Mechanisms of semantic change

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-277
Author(s):  
May L-Y Wong

Abstract This paper examines the mechanisms of semantic change in the creation of ten Cantonese slang words. It demonstrates with synchronic evidence that metaphorization, metonymization and (inter)subjectification are three principal driving forces behind the shift in meaning. It is argued that Traugott and Dasher’s (2002) Invited Inferencing Theory of Semantic Change (IITSC), initially proposed for and widely used in the context of grammaticalization, is equally useful for the study of neologisms – in this case, the relatively recent slang expressions in Cantonese. These monosyllabic lexemes are shown to have followed the same unidirectional pathway of semantic change – that is, the shift from non-subjective meaning to encoded (inter)subjective meaning – outlined in their model of semantic change.

2021 ◽  
pp. 094
Author(s):  
Steven Caluwaerts ◽  
Daan Degrauwe ◽  
Piet Termonia

Jean-François Geleyn avait un lien fort avec la Belgique à travers les activités du consortium Aladin. Lorsque l'université de Gand a lancé un programme de troisième cycle sur la météorologie et la prévision numérique du temps en 2007, il est devenu professeur invité et l'un des principaux moteurs de la création de ce programme universitaire. Plus tard, ce programme a été étendu à la modélisation du climat. De nombreux experts de l'Institut royal météorologique de Belgique ont suivi ses cours. Récemment, les activités de l'université de Gand ont servi de base à la création de l'Unité de physique de l'atmosphère dans le Département de physique et d'astronomie. Jean-François Geleyn had a strong link with Belgium through the activities of the ALADIN consortium. When Ghent university started a postgraduate program on meteorology and numerical weather prediction in 2007 he became a guest professor and one of the main driving forces of the creation of this academic program. Later the curriculum of this program was extented to include climate modeling. Many experts at the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium followed his courses. Recently, the activities at Ghent university formed the basis for the creation of the Atmospheric Physics Unit within the Department of Physics and Astronomy.


Author(s):  
Michael Williams

The historical element and human action are implicit in the idea of the landscape. Such combinations, in various guises, often go under the name of historical geography. More latterly, the meaning of ‘history’, in its broadest sense, has been scrutinised closely because of the implicit subjective meaning embedded in any account of the past. Within geography, one of the earliest and most distinctive contributions to humanised landscapes came from the ‘Aberystwyth School’ of historically oriented human geography, which had an emphasis on anthropology and human ecology, and the western parts of Britain. As the l930s wore on, two figures emerged who were to dominate the debate about history in geography — Carl O. Sauer in the United States and H. C. Darby in Britain. There are basically two approaches to understanding past humanised landscapes — the reconstruction of these landscapes from consistent and comprehensive sources, and the mapping of relict features. Increasingly, both approaches combine history, archaeology, palaeobotany, and other disciplines.


2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Concepción Company Company

The paper examines three directions of grammaticalization by subjectification. Using the general cline Grammar > Discourse and Discourse > Grammar or Grammar ↔ Discourse, Spanish shows three types of diachronic subjectification, going in three different directions: (1) Grammar > Grammar; (2) Grammar > Discourse; (3) Grammar > Discourse > and again Grammar. Directions 1 and 2 are well known; direction 3, as far as I know, is unknown in the literature about grammaticalization. (1) Initiates in the Grammar, at the textual-syntactic level, and continues to function in the Grammar, with a different distribution and different syntactic-semantic properties as regards its etymon. (2) Begins in the Grammar, cancels the syntactic and morphological capacities of the etymon, produces syntactic isolation and widening of scope and results in the creation of autonomous forms which work at the discourse level. (3) Begins in the Grammar, goes to the Discourse via the cancellation of the morphological and syntactic capacities of the objective form, widens its scope and results in an autonomous form. Once it has operated in the Discourse, it returns to the Grammar, narrowing its scope, taking a new grammatical role again, and paradigmatizing with other forms. The form preserves the subjective meaning of the second stage. The process in all cases is semantically the same: the speaker’s appraisals, points of view and attitudes about the event and his/her interaction with regard to the hearer find explicit codification in grammar, becoming a coded and highly-conventionalized meaning in the grammar of a language (Traugott 1995b, 1999), but the direction of the change is different in each case. Subjectification looks like a multi-dimensional process, not a unidirectional one.


