INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS. LECTURE 6.

Enriching English Vocabulary (1) 0. Ways of enriching vocabulary: 1. Word formation

2. Changes in meaning

3. Changes in usage

4. Borrowings

5. Word creation

I. Morphology and word-formation, word creation, neologisms (cf. lectures 4 & 5)

II. Changes in meaning and usage 0. Language is a system of arbitrary signs used in a society for communication.

Thus: the system may undergo change – synchronic and diachronic.

1. Semantic changes:

Word meaning:

sense

+

association (connotation, change of status) 1. generalisation (widening)

4. pejoration

2. specialisation (narrowing)

5. amelioration

3. transfer of meaning

1. Semantic widening (extension, generalisation): coach < horse-drawn vehicle; holiday < religious festival; mill < only for grain; corn < only grain; barn < a storehouse only for barley; bird < young bird; manage < to handle a horse [cf. Pol. maneż]; manufacture, manuscript, kidnap, hoover [Pol. miednica, bielizna, piwnica, rower]; 2. Semantic narrowing (restriction, specialisation): harvest < autumn; accident < any event; deer < any four-legged animal (< beast < animal); meat < food (e.g. green-meat –

vegetables); hound < dog; fowl < bird; lust < pleasure of any kind; liquor < fluid; starve < die; [Pol. piwo, piwnica]; 3. Transfer of meaning

3.a. metaphor: foot of a mountain, head of the department, leg of a table, mouth of a river, soft shoulder; short/long time; 3.b. association: China, paper, penknife, [Pol. pióro]; 3.c. synesthesia (transfer from one sensory faculty to other): clear sound, loud colours, sweet music; a cold welcome;

4. pejoration: knave ‘boy’; vulgar < ‘common’; censure < ‘opinion’; villain < ‘peasant’;

silly (< ‘simple’ < ‘innocent’ < ‘happy’ < ‘timely’); idiot < ‘uneducated, ignorant’; bully (< ‘pimp’ < ‘lover’ < ‘sweetheart’); mean < (‘inferior, poor’ < ‘common, general’); 5. amelioration (elevation): knight < ‘servant’; queen < ‘woman/wife’; earl < ‘(free) man’; fond (< ‘in love with’ < ‘over-infatuated’ < ‘dazed with love’ < ‘dazed, crazy’ <

‘foolish’); nice (< ‘precise’ < ‘difficult to please’ < ‘delicate’ < ‘lazy’ < ‘foolish’); brave <

‘bright, gaudy’ (cf. ‘brave new world’ in Shakespeare’s The Tempest); minister 2. Gain and loss, new/additional meanings and uses:

gay; alternative; challenged; mouse, enter, hack, scan, webmaster, cut and paste; tweet; 3. Semantic drift – a gradual shift of meaning, e.g. a change in the prototype of a category: vehicle

weapon

III. Borrowings

(lecture 7)