Process Of Semantic Change Research Articles

The convergence and divergence of extension and intension on semantic change

AbstractDespite the fact that semantic change studies have intensively argued that intensional readings develop from the literal reading as a whole, diachronic prototype semantics proposes that intensional readings arise from the extensional subsets of the literal reading. This study empirically explored this proposal by carrying out a corpus-based diachronic study. It is proved from the semantic change of Chinesepòthat: (1) There exists a corresponding relationship between extensional usages and intensional readings of a lexical item. (2) Extension and intension both converge and diverge on semantic change. Their convergence lies in the fact that extensional usages give rise to intensional readings. Extensional usages, though nuanced, motivate the emergence and development of intensional readings. Their divergence is reflected in the independent development of extensional usages and intensional readings. The subsistence or dying out of extensional usages does not constrain the appearance or disappearance of intensional readings. (3) Semantic change involves three stages, namely the extensional stage, the intensional stage, and the grammaticalization stage. These three stages constitute an interweaving continuum in the process of semantic change.

Cognitive factive verbs across languages

In the last few years, the traditional analysis of know as a factive verb has been lively debated by linguists and philosophers of language: several scholars have pointed out that know may be used non-factively in ordinary language. The aim of the present study is to expand this inquiry to other cognitive factive verbs than know, such as discover, realize, etc., and to investigate cross-linguistically the question of whether know and other cognitive factive verbs may occur in non-factive contexts, that is, in contexts where it is clear that the embedded proposition is false. Moreover, we investigate whether so-called evidential uses of cognitive factive verbs are acceptable across languages. We administered an online survey to native speakers of nine different languages (English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Serbian, Spanish, and Swedish), and we found considerable cross-linguistic variation in the acceptability of the use of know and other cognitive factive verbs in non-factive contexts. For Italian and English, we put forward the claim that non-factive uses of cognitive factives instantiate a case of polysemy resulting from a process of semantic change that moves along a three-step pattern: from a factive sense to a more general non-factive sense to a non-factive sense characterized by an evidential function.

Fortune, Felicity and Happiness in the Early Modern Period

OH happiness! our being’s end and aim! Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate’er thy name: That something still which prompts th’ eternal sigh, For which we bear to live, or dare to die … Fix’d to no spot is happiness sincere, ’Tis no where to be found, or ev’ry where: ’Tis never to be bought, but always free, And fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with thee. … Some place the bliss in action, some in ease, Those call it pleasure, and contentment these … Who thus define it, say they more or less Than this, that happiness is happiness? …Alexander Pope’s lines from the Essay on Man (1734) suggest the richness, diversity and overwhelming, transgressive nature of the concept of happiness. In the above quotation, happiness seems to be curiously self-evident and inconclusive at the same time. It is the central motivation for any action or non-action, all-pervasive, omnipresent and elusive. The obviousness with which Pope uses the word ‘happiness’ for so many different states of existence (material wealth, flourishing, bliss, the good life, the common good) is, however, the result of a long process of semantic change that is convincingly described by Phil Withington: being ‘derived from the Old Norse noun hap, meaning luck or fortune’, the word ‘happiness’ was, according to Withington’s findings, first used by William Caxton in his translation of Raoul Lefèvre’s French History of Troy. The addition of the English suffix ‘ness’ to the adjective ‘happy’ denotes ‘the quality and state of hap (i.e. fortune) or the circumstances and phenomena that exemplified such a condition’. The word changed its meaning from denoting good luck and favourable external (providential) conditions to signifying ‘the active pursuit of virtue and the common good’. Happiness became an umbrella term referring to a ‘commonplace mixture of physical well-being and psychological content’, to the individual and collective desire for and pursuit of ‘public improvement’, autonomy, liberty, ‘consumer self-interest and national aggrandisement’.

¿Dar la mano o darle cuello? Construcciones metafóricas con sustantivos corporales.

El verbo dar suele combinarse con sustantivos anatómicos para formar expresiones de interpretación metafórica. En este trabajo intentaremos explicar cómo es que dicho verbo puede construirse con estos sustantivos y qué implicaciones semántico-sintácticas acarrea sus resultados construccionales. El propósito es ir más allá del presupuesto de que se trata de metáforas. Intentaremos explicar este fenómeno policonstruccional desde la confluencia de tres modos de aproximación: la lingüística cognoscitiva, la gramática de construcciones y la semántica de marcos. Sostenemos que las expresiones con sustantivos anatómicos provienen de la construcción esquemática del verbo dar, la transferencia, que pasa por un proceso de cambio semántico, pero que conserva algunas de las propiedades de la construcción original.

Gradual conventionalization of pragmatic inferences

Abstract The alternation in Spanish between y and e on the one hand, and u and o in the other, is examined. It is proposed that the standard account under which the choice of one variant over the other is sensitive only to the phonetic context is incomplete. Specifically, the paper argues that pragmatic inferences that typically appear cross-linguistically associated with these connectors, and that result in asymmetric interpretations, are not favoured in Spanish with the morphological variants e and u, which favour symmetric interpretations. The paper proposes that the relevant pragmatic inferences have been partially conventionalized for y and o, but that this conventionalization has not occurred in the case of e and u for the reason that they are much less frequently used. Thus, discussion and data offer a view of a stage in a gradual process of semantic change via conventionalization of pragmatic inferences.

