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semantic change
english, language change
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Broadening | retains its old meanings but also takes on an added meaning as well |
| Broadening examples | 'Holiday'- originally 'holy day', religious day now a day in which you don't work 'Dog'-used to refer to a particular breed of dog, but now includes all breeds |
| Narrowing | a word becomes more specific in its meaning |
| Narrowing examples | 'Meat'-originally denoted food in general,not just animal flesh 'girl'-middle ages referred to young people in general,not only females |
| Amelioration | change gives the word a meaning that is more pleasant or attractive |
| Amelioration examples | 'pretty'-once meant 'sly' or 'cunning' but now means attractive 'wicked'-still has older meaning of 'evil' but in modern slang can also mean 'brilliant' |
| Pejoration | change involves a word's meaning becoming less favourable |
| Pejoration examples | 'cowboy'- now often used to indicate incompetence or dishonesty (cowboy builders) 'impertinent'- once meant 'irrelevant' but now means 'rude' |
| Weakening | words losing over time some of their original force/strength |
| Weakening examples | 'soon' now means in the near future, but used to mean 'immediately' |
| metaphor | words often acquire new meaning as a result of this use |
| metaphor examples | 'hawks and doves'- now not just birds but also politicians favouring war and peace 'onion bag'- refers to the net of a goal in football as well as a bag containing onions |
Created by:
emsteel
Popular Linguistics sets