Meaning changes in English 英语词汇学论文

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1、MeaningchangesinEnglishAbstract:Asotherlanguagesintheworld,Englishchangesastimesgoesby.Englishformedanddevelopedovermanycenturiesintotheformtoday.StudyingthechangingprinciplesofwordsofEnglishwouldhelpusacquirefurtherawarenessofEnglishlexiconanddogoodtoourlanguageac

2、quirement.Keywords:meaningchangestypescauses1.IntroductionVocabularyisthemostunstableelementoflanguageasitisundergoingconstantchangesbothincontentandform.Ofcourse,somemeaningsremainmuchthesameforalongtimebecausethereferentstowhichtheydirectusdonotchange.Frequently,

3、anoldformorwordsarepressedintonewservicewhenanewlinguisticneedisfelt. Whenawordlosesitsoldmeaningandcomestorefertosomethingdifferent,theresultisachangeinwordmeaning.Changeofmeaningreferstothealternationofthemeaningofexistingwords,aswellastheadditionofnewmeaningtoap

4、articularword.2.Typesofmeaningchanges2.1ExtensionofMeaning/GeneralizationofMeaningItisaprocessbywhichawordwhichoriginallyhadaspecializedmeaninghasnowbecomegeneralizedorhasextendedtocoverabroaderandoftenlessdefiniteconcept.Forexample，Manuscriptoriginallymeanshandwri

5、ting(writingbyhandonly)whileitspresentmeaningisanyauthor’swritingwhetherwrittenbyhandortypedwithatype-writeroraword-processor.Salarywas(Original)asumofmoneygiventoRomansoldierstoenablethemtobuysalt;andis(present)fixedpaymentmadebyemployeratregularintervalstoemploye

6、es.AlargeproportionofpolysemouswordsofmodernEnglishhavetheirmeaningsextendedsometimeinthecourseofdevelopment.Somewordsaregeneralizedtosuchadegreethattheycanmeanalmosteverything.(1)Sheissuchaprettylittlething.(2)Ihavetopackmythingsforthejourney.(3)Thereisanotherthin

7、gIwanttoaskyouabout.(4)Thatonlymakesthingsworse.(5)Thethingis,canwefinishthejobintime?Intheabovesentences,“Thing”whichusedtomean“apublicassembly”or“acouncil”inAnglo-Saxontimes,nowhasbecomeanall-purposeword.Itsmeaningissogeneral,andwesometimescallthisnouna‘lightnoun

8、’.2.2NarrowingofMeaningItisaprocessbywhichawordofwidemeaningacquiresanarroworspecializedsense.Inotherwords,awordwhichusedtohaveamoregeneralsenseb