Semantic Change, Polysemy, Homonymy, and Word Formation in English
Change of Meaning: Causes, Nature, and Results
In the course of the development of the language, a great number of words change their meanings. There are some factors that bring about this semantic change. They are divided into two groups: linguistic causes and extra-linguistic causes.
Linguistic Causes
The first group includes changes related to linguistic causes. The most common form of these changes is ellipsis. In this case, a phrase made up of two words omits one of them, and its meaning is transferred to the other word of the phrase. An example of this is to starve – to die. In Old English, it was in the collocation with the word hunger, but now the noun is omitted and the verb conveys the whole meaning.
Another linguistic cause for a change of word meaning is synonymy. The words land and country are an example of synonymy. In Old English, land had two meanings – the solid part of the Earth’s surface and the territory of the nation. But when the word country was borrowed, it received the second meaning of the word land.
The last linguistic cause is linguistic analogy. It appears when one of the members of a synonymic set acquires a new meaning, and the other members of this set also change their meaning.
Extra-linguistic Causes
The second group includes extra-linguistic causes. This means historical, social, and psychological causes which are reflected in word meaning. Historical causes mean that during the time, a lot of new notions and things appear. Because of this, a great number of new words show up, but also other words change their meanings. Some of them change it slightly, but others receive a totally different meaning. For instance, the word knight in Old English meant a boy, but now it has another meaning in Modern English, and it is a person with nobility in his heart and mind.
The social causes are of two types: specialization, when the word acquires a new meaning because it is used as a technical term; and slang or jargon – in this case, the word meaning bears an additional emotional connotation, and it is regarded as a kind of a source in reaching standard language.
The last causes are psychological. In this situation, the speaker gives an additional nuance to the meaning of the word, suiting the state of his mind. Due to this, the meaning of the word could be elevated or degraded. Elevation and degradation are categories of value. Elevation is used to describe a higher value of meaning of the word than it usually expresses. Adjectives are mostly affected by this phenomenon. Sometimes the elevated meaning ousts the basic meaning. The words which express endearment are used only in the given context. Degradation of word meaning is the opposite of elevation. It occurs when the word expresses something temporal and exists only in the given context.
Polysemy: Semantic Structure of Polysemantic Words
There are two types of words in regard to their meaning. The first are monosemantic words, or those words that have only one meaning. They are very few, and in most cases, they are scientific words. The second type are polysemantic words – they possess more than one meaning. These words are the majority of English words. It is a tendency that more often used words have more meanings. For example, the word table has nine meanings. Some of them are – a piece of furniture; the person seated at the table; the meals on the table, etc.
Diachronic Approach to Polysemy
There are two approaches to polysemy. The first one is the historical or diachronic approach. In this case, it is understood as the growth and development or as the change in the semantic structure of the word. This means that a word can retain its previous meaning, but it can also have one or several new meanings.
If we observe the word table, we will see that its primary meaning is a flat slab of stone, metal, or wood because it appeared for the first time in the Old English period. All other meanings of table are secondary. Because of this, we can say that the main source of polysemy is a change in the semantic structure of a word. Some of the old meanings of the words may become obsolete or even disappear during this long process. However, the bulk of English words tend to increase in their number of meanings.
Synchronic Approach to Polysemy
The second approach is the modern or synchronic. In this case, we understand polysemy as the coexistence of all different meanings in the semantic structure of only one word of a certain period of development of the English. But here, the problem is about the interrelation and interdependence of the individual meanings building up the semantic structure of the word.
Here, the basic or sensual meaning of the word is that which comes first to our mind. For example, when we hear table, we understand a piece of furniture. Every other meaning of this word is secondary for us. In this case, there is one basic meaning of each word which is widely used in different contexts. The secondary meanings are used only in certain, specific contexts.
It can be assumed that the meaning “a piece of furniture” occupies the central position in the semantic structure, and the other meanings seem to be graded according to the frequency of their occurrence in speech.
Homonymy
Homonyms are words with different meanings but identical in form. Homonymy is the opposite of polysemy. In homonymy, there are words with the same spelling or pronunciation but with a different meaning. Homonymy is the result of coincidence. During the time, a great number of words change their form, both grammatically and phonologically.
Types of Homonymy
There are some types of homonymy. The first one is complete homonymy. Here, we have not only phonetical but also grammatical coincidence of the forms. For example, calf – the young of the cow, and calf – a part of the leg or box – put into a box, and box – strike with a hand. In the first case, the plural form in both meanings of the word becomes calves, as the possessive form is the same: calf’s. In the second example, we can see the same situation. The past form of the word becomes boxed in both meanings. This homonymy is possible only with words belonging to one and the same grammatical category.
