MOTIVATION AND SEMANTIC CHANGE

MOTIVATION & SEMANTIC CHANGE
I. WORD-MEANING AND MOTIVATION. TYPES OF MOTIVATION
II. SEMANTIC CHANGE:
1. CAUSES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE
2. NATURE OF SEMANTIC CHANGE
3. RESULTS OF SEMANTIC CHANGE

I. WORD-MEANING AND MOTIVATION
The inner form is pivotal point in the lexical meaning which helps to get an insight into the features chosen as the basis for nomination.
Motivation is used to denote the relationship between the phonetic or morphemic composition and structural pattern of the word on the one hand, and its meaning on the other.

TYPES OF MOTIVATION
1. Phonetical motivation
implies a direct connection between the phonetic structure of the word and its meaning, e.g. cuckoo denotes a bird whose call is like its name. Other words: moo, mew, buzz, hiss.

Phonetical motivation
1. a direct connection between the phonetical structure of the word and its meaning.
Speech sounds may suggest spatial and visual dimensions, shape, size, etc.
a direct imitation of the sounds these words denote: swish (свист), sizzle (шипение), boom (гул), splash (плеск).

Phonetical motivation
Initial [f] and [p] are felt as expressing scorn (пренебрежение), contempt (презрение), disapproval or disgust which can be illustrated by the words pooh! fie! fiddle-sticks, flim-flam and the like.
The sound-cluster [iŋ] is ‘imitative of sound or swift movement as can be seen in words ring, sing, swing, fling, etc. Thus, phonetically such words may be considered motivated.

Phonetical symbolism
these are the onomatopoeic, imitative or echoic words such as the English: cuckoo, splash and whisper.
The sound-cluster [in] which is supposed to be imitative of sound or swift movement (ring, swing) is also observed in semantically different words, e.g. thing, king, and others.

2. Morphological motivation
implies a direct connection between the lexical meaning of the component morphemes, the pattern of their arrangement and the meaning of the word.
e.g. the derived word to rethink is motivated through its morphological structure which suggests the idea of ‘thinking again’.

The main criterion in morphological motivation is the relationship between morphemes
All one-morpheme words, e.g. sing, tell, eat, are by definition non-motivated.
In words composed of more than one morpheme the carrier of the word-meaning is the combined meaning of the component morphemes and the meaning of the structural pattern of the word: finger-ring and ring-finger.

Words that have a direct connection between the structural pattern of the word and its meaning, are motivated: singer, rewrite, eatable, etc.
If the connection between the structure of the lexical unit and its meaning is completely arbitrary and conventional, we speak of non-motivated or idiomatic words, e.g. matter, repeat.

Morphological motivation is “relative”, i.e. the degree of motivation may be different.
Between the extremes of complete motivation and lack of motivation, there exist various grades of partial motivation. The word endless, e.g., is completely motivated as both the lexical meaning of the component morphemes and the meaning of the pattern is perfectly transparent.
The word cranberry is only partially motivated because of the absence of the lexical meaning in the morpheme cran-.

A synchronic approach to morphological motivation presupposes historical changeability of structural patterns and the ensuing degree of motivation: Newtowns and Wildwoods are lexically and structurally motivated.
Essex, Norfolk, Sutton are non-motivated.
East+Saxon, North+Folk and South+Town show that in earlier days they were just as completely motivated as Newtowns or Wildwoods.

3. Semantic motivation implies a direct connection between the central and marginal meanings of the word
,
e.g. the compound noun eyewash has two meanings:
a lotion for the eyes (примочка) – morphological motivation;
something said or done to deceive a person so that he thinks what he sees is good though in fact it is not (очковтирательство) – semantic motivation.

II. SEMANTIC CHANGE
Semantic change – change in the meaning of words in the course of their development.
Fond (OE fond) – ‘foolish’, foolishly credulous’;
Glad (OE glaed) – ‘bright’, ‘shining’.
Every word in its development has undergone many semantic changes. There are distinguished causes of semantic change, nature and results of the process of change of meaning.

2.1. CAUSES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE
Historical or Extra-linguistic causes are various changes in the life of speech community, i.e. changes in economic and social structure or scientific concepts.

When the first textile factories appeared in England, the old word mill was applied to these early industrial enterprises. In this way, mill (a Latin borrowing of the first century В. С.) added a new meaning to its former meaning "a building in which corn is ground into flour". The new meaning was "textile factory".
A similar case is the word carriage which had (and still has) the meaning "a vehicle drawn by horses", but, with the first appearance of railways in England, it received a new meaning, that of "a railway car".

The words stalls, box, pit, circle had existed for a long time before the first theatres appeared in England. With their appearance, the gaps in the vocabulary were easily filled by these widely used words which, as a result, developed new meanings

E.g. changes in the way of life of the British brought about changes in the meaning hlaford meant ‘bread-keeper’ (хранитель хлеба) and later on ‘master, ruler’ (повелитель, лорд).
The word car, e.g., ultimately goes back to Latin carrus which meant ‘a four-wheeled wagon’ (ME. carre) but now that other means of transport are used it denotes ‘a motor-car’, ‘a railway carriage’ (in the USA), ‘that portion of an airship, or balloon which is intended to carry personnel, cargo or equipment’.

