The development and change of the semantic structure of English words.

Extralinguistic and linguistic causes of the semantic change

The vocabulary of any language is very complicated & flexible system. Any living language, like a biological organism, is undergoing constant gradual change. The English language which we know today is only one stage in a long & presumably endless process of gradual development.

In the course of the historical development new words appear in language. Some words are borrowed from other languages; some are created in the language with the help of its inner sources. Some words become obsolete & drop out of the language. Some words change their semantic structure & acquire some new meanings.

E.g. (1) glad (in OE the word glad had a meaning of bright, shining) > now joyful;

(2) sad (in OE – satisfied with food) > then over satisfied with food > melancholy, sorrowful.

There are 2 groups of causes of development of new meanings:

1) Extralinguistic (historical) causes of the semantic change. They are connected with the development of human mind society with the progress of social, economic, political & cultural life of people. With the change of the life of people, new objects, phenomena, concepts appear & they should be named. One of the ways of filling such vocabulary gaps is applying some old words to a new object.

E.g. (1) mill (had a meaning of building in which corn is ground into flour, but when in England appeared 1^st textile factories, this old word was applied to this new industry); (2) carriage (had a meaning of a vehicle drawn by horse) > new meaning a railway car

2) Linguistic causes in the semantic change are connected with the influence of other words. This process is called differentiation of synonyms.

E.g. starve (had a meaning to perish, but Scandinavian word die was borrowed & 2 words started to compete, people start use verb to die more often)

So, when synonyms are brought into competition one of them can change its semantic structure, or it can be restricted in use to a number of set expressions & it can be used only in some fixed context.

 

The main semantic processes of the development and change of word meaning: specialization, or narrowing of meaning, generalization, or widening of meaning, elevation, or amelioration of meaning, degradation or pejoration of meaning, metaphoric and metonymic transfers

The main semantic process of the development & change of word-meaning are:

1) Specialization (or narrowing, or restriction of meaning). Specialization indicates that the word passes from general usage & acquires some special meaning. Specialization can be illustrated by the semantic changes of the following words:

E.g. (1) deer (any wild animal) > a particular species; (2) meat (food) > edible flesh: (3) forest (any area for hunting) > any are covered with trees

2) Generalization (or widening, or broadening, or extension of meaning). The word having a special meaning due to the extensive use gets widened in meaning.

E.g. (1) season – spring > any of 4 seasons; (2) arrive – to come to shore > to come

3) Elevation (or amelioration of meaning) implies the improvement of evaluative connotational component of lexical meaning.

E.g. (1) minster – a servant > an important public official; (2) marshal – a horse – servant > an officer of a high rank;

4) Degradation (or pejoration, or degeneration, or deterioration of meaning) implies the acquisition by the word of some derogatory emotive charge.

E.g. (1) knave – a boy > a servant, a cunning man; (2) vulgar – common, ordinary > rude, tasteless

Some words acquire a new meaning due to different types of association. The process of development of a new meaning is traditionally called transference. There are 2 types of transference depending on the 2 types of logical associations. They are:

1) Transference based on similarity. It is called – metaphor. A new meaning appears as a result of associating 2 objects, notions, qualities due to their similarity:

-similarity of appearance. E.g. a leg of table, teeth of a comb

-similarity of position. E.g. the foot of the mountain, the root of a tooth

-similarity of movement. E.g. a caterpillar tractor

-similarity of sound. E.g. barking (cough)

-similarity of quality. E.g. a star, a lion (a brave man), a fox (a sly person)

2) Transference based on contiguity is called metonymy. Metonymic transference may be based on:

-using the name of a place for its inhabitants. E.g. the whole city was talking

-using the name of a container for its contexts. E.g. the kettle is boiling

-using the name of the instrument for its function/ user. E.g. under the knife, the best pens of the country

-using the name of the material for the thing made of this material. E.g. a glass, an iron, linen

-using the name of the inventor for the invention. E.g. diesel (Rudolf Diesel)

-using the name of the country/ city for the thing. E.g. china (фарфор)