Linguistics lexicon handout
These
take two principal forms: A loanword is a word in one language taken from another
language (e.g. English chair, table, restaurant, gateau from French; note that the first two feel
less foreign than the second two, primarily because they were borrowed much earlier and
have adapted in various ways to the phonological patterns of English). A calque is a word in
one language that is based on a corresponding word in another language, formed by
translating the subparts of the original word into the borrowing language. The classic
example is English marriage of convenience based on French mariage de convenance.
There are various other kinds of foreign influences on vocabulary. A loanshift is a change in
the meaning or use of a word in one language based on the meaning or use of a similar-
sounding word in another language. Also, languages that borrow heavily from a single
annaabi.ee 
