Лексикология английского языка

Grammatical adaptation consists in a complete change of the former paradigm of the borrowed word (i.e. system of the grammatical forms peculiar to it as a part of speech). If it is a noun, it is certain to adopt a new system of declension; if it is a verb, it will be conjugated according to the rules of the recipient language. Yet, this is a lasting process. The Russian noun пальто was borrowed from French early in the 19th c. and has not yet acquired the Russian system of declension. The same can be said about such Renaissance borrowings as datum (pl. data), phenomenon (pl. phenomena) whereas earlier Latin borrowings such as cup, plum, street, wall were fully adapted to the grammatical system of the language long ago.

By semantic adaptation is meant adjustment to the system of meanings of the vocabulary. It has been mentioned that borrowing is generally caused either by the necessity to fill a gap in the vocabulary or by a chance to add a synonym conveying an old concept in a new way. Yet, the process of borrowing is not always so purposeful, logical and efficient as it might seen at first sight. Sometimes a word may be borrowed for no obvious reason – there is no gap in the vocabulary nor in the group of synonyms. The adjective gay was borrowed from French in several meanings at once: “noble of birth”, “bright, shining”, “multi-coloured”. Rather soon it shifted its ground developing the meaning “joyful, high-spirited” in which sense it became a synonym of the native merry. This change was caused by the process of semantic adjustment: there was no place in the vocabulary for the former meanings of gay, but the group with the general meaning of “high spirits” obviously lacked certain shades which were supplied by gay.

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