Linguistic causes
are factors acting within the language system.
ellipsis – the omission of one word in a phrase, e.g. the verb to starve in OE meant ‘to die’ and was habitually used in collocation with the word hunger (ME sterven of hunger).
Later this verb itself acquired the meaning ‘to die of hunger’.

discrimination/differentiation of synonyms, e.g. in OE the word land meant both ‘solid of earth’s surface’ and ‘the territory of a nation’.
In the ME period the word country was borrowed as its synonym. The meaning of the word land was altered and ‘the territory of a nation’ came to be denoted by the borrowed word country.

The history of the noun deer is essentially the same. In Old English deor it had a general meaning denoting any beast. In that meaning it collided with the borrowed word animal and changed its meaning to the modern one ("a certain kind of beast", R. олень).
The noun knave (О. Е. knafa) suffered an even more striking change of meaning as a result of collision with its synonym boy. Now it has a pronounced negative evaluative connotation and means "swindler, scoundrel".

One more linguistic cause of semantic change is called fixed context.
E.g. the word token brought into competition with the word sign and became restricted in use to a number of set expressions, such as love token, token of respect etc. and also became specialized in meaning.

CAUSES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE
Extra-linguistic Linguistic
Ellipsis differentiation of synonyms fixed
context

2.2. NATURE OF SEMANTIC CHANGE
A necessary condition of any semantic change is some connection, some association between the old meaning and the new one. There are two kinds of association involved in various semantic changes:
a) similarity / resemblance of meanings;
b) contiguity of meanings.

Similarity / resemblance of meanings or metaphor may be described as the semantic process of associating two referents, one of which in some way resembles the other.
E.g. hand –’a point of a clock’ (16th century).
‘the leg of the table’,
‘the foot of the hill’
Warm / cold voice

Eye - "hole in the end of a needle”
Neck of a bottle.
Drop - "a small particle of water or other liquid", => "ear-rings shaped as drops of water" (e. g. diamond drops) and "candy of the same shape" (e. g. mint drops).
Branch is "limb or subdivision of a tree or bush“ => "a special field of science or art" (as in a branch of linguistics).

The noun bar from the original meaning barrier developed a figurative meaning realised in such contexts as social bars, colour bar, racial bar.
The noun star on the basis of the meaning "heavenly body" developed the meaning "famous actor or actress". Nowadays the meaning has considerably widened its range, and the word is applied not only to screen idols (as it was at first), but, also, to popular sportsmen (e. g. football, stars), pop-singers, etc.

A red-headed boy is almost certain to be nicknamed carrot or ginger by his schoolmates, and the one who is given to spying and sneaking gets the derogatory nickname of rat.
The slang meanings of words such as nut, onion (= head), saucers (= eyes), hoofs (== feet) and very many others were all formed by transference based on resemblance.

Contiguity of meanings or metonymy may be described as the semantic process of associating two referents one of which makes part of the other or is closely connected with it.
Tongue – ‘the organ of speech’ in the meaning of ‘language’ – mother tongue.
Bench – ‘judges’;
The House – ‘members of the House’ (Parliament).
Glad meant "bright, shining" (it was applied to the sun, to gold and precious stones, to shining armour, etc.) => "joyful“ (cf. with the R. светлое настроение; светло на душе).

Sad (OE "satisfied with food" (сыт(ый) => "oversatisfied with food; having eaten too much". =>
Sad developed a negative evaluative connotation “the physical unease and discomfort of a person who has had too much to eat”. =>
Sad – “physical discomfort into one of spiritual discontent” =>
Sad "melancholy", "sorrowful" developed, and the adjective describes now a purely emotional state. The two previous meanings ("satisfied with food" and "having eaten too much") were ousted from the semantic structure of the word long ago.

The foot of a bed is the place where the feet rest when one lies in the bed, but the foot of a mountain is its lowest part.
By the arms of an arm-chair we mean the place where the arms lie when one is setting in the chair.
The leg of a bed (table, chair, etc.) is the part which serves as a support, the original meaning being "the leg of a man or animal".
The association that lies behind this development of meaning is the common function: a piece of furniture is supported by its legs just as living beings are supported by theirs.

The meaning of hand realised in such contexts as factory hands, farm hands is based on another kind of association: strong, skilful hands are the most important feature that is required of a person engaged in physical labour (cf. with the R. рабочие руки).

Board (OE) "a flat and thin piece of wood; a wooden plank". On the basis of this meaning developed the meaning "table“ .The association which underlay this semantic shift was that of the material and the object made from it: a wooden plank (or several planks) is an essential part of any table. This type of association is often found with nouns denoting clothes: e. g. a mink ("mink coat"), a jersy ("knitted shirt or sweater").

