SEMANTICS

Definitions
Semantics studies:
the meanings of words
The laws governing the evolution of word-
meanings
The classification of the types of changes
occurring in the meanings of words
(Levichi, 1970)
 Semantics is a study of how and what the
words of a language denote.
(Pustejovsky, 1995)

Semantics studies how meaning can be

encoded in words.
(Philip Edmonds, 1999)
Causes of semantic change
 1. Extra-linguistic factors

changes in peoples lives, culture and

knowledge
new scientific discoveries
new technological inventions
 press
- late 14th century: machine for pressing
(i.e. device to squeeze juice from grapes,
oil from olives, cider from apples)
- 1530s: machine for printing
- 1570s: publishing houses
- c. 1680: publishing (generally):
the freedom of the press
- c. 1800-1820: periodical publishing, journalism
 cockpit
- 1580s: a ring where cockfights are held
- 1706: midshipmens compartment below decks
- 1914: the area from which the pilot controls
the aircraft
- 1930s: the drivers compartment in a racing car
 computer
- 1640s: one who calculates
- 1897: calculating machine (of any type)
- 1945: programmable digital electronic
computer (its modern use)
 2. Linguistic factors
2.1. Ellipsis
A change of meaning when the meaning of a
word combination is given to only one word of
this combination:

daily = daily newspaper

car = motor car
2.2. Acquiring modal connotations to the words primary meaning:
a) irony:
the expression of one meaning by words of opposite sense (usually for
the purpose of ridicule)

How nice! (when you are angry)

b) expressing wonder, indignation, contempt:

an enormous appetite = abnormal appetite

an extraordinary occurrence = not in the ordinary course of things
extravagant behaviour = does not conform to the accepted rules of
decency

2.3. Association:
a) metaphor
b) metonymy
Diachronical connections between
the different meanings of a word
 1. Radiation
(New meanings of a word are directly derived
from its basic meaning)

Meaning 2 Meaning 3

Meaning 1
(basic)
Meaning 4 Meaning 5
 LEG

Meaning 1 (basic):
Hes broken his leg
the long, thin legs of a spider
(part of the body by means of which men and animals stand and walk)

Meaning 2:
a tear in the left trouser leg
(the part of the garment covering the leg)

Meaning 3:
a chair with a broken leg
(the supports of a piece of furniture)

Meaning 4:
the leg of the compass
(one of the branches of a forked object)

Meaning 5:
the leg of a building structure
(a bar or pole used as a support or prop)
 2. Concatenation
(Adds new meanings to the first by
successive shifts)

Meaning 1 (basic) Meaning 2 Meaning 3 Meaning 4

 Gold

Meaning 1 (basic):
pure gold; 22 carat gold; gold bars
(a precious yellow metal)

Meaning 2
pay somebody in gold
(gold coin)

Meaning 3
Am I thy gold? Or purse, Lord, for thy wealth; (Edward Taylor)
(money)

Meaning 4
a miser and his gold
(riches, wealth)
3. Mixture of radiation and concatenation

Meaning 1
(basic)

Meaning 2

Meaning 3 Meaning 8

Meaning 4 Meaning 6

Meaning 5 Meaning 7
 Board
Meaning 1
He had ripped up the carpet leaving only the bare boards
a plank (long, thin, flat piece of a hard material, especially wood, used for building walls, floors, ships)

Meaning 2
notice-board; chess board, board-game
an extended surface of wood

Meaning 3

table, especially one for seving food

Meaning 4

the food served at a table

Meaning 5
Free room and board are provided for the staff
Board and lodging; bed and board; full/half board
food which is provided when you stay somewhere, for example in a hotel, usually for pay

Meaning 6

council table; table where official meetings are held

Meaning 7
the board of the company; the board of directors
a council; a group of people controlling a company/organisation

Meaning 8
Are all the passengers on board?
the (side of the) ship
Types of semantic change
 1. Semantic broadening
(extension of meaning, generalisation of meaning)

BOAT

initial meaning: a small, open vessel moved by oars

We crossed the river in a boat.

new (generalised) meaning: any vessel used for

travelling on water (including a large steamer, a
sailing ship, a yacht, etc.)
How are you going to France?
Im going by the boat. (i.e. the ferry)
 2. Semantic narrowing
(narrowing of meaning)

a) narrowing of the types of referents

the River = the Thames

the Channel = the English Channel
the Rock = Gibraltar
the City = the centre of London
the Tube = the London metro
 b) Frequent association of a word with specific
attributes

room (=space) sleeping room room

[make room] dining room (section of space in
[no room for sg] a building)
[plenty of room]
car motor-car car
(any vehicle on wheels) (i.e. motor car)

corpse dead corpse corpse

(living or dead body) (dead body)
 c) Discrimination/differentiation of synonyms

Initially:
Stool (OE: stol; Germ.: Stuhl) = any kind of seat for one
person, including thrones.

