4. Change of meaning

1. What are the three aspects of semantic change?

2. 1) What causes the development of new meaning? Give examples.

2) State the cause of the semantic change:

microwave, n., mobile, n., consumer durables, portable, n.

3. Could you explain/define the following terms?

Transference, figurative extension, metaphor, metonymy, broadening/generalization, narrowing/specialization, pejoration/degeneration of meaning, melioration/elevation of meaning.

4. Metaphor or metonymy? Explain your answer.

1. the foot of the mountain - the foot of the bed

the legs of the trousers - the legs of a chair

the arms of an arm-chair - the arms of a coat

the hour hand - factory hands

in the heart of English countryside - to have a kind heart

heads of government - the head of a nail

eyes of a potato - a good eye for detail

2. a Romeo, a diesel, a Winchester, a limerick, a Balaclava, jersey, Jekyll and Hyde, a Monte Christo, Smith and Wesson, mackintosh

5. Find metaphors and say what they are based on.

1. The book throws a great deal of light on the history of the period.

2. Try to keep cool even if he argues with you.

3. Police tried to control the flow of the fans as they left the concert.

4. The city at night is a jungle.

6. Can you identify metonymy in the following sentences? State the type of logical associations it is based on.

1. After the death of his wife he took to the bottle.

2. She’s written a number of things for the stage.

3. The whole stadium rose to cheer/greet the team.

4. Some important papers are missing from the file.

7. Analyze the semantic change.

1. pigeon "young bird" - "young dove" - "all dove-like birds";

2. brand "branding-iron" - "permanent mark deliberately made by hot iron" - "trade mark";

3. fowl "bird" - "farmyard bird, for ex. a chicken or a duck";

4. crafty "strong" - "wily";

5. cunning "knowledgeable" - "sly";

6. pretty "capricious" - "clever" - "good-looking";

7. gossip "godfather or godmother" - "a close friend" - "a woman friend invited to be present at a birth" - "someone who enjoys talking about other people";

8. digital "using digits to represent quantities" - "of computers and computerization".

8. When JamesII first saw St. Paul’s Cathedral he called it amusing, awful and artificial.

What did he mean? Can you analyze the semantic change the words have undergone since that time?

5. Polysemy

1. Answer the following questions.

1. What is polysemy?

2. Are most English words polysemantic? If so, why?

3. What is the semantic structure of a word?

4. How are separate meanings of a polysemantic word related?

5. How can polysemy be viewed synchronically and diachronically? What are the main sources of polysemy?

6. What is the national character of a semantic structure?

What are specific characteristics of the semantic structures of English polysemantic words?

7. What are the relations between the semantic structures of English and Russian correlated words?

2. Choose a polysemantic word. Prove that its meanings are related one to another.

3. Could you define these terms?

The primary meaning, a secondary meaning, a derived meaning, the central (basic) meaning, a minor meaning, a direct meaning, a figurative (transferred meaning), a free meaning, a bound meaning, a nominative meaning, an evaluative meaning.

4. How can we identify the central meaning? What criteria can be used? Are they all equally important and reliable?

5. Analyze the semantic structure of the following words identifying the types of their meanings:

mouse, glass, flame, green, meat, fair (a)

6. The underlined words in the sentences below are polysemantic. Characterize their meaning in the contexts of these sentences.

1. What does polysemy mean?

2. Make a note of any special register characteristics that a word has.

3. We had a light lunch.

4. The judge increased the sentence to life imprisonment.

5. Where does the stress go on the noun "phonographer".

6. There are a lot of points to think about when considering the meaning of words.

7. Compare the semantic structures of green and зеленый, glass and стекло , meat and мясо, explain the differences.

VIII. A lot of nouns in English have both uncountable and countable meanings. Make sure you can explain the difference:

drink/a drink,

cloth/a cloth,

fish/a fish,

work/a work,

chocolate/a chocolate,

pepper/a pepper,

iron/an iron,

rubber/a rubber.

Give five more nouns with countable and uncountable meanings.