Лекции по лексикологии английского языка. Гусева Г.В. - 11 стр.

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semantic changes (metaphor and metonymy) and secondary ways: gradual

(elevation and degradation), momentary (hyperbole and litotes).

II. Specialization

It is a gradual process when a word passes from a general sphere to some

special sphere of communication, e.g. case has a general meaning circumstances in

which a person or a zhing is. It is soecialized in its meaning when used in law (a

lawsuit), in grammar (a form in the paradigm of a noun), in medicine (a patient, an

illness). The difference between these meanings is revealed in the context.

The meaning of a word can specialize when it remains in general usage. The

English verb starve was specialized in its meaning after the Scandinavian word die

was borrowed into English. Die became the general verb with this meaning. Starve

got the meaning to die of hunger.

The third way of specialization is the formation of proper names from

common nouns. It is often used in toponymics: the City – the business part of

London.

The fourth way of specialization is ellipsis. in such cases primarily we have

a word-group of the type attribute + noun, which is used constsntly in a definite

situation, e.g. the meaning of the word room was specialized because it was often

used in the combinations: dining room, sleeping room which meant space for

dining, space for sleeping.

III. Generalization

It is the transfer from a concrete meaning to an abstract one, e.g. journey

was borrowed from French with the meaning one day trip, now it means a trip of

any duration (jour means a day in French).

All auxiliary verbs are cases of generalization of their lexical meaning

because they developed a grammatical: have, be, do, shall, will when used as