English LexicologyChanges in word meaning

Week 12

Instructor: Liu Hongyong

Do you think the following two words are related or not? In what way are they related?

salt salary

holy holiday

awe awesome awful (awesome/awful day?)

fond foolish

nice know <ne (Latin: not)+scire (Latin: know)

lady loaf <loaf+kneader (lady)

lord loaf <lo(af+wa)rd (lord)

Warming-up

Overview• Definition of changes of word meaning • Types of changes

1. Specialization 2. Extension3. Degeneration4. Elevation5. Transference

• Causes of changes1. Historical reason2. Social reason3. Psychological reason4. Linguistic reason

Changes in word meaning

When a word loses its old meaning and comes to refer to something different, the result is a change in word meaning.

Change of meaning refers to the alternation of the meaning of existing words, as well as the addition of new meaning to a particular word.

Changing word meaning has never ceased since the beginning of the language and will continue in the future.

The changes in meaning are gradual, and words are not changed in a day.

Types of Change

Extension of meaning Narrowing of meaning Elevation of meaning Degradation of meaning

Extension of Meaning 词义的扩大

Generalization of Meaning It is a process by which a word which originally had

a specialized meaning has now become generalized or has extended to cover a broader concept.

一个原本具有特殊意义的单词的词义被延伸，范围扩大，可以用来指代一种更普遍的词义。

salary (original) a sum of money given to Roman soldiers to enable them to buy s

alt ( 政府按时发给古罗马军人一些买盐的钱 ) (present) fixed payment made by employer at regular intervals to employee

s ( 薪水 )

holiday (original) holy day, a day of religious significance ( 宗教节日，神圣的日

子） (present) day of festivity or recreation

收获由专指“农业收成”扩大到指称 “一切行为的所得”，如“参观的收

获”。

搁浅由专指“船舶进入水浅的地方不能前进”扩大到指称 一切“事情遭到阻

碍而不能进行”， 如“这次旅游的事无限期地搁浅了。”

1) She is such a pretty little thing.

2) I have to pack my things for the journey.

3) There is another thing I want to ask you about.

4) That only makes things worse.

5) The thing is, can we finish the job in time?

A large proportion of polysemous words of modern English have their meanings extended sometime in the course of development. Some words are generalized to such a degree that they can mean almost everything.

“Thing” which used to mean “a public assembly” or “a council” in Anglo-Saxon times, now has become an all-purpose word. Its meaning is so general, and we sometimes call this noun a ‘light noun’.

A Chinese Example ： …的话她不喜欢你说的话。

她不喜欢你的话。她不喜欢你的话，你就不要死皮赖脸的缠着她了。

“ 话” (original) Spoken wordsA light noun, which can refer to anything

请认真阅读：江蓝生， 2004，跨层非短语结构“的话”的词汇化，《中国语文》第 5期：

387－ 400。 Jiang, L.-S. 2004. About the lexicalization of the cross-structural combination “de

hua”. Zhongguo Yuwen 5: 387-400.

(downloadable from 中国期刊网 )

Generalization of meaning is also found in many technical terms, which are confined to specialized use.

allergic (original) too sensitive to medicine 患过敏症的 (present) averse or disinclined to 反感的；厌恶的alibi (original) a legal term signifying “the plea that the accused is

not at the place when the crime is committed” ( 被告人不在犯罪现场的证明 )

(present) excuse ( 借口 )

Narrowing of Meaning词义的缩小

It is a process by which a word of wide meaning acquires a narrow or specialized sense. In other words, a word which used to have a more general sense becomes restricted in its application and conveys a special concept in present-day English.

把词义范围较广的词缩小，表示特指，即过去具有普遍意义的词变化后，现在仅仅表达特殊意义。

Narrowing; specialization; restriction

Example Original Meaning Meaning after Narrowing

meat food 食物 flesh of animals 肉

disease discomfort 不适 illness 疾病

wife woman 妇女 married woman 妻子

starve to die to die of hunger

accident event 事件 unfortunate event 事故

Narrowing of Meaning

For economy, some phrases are shortened and only one element of the original, usually an adjective, is left to retain the meaning of the whole. Such adjectives have thus taken on specialized meanings.

a general = a general officer an editorial = an editorial article

Some material nouns are used to refer to objects made of them and thus have a more specific sense.

glass a cup-like container or a mirror iron device for smoothing clothes

Change in associative meaning

Both extension and narrowing of meaning are talking about the changes in conceptual meaning. Next we will talk about the changes in associative meaning. Elevation of meaning Degradation of meaning

Elevation of Meaning 词义的升华

It is the process by which words rise from humble beginnings to positions of importance.

Some words early in their history signify something quite low or humble, but change to designate something agreeable or pleasant.

词义的升华指词由贬义或中性转变为褒义。即，有些词在历史上表示“卑微、下贱”之义，随着时间的推移转为“惬意的，愉快的”。

A “snarl” word becomes a “purr” word, or a slang becomes a common word.

elevation; amelioration

Examples of elevation

nice ignorant --- foolish --- delightful, pleasantfond foolish --- affectionateawesome terrible---terrific marshal a keeper of horses --- a high ranking army officerconstable a keeper of horses --- a policeman

Terrific headache

Terrific party

Degradation of Meaning 词义的降格 It is a process by which words with appreciatory or ne

utral affective meaning fall into ill reputation or come to be used in a derogatory sense.

