Download SEMANTIC CHANGES

PRACTICAL SESSION 1
1. LINGUISTIC AND EXTRA-LINGUISTIC CAUSES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE
Semantic change is a form of language change regarding the evolution of word usage – usually to the
point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage.
The factors accounting for semantic changes may be subdivided into two main groups:
 extralinguistic causes
 linguistic cases
Extra-linguistic causes of semantic change
Semantic change is likely to take place due to historical causes with appearance of a new denotatum – a
new object or concept. To make it clear, the word core which original meaning is ‘horny capsule containing
seeds of apple, pear, etc. ‘developed a new meaning ‘bar of soft iron forming center of electro-magnet or
induction coil’ due to technological innovation in electrical engineering. The screen of a fire-place
developed a new function in the magic lantern, and then transferred its name onto new concepts like TV
screen and telescreen. Terms are most representative of the changes of the sort
(cf. antennae, pilot, cabin, mouse, etc.).
Semantic change can be connected with the change of concept of the existing thing. For example,
before the 19th century the idea of some small thing was rendered by the word atom (an atom of a girl).
Progress in physics conditioned change of the concept and the word atom got its new meaning ‘supposed
ultimate particle or matter’. The change of concept of the thing led to the change of meaning of the
word probe, originally it meant ‘surgical instrument for exploring wound’, then – ‘an instrument for
exploring outer space (lunar probe)’.
One more cause of the semantic change is the change of the denotatum. The verb to sail of Modern
English means ‘smooth movement in space, travel over, glide through’, though it used to be connected with
movement over water on a vessel by use of sails. The change of the way of movement first over water, then
over land and air caused the semantic change of the verb. Hand mills were used for grinding grain to make
flour turned into a building fitted with machinery for the same purposes, which influenced the meaning of
the words mill. Hospice used to mean ‘a house of rest for travelers, especially one kept by religious order’,
now it means ‘a nursing home that specializes in caring for the terminally ill’.
In case of social causes, a word acquires a new meaning due to its use by a particular social group, or a
word used in a specific sense by some group comes into common currency with an extended meaning. If the
narration is about the past centuries, abolitionist is a person seeking the abolition of Negro slavery, and if the
situation concerns modern age, this word is applied to one who advocates the abolition of capital
punishment. Thus, being used in youths’ speech the following words got their new slang
meanings: bread (money), drag (tedious, boring thing), gas (a delightful thing), funky (exciting, cool).
It is quite obvious that localities and groups of people have their own specialized associations for words
that otherwise may convey a broader meaning. Pipe, for example, calls up different ideas in the mind of a
smoker, a plumber, an organist and a geologist. Ring may be thought of in connection with jewelry, opera,
politics, boxing, basketball, circus. On the other hand, many economic or religious terms tend to get
popularized, for example, office got the meaning “the official daily church service” which later extended to
“a room or set of rooms in which business, professional duties, clerical work, etc., are carried out”.
Psychological causes figure largely in taboo and euphemism. When a common word gathers social
disapproval it becomes a taboo. Euphemism (from Greek ео – ‘beautiful’, phemo – ‘speech’) is a word or
phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a conventionally more acceptable one. It’s more
psychologically acceptable to use growth instead of cancer, inoperable instead of fatal and the like. In the
course of time new euphemisms are created to substitute the previous ones and such more appropriate words
make strings: AmE toilet ˃ bathroom ˃ cloakroom.
Currently, euphemisms are largely inspired by political correctness. Politically correct vocabulary
reflects the social tendency to advocate the equality of all regardless of their race, gender, age, physical and
mental condition. It’s rather popular to substitute the word invalid with its euphemisms handicapped /
disabled / differently-abled / physically challenged. Some other examples are:
 father and mother – parent 1 and parent 2;
 starvation – undernourishment;
 unemployed – redundant (сокращенный, потерявший работу);
 salary cuts – adjustment;
 secondhand – pre-owned;
 Negro – Afro-American, out-of-colour, etc.;
 liar – differently honest;
 old – chronologically challenged;
 fat – big-boned, differently sized, horizontally oriented;
 natives – indigenious population;
 foreigners – aliens, newcomers;
 foreign languages – modern languages.
Concern about eliminating discriminatory attitude towards women in various professions led to
many attempts to degender, i.e. to remove reference to gender in the names of professions:
 cameraman – camera operator;
 chambermaid – room attendant;
 fireman – fire fighter;
 policeman – police officer, policewoman;
 waiter, waitress – waitperson.
Other replacements are dictated by wish to give more dignity to profession:
 housemaid – houseworker, houseperson;
 housewife – housemaker;
 nurse (medical) – caregiver, social worker;
 nurse (working with children) – day-care provider;
 garbage-man – sanitation engineer.
Linguistic causes of the semantic change
1. Differentiation (discrimination) of synonyms is a gradual change in the word meaning in the
process of its historical development under the influence of other words, originally having the same
meaning. Usually it results from the simultaneous coexistence of two words with the same meaning,
one of which is native and the other is borrowed. Thus, the original meaning of the word foe was
superseded by the French enemi (Modern English enemy) to the sphere of poetic words. Similar
examples are synonymic pairs valley/dale, country/land, people/folk where the original English word
has a restricted sphere of usage.
