Mechanisms Of Semantic Change Research Articles

Метафора та її функції в новелах Василя Стефаника

The article deals with the metaphor and metaphor constructions in the novels by Vasyl Stefanyk. In linguistics, metaphor is one of the ways to understand and knowledge of the world, so in the language system metaphor is interpreted as a universal mechanism of semantic change, it has an anthropocentric nature and is based on semantic and conceptual knowledge of the world. In Vasyl Stefanyk's artistic world, metaphor is a mean of creating portrait characteristics and images, and often performs an evaluative function.

A computational approach to lexical polysemy in Ancient Greek

AbstractLanguage is a complex and dynamic system. If we consider word meaning, which is the scope of lexical semantics, we observe that some words have several meanings, thus displaying lexical polysemy. In this article, we present the first phase of a project that aims at computationally modelling Ancient Greek semantics over time. Our system is based on Bayesian learning and on the Diorisis Ancient Greek corpus, which we have built for this purpose. We illustrate preliminary results in light of expert annotation, and take this opportunity to discuss the role of computational systems and human analysis in a complex research area like historical semantics. On the one hand, computational approaches allow us to model large corpora of texts. On the other hand, a long and rich scholarly tradition in Ancient Greek has provided us with valuable insights into the mechanisms of semantic change (cf. e.g. Leiwo, M. (2012). Introduction: variation with multiple faces. In Leiwo, M., Halla-aho, H., and Vierros, M. (eds), Variation and Change in Greek and Latin, Helsinki: Suomen Ateenan-instituutin säätiö, pp. 1–11.). In this article, we show that these qualitative analyses can be leveraged to support and complement the computational modelling.

Diachronic frame analysis

Abstract Frame Semantics offers a valuable perspective on mechanisms of semantic change, particularly metonymy. However, corpus-based frame analysis has rarely been applied to diachronic data. The potential of this approach is illustrated with a diachronic description of the Purpose frame in French, based on 1,429 tokens of 17 frame-evoking words. Metonymic mappings in the frame allow Means and Medium to replace Agent. A multinomial logistic regression model shows that usage of these mappings has increased since 1600 and is conditioned by genre and the frequency and grammatical category of the frame-evoking word. The approach may inform how metonymy leads to lexicalized semantic change.

The change of signaling conventions in social networks

To depict the mechanisms that have enabled the emergence of semantic conventions, philosophers and researchers particularly access a game-theoretic model: the signaling game. In this article I argue that this model is also quite appropriate to analyze not only the emergence of a semantic convention, but also its change. I delineate how the application of signaling games helps to reproduce and depict mechanisms of semantic change. For that purpose I present a model that combines a signaling game with innovative reinforcement learning; in simulation runs I conduct this game repeatedly within a multi-agent setup, where agents are arranged in social network structures. The results of these runs are contrasted with an attested theory from sociolinguistics: the ‘weak tie’ theory. Analyses of the produced data target a deeper understanding of the role of environmental variables for the promotion of (1) semantic change or (2) solidity of semantic conventions.

The semantics of English Borrowings in Arabic Media Language: The case of Arab Gulf States Newspapers

The present paper investigates the semantics of English loanwords in Arabic media language (AML). The loanword data are collected from a number of Arab Gulf states newspapers (AGSNs). They are analyzed semantically from the points of view of semantic change, semantic domains, and the phenomenon of synonymy resulting from lexical borrowing. The semantic analysis has revealed that AML borrowings from English occur in fifteen distinctive semantic domains. Domains that are related to terms of technical and scientific nature are found ranking much higher (9% - 18%) than those domains containing nontechnical elements (1% - 8%) with the computer and technology category (18%) is the most dominant domain. Almost all common mechanisms of semantic change (extension, restriction, amelioration, pejoration, and metaphorical extension) are found at work in the context of AML borrowings. The tendency of semantic change in the overwhelming majority of AML borrowings is towards restriction. Factors like need, semantic similarity, and factors of social and psychological considerations (e.g. prestige, taboo) seem to be the potent factors at interplay in semantic change. The first two, i.e. need and semantic similarity, are the most common reasons in most types of semantic change. The problem of synonymy lies in those loanwords that have “Arabic equivalents” in the language. The study claims that this phenomenon could be attributed to the two simultaneous processes of lexical borrowing and ?istiqa:q (the modern efforts of deriving equivalent neologisms).

