I.

Establish the meanings of the underlined polysemantic adjectives realized in these contexts:

I. a) They brew their sour beer without the fear of police raids ( N. Gordimer). – (Brewing) made acid
or bad, as in the case of milk or alcohol, by the action
b) He considered the proposal, his expression sour (English Guides:).- a person expression , sullen,
morose or disagreeable.

2. a) She made him a bed in a small room (D.H. Lawrence). –oflimited size, not big, little.
b) I lived in a country when I was small ( Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic Dictionary).-
very young people , child.
c) She’s a very small eater ( Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English).- very little eats

3. a) It is difficult to fix a tent in dry weather….( J. K. Jerome).- marked by the absence of natural or
normal moisture.
b) Even when he might appear to be depressed, his dry sense of humour never deserted him.
(English Guides: Metaphor)- the person usually tells it using a serous tone.
c) He went in for weak tea and dry toast, and on Monday he was gorging himself on chicken broth.
( J. K. Jerome) – eaten without butter, jam.

4. a) I had not seen a dead man since the war (N.Gordimer) . – people who have died

b) The town is dead now the mine has closed (Oxford Advanced learner s Encyclopedic Dictionary)- a
city without people, desolate
c) I sat him at table , where he dropped into a dead sleep(J.Reed ). -deep sleep like death
.

5.a),b) Miss Hudson was within shouting distance of fifty , thin to the point of boniness, with a sharp
nose and sharp tongue and a refined voice(B. Neels) . - having a thin pointed nose or snout and a
better or critical manner of speaking.
c) Nis long lean hands moved noiselessly, and only the rush of his reaping hook
trough the yellow stalks of the could heart(L O Flaherty). – shrill or penetrating.

6. a) To most police, the cold spell simply meant that the bad men wouldn’t go around so
much(J.J.Marric). – Having alow temperature.
b) She has spread a cloth on the grass and father was kneeling beside it carving slices of meat from a
cold leg of lamb (A. Marshall).- without sufficient or proper warmth.
c) The dogs lost the cold scent (Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary).- lacking
infreshness

7. a) The Irishman was asked if his horse was timid.”Not at all”, said he, “he frequently spends the
night by himself in a dark stable”. (A. Joke)- Lacking or having very little light.
b) The insistent, passionate, dark soul, the powerful unsatisfaction in him seemed stilled and tamed,
 the lion lay down with the lamb in him.( D. H. Lawrence)- hard to understand obscure.
hidden;secret.
c) Your meaning is too dark for me (Oxford Advanced learner s Encyclopedic Dictionary)-
hidden;secret.

II.Read the words’ stories and identify the results of their semantic development.
The results are:
a) generalization;
b) specialization;
c) amelioration;
d) pejoration.

1. The noun picture used to refer only to a representation made with paint. Today it can be a
photograph or a representation made with coal, pencil or any means. generalization

2. The adjective nice- from the Latin nescius for “ignorant” –at various times before the current
definition became established meant “foolish”, then “foolishly precise”, then “pedantically
precise”, then “precise in a good way” and then its current definition. Generalization

3. Worm was a term for any crawling creature, including snakes.specialization

4. The word saloon originally referred to any large hall in a public place. The sense “ a public bar”
developed by 1841. Generalization

5. Voyage in earlier English meant “a journey”, as does the French voyage, but is now restricted
mostly to journeys by sea. specialization

6. Crafty, now a disparaging term, originally was used as a word of praise. pejoration

7. The adjective shrewd formerly meant “malicious, wicked; cunning, deceitful”. Then it came to
mean “sharp-witted; having practical common sense” amelioration;

8. The word hussy means today “an ill-behaved woman, a jade, a flirt”. Yet, in Middle English, it
denoted a perfectly reputable woman (a housewife). pejoration

9. Radiator was used for anything that radiated heat or light before it was applied specifically to
steam or a vehicle and an aircraft. specialization

10.The verb kidnap has come into use in the meaning “ to take a child away illegally and usually by
force, in order to demand especially money for their safe return” . Now it implies any person, not
only a child. amelioration