2. Ellipsis, the omission of one of the two words habitually used together accompanied by the
transfer of its meaning to a remaining partner, e.g. a weekly / a daily (paper); a musical (show); at
present (time); durables (from durable goods); presale (view, tasting), private (soldier); pilot (film);
cinema (theatre), classified (ad), to be sentenced to life (imprisonment).
3. Linguistic analogy is found out when synonymous words acquire the like meanings, e.g. verbs of
getting hold with a hand (catch, grasp, get) develop the meaning ‘to understand’.
2. NATURE OF SEMANTIC CHANGE.
A necessary condition of any semantic change is some connection, some association between the old
meaning and the new one. There are two kinds of association involved in various semantic changes:
a) similarity of meanings:
b) contiguity of meanings.
Similarity of meanings or metaphor may be described as the semantic process of associating two
referents, one of which in some way resembles the other. The word hand, for instance, acquired in the 16h
century the meaning of 'a pointer of a clock or a watch' because of the similarity of one of the functions
performed by the hand (to point to smth.') and the function of the clock-pointer. See the expression hands of
the clock (watch).
Types of metaphor:
 metaphor based on similarity of form: a ‘lamp-post’ or a ‘maypole’ is a very tall and lean person, a
‘poker’ is a person with stiff rigid manner, a ‘bridge of the nose’ is the upper bony part of the nose and
an ‘egg’ is an airplane bomb;
 metaphor based on similarity of function: head of the school, key to the mystery, hand of the clock,
wing of the plane;
 metaphor based on similarity of position: the fool of the page, the top of the class;
 metaphor based on similarity of temperature: hot scent, cold reason, in cold blood, warm heart, give
somebody a cold shoulder;
 metaphor based on similarity of movement: caterpillar – tractor, saw the air – gesticulate;
 metaphor based on similarity of colour: claret – a red table-wine; blood-orange – a cultivated
orange; names of flowers denoting colors (rose, lilac, etc.);
 metaphor based on similarity of hardness: e.g. adamantine - like a diamond, hence, very hard;
 metaphor based on similarity of transparency: crystal - clear, lucid;
 zoosemy – a special type of metaphor when names of animals are applied to people to denote human
qualities: a cruel person may be called a tiger, a stupid person – a goose or an ass, a clumsy person
may be called a bear, a person exclusively devoted to books may be called a bookworm.
Contiguity of meanings or metonymy may be described as the semantic process of associating two
referents one of which makes part of the other or is closely connected with it. This can be illustrated by the
use of the word tongue - the organ of speech' in the meaning of "language" (as in mother tongue). The word
bench acquired the meaning 'judges' because it was on the bench that judges used to sit in law courts.
Similarly, the House acquired the meaning of members of the House (Parliament).
Types of metonymy:
 synecdoche – when the name of the part is applied to the whole or the whole to the part: 'ten sails' may
be used to refer to ten ships describing a sailboat race, or 'grey beards' may be used to refer to old
men;
 the sign stands for the thing signified: from the cradle to the grave – from childhood to death, the
crown – monarchy, grey hair – old age;
 the instrument stands for the agent: the best pens of the day – writers;
 the name of container is used instead of the thing contained: The kettle was boiling. The dish was
delicious.;
 the names of various organs are used for the function: ear - hearing, eye - sight, breast - emotions,
head - brains, nose- sense of smell (used figuratively);
 common nouns may be metonyraically derived from proper names – antonomasia. Many international
physical and technical units are named after great scientists: ampere – a unit of electric current
(after the French physicist Andre Marie Ampere); volt – a unit of electrical potential difference (after
the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta); the use of people's names to denote things associated with
them: raglan - after Lord Raglan, nicotine - after Jean Nicot; mauser - after Paul Mauser;
geographical names turned into common nouns: Bordeaux - wine from the Bordeaux region,
France; Malaga - wine made, in Malaga, a city end province in Spain; Tokay - sweet wine from Tokay,
Hungary;
Hyperbole is an exaggeration statement which is not. meant to be' understood literally, it expresses an
emotional attitude of the speaker to what he is speaking about. It is often used in colloquial speech, fiction
and poetry, but not in scientific texts where precision of expression is necessary. Examples: You'll be the
death of me. A thousand thanks.
The reverse figure is called litotes, or understatement. It may be defined as expressing the affirmative
by the negative of its contrary (not bad – good, no coward – brave; no chicken – old). Some
understatements do not contain negative (rather decent; I could do with a cup of tea.). Strictly speaking,
the litotes concerns mostly usage and contextual meaning of words.
3. CHANGES IN THE DENOTATIONAL COMPONENT.
The results of semantic change in the denotational component of lexical meaning are specialization and
generalization of meaning.
Specialization (narrowing) of meaning is the restriction of the semantic capacity of a word in the
course of its historical development, for example, the original meaning of the word deer was ‘an animal’. It
was used for all kinds of animals. When hound ‘the dog of any breed’ > ‘the dog able to chase’; glide ‘to
move gently or smoothly’ – ‘to fly with no engine’. The original meaning of affection was – ‘any feeling’,
the new meaning is ‘a feeling of love’.
