Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression, semantic development, or semantic drift) is a form of

language change Language change is variation over time in a language's features. It is studied in several subfields of linguistics: historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and evolutionary linguistics. Traditional theories of historical linguistics identify ...

regarding the evolution of

word usage {{unreferenced, date=December 2015 Word usage is the way a word, phrase, or concept is used in a language or language variety. Lexicographers gather samples of written instances where a word is used and analyze them to determine patterns of regiona ...

—usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage. In diachronic (or historical) linguistics, semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a

word A word is a basic element of language that carries an semantics, objective or pragmatics, practical semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of w ...

. Every word has a variety of

senses A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the world through the detection of stimuli. (For example, in the human body, the brain which is part of the central nervous system rec ...

and

connotations A connotation is a commonly understood cultural or emotional association that any given word or phrase carries, in addition to its explicit or literal meaning, which is its denotation. A connotation is frequently described as either positive or ...

, which can be added, removed, or altered over time, often to the extent that

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...

s across space and time have very different meanings. The study of semantic change can be seen as part of

etymology Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...

onomasiology Onomasiology (from el, ὀνομάζω ''onomāzο'' 'to name', which in turn is from ὄνομα ''onoma'' 'name') is a branch of linguistics concerned with the question "how do you express X?" It is in fact most commonly understood as a branch of ...

semasiology Semasiology (from el, σημασία, ', "signification") is a discipline of linguistics concerned with the question "what does the word ''X'' mean?". It studies the meaning of words regardless how they are pronounced. It is the opposite of ono ...

, and

semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy Philosophy (f ...

Examples in English

* Awful — Literally "full of awe", originally meant "inspiring wonder (or fear)", hence "impressive". In contemporary usage, the word means "extremely bad". * Awesome — Literally "awe-inducing", originally meant "inspiring wonder (or fear)", hence "impressive". In contemporary usage, the word means "extremely good". * Terrible — Originally meant "inspiring terror", shifted to indicate anything spectacular, then to something spectacularly bad. * Terrific — Originally meant "inspiring terror", shifted to indicate anything spectacular, then to something spectacularly good. * Nice — Originally meant "foolish, ignorant, frivolous, senseless." from Old French ''nice'' (12c.) meaning "careless, clumsy; weak; poor, needy; simple, stupid, silly, foolish," from Latin ''nescius'' ("ignorant or unaware"). Literally "''not-knowing''," from ''ne-'' "not" (from PIE root ''*ne-'' "not") + stem of ''scire'' "to know" (compare with science). "The sense development has been extraordinary, even for an adj." eekley-- from "timid, faint-hearted" (pre-1300); to "fussy, fastidious" (late 14c.); to "dainty, delicate" (c. 1400); to "precise, careful" (1500s, preserved in such terms as a nice distinction and nice and early); to "agreeable, delightful" (1769); to "kind, thoughtful" (1830). * Naïf or Naïve —Initially meant "natural, primitive, or native" . From

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

naïf,

literally ''Literally'' is an English adverb. It has been controversially used as an intensifier for figurative statements. History The first known use of the word ''literally'' was in the 15th century, or the 1530s, when it was used in the sense of "in ...

"''native''". The masculine form of the French word, but used in English without reference to gender. As a noun, "natural, artless, naive person," first attested 1893, from French, where

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...

''naif'' also meant ''"native inhabitant; simpleton, natural fool."'' * Demagogue — Originally meant "a popular leader". It is from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''dēmagōgós'' "leader of the people", from ''dēmos'' "people" + ''agōgós'' "leading, guiding". Now the word has strong connotations of a

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who panders to emotions and

prejudice Prejudice can be an affective feeling towards a person based on their perceived group membership. The word is often used to refer to a preconceived (usually unfavourable) evaluation or classification of another person based on that person's per ...

. * Egregious — Originally described something that was remarkably good. The word is from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''egregius'' "illustrious, select", literally, "standing out from the flock", which is from ''ex''—"out of" + ''greg''—(''grex'') "flock". Now it means something that is remarkably bad or flagrant. * Gay — Originally meant (13th century) "lighthearted", "joyous" or (14th century) "bright and showy", it also came to mean "happy"; it acquired connotations of immorality as early as 1637, either sexual e.g., ''gay woman'' "prostitute", ''gay man'' "womaniser", ''gay house'' "brothel", or otherwise, e.g., ''gay dog'' "over-indulgent man" and ''gay deceiver'' "deceitful and lecherous". In the United States by 1897 the expression ''gay cat'' referred to a hobo, especially a younger hobo in the company of an older one; by 1935, it was used in prison slang for a homosexual boy; and by 1951, and clipped to ''gay'', referred to homosexuals. George Chauncey, in his book ''

Gay New York ''Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890–1940'' is a 1994 history book by George Chauncey about gay life in New York City during the early 20th century. An updated 2019 edition commemorates the Stonewa ...

