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Article published In: Journal of Historical Linguistics
Vol. 6:2 (2016) ► pp.165–200

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Tracking semantic change in fl- monomorphemes in the Oxford English Dictionary

 | CRISCO EA 4255 Université de Caen |
Published online: 2 March 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.6.2.02smi
This study aims to track diachronic semantic shift in a small set of monomorphemes collected from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), carrying the initial fl- phonestheme, such as flounder, flummox, flail, etc. The purpose is to determine the semantic behavior of fl- monomorphemes by identifying OED key words, which are then classified into eleven conceptual categories of semantic features. Five features of the eleven are conjectured as major on the basis of frequency of occurrence and frequency of combination with other features. Features which share similar progression rates are hypothesized to be linked through the natural process of metonymy (MTA, SV, SBT). Early emergent features are viewed as primary (MTA and MTL). From there, directionality of shift is assessed by comparing co-emergent with post-attestation features. Although no general pattern is discernible on this scale, several case studies of unexpected semantic shift towards minor features as in flummer and flourish show promising results for the field of historical lexical semantics.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data, source, and method
    • 2.1Selection of initial submorpheme fl-
    • 2.2Using lexicographic data
      • 2.2.1Using the Oxford English Dictionary to track semantic shift over time
      • 2.2.2Collecting data from the OED online
      • 2.2.3Diachronic inclusions and dates
      • 2.2.4Sample corpus
    • 2.3Method for identifying shared semantic content
      • 2.3.1The shared semantic content of fl-
      • 2.3.2Identifying recurring features in OED definitions: Feature analysis
      • 2.3.3Correlation between shared roots and semantic features
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Distribution of features
    • 3.2Feature combination and its relevance
    • 3.3Diachronic propagation of fl- features over time
    • 3.4Semantic shift in frequent features (MTA, SV, SBT, MTL): Co-emergence vs. post-attestation emergence
    • 3.5Minor features emergence
    • 3.6Preliminary conclusions: Natural semantic shift between fl- features
  • 4.Discussion: Interpretation of results
    • 4.1Natural processes and analogy in language change
      • 4.1.1Natural processes of language change
      • 4.1.2Evidence of phonesthetic shift and what it means for language change
    • 4.2The evidence of semantic shift in fl- words in OED
    • 4.3Extrapolating semantic change in post-1900 fl- words
    • 4.4Collocate behavioral test of some fl- monomorphemes in the OEC
    • 4.5Testing collocate analysis of flounce <1542> in the OEC
  • 5.Summary
  • 6.Wider implications: Tools and multivariate statistics for semantic study
  • Notes
  • Primary Sources
  • References
References (74)
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The Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Online subscription version, 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available at [URL]. Last accessed 16/03/2015.
Oxford English Corpus (OEC). Access granted by Oxford University, provided by Sketch Engine v3 (Feb 2012) “OEC + Biwec build v2″ 2.073 G words.
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