Chapter 7 Changes in Word Meaning

---Class 0610 杜萱

7.1 types of changes

• To be, or not to be: that is the question:• Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer• The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,• Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,• And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;• No more; and by a sleep to say we end• The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks• That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation• Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;• To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;• For in that sleep of death what dreams may come• When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,• Must give us pause: there's the respect

rub means obstacle, respect means consideration

• That makes calamity of so long life;• For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,• The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,• The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,• The insolence of office and the spurns• That patient merit of the unworthy takes,• When he himself might his quietus make• With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,• To grunt and sweat under a weary life,• But that the dread of something after death,• The undiscover'd country from whose bourn• No traveller returns, puzzles the will• And makes us rather bear those ills we have• Than fly to others that we know not of?

office means high officials, bare means mere, bourn means boundary, and ill means evil.

娃 美女 孩子二毛 老人 ？

• Quirks:

• ‘almost every word we use today has a slightly different meaning from the on it had a century ago; and a century ago it had a slightly different meaning from the one it had a century before that.’

7.1.Types of Change

• Degradation

• Elevation

• Transference

• Euphemism

ExtensionNarrowing

1. Extension of Meaning (Generalization)

• a word with an original specializedspecialized meaning

a broaderbroader and often less definiteless definite concept

(generalizing)

eg. the word “picture”

painting (original meaning)

drawings photographs (extended meaning)

Word Old Meaning Generalized

Meaning

barn

aunt

virtue

layman

a place for storing only barley

storeroom

father’s sister father or mother’s sister

a quality that could only be applied to men

it can equally be applied to women as well

one who is not of clergy

non-member of any profession

Generalization of meaning in technical terms

Computer science: feedback response

Medical term: allergic (too sensitive to medicine)

averse or disinclined to

Chemistry: catalyst ( 催化剂 ) (a substance which, without itself changing, causes chemical activity to quicken.)

Something that facilitates a change

Words generalized from proper names

eg1: valentine Saint Valentine

the patron saint of lovers lover

eg3: CNN Cable News Network (CNN)

eg2: Solomon King Solomon

profoundly wiseperson

King of Israel in the 10th century B.C., famed for his wise

[adj] irresponsible [n] news media

Polysemic words are also generalized in the course of development.

Thing.

eg: 1. What’s the next thing we have to do?

(an act, deed)

2. The murder was a terrible thing, wasn’t it?(an event)

3. The next thing is for you to get well again.(an aim or effort)

4. He says the first thing that comes into his head.

(an idea)

5. She was wearing the latest thing in shoes.(the fashion or custom)

(originally meant ‘deliberative assembly’)

2. Narrowing of Meaning. (Specialization)

• a word with a more generalmore general meaning

(narrowing)

a narrower narrower or specialized specialized meaning

eg: starve

to die (original meaning)

to die of cold (in middle English)

to die of hunger ( the 16th century---now)

Word Old Meaning Specialized

Meaning

hound

fowl

skyline

girl

any dog a hunting dog

any bird a domesticated bird

any horizona horizon decorated by skyscrapers

young person of either sex

female young person

• From common nouns to proper nouns.

eg: 1. city--- large town

City---part of London governed by Lord Mayor and Corporation, the business part of this, commercial circles.

2. mediterranean---(of land) remote from coast or (of water area) landlocked.

Mediterranean---the Mediterranean Sea

• For economy, some phrases are shorten to retain the whole meaning.

eg: a general = a general officer

a private = a private solider

Material nouns refer to objects made of them and thus have a morespecific sense.

eg:silver---silver dollar iron---device for smoothing clothes

• Sometimes extension and narrowing may take place in the same word.

eg: slay--- to strike to give a blow

generalized meaning---to kill by any method.

specialized meaning---to kill by a blow

• Generalization and specialization are closely related.

• The former is less common than the latter,

because language in every life is directed

towards the concrete and specific rather than towards the abstract and gerenal.

• Thanks for listening~