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