Use an explanatory dictionary, analyse the definitions of the following words and break up the semantic components into integral and differential semes

bachelor, husband, bridegroom, widower; red, blue, yellow, brown, white, black, violet; cat, lion, leopard, cheetah, lynx, panther, chaus; rose, lily, camomile, bluebell, dandelion, orchid, pink, cornflag, cornflower, marigold; win, gain, take, earn; wage, salary, pay, fee; memorise, remember, recall, remind of; walk / stride, pace, trot, march, toddle, mince / shuffle, shamble, toil, trudge, plod, stagger / saunter, swagger, stroll; incite, arouse, exhort, foment, instigate, provoke.

Topics for presentations

· Functional or contextual definitions of meaning (Зыкова И.В. … С.14, Ginzburg I.R. … P. 7-18)

· Operational or information-oriented definitions of meaning (Зыкова И.В. С.14-15)

Seminar 3. Causes, Nature and Results of Semantic Change

Extralinguistic causes of semantic change: historical, social, psychological ones. Euphemism. Linguistic causes of semantic change: ellipsis, differentiation of synonyms, fixed context, linguistic analogy. Nature of semantic change: metaphor, metonymy. Results of semantic change: restriction of meaning, extension of meaning, amelioration of meaning, deterioration of meaning.

Test Questions

1. What are the extra-linguistic causes of semantic change?

2. What are the linguistic causes of semantic change?

3. What are the basic types of association involved in various semantic changes?

4. What are the results of the change of the denotational aspect of lexical meaning?

5. What are the results of the change of the connotational aspect of lexical meaning?

Tasks and assignments

Determine the extralinguistic causes of semantic development of the words: historical, social, psychological.

a) fee ‘payment for services’ from O.E. feoh ‘money, property, cattle’;

b) Negro > coloured > black > African American / Afro-American;

c) car ‘automobile’ from Lat. carrus ‘four-wheeled vehicle’;

d) telephone price rates: cheap / standard / peak; sizes: jumbo / large / medium;

e) arrive “to get to a place” from O.Fr. ariver ‘to come to land’, from V.L. *arripare "to touch the shore’, from L. ad ripam ‘to come to the shore’ (after a long voyage);

f) bug ‘an error in computer logic’ from ‘an insect’;

g) icon ‘a pictorial representation of a facility available on a computer system’ from ‘a representation of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or a saint’;

h) cell ‘the basic structural and functional unit of living organisms’ from ‘a small simple room, as in a prison, convent, monastery, or asylum’.