The causes of development of new meaning can be linguistic and extra-linguistic (historical).

By extra-linguistic causes we mean different kinds of changes in a nation’s social life, in its culture, knowledge, technology, arts, which lead to gaps in vocabulary. E.g. the change of the lexical meaning of the noun pen was due to extra-linguistic causes. Primarily pen comes back to the Latin word penna (a feather of a bird). As people wrote with goose pens the name was transferred to steel pens which were later used for writing. Still later ant instrument for writing was called pen. The same process concerns the word write. It comes back to the Old English word writan which meant to cut. Then it got the meaning “to cut letters on the tree bar”. At present this word means to write by any means.

The same thing happened to the word harvest. In Old English it had the meaning of autumn, that is the time to gather the harvest. But after French borrowing autumn appeared in the English language, it won the conflict between the two synonyms and consequently the word harvest changed its meaning for crops (n) and “gather the harvest” (v).

By linguistic causes we mean those that relate to the processes taking place in the language itself. There are at least three linguistic causes: discrimination of synonyms, ellipsis and change by the analogy. Let’s turn to the first one – discrimination of synonyms. The development of meaning may be caused by the influence of other words, mostly synonyms. E.g. the noun tide in Old English was polysemantic and had three meanings: time, season and hour. When the French words time, season and hour were borrowed into English, they ousted the word tide in these meanings. That’s why it was specialized (narrowed) in its meaning and in Modern English has two meanings: 1. regular rise and fall of the sea caused by the attraction of the moon; 2. flow. This process is universally called discrimination of synonyms.

The second linguistic cause may be described as ellipsis. It is typical of any language to make the speech concise and economic. E.g. in Old English there was an expression to starve of hunger (умирать от голода). But the word combination of hunger was then omitted and to starve got the meaning of the whole phrase. The process of obtaining the new meaning by the verb to starve was also greatly influenced by the fact that Scandinavian borrowing die with the same meaning «умирать» came into English.

The same thing happened to the phrase eye witness with the meaning «свидетель». The word eye was then dropped and witness got the meaning of the whole expression. Still the same happened to the phrase the train of carriages.

The third linguistic cause is change by the analogy. It is based on the fact that if one of the members of a synonymic group acquires a new meaning, other members of this group change their meaning too. E.g. the words to get, to catch, to grasp had the meaning of “to take hold of something”, but the verb to get in the conversational language developed the meaning “to understand” and that’s why the verbs to catch and to grasp developed the same meaning.

Metaphor

Metaphor is the transfer of name based on the association of similarity. It is the application of a name or a descriptive term to an object to which it is not literally applicable, e.g. head of an army, eye of a needle. This type of transference is also referred to as linguistic metaphor. A new meaning appears as a result of associating two objects (phenomena, qualities, etc.) due to their outward similarity.

Examples can be given in which transference is based on the association of two physical objects. The noun eye, for instance, has for one of its meanings "hole in the end of a needle" (cf. with the R. ушко иголки), which also developed through transference based on resemblance. A similar case is represented by the neck of a bottle.

In transference based on resemblance an association may be built not only between two physical objects, but also between a concrete object and an abstract concept. Example: the noun star on the basis of the meaning "heavenly body" developed the meaning "famous actor or actress". Nowadays the meaning has considerably widened its range, and the word is applied not only to screen idols (as it was at first), but, also, to popular sportsmen (e. g .football, stars), pop-singers, etc.

The slang meanings of words such as nut, onion (= head), saucers (= eyes), hoofs (= feet) and very many others were all formed by transference based on resemblance.

The transfer of name based on the association of similarity of nouns has the pattern animal —» human being: fox - a cunning or crafty person (лис – хитрун , лукавець); dog - an ugly, boring, or crude person (пес - погана, негідна людина, посіпака, вислуга); parrot - a person who, without thought or understanding, merely repeats the words or imitates the actions of another (папуга - той, хто не має власної думки i повторює чюжі слова); pig - a person of piglike character, behavior, or habits, as one who is gluttonous, very fat, greedy,selfish, or filthy,swine - a coarse, gross, or brutishly sensual person(свиня - брудна чи нечесна, підла людина); dove - an innocent, gentle, or tender person( голуб, голубка - пестливе звертання до

чоловіка/жінки); bull - a large, solidly built person(бугай (лайка) - здоровий непрацьовитий

чоловік); bear - a gruff, burly, clumsy, bad- mannered, or rude person(ведмідь - незграбний, неповороткий чоловік); snake - a treacherous person; an insidious enemy (snake in the grass)( змія - зла підступна людина).

