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The meaning of a word can change in the course of time. Changes of lexical meanings can be proved by comparing contexts of different times. Transfer of the meaning is called lexico-semantic word-building. In such cases the outer aspect of a word does not change.
The causes of semantic changes can be extra-linguistic and linguistic, e.g. the change of the lexical meaning of the noun «pen» was due to extra-linguistic causes. Primarily «pen» comes back to the Latin word «penna» (a feather of a bird). As people wrote with goose pens the name was transferred to steel pens which were later on used for writing. Still later any instrument for writing was called « a pen».
Foreword………………………………………………………………………………....3
Chapter I. Semantic changes. Types of Semantic changes……………………………... 4
1.Definition………………………………………………… ……… … ……….4
2.Metaphor………………………………………………………………………7
3.Metonymy……………………………………………………………………...9
4.Other types of Semantic changes…………………………………………….. 10
Chapter II. Causes of semantic change…...……………………………………… … …12
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………15
Literature…………………………………………………………………………...……16
Economic
causes are obviously at work in the semantic development o! the word
wealth. It first meant 'well-being', 'happiness' from weal
from OE wela whence well.
This original meaning is preserved in the compounds commonwealth
and commonweal. The present meaning became possible due to the
role played by money both in feudal and bourgeois society. The chief
wealth of the early inhabitants of Europe being the cattle, OE feoh
means both 'cattle' and 'money', likewise Goth faihu;
Lat. pecu meant 'cattle' and pecunia
meant 'money'. ME fee-house
is both a cattle-shed and a treasury. The present-day English fee
most frequently means the price paid for services to a lawyer or a physician.
It appears to develop jointly from the above mentioned OE feoh
and the Anglo-French fe, fie, fief,
probably of the same origin, meaning 'a recompense' and 'a feudal tenure'.
This modern meaning is obvious in the following example: Physicians
of the utmost Fame/Were called at once; but when they came/
They answered as they took their fees,/ "There is no cure for this
disease." (BELLOC)
CONCLUSION
We have dialled in detail with various types of semantic change. This is necessary not only because of the interest the various cases present in themselves but also because a thorough knowledge of these possibilities helps one to understand the semantic structure of English words at the present stage of their development. The development and change of the semantic structure of a word is always a source of qualitative and quantitative development of the vocabulary.
The constant development of industry, agriculture, trade and transport bring into being new objects and new notions. Words to name them are either borrowed or created from material already existing in the language and it often happens that new meanings are thus acquired by old words.
LITERATURE: