Module 3

 Word formation and growth of vocabulary; Semantics-changes of

meaning-widening, restriction, amelioration, divergence of meaning.

Word Formation
The study of the origin and history of words is called etymology. The major processes of
word formation are:

1. Derivation – The process of word formation where a new word is formed by attaching
a derivational affix to a stem. The process may also be termed affixation. Derivation
or affixation can be of two types: a) Prefixation – adding a prefix to the base, with or
without a change of word-class(eg. Trench – entrench, author- co-author) b)
Suffixation – Adding a suffix to the base, with or without a change of word-class.

2. Compounding is the process of combining two separate words to form a new word.
Examples include words like wallpaper, fingerprint, textbook, weekday, graveyard,
waterproof, railway etc.

3. Blending is the process of combining two words by taking the first part of one word
and the last part of the other word. For example, 'smog' (smoke+fog), 'brunch'
(breakfast+lunch), 'melodrama' (melody+drama), 'electrocute'( electric+execute).
Such words are also called portmanteau words.

4. Clipping involves taking a word of more than one syllable and reducing it to a shorter
form. For example, the word 'fan' is used to mean 'fanatic', 'exam' for examination,
'pub' for 'public house', 'flu' for 'influenza', 'bus' for 'omnibus', 'pants' for pantaloons'
and 'pram' for 'perambulator'. Other examples include the words 'maths', 'phone',
'plane', 'fridge' etc.

5. Telescoping is the process by which two words are combined into one often with the
elision of a vowel. For example, the expression 'to dout a fire’ is a telescoped version
of 'do out'. Similarly, 'to atone’ is a telescoped form of ‘set at one'.

6. Backformation is the coinage of a word from an existing word which is mistakenly

assumed to be its derivative. For example, the verb 'televise' comes from the noun
'television'. Similarly the word 'donate' comes from the word 'donation', 'beg' comes
from 'beggar’, 'hawk' from 'hawker', 'audit' from 'auditor', 'burgle' from 'burglar' and
'babysit' from 'babysitter'.

7. Conversion (or category change or functional shift) is the process where there is a
change in the function of a word or a change from one grammatical category to
another without changing the form(with zero-affixation). For example, the noun
'butter' can be used as a verb as used in the sentence 'He buttered the toast'. We
can also 'bottle' a drink, 'chair' a meeting, 'sack' an employee etc. The reverse is also
possible as in the case of the noun 'spy' that is formed from the verb. Some
adjectives can also be changed to verbs. For example, we speak of 'dirtying' a room
and 'emptying' a bag and so on.

8. Autonomasia - Another process of word formation is from proper or personal nouns.

The words 'utopia' and 'utopian' come from Sir Thomas More’s Utopia. Similarly,
'sadist' comes from Marquis de Sade, 'sandwich' comes from the Earl of Sandwich,
 'boycott' from Captain Boycott and 'teddy-bear' from Theodore Roosevelt. Numerous
words have also been derived from place names (e.g. 'calico' from Calicut, 'damask'
from Damascus and 'muslin' from Mosul).

9. Borrowing is the process where words are borrowed from foreign languages. For
example, 'piano' is from Italian, 'yogurt' from Turkish, 'tycoon' from Japanese etc.
[Calque/loan-translation is a closely related term. It is a direct translation of the
elements of a word into the borrowing language. For example, the Dutch word
'Wolkenkrabber' comes from the English word 'skyscraper'. Similarly, the German word
'wolkenkratzer' also has the same meaning]

10. Acronymy - Acronyms are words formed from the initial letters of a series of words.
Examples of acronyms include 'radar' (radio detecting and ranging), 'scuba'(
self-contained underwater breathing apparatus), 'laser' (light amplification by
stimulated emission of radiation) etc.

11. Onomatopoeia or imitation is said to occur when a word imitates the noises it
describes. Examples include 'cuckoo', 'fizz’, 'buzz', 'click', 'bang', 'squelch' etc

12. Corruption (or misunderstanding) is a method of word-formation that is a result of the

mispronunciation of foreign words and phrases. For example, 'goodbye' is a garbled
form of 'God be with you’. Similarly, 'bloody' comes from 'by our lady’ and 'blimey' is a
corrupt form of 'may God blind me'.

13. Metanalysis is reanalysis or different analysis. In this process, the consonant at the
end of one word becomes attached to the vowel at the beginning of the next. So, by
reanalysis a new combination is formed. Thus, 'an ickname’ became 'a nickname’, and
'an ewt' became 'a newt’. Sometimes, the process works the other way and the article
steals an 'n' from the noun that follows it. Thus, 'a numpire' became 'an umpire’ and 'a
napron' became 'an apron'.

