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Author: Florian Wenz Publisher: GRIN Verlag ISBN: 3656177627 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 57
Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,7, University of Bamberg (Lehrstuhl für Englische Sprachwissenschaft ), course: English Etymology, language: English, abstract: "Nothing is perfectly static. Every word, every grammatical element, every locution, every sound and accent is a slowly changing configuration, molded by the invisible and impersonal drift that is the life of language." (Sapir 1949: 171) Reading this quote, in which Edward Sapir describes the nature of language, there are two important points, which I would like to use as a starting point for this paper. The first point is that language undergoes a continuous change and is never "perfectly static". This is especially true for semantics as Ullmann states: "Of all linguistic elements caught up in this drift, meaning is probably the least resistant to change." (Ullmann 1977: 193) The meaning of words is in a constant process of alteration. The second point is that the change mentioned above is done by "the invisible and impersonal drift" or to put it in simple words: The change in language in general and in meaning in particular happens unconsciously to the speakers. This fact poses the following questions: Why do speakers change the meaning of a word if they are not aware of it? What are the forces behind this process, how does this process look like and what are the most relevant types of change? Or in general: What is semantic change? To give answers to exactly these major questions about semantic change, will be the aim of this paper. The basis for this paper will be the theories of Andreas Blank, who even though being a Romanist, developed a precise, extensive and still very comprehensive theoretical work on semantic change, which is "[...] recommendable for historical semanticists of all languages." (Grzega 2000: 233)
Author: Florian Wenz Publisher: GRIN Verlag ISBN: 3656177627 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 57
Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,7, University of Bamberg (Lehrstuhl für Englische Sprachwissenschaft ), course: English Etymology, language: English, abstract: "Nothing is perfectly static. Every word, every grammatical element, every locution, every sound and accent is a slowly changing configuration, molded by the invisible and impersonal drift that is the life of language." (Sapir 1949: 171) Reading this quote, in which Edward Sapir describes the nature of language, there are two important points, which I would like to use as a starting point for this paper. The first point is that language undergoes a continuous change and is never "perfectly static". This is especially true for semantics as Ullmann states: "Of all linguistic elements caught up in this drift, meaning is probably the least resistant to change." (Ullmann 1977: 193) The meaning of words is in a constant process of alteration. The second point is that the change mentioned above is done by "the invisible and impersonal drift" or to put it in simple words: The change in language in general and in meaning in particular happens unconsciously to the speakers. This fact poses the following questions: Why do speakers change the meaning of a word if they are not aware of it? What are the forces behind this process, how does this process look like and what are the most relevant types of change? Or in general: What is semantic change? To give answers to exactly these major questions about semantic change, will be the aim of this paper. The basis for this paper will be the theories of Andreas Blank, who even though being a Romanist, developed a precise, extensive and still very comprehensive theoretical work on semantic change, which is "[...] recommendable for historical semanticists of all languages." (Grzega 2000: 233)
Author: Thomas Heim Publisher: GRIN Verlag ISBN: 3638453898 Category : Literary Collections Languages : en Pages : 27
Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1, LMU Munich (Institut für Englische Philologie), course: Hauptseminar, language: English, abstract: “Semantic change deals with change in meaning, understood to be a change in the concepts associated with a word [...]” (Campbell 1998: 255). To some of you, Campbell’s definition may seem a bit simplistic. Some scholars, too (for example Blank whom we’ll be hearing of later on), argue that it’s not one meaning of word that changes, but with semantic change a new meaning is added to the already existing meaning or meanings of a word and then this new meaning is lexicalised, or one of the already lexicalised meanings is no longer used and becomes extinct. I think Campbell’s definition can suffice as a basis for our little “immersion” into semantic change. And what is more important than a theoretically watertight definition is a “practical insight” into semantic change. So let’s have quick look on what exactly changes when words change their meanings.
Author: Elizabeth Closs Traugott Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1139431153 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 363
Book Description
This important study of semantic change examines how new meanings arise through language use, especially the various ways in which speakers and writers experiment with uses of words and constructions in the flow of strategic interaction with addressees. There has been growing interest in exploring systemicities in semantic change from a number of perspectives including theories of metaphor, pragmatic inferencing, and grammaticalization. Like earlier studies, these have for the most part been based on data taken out of context. This book is a detailed examination of semantic change from the perspective of historical pragmatics and discourse analysis. Drawing on extensive corpus data from over a thousand years of English and Japanese textual history, Traugott and Dasher show that most changes in meaning originate in and are motivated by the associative flow of speech and conceptual metonymy.
