Change of Meaning as a Linguistic Phenomenon
In the course of the historical development of a language, the meaning of words change, e.g.: glad had the meaning of bright in OE; husband had the meaning of master of the house-hold; meat had the meaning of food, etc.
Change of meaning has been profoundly studied. This problem embraces three points (aspects):
1. the causes of semantic change;
2. the nature of semantic change;
3. the result of semantic change.
When we discuss the causes of semantic change we concentrate on the factors which bring about this change, we try to find out why the word changed its meaning, what circumstances cause and stimulate their development.
When we analyse the nature of semantic change we try to understand how different changes of meaning were brought about, how it happened (under what conditions).
When we analyse the result of the semantic change we try to find out what has changed. We do it by comparing the result and the original meanings and describe the difference between them.
Causes of Semantic Change
There are two groups of causes of semantic change: extralinguistic (historical) and linguistic factors.
Extralinguistic causes
In nation's social life, in its culture, knowledge, technology, arts, changes occur in all spheres of human activities. Newly created objects, new notions
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and phenomena must be named. There are two main ways for providing new names for newly created notions: making new words, and borrowing foreign ones. There is one more way: it is applying some old word to a new object or notion.
E.g.: the word carriage had and has the meaning of a vehicle drawn by horses. But with the first appearance of railways in England, it received a new meaning - a railway car; pen —> feather, metal, ball pen; sail - плавать под парусами —> плавать (о любом судне).
Some changes of meaning are due to purely linguistic causes, i.e. factors acting in the language system. Linguistically speaking, the development of new meanings, and also a complete change of meaning, may be caused by the influence of other words, mostly of synonyms.
The process of changing the meaning of words due to collision of synonyms is called discrimination of synonyms. Other examples of discrimination of synonyms: land (страна, земля) - country (Fr.) - страна, stool (стул, табурет) - chair (Fr.) - стул, meat (пища, мясо) - food (Fr.) - пища, deer (животное любое, олень) - animal (Fr.) животное.
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The next linguistic process is ellipses - the omission of a word in a phrase and the meaning of the whole word-group is transferred to the remaining component. E.g.: the OE verb steorfan (to starve) meant to perish. When the verb to die was borrowed from the Scandinavian, these two synonyms, which were very close in their meaning, collided, and, as a result, to starve gradually changed into its present meaning: to die (or suffer) from hunger. Already in the 14th century the word hunger gradually stopped to be used in this phrase and the verb itself got this meaning.
Other examples of ellipses: a sit-down (demonstration); a daily (newspaper); a monthly (magazine); a taxi (cab).
The third linguistic cause is linguistic analogy. It is found out that if one of the members of a synonymic set gets a new meaning, other members of this set change their meaning accordingly. E.g., verbs synonymous with catch (grasp, get, etc.) got the meaning to understand.
Nature of Semantic Change: Metaphor and Metonymy
To answer the question «how new meanings develop» we must investigate the inner mechanism of this process. A necessary condition of any semantic change, no matter what the cause, is some connection, some association between the old meaning and the new. There are two kinds of association involved in different semantic changes: similarity of meanings and contiguity of meanings.
Similarity of meanings, or metaphor may be described as a semantic process of associating two referents, one of which in some way resembles the
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other. In other words, metaphor is a transference of meaning on the basis of similarity, e.g.: the word hand got in the 16th century the meaning of a «pointer of a clock or a watch» because of the similarity of one of the functions performed by the hand.
The words denoting parts of human body are widely used metaphorically in different languages, e.g.: the leg of the table; the foot of the hill; the neck of a bottle; the tongue of the flame; the mouth of a pot, river, cave. In this case we create the figurative meaning of a word. Thus, we must differentiate between the primary meaning of a word and its derived meaning, that is the meaning which the word got in the language development.
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If a metaphor is based on physical properties it is called a simple or lin guistic metaphor. Simple metaphors can be classified according to the physical properties of the similarity on which they are based:
1. appearance or form: bridge - мост, переносица; nut - орех, голова;
arm - рука, ветка. A lean person may be called a skeleton, a tall and lean per
son is sometimes called a lamp-post;
2. temperature: boiling hot - кипяток, сердитый (горячий) человек;
3. position: the head and the foot of a page;
4. colour: the names of some flowers and shrubs are commonly used to
denote their colours: lilac - сирень, сиреневый; violet - фиалка, фиолето-
вый;
5. function of use: hand - рука, стрелка часов;
6. movement: caterpilar-tractor - гусеничный трактор; foxtrot - бег ли
сы, фокстрот (танец); albatros - альбатрос (птица), аэроплан.
