Курсовая: Semantic Change

Курсовая: Semantic Change

Plan:

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 dēor '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<.OE tæcan 'to

show', 'to teach'; write <OE wrītan 'to write', 'to

scratch', 'to score' (cf. Germ reiβen)< writing in Europe had

first the form of scratching on the bark of the trees. Tracing these semantic

changes the scholars can, as it were, witness the development of culture.

In the above examples the new meaning superseded the earlier one. Both meanings

can also coexist in the structure of a polysemantic word or be differentiated

locally. The word token < OE tāce, ║ Germ

Zeichen originally had the broad meaning of 'sign'. The semantic change that

occurred in it illustrates systematic interdependence within the vocabulary

elements. Brought into competition with the borrowed word sign it became

restricted in use to a few cases of fixed context (a love token, a token of

respect, a token vote, a token payment) and consequently restricted in

meaning. In present-day English token means something small,

unimportant or cheap which represents something big, important or valuable.

Other examples of specialization are room, which alongside the new

meaning keeps the old one of 'space'; corn originally meaning 'grain',

'the seed of any cereal plant': locally the word becomes special­ized and is

understood to denote the leading crop of the district; hence in England

corn means 'wheat', in Scotland 'oats', whereas in the USA, as an ellipsis

for Indian corn, it came to mean 'maize'.

As a special group belonging to the same type one can mention the formation of

proper nouns from common nouns chiefly in toponymies, i.e. place names. For

instance, the City,— the business part of London; the Highlands —

the mountainous part of Scotland; Oxford — Univer­sity town in England

from ox+ford, i.e. a place where oxen could ford the river; the

Tower (of London) — originally a fortress and palace, later a state prison,

now a museum.

In the above examples the change of meaning occurred without change of sound

form and without any intervention of morphological processes. In many cases,

however, the two processes, semantic and morphological, go hand in hand. For

instance, when considering the effect of the agent suffix -ist added to

the noun stem art- we might expect the whole to mean any person

occupied in art, a representative of any kind of art, but usage specializes the

meaning of the word artist and restricts it to a synonym of

painter.

The process reverse to specialisation is termed generalisation

and widening of meaning. In that case the scope of the new

notion is wider than that of the original one (hence widening), whereas

the content of the notion is poorer. In most cases generalisation is combined

with a higher order of abstraction than in the notion expressed by

the earlier meaning. The transition from a concrete meaning to an ab­stract

one is a most frequent feature in the semantic history of words. The

change may be explained as occasioned by situations in which not all

the features of the notions rendered are of equal importance for the

message.

Thus, ready <OE ræde (a derivative of the verb

rīdan 'to ride') meant 'prepared for a ride'. Fly originally

meant 'to move through the air with wings'; now it denotes any kind of movement

in the air or outer space and also very quick movement in any medium.

The process went very far in the word thing with its original mean­ings

'cause', 'object', 'decision', 'meeting', and 'the decision of the

meeting', 'that which was decided upon'. (Cf. Norwegian storting

'par­liament'.) At present, as a result of this process of generalisation, the

word can substitute nearly any noun, and receives an almost pronominal force.

In fact all the words belonging to the group of generic terms fall into this

category of generalization. By generic terms we shall mean non-specific,

non-distributive terms applicable to a great number ; of individual members

of a big class of words. The grammatical meaning of this class of words becomes

predominant in their semantic components. Notice the very general, character of

the word business in the following: "Donald hasn't a very good

far too much notice of it now in my opinion" (A. WILSON) ,

It is sometimes difficult to distinguish the instances of generalization proper

from generalization combined with a fa-ding of lexical meaning ousted by the

grammatical or emotional meaning that take its place. These phenomena are

closely connected with the peculiar characteristics of grammatical structure

typical of each individual language. One ob­serves them, for instance, studying

the semantic history of the English auxiliary and semi-auxiliary verbs,

especially have, do, shall, will, turn, go, and that of some English

prepositions and adverbs which in the course of time have come to express

grammatical relations. The weakening of lexical meaning due to the influence of

emotional force is revealed in such words as awfully, terribly, terrific,

smashing.

