Semantic Changes
Plan:
Page:
Foreword………………………………………………………………………………....3
Chapter I. Semantic changes. Types of Semantic changes……………………………... 4
Definition………………………………………………… ……… … ……….4
Metaphor………………………………………………………………………7
Metonymy……………………………………………………………………...9
Other types of Semantic changes…………………………………………….. 10
Chapter II. Causes of semantic change…...……………………………………… … …12
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………15
Literature…………………………………………………………………………...……16
FOREWORD
The meaning of a word can change in the course of time. Changes of
lexical meanings can be proved by comparing contexts of different times.
Transfer of the meaning is called lexico-semantic word-building. In such
cases the outer aspect of a word does not change.
The causes of semantic changes can be extra-linguistic and linguistic,
e.g. the change of the lexical meaning of the noun «pen» was due to extra-
linguistic causes. Primarily «pen» comes back to the Latin word «penna»
(a feather of a bird). As people wrote with goose pens the name was
transferred to steel pens which were later on used for writing. Still
later any instrument for writing was called « a pen».
On the other hand causes can be linguistic, e.g. the conflict of
synonyms when a perfect synonym of a native word is borrowed from some
other language one of them may specialize in its meaning, e.g. the noun
«tide» in Old English was polisemantic and denoted «time», «season»,
«hour». When the French words «time», «season», «hour» were borrowed into
English they ousted the word «tide» in these meanings. It was specialized
and now means «regular rise and fall of the sea caused by attraction of
the moon». The meaning of a word can also change due to ellipsis, e.g.
the word-group «a train of carriages» had the meaning of «a row of
carriages», later on «of carriages» was dropped and the noun «train»
changed its meaning, it is used now in the function and with the meaning
of the whole word-group.
Semantic changes have been classified by different scientists. The
most complete classification was suggested by a German scientist Herman
Paul in his work «Prinzipien des Sprachgeschichte». It is based on the
logical principle. He distiguishes two main ways where the semantic
change is gradual ( specialization and generalization), two momentary
conscious semantic changes (metaphor and metonymy) and also secondary
ways: gradual (elevation and degradation), momentary (hyperbole and
litote).
CHAPTER I. SEMANTIC CHANGES. TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGES.
1. Definition.
The development and change of the semantic structure of a word is always
a source of qualitative and quantitative development of the vocabulary.
All the types discussed depend upon some comparison between the earlier
(whether extinct or still in use) and the new meaning of the given word.
This comparison may be based on the difference between notions expressed or
referents in the real world that are pointed out, on the type of
psychological association at work, on evaluation of the latter by the
speaker or, possibly, on some other feature.
The order in which various types are described will follow more or less
closely the diachronic classifications of M. Breal and H. Paul. No attempt
at a new classification is considered necessary. There seems to be no point
in augmenting the number of unsatisfactory schemes already offered in
literature. The treatment is therefore traditional.
M. Breal was probably the first to emphasize the fact that in passing
from general usage into some special sphere of communication a word as a
rule undergoes some sort of specialisation of its meaning. The word case,
for instance, alongside its general meaning of 'circumstances in which a
person or a thing is' possesses special meanings: in law ('a law suit'), in
grammar (e.g. the Possessive case), in medicine ('a patient', 'an
illness'). Compare the following:
One of Charles's cases had been a child ill with a form of diphtheria.
(C. P. SNOW) (case = a patient).
The Solicitor whom I met at the Holfords’ sent me a case which any
young man at my stage would have thought himself lucky to get. (Idem) (case
= a question decided, in a court of law, a law suit)
The general, not specialized meaning is also very frequent in present-
day English. For example: At last we tiptoed up the broad slippery
staircase, and went to our rooms. But in my case not to sleep, immediately
at least. (Idem) (case = circumstances in which one is)
This difference is revealed in the difference of contexts in which these
words occur, in their different valency. Words connected with illnesses and
medicine in the first example, and words connected with law and court
procedures in the second, form the semantic paradigm of the word case.
