Lexical change and Semantic changes

Lexical change and Semantic changes

Lexical change

•Invention (coinage) (发明法)

•Blending （混成法）

•Abbreviation (clipping)（缩写词）

•Acronym （缩略语）

•Back-formation（逆构词法）

•Analogical creation（类推构词）

Borrowing（借词）

1、Invention

To satisfy the new situation in modern human life, many new lexical items come directly from various fields, especially from technological and economical activities. For example,

(a) Discoman ,MP4, PSP

(b) Brands of camera: Kodak, SONY, NIKON

(c) Brands of cars: BMW, Ford, Benz, Toyota

2、Blending混成法

A relatively complex复数 form of compounding, in which two words are blended by joining the initial part of the first word and the final part of the second word, or by joining the initial parts of the two words.

Examples: (i) air+ hotel → airtel机场旅馆

(ii) channel + tunnel → chunnel水底隧道

(iii) modulator + demodulator → modem

Fusion (溶合法): Stample (trample +stamp on); crackdown(crackup+breakdown)

3、Abbreviation缩写

A shortened form of a word or phrase which represents the complete form.

e.g. TV(television) ,Dr(doctor) ,hr(hour), ft(foot or feet) Clippling(截断法)：a kind of abbreviation of longer words or phrases.

(i) Cutting the final part (or with a slight variationa ) pop;taxi ; kilo ; telly ; expo ;wi-fi

(ii) Cutting the initial part phone, bus, copter, plane, chute

(iii) Cutting both the initial and final parts accordingly refrigerator(fridge) ,prescription→script

4、Acronym缩略词

A word created by combining the initial letters of a number of words. (VOA ;BBC;UFO ; GNP; GRE;VIP,FOB.)

5、Back-formation逆构法:

a process by which new words are formed by taking away

the imagined suffix of an existing word. E.g. donation→donate; orator→orate; gloomy→gloom; helicopt

6、Analogical creation类比构词

7、Borrowing : the taking over of words from other languages

A. loanword(外来词): a process in which both form and meaning are borrowed with only a slight adaptation, in some cases, to the phonological system of the new language that they enter .e.g. kionomo(日)；kowtow(汉)；solo（意）；skoal(丹麦)；coup de main(法)

B. .loanblend(混合借词): a process in which part of the form is native and part is borrowed, but the meaning is fully borrowed .

C. loanshift(转移借词): a process in which the meaning is borrowed, but the form is native .

D. Loan translation(翻译借词): a special type of borrowing, in which each morphemer词素 word is translated in the equivalent morpheme or word in another language .(Calque仿造词)

Semantic changes

•Broadening (词义扩大）

•Narrowing （词义缩小）

•Meaning shift（词义转移）

•Class shift （词性转换）

. Folk etymology（俗词源）