14. Freak formation is the process of word formation that is a result of strange
circumstance. For example, the word 'teetotaller' was formed when a man stammered
while trying to say 'total abstainer'.

15. Hypocorism is closely related to clipping. It includes the shortening a word and adding
a '-y' or '-ie' to the end of the word. For example, 'movie' is used for 'moving pictures',
'hanky' for 'handkerchief', 'telly' for 'television', 'barbie' for 'barbeque', 'bookie' for
'bookmaker'
16. Reduplicatives - Certain compound words have two or elements which are either
identical or only slightly different. The difference between the two elements may be in
the initial consonants (willy-nilly, walkie-talkie) or in the medial or final vowels (tip-top,
ee-saw). Most of the reduplicatives are used in informal speech.
17. Syncopation - This is a process by which a word is shortened by the omission
of a vowel or a consonant on either side running together. For example,
Hence < henes
Else < elles
 Past participles like ‘forlorn’ and ‘born’ are the result of syncopation, since they had the
suffix -en.
CHAPTER 1 (from A Concise History of English Language – K.A Radhakumari)

Word-Formation/Growth of Vocabulary/Word-Making in English

The English language has a very rich and extensive vocabulary. This is partly due vo
historical factors, partly due to ‘the genius of the language’ to make new words where
existing terms are inadequate and also because of its readiness to absorb words from
foreign tongues. Human beings may run short of the basic essentials of life, but never short
of words. New ideas, new fashions, new inventions and discoveries and even new societal
issues and crimes demand fresh expressions. Surprisingly, they are always in the coffer as a
result of a growth from within. This growth takes place in a number of ways.

Imitation or Onomatopoeia

This is one of the basic and oldest methods of word-making. It is considered to be one of the
most important sources of words in all languages. Each possible sound made by man
himself or by animals, insects, birds or even lifeless objects has a word to denote it. A
number of words are thus echoic or imitative in character, the sound echoing the sense. For
example buzz, click, cluck, crash, giggle, hiss, rumble, screech, splash, etc. The word
‘cuckoo’ is a verbal attempt to represent its distinctive call. There are many terms in daily
use that reflect the onomatopoeic principle. For example, the word ‘slither’ has a slippery
suggestion about it. The word ‘awe’ reminds us of the exclamation ‘oh!’, denoting surprise
and wonder. Words with the initial ‘sn’ are often associated with the nose. For example snarl,
sneer, sneeze, sniff, snore, snort, etc. The combination ‘bl’ suggests inflation. For example
blow, blast, blister, bladder, etc. A large number of words suggesting stability or lack of
movement are found to begin with the combination ‘st’. For example statue, stop, stay,
station, stand, still, stable, etc. The combination ‘fl’ implies hurry as ge flee, fling, flash, etc.
But this process cannot be pursued too far for all words beginning with ‘bl’ do not suggest
inflation. For example‘blue’ and ‘black’; the ‘st’ combination does not stand for stability in
words like ‘star’, ‘stale’, etc. So also ‘fl’ does not signify any movement in ‘flask’, ‘flannel’,
‘flat’, etc. Nevertheless, the fact that onomatopoeia can be detected in a number of words
shows that in the past it had been one of the chief methods of word-making.

Conversion
This is the transfer of a word from one grammatical category to another, i.e, from noun to
verb, adjective to noun and so on. For example, we can paper a room, stone a prophet, floor
an adversary, sack an employee, pocket an insult etc. The nouns signifying the parts of the
body can nearly all be used as verbs: we can elbow our way through a crowd, eye a person
with suspicion, nose around, thumb a book, face a danger, toe the line, foot a stocking or
foot it along with a dusty road or foot a bill. In modern times, many new verbs are formed
from nouns. For example, to feature, to pinpoint, to highlight etc. In recent years, certain
compound nouns have been formed from corresponding verbs. For example, walk-out,
know-how, black-out, etc.
Abbreviation or Shortening or Clipped Forms
Shortening of words, by the omission of sounds from the beginning, the middle or the end, is
one of the most general forms of change giving rise to new words. When shortening takes
place as a result of a gradual or unintentional loss of an unaccented vowel at the beginning
of a wordit is called Aphesis. For example,cute > acute,venture > adventure, etc. The
shortening that takes place a ate of the omission of the final syllable ts called Apocope. For
example, Cab > cabriolet; taxi > taximeter cabriolet, photo > photograph, mob > mobile
vulgus. We also have such shortenings as:

Flu > influenza

Fridge > refrigerator
Bike > bicycle
Bus > omnibus
Lab > laboratory
Plane > aeroplane
Phone > telephone
Pram > perambulator
Pants > pantaloons
Auto > automobile
ZOO > zoological gardens
Maths > mathematics
Exam > examination
Ad > advertisement
Mike > microphone
Pub > public house
Para > paragraph

Some shortened forms have become so popular that the full words have been forgotten, e.g.
wig (periwig), goodbye (God be with you).