这是一个词由原先表示褒义或者中性意义转为表示贬义的过程。

A “purr” word becomes a “snarl” word. degradation, degeneration, pejoration

Examples

silly blessed and happy--- innocent----simple or sim

ple-minded ----foolish

sad full, satisfied, contented ----- calm ------ seriou

s ----sorrowful

Transference of Meaning词义的转移

Definition Some words which were used to designate one thing

but later changed to mean something else have experienced the process of semantic transfer, known as transference of meaning.

有些词原指称某些事物，后来发生变化，转为指称另外的事物，就是词义的转移。

The lip of a wound 伤口的边缘 The tongues of fire The foot of a mountain

Causes of Change

Extra-linguistic factors Historical reason Social reason Psychological reason

Linguistic factors Ellipsis Analogy Figurative use of words

Metaphor Metonym

Historical reason

A word is retained its original form, though its meaning has changed because the referent has changed.

pen

car

Social reason

Language records the speech and attitude of different social classes, so different social varieties of language have come into being.

The attitude of classes have penetrated into lexical meaning, particularly in the case of elevation and degradation.

Quite a number of words that denote different sorts of working people or their occupations have taken on a pejorative sense.

Churl, hussy, villain which were originally neutral have been down-graded as “ill-manned or bad people”.

Psychological reason

The associated transfer of meaning and euphemistic use of words, etc. are often due to psychological factors.

People change word meaning owing to various psychological motives: love, respect, courtesy, suspicion, pessimism, sarcasm, irony, contempt, hatred, avoidance of embarrassment, etc.

Example: rubber

Occasionally you can see some good reason for a change of meaning. For example, the word rubber used to be used to mean ‘eraser’ in New Zealand varieties of English (as in British varieties), but was rejected in favor of eraser once rubber came to mean ‘condom’.

This kind of embarrassment has also led people in many parts of the English-speaking world to stop calling the male of the domestic fowl a cock, preferring rooster instead.

This kind of embarrassment has been suggested as the reason that ass was replaced by the word donkey in everyday usage.

Linguistic factors

The change of meaning may be caused by the internal factors within the language system.

Ellipsis Borrowing Analogy Figurative use of a word

Ellipsis ( 省略 )

The meaning of a word may change when a phrase is shortened to one word which retains the meaning of the whole. This is called ellipsis.

gold: gold medal

daily: daily newspaper

The meaning of the word “gold” has changed from material to refer to the whole phrase “gold medal”. This kind of change often occurs in habitual collocations.

Borrowing

The influx of borrowings has caused some words to change in meaning.

deer(original) a wild animal of any sort from a lion to a mouse.

In Middle Ages, the French word beste (=beast) became the general word.

In 16th century, the Latin word animal was also adopted into the English vocabulary.

Today deer can only refer to a particular kind of animal.

Analogy (类推 ) If an adjective develops a new meaning, the derived noun from

the adjective will have a corresponding new meaning by analogy. The process can be applied to a word of any word class.

Diplomatic (original) skillful in dealing with international relations

(present) skillful in dealing with any kind of relations

Diplomatic: Diplomacy

Diplomacy (original) the art of dealing with international relations

(present) ???

Analogy

Figurative use of words

Change in word meaning may result from the figurative use of the language. Metaphor and metonymy are two important figures of speech ( 修辞手法 ).

Metaphor is a figure of speech containing an implied comparison based on similarity. A cunning person may be referred to as a fox. Here “fox” means something other than its literal meaning. The word “fox” gets the figurative meaning of “a cunning person”.

Metaphor

This is also a horse, but a metaphorical horse.

Example: foot

foot

1. The lower extremity of the vertebrate leg that is in direct contact with the ground in standing or walking.

2. The lowest part; the bottom

the foot of a mountain

the foot of a page

This meaning is derived through the metaphor “The last line on this page is the foot of the page.”

Metonymy ( 借喻 )

Metonymy is another important factor in semantic change. It is a figure of speech by which an object or an idea is described by the name of something else closely related to it.

如“敌人像狗一样夹着尾巴逃跑了”运用的是明 喻，换成借喻就是“这条狗夹着尾巴逃跑了”。在上面 两句中，本体是“敌人”，喻体是“狗”，喻词是“像”。由明喻到借喻，只是省略了本体和喻词。因此所有借喻 只要增加本体和喻词都可以转换成明喻。

Example: seat

Seat (its sense is extended to the right to sit as a member of a committee, such as the House of Commons)

He lost his seat in House of Commons.

The word “seat” has acquired the meaning of “the right to sit as a member” through the above metonym.

More Example: cradle

Cradle

1. A small low bed for an infant, often furnished with rockers

2. The earliest period of life; infancy

from the cradle to the grave

3. A place of origin; a birthplace

the cradle of civilization.

These meanings are derived through the following metonyms.

Summary• Definition of changes of word meaning • Types of changes

1. Specialization 2. Extension3. Degeneration4. Elevation5. Transference

• Causes of changes1. Historical reason2. Social reason3. Psychological reason4. Linguistic reason