Semantics: How do words mean?

1. Semantics: How do words mean? "I don't know what you mean by 'glory,' "Alice said.    Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!'"    "But `glory' doesn't mean `a nice knock-down argument,'" Alice objected.    "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.    "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean different things."    "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master -- that's all."    Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again.    "They've a temper, some of them -- particularly verbs, they're the proudest -- adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs -- however, I can manage the whole lot! Impenetrability! That's what I say!" 
"Would you tell me, please," said Alice, "what that means?"    "Now you talk like a reasonable child," said Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased. "I meant by "impenetrability' that we've had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you'd mention what you meant to do next, as I suppose you don't intend to stop here all the rest of your life."    "That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone.    "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."    "Oh!" said Alice. She was too much puzzled to make any other remark.    “Ah, you should see ‘em come round me of a Saturday night," Humpty Dumpty went on, wagging his head gravely from side to side: "for to get their wages, you know." Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass (1872)

2. Natural (onomatopoeia) • as opposed to conventional • boom, mush, hiccup, splash • machines:beep, zoom, honk, zap • unrecognized: bleat (<ME blairt= blet) • broader category: ideophone (evokes a sensory perception, not just sound) • bling(-bling), sparkle (visual) • badonkadonk(size, shape) • hippety-hop (manner) • a blog about ideophones!

3. animal sounds: quack, moo, bark, woof, purr, meow, roar, baaBut note dog sounds in other languages (click here for more animals!) • Afrikaans: woef • Albanian: ham ham / hum hum • Arabic (Algeria): haw haw • Bengali: ghaue-ghaue • Catalan: bup, bup • Chinese (Mandarin): wangwang • Croatian: vau-vau • Danish: vov • Dutch: woef • English: bow wow, arf, woof, ruff ruff • Esperanto: boj • Estonian: auh • Finnish: hauhau /vuhvuh • French: ouahouah • German: wauwau, wuffwuff • Greek: gav • Hebrew: haw haw (/havhav) • Hindi: bho:-bho: • Hungarian: vau-vau • Icelandic: voff • Indonesian: gonggong • Italian: baubau • Japanese: wanwan, kyankyan • Korean: mung-mung (/wang-wang) • Norwegian: voff / vov-vov • Polish: hauhau • Portuguese (Portugal): au au au (nasal diphthong) • Portuguese (Brazil): au-au • Russian: gav-gav • Slovene: hov-hov • Spanish (Spain, Argentina): guauguau • Swedish: vovvov • Thai: hoanghoang (with falling tone) • Turkish: hav, hav • Ukrainian: haf-haf • Vietnamese: wauwa

4. Words and things • arbitrary relationship? (pig, table, ceiling) • words refer to things, or concepts of things? • harder with abstract words (popular, difficulty) • word refers to a concept? • meaning = use in language (children learn in context)

5. Semantic categories • Roget’s Thesaurus: abstract relations, space, matter, intellect, volition, affections • OED: External world (universe, earth, living world, sensation, matter, abstract properties, relative properties, supernatural) Mind (mental capacity, emotion/feeling, philosophy, aesthetics, will, refusal/denial, having/possession, language) Society (community, inhabiting/dwelling, armed hostility, authority, morality, education, religion, communication, travel, occupation, leisure)

6. Relationships between meanings • synonyms: no such thing: (happy/glad, small/little) • antonyms: easier (good/bad, hot/cold) • gradable: hot/cold, fast/slow, handsome/ugly • non-gradable: lay/clergy, dead/alive, married/single Imposing meanings on words • arbitrary (coinage) Pandemonium = capital of Hell (Milton, Paradise Lost) • language conditions cognition (linguistic relativity, Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis)

7. Denotation and connotation • denotation: basic, specific, literal meaning of a word or phrase as opposed to its emotional meaning and associations • connotation: emotional meaning of a word; its implications, suggestions, or associations, as opposed to its explicit literal meaning • rose (Shakespeare sonnet / botany textbook) • emotive value: poor little boy vs. poor small boy • lonely travelers • historical change: appeasement • “literary” feel: begin (OE) vs. commence (Latin) • calling (OE) vs. vocation (Latin) • lady vs. woman

8. Polysemy: “The fact of having several meanings; the possession of multiple meanings, senses, or connotations.” (OED) • glass (substance) > drinking glass > glass (ellipsis) • some kinds of words change readily (nouns, verbs, adjectives adverbs), some less readily (prepositions, conjunctions, articles, pronouns, auxiliary verbs) • example: preposition for (= in front of) • support: (in support of: "I will vote for you") (instead of: "they use string for shoelaces") (because of: "she was jailed for her beliefs”) • obstacle (in spite of, notwithstanding: "A man's a man for a' that" [Robert Burns]; “for all his faults, I love him still”) • OED “for” (preposition): 30 pages, 11 main senses, 31 subsenses

9. Conservative semantics • pen (Latin penna, wing, feather) - quill pen • paper (Greek papyrus) - flowering plant Cyperus papyrus • electric (Greek, “pertaining to amber”) • atom (Greek, “indivisible”) • window (Old Norse vindauga “wind-eye”)

10. Radiation model of semantic change

11. Concatentation model of semantic change:cardinal < Lat. cardinalis < cardo (“hinge”)

12. Radiation + concatenation • cappuccio (Italian “hood”) • (concatenation) Capuchin monks • (radiation) capuchin monkey • (radiation) cappuccino

