Task 64

This task supposes a complex approach to semantic changes: to their causes, nature and results.

Set I

1. Identify the linguistic cause(s) of semantic change: a) ellipsis,

b) differentiation of synonyms, c) fixed con­text, d) linguistic analogy.

2. Determine the results of semantic change for the words place, stead:

e) generalization, f) specialization, g) amelioration, h) pejoration.

Place derives from the Latin platea "a broad street", but its meaning grew beyond the street, to include "a particu­lar city", "a business office", "an area dedicated to a spe­cific purpose" before expanding even more to mean "an area". In the process, the word place displaced the Old English word stow and became used instead of the Old English word stede (which survives in farmstead, home­stead, steadfast, in his stead and - of course - instead of).

Set П

1. Establish the linguistic cause of semantic change:

a) ellipsis, b) differentiation of synonyms, c) fixed con­text, d) linguistic analogy.

2. Determine the results of semantic change for the words cake, bread, loaf:

e) generalization, f) specializa­tion, g) amelioration, h) pejoration.

In Old English there was a different word with which the English called bread, it was hlāf. But then as a result of the Vikings invasion and Scandinavian influence on the English language a new word of the same meaning en­tered the English vocabulary from Scandinavian - cake. Since the English had already their own word hlāf, they started to use the word cake for a special type of bread. First it referred to a small loaf of bread of flat and round shape. From the 15th century it began to mean "sweet food", as it does now. The Scandinavians, living in Brit­ain, called their bread by the word brauth. The English had a similar word - bread, meaning "a lump, a piece of bread". Under the influence of the Scandinavian language the word bread changed its meaning and began to mean bread in general, while the word loaf (from the Old Eng­lish hlāf) developed its meaning into a large lump of bread which we slice before eating.

Set III

1. Identify the extralinguistic cause(s) of semantic change: a) historical, b) social, c) psychological.

2. Determine the nature of semantic change: d) meta­phor, e) metonymy.

The original sense of the term cockpit was "a pit for fighting cocks". This sense appeared around 1587. In 1599 Shakespeare used the term in Henry V to refer to the theatre and specifically the area around the stage. The theatrical reference was his invention, obviously playing on the idea of a cockfight being a performance. The nautical sense arose about 1700. It was not an open area, but rather a compartment below decks. Normally, it would be the sleeping quarters for junior officers, but in battle would be the hospital. This sense appears unre­lated to the theatrical sense, and may have been chosen because junior officers lorded over the sailors like roost­ers or because of a physical resemblance to the space where chickens were kept. The nautical sense transferred to aeroplanes around 1914 and to cars in the mid-1930s.