Evolution of a word's meaning

Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression, semantic development, or semantic drift) is a form of language change regarding the evolution of word usage—usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage. In diachronic (or historical) linguistics, semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word. Every word has a variety of senses and connotations, which can be added, removed, or altered over time, often to the extent that cognates across space and time have very different meanings. The study of semantic change can be seen as part of etymology, onomasiology, semasiology, and semantics.

Examples in English

Evolution of types

A number of classification schemes have been suggested for semantic change.

Recent overviews have been presented by Blank and Blank & Koch (1999). Semantic change has attracted academic discussions since ancient times, although the first major works emerged in the 19th century with Reisig (1839), Paul (1880), and Darmesteter (1887). Studies beyond the analysis of single words have been started with the word-field analyses of Trier (1931), who claimed that every semantic change of a word would also affect all other words in a lexical field. His approach was later refined by Coseriu (1964). Fritz (1974) introduced Generative semantics. More recent works including pragmatic and cognitive theories are those in Warren (1992), Dirk Geeraerts, Traugott (1990) and Blank (1997).

A chronological list of typologies is presented below. Today, the most currently used typologies are those by Bloomfield (1933) and Blank (1999).

Typology by Reisig (1839)

Reisig's ideas for a classification were published posthumously. He resorts to classical rhetorics and distinguishes between

Typology by Paul (1880)

Typology by Darmesteter (1887)

The last two are defined as change between whole and part, which would today be rendered as synecdoche.

Typology by Bréal (1899)

Typology by Stern (1931)

This classification does not neatly distinguish between processes and forces/causes of semantic change.

Typology by Bloomfield (1933)

The most widely accepted scheme in the English-speaking academic world[according to whom?] is from Bloomfield (1933):

Typology by Ullmann (1957, 1962)

Ullmann distinguishes between nature and consequences of semantic change:

Typology by Blank (1999)

However, the categorization of Blank (1999) has gained increasing acceptance:

Blank considered it problematic to include amelioration and pejoration of meaning (as in Ullman) as well as strengthening and weakening of meaning (as in Bloomfield). According to Blank, these are not objectively classifiable phenomena; moreover, Blank has argued that all of the examples listed under these headings can be grouped under other phenomena, rendering the categories redundant.

Forces triggering change

Blank has tried to create a complete list of motivations for semantic change. They can be summarized as:

This list has been revised and slightly enlarged by Grzega (2004):

The case of reappropriation

A specific case of semantic change is reappropriation, a cultural process by which a group reclaims words or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group, for example like with the word queer. Other related processes include pejoration and amelioration.

Practical studies

Apart from many individual studies, etymological dictionaries are prominent reference books for finding out about semantic changes. A recent survey lists practical tools and online systems for investigating semantic change of words over time. WordEvolutionStudy is an academic platform that takes arbitrary words as input to generate summary views of their evolution based on Google Books ngram dataset and the Corpus of Historical American English.