Process Of Semantic Change

Question 1

Broadening

Answer 1

Meaning broadens
Butcher - kills goats
A place - broad street

Question 2

Narrowing

Answer 2

Opposite of broadening
Words become more specific in meaning
Meat - food
Girl - young boy and girl
Wife - woman

Question 3

Amelioration

Answer 3

Word becomes positive
Nice - foolish

Question 4

Peroration

Answer 4

Opposite of amelioration
Word becomes negative
Cowboy - dodgy dealer

Question 5

Weakening

Answer 5

Loss / reduction of the force meaning of the word
Soon - immediately

Question 6

Wave Model

Answer 6

C J Bailey 1973
Change felt closest to central point and least further away

Question 7

S curve model

Answer 7

Chen 1968-72
Change starts slowly, takes off the rate of change and spreads quickly then slows and stabilises again
1. Initialism
2. Expansion
3. Termination
4. Not affected

Question 8

Evaluating Wave model

Answer 8

Social media may mean that geographically it is less relevant now
Some features seen less geographically still

Question 9

Evaluating S curve model

Answer 9

Is it possible to track language change? Especially spoken language?
Some changes more dramatic eg Covid more of a cliff than curve
Lang change may go viral on social media

Question 10

Standardisation

Answer 10

Making all variations of language conform to an agreed set of rules

Prompted by printing press