英语词汇学--词义的变化.ppt

第五章 词义的变化Change of Meaning
When a word loses its old meaning and comes to refer to something altogether different, the result is a change of word meaning.
“… Change of meaning is a commonplace, and indeed it would appear to be fundamental in living language, …… 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.”
_________ Quirk 1963:123-124
Causes of changes in word meaning
1. the world is changing
社会是语言的外部因素（索绪尔，1980：43），但是社会又不是一般的外部因素，而是客体世界中最重要的外部因素， 因为语言是特殊的社会现象，语言跟社会诸因素有千丝万缕的关系。
旧词添新义 car\ship
科技发展 光环
普通义位与科技义位间的转变 menu, window
社会集团社会地位的变化 governor, lord
经济的发展 狗、马
民族或种族矛盾的原因 Dutch
2. Human being is changing
认识水平在提高 heart,brain
思想观念的更新 天堂、老板、演员、士兵

求新： 净面、洗脸、飚客、粉丝, 闪族
求美：春风、教室
求省：机票、机场、机群、客机、班机
gold metal
求雅：euphemism 下岗、老、战略性撤退、穷
circumlocution lie\steal\lazy
感情因素（移情）：冤家
language is changing
semantic reason
harvest\autumn motor 左右 红白赤
grammatical reason
廉颇老矣，尚能饭否？
pragmatic reason
斗 闻
2
of meaning
of meaning
of meaning
of meaning
of meaning
词义的变化
Extension of Meaning
It is also called widening of
meaning or generalization. It’s a
process by which a word which
originally had a specialized meaning
has now become generalized.
Four kinds of extension
A. From specific to general
B. From proper nouns to common nouns
concrete to abstract
technical terms to general words
A. From specific to general 从特指到泛指
Example
Picture: originally: a painting
or drawing
The present meaning
a photograph
a cinematic picture
an x-ray picture
a TV picture
a radio-telescope picture
any picture