The second type of homonymy is partial homonymy. It exists in several subtypes. The first of them includes words with the same grammatical and phonetical features, as in the word lie – in one case, it means to tell a lie, in the other – to be in a prostrate position. We have here partial homonymy because they are the same only in the Present Simple Tense, not in the whole paradigm. They should also be from one grammatical class. The other subtype includes only word forms which sound in the same way – e.g., heir – air; son – sun. The differentiated plurals are also in this group. For example, lights – understanding and the plural form of light. The last subtype of partial homonymy includes words belonging to different grammatical categories. For instance, the preposition considering is a homonym with the present participle of the verb consider – considering. This type of homonymy exists between adjectives and adverbs that have only one form for both cases – e.g., loud – adjective and loud – adverb or cheap – adjective and cheap – adverb. Here, we have one more group of homonymy because of conversion – some nouns become verbs and some verbs convert into nouns. For example, a nose – to nose or water – to water.
Classification of Homonyms
Homonyms are divided into three basic groups according to their pronunciation and spelling. The first are homographs – they have the same spelling but sound and mean different things – e.g., row [roʊ] a number of people or things arranged in a line and row [raʊ] a noisy dispute. The second are homophones – they sound in the same way but have different spelling and meaning – knew and new [njuː], missed and mist [mɪst]. The last are perfect homonyms. They have absolutely identical spelling and sound but different meanings – e.g., rose [roʊz] in the meaning of flower, in the other case – the past tense of the verb rise; or miss [mɪs] – the first meaning is to fail to hit, and the second one is a young unmarried woman.
Homonymy appears because of the change of words during time. Some words retain their spelling and pronunciation, but others receive new ones, and this makes them sound or be written in the same way as others. Another reason for homonymy is borrowings. Some of them are the same in sound as other English words. Another factor for homonymy is dialects, jargons, and children’s speech.
Collocation of Words
Collocation of words is the ability of words belonging to different word classes to match with each other. The collocation of words is one of the most important principles of the vocabulary organization of every language. In the English language, collocation refers to a natural combination of words that are closely affiliated with each other. Some examples are pay attention, make an effort. They make it easier to avoid overused or ambiguous words like very, nice, or beautiful by using a pair of words that fits the context better and has a more precise meaning. Skilled users of the language can produce effects such as humor by varying the normal patterns of collocation.
Types of Collocations
There are a great number of combinations of words that exist. However, sometimes collocations may seem natural to native writers and speakers but are not obvious to non-native English speakers. For example, it is natural to say – fast food, but quick food is unnatural; natural – a quick meal and unnatural – a fast meal, etc. Some collocations are fixed or very strong. On the other hand, many of them are more open, and several different words might be used to give the same meaning, e.g., keep to / stick to the rules. There are some occasions in which a pair of words may not be absolutely wrong, and people will understand what is meant, but it may not be the natural collocation. For example, if one says: I did a few mistakes, he will be understood, but a fluent speaker would probably say: I made a few mistakes.
There are several different types of collocation made from combinations of verb, noun, adjective, etc. However, there are seven main types of them:
- Adjective + noun – e.g., We had a brief chat about the problem.
- Adverb + adjective – e.g., My parents are happily married.
- Noun + verb – e.g., They will launch the product in September.
- Noun + noun, where there are a lot of collocations with the pattern a..of… – e.g., a sense of pride; a surge of anger.
- Verb + noun – e.g., make a mistake
- Verb + expression with prepositions – e.g., I was filled with horror when I saw the news.
- Verb + adverb – e.g., He placed the cake gently on the table.
Lexical vs. Grammatical Collocations
A distinction can be made between lexical collocations and grammatical collocations. Lexical collocations are a type of construction where a verb, noun, adjective, or adverb forms a predictable connection with another word, while we have a grammatical collocation when a verb or adjective is followed by a particular preposition, or a noun is followed by a particular form of the verb.
Predictability in Collocations
If we look deeper into collocations, we will realize that not only do the words “go together”, but there is also a degree of predictability in their association. This predictability may be strong. For instance, auspicious collocates with very few words, as in: auspicious occasion; auspicious moment; auspicious event. On the other hand, it may be weak because the word collocates with a great number of other words. For example, circuit collocates with more than 20 words – lecture circuit, closed circuit; circuit judge, circuit training, etc.