The word play suggests different notions to a child, a playwright, a
footballer, a musician or a chess-player and has in their speech different
semantic paradigms. The same applies to the noun cell as used by a
biologist, an electrician, a nun or a representative of the law; or the
word gas as understood by a chemist, a housewife, a motorist or a miner.
In all the examples considered above a word which formerly represented a
notion of a broader scope has come to render a notion of a narrower scope.
When the meaning is specialized, the word can name fewer objects, i.e. have
fewer referents. At the same time the content of the notion is being
enriched, as it includes -a greater number of relevant features by which
the notion is characterized. Or as St. Ullmann puts it: "The word is now
applicable to more things but tells us less about them." The reduction of
scope accounts for the term "narrowing of the meaning" which is even more
often used than the term "specialization". We shall avoid the term
"narrowing", since it is somewhat misleading. Actually it is neither the
meaning nor the notion, but the scope of the notion that .is narrowed.
There is also a third term for the same phenomenon, namely
"differentiation", but it is not so widely used as the first two terms.
H. Paul, as well as many other authors, emphasizes the fact that this
type of semantic change is particularly frequent in vocabulary of
professional and trade groups.
H. Paul's examples are from the German language but it is very easy to
find parallel cases in English. So this type of change is fairly universal
and fails to disclose any specifically English properties.
The best known examples of specialization in the general language are as
follows: OE d?or 'wild beast' > ModE deer 'wild rum,inant of a particular
species' (the original meaning was still alive in Shakespeare's time as is
proved by the following quotation: Rats and mice and such small deer); OE
mete 'food' >ModE meat 'edible flesh', i.e. only a particular species of
food (the earlier meaning is still noticeable in the compound sweetmeat).
This last example deserves special attention because the tendency of fixed
context to preserve the original meaning is very marked as is constantly
proved by various examples. Other well-worn examples are: OE fuзol 'bird'
(cf. Germ Vogel) > ModE foal 'domestic birds'. The old, meaning is still
preserved in poetic diction and in set expressions, like fowls of the air.
Among its derivatives, fowler means 'a person who shoots or traps wild
birds for sport or food'; the shooting or trapping itself is called
fowling; a fowling piece is a gun. OE hund 'dog' (cf. . Germ Hund) >hound
'a species of hunting dog'. Many words connected with literacy also show
similar changes: thus, teach
Numerous cases of metaphoric transfer are based upon the analogy between
duration of time and space, e.g. long distance:: long- speech; a short
path :: a short time. The transfer of space relations upon psychological
and mental notions may be exemplified by words and expressions concerned
with understanding: to catch (to grasp) an idea; to take a hint; , to get
the hang of; to throw light upon.
This metaphoric change from the concrete to the abstract is also
represented in such simple words as score, span, thrill. Score comes from
OE scoru 'twenty' from ON skor 'twenty' and also 'notch'. In OE time
notches were cut on sticks to keep a reckoning. As score is cognate with
shear, it is very probable that the meaning developed from the twentieth
notch that was made of a larger size. From the meaning 'line' or 'notch cut
or scratched down' many new meanings sprang out, such as 'number of points
made by a player or a side in some games', 'running account', 'a debt',
'written or printed music', etc. Span from OE spann 'maximum distance
between the tips of thumb and little finger used as a measure of length',
came to mean 'full extent from end to end' (of a bridge, an arch, etc.) and
'a short distance'. Thrill from ME thriven 'to pierce' developed into the
present meaning 'to penetrate with emotion'.
Another subgroup of metaphors comprises transitions of proper names into
common ones: an Adonis, a Cicero, a Don Juan, etc. When a proper name like
Falstaff is used referring specifically to the hero of Shakespeare's plays
it has a unique reference. But when people speak of a person they know
calling him Falstaff they make a proper name generic for a corpulent,
jovial, irrepressibly impudent person and it no longer denotes a unique
being. Cf. Don Juan as used about attractive profligates. To certain races
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