Specialization of meaning involves an increase of information conveyed, since a changed word is
applicable to fewer situations but tells us more about the referent.
Examples:
1. the word fowl (OE fuZol) which used to denote ‘any bird’, but now denotes only ‘a domestic bird’;
2. when the Latin word animal came into the English language the meaning of the word deer changed;
now it is used to name only one kind of animal (deer – олень);
3. the verb to glide (OE glidan) which had the meaning ‘to move smoothly’ and now has acquired a
narrowed and specialized meaning ‘to fly without an engine’;
4. the word hound (OE hund) which used to denote ‘a dog of any breed’, but now denotes only ‘a
hunting dog’;
5. the word girl in Middle English had the meaning of "a small child of either sex", but then the word
underwent the process of transference based on contiguity and developed the meaning of "a small child of
the female sex";
Generalization (broadening, widening) of meaning is the extension of the semantic capacity of a word
in the course of its historical development, resulting in the application of a word to a wider variety of
referents. It includes change both from concrete to abstract and from specific to general.
Generalization of meaning increases the number of contexts in which a word can be used, although
reducing the amount of information conveyed about the referent.
Examples:
1. the verb to arrive (French borrowing) began its life in English in the narrow meaning “to come to
shore, to land”; in Modern English it has greatly widened its ability and developed the general meaning "to
come"
2. the noun pipe's earliest recorded meaning was "a musical wind instrument", but in ME it can denote
any hollow oblong cylindrical body (e. g. water pipes);
3. the noun bird is used to denote specifically the young bird (nestling), but now its meaning refers to bird
of any age;
4. the original meaning of the word to bootleg was ‘to sell alcoholic drinks illegally’, the new meaning is
‘to sell anything illegally’;
5. the word hell meant ‘pagan underworld’ and heaven meant only ‘sky’, but the introduction of
Christianity from abroad caused these words to lose their original meanings in favor of new Christian
concepts;
4. CHANGES IN THE CONNOTATIONAL COMPONENT.
The results of semantic change in the connotative component of the lexical meaning are amelioration
and pejoration of meaning.
Amelioration (melioration, elevation, bettering) of meaning is the improvement in the connotational
component of meaning, the acquisition by a word of some positive emotive charge.
Examples:
1. the meaning of nice when it first appeared in Middle English (about 1300) was ‘foolish, silly, simple;
ignorant, senseless, absurd’; the movement toward amelioration reached its apex in the 1800s with such
meanings as ‘kind and considerate, friendly.’
2. the word dizzy in OE meant ‘foolish’, a meaning that survives marginally in such expressions as a dizzy
blonde; but by ME its primary meaning was ‘suffering from vertigo’.
3. in Old English, the adjective pretty was used to describe someone or something that was 'cunning,
skillful, artful, wily, astute’. With language developing from Old English to Middle English, the word
'pretty' had taken on a new meaning which was 'manly, gallant'. With time, this meaning changed once
again, to ‘attractive, skillfully made’ until it shifted to ‘fine’. By the mid-fifteenth century, it was used to
describe something or someone ‘beautiful in a slight way, good looking’ which is the meaning we still have
for ‘pretty’ now.
4. the word knight comes from the Old English word cniht which meant ‘boy, youth, servant,
attendant’. Around the year 1100, it came to mean ‘military follower of a king or other superior’. Later,
during the Hundred Years War, it took on a more specific military sense until around the sixteenth century
when the word was used as a rank in the nobility.
5. the word lord comes from the Old English word hlafweard which meant ‘the keeper of the bread,
the head of the household’, or as we would call it today, the breadwinner. Later the word shortened –
first it became hlāford and then by the 13th century it was simply lord. Over time, the word lord went
up the social ranks until it became indicative of status and power in society and not just in the
family. The word reached its peak in hierarchy when it began to be used as a direct translation of
‘Dominus’ which, in religious tracts, is the Roman word for 'God'.
Pejoration (degradation, degeneration, deterioration, worsening) of meaning is a downward move in
the evaluative attitude, the acquisition by a word of some derogatory or scornful emotive charge. It is
frequently due to social prejudice.
Examples:
Words that have
Original Meaning
Current Meaning
undergone
Pejoration
Insane or mentally ill
Angry or frustrated
Mad
Female practitioner of
Malevolent or unpleasant woman
Witch
folk magic
A person with a
Derogatory term for a stupid or foolish person
Cretin
congenital condition
causing mental retardation
A person with mental
Derogatory term for a crazy or unpredictable person
Lunatic
illness
Delayed or slow
Derogatory term for a person with an intellectual
Retarded
disability
Strange or odd
Derogatory term for a homosexual or gender nonQueer
conforming person (Note that the LGBTQ+
community have also reclaimed queer in a positive
context)
Related
to
the
uterus
Derogatory term for a woman who is overly
Hysterical
emotional
A person with an
Derogatory term for a stupid or foolish person
Idiot
intellectual disability
Unable to walk properly
Derogatory term for something that is uncool or
Lame
inferior