Fixed Phrases and Idioms
The term collocation, in its linguistic sense, is relatively new, and not all linguists agree on its definition. Some of them treat fixed phrases as extended collocations – e.g., as far as I’m concerned, not on your life, etc. Others suggest that when a sequence of words is 100% predictable and allows absolutely no change except possibly in tense, it is not helpful to treat it as a collocation. Such sequences they generally treat as fixed expressions – e.g., prim and proper, or idioms – e.g., kick the bucket.
Word Structure: Morphemes and Word Classification
Words are free-standing items in the language that have their own independent meaning. The smallest, meaningful, two-facet unit of the language is called a morpheme. It cannot be subdivided. Morphemes are found in the words as their parts. They are not independent.
Types of Morphemes
Morphemes are divided semantically into two basic subtypes. The first are called root morphemes, and the second – affixational morphemes. The root morpheme is the lexical nucleus of the word. It has a general and abstract meaning, which is common to a set of semantically related words, known as a word cluster. Root morphemes possess not only lexical meaning but also every other type of meaning proper to a morpheme. Affixational morphemes are also divided into two other groups – inflections and derivational affixes. Inflections form only word forms, and they carry only grammatical meaning. Derivational affixes are used to build various types of words. They are always lexically dependent on the root which they modify and possess the same types of meaning as the root. These affixes have the part of the speech meaning. This makes them structurally the important part of the word since they set the lexical-grammatical class which the word belongs to. Because of this, affixes are classified into affixes building different parts of speech.
Structural Classification of Morphemes
Structurally, morphemes are classified into three basic subtypes – free morphemes, bound morphemes, and semi-bound morphemes. Free morphemes are the same as the word forms of independently functioning words. They are found only among roots – undesirable. Bound morphemes are those which cannot exist independently, and they only make a part of the word – disagree. Last but not least, semi-bound morphemes – these morphemes work in one case as a free morpheme but in the other – as a bound one – sleep well (free); well-known (bound).
Morphological Classification of Words
There are three types of words. Monomorphemic words are those that consist of only one root morpheme – e.g., dog, cat, girl, house. The second are the derived words which are composed of one root and one or more derivational morphemes – e.g., disappointment, disagreement. Compounds are the last one, and they consist in their structures of at least two root morphemes and some affixes. The latter are not so important. They may have words which have only root morphemes as in lamp-shade, but they may contain also derivational morphemes as in light-mindedness.
During the process of the formation of the word, three changes may happen, connected with the spelling, stress, and pronunciation. For example, a spelling change has dry – drier; a stress change can be observed in object [ˈɒbdʒɛkt] and object [əbˈdʒɛkt]; and a pronunciation change in public [ˈpʌblɪk] and publicity [pʌbˈlɪsɪti].
Conversion as a Word Formation Process
One of the ways of forming English words is conversion. It is a highly productive process in which a word of one grammatical form becomes another, but it does not have any changes – the spelling and pronunciation are still the same. For example, the word work is both a noun and a verb. Also, the word love is a noun and a verb. They just belong to different parts of speech but have the same spelling and pronunciation.
Conversion and Morpheme Structure
If we observe such word pairs as water and to water or work and to work from the angle of their morpheme structure, we will see that they are root words because the conversion is connected with root words.
However, some of the words could be observed on the derivational level. Some of them should be referred to as derived words, as they belong to a different part of speech, and they are understood through their semantic and structural relations with the other word. It is important to say that the conception of conversion is derivation with a zero morpheme. Also, if the words belong to one and the same word class, they cannot be formed by conversion. It is applied mainly to verbs and nouns. Because of this, conversion is divided into two types – denominal verbs and verbal substantives.
Denominal Verbs
A typical feature of denominal verbs is that they are converted from nouns, and the semantic relations between them vary greatly. Also, if the noun refers to some object of reality, the converted verb may denote it. Last but not least, this is the largest group of words formed through conversion. These verbs can denote an action or characteristic of the object – e.g., snail – to snail, nurse – to nurse. They can show the addition of the object – e.g., fish – to fish, age – to age; or deprivation of it – e.g., dust – to dust. It can also show the instrumental use of the object – e.g., saw – to saw, drum – to drum.
Verbal Substantives
The most important feature of verbal substantives is that they are nouns converted from verbs, and they generally refer to an action. Also, the converted noun could be denoted. For instance, we denote the agent of the action – e.g., to cook – a cook; the place of the action – e.g., to leak – a leak; the object or result of the action – e.g., to find – a find; and the instance of it – to step – a step.
