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1、AnanalysisofthechangeinwordmeaningIntroductionAsatoolforpeopletoexpressandcommunicate,languageischangingconstantly,justliketherealworldischangingfromtimetotime.Amongallthekeyelementsoflanguage,thechangeinwordmeaningisthemostconspicuous.Itplaysaveryimportantroleintheincreaseoftheexpressiveandreferen
2、tialpowerofhumanvocabularywithoutnecessarilyaddingtoomanynewwordstoit,thusplacingaheavierburdenonhumanmemory.Itseemedthattherisingneedofhumanbeingstorefertoeveremergingnewthingsandideaswouldcallforaparallelincrementofsymbolsorwordsforthem.However,thisisnottrue.Peopleencodenewideasintoexistingwords,
3、causingmeaningshiftsinonewayortheother.“Thechangeofmeaningisacommonplace,andindeeditwouldappeartobefundamentalinlivinglanguage.Almosteverywordweusetodayhasaslightlydifferentmeaningfromtheoneithadacenturyago.”(Quirk,1963:123-124)ThechangeofmeaningcanbeillustratedwithwordsfromanypageofShakespeare.Adm
4、irationinShakespeare’sdaymeantastonishment,toseasonmeanttomoderate.SowhenHoratiosaystoHamlettoseasonyouradmirationforawhile…heisnottellingHamlettoincreasehisrespect(thecurrentmeaningofadmiration)forsomething,buttomoderatehisastonishment.WhenJuliettellsRomeoIamtoofond,sheisnotclaimingshelikesRomeoto
5、omuch.Shemeant,Iamtoofoolish.OnthebasisofreadingandstudyingalotofworksaboutsemanticchangesinEnglish,theauthorplanstoanalyzethewordmeaninginEnglishfromthreemainaspects:thecausesofmeaningchange,tendenciesinsemanticchangesandthechangesresultingfromfigurativeusages.Inthepaper,manyexamplesareusedtodemon
6、strateandallofthemareactiveand22true,whicharefoundinOED,LCEandmanyotherfamousworksinEnglishandChinese,theycouldhelpreadersunderstandthispapereasily.22ChapterOneCausesofChangeinWordMeaningThechangeofmeaningcanhavemanycauses.Itisaverycomplicatedprocess.However,itispossibletodiscernsomeofthemaincauses
7、ofsemanticchange.1.1.Socialcause1.1.1ChangescausedbysocialdevelopmentFromsocio-linguistic,changesofmeaningareinfluencedbysocialdevelopment.Wordmeaningisdevelopedaccompanyhumanbeingsconcept.Thewordpenforexam
