Linguistically speaking, the development of new meanings, and also a complete change of meaning, may be caused through the influence of other words, mostly of synonyms.

steorfan Old Eng. — to perish ←→ to die Scandinavian borrowing

to starve → to die (or suffer) from hunger,

deor Old Eng. — any beast ←→ animal borrowed word

deer → a certain kind of beast (UA. олень).

The noun knave (О. E. knafa) suffered an even more striking change of meaning as a result of collision with its synonym boy. Now it has a pronounced negative evaluative con-notation and means "swindler, scoundrel".

Why was it that the word mill - and not some other word - was selected to denote the first textile factories? There must have been some connection between the former sense of mill and the new phenomenon to which it was applied. And there was apparently such a connection. Mills which produced flour, were mainly driven by water. The textile factories also firstly used water power. So, in general terms, the meanings of mill, both the old and the new one, could be defined as "an establishment using water power to produce certain goods". Thus, the first textile factories were easily associated with mills producing flour, and the new meaning of mill appeared due to this association. In actual fact, all cases of development or change of meaning are based on some association. In the history of the word carriage, the new travelling conveyance was also naturally associated in people's minds with the old one: horse-drawn vehicle → part of a railway train. Both these objects were related to the idea of travelling. The job of both, the horse-drawn carriage and the railway carriage, is the same: to carry passengers on a journey. So the association was logically well-founded.

Stalls and box formed their meanings in which they denoted parts of the theatre on the basis of a different type of association. The meaning of the word box "a small separate enclosure forming a part of the theatre" developed on the basis of its former meaning "a rectangular container used for packing or storing things". The two objects became associated in the speakers' minds because boxes in the earliest English theatres really resembled packing cases. They were enclosed on all sides and heavily curtained even on the side facing the audience so as to conceal the privileged spectators occupying them from curious or insolent stares.

The association on which the theatrical meaning of stalls was based is even more curious. The original meaning was "compartments in stables or sheds for the accommodation of animals (e. g. cows, horses, etc.)". There does not seem to be much in common between the privileged and expensive part of a theatre and stables intended for cows and horses, unless we take into consideration the fact that theatres in olden times greatly differed from what they are now. What is now known as the stalls was, at that time, standing space divided by barriers into sections so as to prevent the enthusiastic crowd from knocking one other down and hurting themselves. So, there must have been a certain outward resemblance between theatre stalls and cattle stalls. It is also possible that the word was first used humorously or satirically in this new sense.

The process of development of a new meaning (or a change of meaning) is traditionally termed transference.

Some scholars mistakenly use the term transference of meaning which is a serious mistake. It is very important to note that in any case of semantic change it is not the meaning but the word that is being transferred from one referent onto another (e. g. from a horse-drawn vehicle onto a railway car). The result of such a transference is the appearance of a new meaning.

 

5) Extension (widening of meaning) is the extension of semantic capacity of a word, i.e. the expansion of polysemy in the course of its historical development, e.g. manuscript originally "smth hand-written".

Another example of the broadening of meaning is pipe. Its earliest recorded meaning was "a musical wind instrument". Nowadays it can denote any hollow oblong cylindrical body (e. g. water pipes). This meaning developed through transference based on the simi­larity of shape (pipe as a musical instrument is also a hollow oblong cylindrical object) which finally led to a considerable broadening of the range of meaning.

The word bird changed its meaning from "the young of a bird' to its modern meaning through transference based on contiguity (the association is obvious). The second meaning is broader and more general.

It is interesting to trace the history of the word girl as an example of the changes in the range of meaning in the course of the semantic development of a word.

In Middle English it had the meaning of "a small child of either sex". Then the word underwent the process of transference based on contiguity and developed the meaning of "a small child of the female sex", so that the range of meaning was somewhat narrowed. In its further semantic development the word gradually broadened its range of meaning. At first it came to denote not only a female child but, also, a young unmarried woman, later, any young woman, and in modem colloquial English it is practically to the noun woman (e.g. The old girl must be at least seventy), so that its range of meaning is quite broad. Cf. UA стріла n. —> стріляти v originally meant пускати стрілу з лука, the word gradually broadened its range of meaning to стріляти із будь-якої зброї, що вражає на відстані (з гвинтівки, пістолета чи пушки).

Narrowing of meaning is the restriction of the semantic capacity of a word in the historical development, e.g. in Old English the word (OE hlæfdize) denoted the mistress of the house, i. e. any married woman. Later, a new meaning developed which was much nar­rower in range: "the wife or daughter of a baronet" (aristocratic title). In Modem English the word lady can be applied to any woman, so that its range of meaning is even broader than that of the OE hlæfdize. In Modem English the difference between girl and lady in the meaning of woman is that the first is used in colloquial style and sounds familiar whereas the second is more formal and polite.

Here are some more examples of narrowing of meaning:

Deer: any beast → a certain kind of beast

Meat: any food → a certain food product

Boy: any young person of the male sex →servant of the male sex It should be pointed out once more that in all these words the second meaning devel­oped through transference based on contiguity, and that when we speak of them as exam­ples of narrowing of meaning we simply imply that the range of the second meaning is more narrow than that of the original meaning.