Unit 21

● Changes in Word Meaning
●● Introduction
　　Vocabulary is the most unstable element of a language as it is undergoing constant changes both in form and content. Comparatively, the latter is even more unstable than the former. Of course, some meanings remain much the same for a long time because the referents to which they direct us do not change. Often, an old form or group of forms are pressed into new service when a new linguistic need is felt. As Quirk asserts, '...almost every word we use today has a slightly different meaning from the one it had a century ago, and a century ago it had a slightly different meaning from the one it had a century before that'. Shakespeare is perhaps more difficult to understand than more recent writings because many of his words were used in different senses from what they have now in contemporary dictionaries. Let us examine just a few words taken from one of his well-known plays Hamlet. Rival means 'partner' as in 'The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste'; jump means 'just' as in 'Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour'; vulgar signifies 'common' as in 'as common as any the most vulgar thing to sense'; censure signifies 'opinion' as in 'Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement'; fond designates 'foolish' as in 'I'll wipe away all trivial fond records'; pregnant designates 'meaningful' as in 'How pregnant sometimes his replies are' and so on. Examples like these are numerous.
　　 Changing in word meaning has never ceased since the language came into being and will continue in the future. Yet no one has been able to systemize the ways in which changes occur. However, there are a few patterns that changes follow. This chapter will discuss in some detail the major patterns and the causes of changes.
●● Types of Change
　　7.1 Types of Changes
　　 Word-meaning changes by modes of extension, narrowing, elevation, degradation, and transfer. Of these, extension and narrowing are by far the most common.
●●● Extension
　　7.1.1 Extension
　　 Extension of meaning, also known as generalization, is the name given to the widening of meaning which some words undergo. It is a process by which a word which originally had a specialized meaning has now become generalized. In other words, the term has extended to cover a broader and often less definite concept. A good example is the word manuscript, which now means 'any author's writing whether written by hand or typed with a type-writer or a word-processor', but its original meaning was 'hand-writing' only, i.e. writing by hand. Fabulous began with the meaning of 'resembling a fable' or 'based on a fable', but later came to mean 'incredible' or 'marvelous', since the incredible and marvelous were often found in fables. Barn was once 'a place for storing only barley', but now has extended to mean a 'storeroom'. This kind of extension is also reflected in the word picture, which originally denoted mere 'painting', but now has come to include 'drawings' and even 'photographs'. More examples:
　　Word 　　　　　　Old Meaning 　　　　　　　　Extended Meaning
　　mill 　　　　　　place for grinding 　　　　　　place where things are made
　　　　　　　　　　grain into flour 　　　　　　　　
　　journal 　　　　 daily paper 　　　　　　　　　periodical
　　bonfire 　　　　 fire on bones 　　　　　　　　a fire in the open made by burning anything 　　butcher 　　　　one who kills goats 　　　　　 one who kills animals
　　companion 　　 one who shares bread 　　　　 a company
　　 A large proportion of polysemic words of modern English have their meanings extended sometime in the course of development. Some words are generalized to such an extent that they can mean almost anything. Thing, for example, used to mean 'a public assembly' or a 'council' in Anglo-Saxon times, but now can refer to any object or event. Business, concern, condition, matter, article, and circumstance have all undergone this semantic change, for originally each had a more specialized meaning.
　　 Extension of meaning is also found in many technical terms, which as the term suggests are confined to specialized use. For instance, alibi, a legal term signifying 'plea that the accused is not at the place when the crime is committed,' has now come into common use, meaning 'excuse'. It is the same with allergic, a medical term in the sense of 'too sensitive to medicine'. But now it has extended to mean 'averse or disinclined to'. Feedback, a term in computer science, is generalized to mean 'response'.
　　 Words commonized from proper nouns have experienced the same semantic change. For example, lynch used as a verb meaning 'kill without lawful trial' originates from William Lynch (1742-1820), member of a vigilance committee in Pittsylvania, Virginia, who made the law known as the Lynch's Law. Sandwich comes from a gambler's name to denote a kind of fast food, and now can be used as a verb meaning 'place or squeeze between' as in 'Sandwiched between this door and a window is a giant refrigerator.' A Vandal was a member of an East Germanic tribe that ravaged Gaul, Spain, and North Africa and sacked Rome in 455 A.D. and was noted for malicious destruction of things. Consequently, the term was used to denote a person of such behaviour. Now from this word are derived verb vandalize, adjectives vandalic and vandalistic, and nouns vandalization and vandalism (See Words from proper names).
●● Narrowing
　　7.1.2 Narrowing
　　 Narrowing of meaning, also called specialization, is the opposite of widening meaning. It is a process by which a word of wide meaning acquires a narrower or specialized sense. In other words, a word which used to have a more general sense becomes restricted in its application and conveys a special meaning in present-day English. Deer is a typical example. In Shakespearean line 'rats and mice and such small deer', deer obviously designates 'animal' in general. Corn once meant 'grain' in British English, but now is used for 'maize' only in American English. When garage was first borrowed from French, it meant simply 'any safe place' but now 'a place for storing cars'. Other examples:
　　 Word 　　　　　　Old Meaning 　　　　　　　　Specialized Meaning
　　 liquor 　　　　　　liquid 　　　　　　　　　　　 alcoholic drink
　　 meat 　　　　　　food 　　　　　　　　　　　　flesh of animals
　　 disease 　　　　 discomfort 　　　　　　　　　　illness
　　 poison 　　　　　drink 　　　　　　　　　　　　poisonous drink
　　 wife 　　　　　　woman 　　　　　　　　　　　a married woman
　　 accident 　　　　event 　　　　　　　　　　　　unfortunate event
　　 girl 　　　　　　young person of either sex 　　 female young person
　　 When a common word is turned into a proper noun, the meaning is narrowed accordingly such as the City, which means the 'business centre of London'; the Peninsula, which refers to the 'Iberian Peninsula' and the Prophet, which stands for 'Mohammed'.
　　 For economy, some phrases are shortened and only one element of the original, usually an adjective, is left to retain the meaning of the whole. Such adjectives have thus taken on specialized meanings, e.g.
　　 a private = a private soldier
　　 a general = a general officer
　　 an editorial = an editorial article
　　 The same is true of material nouns, which are used to refer to objects made of them and thus have a more specific sense. For example, silver is used for 'silver dollar', glass for a 'cup-like container' or a 'mirror', and iron for a 'device for smoothing clothes', etc.