Исследовательский лингво-страноведческий проект "Language Borrowings: Pros and Cons"

CONTENTS

p.

ITRODUCTION         3

PART 1. THEORETICAL FOOTING        5

1.1. The process of borrowing.        5

1.2 English loan words in Russian        ……………………………………………   7

1.2.1. Peculiarities of borrowing process…………………………………….7

1.2.2. Spheres of borrowing using…………………………………………   9

1.3 Russian loan words in English        ….   11

PART 2. PRACTICAL WORK        13

2.1 Glossary of terms.        13

2.2 Sociological research.        15

CONCLUSION        20

BIBLIOGRAPHY        22

Appendix 1.  List of Russian Borrowings in English Language.

Introduction

Why are words borrowed?

This question partly concerns the historical circumstances which stimulate the borrowing process. Each time two nations come into close contact, certain borrowings are a natural consequence. The nature of the contact may be different. It may be wars, invasions or conquests when foreign words are borrowed from conquered nation or another one. There are also periods of peace when the process of borrowing is actual because of trade and international cultural relations or new reality appears and gives a birth to new words, which don’t have equivalents in other languages.

English language being ‘lingua franca’ of the 21st century and a language of international communication has influenced greatly on Russian language. This influence is actual and its studying is necessary for modern generation. So, the actuality of the research work determines the necessity of exploration English and Russian languages in the sphere of loans.  

We all know that there are a lot of English borrowings in Russian and we use them very often but it is interesting and important to know whether English has Russian borrowings or not and how these words are used in speech if they exist in language.

So, our paper has some further investigations which are connected with our findings in the field of mutual influence of English and Russian languages on each other.  

Unfortunately the problem is that according to many sources there is not a single understanding of what influence borrowing words influence on the language which is recipient. Besides, the programme of learning English for Russian secondary schools does not touch upon many interesting facts in greater detail and we can’t learn much about the things that are very curious and could help us to understand the peculiarities of English-Russian contact much better.

The hypothesis is that Russian language has taken a great number of borrowing words from English although many of them are still neologisms. Otherwise, English language has not so many words borrowed from Russian that witnesses about the fact that Russian has not subjected to great influence on English language.

The object of our work is language borrowings as natural process of existing and developing a modern language.

The subject of the work is peculiarities of the borrowing process from English into Russian and from Russian into English.

The aim of this paper is to study ways of borrowing and the influence of Russian borrowings on English and the influence of English borrowings on Russian.

The tasks of the paper are the following:

1. to learn some linguistic terms connected with the problem under review;
2. to state the causes of borrowings in different languages;
3. to analyze English borrowings in Russian;
4. to analyze Russian borrowings in English;
5. to define the frequency of borrowing using by modern people

To achieve the aim of this work we used the following methods of research: analysis of theoretical material, description, systematization, practical analysis.

We hope our work will be of practical value for students who are interested in English language and cross-cultural relationships. This work also has practical importance for those who are making first steps in translation.

Theoretical Footing

1. The process of borrowing

A borrowed word or a borrowing is a word, a phrase or an idea taken by the speakers of one language from a different language. A borrowing can also be called a loanword. Borrowing is a consequence of cultural contact between two language communities. Borrowing of words can go in both directions between the two languages in contact, but often there is an asymmetry, that’s why more words go from one side to the other.

There are different causes of language borrowings. 

First, the cause can be connected with a new object or event which doesn’t have the name in the nation’s language. Here are some examples of English borrowings in Russian language (‘принтер’, ‘сканер’, ‘файл’, etc.)

Second, if people are not satisfied with some word in their native language which is the name of some object or event a loan word can replace it and give necessary stylistic effect for more appropriate using of a new word in the recipient language.

Third, the borrowing can be led by the absence of such word in the receiving language. (‘bestseller’ – ‘бестселлер’ (‘лучшая по продаже книга, фильм и т.д.’)

Borrowings enter the language in two ways: through oral speech (by immediate contact between people) and through written speech (through books, newspapers etc.). Oral borrowings took place in the early periods of history, whereas in recent times written borrowings have become important. Words borrowed orally are usually short and they undergo considerable changes during the act of adoption. Written borrowings preserve their spelling and some peculiarities of their sound form; their assimilation is a long process.

Borrowings may be direct or indirect, for example through another language. Such languages – intermediaries were, for example, Latin through which many words came into the English or Russian language by means of which many Latin words were borrowed.

So, distinction should be made between the term “source of borrowing” and the term “origin of borrowing”. The first should be applied to the language from which the loan word (or borrowed word) was taken into recipient language. The second refers to the language to which the word may be traced.

