No description available.

This paper analyses and discusses the present-day use of the noun bitch, as the term in contemporary usage seems to have started to deviate from the lexical definition. Traditionally considered an insult when applied to a woman, bitch has recently started being used as a self-imposed label rather than an applied one. Such a phenomenon indicates reappropriation, a negotiation of the meaning and semantics of a word. The purpose of this study is to investigate the origin and semantics of the term, as well as its historical usage and developments. Of particular interest and significance regarding the semantic development of bitch are social and extra-linguistic factors such as political movements, as will be evident from the results presented. Additionally, the present-day use of the term is analysed using lexical semantics and corpus linguistics, with the adjective collocates of the term retrieved from two corpora. Further, contemporary music lyrics are quoted and analysed to lend further support to the corpus findings regarding the present-day use, as well as the indicated semantic change and reappropriation. The results indicate that the term bitch is undergoing a reappropriation and is currently used both as a derogatory and self-empowering term. It is hoped that this paper will give insight to the phenomenon of reappropriation and the connection between social and linguistic change, as well as the importance of context in determining the meaning of a term.

The lexical semantics of a language is an area of linguistics that has many important implications for the life of modern society. It is important to understand how language change works and why this change occurs. Thus the aim of the work described in the thesis was to examine how six Swedish words, fett, fräsch, fräck, grym, häftig, and tajt are used by five different age groups of Swedish people in Uppsala region. To accomplish the aim of the study an appropriate questionnaire was compiled and used by the author. The questionnaire asked for information about the respondents as well as about the usage of each studied word. Analogous previous studies of the ongoing semantic change are reported in literature, frequently in regard to the words from English language. My results show that most of the chosen words are used differently by different age groups. Some words change their usage only slightly while other words experience larger metamorphose. The investigated words do not change their meaning completely, however some meanings do become more or less frequent. The results also show that the usage of the words does not always correlate to their dictionary definitions. Overall it can be concluded that semantic change for the considered words is a gradual ongoing process. / Den lexikala semantiken i ett språk är ett område inom lingvistik som har många viktiga konsekvenser för livet i det moderna samhället. Det är viktigt att förstå hur språkförändring fungerar och varför denna förändring sker. Därför var syftet med det arbete som beskrivs i uppsatsen att undersöka hur sex svenska ord fett, fräsch, fräck, grym, häftig och tajt användes av fem olika åldersgrupper av infödda talare av svenska i Uppsalaregionen. För att uppnå syftet med studien sammanställdes en enkät. Enkäten innehöll frågor om respondenterna samt om användningen av vart och ett av de studerade orden. Liknande tidigare studier av pågående semantisk förändring rapporteras i litteraturen, ofta i fråga om orden från engelska. Resultaten visar att de flesta av de valda ord användes på olika sätt av olika åldersgrupper. Vissa ord har ändrat sin användning något medan andra ord har genomgått en större förändring. De undersökta orden ändrade inte sin betydelse helt och hållet, men vissa betydelser blev mer eller mindre frekventa. Resultaten visade också att användningen av orden inte alltid korrelerar med deras ordboksdefinitioner. Sammantaget kan man dra slutsatsen att semantisk förändring för dessa ord var en gradvis process.

The purpose of this essay is to identify functional shifts and semantic changes in the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game Lord of the Rings Online. The focus is on new uses of established terms in Standard English and the intent is to see how the word formation processes work in an online gaming environment, and identify the possible reasons behind them. Due to the lack of previous studies of language in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, the aim is to provide some insight into some of the language developments that occur in such an environment. A quantitative method has been utilised in order to distinguish patterns, and the material, in the form of chat logs, has been gathered from Lord of the Rings Online. The chat logs have then been used to create a corpus, and, from this point, a qualitative method has been employed. The corpus has been thoroughly analysed for the words which have undergone functional shifts and/or semantic changes, and a selection of these words are presented and discussed based on word formation process. The findings in this study seem to confirm that language changes in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game follow the same patterns as in other environments.

