Scarica riassunto capitolo 10 english language e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! CHAPTER 10: ETYMOLOGY ETYMOLOGY IS THE STUDY OF LEXICAL HISTORY. IT STUDIES THE ORIGINS OF INDIVIDUAL LEXEMES, THE SIMILILARITIES THEY HVE HAD TO EACH OTHER AND HOW THEY HAE CHANGED IN MEANING AND IN FORM TO REACH THEIR PRESENT STATE. ARGUING ETYMOLOGYCALLY THE ETYMOLOGICAL FALLACY IS THE VIEW THAT AN EARLIER MEANING OF A LEXEME, OR ITS ORIGINAL MEANING IS IT “TRUE” OR “CORRECT”. THE FALLACY IS EVIDENT WHEN IT’S REALISED THAT MOST COMMON LEXEMES HAVE EXPERIENCED SEVERAL CHANGES IN MEANING DURING THEIR HISTORY. NICE FOR EXEMPLE, EARLIER MEANT “FASTIDIOUS2, AND BEFORE THAT “FOOLISH” OR “SIMPLE”. SEMANTIC FIELDS Etymology has focused on the study o individual lexemes, tracing their earlier forms. Often, as in case of grammar and glamour, pairs of related forms, called DOUBLETS, would be investigated. Now, etymological studies tend to adopt a broader perspective, looking at the relatinships between sets of lexemes belonging to a particular area of meaning, or SEMANTIC FIELD. SEMANTIC CHANGE A word can change its meaning, linguistics hav distinguished several kinds of semantic change. 4 particularly important categories. EXTENSION OR GENERALIZATION: a lexeme widens its meaning, numerous exemples of this process have occurred in the religious field, where OFFICE, DOCTRINE an NOVICE have taken on more general meaning. NARROW OR SPECIALIZATION: a lexeme becomes more specialized in meaning. ENGINE, was used in a general sens of “MECHANICAL CONTRIVANCE” but since the industrial revolution it has come to mean “MECHANICAL SOURCE OF POWER”. AMELIORATION: a lexeme develops a positive sense of approval; “revolutionary”, once associated in the capitalist mind, in now used by advertisers as a signal of desiderable novelty. PEJORATION OR DETERIORATION: a lexeme develops a negative sens of disapproval; middle english villein described a serf, whereas modern english villain is by no mean neutral. FOLK ETYMOLOGY When people hear a foreign word for the first time, they try to make sens of it by relating it to words they know, trying to guess what it must means and often guess wrongly. However, if enough people make the same wrong guess, the error can become part of yhe languange. Such forms are called folk or popular etymologies. An exemple is the word “HELPMATE”; the form comes from a bible translation, when God said 2i will make him a help meet for him.” MEET in this context is an adjective, meaning “SUITABLE”, but the popular view preferred to take rhe word as a form of MATE. NAMES One of the most important aspects of etymology is the history of names, yhos words or phrases which identify persons, animals places or things. A proper name, presents an entity as an individual instance and not as an anonymous member of a class. The science which studies names is called onomastics or onomatology. Among its branches are the study of personal names anthroponomastics and place names toponymy. PLACE NAMES The names people give to the countries, streets and houses in which they live constitute one of the most established domains of onomastics. Place names can provide a source of information about a society’s history. PERSONAL NAMES The study of personal names, suffers from the same kind of research difficulties as does the places names. Personal names, in english, are classified into 3 types: The FIRST NAME or GIVEN NAME is distinguished from the SURNAME or FAMILY NAME and both of these from the MIDDLE NAME where present In the early middle ages, there were only first names, surnames came later, additional names used to aid identification between people with the same given name. TYPES OF SURNAMES Most surnames can be classified from an etymological point ovie into 1 of four types: They derive from a place name or general topographical localtion, identifying where a person has came fom; this is the largest class of names: normarn, moor, hall, street, wood. They represent an occupation, also a large numbers of names:cook, taylor, clark, smith. 2