'', would put this shift as early as the late 19th century among a certain "in crowd", knowledgeable of gay night-life. In the modern day, it is most often used to refer to homosexuals, at first among themselves and then in society at large, with a neutral connotation; or as a derogatory synonym for "silly", "dumb", or "boring". * Guy —

Guy Fawkes Guy Fawkes (; 13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was born and educated ...

was the alleged leader of a

plot Plot or Plotting may refer to: Art, media and entertainment * Plot (narrative), the story of a piece of fiction Music * ''The Plot'' (album), a 1976 album by jazz trumpeter Enrico Rava * The Plot (band), a band formed in 2003 Other * ''Plot' ...

to blow up the English

Houses of Parliament The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north bank ...

on 5 November 1605. The day was made a holiday, Guy Fawkes Day, commemorated by parading and burning a ragged manikin of Fawkes, known as a ''Guy''. This led to the use of the word ''guy'' as a term for any "person of grotesque appearance" and then by the late 1800s—especially in the United States—for "any man", as in, e.g., "Some ''guy'' called for you." Over the 20th century, ''guy'' has replaced ''fellow'' in the U.S., and, under the influence of

American popular culture The culture of the United States of America is primarily of Western, and European origin, yet its influences includes the cultures of Asian American, African American, Latin American, and Native American peoples and their cultures. The U ...

, has been gradually replacing ''fellow'', ''bloke'', ''chap'' and other such words throughout the rest of the

English-speaking world Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the '' Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest languag ...

. In the plural, it can refer to a mixture of genders (e.g., "Come on, you guys!" could be directed to a group of mixed gender instead of only men).

Evolution of types

A number of classification schemes have been suggested for semantic change. Recent overviews have been presented by Blank and . Semantic change has attracted academic discussions since ancient times, although the first major works emerged in the 19th century with , , and . Studies beyond the analysis of single words have been started with the word-field analyses of , who claimed that every semantic change of a word would also affect all other words in a lexical field. His approach was later refined by . introduced

Generative Generative may refer to: * Generative actor, a person who instigates social change * Generative art, art that has been created using an autonomous system that is frequently, but not necessarily, implemented using a computer * Generative music, mus ...

semantics. More recent works including

pragmatic Pragmatism is a philosophical movement. Pragmatism or pragmatic may also refer to: *Pragmaticism, Charles Sanders Peirce's post-1905 branch of philosophy *Pragmatics, a subfield of linguistics and semiotics *''Pragmatics'', an academic journal in ...

and

cognitive Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...

theories are those in ,

Dirk Geeraerts Dirk Geeraerts (born 24 October 1955) is a Belgian linguist. He is professor emeritus of theoretical linguistics at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, University of Leuven, Belgium. He is the founder of the research unit Quantitative Lexicology an ...

, and . A chronological list of typologies is presented below. Today, the most currently used typologies are those by and .

Typology by Reisig (1839)

Reisig's ideas for a classification were published posthumously. He resorts to classical rhetorics and distinguishes between * Synecdoche: shifts between part and whole * Metonymy: shifts between cause and effect * Metaphor

Typology by Paul (1880)

* Generalization: enlargement of single senses of a word's meaning * Specialization on a specific part of the contents: reduction of single senses of a word's meaning * Transfer on a notion linked to the based notion in a spatial, temporal, or causal way

Typology by Darmesteter (1887)

* Metaphor * Metonymy * Narrowing of meaning * Widening of meaning The last two are defined as change between whole and part, which would today be rendered as ''synecdoche''.

Typology by Bréal (1899)

* Restriction of sense: change from a general to a special meaning * Enlargement of sense: change from a special to a general meaning * Metaphor * "Thickening" of sense: change from an abstract to a concrete meaning

Typology by Stern (1931)

* Substitution: Change related to the change of an object, of the knowledge referring to the object, of the attitude toward the object, e.g., ''artillery'' "engines of war used to throw missiles" → "mounted guns", ''atom'' "inseparable smallest physical-chemical element" → "physical-chemical element consisting of electrons", ''scholasticism'' "philosophical system of the Middle Ages" → "servile adherence to the methods and teaching of schools" * Analogy: Change triggered by the change of an associated word, e.g., ''fast'' adj. "fixed and rapid" ← ''faste'' adv. "fixedly, rapidly") * Shortening: e.g., ''periodical'' ← ''periodical paper'' * Nomination: "the intentional naming of a referent, new or old, with a name that has not previously been used for it" (Stern 1931: 282), e.g., ''lion'' "brave man" ← "lion" * Regular transfer: a subconscious Nomination * Permutation: non-intentional shift of one referent to another due to a reinterpretation of a situation, e.g., ''bead'' "prayer" → "pearl in a rosary") * Adequation: Change in the attitude of a concept; distinction from substitution is unclear. This classification does not neatly distinguish between processes and forces/causes of semantic change.

