Semantic change Semantic differentiation

Generalisations about semantic change
BAD MEANINGS REPLACE GOOD MEANINGS Pejoration is more usual than amelioration, i.e there are more instances of words developing a negative meaning than the opposite case. Two good examples related to terms for people. The word churl stems from a Germanic root meaning ‘man’ and came to mean ‘a peasant, someone of low birth’ and later still ‘an ill-bred person’. The root is still to be seen in the adjective churlish ‘mean, despicable’. The word knave (now somewhat antiquated) has the negative meaning ‘scoundrel’. But it comes from the more neutral word cnafa ‘boy, servant’ in Old English (cf. Gernan Knabe to which it is related).

MEANINGS TEND TO BECOME SUBJECTIVE The word feel originally meant only ‘touch’ but has shifted to a general term referring to the sentiments of the speaker. The word apparent meant ‘in appearance’ but now refers to the belief/opinion of the speaker: That's an apparent mistake on her part. Objective terms become discourse terms Words may become indicators of the structure of discourse. Two illustrations of this are but and while. The former once meant ‘outside of’ and the latter ‘a period’ (still to be seen in She rested for a while). Now these words mean ‘however’ and ‘during’.

It’s a beautiful painting but too large for the wall.
She took a rest while the others were in the restaurant.