Differentiation in
semantics
Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...
is defined by Löbner (2002) as a meaning shift reached by "adding concepts to the original concepts". His example is ''James Joyce is hard to understand'', where ''understand'' is differentiated from "perceiving the meaning" to "interpret the text meaning".
A related meaning shift is
metonymy
Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something associated with that thing or concept. For example, the word " suit" may refer to a person from groups commonly wearing business attire, such as sales ...
, where one builds a new concept out of an element of the original concept. In the example mentioned, ''James Joyce'' most likely refers to "the work of James Joyce" and not to the author – a metonymical shift. If the name were to refer to the man, ''understand'' would be differently differentiated, perhaps one would read it as "interpret the speech articulation" or "comprehend the actions" of the person
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
.
Meaning shifts are very common among language users, and allow for great flexibility of word usage. It is not to be confused with
lexical ambiguity though, words as uttered in a context may have perfectly precise meanings even though in varying contexts they may be used to express widely different meanings.
See also
*
Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...
References
*Sebastian Löbner, ''Understanding Semantics'' (2002).
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, .
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Semantics