2. Metaphor.

"Specialization" and "generalization" are thus identified on the evid-' ence of

comparing logical notions expressed by the meaning of words. If, on the other

hand, the linguist is guided by psychological consider­ations and has to go by

the type of association at work in the transfer of the name of one object to

another and different one, he will observe that the most frequent transfers are

based on associations of similarity or of contiguity. As these types of

transfer are well known in rhetoric as ; figures of speech called metaphor (Gr

meta 'change' and phero 'bear') and metonymy (Gr metonymia

from meta and onoma 'name') and the same terms are adopted

here. A metaphor is a transfer of name based on the association of similarity

and thus is actually a hidden comparison. It presents a method of description

which likens one thing to another by referring to it as if it were some other

one. A cunning person, for instance, is referred to as a fox. A woman

may be called a peach, a lemon, a cat, a goose, etc. In a metonymy,

this referring to one thing as if it were some other one is based on

association of contiguity. Sean O'Casey in his one-act play "The Hall of

Healing" metonymically names his personages according to the things they are

wearing: Red Muffler, Grey Shawl, etc. Metaphor and metonymy differ

from the two first types of semantic change, i.e. generalization and

specialization, inasmuch .as they do not originate as a result of gradual

almost imperceptible change in many contexts, but come of a purposeful

momentary transfer of a name from one object to another belonging to a

different sphere of reality.

In all discussion of linguistic metaphor and metonymy it must be borne in mind

that they are different from metaphor and metonymy as literary devices. When

the latter are offered and accepted both the author and the reader are to a

greater or lesser degree aware that this reference is figurative, that the

object has another name. The relationship of the direct denotative meaning of

the word and the meaning it has in the literary context in question is based on

similarity of some features in the objects compared. The poetic metaphor is the

fruit of the author's creative imagination, as for example when England is

called by Shakespeare (in "King Richard II") this precious stone set in the

silver sea, or when A. Tennyson writes: What stamps the wrinkle deeper

on the brow?/ To view each loved one blotted from life's page.

In a linguistic metaphor, especially when it is dead as a result of long usage,

the thing named often has no other name. In a dead metaphor the comparison is

completely forgotten, as for instance in the words gather, source and

shady in the following example dealing with some information: / gathered

irregular in a most unexpected way. (SNOW)

The meaning of such expressions as a sun beam or a beam of light

are not explained by-allusions to a tree, although the word is actually derived

from OE beam 'tree' || Germ Baum, whence the meaning beam

a long piece of squared timber supported at both ends' has also developed. The

metaphor is dead. There are no associations with hens in the verb' brood

'to meditate' (often sullenly),'though the direct meaning is 'to sit on eggs'.

There may be transitory stages: a bottleneck 'any thing obstructing an

even flow of work", for instance, is not a neck and does not belong to a

bottle. The transfer is possibly due to the fact that there are some common

features in the narrow top part of the bottle, a narrow outlet for road

traffic, and obstacles interfering with the smooth working of administrative

machinery.

Metaphors, H. Paul points out, may be based upon very different types of

similarity, for instance, similarity of shape: head of a cabbage, the teeth

of a saw. This similarity may be based on a similarity of function. The

transferred meaning is easily recognized from the context: the head of the

school, the key to a mystery. The similarity may be supported also by

position: foot of a page, of a mountain, or behaviour and function:

bookworm, wirepuller. The word ‘whip’ a lash used to urge horses on'

is metaphorically transferred to an official in the British Parliament

appointed by a political party to see that members are present at debates,

especially when a vote is taken, to check the voting and also to advise the

members on the policy of the respective party, etc.

In the kg of the table the metaphor is motivated by the similarity of

the lower part of the table and the human limb in position and partly jn shape

and function. Anthropomorphic metaphors are among the most frequent. The way in

which the words denoting parts of the body are made to express a variety of

meanings may be illustrated by the following: head of an army, of a

of a hill, tongue of a bell and so on and so forth. The transferred meaning

is easily recognized from the context: ... her feet were in low-heeled

brown brogues with fringed tongues. (PLOMER>

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 and

nationalities traditional characteristics have been attached by the popular

mind with or without real justification. If a person is an out-and-out

mercenary and a hypocrite into the bargain they call him a Philistine,

ruthlessly destructive people are called Vandals.

3.Metonymy

If the transfer is based upon the association of contiguity it is called

metonymy. It is a shift of names between things that are known to be in some

way or other connected in reality. The transfer may be condi­tioned by

spatial, temporal, causal, symbolic, instrumental, functional and other

relations.

Thus, the word book is derived from the name of a tree on which

inscriptions were scratched: ModE book < OE boc 'beech'.