No description available.

This study used a combination of historical and contemporary corpora to investigate semantic change within the contemporary American English slang words swag, flex, and swole. This study involved two parts. First, it analyzed each slang term’s earlier morphological form through collocate and contextual analysis within the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA). Second, it examined each slang term’s contemporary use in context within the News on the Web (NOW) corpus. After a comparison of the conclusions drawn from each analysis, it was found that the word swag underwent the process of semantic change known as amelioration and the words flex and swole experienced metaphorization.

With diachronic corpus over the time periods, I selected a word that might be suitable for this type of study for detecting if potential semantic changes have occurred. In this study, I explored the lexical semantics of the word viral to see if the World Wide Web (WWW) has influenced the word. This essay explores how the WWW influences word meaning within a language. The present study has been done in two parts. The first part was done by collecting and comparing definitions from four different dictionaries: The Oxford English Dictionary 1933/1961, The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology 1966, Compact Oxford Dictionary of Current English 2002, and Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 2018. Four different dictionaries were used to collect definitions that occurred during different periods; for example, two were used before the appearance of the WWW, one was used after the appearance of WWW, and the last dictionary was used to display the definition of contemporary English. The second part was done by corpus analysis. Two different corpora were used for this study: The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and the Corpus of Historical American English (COCA). Corpora were used to look through the word viral and to provide a useful source of how a particular word is used within language. The results showed that the principal definition of the word viral had obtained additional definitions within language, a definition related to Internet terminology.

<p>Based on current research in historical and cognitive linguistics this thesis examines the German semantic field <fromm> (<pious>), partly contrasting it with its Swedish correspondent <from>. Starting at the time of Old High German the analysis follows the historical development of word and concept, exploring how attitudes to the Christian religion are verbalised in different ages. One important assumption is that ideas and attitudes are accessible to us through the lexicalised items of a language.</p><p>The thesis is part of the interlingual research project “Ethical concepts and mental cultures”, which, by applying a pluralistic method, examines various ethical fields, and assumes as central the oppositions a/o (action directed to others vs. to oneself), right/wrong (virtues vs. vices) and too much/too little vs. the ideal mean.</p><p>This study shows that true piety, in order to be classified as a virtue, has to include both trust and critical thinking in equal proportions and that if either of the two outweighs the other the virtue will become a vice. Furthermore, it is shown that a shift in meaning has taken place from ‘profitable’ or ‘advantageous’ in Old High German, through ‘excellent’, ‘righteous’, ‘virtuous’ into ‘religious’, with Luther’s usage as the critical factor in giving the word its religious meaning. As a result of Secularisation and Individualisation negative connotations have developed in modern German usage which do not seem to exist to the same extent in modern Swedish. This is confirmed by two corpus studies, evaluating the usage of <i>fromm/from</i> in German and Swedish newspaper texts, according to which <i>fromm</i> tends to be transferred to profane contexts, meaning for example ‘hypocritical’, ‘uncritically credulous’ and ‘uncritically obedient’ more frequently than its Swedish equivalent.</p><p>Based on results from socio-psychological research the study also identifies some strategies that speakers employ in order to mark distance or adherence to a group of believers or non-believers, for example metaphors (i.a. GOOD IS UP ÷ BAD IS DOWN) or stereotypes, which are often used to ridicule, criticise or insult a member of another group in order to strengthen the speaker’s own social identity.</p>

