Semantic Change

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Changes in the meaning of linguistic expressions, seen from a historical perspective, where semantic change refers both to changes in the relation between linguistic signs and extralinguistic reality and to changes in the relations between signs ( semantic relation). Classifying the different types of semantic change and ascertaining the cause for its rise and spread was the main goal of semasiological research ( semasiology); various theories for this can be found in Paul (1880: ch. 4) and Ullmann (1957: chs 2, 4). The following aspects are fundamental to most classifications. (a) In logic or rhetoric, regarding the relationship of old and new meaning, one distinguishes between (i) semantic narrowing: restriction of the semantic scope or context in which the word may be used; e.g. OE hund ‘dog’>Eng. hound ‘hunting breed’; (ii) semantic widening: whereas semantic narrowing refers to the specialization of the new as opposed to the older semantic scope, semantic widening is characterized by generalization; e.g. OE dogge ‘particular breed of dog’>Eng. dog ‘any kind of dog’; (iii) metaphor: Gmc *[‘bitraz] ‘biting’ (derived from the verb meaning ‘to bite’)>bitter ‘harsh in taste’ (examples from Bloomfield 1933:426–7) ( catachresis). Other forms of semantic transfer are hyperbole, litotes, metonymy, and synecdoche, among others. In regard to the causes of semantic change, one distinguishes between (b) changes in the extralinguistic reality, i.e. changes in states of affairs or knowledge about states of affairs as is reflected in expressions like fee (‘cattle’) or their objects of reference (in this case, ‘cattle’ as a commodity); (c) changes in social value: (i) semantic degeneration, as in Lat. potio ‘drink’ >Fr. poison ‘poison’; or (ii) semantic elevation, as in marshal (originally ‘keeper of the horses’) ( euphemism). (d) Semantic borrowing through language contact: semantic change occurs through the influence of foreign languages ( foreign vs second language), jargon, sociolects, or dialects, in that a lexeme in a particular language adopts aspects of the meaning of a lexeme in the other (influencing) language, as in write (originally ‘to scratch’), influenced by Lat. scribere ( loan word, borrowed meaning). (e) Intralinguistic causes: individual examples indicate that there is occa-sionally a connection between semantic change and a phonetic or grammatical change. To be sure, it is often uncertain whether the phonetic or grammatical change was in fact the precursor to semantic change ( also folk etymology). On the other hand, studies in lexical fields (see Trier 1931) have shown that within a specific lexical field every change of a lexeme is systematically connected with changes in related (‘neighboring’) lexemes.

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Meillet, A. 1921. Linguistique historique et linguistique générale. Paris.

Paul, H. 1880. Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte. Tübingen. (9th edn 1975.)

Stern, G. 1931. Meaning and change of meaning. Bloomington, IN.

Sweetser, E. 1990. From etymology to pragmatics. Cambridge.

Traugott, E.C. 1985. On regularity in semantic change. Journal of Literary Semantics 14.155–73.

Trier, J. 1931. Der deutsche Wortschatz im Sinnbezirk des Verstandes: die Geschichte eines sprachlichen Feldes, vol. I: Von den Anfängen bis zum Beginn des 13. Jahrhunderts. Heidelberg.

Ullmann, S. 1957. The principles of semantics. Oxford.

Voyles, J.B. 1973. Accounting for semantic change. Lingua 31.95–124.

componential analysis, historical linguistics, language change, semantics.

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