On the semantic history of selected terms of endearment
Agnieszka Grząśko
Rzeszów University , PolandAbstract
The present paper attempts to discuss the semantic history of a handful of terms of endearment (aka pet names, sweet talk, affectionate talk, soft words, terms of affection or sweet words) and the role of the cognitive mechanisms in the changes of their meaning. We focus the reader’s attention on a few lexical items which represent such mechanisms as foodsemy (e.g. honey, sugar), which seems to be one of the most prolific ones, plantosemy (pumpkin) or zoosemy (pet). Furthermore, we trace the semantic development of terms which from the beginning of their existence have been employed as pet names (sweetheart), words which are no longer endearments, because they underwent the process of meaning amelioration or pejoration (mopsy, bully) and – last but not least – nouns whose semantic shift is based on the pattern (POSITIVE) EMOTIONS → ENDEARMENTS (joy).
Keywords:
endearment, amelioration, pejoration, zoosemy, foodsemy, plantosemyReferences
Ayto, J. 1998. Oxford dictionary of slang. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ayto, J. 2005. Word origins. London: A&C Black.
Benbow, T.J., J. A. Simpson, and E.S.C Weiner. 1984-1989. The Oxford English dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2002 compact edition).
Bosmajian, H.A. 1979. The language of oppression. Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press.
Busse, U. 2002. Linguistic variation in the Shakespeare corpus. 163-173. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Cobham Brewer, E. 2003. Dictionary of phrase and fable. Blackmask Online. http://www46.homepage.villanova.edu/michael.foight/brewersdictphrasefable.pdf
Crystal, D. 2014. Words in time and place: Exploring language through the historical thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dalzell, T., and V. Terry. 2008. The concise new partridge dictionary of slang and unconventional English. London/New York: Routledge.
Hendrickson, R. 2008. The facts on file encyclopedia of word and phrase origins. Fourth Edition. New York: Facts on File.
Kochman-Haładyj, B. 2007. Low wenches and slatternly queans: On derogation of women terms Studia Anglica Resoviensia 4: 206-228.
Lakoff, G. 1987. Women, fire and dangerous things. Chicago/ London: The University of Chicago Press.
Langacker, R. W. 1987. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Lewin, E., and A. E. Lewin. 1988. The Random house thesaurus of slang. New York: Random House.
Liberman, A. 2008. An analytic dictionary of English etymology. Minneapolis/ London: University of Minnesota Press.
Mills, J. 1989. Womanwords. London: Longman.
Nartey, M. and J.B.A. Afful. 2013. Hello sweet pie: A sociolinguistic analysis of terms of endearment in a Ghanaian University. The International Journal of Social Sciences, Vol. 17 No. 1. Tijoss.
Partridge, E. 2006. A short etymological dictionary of Modern English. London/New York: Routledge.
Rayevska, N. M. 1979. English lexicology. Kiev: Kiev: Vysca Skola Publishers.
Rusinek, M. 2012. On the contiguity of the semantic fields ‘CAKES’ and ‘HUMAN BEING’: The case of tart. Annals of Arts 60,5/112: 101-112 (on www.ceeol.com).
Schmid, H.J. 2010. Entrenchment, salience, and basic levels. In D. Geeraerts, and H. Cuyckens (eds.), The Oxford handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, 117-138. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sherk, B. 2004. 500 Years of new words. Toronto: The Dundurn Group.
Sommer, E., and D. Weiss. 2001. Metaphors dictionary. Detroit: Visible Ink.
Taylor, J.R. 1995. Linguistic categorization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Weekley, E.1924. A concise etymological dictionary of Modern English. New York: E.P. Dutton and Company.