2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
CELESTE RODRÍGUEZ LOURO ◽  
THOMAS HARRIS

Across Englishes, frequently used epistemic/evidential complement-taking predicates (e/e ctps) have undergone conventionalisation, wherebysubject + e/e verbconstructions are reanalysed as formulaic stance markers. However, the system ofe/e ctps in Australian English (AusE) – and the degree to which they have grammaticalised – remains unexplored. In this article, we offer a quantitative analysis of the most frequente/e ctps in the spoken portion of theInternational Corpus of English – Australia. Multivariate analysis shows thatthinkandguessstand as canonical encoders of speaker attitude, andreckonis multifunctional, encoding epistemic modality and evidentiality. Assuming that (inter-)subjective meaning represents the last stage in semantic change, our results indicate that AusEreckonis less grammaticalised thanthinkandguess.


Iberoromania ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (86) ◽  
Author(s):  
María Pilar Garcés Gómez

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to show the relevance of the first centuries of the modern age, especially the XVIII and the XIX centuries, for the history of the Spanish language as far as the creation and consolidation of new discourse markers are concerned. The development of new genres and discursive models involves different ways of constructing the discourse as well as the necessity of incorporating new markers to implement different discursive functions. In some cases these innovations are realized via grammaticalization through expansion processes fostered by a semantic change which itself has been created by the conventionalization of inferences associated to a construction. In other cases, the above-mentioned innovations are directly incorporated by adaptation or borrowing words from other languages in which they already had a fully-developed discursive function. In order to prove these claims, the author focuses on the analysis of a set of distance reformulative markers that emerged in the first centuries of the modern age and which show these processes in a manifest way.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Hengchen ◽  
Kate Viloria ◽  
Andrey Indukaev

Research in computational lexical semantic change, due to the inherent nature of language change, has been notoriously difficult to evaluate. This led to the creation of many new exciting models that cannot be easily compared. In this system paper, we describe our submissions at RuShiftEval 2021 -- one of the few recently shared tasks that enable researchers, through a standard evaluation set and control conditions, to systematically compare models and gain insights from previous work.We show that despite top results in similar tasks on other languages, Temporal Referencing does not seem to perform as well on Russian.


Author(s):  
Ninel Ivanova Nesheva-Kiosseva

This chapter is an attempt at presenting some reliable factors that have a significant impact on the creation, development, and practice of social accounting and reporting. A part of the research is devoted to presenting the problem of the emergence of the views of social accounting and reporting and their development over time. Attention has been provided to the most influential generators of social accounting and reporting that shape the state of the art to the fullest extent. The text seeks to highlight the driving forces that impact the development of social accounting and reporting. The essay cannot be exhaustive enough as the vast variety of social reports that exist cannot be covered in detail. The study, without seeking full comprehensiveness, tries to systematize some key drivers of social accounting and accountability. It seeks to provide a practical and simple coordinate system in which those who wish to conduct social accounting and reporting should be guided by the diverse sources of social accountability models.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 275-282
Author(s):  
Marinela Trandafir