Syncopation

This is a process by which a word is shortened by the omission of a vowel or a consonant on

either side running together. For example,
Hence < henes
Else < elles
Past participles like ‘forlorn’ and ‘born’ are the result of syncopation, since they had the suffix
-en.

Portmanteau Words or Blends

Sometimes a new word is formed by combining part of one word with part of another. The
new word carries with it the idea behind both the original terms. Lewis Caroll made many
such blends; two of his creations have become fairly well known. They are ‘chortle’ (chuckle
and snort) and ‘gallump’ (gallop and triumph). Thomas Carlyle has given us the word
‘gigmanity’ (gig and humanity) to refer to those people of his time who considered
themselves socially superior because they possessed a gig. There are a number of words
which originated in this way and which are now part of normal English vocabulary. For
example,

Tragic-comedy> tragedy and comedy

brunch> breakfast and lunch
Melodrama >melody and drama
Travelogue> travel and monologue
Radiogram> radio set and gramophone
motel>motorist and hotel
Electrocute > electric and execute
Smog > smoke and fog
Flurry > fly and hurry
Comsat> communication and satellite
comintern >communist and international
Glocal > global and local
Skyjack > sky and hijack
Edutainment > education and entertainment
Stagflation > stagnation and inflation
three-peat> three and repeat (winning a competition three times)

Infotainment > information and entertainment

Edusat > education and satellite

Metanalysis or Reanalysis
This is the name given to the incorrect division of words. The consonant at the end of one
word becomes attached to the vowel at the beginning of the next word; by reanalysis a new
combination is formed. For example,

A nickname<an ickname
A newt <an ewt
An adder < a nadder
An orange< a norange
An apron < a napron

The adjective ‘tawdry’ is derived from Saint Audrey, the patron saint of finery at whose feast
a lot of articles of inferior quality were sold. Another example is the phrase ‘mine uncle’
which is used as ‘my nuncle’ in King Lear.

‘Telescoping

This is a process by which two words are combined into one, often with the elision of a
vowel. The verbs ‘to don’ and ‘to doff’ are the result of the telescoping of ‘to do on’ and ‘to do
off’. The expression ‘to dout a fire’ is a telescoped form of ‘to do out’. The earliest example of
telescoping is the word ‘atone’. It was formerly two words ‘at one’ and was used adverbially
around 1300. By 1557, telescoping had taken place and the single word ‘atone’ resulted.
The verbal use of the word first appeared in Shakespeare’s Richard IT: ‘since we cannot
atone you, we shall see Justine design the Victor’s chivalry’. More recent examples of
telescoping are ‘pinafore’ and ‘overall’.
Compounding or Composition

One method of word formation that has been very prolific is compounding. ‘Two or more
words are put together to make a new word. The commonest type is noun and noun, e.g.,
classroom, ice cream rainbow, bookcase, railway, teacup, houseboat, etc. But there gre also
other compounds like:

Adjective + Noun, e.g. hot-bed, blackboard, greenhouse

Adverb + Noun, e.g. downfall, afterthought, outpost

Noun + Adjective, e.g. seasick, snow-white, knee-deep

Adjective/Adverb + Adjective, e.g. dark blue, evergreen, fully grown
Noun/Adjective + Verb, e.g. whitewash, wire draw
Adverb + Verb, e.g. overtake, overcome

Noun/Adjective + Participle, e.g. machine made, heart-breaking, bedridden, easy-going

Verb + Adverb, e.g. set back, break down

Adverb/Adjective + Participle, e.g. well known, oncoming, incoming

Verb + Noun, e.g. breakneck, daredevil, know-how

Often the two elements are hyphenated. There are also a number of phrases which have
been wielded into compounds, e.g. happy-golucky, mother-in-law, hand-to-mouth, etc.

