H) author – thing made by the author.
Seminar 3. Causes, Nature and Results of Semantic Change
Test Questions
1. What are the extra-linguistic causes of semantic change?
2. What are the linguistic causes of semantic change?
3. What are the basic types of association involved in various semantic changes?
4. What are the results of the change of the denotational aspect of lexical meaning?
5. What are the results of the change of the connotational aspect of lexical meaning?
Tasks and assignments
Determine the extralinguistic causes of semantic development of the words: historical, social, psychological.
a) fee ‘payment for services’ from O.E. feoh ‘money, property, cattle’;
b) Negro > coloured > black > African American /Afro-American;
c) car ‘automobile’ from Lat. carrus ‘four-wheeled vehicle’;
d) telephone price rates: cheap / standard / peak; sizes: jumbo / large / medium;
e) arrive “to get to a place” from O.Fr. ariver ‘to come to land’, from V.L. *arripare "to touch the shore’, from L. ad ripam ‘to come to the shore’ (after a long voyage);
f) bug ‘an error in computer logic’ from ‘an insect’;
g) icon ‘a pictorial representation of a facility available on a computer system’ from ‘a representation of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or a saint’;
h) cell ‘the basic structural and functional unit of living organisms’ from ‘a small simple room, as in a prison, convent, monastery, or asylum’.
Establish the linguistic cause of semantic development of the words: ellipsis, differentiation of synonyms, linguistic analogy.
a) gay ‘a homosexual’ from a gay ‘full of joy or mirth’ in gay house (= brothel);
b) to propose ‘to ask sb to marry you’ < to propose marriage;
c) token from O.E. tacen ‘sign, symbol, evidence’. Syn. sign. Original sense of ‘evidence’ is retained in by the same token, love token, token of respect;
d) to catch = ‘to understand’: Sorry, I didn’t quite catch what you said. > Cf.She didn’t get the joke.They failed to grasp the importance of his words;
e) harvest ‘the time of year when the crops are gathered in on a farm’ from German herbst ‘autumn’; autumn ‘the time of the year’ from Latin autumnu through French;
f) taxi from taximeter cab;
g) chair from Old French chaiere, from Latin cathedra, from Greek kathedra, from kata- down + hedra seat; stool from Old English stōl; related to Old Norse stōll, Gothic stōls , Old High German stuol chair, Greek stulos pillar.
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3.* Define the type of semantic change:
1) pipe (from “a musical wind instrument”) a) metaphor
2) a jersey b) metonymy
3) villain c) specialization of meaning
4) half-seas-over (“drunk”) d) generalization of meaning
5) eye of a needle e) hyperbole
6) I’m hanged if I’ll do that. f) litotes
7) tide (“time”) g) degradation of meaning
8) tongues of flame h) elevation of meaning
9) knight (from “manservant”) i) irony
10) mentally unstable (“mad”) j) euphemism
11) no ugly (“plain”)
12) in a delicate condition (“pregnant”)
13) floods of blood
14) a deer (from “any beast”)
15) a nice matter (“terrible”)
Read the given passage. Speak on the linguistic phenomenon described in it.
Вот она, работа наивеликолепнейшей из Фигур из всех – Метафоры. Если Гений, Быстрый разум, а следовательно и Знание, состоят в связывании между собой отдаленных понятий и в нахождении Подобий между вещами неподобными. Метафора, из всех известных фигур самая острая и редкая, единственная способна производить Изумление, из коего родится Услада, как при смене декораций на театре. И если Услада, доставляемая Фигурами, состоит в изучении новых вещей без натуги, и многих вещей в малом объеме, вот так же и Метафора, перенося на лету наш рассудок от одного явления к другому, сосредоточивает нам в одном слове более чем один Предмет".Умберто Эко «Остров накануне»
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5. Pick out trite and live metaphors from the word combinations below. Explain the logic of the meaning transfer:
cabbage moth caterpillars / Caterpillar track;
wings of vultures / vultures from the media;
snail shell / at a snail’s pace;
branch of a bank / branch of a tree;
tulip bulb / light bulb;
the ray of sun / the ray of hope;
flood waters / floods of refugees;
a summer storm / storm of protest;
a flight of swallows / flight of fancy;
gleam of gold / gleam of mirth;
shadow of a tree / shadow of a smile.
6. Translate the cases of stylistic metaphor:
1. My body is the frame wherein ‘this (thy portrait) held (W. Shakespeare). 2. As his emotions subsided, these misgivings gradually melted away. 3. “And winds are rude in Biscay’s bay” (G. Byron). 4. Mr. Dombey’s cup of satisfaction was so full at this moment, however, that he felt he could afford a drop or two of its contents, even to sprinkle on the dust in the bypath of his little daughter. (Ch. Dickens). 5. “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent” (W. Shakespeare). 6. In a cavern under is fettered the thunder, It struggles, and howls at fits … (P.B. Shelley). 7. … the indignant firewhich flashed from his eyes, did not melt the glasses of his spectacles (Ch. Dickens). 8. “She (fame) is a gypsy” (J. Keats).
7.* The metonymical change may be conditioned by various connections such as spacial, temporal, causal, symbolic, instrumental, functional, etc. Establish the model of transfer in each case:
a) material – the thing made of it;
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b) part – whole;
c) instrument – product;
d) symbol – thing symbolized;
e) receptacle – content;
f) place – people occupying the place;
g) individual – the class;
h) author – thing made by the author.
1. Let me give you a hand with those bags (= help you to carry them). 2. It was my job to polish the silver. 3. He is next in line to the throne.4.I asked him to bring me a sandwichand a glass of wine, and still went on reading Jane Eyre. 5. Do you like my new wheels? 6. Wall Street expects high earnings from industrial stocks. 7. The kettle’s boiling. 8. This is one of the worst diseases known to man.
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