Краткий курс лекций по лексикологии английского языка для студентов неязыковых вузов. Москалёва Е.В. - 69 стр.

            thing is’. It is specialized in its meaning when it is used in law (a
            law suit), 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 the
            general usage. It happens in the case of the conflict between two
            absolute synonyms when one of them must specialize in its
            meaning to remain in the language, e.g. the native word ‘meat’
            had the meaning ‘food’, this meaning is preserved in the
            compound ‘sweetmeats’. The meaning ‘edible flesh’ was formed
            when the word ‘food’, its absolute synonym, won in the conflict
            of absolute synonyms (both words are native). The English verb
            ‘to starve’ was specialized in its meaning after the Scandinavian
            verb ‘die’ was borrowed into English. ’Die’ became the general
            verb with this meaning because in English there were the noun
            ‘death’ and the adjective ‘dead’. ‘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 toponimics, e.g.
            the City –the business part of London, Oxford – university town
            in England, the Tower – originally a fortress and palace, later – a
            prison, now – a museum.
                  The fourth way of specialization is ellipsis. In such cases
            primarily we have a word-group of the type ‘attribute + noun’,
            which is used constantly in a definite situation. Due to the
            attribute can be dropped and the noun can get the meaning of the
            whole word-group, e.g. ‘room’ originally meant ‘space’, this
            meaning is retained in the adjective ‘roomy’ and word
            combinations: ‘no room for’, ‘to take room’, ‘to take no room’.
            The meaning of the word ‘room’ was specialized because it was
            often used in combinations: ‘dining room’, ‘sleeping room’ which
            meant ‘space for dining’, ‘space for sleeping’.
                  Generalization is a process contrary to specialization, in
            such cases the meaning of a word becomes more general in the
            course of time.



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