Typology by Bloomfield (1933)

The most widely accepted scheme in the English-speaking academic world is from : * Narrowing: Change from superordinate level to subordinate level. For example, ''

skyline A skyline is the outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city’s overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the land. City skylines ...

'' formerly referred to any

horizon The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...

, but now in the US it has narrowed to a horizon decorated by skyscrapers. * Widening: There are many examples of specific brand names being used for the general product, such as with ''

Kleenex Kleenex is a brand name for a variety of paper-based products such as facial tissue, bathroom tissue, paper towels, tampons, and diapers. Often used informally as a genericized trademark for facial tissue in the United States and Canada, the nam ...

''. Such uses are known as generonyms: see

genericization A generic trademark, also known as a genericized trademark or proprietary eponym, is a trademark or brand name that, because of its popularity or significance, has become the generic term for, or synonymous with, a general class of products or ...

. *

Metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...

: Change based on similarity of thing. For example, ''

broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

'' originally meant "to cast seeds out"; with the advent of radio and television, the word was extended to indicate the transmission of audio and video signals. Outside of agricultural circles, very few use ''broadcast'' in the earlier sense. *

Metonymy Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept. Etymology The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name' ...

: Change based on nearness in space or time, e.g., ''jaw'' "cheek" → "mandible". *

Synecdoche Synecdoche ( ) is a type of metonymy: it is a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something is used to refer to the whole (''pars pro toto''), or vice versa (''totum pro parte''). The term comes from Greek . Examples in common Engl ...

: Change based on whole-part relation. The convention of using capital cities to represent countries or their governments is an example of this. *

Hyperbole Hyperbole (; adj. hyperbolic ) is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. In rhetoric, it is also sometimes known as auxesis (literally 'growth'). In poetry and oratory, it emphasizes, evokes strong feelings, and ...

: Change from weaker to stronger meaning, e.g., ''kill'' "torment" → "slaughter" *

Meiosis Meiosis (; , since it is a reductional division) is a special type of cell division of germ cells in sexually-reproducing organisms that produces the gametes, such as sperm or egg cells. It involves two rounds of division that ultimately resu ...

: Change from stronger to weaker meaning, e.g., ''astound'' "strike with thunder" → "surprise strongly". * Degeneration: e.g., ''knave'' "boy" → "servant" → "deceitful or despicable man"; ''awful'' "awe-inspiring" → "very bad." * Elevation: e.g., ''knight'' "boy" → "nobleman"; ''terrific'' "terrifying" → "astonishing" → "very good".

Typology by Ullmann (1957, 1962)

Ullmann distinguishes between nature and consequences of semantic change: * Nature of semantic change **

: change based on a similarity of senses **

: change based on a contiguity of senses ** Folk-etymology: change based on a similarity of names **

Ellipsis The ellipsis (, also known informally as dot dot dot) is a series of dots that indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning. The plural is ellipses. The term origin ...

: change based on a contiguity of names * Consequences of semantic change ** Widening of meaning: rise of quantity ** Narrowing of meaning: loss of quantity ** Amelioration of meaning: rise of quality ** Pejoration of meaning: loss of quality

Typology by Blank (1999)

However, the categorization of has gained increasing acceptance: *

: Change based on similarity between concepts, e.g., ''mouse'' "rodent" → "computer device". *

: Change based on contiguity between concepts, e.g., ''horn'' "animal horn" → "musical instrument". *

: A type of metonymy involving a part to whole relationship, e.g. "hands" from "all hands on deck" → "bodies" * Specialization of meaning: Downward shift in a taxonomy, e.g., ''corn'' "grain" → "wheat" (UK), → "maize" (US). * Generalization of meaning: Upward shift in a taxonomy, e.g., ''hoover'' "Hoover vacuum cleaner" → "any type of vacuum cleaner". * Cohyponymic transfer: Horizontal shift in a taxonomy, e.g., the confusion of ''mouse'' and ''rat'' in some dialects. *

Antiphrasis Antiphrasis is the rhetorical device of saying the opposite of what is actually meant in such a way that it is obvious what the true intention is.Bernard Dupriez, tr. Albert W. Halsall, ''A Dictionary of Literary Devices: Gradus, A–Z'', , pp. 49� ...