Community centres have been institutions acting like driving forces in the cultural life of villages. They were based on direct collaboration with intellectuals in each village: the priest, the teacher, the notary, the doctor. The cultural life of community centres was diverse and included various fields of activity aiming at multiple aspects in the life of each community. Generally, such activities were oriented towards solving economic issues, without limitation to them. It should be mentioned here the concern for public health, the control of epidemics, the rearing and education of children, the moral and intellectual development thereof.The community centre organizes various cultural activities where explanations are given to community, including people of all ages, about our historic past, thepresent time finding of paths and the future time for whose wellbeing they should a harmonious development. Starting from such points of interest, this work covers aspects of the community cultural life at Grăjdana, where the community centre established in 1934 played a major role in the development thereof, due to its achievements marking the period 1934-1940. A particularly significant contribution in the cultural becoming and development of the Grăjdana community was brought by the parish priest together with the village intellectuals. Thanks to their love for the people, they managed to invigorate the community in a short time by involving the villagers in various activities of spiritual, scientific, moral, artistic and recreational nature. According to the minutes executed on 3 July 1934, the initiative of creating a community centre was wholeheartedly approved, with the knowledge that it would be useful for the community. The following took part in the creation of the Grăjdana community centre: the priest Constantin Bunea, the teachers Ion Marinescu, Caliopia M. Rădulescu, Elisabeta Bunea and the notary Mihail Rădulescu. In addition to the creation of the centre, the people found out that the centre library was enhanced with all the parish library brochures and magazines that were made available, with new subscriptions for magazines, and that a people pharmacy was established. In time, the people would attend the meetings by categories of age and measures would be continuously taken so as to fulfil the articles of the Rules for the Functioning of Community Centres.In addition to the promotion of culture, the manager of “Regele Carol II“ Community Centre of Grăjdana together with active members bore in mind charitytoo, raising funds for building a monument dedicated to the heroes killed in the Great War, for helping orphans and the injured, for maintaining school canteens, for helping the locals get trained in the agricultural field. The good functioning of the Grăjdana Community Centre was successful also due to the collaboration with “Principele Carol“ Cultural Royal Foundation which approved and upheld the proposals submitted by the centre management, providing books, magazines, medicines, awards in cash and in kind, diplomas and decorations to encourage and select the cultural work. In addition to the local management continuous work and capacity, the envisaged goals were achieved also due to the kindness of distinguished persons, most of whom the Centre declared Honorary Members. One of them was Colonel I. Săndulescu, who made a number of donations, such as 8 plows and plowshares needed by the community. On the celebration of the Heroes’ Day, Regele Carol II Community Centre of Grăjdana conducted a number of activities with the participation of: widows, orphans, the war disabled, the Decorați (The War Decorated) and Foști Luptători (Former Fighters) associations, members of the centre council, commune authorities, schools led by teachers, premilitaries and villagers. The Grăjdana Church performed the Divine Liturgy praying in memorial of heroes. At the Heroes’ Monument blessings were delivered by the representatives of: the church, the mayor’s office, the forest range, war disabled and others. For its fruitful activity, in addition to the thanks received from various institutions such as the Ministry for Endowment of the Army, the Red Cross Society, Principele Carol Cultural Royal Foundation, the community centre of Grăjdana was awarded a prize in 1940 and called Model Community Centre together with other 50 community centres from throughout Greater Romania. The Centre managers were also rewarded with the Centenarul Regelui Carol I (Charles I Centenary) medal. In 1940, the Community Centre of Grăjdana achieved the following: fundraising for raising two school buildings, for opening three school canteens for the disadvantaged pupils, a people pharmacy store providing medicines to people at cost prices. At the Centre consulting room 261 vaccines were delivered against tuberculosis for children, as well as medical consultations free of charge. Poor families were helped with food supplies. The library was endowed with new books and magazines, a nursery of fruit trees, locust trees and grafted fruit trees and selected seeds was created. The Centre made donations to the army amounting to Lei 1882 and delivered courses on hygiene, religion, morality, household. Under the Community Centre patronage the following developed: Hora tinerilor (The Youth Round-Dance), Foștii luptători (Former Fighters) Association, Asociația Decoraților de războiu (The Association of the War Decorated), Post-Militari (Post-Militaries) Association, Crucea Roșie (Red Cross) Society. Although no solid material basis was available in the beginning, as the community was quite poor, the means that were employed allowed the development of love and respect for the historic past, keeping authenticity and the perpetuation of traditions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-46
Author(s):  
Ahmad Hakam

This study aims to explore the gender roles and relations in the Minangkabau society and how the situation is changing due to some interactions with other influential factors, mainly Islamic teaching and nation-state projection. This article argues that although the Minangkabau matriarchal traditions are influenced by particularly the two driving forces, there have been both continuity and change which prove that the gender roles and relations are a highly contested discourse. This study used library research, and mini- ethnographical approach which involved several field observations and interviews through casual conversation with Minangkabau people. The results show that gender and the conception of women and men are highly contested, especially in the region where more than one influences are competing. Although there is a number of powerful discourse disparities, especially the Islamist movement and the state, the creation and instillation of new definitions and identities of the Minangkabau is reworked within their ideologies of gender and rank, kinship and matriliny.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Smirnova

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to clarify the notion of subjectivity and subjectification. It is proposed here that subjectification is a purely semantic change, similarly to the view presented in Boye and Harder (2012a). at is, in contrast to other diachronic processes that involve semantic and structural changes and of which subjectification may be a part, e.g., lexicalization, grammaticalization, and pragmaticalization, it does not necessarily correlate with any particular structural changes. Three diagnostic criteria for detecting subjective meaning in linguistic expressions will be introduced. Their application will be demonstrated using examples from the diachrony of German. Additionally, contra to the predominant views on subjectification, a suggestion will be put forward that this process is not gradual and not unidirectional.


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