Semantic Change: Types and False Friends

Posted on Jan 31, 2025 in Hotel Administration and Management

Semantic Change

Types of Semantic Change

  • Foreign influence
    • French parlement “speaking” > “judicial court” > “legislative assembly”
  • Metaphoric transfer
    • The name of an object is transferred to another object similar to it. An imagined link is established between two concepts.
    • insult < Latin insultare < in + saltare
    • grasp “take hold of something”
    • expire < of expirer < Latin ex + spirare
    • mouse “rodent” > “computer device”.
  • Metonymic transfer
    • Metonymic transfer may happen when the two meanings are near each other in space or time.
    • Latin coxa “hip” > French cuisse “thigh”
    • Old English ceace “jaw” > Modern English cheek
    • Old French joue “cheek” > Modern English jaw
  • Synecdoche
    • The meanings are related as whole and part.
    • Germanic *tunz “fence” > town
    • Pre-English *stobo “heated room” > stove
  • Generalization – Widening – Broadening
    • tail “caudal appendage” < Old English taegl “hairy caudal appendage”
    • barn “building in which corn is stored” < Old English bere “barley” + aren “house”
    • Vulgar Latin arripare “to come to shore” > Modern English arrive
    • French descarter “throw out a card” > Modern English discard
  • Specialization – Narrowing – Restriction
    • Old English steorfan “die” > Modern English starve
    • Old English hund “dog” > Modern English hound
    • Old English deor “animal” > Modern English deer
    • Old English mete “food” > Modern English meat
    • Middle English licur “liquid” > Modern English liquor
  • Elevation – Amelioration
    • Old English cniht “boy” “servant”> Modern English knight
    • Latin nescius “ignorant” > Modern English nice
    • Latin minister “servant” > Modern English minister
  • Degeneration – Pejoration
    • Old English sely “blessed” > Modern English silly
    • Old English cnafa “boy” > Modern English knave
    • notorious “well known” > “unfavorably known”
    • fair “ moderate” < Old English faeger “pleasant”
    • inquisition < Latin inquisitio “investigation”
    • impertinent “insolent” < Latin impertinens “not pertinent”
    • censure < Old French censure, Latin censura “opinion”
    • butler < Old French bouteiller ‘male servant in charge of the wine cellar’
  • Weakening and Strengthening
    • The use of words that are weaker or stronger than required by the circumstances.
    • Weakening
      • Awfully “causing dread and awe” now is a hyperbole that has become weakened to “very”.
      • French ne . . . pas `not at all’ > (ne) pas `not’ (The emphatic negation turns into a plain negation)
      • Marvelous, terribly, hugely, fabulous, outrageous, incredible > very
      • Adore, fascinate, starve.
      • I’m dying to, I’m freezing, I’d love to. That’s terrible.
    • Strengthening
      • Euphemisms: the use of socially accepted words to avoid linguistic taboos.
      • Ways to form euphemisms (Adapted from Brinton & Arnovick, 2006)
        1. Generalization: Condition for disease, Procedure for operation, Voiding for defecation/urination.
        2. Diminutives: Wee-wee, pooh-pooh
        3. Phonetic distortion: Gad/ gosh for God, Darn for damn, Son of a gun for son of a b****
        4. Semantic shift: To sleep with somebody, To go to the bathroom, Enjoys his drink “a drunkard”.
        5. Borrowing words (pseudo-technical term): Perspire for sweat, Halitosis for bad breath
        6. Acronyms or initialisms: VD = venereal disease, SOB = son of a b****

False Friends

  • Words with a similar form but a different meaning in two different languages.
  • Modern English corpse – Spanish cuerpo < Latin corpus “body”
  • Modern English ignore – Spanish ignorar
  • Modern English prevent – Spanish prevenir
  • Modern English sensible – Spanish sensible.
  • Why are false friends created?
    • The word is polysemous in the mother language. Daughter language A keeps one meaning and daughter language B keeps the other.
    • Both come from different languages.
    • A word develops differently in one of the languages.