Semantic Reanalysis and Language Change

Reanalysis is a well-known process of language change in morpho-syntax. However, the semantic composition of sentence meanings can also undergo reanalysis and lead to meaning changes for parts of the sentence. The article provides the basic notions of compositional semantics ⁄pragmatics that underlie semantic reanalysis, surveys possible constellations and causes of reanalysis, and contrasts the process to other ways of semantic change. I will, moreover, illustrate semantic reanalysis on basis of a case study which highlights some of its typical features. 1. Meaning Change and Grammaticalization Many people enjoy the fascinating task of tracing the history of words and expressions. Meaning changes often allow insights in cultural history, and major processes of change can be observed both in history and in daily life. For instance, speakers can decide to restrict the use of a word to what was formerly just the most frequent referents, like in Old English mete (‘food’) which turned into modern meat (food like in ‘steak’). This is called semantic narrowing, and we will use the example to introduce a few convenient notations. I will use [[a]] to refer to the meaning of a word a, e.g. [[dog]] stands for the meaning of the word dog. If the meaning of a word changes, we will use indices to indicate the two different meanings. Our instance of narrowing looks as follows: [[mete]]old was the concept ‘food’ or ‘meal’ in general, whereas [[mete]]new is the narrower concept ‘meat, edible muscle matter of animals’. If we consider more than one shift in meaning, we will use numbers as indices. For instance, we will later discuss three subsequent meanings of German fast, notated as [[fast]]1, [[fast]]2 and [[fast]]3. Other wellknown meaning changes include generalization, like for instance when [[dog]]old = ‘special breed of dogs’ was extended to [[dog]]new = ‘species canis’. Furthermore, we know metaphoric extensions, like [[mouse]]old = ‘small rodent’ to [[mouse]]new = ‘computer control’, and also metonymic extensions, for instance when [[press]]old = ‘machine for printing’ generates the newer sense [[press]]new = ‘newspapers’. Other cases of language change are fascinating in other ways. When content words turn into grammatical words or morphemes, it is much less clear how speakers arrive at meanings as abstract as those of tense morphemes, auxiliaries, evidential markers or quantifiers. What exactly happens when a phrase he is at hunting changes its message from [[Tom is at hunting]]old = ‘Tom takes part in a hunting event’ to [[Tom is a-hunting]]new = ‘at the time of reference, Tom hunts’? How does the overall shift in the message project back to the parts, in particular to the interaction of be and –ing, to yield a progressive aspect marker? Changes like this have been studied as grammaticalization of words or complex expressions (Hopper and Traugott 2003). The ensuing changes in morphosyntax are usually clear and well-understood. What happens at the semantic side, however, often Konstanzer Online-Publikations-System (KOPS) URL: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-0-398253 Erschienen in: Language and Linguistics Compass ; 5 (2011), 1. S. 33-46 https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-818x.2010.00260.x