Sometimes two or more of these kinds of resemblances are combined: the ear of a pitcher is something like a human ear in form, appearance and position, or the eye of a needle is similar to part of a human face in form and position.
In English there are many words and phrases in which the names of the animals are metaphorically used to denote human qualities, in this case we observe resemblance of qualities of animals and people, e.g.: a bear - a surly person; cat, sheep, snake, lion, monkey, parrot, goose, duck, etc. Horse is used as a kind of prefix to indicate size or coarseness: horse-laugh - a loud laugh; cf. Russian - ржание, horse-play - грубое развлечение, игра, horse-sense -грубоватый, здравый смысл. A few verbs belong to this class of animal names: to ape, to monkey - to imitate; to rat - to desert smb. in difficulty. There is a great many of idiomatic phrases containing the names of animals, insects, birds, etc.: it rains cats and dogs; to flog a dead horse; dog-cheap; to have a bee in one's bonnet.
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Transference of meanings may be based on resemblance not only between two physical objects, but also a concrete object and an abstract notion,
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e.g.: bar - барьер (a physical object); social bars - социальные барьеры; racial bars - расовые барьеры.
Contiguity of meaning, or metonymy may be described as the semantic process of associating two referents, one of which makes part of the other or is closely connected with it. In other words, metonymy is a transference of meanings on the basis of contiguity. Contiguity is a more complex phenomenon as compared with similarity and it may be of different kinds.
The word hand besides the meaning «pointer of a clock» (metaphor) also developed the meaning «worker». This meaning is based on another kind of association: hands are the most important feature that is required of a person engaged in physical labour (association of an object and the process). Another example: ABC - the alphabet (part of the whole).
The simplest case of metonymy is that of synecdoche. A synecdoche is a trope by which
1. a part is made to stand for the whole or
2. the whole for a part.
E.g.: grey-beard - an old man (cf. Russian - послушай, борода!); motor - motor-car; to save one's skin; bigwig - важное лицо, шишка.
The names of different animals are commonly used to mean their furs and sometimes - meat: fox, rabbit, hare, sable, tiger, etc. Names of different organs can be used metonymically: lend me your ears! - послушайте меня! head -голова, начальник; he has a good eye for old books - наметанный глаз; brain - мозг, голова (ум!).
Some other cases of metonymy:
1. the names of containers are used to denote things contained: the kettle is boiling; have another late (glass);
2. the names of the things contained are used instead of the containers:
school - for school-building; institute - for institute-building; university;
3. the names of places are used to denote what is going on in these places or people who are there: the whole chair was present; the whole city came to meet the hero; street; town; village;
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4. the name of the material may be used instead of the product: brass - латунь, духовые инструменты, mahogany - красное дерево, мебель, iron - железо, утюг, silver - серебро, приборы (столовые), flax - лен, изделие из льна, nickel, glass;
5. the name of the author is used for his works: give me Byron, please;
6. the name of a passion is used for its object: My love.
Proper names are widely used metonymically; e.g. the names of the inventors are used instead of what they have invented: makintosh - a waterproof overcoat after Makintosh (1766-1843), Farenheit (прусский ученый, 1736 г.),
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mauser - род оружия, Sandwich - имя лорда, Whatman - имя фабриканта, Sepp - имя конструктора, сконструировавшего дирижабль, Colt - имя конструктора, сконструировавшего револьвер, Pullman (1831-1897) - имя конструктора, создавшего определенный тип вагона пассажирского поезда.
Geographical names are used metonymically:
1. the names of countries are used to denote products manufactured there: china - porcelain; holland - a linen fabric; marocco - сафьян, bengal – сорт материала из Бенгалии;
2. names of cities and towns: rocquefort (деревня во Франции) - сыр, magnesia (древний город в Малой Азии) - лекарство, Bordeaux (город во Франции) - красное вино, havana - гаванские сигары, tangerine (город в Северной Африке) - мандарин, tokay (город в Венгрии) - вино токай, pambroke (город в Англии) - стол с двумя опускающимися сторонами;
3. names of islands: canary - l)light sweet wine, 2)a song bird found there; sardine - a small fish found in the Mediterranean Sea about the island of Sardinia;
4. names of mountains: cheviot - шевиот (ткань).
In all the above-mentioned cases the elements of contiguity are evident enough. All these cases of transference of meaning are called linguistic metonymy.
Both the processes, metaphor and metonymy, are closely connected, being different stages of the same semantic process, the result of the use of a word in different situations.
