Учебное пособие в систематизированном виде содержит необходимые для изучения курса лексикологии английского языка вспомогательные материалы: планы семинаров, определения основных понятий и терминов на английском и русском языках, темы курсовых

Words strain,
Crack andSometimes break, under the burden,
Under the. tension, sip, sbide, perish,
Decay with imprecision, wdbnot stay in place,
WdC not stay stid
T. S. ECwt
Discussion

1. 
   Causes of semantic change:
   

1. 
   extralinguistic causes (historical, social, psychological);
   
2. 
   linguistic causes (ellipsis, differentiation of synonyms, fixed context, linguistic analogy).
   

2. 
   Nature of semantic change. Types of associative relationships. Meta­phor and metonymy.
   
3. 
   Results of semantic change:
   

1. 
   generalization, specialization;
   
2. 
   amelioration, pejoration.
   

4. 
   Interrelation of causes, nature and results of semantic change.
   

Terminology
Semantic change is the process of development of a new meaning or any other change of meaning.
Ellipsis [1'lipsis] is the phenomenon acting within the language system: when in a phrase made up of two (or more) words one of these is omitted, its meaning is transferred to its partner. For example, the noun presale used to be part of the phrases presale view, presale tasting meaning “an exhibition giving prospective bidders and others an opportunity to examine lots before an auction”. Now the kernel word of the phrases seems redundant, and the word presale is employed alone in this sense.
Differentiation of synonyms (or discrimination of synonyms) is a gradual change of the meanings of synonyms which as a result of competition develop different semantic structures. For instance, the word land in Old English meant both “solid part of earth’s surface” and “the territory of a nation”. When in the Middle English period the word country (OFr cuntree, countree) was borrowed as its synonym, the meaning of the word land was somewhat altered and “the territory of a nation” came to be denoted mainly by the borrowed word country.
Fixed context is the consequence of synonymic differentiation: when synonyms are brought into competition, one of them comes to be restricted in use to a number of set expressions and compound words. The word meat origi­nally had the broad meaning of “food”. The meaning “edible flesh” was formed when the word food, its absolute synonym, won in the conflict of absolute syno­nyms (both words are native). Today meat in the meaning “food” is restricted in use to a number of compounds (e.g. mincemeat “chopped apples and spices used as a pie filling”, nutmeat “the edible part of a nut”, sweetmeat “candy”) and expressions such as meat and drink.