploring the history of English vocabulary, we will in-dentify that English is a rather mixed language. In the[1 ]張維友英語(yǔ)詞匯學(xué)[M].北京:外語(yǔ)教學(xué)及研究出版社,1999.development of English language,, English vocabulary is mixed with[2]莊和誠英語(yǔ)詞源趣談[ M].上海:上海外語(yǔ)教育出版社,2009.Latin, French, Greek and Scandinavian, etc. Statistically speaking,[3]胡壯麟.語(yǔ)言學(xué)教程(第四版)(英文版)[M].北京:北京大學(xué)出版社，English has integrated the words of approximately 80 languages from[4]余志遠英語(yǔ)國家概況[M北京:外語(yǔ)教學(xué)及研究出版社2005.AD1 to now. Some of these borrowings retain the trace of original lan-[5]李柬學(xué)細說(shuō)英語(yǔ)詞源[M].杭州:浙江大學(xué)出版社2013.guage, whereas more can' t be seen in form, toally assimilated by中國煤化工YHCNMH G .)7