LEXICAL FEATURES OF IRISH LANGUAGE INTERFERENCE IN ENGLISH-LANGUAGE FICTION

Abstract

The article presents the results of establishing the main regularities of Irish lexical interference in English-language fiction. The essence of the concept of language interference is outlined and its nature is characterized at the level of lexical means created by means of borrowings, calques of words and phrases, changes in the meaning of lexical units and their usage as well as functional substitution of multilingual lexical units. The peculiarities of Irish language interference in fiction are considered on the basis of the works of the famous Irish writer James Joyce, whose work falls on the period when interest in the Irish language and literature was combined with the need to preserve the Irish language in the conditions of its decline, which clearly demonstrates the peculiarities of the Irish influence on the English language. The lexical means of manifestation of Irish language interference are analyzed on the example of the novels Ulysses and Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man as well as the collection of short stories Dubliners. The analysis has revealed that Irish vocabulary was most often used in the period under study to denote different types of realities, in particular, to characterize objects of physical geography and landscape, people, national dishes and drinks, social and political life, etc. It is emphasized that the vast majority of used realities are represented by onomastic realities and toponyms denoting administrative-territorial units and names of settlements. Typical examples of lexical items that occur in everyday speech and take the form of emotional interjections and words of politeness in dialogues are given. An interesting type of foreign language borrowing, such as the calquing of Irish language constructions, is considered separately.