Role of borrowings (loan-words) in different languages is different and it depends fully on language development historical conditions. Borrowings’ ratio in the English language is much more than in any other language: due to some historical reasons it appeared to be more penetrative. The English language had borrowed foreign words in the conditions of the direct contacts because of the numerous foreign invasion England suffered from. Trade expansions and colonial activity of the Englishmen themselves contributed to the process of borrowings greatly. The number of purely English words comprises only 30%. So, some researchers have prescribed more meaning to the borrowings, as it ought to be and even considered the English language not a German, but a Roman-German language. According to this point of view the mixed character of English lexis was treatedas the most important feature of the language. English language lexicology was focused on the problems of borrowings.

Any language influences another language always due to the historical fact: wars, conquests, voyages, trade and so on bring language to a more close contact. Borrowings intensiveness is different in different periods. It may increase or decrease in a certain historical periods. Language factors is the major argument when one speaks about influence of one language on another. It depends on the fact if the language are closelyrelated or not.

The sours of borrowing is not the only interest of the nowadays, they are also interested in the words’ assimilation, what grammatical and phonetic changes it has undergone, how it changed its meaning and particularly what stylistic changes followed its appearance in the borrowing language.

According to the greatest Russian linguist A.A. Potebnya there is no difference from which language a word was borrowed but what changed, what was created as a result of activity, induced by corresponding impulse in the process of borrowing a word from the other nation. But his opinion didn’t meet recognition.

References:

1. Norman Moss British – American Language Dictionary. Passport Book, Lincolnwood, Illinois USA. 1984

2. Celse – Murcia M., ed. (1995). Teaching English as the second or foreign language. Heinle & Heinle Publishers, Boston, Massachusetts.

3. Emerson, Ralph Waldo (2006), The Classics of Style: The Fundamentals of Language Style from our American Craftsmen, the 1st ed., The American Academic Press.

4. A.A. Potebnya «Теоретическая поэтика»— М.: Правда, 1989