SEMANTIC CHANGE: MEANING SHIFT

By change of meaning we mean a process when the old

meaning is completely replaced by the new one.

Meaning shift is a process in which a word loses its former

meaning and takes on a new, but often related, meaning.
Sometimes a series of semantic shifts occurs over an
extended period of time, resulting in a meaning that is
completely unrelated to the original sense of a word.

For example:

WORD OLD MEANING MODERN

MEANING
Gay Lively, Happy Homosexual
Immoral Not Customary Unethical
Bead Prayer Prayer Bead
Knight Youth Mounted Man At
Arms
Silly Happy Foolish
Naughty Evil or Immoral Badly
Behaved
Flirt Flicking something Playing with
away or making a people’s emotion
brisk or jerky
motion

TWO TYPES OF MEANING SHIFT

1. Metaphor- Metaphorical change usually involves a word

with a concrete meaning taking on a more abstract
 sense, although the words original meaning is not lost.
There is a transference based on resemblance of a
word[similarity]

Example:

Bookworm- Reader

Head of an Army- General

Feeling Blue- Sad

She has such a bubbly personality- Cheerful

Hope is on the horizon- This indicates that good things are

in one’s future.

2. Metonymy- The word metonymy is derived from the

Greek phrase Metonymia meaning “a change of name”A
word as a name of the whole can be transferred onto the
whole. Such transference is called synecdoche and is
related as subtype of metonymy. Metonymy is a figure of
speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of
something else with which it is closely associated.

Example:

The Pen is mightier than sword. - Pen refers to written

words, and sword to military force.

Let me give you a hand. - Hand means help

The oval office was busy in work. - The oval office it
stands for people who work in the office

Don’t be addicted to the bottle. - The bottle refers to

Alcohol

Soon, that corrupt senator will be in the big house. – The

big house refers to prison.