词义演变的方式

married woman unfortunate event
illness a particular grain young people of female sex water fowl ;sea fowl
Elevation of meaning 词义的升格
nice ignorant → foolish → delightful, pleasant fond foolish → foolishly doing → loving → affectionate governor steersman→ a person in charge of a particular political unit marshal a servant who look after mares→ a high ranking army officer knight boy→ servant → military servant or follower of king or nobleman → member of the lower nobility
第 三 章 节
2、词义的缩小
It is a process by which a word of wide meaning acquires a narrow or specialized sense. 凡是词义从普 遍的意义缩小为特定的意义，结果使新义从指“类” 的概念缩小为指“钟”的概念，这称为词义的缩小 （the narrowing or restriction of meaning）,也叫做词 义的特殊化（the specialization of meaning）.
silly

blessed , happy → innocent ,harmless→ simple or simple-minded → foolish, imbecile satisfied, contented → calm → serious → sorrowful
sad

Euphemism 委婉语
From specific to general
Original meaning present meaning
a photograph a painting
a cinematic picture
an x-ray picture a TV picture a radio-telescope picture any picture
Examples meat starve
Original meaning food to die
Narrowing meaning flesh of animals to die of hunger
wife accident
disease corn girl fowl
woman event
discomfort grain young people any bird
di
er
zhang
jie
第 二 小 节
词义演变的方式
Extension of meaning 词义的扩大 Loss of old meanings 旧义的消亡 Narrowing of meaning 词义的缩小
Lexical revivals 新义的诞生
词义演变 的方式
Elevation of meaning 词义的升格
There are four kinds of narrowing of meaning:
From general to specific
From abstract to concrete
From common nouns to proper nouns
From general words to technical terms
or drawing
threat（军队—威胁）
From concrete to san zhang jie abstract: English language has its special 第 三 The 章 节
di
nitpick(挑虱子—挑 剔） stock of words that stand for everything.
• Sandwich:
di
san zhang
jie
• It now denotes a popular fast food. • It originates from John Montague, Fourth earl of Sandwich in 18th –century, England. He was so fond of gambling that he often forgot his meals. He often ordered slices of bread with thick pieces of roast beef stuffed between them brought to him so he could eat while playing. Later, people used his name to refer to all similar food.
Euphemism 委婉语
Degeneration of meaning 词义的降格
词义演变的主要方式有：词义范围的变化、 词义的褒贬、词义的生死、词义的转移等
1、词义的扩大
Extension of meaning, also known as generalization, is the opposite of restriction, means the widening of a word’s sense until it covers much more than what it originally conveyed.

Lexical revivals 新义的诞生

IT vocabulary: a virtual library, virtual shopping, visit a website, counter, hit, icon, open, chat, stream, mail, compress, attachment, crack, burn, infected. bar：raise the bar for approving new drugs（标准） bomb：drop a bomb with her resignation（极大的震动） corridor：industrial corridor（地带）

serious：make serious money (挣大钱); serious drinking (酗酒)
breeze (轻易地通过考试); tag(在墙壁、火车等上非法的涂鸦签名)
Loss of old meanings 旧义的消亡

Obsolete meaning: there is no evidence of use since 1755. 废弃义
Archaic meaning: old and no longer used. 过时义 Word bare doctor Old Meaning worthless teacher
aware
nation
watchful
aggregation
garbage collector—sanitation engineer gardener—landscape architect I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I wasn’t poor, I was needy, I was deprived. Then they told me underprivileged was over used. I was disadvantaged. I still don’t have a dime. But I have a great vocabulary. old [person]—seasoned(老练的), well-preserved(保养得很好的), advanced in age(年岁上先行的), past their prime(已过壮年的), senior citizen(资深的公民), an elder statesman(政界元老), the longer living(生活 经历较长者) .
(original) too sensitive to medicine 患过敏症的 (present) averse or disinclined to 反感的；厌恶的
87%
alibi
(original) a legal term signifying “the plea that the accused is not at the place when the crime is committed” (被告人不在犯罪现场的证明)
Four kinds of extension
01 From specific to general
02 From concrete to abstract
From technical terms to 03 gene百度文库al words 04 From proper nouns to common nouns
grasp（抓—领会）
From technical terms to general words allergic
Generalization of meaning is also found in many technical terms, which are confined to specialized use.
Degradation of Meaning 词义的降格

It is a process by which words with appreciatory or neutral affective meaning fall into ill reputation or come to be used in a derogatory sense.
(present) excuse (借口)
From proper nouns to common nouns
Many proper nouns including person names, place-names, etc. have become common nouns used in everyday life.
For economy, some phrases are shortened and only one element of the original, usually an adjective, is left to retain the meaning of the whole. Such adjectives have thus taken on specialized meanings. a general = a general officer an editorial = an editorial article Some material nouns are used to refer to objects made of them and thus have a more specific sense. glass a cup-like container or a mirror iron device for smoothing clothes