The process of adaptation of borrowed words is called assimilation. According to the degree of assimilation all borrowed words can be divided into two groups:

1. completely assimilated;

2. partly assimilated.

Completely assimilated borrowings follow all morphological, phonetical and orthographic standards. They take an active part in word-formation. Completely assimilated words are found in all the layers older borrowings, for example, the word to talk is borrowed into English from Russian толк and is close in the meaning.

Partly assimilated borrowings are often called neologisms. They may be divided into 3 groups:

a) borrowings not completely assimilated phonetically: kibitka [kibitkə] (an example of Russian borrowing in English language);

b) borrowings not completely assimilated grammatically: apparatchik (s) – apparatchiki (pl) (an example of Russian borrowing in English language);

c) borrowings not assimilated semantically because they denote objects and notions peculiar to the country from which they come. They may denote foreign clothing, for example, shuba; foreign professions, e. g. tsar, foreign food and drinks, e. g. vodka, borsch, blini etc.

For assimilation of borrowing words the following conditions are required:

1. Phonetical and grammatical assimilation of a foreign word;

2. Word-building activity of the word;

3. Semantic assimilation;

4. Regular use in the speech.

When the words are borrowed we observe the following phenomena which can lead to some language problems:

1. the word can lose its basic meaning, e. g. babushka – a kerchief on the head (this word has lost its first meaning and is used in another way);

2. a mistake in grammatical features of the word, e. g. blini – singular, blin or blinis – for plural;

3. the word can change grammatical peculiarities of receiving language, e. g. muzhik – muzhiki, but not muzhiks as it is necessary for English grammar;

4. the word are not accepted by the language and disappeared;

5. the word can exist in the language for some period of time and then goes to the class of historicism, e. g. tsar, boyar.

2. English loan words in Russian

1.2.1. Peculiarities of borrowing process

Natural process of joining the global world relationships leads to great changes in the language of Russian people. A number of new words come from many languages. In our modern life we watch the borrowing mostly from English. That is connected with the fact of total influence of the West on our economics, politics and culture.

Strengthening of information technologies, using global system of Internet, widening of international relationships, developing of the world market and economics, participating of young people in numerous international contests and different festivals – all these things have naturally led to lots of borrowings into Russian language from many others including English.

In spite of this there is another point of this process which is associated with some aggressive tendencies of overusing English words in Russian.

According to many sources it can be seen that the most of loan words (80%) from English are nouns or gerunds which mean the process of action.

There are many examples of such words such as “маркетинг”, “селлинг”, “шоппинг” “степлер”, “сканер”…

Many words mean different professions which have been very popular recently. They include such words as “маркетолог”, “промоутер”, “менеджер”…

However, considering the variety of English loan words in Russian we see that only about 20% of them are verbs or adjectives which are used in Russian variant. Here it’s not very difficult to remember the following words: “cканировать”, “имитировать”, “клонировать”, “киднэппинговать”, “Casual”, “крейзи”… Besides, you can notice that not all of them have the appropriate Russian spelling.

Great number of Russian borrowings in English and English borrowings in Russian belongs to the group of partly assimilated words.

If we say about not complete partial assimilation of neologisms we should point the fact that it is characterized with using word building principles such as suffixes and prefixes. In Russian language we can observe the neologisms which have the suffixes of English language including suffixes meaning an acting person (‘ньюсмейкер’, ‘имиджмейкер’, ‘спичрайтер’, ‘букмейкер’, etc) and suffixes meaning the process of acting (‘шоппинг, ‘паркинг’, ‘маркетинг’, ‘серфинг’, ‘роуминг’, etc.)

Besides, it should be noticed that many loan words borrowed from English have Russian suffixes:

1. –ск-,  -н-; -ов-. The examples are the following: хакерский, рэперский, офисный (имидж), компьютерный (хакер, бизнес), пейджинговая (фирма), маркетинговое (исследование), роуминговая (связь), etc.
2. –щик-, -ник- . The examples are the following: компьютерщик, пиарщик, интернетчик, etc.

So, we see that many English loan words in Russian follow the rules of Russian language. The fact can mean that they have been adapted in Russian and are used by Russian people according to the principles of the recipient language.

More than that, many of such words take part in word building process of Russian language.

Computer (English)

Компьютерщик

Суперкомпьютерный

Комп-индустрия

Компьютер

Компьютерный

Kidnap (English)

Киднэп

Киднэппинг (English suffix)

Киднэппинговый (English suffix and Russian suffix)

Киднэппинговать

(English suffix and Russian suffix)

1.2.2. Spheres of borrowing using

Borrowings from English language have come into different spheres of life of Russian people. Businessmen, politicians, sportsmen and many people of other professions face to borrowed words every day.

