Distribution of the Constituents along the Scale ‘Familiar / Alien’
Areas of grasslands
The land with no signs of ownership
Desert tracts of barren land covered in various vegetation
Endemic flora and fauna species
Anthropological features of the natives
Flat, arid land
Cultural beliefs, practices and traditions
Indigenous people’s nomadic way of life
Establishing of a hierarchy in the system of values. Of primary importance was the apprehension of the continent as ‘terranullius’, open for squatting. In this context, the state of the land and weather conditions as well as local flora and fauna are the next in order of significance. Indigenous people as a whole turned out to be on the periphery of this scale of values.
Setting apart a core indicium. Taking into consideration the fact that those were basic life necessities that the first settlers were preoccupied with, it is evident that the only conceptually relevant factor was the degree of applicability and availability of a certain territory for life sustaining. As a result a dichotomy ‘seashore grassland fit for cultivation versus the unsettled territory beyond this rather narrow strip covered in natural vegetation’ developed in the conceptual system of the newcomers to the Australian continent. It was the notion of no man’s land that constituted the nucleus of the nascent concept.
Elaboration of a VD. The analysis of the data [9; 19; 22; 44; 45; 47] gives ground to build a horizontal structure of the emerging VD which sooner represents the amount of conceptual space occupied by the comprising notions than their relationships.
Fig. 6. Structure of the VD
(the end of the eighteenth– the beginning of the twentieth century)
With the elaboration of the VD the process of conceptualization / internalization, which in this case consisted in the acceptance of the land as habitat, approached its concluding stage.
Verbalization of the VD and concept generation
In this particular case the internal resources were used to name the land contrasting a consuetudinary landscape – lexeme bush.
There seems to be a number of extra-linguistic and linguistic reasons explaining the choice.
Among the former, of principal importance was a resemblance, though faint, of the land in Australia to the uncultivated plots of land in England, an analogy between shrubby areas at home and untilled land in Australia, among the latter – the etymological, and semantic characteristics of the lexeme bush.
Etymology reveals a complex structure of the lexeme bush semantics which comprises three main elements – bush + thicket + firewood (see bush sb in ). Besides, there is an opinion (Hughes, 1989), that the meaning of the SAfE term bush, n. and adj in its first meaning ‘the thick vegetation covering any uncultivated area’, which was first recorded in written sources in 1698 (Silva, 1996) could have influenced semantics of bush in Australian English. I do not see valid reasons for such an estimation as, although the first meaning in SAfE was first recorded in 1698, it was registered in The Oxford English Dictionary as the meaning first recorded in BrE in 1780 which makes its being an integral component of the first settlers’ vocabulary most improbable; besides the most Australian meaning of this concept – ‘undeveloped, largely uninhabited country’ was first recorded in SAfE in 1829 and in AuE in 1803 (see Table 2). Thus, the conjecture of independent development of the term bush in AuE appears rather plausible.Complicated was the semantic structure of the lexeme bush in English of the eighteenth century that made this lexeme a potential derivational basis:
Bush, sb, A shrub <…>; a small clump of shrubs apparently forming one plant (1250); in northern dialects extended to sub-shrubs…(1529); † collectively A clump of shrubs, a thicket, bushy ground (1523); † a. A clump of shrubs used as a place of concealment (1330), b. begga’s-bush (1600); a. A branch or bunchy of ivy (…) hung up as a vintner’s sign; hence the sign-board of a tavern (1532); b. hence the tavern itself (1625); † anything resembling a bush (1513); A bushy head of hair – (1509); † A bushy tail, esp. of a fox (1575). Colonial meaning functions since 1780 .
Apparently, juxtaposition of the first settlers’ perception of the new land with the semantics of the lexeme bush lead to the development of the new meanings represented in Table 2.
Chronology of the Development of the Lexeme Bush in Australia (First Stage)
Date of the first recording
Natural vegetation of any kind
A tract of land covered in such vegetation
Country which remains in its natural state
Country which has not been settled or which resisted settlement
In phrases with verbs of motion, esp. to take (to) the bush
a) Orig. of convicts: to escape from custody or justice; b) to run away; c) (of animals) to run wild
Note: The source of the data is . Segmentations of period are based on the analyses of the English lexis development in Australia carried out in .
Comparative analysis reveals the directions of semantic transformation of the BrE lexeme bush which led to the configuring of its specificity in AuE.
Fig. 7. Dynamics of the development of the lexeme bush in AuE (first stage)
The central part of the diagram illustrates the type of relationships among the meaning of the BrE lexeme bush which served the basis of semantic derivation for Australian meanings. The figures around it demonstrate the relationships of Australian meanings of the lexeme bush with those in BrE and among themselves.
