Semasiology_as_a_branch_of_linguistics

1. Semasiology as a branch of linguistics. Types of word meaning: grammatical, lexical (denotative and connotative meanings). Change of lexical meaning: generalisation and specialization; elevation and degradation of word meaning.

Semasiology (from Gr. semasia “signification”) is a branch of linguistics whose subject-matter is the study of word meaning and the classification of changes in the signification of words or forms, viewed as normal and vital factors of any linguistic development.

The main objects of semasiological study are: semantic development of words, its causes and classification, polysemy and semantic structure of words, semantic grouping and connections in the vocabulary system, i.e. synonyms, antonyms, terminological systems etc.?

As semasiology deals not with every kind of meaning but with the lexical meaning only, it may be regarded as a branch of Lexicology. Meaning is one of the most important word’s characteristics. The two main types of meaning are the grammatical and lexical meaning.

Grammatical meaning is the component of meaning recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words (tenses, cases, etc.) For example, time-relations are expressed by the tense-forms of the English verb (e.g. worked, took, went, printed), the category of person denoted by verb-forms (e.g. takes, speaks, writes). Lexical meaning is the meaning proper to the given linguistic unit in all its forms and distributions. It is recurrent in all the forms of the word (go-goes-went-going). The lexical meaning of the word can be of two types: denotational and connotational. Denotation is the expression of the direct meaning proper of the word without any emotive evaluation or stylistic colouring, e.g. a father, a friend, a girl, a dog. Connotation is the supplementary expressive meaning presented either by emotive charge (e.g. a girlie, a doggy, sheepish) or by stylistic reference, compare: a girl (neutral denotation) :: a maiden (poetic) :: a lass (folk) :: a chic (slang), a father (neutral denotation) :: a parent (bookish) :: a dad (colloquial) :: a governor (slang).

Change of lexical meaning: Broadening (generalization) is the widening of a word's range of meanings, often by analogy or simplification. It is also the transfer from concrete meaning to an abstract one: e.g. journey was borrowed from French with the meaning one day trip, now it means a trip of any duration.

Narrowing of meaning (specialization). In this process a word of wide meaning acquires a narrower, specialized sense: e.g.  a wife (originally meant simply ‘woman’ and now ‘a married woman’), a girl (originally meant ‘a young person of either sex, a child, a boy or a girl’ and now it denotes ‘a small child of female sex’).

Pejoration (degradation,) occurs as a word develops negative connotations or loses positive ones: a churl (in Old English it meant “a man”), a gossip (in Old English it meant “a good parent”), and silly (in Old English it meant “happy”).

Amelioration (elevation): word loses negative connotations or gains positive ones, e.g. a minister (earlier it meant “servant” and now it means “an important public official”), a knight (earlier it meant “a title of rank” and now it means “a boy”).