LIN

 110
Chapter  10
Meaning
Shift
 Meaning  changes
• The  meanings  of  words  and  morphemes  
change  over  time
• There  is  nothing  we  can  do  about  this
• We  can  describe  a  number  of  types  of  
meaning  change
• There  is  no  way  to  predict how  the  meaning  
of  a  word  will  change
 Narrowing
and  
Widening    
• Over  time,  the  scope  of  the  meaning  of  a  word  
may  become  larger  or  smaller  
• Linguists  refer  to  this  type  of  change  as  
narrowing and  widening or  broadening
• One  way  to  think  of  these  changes  is  in  terms  of  
sets
• The  set  of  things  that  the  word  refers  to  may  
become  smaller  (narrowing)  or  larger  (widening)
• dog  Words  compete  with  one  another
 Examples  of  narrowing
• The  word  hound   used  to  refer  to  any  dog  
(compare  German  Hund)
• The  word  hound is  historically  from  the  same  root  
as  the  Latin  word  canis (French  chien,  Italian
cane)
• Hound comes  from  the  ancient  Indo-­‐European  
word  meaning  ‘dog’
• The  word  hound narrowed  in  meaning  to  refer  
only  to  hunting  dogs
• At  the  present  time,  hound has  no  really  precise  
meaning  at  all
 What  is  a  hound?
• The  official  American  Kennel  Club  description  of  the  
hound  group:  
Most  hounds  share  the  common  ancestral  trait  of  being  
used  for  hunting.  Some  use  acute  scenting  powers  to  follow  
a  trail.  Others  demonstrate  a  phenomenal  gift  of  stamina  as  
they  relentlessly  run  down  quarry.  Beyond  this,  however,  
generalizations  about  hounds  are  hard  to  come  by,  since  
the  Group  encompasses  quite  a  diverse  lot.  There  are  
Pharaoh  Hounds,  Norwegian  Elkhounds,  Afghans  and  
Beagles,  among  others.  Some  hounds  share  the  distinct  
ability  to  produce  a  unique  sound  known  as  baying.  You'd  
best  sample  this  sound  before  you  decide  to  get  a  hound  of  
your  own  to  be  sure  it's  your  cup  of  tea.
 Examples  of  narrowing
• What  is  a  fowl?
• The  word  fowl  used  to  refer  to  any  feathered  animal  
(compare  German  vogel)
– Chaucer:   And  smale foweles maken melodye
That  slepen al  the  nyght with  open  iye
• One  meaning  survives  today  in  the  word  barn  fowl,  
which  refers  to  domesticated  birds  that  people  eat:  
chickens,  turkeys,  guinea  fowl
• Another  sense  is  ‘(the  meat  of)  an  old  chicken  used  for  
making  soup’
• For  most  people,  though,  the  word  has  pretty  much  
disappeared  and  is  thought  of  as  old-­‐fashioned
 Examples  of  narrowing
• The  word  meat used  to  refer  to  any  food,  especially  
solid  food,  as  opposed  to  drink
• This  sense  goes  back  to  at  least  Old  English
• Since  about  1300,  it  has  referred  only  to  ‘animal  flesh’,  
usually  vertebrate
• Normally  meat does  not  refer  to  fish  flesh
– Though  note    crab  meat,  lobster  meat
• Usually,  meat  refers  more  narrowly  to  red  meat,  as  
opposed  to  chicken
• The  prototypical  meat  is  beef  or  pork:
– My  Big  Fat  Greek  Wedding:  “You  can’t  eat  no  meat?  That’s  
alright,  I  make  lamb.”
 Examples  of  widening
• The  word  dog  is  originally  English,  but  its  origin  is  
uncertain  (OED)
• In  other  languages,  which  borrowed  the  word  from  
English  from  around  1600,  the  word  refers  to  a  large  
dog,  usually  a  mastiff
• Dog has  now  taken  over  the  wider  meaning  previously  
occupied  by  hound
• Dog   has  also  developed  many  other  meanings
• The  word  cat  originally  referred  only  to  the  domestic  
house  cat  (which  originated  in  Egypt)
• The  word  now  refers  to  any  feline
– Big  cats refers  to  lions,  tigers,  etc.