Results of Change of Meaning
Results of semantic change can be generally seen in the changes of the denotational meaning of the word - restriction and extention of meaning, or in the change of its connotational component - amelioration and deterioration of meaning - elevation and degradation of meaning. Restriction takes place more often than extention.
Changes in the denotational meaning may result in the narrowing or ex tention of meaning, i.e., a -word of wide meaning gets a narrower sense in which it denotes only some of the objects which it had previously denoted, or a word of narrow meaning becomes the one with extended meanings. The examples of narrowing of meanings: the word hound (OE hund) was used to denote a dog of any breed, but now it denotes only a dog used in the chase -гончая.
Mod E deer - a particular kind of beast - олень, OE - wild beast;
Mod E meat - eatable flesh (мясо), OE - food;
Mod E to teach - OE to show;
Mod E to write - OE to scratch.
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Terms of wide sense may narrow in meaning in a concrete situation. Thus, the River is to a Londoner the Thames; the Abbey stands for Westminster Abbey; the Tower - a museum now; the City - the business part of London; Oxford - the university, etc. One of the commonest ways of narrowing of meaning is to add a qualifying word: corn (grain) - Indian corn (maize) - кукуруза, engine - steam engine.
Extension of meaning means extension of the word-range, that is to say the change of specific to general, e.g., the following words underwent several changes:
pipe: 1. originally - a simple musical instrument made of wood; 2. of any other material; 3. other things resembling this musical instrument in shape; 4. a general name for a hollow cylindrical body;
box: l.a container for solid objects or substances, drugs and money; 2. other things bearing a close resemblance in form and use; 3. a chest for holding clothes; 4. a box in a stable, in a theatre, a signalman's box;
target: 1. a small round shield; 2. now - anything that is fired at and figuratively any result aimed at;
camp (Latin - campus): 1. the place where troops are lodged in tents; 2. temporary quarters of travellers, nomads.
Extension of meaning is often due to contiguity or similarity. Thus, very often proper names become common nouns: mackintosh, sandwich, colt, etc.
In all the above-mentioned cases the denotational meaning was changed. But there are cases of changes in the connotational component. The changes in the connotational meaning may be subdivided into two main groups:
- degradation of meaning;
- elevation of meaning.
Degradation of meaning involves a lowering in social scale, reflection of the contempt of the upper classes towards the lower ones, e.g.:
wench 1. дочь, сирота, 2. крестьянская девушка, 3. грубая девка;
knave (German knabe): 1. a boy, 2. a servant, 3. any low person; 4. a term of contempt in general referring to any person, a scoundrel - негодяй, подлец;
hoor: 1. a villager - крестьянин, 2. clumsy or ill-bread fellow - грубиян, грубый человек;
villain: 1. a villager, a peasant - крестьянин, 2. a term of scorn - презрение, 3. a scoundrel, a ruffian - хулиган, буян, головорез, злодей, негодяй;
blackguard: I. a servant who was in guard of kitchen things black with soot, 2. a scoundrel, due to the contempt of masters for the servants - подлец, бездельник.
Sometimes a word is neutral in meaning but its derivative has a derogatory, degraded meaning: design - замышлять, designing - коварный, лука-
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вый, art - artful (cunning), scheme - scheming (intriguing), mood - moody (out of humour) - унылый.
Elevation of meaning is a semantic shift undergone by words due to their referents coming up the social scale, e.g.:
steward- an attendant on ships and airlines but originally - a person who took care of pigs (stigo - a sty, weard - ward);
minister - a civil servant of higher rank, originally - a servant, an attendant, then a priest;
marshal - a high military rank, originally - a horse-servant;
queen — originally a woman;
knight - originally a young servant, now a man who receives a title of honour;
nice - originally foolish, now - тонкий, умелый, отличный;
fame - слава; originally a report, common talk, rumour.
The causes, nature and result of semantic changes should be viewed as three essentially different but inseparable aspects of one and the same linguistic phenomenon, as any change of meaning may be investigated from the point of view of its cause, nature and its consequences. Essentially the same causes may bring about different results, e.g., the semantic development in the word knight (OE cniht) from «a boy servant» to «a young warrior» and eventually to the meaning it possesses in Modern English due to extralinguistic causes just as the semantic change in the word boor, but the results are different. In the case of boor we observe pejorative development while in the case of blight we observe elevation of the connotational component.
AMBIGUITY OF MEANING
1. Grammatical and lexical ambiguity
2. Monosemantic and polysemantic words.
3. Primary and secondary meanings.
4. Basic and minor meanings.
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