Based on current research in historical and cognitive linguistics this thesis examines the German semantic field &lt;fromm&gt; (&lt;pious&gt;), partly contrasting it with its Swedish correspondent &lt;from&gt;. Starting at the time of Old High German the analysis follows the historical development of word and concept, exploring how attitudes to the Christian religion are verbalised in different ages. One important assumption is that ideas and attitudes are accessible to us through the lexicalised items of a language. The thesis is part of the interlingual research project “Ethical concepts and mental cultures”, which, by applying a pluralistic method, examines various ethical fields, and assumes as central the oppositions a/o (action directed to others vs. to oneself), right/wrong (virtues vs. vices) and too much/too little vs. the ideal mean. This study shows that true piety, in order to be classified as a virtue, has to include both trust and critical thinking in equal proportions and that if either of the two outweighs the other the virtue will become a vice. Furthermore, it is shown that a shift in meaning has taken place from ‘profitable’ or ‘advantageous’ in Old High German, through ‘excellent’, ‘righteous’, ‘virtuous’ into ‘religious’, with Luther’s usage as the critical factor in giving the word its religious meaning. As a result of Secularisation and Individualisation negative connotations have developed in modern German usage which do not seem to exist to the same extent in modern Swedish. This is confirmed by two corpus studies, evaluating the usage of fromm/from in German and Swedish newspaper texts, according to which fromm tends to be transferred to profane contexts, meaning for example ‘hypocritical’, ‘uncritically credulous’ and ‘uncritically obedient’ more frequently than its Swedish equivalent. Based on results from socio-psychological research the study also identifies some strategies that speakers employ in order to mark distance or adherence to a group of believers or non-believers, for example metaphors (i.a. GOOD IS UP ÷ BAD IS DOWN) or stereotypes, which are often used to ridicule, criticise or insult a member of another group in order to strengthen the speaker’s own social identity.

La recherche a pour objet la structuration du champ lexical des mots « chance », « fortune », « hasard » et « risque » du XVIIIe au XXIe siècle. Témoin de mutations qu’a connues la civilisation occidentale durant cette période, ce champ, qui se rattache à la notion de fortune / hasard, présente une relative homogénéité sémantique.Les mots (et leurs dérivés) sont étudiés à travers le déploiement, la régulation et la répartition des normes d’usages, non seulement en français hexagonal, mais aussi en français québécois. L’étude se fonde sur l’exploitation de deux types de corpus. D’une part, un corpus d’articles extraits d’une cinquantaine de dictionnaires sert à mettre en évidence la productivité morphosémantique et sémantique de ces unités dans une perspective historique large. D’autre part, un grand ensemble d’énoncés diversifiés permet, par la mise au jour de types de contextes, d’effectuer un suivi diachronique des usages. L’approche continuiste des différences d’usages s’appuie sur une représentation fréquentielle des changements sémantiques.La thèse apporte une contribution à la question de la variation des usages et du changement sémantique, qui ouvre sur plusieurs perspectives. Elle se veut d’abord une réflexion sur la théorie et la méthodologie descriptives, appréhendées à la lumière de l’analyse de la nature et du rôle des corpus. Elle met ensuite en évidence l’importance de la dimension intersubjective dans l’activité de signification, en particulier le rôle déterminant des structures syntagmatiques dans l’établissement de nouveaux usages sémantiques. Enfin, elle permet de mettre en relation le changement sémantique avec les conditions sociohistoriques et les représentations collectives. / The present study deals with the way in which the lexical field regrouping the words “chance”, “fortune”, “hazard” and “risqué” has been structured in the French language from the eighteenth century till the present day. Revealing major changes in western societies during this period of time, the field, which corresponds to the linguistic representation of the notion of fortune / hasard, presents a certain coherence.We have examined these words and their derived forms through the display, regulation, and distribution of norms of use, not only in Hexagonal French, but also in Quebec French. Two types of corpora have been analysed. On the one hand, a corpus of articles from around 50 dictionaries has been used to emphasize the lexical and semantic productivity of the different units on a large historical scale. On the other hand, in revealing context types, a set of texts reflecting French language varieties has allowed for carrying out a diachronic analysis of lexical uses. The continuist approach to semantic differences rests upon a frequential representation of semantic changes.The thesis brings a significant contribution to the question of usage variations and semantic change, providing new perspectives. It first deals with theory and methodology of lexical description, considered through the analysis of the nature and the role of corpora. It then evidences the central role of syntagmatic structures in the setting of new semantic uses. The study has finally put into relation semantic changes with their historical background and the collective representations of the time.