This thesis explores the factors and methods contributing to the expansion of the English lexicon

Аннотация

This thesis explores the factors and methods contributing to the expansion of the English lexicon. It delves into the role of modern technology in the creation of new words, examines linguists' estimates of the number of active words in the English language, and provides recommendations for learners of English as a foreign language. Key words: Frequency, Corpus, CEFR, borrowed words, archaic words, technical words. The rapid advancements in technology and the interconnected world have led to constant evolution in human thought and language, especially in the vocabulary of people from different cultures. As obsolete words and definitions become outdated, they are replaced by new terms. The English language, in particular, is enriched primarily through external sources. The internet and social media have exponentially accelerated the spread of new words and phrases, often outpacing the ability of lexicographers to provide alternatives. While the language also grows through internal processes, such as word formation, it’s the external influences that have had the most significant impact on the English lexicon. Based on this, we can create compound words such as sunflower, waterfall, toothbrush, and notebook; add derivational affixes to the root words, such as national, employee, development, and safety; blend two words by mixing certain syllables, resulting in terms like brunch (breakfast + lunch), smog (smoke + fog), hangry (hungry + angry), and motel (motor + hotel). We also have abbreviations like BBC, UNO, and WHO, as well as the clipping of syllables from the front or back of words, such as phone (from telephone), gym (from gymnastics), gas (from gasoline), ad (from advertisement), and lab (from laboratory). The placement of stress at the beginning or end of a word can change its meaning: if the first syllable carries the stress, the word tends to belong to the adjective category (e.g., perfect meaning "flawless"); if the stress falls at the end of the word, it can change the meaning to that of a verb (e.g., perfect meaning "to improve or refine"). In the computer age, the introduction of new technical words and terms into English has accelerated. Interestingly, about half a century ago, most people were not familiar with the technical terms related to current information technologies, such as Wi-Fi, chat bot, GPT, and biohacking. The English vocabulary is also enriched through loanwords from other languages. The majority of loanwords come from Latin and French. Below, you can see a table with examples of some loanwords. 20 ILM-FAN VA INNOVATSIYA ILMIY-AMALIY KONFERENSIYASI in-academy.uz/index.php/si Table 1 Word Etimology (Origin) algebra Arabic pizza Italian kindergarten German et cetera Latin ballet French In English, a "word" is not limited to just a single word, as there are many combinations of words that consist of more than one word. However, in general, to determine the quantity of vocabulary in this language, we often refer to dictionaries, and the primary focus is placed on counting the head words. The well-known Oxford Dictionary contains over 300,000 head words. Interestingly, not all of these words are actively used today. The Webster Dictionary, on the other hand, has information indicating that there are nearly five hundred thousand head words. In fact, many lexicographers and linguists have provided their estimates based on their analyses regarding the total number of words in the English language. According to Plag’s calculations (1: 4p.), there are between 45,000 and 60,000 words in the English language. Crystal (2: 426p.) states that educated speakers use over 50,000 active words and can understand the meanings of more than 75,000 words without difficulty. In contrast, Nation and Webb (3: 38p.) report a significantly lower number of active words (around 20,000). They focus more on commonly used words in their count. Therefore, it is very challenging to state the exact number of words in the vocabulary. From this perspective, linguists are currently compelled to utilize corpus databases. The vocabulary of the English corpus has been enriched through written texts found in the media, including newspapers, journals, novels, and various television shows. According to Lich (4: 9p.), the British National Corpus (BNC) comprises a coverage of one hundred million words, with more than five hundred thousand words used three times or less within the corpus. One hundred twenty-four thousand words are used ten times or more. Based on the above statistics, it can be said that language users and experts utilize approximately 50,000 words or word combinations. O’Keeffe and others (5: 32p.) provide information about the 2,000 most common words in the Cambridge International Corpus (CIC). These words account for 83 percent of an entire corpus. In other words, the 2,000 high- frequency words are used more frequently than the total number of words in the corpus. A language learner who knows at least this