Semantic Change

Question 1

What is semantic change?

Answer 1

• When the meanings of words shift over time. The process whereby a new meaning develops for a word is called Neosemy.

Question 2

Give some examples of semantic change:

Answer 2

• gay: meant ‘light-hearted’, and ‘joyous’ (C13th), ‘happy’ (C14th). As early as 1737 it acquired connotations of immorality and eventually became a term for homosexuals.
• silly: deserving pity or compassion.
• girl: a young person of either sex.

Question 3

What are the processes of semantic change?

Answer 3

• narrowing
• broadening
• weakening
• functional shift
• amelioration
• perjoration

Question 4

What is the process of narrowing?

Answer 4

• Meaning of a word narrows.
• ‘Meat’ used to mean food in general.

Question 5

What is the process of broadening?

Answer 5

• Meaning of a word broadens.
• ‘Butcher’ used to mean slaughterer of goats.

Question 6

What is the process of weakening?

Answer 6

• when a word loses its impact.
• ‘Terrible’ used to mean causing terror.

Question 7

What is the process of functional shift?

Answer 7

• when a word class changes.
• ‘Text’ (noun) ‘To text’ (verb)

Question 8

What is the process of amelioration?

Answer 8

• when the meaning becomes more positive.
• ‘Pretty’ used to mean cunning.
• ‘Nice’ used to mean foolish.

Question 9

What is the process of perjoration?

Answer 9

• When the meaning becomes more negative.
• ‘Hussy’ used to mean housewife.
• ‘Notorious’ meant well known.

Question 10

Why do words change meaning?

Answer 10

• External factors (things outside of language):
  • Technological advancements – virus, bug, windows
  • Social attitudes – LGBT replacing unacceptable terms
  • Culture – ‘Guy’ Fawkes→grotesque man→any man
• political correctness, e.g. actor - male and female.
• Internal factors (aspects of language itself):
  • Similarities – computer virus (similar to a virus)

Question 11

What is linguistic reflectionism?

Answer 11

Our language reflects our thoughts (thoughts come first).

Question 12

What is linguistic determinism?

Answer 12

Our language determines our World view (language comes first).

Question 13

What is the saphir-Whorf hypothesis?

Answer 13

• language controls our perceptions of reality, influencing us to think in certain ways.
• to change attitudes (sexist, racist, homophobic etc) we need to change language.
• reason why more inclusive way to label groups emerged since 1970s so we no longer think it is acceptable to use pejorative terms for women, people of ethnic minorities, gay people etc.

Question 14

What is evidence to support the Saphir-Whorf hypothesis?

Answer 14

• cultural differences can be observed through lang, showing what a society views as important enough to have own label:
• French: only one word covering English concepts of ‘mother-in-law’ and ‘stepmother’ -> belle-mère.
• Inuit have large number of words for snow (due to finely tuned perception of different qualities of snow).
  -> Qanik = snow falling
  -> Aputi = snow on the ground

Question 15

What are the criticisms of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

Answer 15

• No way of proving whether language determines thought, or thought determines language.
• Those without language wouldn’t think – how do babies learn?
• We can think about things we don’t know the words for.
• What about people with severe autism who may not have the language, but have incredible powers of thought (e.g. brilliant mathematicians)?

Question 16

What are Simon Heffer’s views on semantic change?

Answer 16

• Speaking and writing correct English still matters because a very large number of people feel they were taught inadequately at school.
• we live in a society where we may be judged not by how carefully we choose our words and how well we put a sentence together.
• grammar pedant.
• views incorrect use of words as lazy.