CHANGE OF MEANING

The word, the material form denoting a notion, a phenomenon reflects the evolution or the
modification of the notion. The meaning can change:
a) from concrete to abstract
e.g. sour – means “having an acid taste”
but also “bad tempered” (Why are you so sour today?)
frame – border of wood or other material
- state of mind (He was in a happy frame of mind.)
road – was originally used only in its concrete meaning (= street)
= also in the abstract sense of way or method of achieving something = the road to success to
capitalism
b) from the particular to the general
e.g. press – machine for pressing (e.g. wine-press)
- for printing (general)
pencil – a small brush for painting (particular)
- an instrument for writing it
c) by association
e.g. box – a container made of wood , metal etc
- anything similar in shape to box: case, a small hut or wooden shelter, a small compartment in
a theatre
The main directions in which changes of meaning occur are:

a) Extension of meaning = the sense of a word is enlarged, enriched

e.g. season – seedtime, sowing (initially)
- one of the four parts of the year (by extension)
boat – initially meant “ a small open vessel moved by oars” (barcă)
- by extension it means “any vessel used for traveling on water”
b) Narrowing of meaning
- i.e. a word of wide meaning acquires a narrower sense which becomes specialized
e.g. The Channel = The English Channel (not any channel)
The City = the business center of London
The Tower = the Tower of London
a hound was “dog ”, generally – its specialized meaning is “a dog used for chase”
c) Degradation of meaning = change of neutral words into deprecating ones
e.g. silly – originally meant happy, innocent, poor
- fool (deprecating meaning)
churl – originally - a peasant or male human being
- today - one who is rude in manners
d) Elevation of meaning – implies the process by which a new meaning of a word gets a higher status
knight – originally = boy (Old English)
- in ME = a boy or lad used as an attendant or servant
- in ME = a military servant of the king or of a person of high rank
- today = cavalier
minister – originally = servant
- today = a high official function/position

Connections between the different meanings of a word

1. Radiation = the semantic process by which the new meanings of a word are derived from its basic
meaning in a direct way:
e.g.
meaning3 meaning2

leg
meaning 1

meaning4 meaning5
meaning 1 = part of the body by means of which men and animals stand and walk
meaning 2 = part of the garment covering the leg
meaning 3 = a pole used as a support
meaning 4 = one of the supports of a piece of furniture
meaning 5 = one of the branches of a jointed object
2. Concatenation
By it the new meanings are obtained from one another, being interdependent among themselves
and dependent on the meaning the chain has started from:
gold – m1= precious metal m2= gold coin  m3= money m4= riches, wealth

FIGURES OF SPEECH

Some figures of speech are frequently apt to enrich the vocabulary of a language.
Simile and metaphor (Gr. metaphora = to carry over; Lat similis = like)
A simile compares notions essentially dissimilar, making use of some features which make the parallel
possible.
e.g. as sweet as honey (dulce ca mierea), as cross as nine highways (supărat foc), as drunk as a lord
(beat mort), as mad as a hatter (nebun de legat), as plump as a partridge (gras ca o dropie)
A metaphor also compares two or more dissimilar objects but it treats the one as if it were the other, i.e.
it identifies them (there is an exchange between the meanings of two words). In a metaphor, a word is
used to mean something different from what it usually means.
e.g. be very sharp ("intelligent"), go yellow ("become frightened"), a white lie ("a minor or unimportant
lie"), blue blood ("imaginary colour of the blood of noblemen), the ship of the desert ("the camel"), the
village lantern ("the moon"), to think green ("to think ecologically"), cat-o'-the-nine-tails, copy cat ("a
person who copies at tests"), cock-and-bull story ("an incredible story")
Metaphors can be divided accordingly to their life and duration into:
a) live metaphors (when they are felt as new and fresh metaphors)
e.g. All world's a stage (live metaphor in Shakespeare's time)
laughing water (alcohol) - in slang
b) degraded metaphors still convey some of their initial freshness (when they were live metaphors),
although they have already lost the initial meaning and value
e.g. the depth of winter/night ("toiul iernii/nopţii"), the mouth of a river ("gura unui râu"),
bookworm ("şoarece de bibliotecă"), chicken ("young woman"), donkey/rabbit ("stupid person"),
lion ("important person")
Idioms are essentially connected with metaphors of the degraded type:
e.g. to break the ice, on the other hand, to give somebody a helping hand, to fly off the handle ("a-i sări
ţandăra"), to put somebody's nose out of joint ("a pune pe cineva cu botul pe labe")
c) dead metaphors have lost every metaphorical connotation, though special etymological studies may
reveal it:
e.g. daisy ("margaretă") which in O.E. was daeges eage ("the day's eye")
window < O.E. windes eage ("the wind's eye", "the eye for the wind")
Metonymy (Gr. meta = change, + onoma = name) is a figure of speech by means of which the name of
an object is replaced by one of its significant attributes.
e.g. iron instead of smoothing iron, hand instead of worker, the gallery instead of the spectators in the
gallery, fox instead of fox's fur, the triple crown instead of the Pope
Hyperbole (Gr. hyperbole) is the use of exaggerated terms for the sake of emphasis.
e.g. scared to death, wet to the bone, to make mountains out of mole-hills ("a face din ţânţar armăsar"),
a thousand thanks, full to the brim ("plin ochi")
Most similes are hyperbolical in their essence.
e.g. as black as a coal, as sweet as honey, as white as snow
Other figures of speech:
Syllepsis (from Greek syllepsis=putting together) is a figure of speech based on homonymy, implying
the simultaneous use of the same lexical unit in two different senses or functions, of which one is proper
and the other is figurative.
e.g. Hasn't John ever married? No, he's studying for a bachelor's degree.
(bachelor = celibatar; licenţiat)