词汇学第六章.ppt

Chapter 6 Changes in Word Meaning
I. Types of changes
1. Extension ( Generalization)词义的扩展
A. From specific to general
It is through widening of meaning that a monosemic word is made polysemic.
. journal (a daily---- any periodicals);
bird (young bird --- any birds)
. salary (salt money--- fixed regular pay each month, three months, year, or sometimes each week, for a job, especially as for workers of high skill or rank);
B. From concrete to abstract
. place (square --- location, status, situation);
. ‘thing’ used to mean ‘a public assembly’ or a ‘council’ in Anglo-Saxon times, but now can refer to any object or event.
‘Thing, affair, business, concern, regard, article, circumstance, fact, state, condition, position, situation, way, means, matter, respect’, etc. Each of them may be used in an abstract sense instead of a concrete meaning as used in the past.
C. From technical terms to general words
. ‘tangent切线’, a term in mathematics, means ‘to fly at a tangent离题’;
. ‘atomic’ in physics means ‘great’ recently, as in ‘an atomic effort巨大努力’
D. From proper nouns mon nouns
. ampere, watt, ohm, volt, newton, joule焦耳,
Sandwich ( the fourth Earl of Sandwich)
boycott (an Irish landlord)
chauvinism沙文主义(Nicolas Chauvin)
Shylock (The Merchant of Venice)
Hitler独裁者
quisling卖国贼
adidas (sports shoes)
bloomers女式灯笼裤
spencer羊毛短上衣
wellingtong惠灵顿长靴
bowler圆顶黒礼帽
mackintosh雨衣
champagne (a place in France)
gin (the short form for Geneva)
cashmere羊绒(Kashmir)
xerox (brandname)
dacron
terelene涤纶
rubic cube魔方
Kodak
pingpong
zipper
2. Narrowing (Specialization)词义的缩小
A. From general to specific
Word Old Meaning Specialized Meaning
corpse a human or animal body, living or dead a dead body, especially of a human being
meat food flesh of animals
wife woman a married woman
poison drink poisonous drink
girl young person of either sex female young person
deer   wild animals a specific kind of animal
B. From abstract to concrete
. catch(抓住---窗勾