Author: Martine Vanhove Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing ISBN: 9027290326 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 424
Book Description
This book is the result of a joint project on lexical and semantic typology which gathered together field linguists, semanticists, cognitivists, typologists, and an NLP specialist. These cross-linguistic studies concern semantic shifts at large, both synchronic and diachronic: the outcome of polysemy, heterosemy, or semantic change at the lexical level. The first part presents a comprehensive state of the art of a domain typologists have long been reluctant to deal with. Part two focuses on theoretical and methodological approaches: cognition, construction grammar, graph theory, semantic maps, and data bases. These studies deal with universals and variation across languages, illustrated with numerous examples from different semantic domains and different languages. Part three is dedicated to detailed empirical studies of a large sample of languages in a limited set of semantic fields. It reveals possible universals of semantic association, as well as areal and cultural tendencies.
Author: Merja Kytö Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1316472914 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 1092
Book Description
English historical linguistics is a subfield of linguistics which has developed theories and methods for exploring the history of the English language. This Handbook provides an account of state-of-the-art research on this history. It offers an in-depth survey of materials, methods, and language-theoretical models used to study the long diachrony of English. The frameworks covered include corpus linguistics, historical sociolinguistics, historical pragmatics and manuscript studies, among others. The chapters, by leading experts, examine the interplay of language theory and empirical data throughout, critically assessing the work in the field. Of particular importance are the diverse data sources which have become increasingly available in electronic form, allowing the discipline to develop in new directions. The Handbook offers access to the rich and many-faceted spectrum of work in English historical linguistics, past and present, and will be useful for researchers and students interested in hands-on research on the history of English.
Author: James R. Hurford Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521289498 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 308
Book Description
Introduces the major elements of semantics in a simple, step-by-step fashion. Sections of explanation and examples are followed by practice exercises with answers and comment provided.
Author: David Stehling Publisher: Anchor Academic Publishing (aap_verlag) ISBN: 3954891042 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 73
Book Description
Throughout the history, English was changing steadily. Not only was the English grammar, pronunciation or vocabulary being altered over the centuries but also the semantics of lexemes. A major factor that has a considerable impact on the semantics of words is the influence of foreign languages. This study deals with semantic changes due to the Latin influence on the English language in the Early Modern English period. The aim of the analysis is – with the help of the Oxford English Dictionary Online – to determine potential patterns of meaning alterations of English lexemes that were caused by the influx of Latin-derived equivalents, especially on the field of human anatomy, and between the 15th and the 18th century. Moreover, the Early Modern English period is portrayed as well as the roles of Latin and English during that time, also considering the integration of Latin loanwords into English. In order to discuss meaning changes due to Latin influences, a closer look will be taken at language modifications in general, at lexical change and at the various types of semantic change by which English words might have been affected.
Author: Marie Adler Publisher: GRIN Verlag ISBN: 3656648190 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 22
Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject German Studies - Semiotics, Pragmatics, Semantics, grade: 1.0, University of Hannover, language: English, abstract: The study of language change has evolved at a high rate throughout the last century. Significant insights have been gained concerning the workings of the human mind and, by extension, the workings of semantic and linguistic change. Set in comparison and contrast, however, it becomes obvious that some convictions have remained stable and still play a role as prominent as they did in the year of 1880. It can even be argued that most of the accomplishments of today’s language change researchers strongly build on those of the last century and could not have been achieved without them. To illustrate this assumption, the present termpaper compares two works on language change that were written in two different centuries in two different countries; Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte (Chapter 4: Wandel der Wortbedeutung) written by Hermann Paul in 1880 and Semantic Change and Cognition written by Gábor Györi in 2002. Hermann Paul was a German linguist and lexicographer, who was born on August 7 in 1846 and passed away on December 29 in 1921. He was a significant representative of the Neogrammarian school of thought. The cognitive linguist Gábor Györi is associate professor and head of the department of English linguistics at the University of Pécs, Hungary and has a strong focus on the evolution of cognition and categorization. It shall furthermore be shown that Paul’s work shares many of the tenets of modern cognitive linguistics even though that might not be obvious at the first glance, due to differences in terminology and methodology. In order to filter out similarities and differences between both the authors’ points of view, chapter 1.1 will briefly summarize the contents of Paul’s text, while chapter 1.2 will give an account of the most important tenets of Györi’s work. In chapter 2.1, the terminology Paul and Györi used will be explained and contrasted. Chapter 2.2 then deals with the contentual comparison of both texts. Here the focus will be set on the role that the authors assign to metaphor and metonymy as mechanisms of semantic change. In chapter 2.3, it will be analyzed, which notion of language is manifested in the respective works.
Author: Florian Wenz
Author: Florian Wenz
Author: Thomas Heim
Author: Elizabeth Closs Traugott
Author: Grzegorz Kleparski
Author: Martine Vanhove
Author: Grzegorz Kleparski
Author: Merja Kytö
Author: James R. Hurford
Author: David Stehling
Author: Marie Adler