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Changes in Word Meaning
Changes in Word Meaning
Vocabulary:
1. most unstable element of a language
2. undergoing constant changes both in form and content
3. Comparatively, meaning even more unstable
Changes in Word Meaning
Quirk :‘...almost every word we use today has a slightly different meaning from the one it had a century ago, and a century ago it had a slightly different meaning from the one it had a century before that’.
Changes in Word Meaning
Shakespeare’s use:
The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste…
rival = partner
Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour…
jump = just
Changes in Word Meaning
How pregnant sometimes his replies are…
pregnant = meaningful
Types of Change 1. Extension
extension= generalization:
change from a specific meaning to a more general one
1. Extension
manuscript = hand + writing
1) first draft written by hand
2) writing by any means
1. Extension
lady 1) mistress
2) woman
. saleslady; lady novelist;
ladies’ room=ladies
salary: money given to Roman soldiers to buy salt
1. Extension
Holiday: 1) Holy Day
2) any day or days without work or study
1. Extension
Technical terms used mon words:
feedback (computer) = response
allergic (medicine) = averse to anything