Seminar 8

Change of Lexical Meaning

1. Causes of semantic change.

2. Shifts in denotative meaning.:
а) extension of meaning;
б) narrowing of meaning.
3. Shifts of connotative meaning:
а) Elevation (amelioration) of lexical meaning;
б) Degradation (pejoration) of lexical meaning.
4. Ways of transference in lexical meaning: Metaphor, Metonymy, Hyperbole, Litotes,
Zoozemy, Euphemism.

LITERATURE
Compulsory
1. Арнольд И.В. Лексикология современного английского языка. – М.: Высш. шк., 1986. – С.
37-77.
2. Гинзбург Р.З. и др. Лексикология английского языка – М.: Высшая школа, 1966. – С. 23-49.
3. Гринберг и др. Упражнения по лексикологии современного английского языка.– М., 1960.
– С. 173-238
4. Кузнецова В.С. Лексикология современного английского языка. – К.: Радянська школа,
1966. – С. 101-119.
5. Мостовий М.І. Лексикологія англійської мови. Х.: Основа, 1993. – С. 66-88, 187-189.
6. Раєвська Н.М. Курс лексикології англійської мови. – К.: Вища школа, 1971. – С.107-171

Supplementary
1. Macmillan English dictionary for advanced learners. Oxford, 2005.

PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENT

1. Prove to your school pupils that the meaning of a word is not homogeneous.
2. Making use of “The Etymological References” (Гринберг и др. Упражнения по
лексикологий современного английского языка.- М.,1960 – С. 173-237 ) or some
etymological dictionary trace the process of sense shifts in the following words: to starve,
undertaker, deer, hound, season, pipe, style, place, bedlam, standard, girl, nice, busy,
villain, queen, knight, ministry, manuscript.
3. What examples of sense shifts would be interesting for school children? Make your list of
words.
4. Think how to make your presentation of the phenomena of simile, metaphor,
metonymy/synecdoche, hyperbole, euphemism, zoozemy simple and entertaining.
5. Define the cases of transference of meaning in the following words and word combinations:
As obstinate as a mule, Ford, to breathe one`s last, to read Balzac, in a delicate position, to burn
with desire, the foot of a hill, sandwich, to be no more, fruitless effort, green years, Napoleonic
calm, good for nothing, the hope of the family, to kick the bucket, the neck of a bottle, mackintosh,
to beg a thousand pardons, insane, Dear me!, unwise, let me your ears, a magnificent idea, to join
the majority, scared to death, to see the snake, champagne, egg-like head, old china.