Acronyms or Words from Initials

At times initials are used more commonly than the actual names for Which they stand. Such
initials can almost be regarded as words themselves. Thus we usually speak of an M.A. or a
B.A. rather than Master of Arts or Bachelor of Arts. Usually, it is either brevity or the desire
for catchy expressions that is the motive for forming acronyms. In some cases it is
euphemism. For example, TB was initially euphemistic. Acronyms like BBC (British
Broadcasting Corporation) CID (Central Investigation Department) are so well known that
one can think of using the words they represent. In some cases the initials have actually
been combined to form words. For example, UNESCO, UNICEF, CARE, RADAR, etc.
‘Gestapo’, the name given to the secret police in Nazi Germany, was made by combining the
beginnings of three words which formed their official designation—‘Geheime Staats Polizei’.

Affixation

Another common device of forming new words is by adding prefixes (initial affixation) and
suffixes (terminal affixation) to existing words This tendency dates back to the Old English
period.

Prefixes

Be-belittle, beset

For-forlorn, forbear
Mis-mislead, misbehave

Un-uncouth, unlucky

Ante-anteroom, antedate
Counter-counteract, counterpoint
De-decode, dehumanize

Ex-ex-prime minister, ex-official

In-inability, injustice

Post-post-war, post-graduate
pre-prefix, pre-degree

Re-rebirth, rebuild

Super-supermarket, supernatural
Ultra-ultramodern, ultraviolet
Non-non-stop, non-existent
Anti-antinational, antihero
Arch-archbishop, archenemy
Auto--Autobiography, autosuggestion

Hyper- hypertension, hypersensitive

Pseudo-pseudoclassical
Dis-Disagree, disobedient
Micro-microchip, microwave
Bio – biochemistry, biodegradable

Suffixes

En – strengthen, lengthen
_dom- kingdom, dukedom
-ful-beautiful, cheerful –
Hood-childhood, boyhood
-ish- childish, boyish
-less-childless, helpless
-let- outlet, booklet
-ly-kingly, manly
-ness-kindness, bitterness
-ship-friendship, kingship
-y- hungry, noisy
-ation- starvation, operation
-ative-talkative
ic-energetic, comic

Words from Proper Nouns

Many new words have come from proper nouns. For example, ‘sandwich’ from the Earl of
Sandwich who first introduced sandwiches as a convenient form of refreshment for his card
parties, “Grundyism’ from Mrs Grundy-the symbol of prudish public opinion in Thomas
Norton’s play Speed the Plough; ‘malapropism’ from Mrs Malaprop in Sheridan’s The Rivals,
‘Utopian’ from Sir Thomas Moare’s Utopia, ‘spoonerism’ from Dr Spooner who confused
words by wrongly placing initial words, ‘boycott’ from Charles Boycote, a land agent who was
ostracized by the Irish land league agitators; ‘pander’ from
Pandarus in Chaucer’s Troilus and Cressida; ‘teddy bear’ from Theodore Roosevelt,
‘cardigan’ from the seventh century Earl of Cardigan who led the charge of the Light Brigade
in the Crimean War, wearing extra woollen garments to withstand the biting cold. 4 number
of scientific terms are coined from the names of the scientists:

Ampere < the French scientist Ampere

pasteurize < Louis Pasteur < <
Watts James Watt
Ohm the German scientist Ohm
Sometimes the names of flowers are coined from the names of those people who first
cultivated them. For example, ‘dahlia’ is from the name of the Swedish botanist Dahl.
A number of words are derived from place names. For example,

Calico < Calicut

Muslin < Mosul

Laconic < Laconia in Greece

champagne < Champagne in France
Traditional characteristics have been attached to certain races and nationalities and this has
given rise to new words. If a person is mean and miserly we call him a Jew, if stupid, an
Irishman; if stingy, a Scotsman; if destructive, a vandal; if he is a thorough materialist, we

Call him a Philistine.

Back Formation

This is the coinage of a word from an existing word which is mistakenly assumed to be its
derivative. For example, ‘grovelling’ was an adverb which meant ‘on the ground in an abject
manner’. It was wrongly understood to be a present participle and a new word ‘to grovel’ was
formed from it. In the same way, the nouns beggar, hawker, editor, burglar and pedlar have
given us the verbs ‘to beg’,

To hawk, ‘to edit’, ‘to burgle’, ‘to peddle’ respectively. Other examples are:

Televise < television

Audit < auditor
Gloom < gloomy
Donate < donation
Swindle < swindler

More recently we have ‘to housekeep’ from housekeeper, ‘to visit’ fom visitor, ‘to babysit’
from babysitter. G.K. Chesterton has humorously made use of this device in this expression
‘the wicked grocer groces’.

