4. Causes of semantic change.

Word-meaning changes in the course of the historical development of language. The causes of changes are subdivided into two types: 1) historical and 2) linguistic.

1. By historical or extra–linguistic causes we mean different kinds of changes in the life of the speech community, changes in economic and social structures, changes of ideas, scientific concepts, way of life and other spheres of human activities as reflected in word meanings. When new ideas, objects, phenomena come into life they should get their names. People can make new words with the help of the word –building process, they can borrow foreign words and they can also apply old words to new objects or notions.

1. New meaning can also be developed due to linguistic causes. Nowadays it is possible to point out at least three causes

a) ellipsis - when in a phrase made up of two words one of them is omitted and its meaning is transferred to its partner. It is typical of any language to economize linguistic units and the time necessary for their pronunciation. And this process of economy is very active especially nowadays

Instead of an alarm clock we use an alarm. So the word alarm extended its meaning.

b) discrimination of synonyms. When a new synonym appears in the language by the process of borrowing, the meaning of the word which existed in the language before changes, it becomes restricted. For example, a cow, a pig, a sheep in the Old English language indicated both animals and meat from these animals. But when French words beef, pork, mutton were borrowed into the English language the native words restricted their meaning.

c) the third linguistic cause is the change by the analogy. If one of the members of a synonymic set acquires a new meaning, other members of this set change their meaning too. For example, the words to get, to catch, to grasp had the meaning of ‘to take hold of smith’, but the verb to get in the conversational language developed the meaning ‘to understand’. And all the words belonging to the set developed the same meaning, To catch words on the fly means ‘to understand immediately’.

5. Nature of semantic change (psychological classification).

All cases of development or change of meaning are based on some association existing between the old meaning and the new one which has been developed in the language. There are two kinds of association:

1) Similarity of meanings or metaphor may be described as a semantic process of associating two referents, one of which in some way resembles the other. This process is also called transference of the word based on resemblance, as the process of development of a new meaning (or a change of meaning) is traditionally termed transference. The word is being transferred from one referent onto another, not the meaning.

With linguistic metaphor a new meaning appears as a result of associating two objects, phenomena, qualities, etc. due to their outward similarity, for example, the back of the chair, the neck of the bottle, the bridge of the nose. These words acquired new meanings due to the similarity in the shape existing between the old meaning of the object which existed in the language and the new meaning. Linguistic metaphor may be based on the association not only between two physical objects, but also between a concrete object and an abstract concept, e.g. branch of a tree → branch of science.

2. the second type may be defined as the association by contiguity, contiguity of meaning or metonymy. Another term for this type of transference is linguistic metonymy. This semantic process is the process of associating two referents one of which makes part of the other or is closely connected with it. The two objects may be associated together because they often appear in common situations, and so the image of one is easily accompanied by the image of the other; or they may be associated on the principle of cause and effect, of common function, of some material and an object which is made of it, etc.

When we discuss the phenomena of linguistic metaphor and metonymy we must remember that they are different from metaphor and metonymy as literary devices (studied by stylistics). When literary metaphor and metonymy are offered, both the author and the reader are aware that this reference is figurative, that the object has another name. The poetic metaphor is the fruit of the author’s creative imagination.

The stylistic device of metaphor is defined as the power of realizing two lexical meanings simultaneously.