Exercise  Semantic change

Determine what kind of change has taken place!!

Corpse            a)The body of a man or of an animal; a (living) body; a person

                         b) The dead body of a man (or formerly any animal)

S: Narrowing, specialisation corpse now refers to a specific type (namely a dead) of body

crafty              a) Strong, powerful, mighty.

                        b)Skilful, dexterous, clever, ingenious  especially: Skilled in or marked by

                         underhandedness, deviousness, or deception.

S: Pejoration

journey           a) A day

                        b) A day's travel; the distance travelled in a day or a specified number 

                           of days.

c) A ‘spell’ or continued course of going or travelling, having its beginning and           

    end in place or time, and thus viewed as a distinct whole; a march, ride,  

    drive

S: a=>b): synechdoche: part-whole relationship => the time a journey expands (24 hours, a day, part) is used to express the whole process of travelling (whole)

b => c): widening: special kind of journey (a day's travel) => The act of traveling from one

            place to another

starve             a) To die ( Said of a person or animal)

                        b) To die of hunger; to perish or be in process of perishing from lack or  

                           insufficiency of food; to suffer extreme poverty and want;

S: Narrowing : starve refers now to a specific way of dying

thing               a) A meeting, assembly, esp. a deliberative or judicial assembly, a court, a

                           council

b) A matter brought before a court of law; a legal process; a charge brought, a   

    suit or cause pleaded before a court.

c) That with which one is concerned (in action, speech, or thought); an affair,  

    business, concern, matter, subject

S: a) => b) Synecdoche/Metonymy: whereas a) refers to an institution, b) designates something dealt with in this institution => association

    b) => c) widening:  matter treated in court => any matter, affair

arrive              a) To come to shore or into port; to land

                        b) To come to the end of a journey, to a destination, or to some definite place

S: widening: a) process of "finishing" a special kind of trip => b) general "finishing" of any kind of trip

 broadcast      a) To scatter (seed, etc.) abroad with the hand

                        b) To scatter or disseminate widely

                        c) To disseminate (any audible or visible matter) from a radio or television

                            transmitting station to the receiving sets of listeners and viewers

S: a) =>b)Widening: both what is spread and how it is spread becomes more general

    b) =>c) Narrowing: term specialized for specific technical field

voyage            a) An act of travelling (or transit), a journey (or passage), by which one goes

                            from one place to another

b) A journey by sea or water from one place to another (usually to some distant 

    place or country);

S: narrowing: a) any kind of travel => b) sea travel

sophisticated  a) Mixed with some foreign substance; adulterated; not pure or genuine

                        b) experienced, worldly-wise, refined, cultured

S: amelioration
 

'ministry of war':  ministry of defence

'dead or injured civilians' : collateral damage

'apartheid' : separate development, plural democracy, vertical differentiation

dustbin man > refuse collector

rat-catcher > rodent operator/ green grocer, vegetable executive

S: these last examples all illustrate euphemisms, i.e. concepts with rather negative connotations are expressed through / paraphrased by more positive concepts