1.3. Semantic Changes in the Vocabulary.

The growth of the English vocabulary in the course of history has not been confined to the appearance of new items as a result of various ways of word formation and borrowings. Internal sources of the replenishment of the vocabulary include also multiple semantic changes which created new meanings and new words through semantic shifts and through splitting of words into distinct lexical units.

Semantic changes are commonly divided into widening and narrowing of meaning and into methaphoric and metonymic shifts, though a strict subdivision is difficult, as different changes were often combined in the development of one and the same word. Sometimes semantic changes are combined with formal changes. It will suffice to give a few examples.[21(p.70)]

Instances of narrowing can be found in the history of OE deor which meant ‘animal’ and changed into the modern deer; OE mete ‘food’, NE meat; OE sellan ‘give, sell’, NE sell; OE motan ‘may, must’, NE must; OE talu ‘number’, ‘story’, NE tale; OE toe ‘fastening, prison’, NE lock; ME accident ‘event’, NE accident, etc. Narrowing of meaning can often be observed in groups of synonyms, as in the course of time each synonym acquires its own, more specialized, narrow sphere of application: thus deer was a synonym of animal and beest in ME, must a synonym of may, lock — a synonym of prison.

Widening of meaning can be illustrated by slogan which was formerly only a battle cry of Scottish clans; journey which meant a day’s work or a day’s journey (from O Fr journee related to jour ‘day’); holiday was formerly a religious festival, as its first component comes from OE kalis, NE holy, but came to be applied to all kinds of occasions when people do not work or attend classes.

Many words of concrete meaning came to be used figuratively, which is an instance of widening of meaning and of metaphoric change. Thus the verbs grasp, drive, go, start, handle, stop and many others formerly denoted physical actions alone but have acquired a more general, non concrete meaning through metaphoric use. The change of ME vixen ‘she-fox’ to ‘bad-tempered, quarrelsome woman' can be interpreted as metaphor or metonymy (and also as widening of meaning as the old meaning has also been preserved.

Some semantic changes can only be referred to miscellaneous as they involve different kinds of semantic changes and sometimes structural changes too. The changes of meaning undergone by lord, lady, daisy, window in the course of their morphological simplification were described above. The meanings of the verbs strike and hit became synonymous, though in OE the former verb meant ‘stroke’, 'rub gently’ and the latter *not to miss’; gradually they replaced smite and slay in the meaning of ‘striking, hitting' as more neutral ways of expressing these actions. Many semantic changes in the vocabulary proceed together with stylistic changes, as in changing their meanings words acquire or lose certain shades of meaning and stylistic connotations. All these subtle changes account for the enrichment of the vocabulary in the ME period. So, French  words  are  generally based in Latin,  but  they  have  their own spelling structure,  and  are  often  word of class  rather  than  words  of  intelligence. Final e pronounced  /ā/: fiancé, sauté,  risqué; et pronounced /ā/: ballet, buffet, croquet, gourmet, beret; ge /zh/: barrage,  genre,  lingerie,  beigech ; /sh/:  charade, chic, parachute, chateau; ou /ōō/: soup, coupon;‐que /k/:antique, oblique, unique, critique;final eau /ō/: bureau, trousseau, nouveau, beau, plateau. Soft  c  and  g  when  followed  by  e,  i:  city, nice, gentle.