Chapter9ChangesinWordMeaning.ppt

English Lexicology Chapter 9 Changes in Word Meaning The inevitability of change As Quirk asserts, ‘ … almost every word we use today has a slightly different meaning from the one it had a century ago; and a century ago it had a slightly different meaning from the one it had a century before that (1978:130) Changes in Language “It often happens that language is more conservative than civilization, material as well as moral. Objects, ideas, scientific concepts change in the course of time; yet in many cases the name is retained and thus helps to ensure a sense of tradition and continuity.” (Ullmann 1977: 198) Plays by Ben Jonson Every Man in his Humour Every Man out of his Humour Humor refers to a passion generate3d by irrational egotis, and amounting sometimes to a mania. humour 1. One of the four liquids: blood; phlegm; bile; and black bile or melancholy. 2. The balance or mixture of the humors = a man’s temperament = his complexion 3. Quality of being amusing or comic. Causes of Changes 1. Historical cause A word retains its original form, its meaning has changed because the object which it denotes has changed. Examples: car = “two-wheeled Celtic war chariot” pencil = “a little tail” or “a fine brush” paper = Gr. a plant “papyrus” parliament = OF. speaking virtue = L. virtus “manliness” atom =L. and F. from Gr. arouos, indivisible = “an particle too small to be divided” 2. Social causes Change in word meaning resulting from a constant verbal traffic between common words and various technical words is referred to as social cause of semantic change. (Ullmann 1977: 199-200) Technical words became popular. feedback dimension catalyst allergic parameter spirits Disaster A popular word is given a special meaning energy; product; decline; complex; Carrier; Bottleneck; Scale economy 3. Foreign influences Sometimes a Saxon word which had a general sense has been replaced by a French word or a Latin derivative, but the original