Specialist Vocabulary
235borrowing of lexical items^1 (including the cases of calque, i.e. loan-
translation),^2 but also of foreign affixes,^3 which would subsequently be
applied within the constraints of the English morphological system. As
pointed out by Kastovsky (2009: 1), as many as 56 of the 66 prefixes
specified in Marchand’s (1969) classic handbook on English word-
formation are foreign. Likewise, there are 48 suffixes of foreign origin out
of a total of 81 listed altogether in the same volume.
Moreover, it is worth noting that it is not only numerous lexical items
and affixes that have been adopted in the English language, but also many
foreign word-formation patterns, especially as a consequence of the
extensive borrowing which took place during the Middle English and
Early Modern English periods (Kastovsky 2009: 1). Thus, the ground was
prepared for the emergence of hybrid forms as well, which would
combine, for example, French roots with an English prefix or suffix as
early as the mediaeval period (Baugh and Cable 2002: 166).^4 Another
instantiation of the interlingual hybrid formation was what could be called
hybrid compounds, which first appeared at the interface of English and
French in the same period.^5
All these borrowing-related phenomena have exerted influence not
only on the general vocabulary of English, but also on the specialist
registers of the language, which – understandably – had to reflect the ever
increasing complexity of the relevant extralinguistic reality, whether it be
the new types of Viking ships, the intricacies of the new Danish law, the
(^1) Such borrowings would occur as early as the Old English period, as seen from the
examples of Scandinavian borrowings (e.g. hƗ, ‘an oarlock’, or bƗtswegen, ‘a
boatman, boatswain’ – Baugh and Cable 2002: 89) or Latin borrowings (e.g. cƯese,
from Lat. cƗseus ‘cheese’, or mynet, from Lat. monƝta, ‘a coin’ – Baugh and Cable
2002: 73).
(^2) Baugh and Cable (2002, 90) point out that as early as the Anglo-Saxon period
many Old English words could be interpreted as loan-translations of Scandinavian
terms, as seen from such specialist vocabulary items as bǀtlƝas (meaning: ‘what
cannot be compensated’) or landcƝap (‘the tax paid when land was bought’).
(^3) For example, note such prefixes of Latin origin as counter–, dis–, trans–, etc.
(Baugh and Cable 2002: 169).
(^4) Examples may be quoted here of such Middle English hybrids made of a French
root and an English affix (marked in bold) as chasthed (meaning ‘chastity’) or
overpraising, which had appeared before the middle of the 13th century (Baugh and
Cable 2002: 166).
(^5) For example, battle (or, to be more precise, its M.E. form, batayle, which was
first recorded in 1297 – see the OED) had combined with ax (O.E. æx) already
before the end of the 14th century (Baugh and Cable 2002: 166).