Corruption or Misunderstanding

This may occasionally be responsible for bringing a new word into the language. The word
‘goodbye’ is said to be a corruption of ‘god be with you’ and ‘bloody’, a corruption of ‘by our
lady’; ‘jeopardy’ is, likewise, a corruption of the French term jeu parti which meant an evenly
matched game. The word “Whitsun’ is a corruption of ‘Whit Sunday’. By metanalysis “Whit
Sunday’ became “Whitsun Day’. Now we have “Whitsun week’, “Whitsun tide’ and even
‘Whitsun Monday’.
Freak Formation

Words have strayed into the language through very strange or Unexpected circumstances.
Such words are called ‘freaks’ and the Process ‘freak formation’. For example, the word
‘teetotaller’ is said to have originated as a result of the attempt of a stammering advocate to
pronounce the expression ‘total abstainer’; ‘funny bone’ is a scholastic pun upon the
anatomical term ‘humerus’.

Reduplication

A word is created by reduplication, either with a variation of the VOWel or of the consonant.
For example, ‘see-saw’, ‘shilly-shally’, ‘namby-pamby’, ‘ping-pong’, ‘dilly-dally’, ‘roly-poly’,
‘zig-zag’, ‘helrer-skelter’, etc.

In addition to this, poets, philosophers and scientists have created

Words which have obtained literary currency.

The Makers of English

Writers in English have enriched both the language and literature. They save obsolete words
from extinction by making use of them in their works. They also lend an added charm to
existing words by giving them different connotations. Henry Bradley has rightly remarked:
“We shall never know anything about the myriads of obscure persons who have contributed
to the development of the English language. But there are some Makers of English of whose
personality we do know something: namely, the authors of literary works that are still in
existence.’

Geoffrey Chaucer, Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare and John Milton form the band of
the early makers of English who have made substantial contributions to the English
language. The Bible too has made its distinct mark on the language. Nevertheless, there are
other writers who have, to a small extent, replenished the English word stock. In the fifteenth
century, Thomas Lydgate, Sir Thomas Malory and William Caxton were the makers. They
were followed by Sir Thomas More and John Lyly in the sixteenth century, Sir Thomas
Browne in the seventeenth century and Alexander Pope in the eighteenth century.

Sir Walter Scott revived words like ‘raid’ and ‘glamour’, while Thomas Carlyle coined new
compound words and derivatives in emulation of the German language. William Makepeace
Thackeray has given the phrase ‘vanity fair’ and Charles Dickens the word
‘Pickwickian’.
Semantics

Semantics is one of the most fascinating branches of the study of languagee. The word
semantics is derived from the Greek word ‘semaneiene’ meaning ‘to signify’. Ic is a
surprising fact that many words have not always had the same meaning that they have
today. For example the word ‘fond’ in Shakespeare implied ‘foolish’ whereas it means ‘loving’
to us. Innumerable words in the English language have changed their meaning in this way,
for language is never static; it is subject to changes and growth.

Words have no independent or intrinsic meaning. They mean only what we choose to make
them mean. They get meanings because of the significance given to them by the human
mind and by their context. It is therefore wrong to suppose that a word can be properly used
only in its root (etymological) sense. A word may bring ro mind different ideas for different
persons in different ages. In the Middle Ages, the word ‘villein’ meant only a lowly labourer.
But two hundred years later, the word evoked his uncouth manners and not the social
position or occupation of such a person. Later it suggested an ‘evil-doer’ because of the
tendency in men to identify social respectability and gentlemanly behaviour with moral
integrity. The history of the development of this one word is a point of psychological and
social interest. That is why the science of semantics has more important bearings on other
fields of investigation besides linguistics. A careful study of the changes in meaning, i.e.
semantics which English words have undergone will help us to understand the general
Principles underlying the development of new meanings in words and the disappearance of
meanings that were formerly current.

Generalization/Widening/Extension of Meaning

This is a process by which a term which once had a specialized and restricted meaning
comes in course of time to have a wider application. A typical example is the word ‘box’.
Originally it was used to refer to the wood taken from the boxwood tree. Then the name was
Applied to a casket made of that wood. ‘The sense grew wider and gradually, caskets made
of any kind of wood acquired the name ‘box’, Till che end of the seventeenth century, the
word was associated with smallness. After 1700, this restriction disappeared and today we
have boxes of any material and of any size. We have moncy boxes, letter boxes and even
boxes in the theatre.