 Widening
Generic  use  of  brand  names
• A  brand  name  is  protected  by  trademark  law
• By  law,  if  a  brand  name  is  registered,  no  one  else  
can  sell  a  similar  product  using  this  brand  name
• Paradoxically,  if  a  brand  name  product  can  
become  so  popular  that  the  word  begins  to  refer  
to  the  type  of  product  and  not  to  the  brand-­‐name  
product
• When  this  happens,  the  company  can  lose  its  
trademark
• The  worst  case  is  when  a  trademark  noun  
becomes  used  as  a  verb:  xerox
 Lost  trademarks
1. Aspirin 8. Laundromat  
2. Cellophane 9. Linoleum
3. Corn  flakes 10.Nylon
4. Dry  ice 11.Thermos
5. Heroin 12.Trampoline
6. Escalator 13.Yo-­‐yo
7. Kerosene 14.Zipper  
 Still  trademarked
1. Astroturf 8. Plexiglass
2. Bobcat 9. Post-­‐it
3. Chapstick 10.Q-­‐tips
4. Dumpster 11.Saran  wrap
5. Jacuzzi 12.Scotch  tape
6. Kleenex 13.Vaseline
7. Ping  pong 14.Xerox
 Degeneration  or  Pejoration
• A  word  can  gain  negative  connotations
• The  word  hussy is  a  shortened  form  of  housewife
– Originally,  the  word  had  no  negative  connotations
– Later  it  came  to  mean  ‘a  disreputable  woman  of  improper  
behavior’
• The  word  gossip  originally  meant  something  like  god  
parent ‘sponsor  at  baptism’
– Later  it  came  to  mean  something  like  pal
– Much  later  it  came  to  mean  a  person  who  indulges  in  idle  
chatter
– Even  later  it  came  to  mean  the  idle  chatter  itself,  especially  
groundless  rumor
 Degeneration  or  Pejoration
• The  word  silly  originally  meant  ‘happy’  or  ‘blessed’
– Later  it  came  to  mean  ‘deserving  of  sympathy’
– Later  it  came  to  mean  ‘defenseless’
– Later  it  came  to  mean  ‘frail’
– Later  it  came  to  mean  ‘ignorant’  or  ‘simple’
– It  now  means  ‘foolish’  and  is  said  of  both  people  and  
actions
• Words  can  lose  their  force  because  of  overuse
– Words  like  awfully,  terribly,  dreadfully originally  had  much  
stronger  meanings  and  now  mean  not  much  more  than  
very
– Even  very originally  meant  truly  and  has  lost  its  force
 Amelioration  
• Amelioration  is  the  opposite  of  pejoration
• A  word  that  formerly  had  an  unpleasant  or  less  important  
meaning  can  become  more  important  
• Amelioration  is  less  common  than  pejoration
– fond used  to  mean  ‘foolish’
– Nice  originally  meant  ‘stupid’
– Brave is  historically  related  to  barbarous
– Knight originally  meant  ‘young  male  servant’
– Queen originally  meant  ‘wife’and probably  comes  from  the  
Indo-­‐European  root  meaning  ‘woman’
• Compare  Greek  gyn
• The  gay  sense  ‘effeminate    homosexual  man’  is  related  to  an  earlier  
pejorative  sense,  more  usually  spelled  <quean>
 Figures  of  speech
• The  term  figure  of  speech is  used  to  denote  the  use  of  a  word  to  create  an  
effect
• This  is  part  of  the  traditional  art  of  using  language  effectively,  rhetoric,  
which  goes  back  to  the  Greeks
• The  Greek  word  rhetor meant  ‘public  speaker’
• In  traditional  rhetoric,  there  is  a  long  catalog  of  specific  ways  to  use  words,  
which  are  called  figures  of  speech
• A  figure  of  speech  can  become  conventionalized
– We  can  call  someone  a  lion or  a  dog figuratively
– Eventually,  the  expression  becomes  conventionalized  in  a  particular  sense
– As  early  as  the  Bible,  the  Hebrew  word  for  ‘lion’  came  to  have  a  sense  related  
to  strength,  courage,  and  bravery
– We  don’t  usually  think  of  dogs  as  particularly  contemptible,  but  the  word  dog
applied  to  a  person  can  be  used  as  an  insult
– We  can  also  use  dog  to  refer  to  a  person  in  a  positive  way:  “you  lucky  dog”
 Synecdoche  and  other  figures  of  
speech
• Litotes  (understatement)
• Hyperbole  (exaggeration)
• Synecdoche  (part  as  whole)
• Metaphor  (literally  ‘carrying  over’)
• Metonymy  
• Most  other  figures  of  speech  do  not  involve  
single  words
– Simile
– Zeugma
– spoonerism