Semantic change

A language can have sound change, morphological change, synctatic change, Lexical and semantic change.

Semantic change

The change in the meaning is always a step by step process and it involves many phenomena lile

1.      Semantic broadening

2.      Semantic narrowing

3.      Amelioration

4.      Weakening

Semantic broadening is a process in which the meaning of a word becomes more general or more inclusive than its historically earlier form.

Eg: Bird –Small fowl (Old meaning)-‘any winged and feathered creature (new meaning)

       Aunt- Father’s sister (Old meaning) – ‘Father or mother’s sister’ (new meaning)

Semantic narrowing is the process in which the meaning of word becomes less general or less inclusive than its historically earlier meaning.

Eg: hound – any dog (Old meaning) – ‘a hunting breed’(new meaning)

Meat- any type of food (Old meaning) – ‘flesh of an animal (new meaning)

Amelioration is a process where word becomes more positive or favourable. On the other hand the opposite change can also happen and it is called as Pejoration.

Eg. for Amelioration- Pretty – ‘tricky, sly cunning’ (Old meaning) – attractive (new meaning)

Eg. For Pejoration- Silly- Happy, Prosperous (Old meaning) – foolish (New meaning)

Weakening of meaning also happens due to the propensity of human beings to exaggerate.

Eg:  soon meaning immediately now simply means ‘in the near future’.

Semantic shift is a process in which a word loses its former meaning and takes on a new but often related meaning.

Eg: Immoral –not customary (Old meaning) – unethical (new meaning)

At times even a series of semantic shift can happen.

Eg: Hearse- Triangle harrow(Original)-triangle frame for church candles-device that holds candle over a coffin-framework on which curtains hung over a coffin or tomb-was used to refer coffin itself and finally the current sense denotes the vehicle used to carry coffin.