How do Typological Studies Explain the Semantic Changes of English Complex Prepositions?

Abstract The purpose of this study is to investigate the semantic changes of English complex prepositions and to argue that they are explained on the basis of two possible mechanisms of semantic change.

On the pragmatics of subjectification: The grammaticalization of verbless allative futures (with a case study in Ancient Egyptian)

In this paper, we argue that an expanded conception of the distinction between speaker-oriented and subject-oriented inferences is crucial for understanding the motivations and mechanisms of semantic change in grammaticalization and subjectification, on the one hand, and for clarifying the links between semantic change and reductive formal changes, on the other. Speaker-oriented inferences have significant consequences, leading to the relaxation of selectional restrictions on a construction. In turn, the relaxation of selectional restrictions can create conditions in which the type and token frequency of a construction can rise considerably. Furthermore, changes in the selectional restrictions on a construction can themselves catalyze semantic change by coercing listeners into new form–function pairings. This framework is applied to allative futures, a typological comparative concept developed in order to compare structurally diverse future tenses. Following the typological discussion, a diachronic case study of the emergence and grammaticalization of a verbless allative future in Ancient Egyptian is presented. Such verbless allative futures provide evidence against assumptions that purpose constructions as such are not grammaticalized as future tense constructions (Schmidtke-Bode 2009). Rather, they corroborate earlier hypotheses that it is the allative component of source constructions that crucially leads to intention meanings, and from intention to prediction (see, e.g., Bybee, Pagliuca, and Perkins 1994).

On Interrelation of Instrumental and Ablative

This paper addresses the issues surrounding the close relationship between Instrumental and Ablative across languages. This inter-categorial relationship is widespread across both time and space. This close relationship often results in case syncretism, and creates the difficulties of case labeling due to lack of isomorphy. This intimate relationship becomes more complicated when the source lexemes from which the two forms are grammaticalized are considered. For instance, Instrumental typically develops from such lexical items as MEET, WAY, MOVE, USE, HOLD, TAKE, SIDE, FLANK, and DEPART, whereas Ablative typically develops from COME FROM, DEPART and LEAVE. This poses an interesting question since some of the semantics of the two source group lexemes is largely antonymous. This calls for the need of evaluating the well-known source determination hypothesis (Bybee et al. 1994) and semantic persistence (Hopper 1991). It is suggested in this paper that grammaticalization process is largely enabled by the conceptual mechanisms along the event schema, a process largely not mindful of semantic clashes between the source and the target meanings, or between the resultant grammatical meanings, unlike the claims of avoidance of antonymy and of form-function isomorphy. This paper presents an explication on this peculiar relationship, based on the cognitive forces that operate in language use from a grammaticalization perspective. In addition to the traditional cognitive mechanisms of semantic change, this paper illustrates how different conceptualization on an event schema can bring forth diverse grammatical markers.

Mechanisms of semantic change in Chinese

This paper aims to investigate the mechanism of semantic change in the grammaticalization of Chinese verbs. It demonstrates with diachronic and synchronic evidence that subjectification affects every stage of semantic change in the grammaticalization of Chinese verbs, a somewhat different pattern from that found in Indo-European languages. It argues that this difference is derived from the typological difference between the structure of Chinese and that of some Indo-European languages, such as Old English.

Semantic Change in Word Formation

The present article seeks to provide an answer to the following question: according to which mechanisms may a pattern of word formation develop a new meaning? In order to keep the task to a manageable size only changes will be considered, the result of which stays within the same type of pattern (affixation, compounding, etc.). Hence, we will not discuss how affixes develop out of compounds or similar phenomena. The only scholar who, to the best of my knowledge, has addressed this issue in a systematic and comprehensive manner is Jaberg (1905), who claimed that semantic change in affixation is always the result of semantic change in individual words plus reanalysis. Our study will reveal, however, that, though this is in fact the most common scenario, there is yet another, hitherto ignored mechanism of semantic change in word formation where no lexical change is involved. This mechanism, which will be called “approximation,” allows a mismatch to arise between a word formation pattern and a neologism formed according to it, if the distance is bridged by metaphor or metonymy.

A Mechanism of Semantic Change in Passive Constructions

Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on The Role of Learnability in Grammatical Theory (1996)