Thing is an example of extreme generalization resulting in vagueness. The word originally

meant a legislative assembly or a court of law. Then it came to mean a case brought before
the assembly; then a discussion or a matter. From this it has been generalized to denote
anything. In Modern English ‘thing’ is perhaps the word with the most vague and indefinable
meaning.

Words often take on a wider meaning when they come out of the language of a special
group and get adopted by the speech community as a whole. For example, the word ‘junk’
was originally a sailor’s slang for ‘old rope’, but now it has moved out of that restricted
sphere and has the wider meaning of ‘useless stuff’. Similar wider meanings can be seen in
the popular use of words from other fields, e.g. allergic from medicine, complex from
psychology, and alibi from law.

Specialization/Narrowing of Meaning

By this process, a word which had a wider application comes to be restricted in its meaning.
A typical example of this process of specialization is the word meat which meant food of any
kind. Chaucer uses the word in this wider sense. In the Authorised Version of the Bible, the
word is used in this sense. This older sense is preserved in the word ‘sweet meats’, and also
in the proverb ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison’. In modern English it has come to
mean ‘edible flesh’.

Deer is another example: as late as Shakespeare’s time, the word carried its original sense
of ‘animal’. In King Lear, we come across 2 reference to ‘rats and mice and such small deer’;
but in Modern English it has become restricted to one particular species. The Latin word
‘animal’ and the French word ‘beast’ have become general terms .

More recent examples are ‘photogenic’ which used to mean «yitable for being
photographed’, it has now been narrowed to ‘good looking’ or ‘glamorous’, and the verb ‘to
discipline’ which used to mean ‘provide discipline’ or ‘to train’ is now commonly used in the
sense of ‘to punish’.

Catachrests/Pejoration/Deterioration!/ Degeneration of Meaning

Catachresis is a very common semantic phenomenon by which a

Word comes to mean something much worse than what it originally denoted. Examples:

Knave originally meant ‘boy’ or ‘lad’. Then it acquired the sense of a boy employed as a
servant and still later it came to mean ‘rascal’ or ‘rogue’, perhaps because such boys were
frequently up to mischievous pranks and used to behave dishonestly.

Silly once meant happy, blissful and holy as in the ‘silly child’ of Chaucer. Later, it signified
helpless and defenceless and became a conventional epithet as in the ‘silly sheep’ of Milton,
Cowper and Arnold. Then it descended yet lower and came to imply ‘foolish’ and ‘feeble
minded’ or ‘imbecile’.

Amelioration/Improving of Sense/ Regeneration

This is a process by which a word which originally had a bad or unpleasant significance
gradually gets improved in meaning. These processes of elevation and degeneration of
meaning are a form of specialization. Examples:
Nice is a typical example of the process of elevation. It is derived from the Latin word
‘nescius’ meaning ignorant. It is found in English from the thirteenth century onwards and in
the early stage the word had quite a derogatory sense. Chaucer uses it as a synonym for
‘foolish’, From ‘foolisl’ it developed the meaning of ‘foolishly particular about small things’
and thus came to denote ‘fastidious’ or ‘precise’ with a touch of scorn. Later it was made to
refer to actions Or qualities as in ‘a nice sense of honour, humour’ or ‘a nice distinction’.
From the latter part of the eighteenth century it was used as a term of praise. But in Modern
English, it has lost much of its individuality and has become a vaguely pleasant term.

Fond: The original meaning was ‘foolish’. Milton uses ‘fond’ in this sense in Lycidas, ‘Ay me!
I fondly dream.’ In Modern English, the word has risen considerably in the scale of meaning
and is generally used in the sense of ‘loving’, ‘affectionate’.

Radiation/Polysemy

Another semantic change is radiation or polysemy. Some words develop a whole family of
meanings, each one forming a starting point for more. The co-existence of several meanings
in one word is known as polysemy. Examples:

Paper originated from the ‘paper reed’ of the Nile made from thin strips of papyrus and which
were first made as a suitable substitute to parchment. Later the name was transferred to
materials made of other things. Today the word ‘paper’ has acquired a number of meanings.
It may refer to a document or an article on some particular topic, a daily newspaper or a set
of questions in an examination.

Power means the ability or the capacity to do anything. In Modern English, it has diverse
meanings such as the capacity for mental or bodily action (power of movement, intellectual
power), mechanical and natural energy as in electric ‘power station’, ‘horse power’, and
political or national strength as in the expression ‘balance of power’ .

