Changing of meaning

There are 2 aspects to this problems, which can be generally described in the following way:

1. Why should new meanings appear and what circumstances case and stimulate their development.

2. How does it happen and what is the nature of the process of development of new meaning.

1. Causes of development of new meaning.

The first group of cause is traditionally termed historical or extra linguistic. Different kinds of changes in a nations social life, in its culture, knowledge, technology, arts. We know 2 ways of providing new names for newly created concepts:

• Making new words (word building)

• Borrowing foreign words.

2. Second group of causes new meaning can also be developed due to linguistic factors. Linguistically speaking the development of new meanings and also a complete change of meaning may be caused through the influence of other words, mostly of synonyms.

All cases of development or change of meaning are based on some association. The process of development of a new meaning is traditionally termed transference. It is very important to note that any cause of semantic change it is not the meaning but the world that is being transferred of one into another.

Transference based on resemblance. This type of transference is referred to as linguistic metaphor. A new meaning appears as a result of associating two objects due to their similarity.

Word formation

Word formation is the branch of Lexicology that studies the structure of existing words and the patterns on which a language builds new words. Words are divided into smaller units which are called morphemes. Morphemes are divided into roots and affixes. The root is the morpheme that expresses the lexical meaning of the word. Teach-teacher-teaching.

Affixes are divided into suffixes and prefixes. Suffixes follow the root. Prefixes we use before the roots.

Another wide- spread word structure is a compound word: Brother-in-law, sister-in-law consisting 2 or more bases.

Conversion consists in making a new word from some existing word by changing the category of a part of speech, while the morphemic Shape of the original word remains unchanged. E.g. work-to work, paper-to paper.

The most common types conversion in English.

• Verbs derived from nouns: to ship, to dog (преследовать), to wolf (жадно есть)

• Nouns derived from verbs: a try (попытка), a catch(улов), a find (находка), a cut (порез)

• Verbs derived from adjectives: to pale (бледнеть), to empty (опустошить), to grey (седеть), to tidy (привести в порядок)

Less common types of conversion in English:

• Nouns derived from adjectives: a bitter (), the poor, a final.

• Verbs/nouns derived from prepositions: out (e.g. diplomats were outed from the country, ins and outs – входы и выходы)

Word building. Affixation

Affixation is the formation of new words by means of suffixes and prefixes. Affixes may be grouped 1) according to their linguistic origin. We distinguish affixes of Germanic origin (full, less), of Romanic origin (ion), of Greek origin (ise, izm); 2) according to the parts of speech. We distinguish noun forming, adj. forming and verb forming affixes; 3) according to semantic functions. They may denote persons, quality, negation. Many suffixes originated from separate words: hood originated for the noun hood, which meant state or condition; full – полный (adj. In O.E) now it is suffix. Suffixes may change the part of speech: critic (al). All suffixes are divided into lexical and grammatical. Lexical suffixes build new word. For ex: read-readable, happy-happiness, act-actor. Grammatical suffixes change the grammatical form of a word. For ex: finish-finished, say-says, rose-roses. Very often grammatical suffixes fulfill the function of lexical suffixes. Such phenomenon is called lexicolization. For ex: color – colors – знамена; work – works – завод. Suffixes are productive and unproductive. Productive – form new word: ful, less, painter, actor. Unproductive – don’t do it: hood, childhood.  Suffixes: er-a noun-forming suffix, productive, of Germanic origin, denotes persons (painter); ism-a noun-forming suffix, productive. It has become almost international. It forms abstract nouns, denote theory, political doctrine, movement in art; ful-adj-formation suffix, productive, of Germanic origin, means some quality (beautiful, hopeful); less-adj-formation suffix, productive, of Germanic origin, meaning free of something (hopeless). Suffixes may be homonyms: ish-an adj- formation suffix, meaning nationality (English), quality in a slight degree (reddish-красноватый), likeness-значение сходства (boyish, womanish).  Prefixes change the meaning of the root of the word. We analyze them from the point of view of their productivity, origin, meaning (re-productive, of Romanic origin, meaning-again; pre- productive, of Romanic origin, means-before (prewar); post- productive, of Romanic origin, means-after (postwar). 

