scholarly journals Semantic Change

Linguistics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Closs Traugott
Keyword(s):  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Gottlob Frege ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
New Words ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
German Philosopher ◽  
Context Of Use ◽  
Organizing Principles

Semantic change is the subfield of historical linguistics that investigates changes in sense. In 1892, the German philosopher Gottlob Frege argued that, although they refer to the same person, Jocasta and Oedipus’s mother, are not equivalent because they cannot be substituted for each other in some contexts; they have different “senses” or “values.” In contemporary linguistics, most researchers agree that words do not “have” meanings. Rather, words are assigned meanings by speakers and hearers in the context of use. Linguists distinguish semantic change from changes in “lexis” (vocabulary development, often in cultural contexts), although there is inevitably some overlap between the two. Semantic changes occur when speakers attribute new meanings to extant expressions. Changes in lexis occur when speakers add new words to the inventory, e.g., by coinage (“affluenza,” a blend of affluent and influenza), or borrowing (“sushi”). Linguists also distinguish organizing principles in research. Starting with the form of a word or phrase and charting changes in the meanings of that the word or phrase is known as “semasiology”; this is the organizing principle for historical dictionaries. Starting with a concept and investigating which different expressions can express it is known as “onomasiology”; this is the organizing principle for thesauruses.

This Ain't Your Grandma's English

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
New Words ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
Bedding Materials

Words change. We use new words to describe old things, and we put new meanings on old words. Take “beddum and bolstrum” for example. For some of you that phrase might conjure up warm memories of spending the night at grandmother’s house after a day of frolicking with cousins in the meadow, and at bedtime hearing her call from the top of the staircase, “Beddum and bolstrum, kiddies!” . . . or it might not. In fact, beddum ond bolstrum (bedding materials) is made up of old Anglo-Saxon words that haven’t been used much since the late 1000s. Whatever grandma was shouting down the stairs, you must have heard it wrong.

scholarly journals Словообразовательные модели немецкоязычных неологизмов в интернетдискурсе

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (7) ◽  
pp. 12-18
Author(s):  
Т.В. Аникина ◽  
О.Ф. Родин
Keyword(s):  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
The Internet ◽  
German Language ◽  
Internet Communication ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
New Words ◽  
The Given

Communication in the Internet is an important characteristic of modern culture. The Internet has a significant impact on the vocabulary development. Due to this process new words known as neologisms appear in the Internet communication. Neologisms penetrate actively into any language, as such words react quicklier to all changes in the society life and in the language. The given article deals with the derivational models of German-language neologisms. The study showed that the main ways to form German neologisms are affixation, compounding, abbreviation, borrowing, blends and semantic derivation

The Incoherence of Gender as a Social Construct

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
John Skalko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Construct ◽  
New Words ◽  
New Meanings

People can certainly attempt to create new words, convince others that certain words have taken on new meanings, or advocate that new meanings should supplant the older, more common ones. However, the introduction of a new definition does not invalidate a word’s older meaning. Today, many have begun using the word gender in a novel way because they claim that gender is a social construct. This article questions the coherence of that usage with other popularly accepted views about the reality of persons who identify as transgender.

Corpus planning and codification in the Hebrew Revival

2002 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-298
Author(s):  
Moshe Nahir
Keyword(s):  
Scholarly Activity ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
New Words ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
Hebrew Language ◽  
The Status ◽  
Written Form ◽  
Communication Needs

The study of the unprecedented revival of Hebrew in (pre-Israel) Palestine (approx. 1890–1914) has focused on the status of the language, because the revival has been rightly viewed as resulting from status planning. However, corpus planning, or codification, also served as a critical component of the Revival. Though Hebrew had been used for almost two millennia in written form, mainly as a language of religion, codification was needed in several areas — selection and harmonization of pronunciation, unification of spelling, etc. Still, the greatest task was adapting the language lexically to the modern world. Codification went on in Hebrew, in fact, for over a millennium by generations of writers and translators of various types of texts, culminating in the formation of a modern literature, probably the most instrumental factor enabling the Revival. Lexicalization in the Revival itself was partly done by the Hebrew Language Committee, but mostly by individuals. Ben-Yehuda drew words from old texts and created his own as a scholarly activity and to meet his lexical needs as a newspaper publisher and the first Hebrew dictionary compiler. Others included the writer and journalist Ben-Avi and the national poet Bialik, who drew words from earlier texts or created their own only when they needed them. Other individuals coined countless words to meet their communication needs — writers, journalists, educators, translators, publishers, editors, and language-conscious political leaders. Apart from drawing words from old texts with their original or new meanings, methods included: coining new words from old roots; using old, dormant words as different parts of speech; reducing expressions into single words; borrowing; loan translation; popular etymology; adding prefixes, suffixes or infixes to existing words; and merging pairs of words into single ones.

scholarly journals COMPOUNDING IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TERMS: A MORPHOLOGICAL STUDY

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Rafica Sari
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Morphological Study ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Open Form ◽  
Compound Words ◽  
Lexical Meaning ◽  
New Words ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
Solid Form ◽  
Descriptive Method

