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Update of the English vocabulary is a process that happens via three mainstream ways:
borrowing from other languages (week 12)
word-formation (summer term)
semantic change (week 10).
We can observe the process of semantic change from two aspects. First, we can observe the
changes from the point of view of logic, or, in this sense, we observe the results of semantic
change. Here, the results can be studied in the denotative and the connotative meaning.
NB: many Slovak words have wider meaning than their English equivalents, e.g. noha
leg/foot, ruka hand/arm, prst finger/toe, piec bake/roast etc.; or the narrower meaning,
e.g.: fork vidlika, kriovatka v tvare Y.
The second perspective from which we can approach semantic change is the nature
of the change, or, the condition of some connection or association between the new and the
old meaning. We also call this feature a transfer. The meaning can be transferred from the
original to the new position via three main types of association:
Metaphor (is a semantic change based on the association of similarity between
referents) the meaning is transferred on the basis of the fact that the two referents
resemble one another. The basic structure of the metaphor is very simple. There is a
thing we are talking about and that to which we are comparing it.
Nevertheless, the similarity may involve different types:
similarity of shape (head of a cabbage),
similarity of position or location (foot of a page/mountain),
similarity of form and position (the neck of a bottle),
similarity of form and function (teeth of a saw, an arm of a robot),
similarity of color
Consider the following types of similarities: mouth sta, stie rieky; hand ruka, ruika
(hodn); a drop of kvapka, troka
All mentioned similarities can be of two kinds objective or emotive more about
both kinds in tekauers Essentials (1993, page 70) where he mentions also four major
groups of other classification of metaphors as given by Ullman (1970).
Metonymy (contiguity of meaning) the name of an attribute of a thing is used
instead of the thing itself, e.g.: crown (koruna = monarchia), iron (ehlika), force
(ozbrojen jednotky), defence (ministerstvo obrany). Proper names as metonymy
can be illustrated by: read Shakspeare; listen to Mozart; it was a Waterloo
Synecdoche a part is used to mean the whole, e.g. have several mouths to
feed mouth instead of a whole person; Leeds defeated Manchester football
The phenomenon of semantic change must have its cause, the motivating factor that
propels the change to happen. In the study of the lexicon we distinguish two main causes:
economy is
also
responsible
for
the
tendency of