: Change based on a contrastive aspect of the concepts, e.g., ''perfect lady'' in the sense of "prostitute". *

Auto-antonymy An auto-antonym or autantonym, also called a contronym or antagonym among other terms, is a word with multiple meanings (senses) of which one is the reverse of another. For example, the word '' cleave'' can mean "to cut apart" or "to bind togethe ...

: Change of a word's sense and concept to the complementary opposite, e.g., ''bad'' in the slang sense of "good". * Auto-converse: Lexical expression of a relationship by the two extremes of the respective relationship, e.g., ''take'' in the dialectal use as "give". *

: Semantic change based on the contiguity of names, e.g., ''car'' "cart" → "automobile", due to the invention of the ''(motor) car''. * Folk-etymology: Semantic change based on the similarity of names, e.g., French ''contredanse'', orig. English ''country dance''. Blank considered it problematic to include amelioration and pejoration of meaning (as in Ullman) as well as strengthening and weakening of meaning (as in Bloomfield). According to Blank, these are not objectively classifiable phenomena; moreover, Blank has argued that all of the examples listed under these headings can be grouped under other phenomena, rendering the categories redundant.

Forces triggering change

Blank has tried to create a complete list of motivations for semantic change. They can be summarized as: * Linguistic forces * Psychological forces * Sociocultural forces * Cultural/encyclopedic forces This list has been revised and slightly enlarged by :Compare and * Fuzziness (i.e., difficulties in classifying the referent or attributing the right word to the referent, thus mixing up designations) * Dominance of the prototype (i.e., fuzzy difference between superordinate and subordinate term due to the monopoly of the prototypical member of a category in the real world) * Social reasons (i.e., contact situation with "undemarcation" effects) * Institutional and non-institutional linguistic pre- and proscriptivism (i.e., legal and peer-group linguistic pre- and proscriptivism, aiming at "demarcation") * Flattery * Insult * Disguising language (i.e., "misnomers") * Taboo (i.e., taboo concepts) * Aesthetic-formal reasons (i.e., avoidance of words that are phonetically similar or identical to negatively associated words) * Communicative-formal reasons (i.e., abolition of the ambiguity of forms in context, keyword: "homonymic conflict and polysemic conflict") * Wordplay/punning * Excessive length of words * Morphological misinterpretation (keyword: "folk-etymology", creation of transparency by changes within a word) * Logical-formal reasons (keyword: "lexical regularization", creation of consociation) * Desire for plasticity (creation of a salient motivation of a name) * Anthropological salience of a concept (i.e., anthropologically given emotionality of a concept, "natural salience") * Culture-induced salience of a concept ("cultural importance") * Changes in the referents (i.e., changes in the world) * Worldview change (i.e., changes in the categorization of the world) * Prestige/fashion (based on the prestige of another language or variety, of certain word-formation patterns, or of certain semasiological centers of expansion)

The case of reappropriation

A specific case of semantic change is

reappropriation In linguistics, reappropriation, reclamation, or resignification is the cultural process by which a group reclaims words or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group. It is a specific form of a semantic change (i.e. ...

, a cultural process by which a group reclaims words or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group, for example like with the word

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

. Other related processes include pejoration and amelioration.

Practical studies

Apart from many individual studies,

etymological dictionaries An etymological dictionary discusses the etymology of the words listed. Often, large dictionaries, such as the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' and ''Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Webster's'', will contain some etymological informati ...

are prominent reference books for finding out about semantic changes. A recent survey lists practical tools and online systems for investigating semantic change of words over time. WordEvolutionStudy is an academic platform that takes arbitrary words as input to generate summary views of their evolution based on Google Books ngram dataset and the Corpus of Historical American English.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Vanhove, Martine (2008), ''From Polysemy to Semantic change: Towards a Typology of Lexical Semantic Associations'', Studies in Language Companion Series 106, Amsterdam, New York: Benjamins. * * Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2003)
Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew
Palgrave Macmillan, .

External links

Onomasiology Online
(internet platform by

Joachim Grzega Joachim Grzega (born 9 September 1971) is a German linguist. He studied English and French at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Paris-Sorbonne University and the University of Graz. He has tau ...

, Alfred Bammesberger and Marion Schöner, including a list of etymological dictionaries)
Etymonline, Online Etymology Dictionary of the English language

Exploring Word Evolution
An online analysis tool for studying evolution of any input words based on Google Books n-gram dataset and the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA). {{DEFAULTSORT:Semantic Change Historical linguistics Lexicology Semantics Semantic relations