ModE win <. OE winnan 'to fight'; the word has been shifted

so as to apply to the success following fighting. Cash is an adaptation

of the French word caisse 'box'; from naming the container it came to

mean what was con­tained, i.e. money; the original meaning was lost in

competition with the new word safe. Spatial relations are also present

when the name of the place is used for the people occupying it. The chair

may mean 'the chair­man', the bar 'the lawyers', the pulpit 'the

priests'. The word town may denote the inhabitants of a town and the

word house the members of the House of Commons or of Lords. Cello,

violin, saxophone are often used to denote not the instruments but the

musicians who play them.

A causal relationship is obvious in the following development: ModE fear

< ME feere < OE fær, fēr 'danger', 'unexpected

attack'. States and properties serve as names for objects and people possessing

them: youth, age, authorities, forces. The name of the action can serve

to name the result of the action: ModE kill < ME killen 'to

hit on the head', ModE stay || Germ schlagen.. Emotions may be

named by the movements that accompany them: to frown, to start.

There are also the well-known instances of symbol for thing symbol­ized: the

crown for 'monarchy'; the instrument for the product: 'hand

'handwriting'; receptacle for content, as in the word kettle, and some

others. Words for the material from which an article is made are often used to

denote the particular article: glass, iron, copper, nickel are well

known examples. The pars pro toto where the name of a part is applied to the

whole may be illustrated by such military terms as the royal horse for

'cavalry' and foot for 'infantry', and the expressions like / want

to have a word with you. The reverse process is observed when OE

cēol 'a ship' develops among other variants into keel 'a barge

load of coal'.

A place of its own within metonymical change is occupied by the so-called

functional change. The type has its peculiarities: in this case the shift is

between names of things substituting one another in human practice. Thus, the

early instrument for writing was a feather or more exactly a quill (OE pen,

from OFr penne, from It penna, from Lat. penna

'feather'). We write with fountain-pens that are made of differ­ent materials

and have nothing in common with feathers except the function, but the name

remains. The name rudder comes from OE roper 'oar' || Germ

Ruder 'oar'. The shift of meaning is due to the shift of function: the

steering was formerly achieved by an oar. The steersman was called pilot;

with the coming of aviation one who operates the flying controls of an aircraft

was also called pilot. For more cases of functional change see also the

semantic history of the words: filter, pocket, spoon, stamp, sail.

Common names may be derived from proper names also metonymically, as in

macadam and diesel, so named after their inventors.

Many physical and technical units are named after great scientists: volt,

ohm, ampere, watt, etc.

There are also many instances in political vocabulary when the place of some

establishment is used not only for the establishment itself or its staff but

also for its policy: the White House, the Pentagon, Wall Street, Downing

Street, Fleet Street.

Examples of geographic names turning into common nouns to name the goods

exported or originating there are exceedingly numerous, e.g.

astrakhan, bikini, boston, cardigan, china, tweed.

Garments came to be known by the names of those who brought them into fashion:

mackintosh, raglan, wellingtons.

4. Other types of semantic changes.

Following the lead of literary criticism linguists have often adopted terms of

rhetoric for other types of semantic change, besides metaphor and metonymy.

These are: hyperbole, litotes, irony, e u p h e m i s m. In all these cases the

same warning that was given in connection with metaphors and metonymy must be

kept in mind: namely, there is a difference between these terms as understood

in literary criti­cism and in lexicology. Hyperbole (from Gr

huperballō 'exceed') is an exaggerated statement not meant to be

understood literally but expressing an intensely emotional attitude of the

speaker to what he is speaking about. The emotional tone is due to the

illogical character in which the direct denotative and the contextual emotional

meanings are combined.

A very good example is chosen by I. R. Galperin from Byron, and one cannot

help borrowing it:

When people say "I've told you fifty times," They mean to scold and very

often do,

The reader will note that Byron's intonation is distinctly colloquial, the

poet is giving us his observations concerning colloquial expressions, So the

.hyperbole here is not poetic but linguistic.

The same may be said about expressions like: It's absolutely madden­ing,

I'd give the world to, I shall be eternally grateful, I'd love to do it,

etc.

The most important difference between a poetic hyperbole and a linguistic one

lies in the fact that the former creates an image, whereas in the latter the

denotative meaning quickly fades out and the correspon­ding exaggerating words

serve only as general signs of emotion without specifying the emotion itself.

Some of the most frequent emphatic words are: absolutely! awfully!

terribly! lovely! magnificent! splendid! and so on.