In the sphere of economics there are such words as ‘бартер’ (barter),  ‘брокер’ (broker), ‘дилер’ (dealer), ‘дистрибьютор’ (distributor), ‘инвестор’ (investor), etc.

In the sphere of computer world we can find different words including new jargonisms such as ‘баг’ (bug), ‘ньюс’ (news), ‘юзер’ (user), ‘гамер’ (gamer),  ‘онлайн’ (on-line), ‘чат’ (chat), ‘чатрум’ (chat room), etc.

English borrowings are met also in the sphere of politics: ‘саммит’ (summit), ‘электорат’ (electorate), ‘брифинг’ (briefing), ‘импичмент’ (impeachment), ‘спичрайтер’ (speechwriter), ‘инаугурация’ (inauguration), etc.

Sport world has taken many English words which are used as names of different kinds of sport becoming famous and popular in our country as well as they are used to name some other aspects of sport life, for example, ‘фристайл’ (free style), ‘ски-стрим’ (ski stream), ‘армрестлинг’ (arm wrestling), ‘овертайм’ (overtime),         ‘плей-офф’ (play off), ‘сёрфинг’ (surfing), ‘скейтборд’ (skateboard)

 ‘файтер’ (fight), etc.

Modern world gives us its rules and many new professions are led by the process of global economical development and international contacts in different spheres of our life. However, not only new professional lexis has appeared in the life of Russian people as loan words from English. We can watch the using of borrowed words in our everyday life. These words are the following:        ‘тостер’ (toaster), ‘термопот’ (phermopot),         ‘миксер’ (mixer), ‘плейер’ (player), ‘шузы’ (shoes), ‘траузеры’ (trousers), ‘гамбургер’ (hamburger), ‘чизбургер’ (cheeseburger), ‘хот дог’ (hot dog), etc.

Analyzing the language of our own town we have become the witnesses of the total use of English borrowed words. There are many shops and clubs, firms and cafes which have full English names or have some parts of the names borrowed from English language: ‘Фэмили’ (clothes shop), ‘Стоун’ (computer firm), ‘Бэби’ (shop for children), ‘Лидер Фуд’ (cafe), ‘Авто’кей’ (automobile shop), ‘Евромаркет’ (trade center), ‘Фитнес клуб Лайт’ (fitness club), ‘Глория Джинс’ (clothes shop), ‘Хорс’ (food shop), ‘ БиЛайн’ (mobile service), ‘Инсайдер’ (computer firm), ‘М-Лайн’ (firm); ‘Секонд хэнд’ (clothes shop)…These names are the result of transliteration.

There are also some examples of original using of borrowed English words in different names seen in the streets of our town. They are ‘For Men’ (clothes shop for men), ‘Fast Food’ (café of fast food), etc.

This event demonstrates common using of these borrowings by Russian people.

However, not only our streets are full of English borrowings but also magazines and newspapers and even examples of modern literature pieces such as  «Духless» (by Oleg MInayev), «Про любоff /on»  (by Oksana Robski), «Casual» (by Oksana Robski).

The using of such language means gives  some stylistic effects to the names of the literature pieces and helps to understand their plot.

3.  Russian loan words in English

Any language is a constantly developing and changing thing. Each historical period puts the trace leaving new words or taking away old words (archaisms) which are not necessary to use. English language is not exception.

According to many sources modern English language has many neologisms from different world languages. As for Russian influence on English language, it is not so global now. However, Russian language made its own contribution into the development of English language in different historical periods.

It was stated that direct borrowing first began with contact between England and Russia in the 16th century. These words were probably borrowed before the reign of Peter the Great. Since that time the word ‘sable’ has been known as a borrowed one from Russian. It’s known that sable was used as an important exchange product at that time. Besides, this word can mean ‘black’* in English language now. There are many other borrowed words of that period: ‘beluga’, ‘starlet’, ‘rouble’ (‘ruble’), ‘pood’, ‘moujik’, ‘kvass’, ‘shuba’, ‘vodka’, ‘samovar’, ‘troika’, ‘babushka’, ‘pirozhki’ and others.

The second period of Russian borrowings into English is considered to be connected with the words borrowed from the period of the reign of Peter the Great to pre-Revolutionary time. Most part of those borrowed words meant items connected with trade because it was time when there were active political and economical relationships between England and Russia. In the period of 18-19th centuries there were some borrowing words (‘obrok’, ‘barshina’ etc.) which are historical terms both in Russian and in English now. Many Russian words exist in English and are used according to grammar rules of English language – ‘steppes’, ‘sables’ and others.

