Nature of Semantic Change

Causes of Semantic Change

Change of meaning in English.

Word-meaning is liable to change in the course of the historical development of language.

ü extra-linguistic — various changes in the life of the speech community, changes in economic and social structure, changes in ideas, scientific concepts, way of life and other spheres of human activities as reflected in word meanings,taboo and euphemism.

ü linguistic —. factors acting within the language system

-ellipsis (In a phrase made up of two words one of these is omitted and its meaning is transferred to its partner. The verb to starve, e.g., in Old English had the meaning ‘to die’ and was habitually used in collocation with the word hunger. Already in the 16th century the verb itself acquired the meaning ‘to die of)

-differentiation of synonyms (The word land, e.g., in Old English (OE. land) meant both ’solid part of earth’s surface’ and ‘the territory of a nation’. When in the Middle English period the word country (OFr. contree) was borrowed as its synonym, the meaning of the word land was somewhat altered and ‘the territory of a nation’ came to be denoted mainly by the borrowed word country)причина в заимствовании

-linguistic analogy — if one of the members of a synonymic set acquires a new meaning other members of this set change their meanings too. (e.g., all English adverbs which acquired the meaning ‘rapidly’ always develop the meaning ‘immediately’, similarly verbs synonymous with catch, e.g. grasp, get, - понимать etc., by semantic extension acquired another meaning — ‘to understand’)

Generally speaking, a necessary condition of any semantic change, no matter what its cause, is some connection, some association between the old meaning and the new. There are two kinds of association involved as a rule in various semantic changes namely:

1Similarity of meanings or metaphor — a semantic process of associating two referents, one of which in some way resembles the other. The word hand, e.g., acquired in the 16th century the meaning of ‘a pointer of a clock of a watch’ because of the similarity of one of the functions performed by the hand (to point at something) and the function of the clockpointer.перенос значен. на основе похожестиCLOCK

2Contiguity of meanings or metonymy — the semantic process of associating two referents one of which makes part of the other or is closely connected with it. (the word tongue — ‘the organ of speech’ in the meaning of ‘language’ (as in mother tongue; cf. also L. lingua, Russ. язык). The word bench acquired the meaning ‘judges, magistrates’ because it was on the bench that the judges used to sit in law courts, similarly the House acquired the meaning of ‘members of the House’ (Parliament)).перенос знач по принципу часть-целое. The whole audience was listening

Results of semantic change can be generally observed in the changes of the denotational meaning of the word (restriction and extension of meaning) or in the alteration of its connotational component (amelioration and deterioration of meaning).

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