论文部分内容阅读
Abstract： In recent years， newly emerging language generally derived from the internet， which causes a stir in linguistic circles. Actually， it has been existing in all ages， throughout history both in Chinese and English.
Semantics is one of the objects of linguistic research， which changed with the development of the history instead of be in a rut. When a word loses its original meaning， it turns out to be a semantic change. Factors concluding society revolution， environmental changes， the invasion of foreign languages， etc may all can make semantic shifts.
Key words： semantic change English
一、Introduction
1.1 Research Background
Recently， newly emerging language generally derived from the internet， which causes a stir in linguistic circles. Actually， it has been existing in all ages， throughout history both in Chinese and English.
Semantics is one of the objects of linguistic research， which changed with the development of the history instead of be in a rut. When a word loses its original meaning， it turns out to be a semantic change. Factors concluding society revolution， environmental changes， the invasion of foreign languages， etc may all can make semantic shifts.
Though it is said that language can be influenced by habits of mind or culture connotation to a large extent， cultural convergence that caused by frequent contacts between different cultures is bound to arouse the semantic segmentation of semantic field. Our group’s research activities take this as the background， doing a research on Comparison of Semantic Changes between Ancient and Modern English and Chinese.
As a consequence， we designed questionnaires to make a further research. And in this passage， we only focus on abroad.
1.2 Data Sources
The data are mainly from overseas students， most of who come from English-speaking countries and teachers who teach English in Colleges and universities in Zhejiang. What’s more， we also conducted a questionnaire survey on the streets of Hangzhou among foreign tourists and freelancers residing in China.
Questionnaires were conducted to investigate their gender， age， origin， and understanding of the differences between Ancient and Modern English in terms of semantics， semantic changes， lexical changes， types of lexical meanings， causes of lexical changes， and factors affecting language development. A total of 210 data samples were collected by 17 questions in order to know the understanding of English semantic changes in native English speaking countries in modern society. 二、A Comparative Analysis of English Semantic Changes
2.1The Definition of Semantic Changes
Semantic change （also semantic shift， semantic progression， semantic development， or semantic drift） is a form of language change regarding the evolution of word usage—usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage. In diachronic （or historical） linguistics， semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word. Every word has a variety of senses and connotations， which can be added， removed， or altered over time， often to the extent that cognates across space and time have very different meanings. The study of semantic change can be seen as part of etymology， onomasiology， semasiology， and semantics.[1]
Common categories of semantic change， regarding to the categorization of Blank（1999） conclude metaphor， metonymy， synecdoche， antiphrasis， cohyponymic transfer， auto-antonymy， auto-converse， ellipsis， folk-etymology， specialization of meaning， generalization of meaning.
2.2 The Analysis of Data
2.2.1 Correlation Analysis
In exploring the understanding and cognition of the specific modules of the differences between ancient and modern English by Native， we can know that it mainly lies in the proportions of phonetics， grammar and semantics， which are 40.0%， 59.9% and 31.4% respectively.
While in the next question 28.6% reckon that the meaning of words expanded， 41.9% that the meaning of words narrowed and 37.6% that the meaning of words shifted.Besides， 40% of the vocabulary samples for word meaning reduction chose the correct choice of "wife"， which accounted for the largest proportion.
Therefore， we come to the conclusion that most of the local people do not have a deep understanding of the academic vocabulary concepts and languages， but can easily grasp the daily words and their semantics.
3.1 Summary
Through the simple analysis above， we can see that most of the local people are still very unfamiliar to the academic vocabulary concepts and language research， only mastering and being able to skillfully use some daily knowledge. Therefore， a more in-depth comparative study of ancient and modern English semantics still needs to concentrate on reading a large number of literature.
3.1.1 Follow-up Investigation
In the subsequent series of surveys， we found that 64% of the respondents believed it was necessary to understand the history of English development， and gave the corresponding reasons and suggestions.
It is suggested that modern people should understand the English culture since learning language is all about the culture itself. Some people deem that it might be better to go with the flow of the language. I think it’s unnecessary， because what we learn in real life comes from the ancient society， the modern society cane later， even books that we read most are about ancient society.