Compound Words
Compounding or word composition is the process of word formation which composes two roots into one. The meaning of the new word could be the sum of the meanings of the components, or it could be totally different. The word could have an idiomatic meaning either.
Every compound is a lexical unit which consists at least of two roots. It also functions grammatically and semantically as a single word. This combination of roots could be written in three ways: solid, as one word – milkman; hyphenated – bee-honey, dark-blue; and open, as separate words – family member, coffee house.
Types of Compounds According to Smirnitsky
According to Smirnitsky, in English, four different types of compounds can be distinguished.
The first type are those words with a specific morpheme, functioning in their structure as a link morpheme. They are divided into two groups – those which are connected with “o”, for example, scientific terms as thermometer, or ethnic names – Anglo-Saxon, Indo-European. The second group contains compounds of two roots that are linked by “s” – sportsman, statesman.
The second type of compounds are those which have no morpheme as a link in their structure. They are divided into some more groups:
- Adjectives formed by a noun root and an adjective root – ice-cold, milk-white.
- Adjectives with two adjective roots – light-blue, dark-red.
- Adjectives formed by a numeral root and a noun root – five-hour, ten-second.
- Adjectives of a noun root and adjectival or verbal root ending in –ed, -en, -ing. For example, narrow-minded, heart-broken, hard-working.
- Verbs formed by a noun root plus a verbal one – babysit, backbite.
- Nouns formed by an adjective and a noun root – blueberry, stronghold.
- Nouns with two noun roots – waterfall, sunlight.
The third type of compounds are those with inner syntax. Their structures remind us of the structure of phrases or of a sentence. Such compounds are lily-of-the-valley, mother-in-law, and mother-of-pearl.
The last type of compounds are those that could be dissolved and become phrases again. For example, silk dress, gold ring.
Phraseological Units
Phraseological units are lexical units completely formed and ready for use, just like words and phraseological combinations. Their meanings are much more idiomatic than those of phraseological combinations. But there is something common with the meaning of their components. Nevertheless, there are a lot of idiomatic meanings.
Classification of Phraseological Units by Meaning
According to their meaning, phraseological units are classified into figurative and non-figurative meaning. Absolutely figurative phraseological units are bad hats, stuck home. Here, all components of them are used figuratively. On the other hand, there are a great number of phrases where not all components are figurative. For instance, keep house, the ghost of a smile, as clean as a pin. There are phraseological units where one of the components can be changed – e.g., right as rain, right as nails, right as a trivet. This shows that phraseological units could be changed only semantically, not grammatically.
Origin of Phraseological Units
These units appeared from the free combinations of the words of different professional jargons. And during the time, they became set phrases. There are a great number of examples from different work spheres. Some of them are from military jargon – to lose a battle, others came from medicine – to swallow the pill, from sport – to be on one’s back. Also, there are phraseological units connected with animals – are cats and dog, the cat is out of the bag. Other units are connected with cooking – to cook their goose, eat humble pie. Some units refer to the human body – put our foot down, poking their noses in. There are phraseological units from the Bible – turn in his grave, I wash my hands of it. There are such units from mythology, astrology, other beliefs, etc.
A lot of metaphors of literature have become phraseological units. For example, the grapes were sour, the lion’s share.
Proverbs are phraseological units, too. For instance, A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush or Still waters run deep. All said above are idiomatic phraseological units.
Non-Idiomatic Phraseological Units
The non-idiomatic phraseological units are also derived from free combinations of words. Because of their frequent usage, they function as a single unit. Such are clichés and hackneyed phrases. For example, the irony of fate, my better half. Another example of non-idiomatic phraseological units are the beginning and end of a business letter – e.g., Dear, Yours truly, Yours sincerely.
Grammatical Classification of Phraseological Units
From a grammatical point of view, phraseological units are divided according to their structure into:
- Negative phrases – it is no good
- Interrogative phrases – what next?; how now?
- Exclamatory phrases – Here you are!
- Phrases equivalent to adverbial modifiers and conjunctions – on end, at last, all above
Euphony in Phraseological Units
According to Vinogradov, euphony is important, and phraseological units could be divided into:
- Phrases based on rhyme – really and truly
- Phrases based on alliteration – fish, flesh, nor fowl; part and parcel
- Units based on synonyms and antonyms – good and well; ins and outs; he is the head, I am the tail