Early 13th century: adoption of the French word

chair (Fr.: chaire)
- chair: more luxurious piece of furniture (high seat,
throne, pulpit)
- stool: single seat without arms and back
 Initially:
deer (OE: deor; Germ.: Tier) = any kind of animal
Adoption of:
beast (c. 1200, Fr. bte): replaced the OE deor to
denote any kind of animal
animal (c. 1600, Lat. animalis,-e): replaced beast to
denote any kind of living being
In Modern English:
animal: the general term
beast: wild animal
deer: stag (male) and doe (female)
 3. Degradation of meaning
KNAVE (OE cnafa; Germ.: Knabe)

Initially: boy
Later: male servant
c. 1200: rogue, rascal, a person with rude
manners
 SILLY (OE geslig; Germ.: selig)
Initially: happy, prosperous
c. 1200: innocent
Late 13th century: pitiable, poor
Now Robin Hood is to Nottingham gone,
With a link a down and a day,
And there he met a silly old woman,
Was weeping on the way.
(ballad Robih Hood rescues three young men)
C. 1300: weak
1570s: feeble in mind, lacking in reason, foolish
 In Shakespeares works:

shepherds looking on their silly sheep (Henry VI)

innocent, helpless
there was a fourth man in a silly habit (Cymbeline)
plain, simple
silly beggars (Richard II)
poor
this is the silliest stuff that I ever heard
(A Midsummer Nights Dream)
foolish, witless
 GAY (Fr.: Gai)
early 14th century: stately and beautiful; splendid and
showily dressed
late 14th century: full of joy, merry, light hearted, carefree
end of 1890s: gay house = brothel
since at least 1920: gay (adj.) slang = homosexual
1940s: begins to appear in psychological writing
After discharge A.Z. lived for some time at home. He was not happy at the
farm and went to a Western city where he associated with a homosexual
crowd, being "gay," and wearing female clothes and makeup. He always
wished others would make advances to him. ["Rorschach Research Exchange
and Journal of Projective Techniques," 1947, p.240]
form www.etymonline.com
From 1971: gay (n) = (usually male) homosexual
 NAUGHTY

Initially: needy, possessing nothing (naught)

1520s: wicked, evil, morally wrong
1630s: disobedient (children)
1869: sexually promiscuous
 4. Elevation of meaning

KNIGHT (OE cniht)

Initially: boy, youth, servant, attendant

c. 1100: military follower of a king or other
superior
16th century: rank in nobility
 MARSHAL (Fr. marchal)

Initially: stable officer, horse tender

mid 13th century: high officer of the royal
court
 5. Simile
(A comparison between two dissimilar elements)

a) Non-standardised similes (studied by stylistics):

- The creation of poets, writers (nonce-phrases)

Rise like lions after slumber

In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep have fallen on you
Ye are many they are few.
(P. B. Shelley)
b) Standardised similes (studied by lexicology)
- Have become the asset of the whole language
- Are frequently used

As busy as a bee
As blind as a bat
As cross as nine highways
As dark as pitch
As drunk as a lord/as a fiddler
As hungry as a wolf
 As plump as a partridge
As like as two peas (in a pod)
As sweet as honey
As soft as silk
 6. Metaphors
Standardized/lexical metaphors:

The ship of the desert camel

The nose of a ship
The village lantern moon
Old fox
House built on sand
To paint something in false colours
 Diachronical study of standardised
metaphors:
a) Live metaphors:
the use of a word/phrase in an unusual and
striking way
Felt as new and fresh
Usually short-lived. Either they die out or, if
they are retained in the language, they lose
their novelty, and become...
b) Degraded (fading) metaphors
Still convey the reader/listener some of their
initial freshness, although they have laready
become trite.

To sift the evidence

The depth of winter/night
The bridge of the nose
The mouth of a river
 Zoosemy
nouns denoting animals used for the
characterisation of human beings

Fox
Bookworm
Cur korcs kutya
Tigress
Cat
Calf
 Chicken
Donkey
Rabbit
Lion
Monkey
Gorilla
Idioms connected with degraded metaphors:

Break the ice

Give sy a helping hand
On the one hand .... on the other hand
c) Dead metaphors
Lost every metaphorical connotation:

Daisy = OE dges eage (the days eye)

Window = OE windes eage (the winds eye)
 7. Metonymy
The name of an object is replaced by one of its
significant attributes or by some function that
it discharges.
There is a direct, real semantic connection
between the object and its peculiar aspect
which is apt to be used to characterise it as a
whole
Metonymy cannot be extended into a simile
 Types of metonymy

a) The name of the object expressed by one of

its attributes

from the cradle to the grave = from ones birth

to ones death
the appendicitis in room no. 7 doesnt feel
really well.
Take the bill to the ham-sandwich over there.
b) part-for-whole and whole-for part metonymy
(synechdoche):
Transistor
Travel on four wheels
Farm hands are needed
There are a lot of good heads in the university.
Weve got some new blood in the organisation.

Our school won the cup.

When shall I light the Christmas tree?
c ) Instrument used for the agent
The Georgian shield and the Russian sword

d) Holder for the thing held:

The gallery was applauding and shouting.
The city was revolted.

e) The makers name is used for the thing made

and the name of a place used instead of a thing
coming from it:
I have read Henry James.
f) Place for the institution
Moscow and Kiev have to agree.