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legał term. When a word has opposite meaning to another word, it is said to be its antonym. Three types of antonyms have been distinguished: graded antonyms (small-big), ungraded antonyms (single-married), as well as converse antonyms which depend on each other (wife-husband). Although a few morę sense relations of paradigmatic type have been

distinguished, the relationships presented above are the most essentia) ones.^J

Another relevant approach is called componential analysis^{1 2} and is generally defined as

a method of analysing the meaning of lexical items’. The theory maintains that the meaning of every word may be analysed in terms of a finite set of semantic features (components) which are common to several lexemes occurring in vocabulary (e.g. boy may be analysed into the following components: human', małe', child', and similar features). The discovery of the basie units of a word’s meaning is the principal aim of the method. However, there are few disadvantages of the method, for instance, not all of the vocabulary may be analysed in this way. Not to mention the fact that the definitions of the features used may not be elear. Despite this, the use of a limited number of semantic features was one of the most

auspicious inventions of the structuralist representation of linguistic analysis.

Diachronic (histońcal) linguistics deals with the analysis of language from the point of

view of its etymology, e.g. it can provide a description of the changes which have occurred between Old and Middle English. Thus, language may be studied in grammatical. phonological and semantic terms (diachronic semantics). The other study of language from historicaJ point of view, known as comparalive linguistics (formerly comparative philology or comparative grammar) differs from diachronic linguistics in aims and method, not in subject-matter. As far as comparative linguistics is concemed. it pays morę attention to the application of synchronic description as an introduction to historicaJ study. Thus, comparative linguistics investigates the relationships between two or morę languages and discovers whether those languages have a mutual ancestor. Comparative linguistics was a branch of linguistics which preoccupied European linguists mainly in the 19"' century.

Retuming to the question of diachronic semantics, three major periods of the investigation of semantic change carried out by linguists, may be distinguished. These are as follows:

1)    the prestructuralist era (the period before the adoption of Saussurian structuralism).

2)    the stmeturalist era,

3)    the cognitive era (the poststructuralist era).

It was in the 1930s when Trier (1894-1970), in the articles devoted to semantic field theory opened a new phase in the diachronic study of semantic change. At that time, Trier

1

   For a further discussion see Fromkin, Rodman, Myams (2003:179-185).

2

   Terms: contrast analysis and featnre analysis can be used instead of componential analysis.