Head: Because the head is that part of the human body containing che brain, it may be the
top of anything literally or metaphorically. For example, ‘head of a nail’, ‘head of a state’. It
may also denote a single person as in ‘per head’, or one of the main points or logical
divisions of a subject as in ‘to write the essay under several heads’. Usually parts relating to
the human body lend themselves to this kind of radiation. In radiation, the different meanings
do not derive from one another but they radiate from a common centre and are mutually
independent.

Concatenation is from Latin ‘catena which means a chain or a link. In this semantic process,
the successive changes are like the links of a chain. Each stage in the development can be
seen to belong to one of the recognized types of semantic changes; but the final meaning
may differ considerably from the original. Examples,
 Cardinal is from Latin ‘cardinalis’ which means ‘hinge’. Its different

Stages are:

.Pertaining to a hinge
i.Of fundamental importance
ii.Church official connected with one of the Churches of Rome
(iv) one of the 70 ecclesiastics who constitute the Pope’s council and who wear scarlet hats
and robes
iv. A scarlet cloak
.Bright red used as an adjective
.A bird with scarlet plumes

The last three meanings are highly specialized and are not very Current today; it is the fourth
meaning that has survived in Modern English. .

Treacle is originally derived from Greek and meant ‘pertaining to wild animals’. ‘The stages
of its development are:

. A remedy for the bite of a wild animal Gii) remedy in general. (iii) a remedy in the
form of a syrup (iv) syrup in general (v) sugary syrup

Euphemism

The term is derived from the Greek words meaning ‘well’ and ‘speak’. It is the figure of
speech by which a less offensive term is used to hide the real nature of something
unpleasant. Euphemisms are usually associated with disease, illness, death, sex and
excretion, which cause a certain amount of pain or disgust if discussed in plain terms. For
example,

Euphemistic expressions for the verb ‘to die’: to pass away, to breathe one’s last, to go to a
better world, to succumb, to expire, to depart from life, to go west, etc. ‘Cemetery’ literally
meant ‘a sleeping place’; now there are further euphemisms like ‘memorial park’ and
‘necropolis’. “Undertakers’ now call themselves funeral furnishers and morticians. Economic
crisis, referred to as depression, is being replaced by ‘downturn’. Nowadays, nobody is
unemployed but merely ‘redundant’, while the poor are the ‘under privileged’. So also ‘paying
guest’ for boarder, ‘financier’ for moneylender and ‘sanitary engineer’ for plumber. Certain
euphemistic expressions are formed when the human impulse to swear is checked by
religion or social prohibitions. For example, darn (damn), ’sblood (God’s blood), zounds
(God’s wounds).

Synaesthesia

The term synaesthesia is derived from the Greek word meaning ‘perceive together’. It is a
metaphorical process by which one sense experience is described in terms of the
vocabulary of another, such a ‘weet Music’ or ‘a warm colour’. The expression ‘sweet music’
combines the adjective sweet which indicates gustatory experience with the noun music
which is related to the auditory sense; while in che expression ‘warm colour’ the adjective
warm which refers to sense of feeling (the tactile sense) is matched with the noun colour
which signifies the sense of sight (visual sense).

Metonymy

Metonymy is a figure of speech in which one word is substituted for another that is closely
related to it. For example, crown for royalty; songue for language; copper for penny.

Synecdoche

The term synecdoche is derived from the Greek term meaning ‘shared understanding’. It is a
figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole. For example, four wheels for
a motor car; hand for labourer; mouths to feed; per head; many a heart, etc.

Jargon

The term jargon is derived from Old French meaning ‘the twittering of birds, meaningless
talk’. Jargon is the specialized language of a profession, occupation, or other groups, often
meaningless to outsiders. We have doctor’s jargon, lawyer’s jargon, film jargon, etc.

Dialectal Diversity

The marked changes in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar that are noticeable in the
accepted form of a language are known as its dialects. English has various dialects like
Cockney, Irish, Scottish and Welsh.

