[Lexicog] When Words Lose Meaning

Tue May 13 20:31:57 UTC 2008

     It's interesting to watch what happens to words when any of five 
inconvenient factors intrude on an original (if there is such a thing 
as an origninal): 1) emotion  2) politics  3) metaphorical use  4) 
location  5) time. 

     1) Emotion leads toward stretching, exaggeration, or hyperbole 
(for rhetorical effect): ("Ohhh, I've told you a million times not to 
exaggerate."; "That guy kills me!"). It's not surprising that youth 
and youthful exuberance shape and distinguish the vocabulary of 
teenagers.  
     2) Politics lead toward misnomers, half-truths, selectivity 
("The U.S. is currently in a recession.") The Bloomberg Report's 
recent assessment of the U.S. economy in the last quarter was a 
positive .01% growth, predicted to grow 1.6% next quarter. Two 
consecutive quarters of overall economic decline constitutes a 
`recession' -- not a feeling, fear, or analysis of isolated economic 
sectors. Three quarters of Americans think that we are in a 
recession. Otherwise it is considered a `downturn', `slump', 
`slowdown', or `weakening period'. 
     3) Metaphorical use lends itself to lofty, other-worldly, exotic 
verbage -- resulting in enigmatic semantics. Take-offs on and 
parodies of metaphors play well to humor -- "The early worm is for 
the birds." (Peter's Almanac).
     4) "Location, location, location." is not just a real-estate 
dictum, it's a real-linguistic time machine (according to the 
philologists). For example, at one time in the history of Korea, the 
people of Cheju Island (the equivalent of Hawaii to the US) just off 
its southeastern coast, spoke an identical language with the 
mainlanders. That was when they were in their migration mode, but the 
day they leaped from being mainlanders to islanders, the language(s) 
diverged, until today Cheju-mal and Hankuk-mal are mutually 
unintelligable. Needless to say, this is why German became 
unintelligible to the English -- the process beginning with the 
invasion of the British Isles 1,533 years ago.  
     5) Time is similar to location, and leads to dated-sounding and 
archaic terms. The first demarcation of English language eras (475 - 
1066) came after 591 years. The second one (1066 - 1500) came after 
434 years. The third one (1500-2008) is now 508 years old -- about 
the average between the first two. This is why students basically 
dislike Shakespeare, and why modernized versions are an inevitable 
and natural progression in its study. Interesting to see how even 
some of Shakespeare's words were considered archaic, or at least 
dated, even at the time of writing (e.g. `eyne' for eyes -- A 
Midsummer Night's Dream 1.1.142-43 -- "For ere Demetrius looked on 
Hermia's eyne || He hailed down oaths that he was only mine"). The 
emending the "archaism" of `eyne' would break the rhyme, and is an 
example of one of the difficulties in modernizing Shakespeare.
     Perhaps a middle-ground before the wide-spread use of modernized 
versions in the classroom will be with annotated editions -- but with 
the original words/phrases at the base of the page, the reverse of 
the present (spellings and punctuation of his works are already 
thoroughly modernized). The emerging tendency is to present the 
original and a modernized version side by side (still few and far 
between in current American texts). Modernizing Beowulf and Chaucer 
are precursor examples to this inevitability. 
     Another example of this modernizing tendency is The King James 
Bible (1611), which has been largely replaced with modernized 
versions in American churches, due to its archaic wording, although 
it was after the mid-twentieth century before this became common. 
Shakespeare's The Tempest was written the same year (1611), two years 
before the end of Shakespeare's writing career in 1613.  
     Another issue completely is the question of modernizing his 
allusions -- to local feasts, local customs, rituals, ballads, 
proverbs, personages, etc. These pose a distinct set of problems from 
simple emendation of isolated colloquialisms, words (even function 
words, like prepositions), and phrases. They probably will remain as 
annotations long after the isolated words are emended. This is aside 
from his constant references to mythology, medicine, seamansip, 
falconry, 16th-century European cultural understandings, 
superstitions, etc., a sure point of contention when modernized 
versions become wide spread. 

