Contribution of Culture-loaded Loanwords to the Class of Etymological Doublets in the Contemporary English Language

Abstract

The article examines the loanwords from the autochthonous languages of South Asia and (or) regional variants of English into the Inner Circle English (according to Br. Kachru) – ayah, baboo / babu, baksheesh, feringhee / feringhi / ferinji / firanghi, gooroo / guru, maharaja / maharajah, maharani, maharishi, mahatma, mandarin, mantra, pagoda – and their role in expanding doublet pairs in contemporary English. The topicality of the study is due to the replenishment of the class of etymological doublets as a result of extensive borrowing process from the languages of the postcolonial space into pluricentric English due to increased population mobility, dispatriation, growing bilingualism, and expansion of global contacts. The scientific novelty is explained by the insufficiently studied subject of the research – the distinctive features of new doublets (native word vs. loanword, loanword vs. loanword) and the dynamics of their usage in contemporary English. The continuous sampling, statistical, descriptive methods are used in order to determine the role of culture-loaded loanwords in expansion of rows of etymological doublets. The major conclusions of the conducted research can be summed up as follows. The conditions for the formation of etymological doublets can be classified into mandatory (etymological similarity, i.e. relation to the same etymon: *awo-; *bhag-; *gwere-; *meg-; *men-; *pəter-; *preg-, *pregn-; *ten-;) and additional (acceptable graphical, phonetic, morphological variation and semantic identity). The study of empirical material allows us to identify trends towards, firstly, maximum divergence of the components of etymological doublet pairs and, secondly, increased frequency of culture-loaded loanwords due to the development of polysemy, strengthening of word-formation potential, formation of syntagmatic connections and inclusion in paradigmatic relations. Using the example of etymological doublets, one can trace the formal (mainly phonetic) and functional (mainly semantic) evolution of prototype words in donor languages.