7.1 types of changes

Chapter 7 Changes in Word Meaning 7.1 types of changes ---Class 0610杜萱

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To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect rub means obstacle, respect means consideration

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That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of?

office means high officials, bare means mere, bourn means boundary, and ill means evil.

娃 美女 二毛 老人

孩子 ？

• Quirks: • ‘almost every word we use today has a slightly different meaning from the on it had a century ago; and a century ago it had a slightly different meaning from the one it had a century before that.’

7.1.Types of Change Extension Narrowing • • • •

Degradation Elevation Transference Euphemism

1. Extension of Meaning (Generalization) • a word with an original specialized meaning (generalizing)

a broader and often less definite concept eg. the word “picture”

painting (original meaning)

drawings photographs (extended meaning)

Word

Old Meaning

Generalized Meaning

barn

a place for storing only barley

aunt

father’s sister

virtue

a quality that could it can equally be only be applied to applied to men women as well

layman

one who is not of clergy

storeroom father or mother’s sister

non-member of any profession

Generalization of meaning in technical terms Computer science: feedback

response

Medical term: allergic (too sensitive to medicine) averse or disinclined to Chemistry: catalyst (催化剂) (a substance which, without itself changing, causes chemical activity to quicken.) Something that facilitates a change

Words generalized from proper names eg1: valentine lover eg2: Solomon profoundly wise person

eg3: CNN [adj] irresponsible

Saint Valentine the patron saint of lovers King Solomon King of Israel in the 10th century B.C., famed for his wise

Cable News Network (CNN) [n] news media

Polysemic words are also generalized in the course of development. Thing. (originally meant ‘deliberative assembly’)

eg: 1. What’s the next thing we have to do? (an act, deed)

2. The murder was a terrible thing, wasn’t it? (an event)

3. The next thing is for you to get well again. (an aim or effort)

4. He says the first thing that comes into his head. (an idea)

5. She was wearing the latest thing in shoes. (the fashion or custom)

2. Narrowing of Meaning. (Specialization) • a word with a more general meaning (narrowing)

a narrower or specialized meaning eg: starve

to die

(original meaning)

to die of cold

(in middle English)

to die of hunger

( the 16th century---now)

Word

Old Meaning

Specialized Meaning

hound

any dog

a hunting dog

fowl

any bird

skyline

girl

a domesticated bird a horizon any horizon decorated by skyscrapers young person of female young either sex person

• From common nouns to proper nouns. eg: 1. city--- large town City---part of London governed by Lord Mayor and Corporation, the business part of this, commercial circles. 2. mediterranean---(of land) remote from coast or (of water area) landlocked. Mediterranean---the Mediterranean Sea

• For economy, some phrases are shorten to retain the whole meaning. eg: a general = a general officer a private = a private solider

Material nouns refer to objects made of them and thus have a morespecific sense. eg:silver---silver dollar iron---device for smoothing clothes

• Sometimes extension and narrowing may take place in the same word. eg: slay--- to strike to give a blow generalized meaning---to kill by any method. specialized meaning---to kill by a blow

• Generalization and specialization are closely related. • The former is less common than the latter, because language in every life is directed towards the concrete and specific rather than towards the abstract and gerenal.

• Thanks for listening~