In that period, 2 lexical items were formed – bushranger and bush native. The first one belongs to the domains of ‘people’, ‘way of life’, ‘criminal’, ‘hardships’ and appear semantically connected with the semantic components of ‘bush’ associated with “Abri”. The second one, belongs to the domains of ‘people’ and, supposedly, with the semantic component “country which remains in its natural state”.
Comparison of the corollary of the VD elaboration with the results of its linguistic representation reveals the discrepancy between the results of a new entity apperception, its cognitive processing by the speech community and the results of verbalization.
The explanation might be found in the fact that while apperception and cognition are limited only by the degree of penetration into the essence of the entity perceived, verbalization is also restricted by the linguistic constraints.
In this particular case it concerns such components of VD as local people and weather which became an integral part of the concept bush without formal semantic representation in the lexeme and only one derivative word for local people..
In the course of further apperception and cognition of the new world the process of re-conceptualization comes to the front but it was the Australian concept bush that was re-conceptualized.
The gradual phase of the English language adaptation in Australia (see Figure 3).
Apperception of a new aspect of the entity. As the new settlers searched the interior parts of the country and settled down in the bush the initial vision was expanding. This expansion was determined by both better understanding of the reality and by more intensive utilization of it. Parallel to squatting in the interior regions, the settlers were developing urban culture under more congenial conditions of the seashore. Accordingly, the interior parts – the bush, where sheep breeding was the main occupation – were opposed to the more civilized city regions with their more sophisticated mode of life.
Formation of new notions. Consequently, in the nineteenth century a number of new notions indicating the ongoing exploration evolved. Among them the notions of country, rural dwellers, rural life were the first. Their offshoots included hard life, traditional life, rural. As life in the interior areas was assessed in comparison with that in the growing cities, the notions of leave the town, to escape developed. There also developed a number of notions related to indigenous people: not white, traditional life. The notion natural vegetation was supplemented with the implication of indigenous and the perception of flora & fauna as a source of food and materials. Hardships of life in the bush which reduced human demand to basic necessities promoted the development of such notions as simple, improvised (of artifacts) and unsophisticated (of people), worthless, unmarketable (of animals).
Assessment of the new notions in terms of relevant / irrelevant. The very fact that the new notions developed proves that they all were of certain relevance for the speech community. However, the degree of significance varied from the highest in rural life to the lowest in traditional life.
Launching of the new notions into the existing structure. It is generally accepted that the new entities enter the periphery of the conceptual world and language system. But with the development of the concept bush it was not the case. Perhaps, due to the exceptional importance of the bush for the life of the community as a whole (whether in the city or in the bush) the new notions instantly became “legitimate” element of the concept bush. I drew this conclusion from the analysis of the literature as well as the investigation of the derivatives of the lexeme bush in AuE. They revealed that though the perception of the bush as a vast territory covered in abundance of vegetation retained its position in the structure of the concept, new social aspects of the concept were proliferating rapidly.
Reorganization of the hierarchy. At this stage, with the first stations being started, the incipience of a new culture in the interior parts characterized further exploration and utilization of the continent. Accordingly, the system of values was transforming and those were the notions of (unknown) country and the hardships of life in it that appeared on the top of the hierarchy; the nature, mainly the flora which served a source of food and materials, was the next most important notion. At this very time the bush and the life there receive derogatory evaluation as being simple and unsophisticated. Corresponding notions, along with those associated with the life of indigenous people, occupied the periphery of the VD structure.
Selection of a new core indicium (optional). Consequently, it was the notion of hard life in unknown country (with all its attributes) that triggered the process of the VD structure reorganization. As a result, a notion of adventurous exploratory life substituted the initial core indicium of no man’s land and the following transformations in the VD occurred.
Fig. 8. Development of the VD structure in the nineteenth century
(Re-)verbalization of the VD and Concept Modification
As transformations of the VD were not only quantitative but also and primarily qualitative different scenarios of verbalization were possible, however, as all the new notions that developed in the nineteenth century were basically but the augmentation of the original ones, language response consisted in variability extension via semantic derivation. Its course and results are represented in Figure 9.
As was the case with the initial phase of adaptation, here again lexeme bush lags behind the VD in the coverage of all its aspects. Perhaps, to overcome the discrepancy other adaptation strategies were employed parallel to the expansion of the semantics of the lexeme bush: compound words and derivatives were coined by means of which different features of life in the bush were specified. In the same way endemic species of flora and fauna got their names.
