Pramogų teikėjų ir atlikėjų profesijų pavadinimai senojoje anglų kalboje: ištakos ir vartojimo aspektai
Middle English Names of Professional Entertainers: Origin and Aspects of Usage

Summary/Abstract: The relevance of the research is due to the need for a comprehensive study of the Middle English vocabulary, in particular of occupational terms as its subsystem. The article is devoted to the general purpose of the study of the etymological composition and functional differentiation of the thematic group of Middle English names of professional entertainers. The investigation of the functional differentiation of the Middle English occupational terms is based on the principles of the historical approach. Middle English occupational terms are distributed into two classes – common names (in their classifying function) and proper names, especially family names (in the function of identification of the person as the component additional to the personal name in the personal nomination formulas). Within each etymological group of vocabulary we distribute the lexical material according to the functional principle and distinguish three groups of occupational terms: those functioning exclusively as common nouns; those functioning exclusively as proper names in the personal nomination formulas; those functioning as common names as well as proper names. According to the functional principle of the distribution of the vocabulary and on quantitative calculations we draw the conclusions about the degree of sustainability of the usage of borrowed occupational terms: we consider English words, loan-blends as well as the assimilated borrowings that functioned as the common names and proper names to be the words with the established (settled) usage; we consider English words, loan-blends and the assimilated borrowings that existed only as the proper name in the nomination formula to be the words with the unsettled usage; we consider English words, loan-blends and the assimilated borrowings that existed exclusively as common names to be the words with the restricted usage. It was found out that functional differentiation of the vocabulary is different in English and borrowed occupational terms. Data obtained in the study under review are valuable as the constituent part of the comprehensive study of the origin and usage of Middle English vocabulary.

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