Semantic Change

Metonymy

________: employing the meaning of a word to do service for a concept to which it is closely related.

Errors

________ and misrepresentation: sometimes speakers are not familiar enough with the labels /words.

Semantic shift

________: meanings /concepts change over time.

Pejoration

________: a word changes from an innately positive meaning to a more innately negative meaning.

Metaphor extension

________: meaning pattern of a word /phrase is extended to another context.

Social historical factors

________: old words adapted to new purposes with innovations of tech, society, politics, and culture.

semantic shift

meanings / concepts change over time

errors and misrepresentation

sometimes speakers are not familiar enough with the labels / words

creative variation

humans are social and like to play with language

social-historical factors

old words adapted to new purposes with innovations of tech, society, politics, and culture

paucity of words

there's an infinite number of things to say and a finite number of words ➝ very likely youll use a common word in an uncommon way

widening

the range of possible meanings of the word expands

narrowing

range of possible meanings of the word contracts / gets smaller

metaphor extension

meaning pattern of a word / phrase is extended to another context

metonymy

employing the meaning of a word to do service for a concept to which it is closely related

pejoration

a word changes from an innately positive meaning to a more innately negative meaning

amelioration

neg ➝ pos meaning