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1、ABriefAccountofVariationCharacteristicsofEnglishLexicalMeaningI.IntroductionLexis,asthesmallestandthemostactiveelementinlanguage,conveysgreatamountofcultural-specificinformationandembodiessociallife,whichweoftenfindinnewcontentandform.Astherapiddevelopmentofsoci
2、etyaswellasthedeepeningofcognition,thelexicalmeaningshavebeenevolvingaccordingly.Anearlysemanticistsummarizedthefactorsofvariationoflexicalmeaningsintothirty-onearticles.Althoughitmaysoundsurprising,wecanseeitscomplexity.Inspiteofthat,themainlycharacteristicsare
3、relativelyobvious,asfollowing.English,whichoriginatedfromthelanguageoftheSaxonsandtheJutesinthefirsthalfofthe5thAD,hasundergonealonghistoricalperiodofsocialdevelopmentandchanges,especiallyinthereignofinvaderstwice,thelexicalmeaningshadbroughtupintensechanges.Lan
4、guageisthebarometerofthesocietythatismovingforwardconstantly.Languageisthesystemofsymbolsforhumancommunication,changingwiththedevelopmentofsociety.Lexicalchangesareoneoftheimportantaspectsoflanguagechange,andtheyreflectthedevelopmentandchangesofthesocietyfaithfu
5、llyandtimelyduetotheircloseconnectionswithit.Accompanywiththechangesofthethings,phenomenonandbehavior,alsowiththesocialadvancement,politicalchangesaswellastherapid24developmentofscienceandtechnology,thewordsaregivennewmeanings,andthereforelexicalmeaningsvaryinev
6、itably.Thedevelopmentoflanguagealways,whichproceedsinaccordancewiththecertainlaw，leadstothechangesofwordmeanings,suchasthatthemeaningexplainedinafewwordsoriginallythrowtheemphasisontooneword,allthesametheomissionofwordsmakesthemeaningofawordchanged.Thelatterpoin
7、tisbasedonhumanexperiencesoftheworldandthewaytheyperceiveandconceptualizetheworld,andheremainlyfocusonthechangesoflexicalmeaningsofsomewordsthrougheuphemism,exaggerationandsarcasm.Forexample,theusesofslowlearnersorunderachieversinsteadofretardedchildren,lower-in
8、comebracketsinsteadofpoorpeopleetc.aretheresultsofeuphemism.II.ExtensionofmeaningA.DefinitionofextensionExtensionisalsocalledgeneralizationorbroadening.“Broadeningisa