* Sable – 1. n. an expensive fur used to make coats, or a small animal that this fur comes from; 2. adj. literally black or very dark in colour (from the Dictionary of Contemporary English. Longman)

The third period is associated with the words borrowed in the Soviet age. Many of them (‘Bolshevik’*, ‘udarnik’) reflect the ideas of the new system, the Soviet Union. During the 20th century we can witness the obvious interest of the West to the political life of Russia. That has led to some more loan words from Russian language (‘komsomol’, ‘sovkhoz’, ‘kolkhoz’,  etc.)

Words borrowed during post-Soviet period belong to the forth period of borrowing from Russian into English. Mostly these words (‘perestroika’, ‘presidium’ and others) show political, economical and social processes which took place at that time.

________________________________

Of course, we can’t list all the borrowed words from Russian into English partly because we have no enough sources of information to be sure of our investigations. But we can make some conclusions here.

Russian words like ‘samovar’, ‘ushanka’, ‘telega’, ‘matryoshka’’ are national words and they give special pictures of Russian life. All of them are from Russian culture and Russian history and can tell a foreigner about our nation in the past, about Russian people’s life in the history of our country.

Linguists say that compared to other source languages very few of the words borrowed into English come from Russian language. So, we see the influence of Russian language on the development of English only in the history.

On the contrary the influence of English language on Russian is actual right now.

* Bolshevik -  someone who supported the communist party at the time of the Russian Revolution (from the Dictionary of Contemporary English. Longman)

PRACTICAL WORK

1. Glossary of terms

Starting to work on the problems of language borrowings we faced many difficulties connected with the fact that many linguistic terms were not known for us. As a result we had to be consulted with the help of dictionaries to learn some terms which could be necessary and important for us in our further work.

It was decided to use the Dictionary of Contemporary English of Longman as we have heard about this Dictionary a lot and it is known to have many good references.

It should be mentioned that here are word meanings related to linguistic sphere. In the end of our Dictionary studying the Glossary of Terms on the problems under review was organized. The words given below are in the alphabetic order according to the principles of scientific approach to making any lists.

1. Anglicize to make something or someone more English.

2. Assimilation is the process of adaptation of borrowed words.

3. Borrowing (or ‘loan word’) is something such as a word, phrase, or idea that has been copied from another language, book etc.

4. Etymology is

a) the study of the origins, history, and changing meanings of words;

b) a description of the history of a word.

5. Jargon is words used by people who do a particular job or are interested in a particular subject, which ordinary people cannot easily understand.

6. Journalese language often used in newspapers.

7. Language is a system of communication by written or spoken words, which is used by the people of a particular country or area.

8. Lexical is dealing with words, or related to words.

9. Lexis is all the words in a language.

10. Linguistic is related to language, words, or linguistics.

11. Linguistics is the study of language in a general and of particular languages, their structure, grammar, and history.

12. Morphology is the study of the morphemes of a language and of the way in which they are joined together to make words.

13. Neologism is a new word or expression, or a word used with a new meaning.

14. Orthography is the way in which words are spelled.

15. Phonetics is the science and study of speech sounds.

16. Recipient is someone or something that receives something.

17. Semantic is relating to the meanings of words.

18. Slang is informal words used by people who belong to a particular group, for example young people, criminals etc.

19. Spelling is the act of spelling words correctly.

20. Synonym is a word with the same meaning as another word in the same language.

21. Term is a word or expression with a particular meaning, especially one that is used for a specific subject or type of language.

22. Terminology words used in a particular subject such as science or medicine.

2. Sociological research

To make a sociological research we created our own questionnaire including different questions connected with borrowings from English into Russian and from Russian into English. The answers were analyzed, then calculated and presented graphically.

We managed to interview 45 people. The respondents were 8-formers, 9-formers and 10-formers of school №19.

Our questionnaire had several points.

1. First, we wanted to learn if teenagers of our school know what a borrowing word is. Fortunately, all of them could explain the meaning of this term.
2. Then, we asked people to try to find Russian equivalents to some English borrowings or to give some appropriate Russian synonyms.

Having analyzed the results we can make some conclusions. Not all of the given words (32%) could be explained by teens, they even were not able to find appropriate synonyms to these words.

Picture 1.

Besides, often teenagers gave explanations with some difficulties. 72% of respondents who didn’t explain some words say that it would be silly to look for any synonyms because there is no a better word than the given one.

28% of interviewed teenagers say that they don’t understand all these words and can’t be sure of their meaning.