The reverse figure is called litotes (from Gr lītos 'plain',

'meagre') or understatement. It. might be defined as expressing the affirmative

by the negation of its contrary: e.g. not bad or not half bad

for 'good', not small for 'great', no coward for 'brave'. Some

understate­ments do not contain negations: rather decent; I could do with a

cup of tea. It is, however, doubtful whether litotes should be

considered under the heading of semantic change at all, because as a rule it

creates no per­manent change in the semantic structure of the word concerned.

The purpose of understatement is not to deceive but to produce a stronger

impression on the hearer.

Also taken from rhetoric is the term irony, i.e. expression of one's meaning by

words of opposite meaning, especially a simulated adoption of the opposite

point of view for the purpose of ridicule. One of the meanings of the adjective

nice is 'bad', 'unsatisfactory'; it is marked off as ironical and

illustrated by the example: You've got us into a nice mess! The same

may be said about the adjective pretty: A pretty mess you've made of it!

Changes depending on the social attitude to the object named, connect­ed with

social evaluation and emotional tone, are called ameliora­tion and pejoration

of meaning. Amelioration or elevation is a semantic shift undergone by words

due to their referents coming up the social scale. For instance OE cwen

'a woman'> ModE queen, OE cniht 'a young servant' > ModE

knight. The words steward and stewardess (the passengers'

attendant on ships and airliners) have undergone a great amelioration.

Steward < OE stigweard from stigo 'a sty' and weard

'a ward', dates back from the days when the chief wealth of the Saxon landowner

was his pigs, of whom the stigweard had to take care. The meaning of

some words has been elevated through associations with aristocratic life or

town life. This is true about such adjectives as civil, chivalrous, urbane.

The reverse process is pejoration or degradation; it involves a lowering in

social scale connected with the appearance of a derogatory and scornful emotive

tone reflecting the disdain of the upper classes towards the lower ones. A

knave < OE cnafa \\ Germ Knabe meant at first 'boy', then

'servant', and finally became a term of abuse and scorn. Another example of the

same kind is blackguard. In the lord's retinue of Middle Ages served

among others the guard of iron pots and other kitchen utensils black with soot.

From the immoral features attrib­uted to these servants by their masters comes

the present scornful ' meaning of the word blackguard. A similar

history is traced for the words boor, churl, clown, villain.

Euphemism (Gr euphemismos from eu 'well' and pheme

'speak') is the substitution of words of mild or vague connotations for

expressions rough, unpleasant or for some other reasons unmentionable.

Within the diachronic approach the phenomenon has been repeatedly classed by

many linguists as taboo. This standpoint is hardly accep­table for modern

European languages. With primitive peoples taboo is a prohibition meant as a

safeguard against supernatural forces. Names of ritual objects or animals

were taboo because the name was regarded as the equivalent of what was named.

S. Ullmann returns to the conception - of taboo several times illustrating it

with propitiatory names given in the early periods of language development to

such objects of supersti­tious fear as the bear (whose name originally meant

'brown') and the weasel. He treats both examples as material of comparative

semantics. The taboo influence behind the circumlocutions used to name these

anim­als becomes quite obvious when the same phenomenon is observed in

similar names in various other languages. There is no necessity to cite them

here as they are given in any book on general linguistics. It should be borne

in mind that taboo has historical relevance. No such opposition as that

between a direct and a propitiatory name for an animal, no matter how

dangerous, can be found in present-day English.

With peoples of developed culture, euphemism is intrinsically differ­ent, has

nothing to do with taboo and is dictated by social usage, moral tact and

etiquette. Cf. queer 'mad', deceased 'dead', perspire v

'sweat'.

From the semantical point of view euphemism is important because meanings

with unpleasant connotations appear in words formerly neutral, as a result of

their repeated use instead of other words that are for some reason

unmentionable.

The material of this chapter shows that semantic changes are not arbitrary. They

proceed in accordance with the logical and psychological laws of thought,

otherwise changed words would never be understood and could not serve the

purpose of communication. The various attempts at classification undertaken by

traditional linguistics, although inconsistent ( and often

subjective, are useful, since they permit the linguist to find his way about an

immense accumulation of semantic facts. However, they say nothing or almost

nothing about the causes of these changes.

