Broadening (or Generalization) of meaning. Narrowing (or Specialization) of meaning

Sometimes, the process of transference may result in a considerable change in range of meaning. For instance, the verb to arrive (French borrowing) began its life in English in the narrow meaning “to come to shore, to land”. In Modern English it has greatly widened its combinability and developed the general meaning “to come (e.g. to arrive in a village, town, country, at a hotel, college, theatre, place, etc.). The meaning developed through transference based on contiguity, but the range of the second meaning is much broader.

It is interesting to trace the history of the word girl as an example of the changes in the range of meaning in the course of the semantic development of a word.

In Middle English it had the meaning of “a small child of either sex”. Then the word underwent the process of transference based on contiguity and developed the meaning of “a small child of the female sex”, so that the range of meaning was somewhat narrowed. In its further semantic development the word gradually broadened its range of meaning. 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.

Here are some examples of narrowing 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

It should be pointed out once more that in all these words the second meaning developed through transference based on contiguity, and that when we speak of them as examples of narrowing of meaning we simply imply that the range of the second meaning is more narrow than that of the original meaning.

6. “Degeneration” (“Degradation”) and “Elevation” of meaning

Let us see what stands behind the examples of change of meaning which illustrate degeneration and elevation of meaning.

I. “Degeneration” of meaning.

Knave: boy >swindler, scoundrel

Gossip: god parent > the one who tells slanderous stories about other people

These examples show that the second meaning, in contrast with the one from which it developed, denotes a person of bad repute or character. The second meaning developed a negative evaluative connotation which was absent in the first meaning.

The same process can be observed in other parts of speech, and not only in nouns.

E.g. Silly: happy > foolish

II. “Elevation” of meaning.

Fond: foolish > loving, affectionate

Nice: foolish > fine, good

In these two cases the situation is reversed: the first meaning has a negative evaluative connotation, and the second meaning has not.

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