7·2 Mechanism of Change

黄文珍 毕琴 张伊 位丹 陶婉艺

• In polysemy ,we have learned the two processes of meaning development ,namely radiation and concatenation ,which explain how

• words have developed multiple meanings and how these meanings are related ,but fail to explain in what way some meanings are extended ,some narrowed and others transferred .According to Bernard and Delbridge ,there is a mechanism that facilitates the change .

• Each word is likely to have certain associative connotations ,the total of which forms its associative field .The associations are dependent on one of the four types

1.) a similarity between associated sign-shapes

• E.g.• babble v. to talk in a quick and excited way that i

s difficult to understand   胡言乱语　　 bubble v. 起泡 n. 气泡，水泡

　　 dabble v. 涉足，浅赏 　　 dribble v.( 液体 ) 往下滴，淌 　　 gabble v. 急促而不清楚地说 　　 gobble v. 贪婪地吃，吞没 　　 hobble v. 蹒跚，跛行

2. ） a similarity between the sign-contents ,or concepts

• e.g.

Teacher

Instructor professor lecturer counselor governess

3)a contact between associated sign-shapes

• E.g.

• School

• College company studying teacher student education

4)a contact between the sign-contents ,or concepts ,usually

because of a continuity of referents• E.g.

• Soldier

• war peace death blood gun bomb fight arms weapon attack training general

• Whenever a word makes a polysemic extension and acquires a new meaning ,the new meaning will be one of the concepts in the associative field of the word .

• Take the word Champagne for example. Champagne is the name of a town in northeast of France . It bounds in a kind of wine with bubble whose color is orange or light grey. Later all wine of this kind is called champagne . It becomes a common word and its first letter is no longer capitalized .

• Of course , the change of meaning traverses a slow course. Take board as an example.

• In the first stage, board only means a long flat piece of wood

• Later it means (a flat piece of wood used as a table for meals, i.e. dining- table

• In the third place board acquires another meaning. That is a table around which members of a council sit.

• At last it refers to a group of persons controlling a business or a government department

In the change of the meaning of board, the original meaning “a long flat piece of wood” didn’t disappear but instead became less commonly used.

So as we can see, when a word acquires new meanings, it experiences a long and slow process as the social acceptance of a new meaning has to be tested by time