Semantic Change

Everyone knows that words can change their menaing. We do not need to have taken a course in semantics to hold a view about what has happened to gay since 1960s. Some strongly disapprove of the new meaning which this lexeme has developed; some welcome it; but all native speakers of English recognize that there has been a change, and are able to talk about it. Semantic change is a fact of life. And those who have had to study older works of literature, such as a Shakespeare play, will need no reminding of how much of the vocabulary has been affected by such changes.

Linguistes have distinguished several kinds of semantic change. Four particularly important categories are given below.

· Extension or generalization. A lexeme widens its meaning. Numerous examples of this process have occurred in the religious field, where office, doctrine, novice, and many other terms have taken on a more general, secular range of meanings.

· Narrowing or specialization. A lexeme becomes more specialized in meaning. Engine was formely used in a general sense of ‘mechanical contrivance’ (especially of war and torture), but but since the Industrial Revolution it has come to mean ‘mechanical source of power’.

· Pejoration or deterioration. A lexeme develops a negative sense of disapproval. Middle English villein neutrally described a serf (which means servant, a peasant personally bound to his lord, to whom he paid dues and services, sometimes commuted to rents, in return for his land, and etymologically comes from Old French vilein – serf), whereas Modern English villain is by no means neutral and means malefactor, evildoer. Similarly, junta which used to mean a legislative or executive council of Spain and still means the same in Spain and some parts of Latin America, has acquired a sinister, dictatorial sense, and means a group of military officers holding the power in a country, especially after a coup d'état or a small group of men; cabal, faction, or clique:

government by junta — правління хунти

military junta — військова хунта

revolutionary junta — революційна хунта

ruling junta — правляча хунта.

Cowboy

This is an interesting example of how lexeme can have its meaning deteriorate in several directions at once. Cowboy originally developed quite positive connotation, with its romantic associations of the Wild West. To these have now been added a number of distinctly negative overtones in certain regional varieties.

In British English, it can mean an incompetent or irresponsible workman or business: cowboy plumbers, cowboy double-glazing fi rm.

In Northern Ireland, it can mean a member of a sectarian gang.

In American English, it can mean an automobile driver who does not follow the rules of the road or a factory worker who does more than the piece-work norms set by his union or fellow-workers.

Translate the following sentences paying attention to the homogeneous verbs which require different noun cases enhanced in italic font:

1. “Do not reject these changes!” said a white South African businessman whom I genuinely like and respect and expect to have as a friend.

2. I remember talking with and being charmed by Che Guevara a few years ago.

3. After a quarter century in this city (Washington, D.C.) as editor, reporter and columnist, he knew, was respected by and had access to almost every major figure of our era.

4. Hated by some, envied by many, feared by his competitors, Dr. Rosenbach was nevertheless able to exert his charm on all, no matter what their status in society.

5. Light, colour and significance do not exist in isolation. They modify, or are manifested by objects.

6. “I’d thought you were a Christian, Charlie Cool. My idea of a Christian does not include laughing at and encouraging a poor mad woman.”

7. Nothing in his /L. Carroll’s/ diaries or his letters suggests that his interest in the scores of little girls he told stories to, played with at the seaside, and loved to take very formally to the theatre, when mothers allowed this, was other than innocent. (“NY”)

8. There was a manly vigour in his tone that convinced me he was wrestling with, and triumphing over, the great sorrow that had so nearly wrecked his life. (L. Carroll)

9. At present nearly 200,000 American engineers and scientists spend all their time making weapons, which is a comment on, and perhaps explanation for, the usual statement that more scientists are now alive than since Adam and Eve. (P. Goodman)

10. It is well to remember that Willy Brandt and Georges Pompidou did not like and trust each other. (“Nsw.”)

11. “Oh,” she said, “I am so frightened and so sceptical of big undertakings.” (D.H. Lawrence)

12. You’d never had taken him for a little white-headed snipe that the girls used to order about and make fun of. (0. Henry)

13. He denied any suggestion that he was connected with, or was responsible for, the absence of the main witness at the trial.

14. He called for, and got, sympathy in the way most of us could never do. u revoir, my dearest. I shall be thinking of and writing to you.

15. Of vital importance in communication — understating, speaking, reading, and writing — are a knowledge of, and a facility with, the pronunciation and intonation patterns of English.

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