English Lexicology Unit 7 Changes in Meaning 英语词汇学UnitChangesinmeaning Contents Causes of changes Types of changes Transference of meaning Process of meaning change Tendency of meaning change 英语词汇学UnitChangesinmeaning Causes of Change Linguistic factors Ellipsis Borrowing Analogy Figurative use of words Metaphor Metonymy Extra-linguistic factors Historical reason Social reason Psychological reason 英语词汇学UnitChangesinmeaning Ellipsis The meaning of a word may change when a phrase is shortened to one word which retains the meaning of the whole. This is called ellipsis. gold: gold medal daily: daily newspaper The meaning of the word “gold” has changed from material to refer to the whole phrase “gold medal”. This kind of change often occurs in habitual collocations. 英语词汇学UnitChangesinmeaning Borrowing The influx(流入) of borrowings has caused some words to change in meaning. deer (original) a wild animal of any sort from a lion to a mouse. In Middle Ages, the French word beste (=beast) became the general word. In 16th century, the Latin word animal was also adopted into the English vocabulary. Today deer can only refer to a particular kind of animal. 英语词汇学UnitChangesinmeaning Analogy If an adjective develops a new meaning, the derived noun from the adjective will have a corresponding new meaning by analogy. The process can be applied to a word of any word class. Diplomatic (original) skillful in dealing with international relations (present) skillful in dealing with any kind of relations Diplomatic: Diplomacy Diplomacy (original) the art of dealing with international relations (present) ??? art of or skill in dealing with people Analogy 英语词汇学UnitChangesinmeaning Figurative use of words-Metaphor Metaphor is a figure of speech containing an implied comparison based on similarity. A cunning person may be referred to as a fox. Here “fox” means something other than its literal meaning. The word “fox” gets the figurative m
