[Lexicog] semantic extension

[Hayim Sheynin]

Dear John,

>>I've heard of travellers having problems with Spanish
terms they understood to mean "bag (suitable for placing purchases in)"
having been shifted in some areas to "woman's reproductive organ."<<

I think something similar occurs in Russian where an uncommon word 'torba'
("bag") corresponds to the word similarly uncommon 'utroba' ("womb")
Note slight phonetic variation of these two words: u- can be a prefix, then
torba and -troba reflect full and zero degrees of syllabification.

Hayim Y. Sheynin

-----Original Message-----
From: Koontz John E [mailto:john.koontz at colorado.edu]
Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 12:13 PM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Lexicog] semantic extension

On Wed, 19 May 2004, Wayne Leman wrote:
> Yesterday I learned that the Cheyenne word for purse has been semantically
> extended to mean 'budget.' Interesting!

This is basically the extension behind forms like borse or bursar(y) and,
of course, expressions like "the communal purse."  I think the forms
involved originally meant 'bag'.

Along other lines, I've heard of travellers having problems with Spanish
terms they understood to mean "bag (suitable for placing purchases in)"
having been shifted in some areas to "woman's reproductive organ."
(Using more direct terms tends to get letters classified as spam these
days.)




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