Definition:
In semantics and historical linguistics, any change in the meaning(s) of a word over the course of time.
Common types of semantic change include amelioration, pejoration, broadening, semantic narrowing, bleaching, metaphor, and metonymy.
See also:
- Language Change
- Back-Formation
- Catachretic Metaphor
- Clang Association
- Conversion
- Derivation
- Eponym
- Etymology
- Euphemism
- Figurative Extension
- Figurative Language
- Grammaticalization
- Janus Word
- Polysemy
- Semantic Field
- Status-Word
- Toponym
Examples and Observations:
- "Like any linguistic change, a semantic change is not acquired simultaneously by all members of a speech community. An innovation enters into a language and spreads through the speech community along socially determined lines. The original meaning of a form is not immediately displaced by the innovated meaning, but the two coexist for some time. . . .
"Semantic change is not a change in meaning per se, but the addition of a meaning to the semantic system or the loss of a meaning from the semantic system while the form remains constant."
(David P. Wilkins, "Natural Tendencies of Semantic Change and the Search for Cognates" in The Comparative Method Reviewed, ed. by M. Durie and M. Ross. Oxford Univ. Press, 1996) - "Metaphor in semantic change involves extensions in the meaning of a word that suggest a semantic similarity or connection between the new sense and the original one. Metaphor is considered a major factor in semantic change. . . . The semantic change of grasp 'seize" to 'understand,' thus can be seen as such a leap across semantic domains, from the physical domain ('seizing') to the mental domain ('comprehension') . . .. Frequently mentioned examples of metaphoric extensions involve expressions for 'to kill': dispose of, do someone in, liquidate, terminate, take care of, eliminate and others."
(Lyle Campbell, Historical Linguistics: An Introduction. MIT Press, 2004) - "[I]n the majority of cases semantic change is as fuzzy, self-contradictory, and difficult to predict as lexical semantics itself. This is the reason that after initial claims that they will at long last successfully deal with semantics, just about all linguistic theories quickly return to business as usual and concentrate on the structural aspects of language, which are more systematic and therefore easier to deal with."
(Hans Henrich Hock and Brian D. Joseph, Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship. Walter de Gruter, 1996)
Also Known As: semantic shift, lexical change
