22.Paths of semantic development: types of metonymy

Metonymy is a transfer of the meaning on the basis of

contiguity. There are different types of metonymy:

. 1) the material of which an object is made may become

the name of the object, e.g. a glass, boards, iron etc;

2) the name of the place may become the name of the

people or of an object placed there, e.g. the House – members of

Parliament, Fleet Street – bourgeois press, the White House – the

Administration of the USA etc;

3) names of musical instruments may become names of

musicians, e.g. the violin, the saxophone;

4) the name of some person may become a common

noun, e.g. “boycott” was originally the name of the Irish family

who were so much disliked by their neighbours that they did not

mix with them, “sandwich” was named after Lord Sandwich who

was a gambler. He did not want to interrupt his game and had his

food brought to him while he was playing cards between two

slices of bread not to soil his fingers;

5) names of inventors very often become terms to denote

things they invented, e.g. “watt”, “om”, “rentgen” etc;

6) some geographical names can also become common

nouns through metonymy, e.g. holland (linen fabrics), Brussels (a

special kind of carpets), china (porcelain), astrakhan (a sheep fur)

etc.

23.Semantic change in denotation : extension, restriction, enantiosemy

Denotation is the strict dictionary meaning of a word.

Denotation represents the explicit or referential meaning of a sign. Denotation

refers to the literal meaning of a word, the ‘dictionary definition.’

For example, the name ‘Hollywood’ connotes such things as glitz, glamour, tinsel,

celebrity, and dreams of stardom. In the same time, the name ‘Hollywood’ denotes an area of Los Angeles, worldwide known as the center of the American movie industry.

Diction, an element of style, refers to the words writers use to express ideas. Words convey more than exact, literal meanings, in which case they "connote" or suggest additional meanings and values not expressed in general dictionary definitions. Words that "denote" a core meaning are those that are generally used and understood by the users and the audience to represent an object or class of objects, an act, a quality, or

an idea. However, because of usage over time, words that denote approximately the same thing may acquire additional meanings, or connotations, that are either positive (meliorative ) or negative (pejorative ). Consider the changes undergone by these words in the 20th century: liberal, diversity, team player, right wing, follower, gay, minority,

feminist, left wing, abuse, conservative, motherhood, extremist, rights, relationship, harassment, family, propaganda, peacekeeper, and comrade.

Semantic Narrowing of meaning (specialization)

From a wide range of meaning, a word now has a narrow one (the meaning of a word to be less general, more specific)

Some specializations are motivated by the avoidance of synonymy, as in the case of deer, pig, cow, sheep specialized after beef, pork, and mutton (from French).

E.g : hound: a dog of any breed  a dog used in the chase; queen: any wife (of any men)  a king`s wife

Broadening of meaning/ Generalisation (semantic widening): Extension

the meaning of a word to be more general, less specific

A generalisation (or generalization) of a concept is an extension of the concept to less-specific criteria. It is a foundational element of logic and human reasoning.[citation needed] Generalizations posit the existence of a domain or set of elements, as well as one or more common characteristics shared by those elements. As such, it is the essential basis of all valid deductive inferences. The process of verification is necessary to determine whether a generalization holds true for any given situation.

The concept of generalization has broad application in many related disciplines, sometimes having a specialized context- meaning.

This kind of generalization versus specialization (or particularization) is reflected in the mirror of the contrasting words hypernym and hyponym. A hypernym as a generic stands for a class or group of equally-ranked items such as tree does for peach and oak; or ship for cruiser and steamer. Whereas a hyponym is one of the items included in the generic, such as peach and oak are included in tree, and cruiser and steamer in ship, "brother" and "sister" in "family". A hypernym is superordinate to a hyponym, and a hyponym is subordinate to a hypernym.

A case of polysemy in which one sense is in some respect the opposite of another. E.g. that of dust in I dusted the mantelpiece, meaning that something is removed, vs. I dusted the cake with sugar, meaning that something is added.

From Greek enantio- ‘opposite’: modelled by G. C. Lepschy on German ‘Gegensinn’.