China in the sense of "dishes made of porcelain" originated from the name of the country which was believed to be the birthplace of porcelain.
Tweed ("a coarse wool cloth") got its name from the river Tweed and cheviot (another kind of wool cloth) from the Cheviot hills in England.
The name of a painter is frequently transferred onto one of his pictures: a Matisse — a painting by Matisse

NATURE OF SEMANTIC CHANGES
Similarity of meanings Contiguity of meaning
METAPHOR METONYMY

III. RESULTS OF SEMANTIC CHANGE
Results of semantic change can be generally observed in the changes of the denotational meaning of the word (restriction and extension of meaning) or in the alteration of its connotational component (amelioration and deterioration of meaning).

1. Changes of the denotational meaning
Restriction of meaning
E.g. hound used to denote ‘dog of any breed’ but now denotes only ‘a dog used in the chase’.
Fowl (OE ‘any bird’) – Modern E ‘a domestic hen or cock’
If the word with a new restricted meaning comes to be used in the specialized vocabulary of some limited group within the speech community it is usual to speak of the specialization of meaning.
E.g. to glide (OE. glidan) which had the meaning ‘to move gently and smoothly’ and has now acquired a restricted and specialised meaning ‘to fly with no engine’

Lady (ОЕ hlæfdiZe) denoted the mistress of the house, i. e. any married woman =>
(Middle E) : "the wife or daughter of a baronet" (aristocratic title) =>
(ME) any woman.
In ME the difference between girl and lady in the meaning of woman is that the first is used in colloquial style and sounds familiar whereas the second is more formal and polite.

Here are some more examples of narrowing (restriction) of meaning:
Deer: [ any beast] => [ a certain kind of beast ]
Meat: [ any food] => | a certain food product [
Boy: | any young person of the male sex ] =>
[ servant of the male sex ]

Extension of meaning
may be illustrated by the word target which originally meant ‘a small round shield’ but now means ‘anything that is fired at’.
If the word with extended meaning passed from the specialized vocabulary into common use, the result of the semantic change is described as generalization of meaning.
E.g. camp is used to denote ‘the place where troops are lodged in tents’, now it denotes ‘temporary quarters’

to arrive (French borrowing) "to come to shore, to land“ =>
In Modern English it means "to come“:
to arrive in a village, town, city, country, at a hotel, hostel, college, theatre, place, etc.). The meaning developed through transference based on contiguity (the concept of coming somewhere is the same for both meanings), but the range of the second meaning is much broader.

Pipe (OE) "a musical wind instrument". =>
(ME) “any hollow oblong cylindrical body” (e.g. water pipes).
bird (OE) "the young of a bird" to its modern meaning “any bird” through transference based on contiguity (the association is obvious). The second meaning is broader and more general.

Girl (Middle English) "a small child of either sex“ =>
"a small child of the female sex", so that the range of meaning was somewhat narrowed => .
the word gradually broadened its range of meaning =>
female child / a young unmarried woman, =>
any young woman =>
In Modern colloquial English it is practically synonymous to the noun woman (e. g. The old girl must be at least seventy), so that its range of meaning is quite broad.

Changes of the denotational meaning
Specialization
common specialized
vocabulary vocabulary
Generalization

2. Changes of the connotaional meaning
Amelioration of meaning implies the improvement of the connotational component of meaning, e.g. the word minister originally denoted ‘a servant’ but now – ‘a civil servant of higher rank, a person administrating a department of state’.

Fond: foolish => loving, affectionate
Nice: foolish => fine, good
1. Tory: brigand, highwayman => member of Tories.
2. Knight: manservant => noble, courageous man
Marshal: manservant attending horses => the highest rank in the army
Lord: master of the house, head of the family => baronet (aristocratic title)
Lady: mistress of the house, married woman => wife or daughter of baronet

Deterioration of the meaning implies the acquisition by the word of some derogatory emotive charge, e.g. the word boor was originally to denote ‘a peasant’ and then acquired a derogatory connotational meaning and came to denote ‘a clumsy or ill-bred fellow’.

Knave: boy => swindler, scoundrel
Villain: farm-servant, serf => base, vile person
Gossip: god parent => the one who talks scandal; tells slanderous stories about other people

RESULTS OF SEMANTIC CHANGE
Change Change
of the denotational of the connotational component component
Restriction Extension Deterioration Amelioration
of meaning of meaning

In derivational clusters a change in the connotational meaning of one member does not necessarily affect the others.
E.G. accident аnd accidental.
The lexical meaning of the noun accident has undergone pejorative development and denotes not only ’something that happens by chance’, but usually ’something unfortunate’.
The derived adjective accidental does not possess in its semantic structure this negative connotational meaning (cf. also fortune: bad fortune, good fortune and fortunate).

Conclusion:
The meaning of the word is changed in the course of the historical development of language. The factors causing semantic changes are subdivided into extra-linguistic and linguistic.
Change of meaning is effected through association between the existing meaning and the new. This association is based on the similarity of meaning (metaphor) or on the contiguity of meaning (metonymy).

Semantic changes in the denotational component may bring about the extension or the restriction of meaning.
The change in the connotational component may result in the pejorative or ameliorative development of meaning.
Causes, nature and result of semantic changes should be regarded as three essentially different but closely connected aspects of the same linguistic phenomenon.