meaningchangesinenglish英语词汇学论文

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1、MeaningChangesinEnglishAbstract:Asotherlanguagesintheworld,Englishchangesastimesgoesby.Englishformedanddevelopedovermanycenturiesintotheformtoday.StudyingthechangingprinciplesofwordsofEnglishwouldhelpusacquirefurtherawarenessofEnglishlexiconanddogoodtoourlanguageacquirement.Ke

2、ywords:meaningchangestypescauses1.IntroductionVocabularyisthemostunstableelementoflanguageasitisundergoingconstantchangesbothincontentandform.Ofcourse,somemeaningsremainmuchthesameforalongtimebecausethereferentstowhichtheydirectusdonotchange.Frequently，anoldformorwordsarepress

3、edintonewservicewhenanewlinguisticneedisfelt.Whenawordlosesitsoldmeaningandcomestorefertosomethingdifferent，theresultisachangeinwordmeaning.Changeofmeaningreferstothealternationofthemeaningofexistingwords,aswellastheadditionofnewmeaningtoaparticularword.2.Typesofmeaningchanges

4、2.1ExtensionofMeaning/GeneralizationofMeaningItisaprocessbywhichawordwhichoriginallyhadaspecializedmeaninghasnowbecomegeneralizedorhasextendedtocoverabroaderandoftenlessdefiniteconcept.Forexample，Manuscriptoriginallymeanshandwriting(writingbyhandonly)whileitspresentmeaningisan

5、yauthor’swritingwhetherwrittenbyhandortypedwithatype-writeroraword-processor.Salarywas(Original)asumofmoneygiventoRomansoldierstoenablethemtobuysalt;andis(present)fixedpaymentmadebyemployeratregularintervalstoemployees.AlargeproportionofpolysemouswordsofmodernEnglishhavetheirm

6、eaningsextendedsometimeinthecourseofdevelopment.Somewordsaregeneralizedtosuchadegreethattheycanmeanalmosteverything.(1)Sheissuchaprettylittlething.(2)Ihavetopackmythingsforthejourney.(3)ThereisanotherthingIwanttoaskyouabout.(4)Thatonlymakesthingsworse.(5)Thethingis,canwefinish

7、thejobintime?Intheabovesentences,“Thing”whichusedtomean“apublicassembly”or“acouncil”inAnglo-Saxontimes,nowhasbecomeanall-purposeword.Itsmeaningissogeneral,andwesometimescallthisnouna‘lightnoun’.heEnglishpeopleareofamixedblood.TheearlyinhabitantsoftheislandwenowcallEnglandwereB

8、ritons,butinfactalltheracesweretheinvaderscamefromEurope.Nobo