Semantic change Totally Explained

Everything about Semantic Shift totally explained

In diachronic (or historical) linguistics, semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word. Every word has a variety of senses and connotations which can be added, removed, or altered over time, often to the extent that cognates across space and time have very different meanings. Semantic change is one of three major processes to find a designation for a concept. The study of semantic change can be seen as part of etymology, onomasiology, semasiology and semantics. An example of a recent semantic change is of the word mouse; with the advent of computer technology, the word for the rodent has been used as a referent for the input device.

Types of semantic change

A number of classification schemes have been suggested for semantic change. The most widely accepted scheme in the English-speaking academic world is from Leonard Bloomfield (1933):

Narrowing: Change from superordinate level to subordinate level, for example, meat "food" → "flesh of an animal"
Widening: Change from subordinate level to superordinate level, for example, bird "nestling, young bird" → "bird"
Metaphor: Change based on similarity of thing, for example, bitter "biting" → "not sweet"
Metonymy: Change based on nearness in space or time, for example, jaw "cheek" → "jaw"
Synecdoche: Change based on whole-part relation, for example, town "fence" → "city"
Hyperbole: Change from stronger to weaker meaning, for example, astound "strike with thunder" → "surprise strongly"
Litotes: Change from weaker to stronger meaning, for example, kill "torment" → "kill"
Degeneration: for example, knave "boy" → "servant"
Elevation: for example, knight "boy" → "knight"

However, Andreas Blank"s (1998) categorization has been gaining more and more acceptance:

Metaphor: Change based on similarity between concepts, for example, mouse "rodent" → "computer device"

Metonymy: Change based on contiguity between concepts, for example, horn "animal horn" → "musical instrument"

synecdoche: same as above

specialization of meaning: Downward shift in a taxonomy, for example, corn "corn" → "wheat" (UK)

generalization of meaning; Upward shift in a taxonomy, for example, hoover "Hoover vacuum cleaner" → "any type of vacuum cleaner"

cohyponymic transfer: Horizontal shift in a taxonomy, for example, the confusion of mouse and rat in some dialects

antiphrasis: Change based on a contrastive aspect of the concepts, for example, perfect lady in the sense of "prostitute"

auto-antonymy: Change of a word's sense and concept to the complementary opposite, for example, bad in the slang sense of "good"

auto-converse: Lexical expression of a relationship by the two extremes of the respective relationship, for example, take in the dialectal use as "give"

ellipsis: Semantic change based on the contiguity of names, for example, car "cart" → "automobile", due the to invention of the (motor) car

folk-etymology: Semantic change based on the similarity of names, for example, French contredanse, orig. English country dance) Blank considers it problematic, though, to include amelioration and pejoration of meaning as well as strengthening and weakening of meaning. According to Blank, these are not objectively classifiable phenomena; moreover, all Blank has shown that all of the examples listed under these headings can be grouped into the other phenomena.

Forces triggering semantic change

Blank (1997, 1999a) has tried to set up a complete list of motives of semantic change. This list has been revised and slightly enlarged by Grzega (2004). They can be summarized as:

linguistic forces

psychological forces

sociocultural forces

cultural/encyclopedic forces

Practical studies

Apart from many individual studies, etymological dictionaries are prominent reference books for finding out about semantic changes. The internet platform Onomasiology Online shows a bibliography of etymological dictionaries of languages world-wide.

Theoretical studies

Recent overviews have been presented by Blank (1997:7-46) and Blank/Koch (1999b). Semantic change had attracted academic discussions already in ancient times. The first major works of modern times are Karl Reisig (1829/1839), Arsène Darmesteter (1887), Michel Bréal (1899), Hermann Paul (1880), Gustaf Stern (1931), Leonard Bloomfield (1933) and Stephen Ullmann (1957 & 1962). Studies beyond the analysis of single words have been started with Jost Trier's word-field analyses (1931), who claimed that every semantic change of a word would also affect all other words in a lexical field. His approach was later refined by Eugenio Coseriu (1964). Generative semantics has been introduced by Gerd Fritz (1964). More recent works including pragmatic and cognitive theories are those by Beatrice Warren (1992), Dirk Geeraerts (1983, 1997), Elizabeth Traugott (for example, 1990) and Andreas Blank (1997).
As stated above, the most currently used typologies are those by Bloomfield (1933) and Blank (1998) shown above. Other typologies are listed below.

Typology by Reisig (1839)

Reisig's ideas for a classification were published posthumously. He resorts to classical rhetorics and distinguishes between

synecdoche: shifts between part and whole

metonymy: shifts between cause and effect

metaphor

Typology by Paul (1880)

specialization: enlargement of single senses of a word's meaning

specialization on a specific part of the contents: reduction of single senses of a word's meaning

transfer on a notion linked to the based notion in a spatial, temporal or causal way

Typology by Darmesteter (1887)

metaphor

metonymy

widening of meaning

narrowing of meaning The last two are defined as change between whole and part, which would today be rendered as synecdoche.

Typology by Bréal (1899)

restriction of sense: change from a general to a special meaning

enlargement of sense: change from a special to a general meaning

metaphor

"thickening" of sense: change from an abstract to a concrete meaning

Typology by Stern (1931)

Substitution: Change related to the change of an object, of the knowledge referring to the object, of the attitude toward the object, for example, artillery "engines of war used to throw missiles" → "mounted guns", atom "inseparable smallest physical-chemical element" → "physical-chemical element consisting of electrons", scholasticism "philosophical system of the Middle Ages" → "servile adherence to the methods and teaching of schools"

Analogy: Change triggered by the change of an associated word, for example, fast adj. "fixed and rapid" ← faste adv. "fixedly, rapidly")

Shortening: for example, periodical ← periodical paper

Nomination: "the intentional naming of a referent, new or old, with a name that hasn't previously been used for it" (Stern 1931: 282), for example, lion "brave man" ← "lion"

Regular transfer: a subconscious Nomination

Permutation: non-intentional shift of one referent to another due to a reinterpretation of a situation, for example, bead "prayer" → "pearl in a rosary") *Adequation: Change in the attitude of a concept, which makes the distinction from Substitution unclear). This classification doesn't neatly distinguish between processes and forces/causes of semantic change.

Typology by Ullmann (1957, 1962)

Ullmann dintinguishes between nature and consequences of semantic change:

nature of semantic change

Metaphor: change based on a similarity of senses
Metonymy: change based on a contiguity of senses
Folk-etymology: change based on a similarity of names
Ellipsis: change based on a conitguity of names

Consequences of semantic change

Widening of meaning: raise of quantity
Narrowing of meaning: loss of quantity
Amelioration of meaning: raise of quality
Pejoration of meaning: loss of quality

Further Information

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