Change of meaning

Change of meaning

Causes, nature and results of semantic change

Causes: extralinguistic or linguistic

Extralinguistic cause:

• word meaning changes due to change in the nature of related object or in concepts about it
• word meaning changes also due to the social phenomena of taboos and euphemisms – avoiding particular words and using others instead.

Linguistic causes:

• differentiation of synonyms
• lingistic analogy
• ellipsis

Nature of change of meaning  

The nature of change of word meaning is determined by the secondary application of the word form to name a different yet related concept.

Lexical-semantic naming

Similarity - metaphor

Contiguity – metonymy  

Results of change of meaning  

Changes in the denotational component:

• restriction (or narrowing), specialization
• extension (or widening), generalization
• semantic shift

changes in the connotational component:

• ameliorative development (amelioration)
• pejorative development (pejoration)

Polysemy

Monosemantic words

Polysemantic words

Sources of polysemy:

• convergence of homonyms,
• derived meanings

Lexical-semantic naming of concepts related by similarity or contiguity is used to create both figurative and direct names.

Direct names:

• instruments
• parts of any structure including body
• actions, events and their results
• qualities
• different abstract concepts 

There are certain regularities in using lexical-semantic means of naming.

Ex. Words denoting an animal are regularly used to denote:

• some other animal
• their flesh or objects made of parts of their bodies
• a quality of a person
• an instrument or appliance
• a sign in the Zodiac

Semantic structure of a word

Lexical-semantic variants (LSV)

Synchronic approach

• basic/central/major meaning
• peripheral/ minor meanings

Diachronic approach

• primary meaning
• secondary/derived meanings