     An example of a Shakespeare sentence follows, using the 
Shakespeare coinage word, `critic' . It includes six words modern-
sounding words, but which have shifted in denotation and/or 
connotation to the point of  appearing cryptic to the modern ear. 
(terms eliciting annotations modern texts are in bold, ilialic, and 
underlined): 

Troilus and Cressida 5.02.128-131(1)
     Think we had mothers; do not give advantage
     To stubborn critics, apt, without a theme,
     for depravation, to square the general sex
     By Cressid's rule.  (Signet)

     Think* remember that  (Riverside); bear in mind  (C.T. Onions) 
     stubborn* harsh; rude; rough; ruthless; implacable; insensitive 
(Onions)
     critic* fault-finder; caviller (Onions) || petty and unnecessary 
objector  (Oxford)
     apt*  1) ready; prepared; willing  2) easily impressed; 
impressionable; natural; likely  (Onions)  
     apt...depravation* ready and eager to claim the depravity of 
women, but lacking examples  (Signet) 
           || always ready, even when they have no grounds for 
denigration  (Riverside) 
     theme* discourse; undertaking; business  (Onions)
     depravation* defamation; detraction  (Onions)
     square...rule* take the measure of womanhood by Cressida's 
standard  (Signet)
     || measure all women by the yardstick of Cressida's behavior.  
(Riverside)
     square* estimate (Onions) 
     the general sex* all womankind  (Onions)  

Modernized version: 

     Consider that we had mothers; do not give advantage
     To harsh fault-finders, willing, without any undertaking,
     for defamation, to estimate the general sex
     By Cressid's rule.  	

     These are examples of extant words that are enigmatic (by 
today's definitions), and not representative of his innumerable nonce 
words that happened not to catch on in the English idiom -- most of 
which are an additional step beyond the pale. 
     But there are exceptions. One that stands out, because it never 
quite caught on, yet would seem a likey candidate to remain extant, 
is his word `annexment' (adjunct, or appendage). A Shakespeare 
coinage, Oxford labels its use as "rare" and defines it as "that 
which is annexed; an ajunct, or supplement". Its meaning in relation 
to its assumed current counterpart `annexation' is tenuous, though, 
because of its political, territorial, or legal denotation. Other 
surrounding words from the passage lend themselves more readily to 
the modernizers' pen.    

Hamlet 3.03.015(2)-022(1)

     The cess of majesty
     Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw
     What's near it with it; or it is a massy wheel
     Fixed on the summit of the highest mount,
     To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
     Are mortised and adjoined, which when it falls,
     Each small annexment, petty consequence,
     Attends the boist'rous ruin.  (Signet)

     cess of majesty* cessation (death) of a king  (Signet, 
Riverside, Onions)
     gulf* whirlpool  (Signet, Riverside)
     mortis'd* fixed  (Riverside)|| held together  (Onions)
     annexment* adjunct; appendage  (Riverside, Oxford Shakespeare)
     Attends* waits on; participates in  (Signet) || accompanies 
(Riverside)
     ruin* fall  (Riverside)

Modernized version: 

                            The cessation of a king 
     Dies not alone, but like a whirlpool doth draw
     What's near it with it; or it is a massy wheel
     Fixed on the summit of the highest mount,
     To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
     Are fixed and adjoined, which when it falls,
     Each small appendage, petty consequence,
     Accompanies the boist'rous fall.  

     The issue of words losing/changing meaning is one that can 
easily be resolved by extending definitions (or adding modernized 
versions -- connected by links). It will continue to be the nemesis 
of lexicographers and teachers in hard copy. 

Scott Nelson 

------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:lexicographylist-digest at yahoogroups.com 
    mailto:lexicographylist-fullfeatured at yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    lexicographylist-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/