Prefixation is the formation of words by means of adding a prefix to the stem. In English it is characteristic for forming verbs. In English it is characteristic for forming verbs. Prefixes used in notional word un- (unhappy)and prefixes used in functional words. Prefixes used in functional words are semi-bound morphemes because they are met in the language as words, e.g. over- (overhead) ( cf over the table ).

• The main function of prefixes in English is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech. But the recent research showed that about

• twenty-five prefixes in Modern English form one part of speech from another

• (bebutton, interfamily, postcollege etc).

• Prefixes can be classified according to different principles :

• 1. Semantic classification :

• a) prefixes of negative meaning, such as : in- (invaluable), non-(nonformals), un- (unfree) etc,

• b) prefixes denoting repetition or reversal actions, such as: re- (reread), dis- (disconnect),

• c) prefixes denoting time, space, degree relations, such as : inter-(interplanetary), ex- (ex-student), etc.

• 2. Origin of prefixes:

• a) native (Germanic), such as: un-, over-, under- etc.

• b) Romanic, such as : in-, de-, ex-, re- etc.

• c) Greek, such as : sym-, hyper- etc.

• The main function of suffixes in Modern English is to form one part of speech from another, the secondary function is to change the lexical meaning of the same part of speech. ( e.g. «educate» is a verb, «educatee» is a noun. There are different classifications of suffixes :

• 1. Part-of-speech classification. Suffixes which can form different parts of speech:

• a) noun-forming suffixes, such as : -er (teacher), -dom (wisdom),

• b) adjective-forming suffixes, such as : - less(harmless),ous (prestigious),

• c) verb-forming suffixes, such as -ize (computerize) , -ify (micrify),

• d) adverb-forming suffixes , such as : -ly (quickly), -ward (tableward),

• e) numeral-forming suffixes, such as -teen (sixteen), -ty (seventy).

• 2. Semantic classification . Suffixes canchange the lexical meaning of the stem

• a) the agent of the action, e.g. -er (experimenter), -ist (taxist), -ent

• (student),

• b) nationality, e.g. -ian (Russian), -ese (Japanese), -ish (English),

• c) collectivity, e.g -ship(readership), -ati ( literati),

• d) diminutiveness, e.g. -ie (horsie), -let (booklet), -ling (gooseling),

• -ette (kitchenette),

• e) quality, e.g. -ness (happyness), -ity (posibility).

• 3. Lexico-grammatical character of the stem. Suffixes which can be added to certain groups of stems are subdivided into:

• a) suffixes added to verbal stems, such as : -er (commuter), -ing(suffering)

• b) suffixes added to noun stems, such as : -less (smogless), ful(roomful), -ism (adventurism), -ster (pollster), -nik (filmnik), -ish

• (childish),

• c) suffixes added to adjective stems, such as : -en (weaken), -ly

• (pinkly), -ish (longish), -ness (clannishness).

• 4. Origin of suffixes. Here we can point out the following groups:

• a) native (Germanic), such as -er,-ful, -less, -ly.

• b) Romanic, such as : -tion, -ment, -able, -eer.

• c) Greek, such as : -ist, -ism, -ize.

• d) Russian, such as -nik.

• (cheeseburger), -aholic (workaholic) etc.

A suffix is a derivational morpheme following the stem and form­ing a new derivative in a different part of speech or a different word class, c f. -en, -y, -less in hearten, hearty, heartless. When both the un­derlying and the resultant forms belong to the same part of speech, the suffix serves to differentiate between lexico-grammatical classes by ren­dering some very general lexico-grammatical meaning. For instance, both -ify and -er are verb suffixes, but the first characterizes causative verbs, such as horrify, purify, rarefy, simplify, whereas the second is mostly typical of frequentative verbs: flicker, shimmer, .twitter and the like.

