Brief Research on French Loan Words in English 英语毕业论文.doc

Brief Research on French Loan Words in English Abstract: Borrowing is an important way to enrich and develop native vocabulary. Owing to the special historical origin and frequent cultural communication between England and France, a great number of French words have been borrowed into English. They have become an important element of English vocabulary. Knowing how French words had been loan to English will help us to know and learn the two languages better. Key words: English; French; French loan words; vocabulary Introduction: English is just one language of the 3000 languages in the world, it has a great vocabulary. For such a huge vocabulary cant be created by only English, there are lots of words borrowed form other language. As we all know, except the basic grammar, words illustrate the great relationship between English and other languages. Among all the other languages, French has definitely the greatest influence on English. From some researches, we can see that 30% of the English words are borrowed from French. When I find this, three questions came into my mind： 1. Why English borrow such many words from French? 2. What kinds of words did English borrow? 3. How can we use such situation to learn both English and French well? In this paper I will focus on the answers to these questions. Literature review There are lots of researches on how the French influence on English. Most of researches hold that Norman Conquest is the most important. While the Danes were invading England, other Norsemen raided the coast of France. On the southern shore of the English Channel they established the Duchy of Normandy. These Norsemen, or Normans, became French in language and culture. In the 11th century the Duchy of Normandy was rich, populous, and powerful. After the Norman Conquest, these people charged the English for a long time, for they are the upper class, they treated English as a rural language. So the whole English people want to learn French, and take speaking French as honor. Between 1250 and 1400 only, there are more than 10, 000 French words involved into English, and nearly 75% has been used still now. Words from different fields had been borrowed greatly, such as treaty (条约) ,govern (统治) , administer (管理) , justice (公平) ,crime (罪行) , sentence (判决) , goal (监 狱), arm (武器) , sergeant (警官) , combat (战斗) , peace (和平), baptism (洗礼) , saint (圣人) , communion (圣餐), button (纽扣) , satin (缎子) , garment (衣服) , veil (面纱) , robe (长袍), chapter (章, 节) , poet (诗) , p rose (散文) , fable (寓言) , letter (书信). My study: Answer to the first and second question: Though Norman Conquest has a great influence on English, but it can t change the heart of English, so I hold that Norman Conquest is not the essence, there must be something else that conquest English minds, I think it is the culture and the elegance. 1) Cuisine: It is said there are two best kinds of cuisines in the world, one is Chinese, and the other is French. Believe or not, if you want to eat some really well, you need to know the name of the dish, so I think cuisine may be a great reason and filed of borrowed words. For example, béarnaise 鸡蛋黄油调味汁、beignet 带 馅煎饼、vol - au -vent 鱼肉香菇馅酥饼、bouillon 肉汁清汤、civet 红酒洋葱 烧野味、bouillabaisse 普罗旺斯鱼汤 . 2) Wine: there is another saying, there are two best kinds of wines in the world, one is Chinese white wine, and the other is French red wine. French red wine is not only a kind of beverage, but a kind of living culture. When you taste the French red wine, you can smell the aroma of different kinds of fruits, you can feel the sunshine, and you will find the peace and happiness. So I believe wine can conquest both English body and heart. 3) Architecture: At renaissant time, there had been great development in French architecture, the beauty of architecture not only shows the function, but also receive respects from people, so it will definitely win the heart of English. There are some examples for this kinds of words, baroque 巴罗克建筑风格(以过分装 饰或奇形怪状为特点) 、 bas - relief 半浮雕和浅浮雕、art nouveau 新艺术派 (一种在 1895 年开始风行起来的装饰艺术风格) 、gargoyle (用作建筑物檐、 槽泄水口的) Including all these aspects, there must be some else aspects, I want to emphasize that Norman Conquest maybe important, but it not the most important, if French doesnt have such kinds of culture and elegances it cant win the heart of English, such as Mongolia cant influx lots of words into Chinese. Above all, conquest is one thing, culture change is another. Answer to the last question: For I am learning French now, I find that it is very easy to recite the meaning of the French words, most of them can be seen in English text. There are more than 30% loan French words in English, and nearly half of them are tested in GRE, as showed in the figure. So I want to find out what is the best method to learn both English and French well. I do some research and find the mainly difference is the spelling. There are some examples: 词义 法语 英语 丰富 ab ondance n. ab undance 缩写字 abr éviation n. a bbreviation 荒谬的 absur de a. absur d 附件 accesso i re n. accesso ry 地址 adresse n. ad dress 事件 affair e n. affair 肯定 affirmer v. affirm 愉快的 agr éable a. agr eeable 警报 alarme n. alarm 气氛 ambi ance n. ambi ence 野心的 ambiti eux a. ambiti ous 修正 amendement n. amendment 天使 ange n. ange l 异常的 anormal a. a bnormal 抚慰,平息 ap aiser v. ap pease 套房 appart ement n. apartment 大炮 artille rie n. artille ry 袭击 assau t n. assau l t From the example we can see there are only a little change between French and English words, and these words are the most difficult to remember and distinguished. So in order to learn both English and French well, we should find the principle of the change. In my research, I found out that there are several principles, 1) Most of the French verb has er, -ir, -re as the end, but when in English, these has been cut off. 2) French words use ment to show the adv, but it is ly in English. 3) able, - age , - ance , - ity which from French words and be added to English words. Since I have learned French for about 10 months, I found it is quite easy to remember the difference. This maybe sound wired, but I think it may get the answer from that most of the new words I learn are the basic words in everyday use, and all these words in English had been learned for a long time and so many times. These kinds of words have been a part of me, so when learn the new words which has only a little difference from the English words I can easily find out the difference and remember all of it. But if I learn the words that I dont know its English form, then it will be quite difficult, for I will mistake it with English and vice versa. Given my experience, I think when we learn French and English, we should the little difference and make sure to learn the new words mainly by one language, after you can use the words freely, then focus on the other language form, then we can learn both languages easily and may not mistake them. Reference 1 程依荣. 法语词汇研究M . 广州:中山大学出版社, 1999. 2 秦秀白. 英语简史M . 长沙:湖南教育出版社, 1984. 3 陆国强. 现代英语词汇学M . 上海:上海外语教育出版社,2004 4 张煦智 容易与英语混淆的法语单词 法语学习. 2003 (5) 5 文芳. 法语的特色与魅力及其它(1) J . 法语学习. 2003 (1) 6 朱和中. 英语外来词大词典 M . 北京: 外文出版社,2000.