Anglická lexikologie – zpracovaná otázka
Changes of lexical meaning (widening, narrowing, deterioriation/pejoration, amelioration/elevation, euphemism; literal and figurative meaning, transfer of meaning, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, folk etymology, faux amis)
Vocabulary
- Grows by absorbing new words or by giving new additional meaning to the existing ones; the old meaning or the old word is sometimes replaced by the new one, but very often they coexist and so the word can become polysemic
Processes
1. widening
- shift from animal to the adult, e.g. bird, pig used to refer only to offspring X now it?s a general term
- shift from particular specie to the animal in general, e.g. dog was originally a special breed (the general term used to be a hound)
- shift from a smaller object to the larger one – box was originally only a small container
- shift from lexical to grammatical meaning, e.g. ‚have‘ used to have only lexical meaning X now it has also grammatical (perfect tenses)
- other shifts: ‚ready‘ used tom mean only ‚ready for a ride‘
2. narrowing
- a general term stopped being a general term and refers to a race or breed only
- deer – originally: all animals X now: vysoká
- fowl – or: all birds X now: only water fowl
- hound – or: all dogs X now: dogs for hunting
3. deterioration
- terms which developed in a negative way (usually ethnic terms)
- cunning – originally: leading X now: cunning as a fox (lstivý)
- villain – or: a man of a low social class X now: antihero (padouch)
- propaganda or: spreading news X now zkreslené informace
4. amelioration
- terms which developed in a positive way
- duke – used to meant ‚leader‘
- luxury – used to meant ‚extravagance‘
- nice – used to meant ‚ignorant‘
5. transfer
- a degree of similarity between two denotations
- a) metaphor – a transfer of meaning on the basis of exterior feature, the similarity may involve:
- I. shape – mouth (mouth of a person + of the river)
- II. colour – chocolate
- III. function – hand
- IV. mount – drop
- b) metonymy – attribute of the thing is used for the thing itself
- I. transfer of the activity to its bearer – counsel advice
- II. transfer of the activity to its product – teaching
- III. transfer of the condition to its bearer – youth
- IV. transfer of the quality to its bearer – Your Grace
- V. transfer of the product to a person – chair – židle -> předseda
6. synecdoche
- a part is used for the whole
- e.g. England is often used for the whole Great Britain
literal meaning
- is the same as the defined meaning
- literal m. denote
figurative meaning
- exaggerate/alter the original meaning
- figurative m connote, this means add layer
- e.g. when I saw him, my soul began to quiver
folk etymology
- thoughts of ordinary people about origins and meanings of words sometimes result in the change of words (especially with the foreign words)
- e.g. cutlet ? originally ii was French costelette, people associated it with the verb ‚cut‘-> cutlet
- e.g. humble means cheap -> eat humble pie
faux amis
- term from verb teaching methodology, are similar to inter language homophones
- e.g. actual X current/topical