ENGLISH LANGUAGE: SEMANTIC AND LEXICAL CHANGE

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  • LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC CHANGE
    • LEXICAL
      • Borrowings/ loans: words taken from other languages e.g. karaoke from Japanese
        • Danish: kidnap, Welsh: flannel, Turkish: yoghurt
      • Compounding: putting 2 or more words together e.g. takeover
      • Blending: small elements of words and meshing together e.g. brunch from breakfast and lunch
      • Acronym: a word formed from the initial letters of a name or phrase e.g. AIDS, UCAS
        • initialism: each letter is pronounced e.g. BBC, RSPCA
      • Abbreviation: shortened word from a longer word e.g. gymnasium becomes gym
      • Coinage: a word not derived from another e.g. spam
      • Conversion: a word class is modified e.g. sweet (noun) becomes 'isn't she sweet' (adjective)
      • Affixation: prefixes/suffixes to existing words e.g. UNdo
      • Back formation: a type of shortening where a word (usually noun) becomes a verb e.g. edit from editor
      • eponym: a proper noun becomes a word in its own right due to connection to a person/place e.g. Denim originally made in Nimes > de nimes = of nimes
    • SEMANTIC
      • Meaning extension: a word widens to include new meanings, often connotations e.g. gay meant carefree but now means homosexual, and is slang for stupid
      • meaning narrowing: where a word loses connotations becoming more specialised e.g. meat used to refer to any item of food
      • Amelioration: where a word acquires positive meanings when originally it was negative e.g. mischievous means playfully annoying, but used to mean disastrous
      • Pejoration: a word develops negative connotations e.g. mistress, opposite of amelioration
      • Weakening: a word loses impact, e.g. soon used to mean immediately
        • relates to taboo lexis as well e.g. bloody hell
      • retronym: an existing word is altered to differentiate from a recent form e.g. acoustic guitar vs electric
      • Metonym: a word that symbolises a larger concept that is related e.g. Hollywood defines the American film industry
      • Synecdoche: a term for a word which defines with reference to a part of it e.g. All hands on deck
        • often confused with a metonym

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