CHAPTER II. CAUSES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE

In comparison with classifications of semantic change the problem of their

causes appears neglected. Opinions on this point are scattered through a

great number of linguistic works and have apparently never -been collected

into anything complete. And yet a thorough understanding of the phenomena

involved .in semantic change is impossible unless the whys and wherefores

become known. This is of primary importance as it may lead eventually to a

clearer, interpretation of language develop­ment. The vocabulary is the most

flexible part of the language and it is precisely its semantic aspect that

responds most readily to every change in the human activity in whatever

sphere it may happen to take place.

The causes of semantic changes may be grouped under two main head­ings,

linguistic and extralinguistic ones. Of these the first group has suffered

much greater neglect in the past and it is not surprising therefore that far

less is known of it than of the second. It deals with changes due to the

constant interdependence of vocabulary units in language and speech, such as

differentiation between synonyms, changes taking place in connection with

ellipsis and with fixed contexts, changes resulting from ambiguity in certain

contexts, and some other cases.

Semantic change due to the differentiation of synonyms is a gradual change

observed in the course of language history, sometimes, but not necessarily,

involving the semantic assimilation of loan words. Consider, for example, the

words time and tide. They used to be synonyms. Then tide

took on its more limited application to the periodically shifting waters, and

time alone is used in the general sense.

Another example of semantic change involving synonymic differen­tiation is the

word twist. In OE it was a noun, meaning 'a rope' whereas the

verb thrawan (now throw) meant both 'hurl' and 'twist'. Since

the appearance in the Middle English of the verb twisten ('twist') the

first verb lost this meaning. But threw in its turn influenced the

development of casten (cast), a Scandinavian borrowing. Its primary

meaning 'hurl', 'throw' is now present only in some set expressions. Cast

keeps its old meaning in such phrases as cast a glance, cast lots, cast

smth. in one's teeth. Twist has very many meanings, the latest being 'to

dance the twist'

Fixed context may be regarded as another linguistic factor in semantic change.

Both factors are at work in the case of token. When brought into

competition with the loan word sign, it became restricted in use to a

number of set expressions such as love token, token of respect and so

became specialized in meaning. Fixed context has this influence not only in

phrases but in compound words as well. OE mete meant 'food', its

descendant meat refers only to flesh food except in the set expression

meat and drink and the compound sweetmeats.

No systematic treatment has so far been offered for the syntagmatic semantic

changes depending on the context. But such cases do exist showing that

investigation of the problem is important.

One of these is ellipsis. The qualifying words of a frequent phrase may be

omitted: sale comes to be used for cut-price sale, propose for to

propose marriage, to be expecting for to be expecting a baby. Or

vice versa, the kernel word of the phrase may seem redundant: minerals

for mineral waters. Due to ellipsis starve which originally

meant 'die' (cf. Germ sterben) came to substitute the whole phrase

die of hunger, and also began to mean 'suffer from lack of food' and even in

colloquial use 'to feel hungry'. Moreover as there are many words with

transitive and intran­sitive variants naming cause and result, starve

came to mean 'to cause to perish with hunger'.

English has a great variety of these regular coincidences of different aspects,

alongside with cause and result, we could consider the coincidence of

subjective and objective, active and passive aspects especially fre­quent in

adjectives. E.g. hateful means 'exciting hatred' and 'full of hatred';

curious—'strange' and 'inquisitive'; pitiful— 'exciting com­passion'

and 'compassionate'. Compare the different use of the words doubtful

and healthy in the following: to be doubtful :: a doubtful

advan­tage, to be healthy :: a healthy climate.

The extralinguistic causes are determined by the social nature of the

language: they are observed in changes of meaning resulting from the

development of the notion expressed and the thing named and by the appearance

of new notions and things. In other words, extralinguistic causes of semantic

change are connected with the development of the human mind as it moulds

reality to conform with its needs.

Languages are powerfully affected by social, political, economic, cul­tural

and technical change. The influence of those factors upon linguistic

phenomena is studied by sociolinguistics. It shows that social factors can

influence even structural features of linguistic units, terms of science, for

instance, have a number of specific features as compared to words used in

other spheres of human activity.

The word being a linguistic realization of notion, it changes with the progress

of human consciousness. This process is reflected in the develop­ment of

lexical meaning. As the human mind achieves an ever more exact understanding of

the world of reality and the objective relation­ships that characterize it, the

notions become more and more exact reflec­tions of real things. The history of

the social, economic and political life of people, the progress of culture and

science bring about changes in notions and things influencing the semantic

aspect of language. For instance, OE eorpe meant 'the ground under

people's feet', 'the soil' and 'the world of man' as opposed to heaven

that was supposed to be inhabited first by Gods and later on, with the spread of

Christianity, by God, his saints and the souls of the dead. With the progress

of science earth came to mean the third planet from the sun and the knowledge

of it was con­stantly enriched.