Quando 'falar' vira ordem: a construção FALAR PARA V. infinitivo em Português, uma explicação cognitiva

Neste artigo, focalizamos a construção FALAR PARA V.infinitivo no Português do Brasil (PB), na oralidade e na escrita, em contextos em que emerge sentido manipulativo. O compartilhamento de domínios semântico-gramaticais entre os verbos pedir e falar, tais como a conceptualização de “atividade comunicativa com o uso da palavra” e a possibilidade de complementação com que V. finito e com para V.infinitivo, direcionou-nos para a investigação sobre as similaridades e diferenças que as construções com esses verbosapresentam.Com tal propósito, estabelecemos contraste com o Português Europeu (PE),na mesma sincronia, considerando o pressuposto cognitivista de que diversificações semânticas são resultantes de diferenças de conceptualização. Buscamos, assim, identificar as operações cognitivas envolvidas nos processos de conceptualização que permeiam as escolhas dos falantes, tanto no sentido para a estabilidade quanto para a mudança semântica. As concepções de perspectivação e de subjetificação, tomadas dos estudos desenvolvidos por Traugott (1989), Traugott e Dasher (2002) e Langacker (2008), nortearam a análise dos dados, que aponta a construção FALAR PARA V.infinitivo como um exemplo de processo de mudança semântica no Português do Brasil (PB), na oralidade e na escrita.

Phraseologization as a process of semantic change

On the one hand, phraseology has sorted out how to describe Phraseological meaning from a synchronic perspective. On the other, cognitive diachronic linguistics has thoroughly described the process of semantic change and the mechanisms leading to it, but mostly focusing on grammaticalization. The aim of the present paper is to bring together these two perspectives in order to account for the existence of Phraseological Units, i.e. the emergence of Phraseological Meaning. This integration of perspectives will require a well defined theoretical framework. First of all, we will establish the definition of PhU and the scope of Phraseological meaning. Then, we will compare grammaticalization to phraseologization process. In this comparison, we will pay special attention to the new role assigned to inference as a mechanism leading to semantic change. Finally, we will apply the developed theoretical framework to an actual PhU: al peu de la lletra.

Grammaticalization of the scalar focus particle lian 連 in Mandarin Chinese

This paper investigates pragmatic factors affecting the development of the focus particle lian in Mandarin Chinese. An analysis of lian’s evolution in historical texts demonstrates that lian’s semantic transformation from concrete activity to abstract grammatical meaning involved two major processes: metaphorization and inferencing. More importantly, this study provides evidence to show that due to the isolating characteristic, 1) Chinese does not restrict metaphorization to any particular category of lexical items, as Indo-European languages do (cf. Heine 1993); 2) different kinds of inferencing have affected lian in its process of semantic change and grammaticalization as opposed to the claim that different kinds of inferencing occur with different types of lexical items (cf. Traugott and König 1991); and 3) both divergence and desemantization are the results of lian’s grammaticalization. Unlike similar cases in Indo-European languages, lian has not become increasingly morphologized as it becomes more grammaticalized.

’n Etimologiese perspektief op betekenisverandering in die Afrikaanse leksikon

An etymological perspective on semantic change in the lexicon of Afrikaans This article deals with the most important processes of semantic change that have occurred in Afrikaans: semantic broadening, narrowing, shift and bifurcation. These processes are not necessarily gradual. There are many cases of radical change with no intermediate stages. Attention is also paid to other characteristics of semantic change such as irregularity, unpredictability and the spreading of semantic changes through the speech community. The main focus of the discussion is on a number of different factors that are responsible for semantic change. An exemplified description is given of the mechanisms by which semantic changes have occurred thus far in Afrikaans. Although the variety of semantic changes in Afrikaans catches the attention, it is also noteworthy that the change has not been very extensive. Taking into consideration the geographical distance and the diminishing ties between South Africa and the Netherlands, the similarity between Afrikaans and Dutch is remarkable.

Experience, certainty and control, and the direct evidential in Wanka Quechua questions

Evidentiality is traditionally discussed in terms of information source and its relation to the degree of commitment a speaker has with respect to a proposition. Furthermore, it is a notion that is usually thought to apply principally to assertions. A consideration of the full range of uses of the Wanka Quechua direct evidential shows that while these concepts are generally sufficient for the description of prototypical usage, understanding other uses requires explanation along different lines. Certain non-prototypical uses exemplify a type of subjectification, a process of semantic change that has been observed cross-linguistically (cf. Traugott 1989, Langacker 1990). The use of the direct evidential as a grammaticalized marker of content (WH) questions is particularly anomalous from a traditional perspective. However, it can be shown to be a well-motivated extension from other uses within the semantic network.

Multiple Meaning and Change of Meaning in English

Many scholars have attempted to classify changes in meaning,' but few have written persuasively of either the fundamental causes or the processes of semantic change.2 The great 19th-century linguists tried to explain already accomplished results both in the form and the meaning of words. The linguistic geographers have now taught us that neither phonetic change nor semantic change can be understood without observing the process as well as the result; but their work has modified chiefly the concept of phonetic change. One could assume that most shifts of sense in words referring to things, e.g. car, hose, fee, should be explained by the social historian; and that most changes of words referring to qualities, states of mind, or actions dependent on feelings, e.g. silly, passion, to want, might be left to the psychologist. Such an abnegation would impoverish linguistic studies. Linguistic geography has clearly shown that, however arbitrarily form may be attached to sense, sound and sense are constantly interfering with each other in unexpected ways, as in folk-etymology and in the conflict of homonyms. In this paper I wish to discuss, not the causes of semantic change, but what I believe to be a neglected aspect of the process of change, the relation of obsolescence of meaning to multiple meaning. It is now well recognized that homonyms have mutually disturbing effects and that one of two homonyms may even disappear from a dialect because of a conflict in sense with the other.3 But if this is true of words historically distinct, it ought to be equally true of one word which in the course of time develops contradictory senses. Speakers who are not etymologists have no means of knowing that mad 'crazy' and mad 'angry' were historically one word, while light 'levis' and light 'lucidus' were historically two.4 Only the literate conscious of spelling realize that the two senses of [stret] 'direct' and 'narrow' represent two historically different words straight (OE