Causes of Development of New Meanings

The first group of causes is traditionally termed historical or extra-linguistic.

Different kinds of changes in a nation's social life, in its culture, knowledge, technology, arts lead to gaps appearing in the vocabulary which beg to be filled. We already know of two ways for providing new names for newly created concepts: making new words (word-building) and borrowing foreign ones. One more way of filling such vocabulary gaps is by applying some old word to a new object or notion.

New meanings can also be developed due to linguistic factors . Linguistically speaking, the development of new meanings, and also a complete change of meaning

The Process of Development and Change of Meaning

The second question we must answer in this lecture is how new meanings develop. To find the answer to this question we must investigate the inner mechanism of this process, or at least its essential features. Let us examine the examples given above from a new angle, from within, so to speak. Most scholars distinguish between the terms development of meaning and change of meaning when the old meaning is completely replaced by the new one, as in the noun meat which in Old English had the general meaning of "food" but in Modern English is no longer used in that sense and has instead developed the meaning "flesh of animals used as a food product". The process of development of a new meaning (or a change of meaning) is traditionally termed transference.

Transference Based on Resemblance (Similarity)

This type of transference is also referred to as linguistic metaphor. A new meaning appears as a result of associating two objects (phenomena, qualities, etc.) due to their outward similarity. The noun eye, for instance, has for one of its meanings "hole in the end of a needle" (cf. with the R. вушко голки), which also developed through transference based on resemblance.

Transference Based on Contiguity [ˌkɒntɪ'gjuːɪtɪ]

Another term for this type of transference is linguistic metonymy. The association is based upon subtle psychological links between different objects and phenomena. Let us consider some cases of transference based on contiguity. You will notice that they are of different kinds. The Old English adjective glad meant "bright, shining" (it was applied to the sun, to gold and precious stones, to shining armour, etc.). The later meaning "joyful" developed on the basis of the usual association (which is reflected in most languages) of light with joy (cf. with the R. светлое настроение; светло на душе).

Broadening (or Generalisation) of Meaning.

Narrowing (or Specialisation) of Meaning

Sometimes, the process of transference may result in a considerable change in range of meaning. For instance, the verb to arrive (French borrowing) began its life in English in the narrow meaning "to come to shore, to land". In Modern English it has greatly widened its combinability and developed the general meaning "to come" (e. g. to arrive in a village, town, city, country, at a hotel, hostel, college, theatre, place, etc.). The word bird changed its meaning from "the young of a bird" to its modern meaning through transference based on contiguity. The second meaning is broader and more general.