A prefix is a derivational morpheme standing before the root and modifying meaning, c f. hearten – dishearten. It is only with verbs and statives that a prefix may serve to distinguish one part of speech from another,   like in earth n -unearth v, sleep n – asleep (stative). It is interesting that as a prefix en- may carry the same meaning of being or bringing into a certain state as the suffix -en, c f. enable, encamp, endanger, endear, enslave and fasten, darken, deepen, lengthen, strengthen.

Homonymy. The origin of Homonyms.  Classification of homonyms  Homonyms are words which are identical in sound and spelling, or at least, in one of these aspects, but different in their meaning. Traditional classification includes 3 types of homonyms:  1. homonyms which are the same in sound and spelling are traditionally termed homonyms proper (bank – a shore; bank-an institute for receiving, lending, exchanging and safeguarding money; school-косяк рыбы; school - школа).  2. homophones – they are the same in sound but different in spelling (night-knight; piece –peace).  3. homographs – these are words which are the same in spelling but different in sound (bow [bau]-поклон; bow [bэu]-лук; to lead [ li:d] – to conduct on the way, go before to show the way; lead [led] – a heavy, rather soft metal)  Homonyms should be distinguished from polycemantic words, because homonyms – we discuss 2 different forms with their own lexical and semantic structure, polycemantic – only one word (homonyms – 2 different words, polycemantic – 2 different meanings).  Classification:  1. lexical homonyms – differ in lexical meaning only, grammatical meaning is the same (one and the same part of speech)  2. lexico-grammatical homonyms – differ both lexical and grammatical meanings (different parts of speech) Ex: pale, adj – to pale , verb; reading- {Present Participle, gerund, Verbal noun.  3. grammatical homonyms – differ in grammatical meaning only, the lexical meaning is the same (brothers – plural; brother’s – possessive case)  Partial Homonyms –are those one which are the same only in one form of their grammatical paradigm (mine – шахта; mine – possessive noun (first form is my)).  Sources of Homonyms  - phonetic changes which words undergo in the course of their historical development. As a result of such changes, two or more words which were formerly pronounced differently may develop identical sound forms and thus become homonyms - Night and knight, to knead (О.Е. cnēdan) and to need (О.Е. nēodian).  - Borrowing is another source of homonyms. Match, n. ("a game; a contest of skill, strength") is native, and match, n. ("a slender short piece of wood used for producing fire") is a French borrowing.  - Word-building  conversion - comb, n. — to comb, v., pale, adj. — to pale, v., to make, v. — make, n. they are the same in sound and spelling but refer to different categories of parts of speech, are called lexico-grammatical homonyms  Shortening fan, n. in the sense of "an enthusiastic admirer of some kind of sport or of an actor, singer, etc." is a shortening produced from fanatic. Its homonym is a Latin borrowing fan, n. which denotes an implement for waving lightly to produce a cool current of air. The noun rep, n. denoting a kind of fabric (cf. with the R. репс) has three homonyms made by shortening: rep, n. (< repertory), rep, n. (< representative), rep, n. (< reputation)'', all the three are informal words.  - sound-imitation - bang, n. ("a loud, sudden, explosive noise") — bang, n. ("a fringe of hair combed over the forehead"). Also: mew, n. ("the sound a cat makes") — mew, n. ("a sea gull") — mew, n. ("a pen in which poultry is fattened") — mews ("small terraced houses in Central London").  - Two or more homonyms can originate from different meanings of the same word when, for some reason, the semantic structure of the word breaks into several parts. This type of formation of homonyms is called split polysemy.  board, n. — a long and thin piece of timber  board, n. — daily meals, esp. as provided for pay,  e. g. room and board board, n. — an official group of persons who direct  or supervise some activity, e. g. a board  of directors