Work cited
[1] https：//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_change
Semantics is one of the objects of linguistic research， which changed with the development of the history instead of be in a rut. When a word loses its original meaning， it turns out to be a semantic change. Factors concluding society revolution， environmental changes， the invasion of foreign languages， etc may all can make semantic shifts.
Key words： semantic change English
一、Introduction
1.1 Research Background
Recently， newly emerging language generally derived from the internet， which causes a stir in linguistic circles. Actually， it has been existing in all ages， throughout history both in Chinese and English.
Semantics is one of the objects of linguistic research， which changed with the development of the history instead of be in a rut. When a word loses its original meaning， it turns out to be a semantic change. Factors concluding society revolution， environmental changes， the invasion of foreign languages， etc may all can make semantic shifts.
Though it is said that language can be influenced by habits of mind or culture connotation to a large extent， cultural convergence that caused by frequent contacts between different cultures is bound to arouse the semantic segmentation of semantic field. Our group’s research activities take this as the background， doing a research on Comparison of Semantic Changes between Ancient and Modern English and Chinese.
As a consequence， we designed questionnaires to make a further research. And in this passage， we only focus on abroad.
1.2 Data Sources
The data are mainly from overseas students， most of who come from English-speaking countries and teachers who teach English in Colleges and universities in Zhejiang. What’s more， we also conducted a questionnaire survey on the streets of Hangzhou among foreign tourists and freelancers residing in China.
Questionnaires were conducted to investigate their gender， age， origin， and understanding of the differences between Ancient and Modern English in terms of semantics， semantic changes， lexical changes， types of lexical meanings， causes of lexical changes， and factors affecting language development. A total of 210 data samples were collected by 17 questions in order to know the understanding of English semantic changes in native English speaking countries in modern society. 二、A Comparative Analysis of English Semantic Changes
2.1The Definition of Semantic Changes
Semantic change （also semantic shift， semantic progression， semantic development， or semantic drift） is a form of language change regarding the evolution of word usage—usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage. In diachronic （or historical） linguistics， semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word. Every word has a variety of senses and connotations， which can be added， removed， or altered over time， often to the extent that cognates across space and time have very different meanings. The study of semantic change can be seen as part of etymology， onomasiology， semasiology， and semantics.[1]
Common categories of semantic change， regarding to the categorization of Blank（1999） conclude metaphor， metonymy， synecdoche， antiphrasis， cohyponymic transfer， auto-antonymy， auto-converse， ellipsis， folk-etymology， specialization of meaning， generalization of meaning.
2.2 The Analysis of Data
2.2.1 Correlation Analysis
In exploring the understanding and cognition of the specific modules of the differences between ancient and modern English by Native， we can know that it mainly lies in the proportions of phonetics， grammar and semantics， which are 40.0%， 59.9% and 31.4% respectively.
While in the next question 28.6% reckon that the meaning of words expanded， 41.9% that the meaning of words narrowed and 37.6% that the meaning of words shifted.Besides， 40% of the vocabulary samples for word meaning reduction chose the correct choice of "wife"， which accounted for the largest proportion.
Therefore， we come to the conclusion that most of the local people do not have a deep understanding of the academic vocabulary concepts and languages， but can easily grasp the daily words and their semantics.
3.1 Summary
Through the simple analysis above， we can see that most of the local people are still very unfamiliar to the academic vocabulary concepts and language research， only mastering and being able to skillfully use some daily knowledge. Therefore， a more in-depth comparative study of ancient and modern English semantics still needs to concentrate on reading a large number of literature.
3.1.1 Follow-up Investigation
In the subsequent series of surveys， we found that 64% of the respondents believed it was necessary to understand the history of English development， and gave the corresponding reasons and suggestions.
It is suggested that modern people should understand the English culture since learning language is all about the culture itself. Some people deem that it might be better to go with the flow of the language. I think it’s unnecessary， because what we learn in real life comes from the ancient society， the modern society cane later， even books that we read most are about ancient society.
Work cited
[1] https：//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_change