Abstract:
English owns the most abundant vocabulary among the world’s languages because of its openness and inclusiveness. In Modern English we can find loan words such as Latin, Greek, German, French, Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish and even Chinese vocabulary, the majority of which is French. An encyclopedia has mentioned that the English language owes a lot of debts. Any English dictionary has 80% loan words and half of them were borrowed from French. From the history of the United Kingdom, English and French languages have co-existed for quite a long time, and the two countries have communicated closely. Therefore, the inter-influence between the two languages is inevitable. The influx of French words is not finished in a short time. In Old, Middle and Modern English, we can easily find borrowed words. Why is the influence of French on English so great? It is closely related to a series of historical events and the social background. The best known historical event is the Norman Conquest which took place in 1066. But in fact, the influence of French on English has never stopped. And the words from French in each century have their own characteristics. This paper introduces the influence of French on English vocabulary in detail.

Key words: French; influence; English; vocabulary

摘要：
英语是世界上词汇最为丰富的语言。英语词汇之所以如此丰富，主要归功于它的开放性和包容性。现代英语中有拉丁语、古希腊语、德语、法语、阿拉伯语、葡萄牙语、西班牙语，甚至包括汉语在内的东方语言的词汇。在众多的外来词中，法语的词汇数量最多。一本百科全书中曾提到过，英语这门语言有大量的外债，任何一本英语词典里都有80%的词条是借用其它语言得来的，而其中有一半是法语词。从英国的历史上看，英、法两种语言一起并存了相当长的一段时间，两国也一直有着密切的联系，因而两种语言的相互影响不可避免。法语单词的涌入并非一朝一夕，在古代英语、中世纪英语、现代英语中我们都可以找到发语词。法语之所以对英语的影响如此之大，是和每个时期的历史事件和当时的社会背景紧密相连的。其中最为我们所熟知的就是发生在1066 年的诺曼底征服了。但事实上，法语对英语词汇的影响在历史上从来没有停止过。而且有趣的是，从11 世纪起的每个百年中进入英语词汇的法语词都有各自的特点。本文概述了不同时期进入英语的法语词。

关键词：法语；影响；英语；词汇

1    Introduction
English as an international language is spoken as a mother tongue by the people in the British Isles, Canada, the USA, Australia and New Zealand. Besides, it is a second language for many other countries such as India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sikkim and some African states, where it is used as an official language in government and education (Feng, 2002: 9). Furthermore, it is learned as a foreign language by people in many other countries. The vocabulary of Modern English commonly used today is complex, versatile and open. Because the most commonly used English words today include a multitude of words from all periods of history, and almost every other language. The English language has been enriched by its extensive borrowings.