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1. Restriction of meaning (specialization):
1) hound < O. E. hund = a dog of any breed > a dog used in the chase;
2) fowl < O. E. buzol, buzel = any bird > a domestic hen or cock.
2. Extension of meaning (generalization):
1) target < O.N. targa + et = ‘a small round shield ‘ > ‘anything that is fired at’ > ‘any result aimed at’.
Change of the connotational component of the meaning of the word can be resulted in the following:
3. Amelioration of meaning:
The process indicates the change of the original meaning from neutral or negative of the connotational component to positive or neutral. E. g. :
1) minister < L “a servant, an attendant’s”: > one officiating or assisting at the administration of a sacrament; > a high governmental official.
4. Deterioration (pejoration) of meaning
It is the case when we observe the pejorative development or the acquisition by the word of some derogating emotive charge: E. g.:
clod 1. a lamp or mass, especially of clay or earth;
2. informal: a stupid person, fool.
to nip 1. to catch hold of and squeeze tightly;
2. to sever (разорвать);
3. to injure or make numb with cold;
4. informal: snatch, steal.
The extra-linguistic motivation is sometimes obvious, but some cases are not as straightforward as they may look. The context plays an important role in the meaning change. The word bikini may be taken as an example. Bikini, a very scanty two-piece bathing suit worn by women, is named after Bikini atoll in the Western Pacific but not because it was first introduced on some fashionable beach there. Bikini appeared at the time when the atomic bomb tests by the US in the Bikini atoll were fresh in everybody’s memory. The associative field is emotional referring to the “atomic” shock the first bikinis produced.
The changes of notions and meanings go hand in hand. They are conditioned by changes in the economic, social, political and cultural history of the people, so the extralinguistic causes of semantic change might be conveniently subdivided in accordance with social relationships. The cases of elevation and pejoration of meaning discussed in the previous section may reflect the attitude of the upper classes to their social inferiors determined the strengthening of emotional tone among the semantic components of the word.
Sociolinguistics teaches that power relationships are reflected in vocabulary changes. One example deserves attention though: sir + -ly used to mean ‘masterful’ and now surly means ‘rude in a bad-tempered way’.
With peoples of developed culture and civilisation there appear words named euphemisms; they are dictated by social usage, etiquette, advertising, tact, diplomatic considerations and political propaganda.
From the semasiological point of view euphemisms are important, because meanings with unpleasant connotations appear in words formerly neutral as a result of their repeated use instead of words that are for some reason unmentionable, cf. deceased instead of ‘dead’, deranged instead of ‘mad’, expecting instead of ‘pregnant’, Gents’ and Ladies’ instead of ‘toilet’, etc. .
Other euphemisms are dictated by a wish to give more dignity to a profession. Some barbers called themselves hair stylists, airline stewards and stewardesses become flight attendants, maids become house workers, foremen become supervisors, etc.
To conclude, the results of the semantic change bring to the phenomenon called the semantic derivation, when it leads to the extension of the number of lexico-semantic variants of the word. The difference between them may be revealed by application of the componential analysis, which helps to discover semes, which are elementary units of meaning distinguishable between the lexico-semantic variants of the word. The term ‘seme’ is taken from Greek ‘sema’ where it means ‘a sign’ (Collins English Dictionary). Thus, the word ‘girl’ – ‘a young female human being’ is distinguished from ‘woman’ by the seme ‘young’, while woman is distinguished by the seme ‘adult’.
In understanding the meaning of the word a great role is played by the context. The notion of context has several interpretations. The context is a combination of an indicator or indicating minimum and the dependant, that is the word, the meaning of which is to be rendered through a context or a given utterance.
Contextual analysis concentrates its attention on determining the minimal stretch of speech and the conditions necessary and sufficient to reveal in which of its individual meanings the word in question is used. In studying this interaction of the polysemantic word with the syntactic configuration and lexical environment contextual analysis is more concerned with specific features of every particular language than with language universals.
Roughly, context may be subdivided into lexical, syntactical and mixed. Lexical context, for instance, determines the meaning of the word black in the following examples. Black denotes colour when used with the key-word naming some material or thing, e. g. black velvet, black gloves. When used with key-words denoting feeling or thought, it means ‘sad’, ‘dismal’, e. g. black thoughts, black despair. With nouns denoting time, the meaning is ‘unhappy’, ‘full of hardships’, e. g. black days, black period.
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