During this period, 90 lexical items were formed: bushranging, bush bread, bushman (n.z.), (see meanings), bush constable, bush land, bush-road, bush-fare, bush fare, bush it, take to the bush , bush fence, bush hut, bush black, bush life, bushfire, bush-labourer, bush labour, bush-bread cattle , bush-duty, range the bush, bush traveler, bush lawyer, bush dress, bush track, bush house, bush style, bush-bread, bushranger, bush feed, bush carpenter, bush-horse, bush servant, bushy, bush-knife, bush fashion, bushie , bush-traveling, bush traveling, bushed , bush blanket, bush biscuit, bushing, bush timber, bush walk, bush work, bush-bed, bush song, bush camp, v, bush-yard, bush-poet, bush paddock, bush’ costume, bush inn, saltbush plain, bushmanship, bush-riding, bush tea, bush-riding, bush-bread, adj (e.g. ~youths), bush girl, bush-rider, bush hands (prisoners), bush-rider, bush-school, bush-farmer, bush-fever, saltbush flat, bush hospitality, bushranger, bush bellows, bush boys, bush sports, saltbush country, bush-carpenting, bush mile, bush lore, bushmanlike, bush missionary, bush telegraph, bush hotel, bushmen’s home, bush experience, bush-craft.7 terms of fauna – bush kangaroo, bush-devil, bush turkey, bush fly, bushman's clock, bush rat, bushlark, and 10 flora terms – Christmas bush, bush hay, bush-grass, bush lawyer, daisy-bush, apple bush, saltbush, hopbush, cottonbush, bluebush – were formed, too.
Fig. 9.Dynamics of the development of the lexeme bush in AuE (second stage)
Indicative of the dynamics of adaptation is the fact that 70 lexical items belong to the domains “people”, “way of life”.
All these developments enriched the concept and modified its structure in the direction of social aspects prevalence over material.
As the bush retains significance for Australian way of life and mentality the process of re-conceptualization continues while adaptation enters its permanent phase .
The permanent phase of the English language adaptation in Australia (see figure 4).
Inthe result of circumstantiation and amplification of the notions constituting the concept, adjustment and re-adjustment of the concept to the changing reality, re-analysis of the significance of notions in the existent structure and re-assessment of the hierarchy the structure of VD experienced transformations. In the contemporary structure social aspects dominate over material which is totally reflected in the semantics of lexeme bush. With the word-nest bush material taken into consideration, this fact becomes even more prominent.
Fig. 10. Contemporary structure of the VD
Language responds to this course of development with its own resources as shown in Figure 11.
Fig. 11. Dynamics of the development of the lexeme bush in AuE (third stage)
During this period 89 lexical items were formed: bush cook, bushman’s bible, bush shower, bush capital, out bush adv. adj., bushfire, brigade, Sydney or the bush, bushwhackery, bush town, bush township, bush walking, bushman's breakfast, bush bash, v., bush week, bush pub, bush telegraphy, bush picnic, bush telegraph, v, bush telegram, bush shanty, bush pickles, bush-tucker, bush-bash, bush-bashing, go bush, bush eye, bush ballad, bushman's cement, bush-bass, bush remnant, bush honey, bush persons, bush-faller, bushie n., bush worker, bush liar, bush contingent, bush brother, bush mad, bushfire blond, bush happy, bush-‘ead, bastard from the bush, bush telegraphist, bush oysters, bush madness, bushfire fighters, bushpig, bush basher, bush-balladists, bush brotherhood, bushwhacker, bushranger, bushwalker, bush bass, bush beat, bush nurse. Again, 49 lexical items belong to the domains “people”, “way of life”. The following fauna (bush-mouse, bush-tick, kangaroo bush, bush canary, salt-bush snake, bush cat) and flora (dillon bush, emu bush, old-man saltbush, turpentine bush, cattle bush, milk-bush, caustic bush, mint-bush, pin bush, smoke-bush, ellangowan poison bush, bladder saltbush, buck bush, mustard bush, turkey bush, creeping saltbush, wedding bush, poverty bush, bush apple, tickbush, witchetty bush, bush cucumber, poison-bush, mimosa bush, punty bush, quinine bush) terms were formed, too.
It is evident that in the course of evolution significance of the notions comprising concept bush for Australians was transforming. While at the early stages the notions of vegetation and land dominated in its structure, gradually the accents shifted from natural to social components that reflects the new stage of re-conceptualization and proves the thesis of the permanent character of language adaptation. The development of the terminology of flora and fauna not only in the early but also in the later periods does not contradict this point of view as these terms reflect not the exploration of the new habitat but the way of life of the ethnic group.
To the best of my understanding at this stage of the research, the essence of the English language transformation into a pluricentric entity consists in the transmutation of the variation type from a centered (around the literary standard) type into non-centered type. The mechanisms involved in this process are the mechanisms of adaptation that comprises at least three complex adaptive systems – language, ethnic group, and their habitat. “Pluricentrization” is the result of their mutual adaptation and co-evolution. The activity of the adaptation mechanisms provides step by step internalization of the new reality in such a way that every innovation is accreted with the native conceptual and lingual flesh. Operation of the adaptation mechanisms mostly in accordance with the internalized scheme is one of the major factors of the language system preservation within the limits of its homeostasis.
I believe that this methodology not only reveals some aspects of the contemporary stage of the evolution of English but also contributes to the understanding of the mechanisms of language evolution as such.
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