Chapter 5  SemanticChanges

1)Take each man’scensure, butreserve thy judgment.

2)He received a publiccensurefor his dishonorable behavior.

“Change of meaning is acommonplace,and indeed it would appear to befundamentalin living language…almostevery wordwe use today has a slightlydifferentmeaning from the one it had a century ago.”---Quirk

Contents

1.Generalization

Extension of meaning, the stretching of meaning, refers tothe widening of a word’s sense until it covers much more than what itoriginally conveyed.

Polysemicwords

bullish

1)It's impossible to reason with such abullishman.

2)Perhaps both the factors coincided toencourage the stock market to take abullishview./bearish view.

3)We are verybullishabout the future.

defuse

1)Ten Iraqi soldiers including 2 pipelinesecurity officers were killed as they attempted todefusea bombattached to an oil pipeline.

2)Youdefusea dangeroussituation by treating it like a bomb and removing its fuse.

cookbook

1)Acookbookis a book thatcontains information on cooking, and a list of recipes.

2)Here is a shortcookbookshowing you the steps you can follow in writing and organizing your own tests.

layman

1)Alaymanchallenges a prieston his teachings.

2)He implies that it is impossible for alayman(like me!) to hold any opinion on matters scientific.

Propernames

1)If you find your kids borrowing money fromfriends, co-workers or from you unusually frequently, you should better beargus-eyed.

2)Sincenarcissismisuniversally inherent in all of us--and we are almost always unconscious ofit--it affects nearly everything we do.

3)TheWatergate scandalswere aseries of political scandals during the presidency of Richard Nixon thatresulted in the indictment（控告）of several ofNixon's closest advisors and ultimately his resignation.

4)TheUnited Statesis raising aFrankensteinby providing hardware to that country.

Technical terms

alibi:

1)In the Latin language "alibi"means "somewhere else."

2)Analibiis the plea or modeof defense under which a person on trial for a crime proves or attempts toprove that he was in another place when the crime occurred.

3)No one wouldalibior lie forthem.

allergic

1)Are you allergic to penicillin ?

2)Ben is allergic to pollen.

Moreexamples

word

Original

meaningWidened

meaning

manuscript

handwriting

writings written  by hand or typed with a type-writer

fabulous

resembling a fable

incredible;  marvelous

quarantine

forty days’isolation

isolation time

mill

place for grinding

place where things  are made

bonfire

fire on bones

a fire in the open  made by burning anything

2. Specialization

Specialization refers to “shrinking of meaning”. When a word isequally applicable to a number of different objects which resemble each otherin some respects, or to a vague or general category of ideas, it may at anytime become specialized by being used to name one of those objects or toexpress one of the ideas.

spinster

1)That evening, the lawyer was at home tellinghis wife about the eccentric spinster and her weird request.

2)Originally, being a spinster meant that youspun yarn. However, in the1700’sspinster became the legal term for unmarried women past their"prime". This was because the best spinners were always unmarried.

shroud

You’llhave no pockets in your shroud.

stink

Why dofeet stink? Sometimes your feet smell much worse than at other times -- it allhas to do with how much you sweat. So, since foot odor is caused by bacteriadigesting sweat, there are two main ways to reduce the stink.

Moreexamples

Example

wordsOriginal

meaningNarrowed

meaning

hound

general term for  “dog”

a special kind of  dog

starve

to die

to die of hanger

3.Elevation

Elevation refers to the process by which words rise fromhumblebeginnings to a morefavorablepositions of importance.

marshall/marshal

1)Marshalmeant originally a“keeper of horses”.

2)Pekingannounced thatMarshalLin Piao had succeeded Marshal PengTeh-huai as defence minister.

Cf. TheMarshallPlan, it should be noted, benefitedthe American economy as well.

shrewd

1)Is Frankshrewd, evil, or acombination of the two?

2)His skill in negotiating earned him areputation as ashrewdtactician.

cf. Read Shakespeare's The Taming of theShrewfree online!

nimble

1)In'the Thief', Gen was a witty,nimblethief, always on his toes.

2)Nimblefingers keep ladiesin stitches.

3)One need animblemind tosolve puzzles.

Moreexamples

Example

wordsOriginal

meaningElevated

meaning

angel

messenger

messenger of God

minister

servant

head of a ministry

4. Degradation

Degradation refers to a process whereby words of good origin oraffective neutrality fall into ill reputation or come to be used in aderogatorysense.

1)Thevillainsare the bad guysor the characters who strive against the hero.

2)“I don’t intend to marry aboor!”She nursed her pride and slept alone. Time passed; and when a year or two hadflown, and no more suitors came to court her, the girl began to wonder whetherlife might not be more amusing for a wife.

3)Agossipbetrays a confidence,but a trustworthy man keeps a secret.

Background Knowledge

Argus

Argus was a giant with 100 eyes. Argus (orArgos) was a monster. With his multiple setsof eyes, there seems to be no way of escaping him, for even when he slept,fifty of his eyes remain open and look around threateningly. Hera, the Queen ofthe Olympian gods and goddesses, commanded Argus to watch over Io. Io was awoman with whom Zeus - the ruler of the Olympians - had conducted a passionatelove affair. However, in order to protect his mistress from the wrath of hiswife, Zeus had transformed Io into a heifer. Hera asked Argus to guard herrival Io. Zeus sent the god Hermes to dispatch the monster. Hermes lulled Argusto sleep before killing him. After his death, Hera set his eyes in tail of thepeacock, which became her symbol.

Narcissism

Narcissismdescribes the traitof excessive self-love, based on self-image or ego.

The term is derived from the Greek mythology of Narcissus. Narcissuswas a handsome Greek youth who rejected the desperate advances of the nymphEcho. As punishment, he was doomed to fall in love with his own reflection in apool of water. Unable to consummate his love, Narcissus pined away and changedinto the flower that bears his name, the narcissus.

Irangate

In late 1986 President Ronald Reagan became embroiled in what becameknown as the Irangate Scandal. It was discovered that the Reagan administrationhad been selling arms to the Islamic fundamentalist government inIranin order to gain the release of Americanhostages in theLebanon.

The scandal was damaging to Reagan because he had told the American public hewould never "yield to terrorist blackmail". As a result of thescandal, the White House chief of staff, Donald Regan and his National SecurityAdviser, John Poindexter, were forced to resign. Reagan survived but the case damagedhis image and gave the impression that he was not in full-control of hisadministration.