13. Figurative use of language (esp. metaphor) metaphorical sense outlives literal sense: • to thrill (originally, "to pierce" - cf. nostril "nose hole") • to fret (OE fretan"to devour") • to depend (Latin dependere, "to hang from") metaphorical and literal senses coexist: • dull (lit. of things, also "slow-witted" or "boring") • bright (lit. of things, also "quick-witted")

14. Poetic imagination • daisy (day's eye) • tulip (Persian "turban") • easel (OE esel"ass" - bears a burden) • tribulation ("threshing" – suffering has a purifying effect)

15. extension of one sense to another (good taste, clashing colors, soft voice, sweet sound, feel sorry for someone) • metonymy: "the figure by which an object or idea is described by the name of some closely related object or idea” • container for thing contained: hot pot • instrument for result:tonguefor "language" • material for product:nickelfor "5c piece” • synecdoche: “the figure by which the name of a part is applied to the whole, or, conversely, the name of the whole is applied to a part of it" • all hands on deck, wheels, Washington

16. generalization: narrow semantic range broadens • quarantine (40 days -> any period of isolation) • panier(breadbasket -> traveling container on horse, bicycle, etc.) • journey (day's walk or ride -> any trip) • generalization leads to weakening • lovely (worthy to be loved -> vague expression of praise) • great (very large in size -> another vague expression of praise) • good, nice, fine, excellent, etc.

17. specialization: broad semantic range narrows • generous = "of noble birth" -> having noble qualities -> having the quality of open-handedness • shrew -> unisex -> only of women • starve = "to die" -> to die of hunger (and used exaggeratedly of being hungry) • older (general) sense exists alongside newer (restricted) sense (usually in proverbs or compounds): • tide = time -> sea movement ("time and tide wait for no one") • cattle (< OF catel"property") -> agricultural property (livestock) -> cows (archaic chattel retains older meaning)

18. euphemism: substitution of a word with a neutral or pleasant connotation for one with an unpleasant connotation • (sex) whore (from Latin carus"dear, beloved”), relations, intimate, sleep with, intercourse • (illness): disease ("discomfort”), insane ("unhealthy”), social disease (STD), big C (cancer), pass away (die) • replacement of a word with the negation of its opposite: untruthful, intemperate, unwise, impolite • initials: b.m. for bowel movement, b.o. for body odor • slang used euphemistically: kick the bucket, croak, buy the farm, push up daisies

19. amelioration: a change to a more favorable meaning • fame (< Latin fama"report, talk") – specialization, amelioration • admire (< Latin admirari”to wonder, marvel at”) • nice - once unfavorable (OF nice, from Latin nescius"ignorant”) • from 13th century, used in England with derogatory sense - 16th specialized to mean "fastidious, difficult to please” • but fastidiousness sometimes seen as evidence of good judgment - late 18th c., extended to a general term of praise • narrower sense "precise, subtle" remains (a nice distinction) • usually a term of praise so general as to be meaningless

20. pejoration: a change to a less favorable meaning • more common than amelioration • cnafa(OE "boy") -> knave (low economic status -> bad manners, moral blame) • churl (OE ceorl- not a noble, but not a slave) • boor (OE gebur"dweller") • villain (OF vilein"feudal serf") • base (originally "of humble birth" - now, moral unworthiness implied) • lewd (OE læwede"not in holy orders" -> "unlearned” -> MnE "lascivious, unchaste" - specialization and pejoration)

21. pejorationby overuse or being used insincerely or patronizingly • quaint ("skilled, clever" -> (13thc.) "cunning, scheming") - also shifted to "handsome, elegant" -> "unusual" -> (MnE: old-fashioned, a bit silly) • silly (OE sælig"blessed" -> innocent -> harmless -> weakly foolish > playful, jocular • specious (Latin speciosus"beautiful" -> truthful -> "giving the deceptive appearance of truth”) • companion: pejoration then amelioration ("one who shares bread" -> "comrade" -> (a good or a bad thing) -> term of abuse (Shakespeare) - then lostderogratory associations

22. weakening: a decrease in the force or quality of the meaning of a word  • ætwitan(OE "to reproach, blame for a very serious offense") -> twit (to reproach someone mildly for a not very serious offense) (or, as noun, a silly person) • gilpan(OE "to boast") -> cry of an animal (based on metaphor, reflects a dislike of boasting) -> an animal-like cry, from an animal or a human • giddy (OE "possessed by a god" -> "mad, foolish -> "frivolous, flighty" -> "dizzy” • procrastination causes semantic change! all the following originally meant "at once, instantly”: • soon, presently, by and by, anon • weakening of intensives: "she's awfully nice" • literally (as opposed to metaphorically) "The rock band was literally blown right off the stage” – see Literally, A Weblog • naughty ("worthless”); cf. naught (“nothing”)

23. strengthening: an increase in the force or quality of the meaning of a word •  divergence in meaning of related words, or variant forms of same word • encouraged if the words are pronounced differently • defy "to distrust" -> to challenge openly • miser/misery - both < Latin miser ("wretched”) • miser originally = "wretched person" - then specialized to one form of wretchedness (cheapness) - misery still means "wretchedness"

24. word birth and death • slang: generally comes about when there is already a word or words for a concept, but appeals to people's imagination because it expresses an old idea more vividly than existing words • slang words tend either to disappear or become standard: • bet, fun, shabby, trip ("short journey"), blackguard, coax, simper - all originally slang • but booze (14th century) is still slang today • dead words: • rathe"early" ("The rathe primrose" Milton, Lycidas) • but comparative (rather) remained and developed • depart "to separate" - obsolete by 1661 • Anglican Prayer Book - wedding ceremony: Till death us depart > Till death us do part > Till death do us part