Semantic change II

SOMETIMES the meaning of a word shifts, so that the word refers to a different though closely associated set of things. This is called transfer of meaning. For instance, the word bureau started as a coarse woollen cloth, went onto a cloth covering counters, then became a counting table, thereafter a writing table, thence a room containing the table, moving onto people working in the room; before taking on the current meaning of a department or agency. Here, a specific mode of meaning transfer is the metaphor as a metaphor involves talking about something in terms of something else.

This kind of semantic change is termed metonymic change after the term metonymy. This is a figure of speech in which a word or expression normally used for one thing is used for something physically or otherwise associated with it. Bureau is one instance and the Pentagon [strictly a building] when used for the military inhabiting it. Here, the synecdoche [a figure of speech in which an expression denoting a part is used to refer to the whole] must be mentioned: as in flower standing for a flower-bearing plant.

Lexical change can often be quite controversial. For instance, the word gay which now encompasses homosexuals as well, is it a semantic change for the better; amelioration; or worse; deterioration? This would depend on factors more to do with personal taste and morality than with hard and fast linguistic terminology. Shop names frequently extend lexical meaning in controversial ways. Salon, once a term belonging to the French aristocratic scene, may now be found in all kinds of contexts which have nothing to do with the aristocracy or elegant social interaction. There is a beauty or hair-cutting salon in every lane and rustic market. Parlour,formerly a part of a monastery or convent used for conversation; later a lady’s dainty sitting-room, is now a beauty parlour or even a video games parlour.

Figurative language has an important role to play when special meaning is extracted from the linking of two dissimilar words. At the risk of repetition, the following are the ways in which it effects meaning. With metaphor the linkage is implicit : lazy road. With simile, the linkage is explicit: people as busy as bees. With paradox, there is the need to resolve a contradiction: ignorance is strength. With metonymy, the attribute replaces the whole: the crown of France. With oxymoron, incompatible notions are brought together: living death. With personification, a link is made between the inanimate and the human: nature spoke. Of course, this is a local, restricted effect. But it proves the long-standing thesis, the beginning and end of every discussion about language: language belongs to the user. In the hands of an expert, playful user, it can be a toy; in the hands of a solemn plodder, it neither changes nor gains.

Tap-root

The contraction of word meaning in Hindi stretches to words borrowed from other languages too. For, a semantic change knows no barriers. The Persian gash means beautiful, charming and a fit of unconsciousness. Hindi uses gash only in the sense of the last meaning.

— Deepti

This feature was published on December 4, 1999