Major trends of lexical changes in the modern English language

Potapova Olga

The purpose of the current research is to describe main issues of lexical peculiarities of the modern English language and major changes which occurred in this sphere under the influence of extra linguistic factors that explain frequency of usage and specific features of functioning of particular lexical units. The article deals with the lexical units which are characterized as the most frequently used in the English language, comments on semantic peculiarities of the revealed units. Using the methods of component analysis, descriptive and statistical technique allows to determine the key characteristics typical for these units, namely their capability to semantic transformations. The described peculiarities which cause structural changes of the lexical semantic field “disease” in the modern English language are represented not only on the material of the Oxford Dictionary but also scientific and media discourse. The research of the material has determined the main factors influencing lexical changes of the modern English language.

Keywords:corpus linguistics, media discourse, lexical units, lexical-semantic field, meaning, term, contamination.