Semantics
Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences. This approach is
concerned only with the referential meaning or, the linguistic meaning that is shared by all
competent users of the language. It simple words, semantics is only concerned with the "literal
meaning" of the text and not the associative meanings or contextual meaning. The basic units of
semantic analysis are lexemes ( or words).
Semantics helps us to identify odd phrases or sentences in a language. For example ,the
sentence 'My mobile-phone ate jelly and rocks' is syntactically correct, but semantically odd.
The meaning of a word depends on its relation to other words. Synonymy, antonymy, homophony,
homonymy, polysemy and hyponymy are the different ways in which the meaning of a word is
related to other words (or lexical items).
Homonymy and Polysemy
Homonyms are different words with the same form and the same sound. For example, the word
'bank' can be used to denote a financial institution or the side of a river. Polysemy, on the other
hand, refers to a multiplicity of meanings for the same word. For example, the word 'neck' can
mean 'part of the body', 'part of shirt or other garment', 'part of bottle' and so on. Polysemy,
however, is different from homonymy because the principal consideration of polysemy is
relatedness of meaning.
Synonymy
When two words have identical meanings, they are said to be synonyms. Synonymy can be
complete, absolute or descriptive. Absolute synonymy occurs only when the words have the same
distribution and are completely synonymous in all their meanings and in all their contexts of
occurrence. Absolute synonyms are rare and extremely hard to come by. 'Caecitis' and 'typhlitis’
both mean inflammation of the blind gut and are considered to be absolute synonyms. However,
in such cases of absolute synonymy, one word gains greater acceptance and the other either
disappears or develops a new meaning.
The synonyms 'broad' and 'wide' are not absolutely synonymous. For example, we might speak of
a door that is three feet wide and not three feet broad. However, they are completely synonymous
in some contexts and can be used interchangeably. For example, it is possible to say 'They
painted a wide/broad stripe across the wall’.
However, the most commonly recognised type of synonymy is descriptive synonymy (also called
cognitive or referential synonymy). They are sets of synonyms that all speakers of a language
may understand even if not all speakers of a language will use them. Examples include the sets
'father', 'daddy', ’dad’ etc.; ‘lavatory’, 'toilet', 'loo' etc. In some cases, euphemism—the avoidance
of tabooed words—has played an important role in changing the descriptive meaning of words.
Antonymy
Antonymy is a semantic term which illustrates the relationship of words that share 'oppositeness'
of meaning, e.g. long-short, sharp-blunt, fast-slow etc. There are three types of
antonyms—graded antonyms, ungraded antonyms and converse antonyms. In graded antonyms,
there are degrees of difference. For example, in the set 'big-small', it is possible to say bigger or
smaller. In ungraded antonyms, there is an either/or contrast as in 'alive-dead'. Converse
antonyms indicate two-way cont rasts that are inter-dependent. Examples include pairs like
'parent-child', 'slavemaster' etc.
Hyponymy
Hyponymy is a semantic term which refers to the relationship between specific and general items
such that the former is included in the latter. For example, the term 'dog' is included in the
category of 'animal' and therefore 'dog' is a hyponym of 'animal'. In the same way, 'table' is a
hyponym of 'furniture’ and 'sword' of 'weapon'. The set of terms which are hyponyms of the same
category are called co-hyponyms ('cat', 'dog' and 'tiger').
Sense and Denotation
Some lexemes in the same language are related both to other lexemes in the same language
(e.g. 'cow' is related to 'animal', 'bull', 'calf' etc.) and to entities, properties, situations, relations etc.
in the outside world (e.g. 'cow' is related to a particular class of animals). When a lexeme is
related to other lexemes, it is related to them in sense .But when a lexeme is related to the
outside world, it is related by means of denotation.
In other words, sense is a process where a word is explained using other words. This is
commonly seen in dictionary definitions. On the other hand, the definition given to something, or
pointing to an object of any kind is called denotation. The denotation of an expression is part of a
reality that the expression is linked to. For example, if a friend uses the word 'dog', we think of
related words and get a mental image of a dog. This is sense. But if you are looking at a particular
dog and the friend says "that ugly thing", we understand that the phrase refers to the dog. This is
denotation. Another example is the term "Miss World". The sense refers to the winner of the
contest. But in 2018, it denotes Manushi Chillar.
Pragmatics
The study of meaning that arises from situations is called pragmatics. To understand the
pragmatic meaning of an utterance, one needs to understand the context. For example, if one
says, "It's cold", it might be an indication for the listener to shut the window (or turn off the fan).
However, the meaning is not stated explicitly, it is implied from the context. In other words,
pragmatics is the study of "invisible" meaning.
Some utterances say something by not saying anything (e.g. reference letter that makes no
reference to conduct).
Context and Meaning
Context is an important factor that helps in determining the meaning of an utterance. There are
two kinds of context-physical context' and 'linguistic context’ (also known as co-text).
Physical context refers to the location where one encounters the utterance. For example, the
word 'Bank' written on a building is an indication it is a financial institution.
Context refers to a word or a set of other words used with the main word. For example, in the
sentence 'Water can overflow from the banks', it becomes clear from the word 'water' that 'bank' in
this context refers to the land alongside a river.