Semantic change

• Outcomes of semantic change

  • Mostly language-internal factors drive semantic change
  • Traditionally, semantic change has been categorised not based on how it happens but on the resulting change in denotation or in the connotations, etc., of the changed meaning
• Changes primarily in denotation

  • Narrowing (specialisation)
  • Broadening (generalisation)
• Changes primarily in connotations

  • Amelioration (ameliorisation, elevation)
  • Pejoration (pejorisation, degeneration, deterioration)
• Changes in connotation and/or denotation

  • Strengthening
  • Weakening
• Narrowing (specialisation)


  1. Usually due to metonymy that allows a category name to represent a salient category member

  2. Example: Liquor 'liquid' -> 'type of alcoholic beverage'

  3. Example: Meat (mete) 'food' -> 'animal flesh'
• Broadening (generalisation)


  1. Usually due to metonymy that allows a salient category member to stand for the category as a whole

  2. May involve image metaphor

  3. Example: Barn 'place to store barley' -> 'any farm building'

  4. Example: Aunt 'father's sister' -> 'father's or mother's sister'

  5. Example: Latin passer 'sparrow' -> 'bird' as in Spanish pajaro 'songbird'

  6. Example: Brand-name terms refer to generic products like speedo, glad wrap 'generification'
• Amelioration (ameliorisation, elevation)


  1. Usually due to an unnamed metonymy, sometimes cause for effect

  2. Example: Knight 'boy servant' -> 'high military rank appointed by king'

  3. Example: Pretty 'tricky, sly, cunning' -> 'attractive'

  4. Example: Fond 'foolish' -> 'attracted to'

  5. Example: Nice 'foolish' -> 'pleasing, agreeable' (via a few metonymies)

  6. Meaning becomes more positive
• Pejoration (pejorisation, degeneration)


  1. Usually due to an unnamed metonymy

  2. Example: Egregious 'outstandingly good' -> 'outstandingly bad'

  3. Example: Silly 'holy, saintly' -> 'happy, prosperous' -> 'foolish'

  4. Example: Lewd 'ignorant' -> 'depraved'

  5. Example: Wench 'girl' -> 'wanton woman, prostitute'

  6. One change can follow another

  7. Meaning becomes more negative
• Weakening


  1. Sometimes this is the result of metaphor or metaphoric euphemism

  2. Example: Quell 'kill, murder' -> 'put down, pacify'
• Strengthening: Meaning is strengthened
• Other types of language change

  • morphological change. e.g. loss of case marking and gender with suffixes on nouns from old english
  • syntactic change. e.g. word order in english used to be much more flexible, due to case marking and suffixes