Semantic change of English words.

1. Types of semantic change.

2. Linguistic causes of semantic change. and extra-linguistic causes of
semantic change.

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
of semantic change depend on some comparison of the earlier and new meaning of
the given word.
This comparison may be based on the difference between the concepts
expressed or referents in the real world that are pointed out, and on the type of
psychological association, on evaluation of the latter by the speaker, on lexico-
grammatical categories or on some other feature.
Most of the linguists more or less follow the diachronic classification of M.
Breal and H. Paul in describing various types of semantic changes. This treatment
is therefore traditional. M. Breal was probably the first to emphasize the fact that in
passing from general usage into some sphere of communication a word as a rule
undergoes some sort of specialization of its meaning. The word case, for instance,
alongside its general meaning of 'circumstances in which a person or thing is'
possesses special meaning: case in medicine /a patient, an illness/, case in law /a
law suit/, case in grammar / the possessive case, common case.
The general, not specialized meaning of the word case is also very frequent in
Present day English. The difference of meanings in these examples is revealed in
the difference of contexts in which these words occur, in their different valency.
Different meanings of the words case connected with illness and medicine or with
law and court determine the semantic structure or paradigm of the word ' case.' The
same applies to noun cell as used by a biologist / клетка/, an electrician / ток/, or
by a representatives of the law /тюремная камера/; or the word gas is understood
by a chemist, a soldier, a housewife or a miner differently.
In all the examples considered above the given words represented notions 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. In other words, the word now applicable to fewer things
but tells us more about them.
The reduction of scope accounts for the term 'narrowing' or specialization of
meaning. But we must understand that actually it is neither the meaning nor the
notion, but the scope of the notion that is narrowed. The best known examples of
specialization or the narrowing of the meaning are as follows: OE deor " wild
beast" = Mod.E deer" wild animal of a particular type"; OE mete "food" = Mod.E
meat " a particular type of food; OE hund "dog", Mod.E. Mod.E "hound " a special
type of a hunting dog etc.
As a special group belonging to the same type one can mention the formation of
proper nouns from common nouns chiefly in toponymics, i.e. place names. E.g. the
City - the business part of London; the Highlands - mountainous part of Scotland;
The tower of London - originally a fortress and palace, later a state prison, now a
museum.
The process reverse to specialization is termed generalization and
widening of meaning. In that case the scope of the new notion is wider than that of
the original one. In most cases generalization is combined with higher order of
abstraction than in the notion expressed by the earlier meaning. The transition from
a concrete meaning to an abstract one is the most frequent feature in the semantic
history of words. Thus, ready = OE rade /a derivative of the verb ridan '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.
Not every generic word comes into being only by generalization, other
processes of semantic development may also beinvolved in words borrowed from
one language into another. The word person, for instance, is a generic term for
human being . The word was borrowed into Middle English from Old French,
where it was persone and came from Latin persona 'the mask used by an actor',
'one who plays a part', 'a character in a play'. The motivation of the word is of
interest. The great theatre space in Ancient Rome made it impossible for the
spectators to see the actor's face and changes in their faces. That's why masks with
megaphonic effect were used. This mask was called persona from Latin per
*through and sonare /to sound/. After the term had been transferred to the character
represented, the generalization and abstraction to any human being came quite
naturally.
The most frequent transfers of the name of one object to another frequently
based on the association of similarity. These types of transfer are as well known in
rhetoric as figures of speech called metaphor and metonymy. A metaphor is a
transfer of name based on the association of similarity, and thus it a hidden
comparison. It presents a method of description which likens on thing to another
by referring to it as if it were some other one. A cunning person, for instance, is
referred to a fox. A woman may be called a peach, a lemon, a cat, a goose ,a
lioness ete.
There are two types of metaphors: a poetic metaphor and a linguistic metaphor.
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." In a linguistic metaphor, especially when it is
dead as a result of long usage, the comparison is completely forgotten. E.g. foot/of
a mountain/, leg/ of a table/, eye/of a needle/, nose/ of a boat, ship/ ete. Metaphors
may be based upon very different types of similarity, for instance, the similarity of
shape: head of a cabbage, the teeth of a saw. This similarity of shape may be
supported by a similarity of function. The transferred meaning is easily recognized
from the context: the head of the school, the key to a mystery. In the examples the
leg of the table and the foot of the mountain the metaphor is motivated by the
similarity of the lower part of the table and mountain and the human foot in
position and partly in shape and function.
 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. Another subgroup of metaphors comprises transition of proper names into
common ones: A Don Juan; an Othello.
A metonymy is a transfer of mane based on the association of contiguity. This
transfer may be conditioned by spatial, temporal, causal, symbolic, instrumental,
functional and other connections.
Regular spatial relations are, for instance, 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 word town may denote the inhabitants of a town and the House - the
members of the House of Commons or Lords. A causal relationship is obvious in
the following development: Mod.E fear - ME fere/feer/ - OE far
'danger', 'unexpected attack'.
* States and properties serve as names for the objects and people possessing them:
youth, age, forces. The name of the action: Mod.E to kill - ME killen ' to hit on the
head'. There are also the well known instances of symbol for thing symbolized: the
crown for 'monarchy', the instrument for the product: hand for 'handwriting".
