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Lexical Semantics vs. Historical Semantics

Linguistic Structuralism

Meaning may be investigated from a historical perspective: two disciplines dealt with this problem:

a)    historical semantics (lexicology) - the evolution of meaning, the typology of meaning changes, the causes of semantic changes,

b)    etymology - it reflects the interpretation bias for the earliest meaning as the truest meaning of the word:

e.g. lord/lady are etymologically related to loaf of bread (i.e., lord: from Old English half (loaf) + ord (keeper): one having power and authority over others; a ruler by hereditary right)

- lady: from OE half (half = 'loaf) + dige: a woman having property rights or authority as a feudal superior: a woman receiving the homage or devolition of a knight or lover).

Historical semantics

-    'Semantics' was first used to refer to the development or change of meaning, the attemptto classify semantic changes and to establish the causes (internal and external) of semantic changes.

-    A representative work in this linę is Stern's 'Meaning and Change of Meaning' (1931)