All these facts prove that on the one hand, there are many words which have adapted to the norms of Russian language and are used by Russian people without any efforts. On the other hand, we can say about great number of English words which are only on the way of adaptation to Russian language. So, not all Russians use them partially because they are not sure of the words’ meaning.

3. The third thing which interested us was the question about frequency of using the words borrowed from English into Russian. We asked students a question “Do you use borrowing words in your speech? How often?”

We have the following results:

        75% of respondents state that they use English borrowings very often even if they know some Russian equivalents of these words. 16 % of respondents try not to use borrowed words if it’s possible because they understand the necessity of using Russian words to save our own national language. The exception is the words which are used in Russian language like native ones or words that reflect the reality more exactly. 9% of teens say that they don’t think about the origin of the words they use.

Picture 2.

4. Moreover, we have learnt that Russian teenagers use English borrowed words in different reasons. 28 % of respondents say that they like to use borrowings because it’s fashionable among the youth. So, they use many jargonisms like ‘wow’, ‘cool’ and many others. Among these words there are a lot of words connected with computer world. They are ‘инет’, ‘смайлик’ and others.  46 %  of teens use English borrowings because they are shorter than their Russian equivalents and  26 % of young people say that it’s convenient to use them in order to describe some new events of the world’s reality.

Picture 3.

These facts prove that there is a great number of English borrowings in Russian

language which are not neologisms any more.  Besides, there are no better Russian words to use than the English borrowings describing modern subjects and events.

All this investigation demonstrates the frequent using of English borrowings in Russian language. That means that borrowing process from English into Russian is real in our life and we watch the intensive influence of English language on Russian one.  Certainly we can say about both positive and negative points of this process. No doubt, it enriches the language with new words which reflect the new reality caused by developing of many spheres of our modern life such as economics, politics, science, sport and even everyday life.

5. Some further steps of the research were to find out if our Russian teens know about Russian borrowings in English language. For many teens (24%) it was a great surprise to learn about the fact of Russian borrowings in English.

Picture 4.

Then we asked the teens to define which Russian words from our list were borrowed by English language in different historical periods. Most of people (approximately 88%) made the right choice in all the cases. Approximately 12% of respondents made some mistakes saying about the loan words from Russian into English.

It wasn’t an easy task for teens to say at what period of history the words were borrowed from Russian. However, some teens (about 17%) said about Soviet regime in the history of our country (such words as ‘kolkhoz’ or ‘Bolshevik’ are associated with it) or about the 18th century when there were such historical terms as ‘tsar’, ‘barshina’, ‘obrok’, etc.

Saying about the reasons of Russian borrowings in English language many teens mentioned the absence of some Russian events in the life of English people.

Picture 5.                         

That can mean that the students understand the fact that Russian borrowing words in English are mostly words connected with Russian national culture and traditions of our Russian nation.

The written set of questions which was given to a number of people in order to collect information let us know about some peculiarities of real using of English borrowings in Russian. More than that the questionnaire allowed us to see what Russian teenagers know about Russian borrowings in English.

Conclusion

Borrowing plays a very important role in the development of any language. Borrowed words show the level of the intercultural communications. It is very useful to know what words are borrowed and how to use them correctly not only for learners but for native speakers too.

We have learned that borrowings enter the language in two ways: through oral speech and through written speech. They may be direct or indirect.

Russian borrowings into English belong to the Renaissance period and later. Most part of Russian borrowings in English is not completely assimilated. That means that the influence of Russian language is not so big and the contact between Great Britain and Russia is not so strong.

As for Russian language, it has always been open for borrowings. Russian language is a language which has a great number of borrowings. Many of these borrowings are from English, especially American English as today we observe the process of total “americanization” of Russian language.

While making a sociological research we confirmed this fact and stated that modern teenagers use borrowed English words in their speech very often although they understand that in this way they often replace very good Russian ones.

In the whole we can state that our hypothesis has been proved. Our work has demonstrated that Russian language has really taken a great number of borrowing words from English. Otherwise, English language has not so many words borrowed from Russian and we can observe the process of Russian borrowings considering cross cultural communication in the historical review.  

Many people are worried today with the fact of total “americanization” of Russian language which can lead to losing of many Russian words. However, we shouldn’t forget that any language is a mechanism which is able to clear itself and not to accept  unnecessary things.

Despite everything we know that the process of language borrowing from one language to another is constant natural process which can’t be stopped by anybody.

Of course there is a great distance from Russian to English and from English to Russian but realization of how many words there are in common between current Russian and English can offer a learner a “bridge” to the new language.

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