Bedeutungswandel und Bezeichnungswandel : von der kognitiven Semasiologie zur kognitiven Onomasiologie

Abstract

The author integrates the phenomenon of change of meaning, a semasiological problem, into the larger, onomasiological horizon of change of designation, where, apart from change of meaning, word formation, conversion, idioms, etc. on the one hand and lexical borrowing on the other hand are at the centre of interest. A three-dimensional grid for the classification of diachronic-lexical processes is presented. Whereas in a semasiological perspective only very general and open universals of semantic change can be postulated (changes of meaning like metonymy, metaphor, broadening, narrowing, etc.), the onomasiological perspective makes visible much further-reaching and more specific conceptual constants of lexical-semantic change. In this way, we move from a weak to a strong invisible-hand hypothesis for lexical change.