AbstrakDalam linguistik merupakan proses pembentukan kata yang sangat produktif dua kata atau lebih digabungkan menjadi sebuah kata baru. Proses ini sering dijumpai pada pembentukan kata atau istilah baru dalam bidang teknologi informasi. Compound word (kata majemuk) pada istilah-istilah bidang teknologi informasi adakalanya memiliki makna yang berbeda dari makna leksikal pembentuk kata majemuknya. Oleh karena itu, makalah ini ditulis untuk mendeskripsikan kata majemuk yang terdapat pada istilah teknologi informasi,  mendeskripsikan cara penulisannya, dan mendeskripsikan makna leksikal pada kata majemuk tersebut. Berdasarkan analisis yang dilakukan dengan menggunakan metode deskriptif, diketahui bahwa kata majemuk dalam teknologi informasi memiliki beberapa kombinasi elemen dengan cara penulisan menggunakan open form, hyphenated-form, dan closed/solid form. Makna kata majemukyang terbentuk dari proses compounding pada istilah teknologi informasi ternyata lebih banyak mempertahankan makna leksikal dari masing-masing kata pembentuknya daripada membentuk makna baru. Kata-kata kunci: compounding, istilah teknologi informasi, makna leksikal. AbstractIn linguistic it is a process of word formation that is very productive in which two or more words are combined into a new word. This process is often found in the formation of new words or terms in the field of information technology. Compound words for terms in the field of information technology sometimes have a different meaning from the lexical meaning of each word that makes up the compound words. Therefore, this paper is written to describe compound words contained in information technology terms, to describes how to write them, and to describe lexical meanings of the compound words. Based on the analysis using a descriptive method, it was found that compound words in information technology have some combinations of elements by way of writing using open form, hyphenated-form, and closed/solid form. Meanings of compound words that are formed through the  compounding process in the information technology terms seem to maintain lexical meaning of each constituent word rather than forming new meanings. Keywords:  compounding, information technology terms, lexical meaning

scholarly journals The development of the Imperfect in Ancient Greek from simple past to imperfective as a blocking phenomenon

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-150
Author(s):  
Ian Hollenbaugh
Keyword(s):  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Formal Semantics ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
The Past ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Pragmatic Account

Abstract This article seeks to combine the viewpoints of formal semantics and pragmatics, typology, historical linguistics, and philology, in order to give a diachronic overview of the semantic and pragmatic changes observable for the Imperfect indicative within the recorded history Greek. Since its development does not adhere to typologically expected stages of semantic change, I provide a pragmatic account by taking into consideration not only the Imperfect but also the rest of the past-tense system of Greek, namely the Aorist and Perfect. With this holistic approach, I am able to motivate a development that is otherwise typologically anomalous.

scholarly journals A Role for Visual Memory in Vocabulary Development: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayley E Pickering ◽  
Jessica L Peters ◽  
Sheila Crewther
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Stream Processing ◽  
Visual Stream ◽  
New Words ◽  
Ventral Visual Stream ◽  
Spatio Temporal

Literature examining the role of visual memory in vocabulary development during childhood is limited, despite it being well known that preverbal infants rely on their visual abilities to form memories and learn new words. Hence, this systematic review and meta-analysis utilised a cognitive neuroscience perspective to examine the association between visual memory and vocabulary development, including moderators such as age and task selection, in neurotypical children aged 2- to 12-years. Visual memory tasks were classified as spatio-temporal span tasks, visuo-perceptual or spatial concurrent array tasks, and executive judgment tasks. Visuo-perceptual concurrent array tasks expected to rely on ventral visual stream processing showed a moderate association with vocabulary, while tasks measuring spatio-temporal spans expected to be associated with dorsal visual stream processing, and executive judgments (central executive), showed only weak correlations with vocabulary. These findings have important implications for all health professionals and researchers interested in language, as they can support the development of more targeted language learning interventions that require ventral visual stream processing.

scholarly journals A Glimpse at the Study of English Neologism

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-84
Author(s):  
Yan-Qing Fang
Keyword(s):  
Time Perspective ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
New Words ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Single Method

Language is a social phenomenon and changes with the development of society. Neologisms are new words and new expressions which are the cutting edge of language. Neologisms are being invented or introduced every day to express new things and new ideas in society. Scholars usually discuss neologisms from two perspectives: the time perspective and the semantic perspective. Neologisms can be classified according to their functions, their coinage processes, their formation, and their sources. There are three main methods of new word creation: neologisms by rules of word-formation; neologisms by adding new meanings to existing words; neologisms by borrowing words from other languages. Even a single method is quite productive in new word creation.

Coiner’s Remorse

2021 ◽  
pp. 231-243
Author(s):  
Ralph Keyes
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Change ◽  
Profit Center ◽  
New Words ◽  
Irrational Exuberance ◽  
Peter Drucker

Some who create new words later wish they hadn’t. They experience “coiner’s remorse.” Such penitents include Alan Greenspan (irrational exuberance), Trent Lott (nuclear option), Peter Drucker (profit center), and John Gyakum (bomb cyclone). Coinage regret is felt for a variety of reasons: coiners can develop reservations about their verbal offspring, terms they coined years earlier may no longer reflect their outlook, or the ways others use and misuse it is not to their liking. In that case coinage penitents don’t regret a term they created as much as its usage. As part of the process of semantic change, linguists assume that the meaning of coined words will diversify in ways never intended by their coiner. This is small consolation to those who introduced such terms, however. They’re far more likely to be perturbed than reassured by this inevitable process of definition diffusion.

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