The word space from the meanings of 'extension' or 'intervening

distance' came to mean 'the limitless expanse in which everything exists' and

more recently came to be used especially in the meaning of 'outer space'.

Atoms (Gr. atomos 'indivisible' from a 'not' and tomos

'cut') were formerly thought to be indivisible smallest particles of matter and

were usually associated in layman's speech with smallness. The word could be

metaphorically used in the meaning of 'a tiny creature'. When atoms were found

to be made up of a positively charged nucleus round which negatively charged

electrons revolve, the notion of an atom brought about connotations of discrete

(discontinuous) character of matter. With the advances made since science has

found ways of releasing the energy hidden in the splitting of the atomic

nucleus, the notion is accom­panied with the idea of immense potentialities

present, as, for instance, in the phrase Atoms for peace. Since the

advent of the atomic bomb the adjective atomic distinctly connotes in

the English language with the threat of a most destructive warfare (atomic

bomb, atomic warfare).

The tendency to use technical imagery is increasing in every language, thus the

expression to spark off in chain reaction is almost international. Some

expressions tend to become somewhat obsolete: the English used to talk of

people being galvanized into activity, or going full steam ahead

but the phrases sound out dated now.

The changes of notions and things named go hand in hand. As they are

conditioned by changes in the economic, social, political and cultu­ral

history of the people, the extralinguistic causes of semantic change might be

conveniently subdivided in accordance with these. Social rela­tionships are

at work in the cases of elevation and pejoration of meaning discussed in the

previous section where the attitude of the upper classes to their social

inferiors determined the strengthening of emotional tone among the semantic

components of the word.

Euphemisms may be dictated by publicity needs—hence ready-tailored and

ready-to-wear clothes instead of ready-made. The influence of

mass-advertising on language is growing; it is felt in every level of the

language. Innovations possible in advertising are of many different types. A

kind of orange juice, for instance, is called Tango. The justifica­tion

of the name is given in the advertising text as follows: Get this

Taste those oranges. Taste the tang in Tango. Tingling tang, bubbles—

Sparkling Tango. The reader will see for himself how many expres­sive

connotations are introduced by the salesman in this commercial name in an

effort to attract the buyer's attention.

Economic causes are obviously at work in the semantic development o! the word

wealth. It first meant 'well-being', 'happiness' from weal from OE

wela whence well. This original meaning is preserved in the

compounds commonwealth and commonweal. The present meaning

became possible due to the role played by money both in feudal and bourgeois

society. The chief wealth of the early inhabitants of Europe being the cattle,

OE feoh means both 'cattle' and 'money', likewise Goth faihu;

Lat. pecu meant 'cattle' and pecunia meant 'money'. ME

fee-house is both a cattle-shed and a treasury. The present-day English

fee most frequently means the price paid for services to a lawyer or a

physician. It appears to develop jointly from the above mentioned OE feoh

and the Anglo-French fe, fie, fief, probably of the same origin, meaning

'a recompense' and 'a feudal tenure'. This modern meaning is obvious in the

following example: Physicians of the utmost Fame/Were called at once; but

this disease." (BELLOC)

CONCLUSION

We have dialled in detail with various types of semantic change. This is

necessary not only because of the interest the various cases present in

themselves but also because a thorough knowledge of these possibilities helps

one to understand the semantic structure of English words at the present

stage of their development. The development and change of the semantic

structure of a word is always a source of qualitative and quantitative

development of the vocabulary.

The constant development of industry, agriculture, trade and trans­port bring

into being new objects and new notions. Words to name them are either

borrowed or created from material already existing in the lan­guage and it

often happens that new meanings are thus acquired by old words.

LITERATURE:

1. Rinaburg R. “A course in Modern English”. Moscow 1976.

2. Griberg S. I. “Exercises in Modern English”. Moscow 1980.

3. Antrushina. “English Lexicology”. 1985.

4. Kunin A. “English Lexicology” Moscow 1972.

5. Mednikova E. M. “Seminars in English Lexicology” Moscow “Vyshaja

shkola” 1978.

6. Cruise. “Lexical semantic” Cambridge University press 1995.

7. “English Word Formation” Cambridge University press 1996.