33.

1.The earliest group of English borrowings

The first century B.C. Most territory now known to us as Europe is occupied by the Roman Empire. Among the inhabitants of the continent are Germanic tribes, “barbarians” as the arrogant Romans call them. It is from the Romans that they learn how to make butter and cheese and, as there are no words for these foodstuffs in their tribal languages, they are to use the Latin words to name them. It is also to the Romans that the Germanic tribes owe the knowledge of some fruits and vegetables, and the Latin names of these fruits and vegetables enter their vocabularies: cherry, pear, plum, pea, beet, pepper. It is interesting to note that the word plant is also a Latin borrowing of this period.

2. Celtic borrowings. The fifth century A.D. Several of the Germanic tribes (the most numerous amongst them being the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes) migrated across the sea now known as the English Channel to the British Isles. There they were confronted by the Celts, the original inhabitants of the Isles. The Celts desperately defended their lands against the invaders.

Through their numerous contacts with the defeated Celts, the conquerors got to know and assimilated a number of Celtic words (Modern English bald, down, glen (лощина), druid (кельтский жрец), bard, cradle(колыбель). Especially numerous among the Celtic borrowings were place names, names of rivers, hills, etc. Ironically, even the name of the English capital originates from Celtic.

3. The period of Cristianization. The seventh century A.D.

This century was significant for the hristianization of England. Latin was the official language of the Christian church, and consequently the spread of Christianity was accomplished by a new period of Latin borrowings. These no longer came from spoken Latin as they did eight centuries earlier, but from church Latin. Also, these new Latin borrowings were very different in meaning from the earlier ones. They mostly indicated persons, objects and ideas associated with church and religious rituals. E.g. priest (священник), bishop (епископ), monk (монах), nun (монахиня), candle (свеча).

Additionally, there were educational terms. It was quite natural that these were also Latin borrowings, for the first schools in England were church schools, and the first teachers – priests and monks. The very word school is a Latin borrowing.

4. The characteristic features of Scandinavian borrowings.

From the end of the 8th c. to the middle of the 11th c. England underwent several Scandinavian invasions which left their trace on English vocabulary. Here are some examples of early Scandinavian borrowings: call v, take v, die v, law n, husband, window, ill.

Some of the words of this group are easily recognizable as Scandinavian borrowings by the initial sk- combination. E.g. sky, skill, skin, ski, skirt.

5. Norman French borrowings (1066).

With the famous Battle of Hastings, when the English were defeated by the Normans under William the Conqueror, we come to the eventful epoch of the Norman Conquest. The epoch can be called eventful not only in national, social, political and human terms, but also in linguistic terms. England became a bi-lingual country, and the impact on the English vocabulary made over this two-hundred-years period is immense. French words from the Norman dialect penetrated every aspect of social life. Here is a brief list of examples of Norman French borrowings.

Administrative words: state, government, parliament.

Legal terms: court, judge, justice, crime, prison.

Military terms: army, war, soldier, officer, enemy.

Educational terms: pupil, lesson, library, science, pen, pencil.

Numerous terms of everyday life were also borrowed from French in this period: e.g. table, plate, saucer, dinner, supper, autumn, uncle, etc.

6. The Renaissance Period.

In England, as in all European countries, this period was marked by significant developments in science, art and culture and, also, by a revival of interest in the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome and their languages. Hence, there ntellig a considerable number of Latin and Greek borrowings. They were mostly abstract words (e.g. major, minor, filial (дочерний, сыновний), moderate (умеренный), ntelligent, permanent, to create). There were numerous scientific and artistic terms (datum, status, phenomenon, philosophy, music). Phenomenon, philosophy, method, music, etc. were borrowed into English from Latin and had earlier come into Latin from Greek. Greek Renaissance borrowings are, e.g. atom, cycle, ethics.

Development of new meaning

The process of developing a new meaning is termed transference. Transference based on resemblance is a process with a new meaning, appears as a result of associating two objects.

Sometimes the process of transference may result in a considerable change in range of meanings leading to broadening or generalization of meanings (the girl in Middle English had the meaning of a small child) or to narrowing or specialization of meaning (meat in Old English had the meaning of any food).

The terms “degeneration” or “degradation” and “elevation” of meaning imply that meanings can become better and worse.

e.g. villain – farm servant (раньше)

villain – bad person (сейчас)