Words denoting the material from which an article is made are often used to denote
the particular article: glass, iron, copper, nickel are well known examples.
A place of its own within metonymical change is occupied by the so-called
functional change. This type has its own 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 - O.Fr.
penne - Italian penna - Latin penna meant "feather". We write with fountain-pen
that made of different materials and have nothing in common with feathers exept
the function, but the name remains. Another example: the steersman was earlier
called pilot; with the coming of aviation a person who operates the flying controls
of an aircraft was also called pilot.
In earlier times people instead of money used cattle in order to buy necessary
things. They might exchange their cattle for other things, because money didn't
exist at that time as a current unit., that's why cattle had been used by people
instead of food, means of communication / средс. передвиж./ and as an exchange
unit. In the caurse of time they began to use money as an exchange unit. " Money"
in Latin "pecunia" meant "cattle". Now in English there are such expressions as
pecuniary /денежный/, pecuniary aid / денежная помощь/.
In Russia "рубль" is used as a current unit. There are different points of view
concerning the etymology of this word. Some scholars point out that "рубль" came
from "rupi' Hindi language " rupi "cattle'
Some other examples of functional change in Russian language : белье /cloth/ (
сшитый из белого материала) , мешок ( сделанный из меха) , чернила ( черная
жидкость).
In the 16 century a monk whose duty was to awake early in the morning other
monks in the church was called 'будильник" .
Common names may be metonymically derived from proper names. E.g. Diesel or
diesel engine - a type of compression ignition engine invented by a German
engineer Rudolf Diesel /1858-1913/. Many international physical and technical
unites are name after great scientists, as for instance, ampere - the unite of
electrical current after Andre Marie Ampere, a great French mathematician and
physiologist. Also: ohm, volt, watt etc.
Some other examples of proper names: гильотина / виселица/, Гильотен имя
врача, кто придумал данный предмет, гобелен / парижанин Жан Гобелен/б
английский лорд генерал Реглан/б маузер. Браунинг, форд, макинтош, френч,
галифе т. . . Transfers by contiguity often involve place names. There are 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. E.g. The White
house, the Pentagon. The same type of transfer is observed when we turn to Great
Britain. Here the British Government is referred to as Downing Street because the
Prime Minister's residence is at No. 10 Downing Street. The similarity formed
names of wines or kinds of cheese are international as: champagne, madeira brie
cheese etc.
2. The causes of semantic changes may be grouped under two headings,
linguistic and extra-linguistic ones. Linguistic causes influencing the process of
vocabulary adaptation may be paradigmatic and syntagmatic character.
Here we have to do with the constant interaction and interdependence of
differentiation between synonyms, changes taking place in connection with ellipsis
and with fixed contexts and etc.
Differentiation of synonyms is a gradual change observed in the course of
language history. For ex., the word time and tide. They are considered to
synonyms. Then tide took on its more limited application to the shifting waters,
and time alone is used in the general sense. The word beast was borrowed from
French into ME. Before it appeared the general word for animal was deer, which
after the word beast was introduced became narrowed to its present meaning. No
systemic treatment has been offered for the syntagmatic semantic changes
depending on the context. But such cases exist showing that investigation of the
problem is important. One of them is ellipsis. The qualifying words of a frequent
phrase may be omitted: media comes to be used for mass media; propose for
propose marriage; to be expecting for to be expecting a baby; or minerals for
mineral waters; summit - for summit meeting.
The extra-linguistic causes are determined by the social nature of the
language. They are observed in changes of meaning resulting from the
development of new notions and things. In other words, extra-linguistic causes of
semantic are connected with the development of the human mind.
Language are powerfully affected by social, political, economic, cultural and
technical change. The influence of those factors upon linguistic phenomena is
studied by socio-linguistics. It shows that social factors can influence even
structural features of linguistic units: terms of science, for instance, have a number
f specific features as compared to words used in other spheres of human activity.
 The word being a linguistic realization of notion, changes with the progress of
human consciousness. This process is reflected in the development of lexical
meaning. In the earlier time the word 'earth' meant ' the ground under people's feet,
"the soil', but with the progress of science earth came to mean another meaning,
i.e. as a planet. With the development of electrical engineering earth'/n/ means' a
connection of a wire with the earth'.
The word 'space meant 'extent of time or distance'. Alongside this meaning a
new meaning developed the limitless and indefinitely great expanse in which all
material object are located'.
The extra- linguistic motivation is sometimes obvious but some cases are not so
straightforward as they may look. The word bikini may be taken as an example.
Bikini, a very scanty two-piece bathing suit worn by woman, is named after
Bikini atoll in the Western Pacific, but not because" it was first introduced on some
fashionable beach there. Bikini appeared at the time when the US tested the atomic
bomb in the Bikini atoll. And that atomic test is fresh in everybody's memory, and
it has the association of emotional shock. According to this association there
appeared the semantic change of the word bikini.
Within the diachronic approach the phenomenon of euphemism /Greek eu -
'good' and pheme - voice/ has been studied by many linguists, many of them
classified it as taboo, i.e. a prohibition meant as a safeguard against supernatural
forces. With people of developed culture and civilization euphemism is quite
different, it is dictated by social usage, etiquette, tact, diplomatic consideration and
political propaganda.
From the semasiological point of view euphemism is important, because
meanings with unpleasant connotations appear in words formerly neutral and as a
result of their repeated use instead of words that are for some reason
unmentionable.
E.g. deceased - dead', deranged - mad'.