Basic characteristics

Simplicity of form. Old English, like modern German, French, Russian and Greek, had many inflections to show singular and plural, tense, person, etc., but over the centuries words have been simplified. Verbs now have very few inflections, and adjectives do not change according to the noun.

Flexibility. As a result of the loss of inflections, English has become over the past five centuries, a very flexible language. Without inflections, the same word can operate as many different parts of speech. Many nouns and verbs have the same form, for example, swim, drink, kiss, look and smile. We can talk about water to drink and to water the flowers, time to go and to time a race, a paper to read and to paper a bedroom. Adjectives can be used as verbs. We warm our hands in front of a fire, if clothes are dirtied, they need to be cleaned and dried. Prepositions too are flexible. A sixty-year old man is nearing retirement, we can talk about a round of golf, cards or drinks.

Openness of vocabulary. This involves the free admission of words from other languages and the easy creation of compounds and derivatives. Most world languages have contributed some words to English at some time, and the process is now being reversed. Purists of the French, Russian and Japanese languages are resisting the arrival of English in their vocabulary

How pure is English and do we need linguistic purity?

It is assumed that linguistic purity is a myth. Every language always has sucked in words. Sucking in words makes a language strong. And the interesting thing is that it is words that are very easy to borrow; it’s rather rare for constructions to be borrowed.

The future of English. Geographically, English is the most widespread language on Earth, second only to Mandarin Chinese in number of people who speak it. It is the language of business, technology, sport and aviation. This will no doubt continue, although the proposition that all other languages will die out is absurd.

III. Check your understanding.

1) Over the centuries words in the English language have been simplified.

What are the results of the simplification process of the English words?

2) How do nouns, adjectives and pronouns in the English language show their relationship in grammar to other words in a sentence? (compare it with

the Russian language).

3) Before translating, is it necessary to define the part of speech of a word in the English language? Why? Why not?

4) What is meant by ‘flexibility’?

5) Is the Russian language free for the admission of words from other languages? Give some examples to prove your idea.

6) Why has the English language become a world language?

Exercise 1. Define what part of speech the underlined word is:

A.

1. I can answe r the question.

2. Give me the answer to the question.

3. I like spring flowers.

4. The cat springs on the mouse.

5. The spring of my watch is broken.

6. The child is going to cross the road.

7. If you cannot write your name, just put a cross (X).

8. Meet me at the cross-roads.

9. I am going to paper my bedroom.

10. The boy wore a paper hat.

11. Did you read the paper this morning?

12. I wish I could go home. You will get your wish some day.

13. Telephone me if you want, my address is in the telephon e book.

14. I hope you have understood the lesson now. If you have not, there is no hope

for you.

B.

1. The first major communication mode is the written word. In writing

the primary rule is to keep everything short and simple.

2. Communications of all kinds are what make an organization work.

3. The most frequently quoted remark about statistics is probably:

“There are lies, damned lies and statistics.

4. “We do not expect to solve all these problems by the turn of the century

she remarked.

5. Perhaps a more reliable guide is the old saying that “money breeds

money”.

6. We need a lawyer to guide us through the procedure.

7. Results show that men are twice as likely to suffer from stress as

women.

8. The net result of all these changes is that people will pay more tax.

9. The accident resulted in the death of the passenger.

10. The President faces the difficult task of putting the economy back

on its feet.

11. The Principal looked down from the platform at the sea of faces