1. Diachronic and synchronic dimensions of semantic shifts
International Summer School on Typology and Lexis (TyLex), 2–8 September 2017
Diachronic and synchronic dimensions of semantic shifts
Anna A.Zalizniak
Maria Bulakh

2. Semantic shift - variation of meaning that occurs, synchronically or diachronically, within one and the same word, that is, the relation between two different meanings of a polysemous word or the relation between two meanings of a word in the course of semantic evolution, or between the meanings of the cognate words going back to one and the same root

3. ‘to grasp’  ‘to understand’
Rus. ponjat’, ulovit’ Ital. capire - diachronic semantic evolution
Engl. to catch, to capture, French saisir
- synchronic polysemy
Rus. skhvatit’ – shvatyvat’ – morphological derivation (but Srb.-Croat. hvatati – synchronic polysemy), Germ. greifen ‘to grasp’ - begreifen ‘to understand’
Russian khapat’ ‘to grasp, to take in heaps’, Czech сháраt ‘to understand’ - cognates

4. ‘to sit’  ‘to live, inhabit’
Serb.-Cr. sedeti 'to sit' — 'to live, to reside' Old Russian сѣдѣти ‘to sit; to live, inhabit’ Geez (Classical Ethiopic) nabara 'to sit (down) ' — 'to live, to dwell’ Amh. täḳämmäṭä 'to sit down' — 'to dwell, inhabit'

5. unique semantic shifts. (language specific. rare. ):
unique semantic shifts? (language specific? rare?): ? Middle English tall ‘handsome’  English tall ‘of high stature’ universal?: ? long (size) – ‘long (period of time)’

6. semantic shift characteristic of one genetic group: inherited polysemy
(reflexes of Proto-Semitic *ʕayn- ‘eye; water spring’ in various Semitic languages)
several realizations involving different roots
(‘word’ – ‘thing’ in various Semitic languages)
semantic calques:
‘aim, goal’ – ‘goal (sport result)’
(English goal;
Amharic gəb ‘objective, aim; goal (in soccer)’
areal specific semantic shifts:
‘to draw water’ – ‘to copy’ in Ethiopian area

7. Types of realizations of a semantic shift:
1. Synchronic polysemy, ex.: Engl. to grasp ‘to catch’, ‘to understand’. 2. Diachronic semantic evolution (within one and the same language or an evolution from an ancestor language to a descendant language), ex.: Rus. ponjat’ ‘to understand’ < Old Russian ‘to take’. 3. Cognates, ex.: Rus. khapat’ ‘to grasp’ - Czech сháраt ‘to understand’ 4. Morphological derivation, ex.: Germ. rufen ‘to call’ – anrufen ‘to phone’; Russian usta ‘mouth’ – ust’je’ ‘outfall’, Lat. capitulum ‘chapter’ – caput ‘head’ 5. Borrowing, ex.: Russ. afera ‘dishonest commercial affair’, from French affaire ‘matter, affair, business’

8. Semantic generality (syncretism)
English
hand
arm
Russian
ruka
English
blue
Russian
siniy
goluboy

9. Semantic generality (syncretism)
English
butter
oil
Russian
maslo
(slivochnoe vs. rastitel’oe)
English
snow
ice
Arabic
ṯalǧ-

10. (hard cheese vs. curd cheese) German Käse Quark Russian syr tvorog
English
cheese
(hard cheese vs. curd cheese)
German
Käse
Quark
Russian
syr
tvorog
English
cheesecake (cake made of curd cheese)
German
Käsekuchen (cake made of curd cheese)
Russian
syrnik (a dish made of curd cheese)

11. DATABASE of semantic shifts in the languages of the world: http://semshifts.iling-ran.ru/
Main publications
Зализняк Анна А. Семантическая деривация в синхронии и диахронии: проект создания «Каталога семантических переходов» // Вопросы языкознания, № 2, С
Zalizniak Anna A. A Catalogue of Semantic Shifts: towards a Typology of Semantic Derivation // Vanhove M. (ed.) From Polysemy to Semantic Change Towards a typology of lexical semantic associations. Amsterdam P. 217–232.
Zalizniak Anna A., M. Bulakh, D. Ganenkov, I. Gruntov, T. Maisak, M. Russo. The Catalogue of Semantic Shifts as a Database for Semantic Typology // M. Koptjevskaja-Tamm, M. Vanhove (eds.) New directions in lexical typology. Linguistics, a special issue Volume 50, Issue 3, Pages 633–669.

12. The formal description of the semantic shift
contains the following fields:
1) identification number;
2) the name of semantic shift: meaning (A) - meaning (B);
3) direction of the semantic shift: , , –;
4) comments to the semantic shift;
5) contributor’s name;
6) the status of the shift (accepted, in work, new);
7) related shifts.

13. A realization of a given semantic shift can be:
one word of one language which has both meanings A and B (W1 = W2, L1 = L2);
two cognate words W1 and W2 of one and the same language (L1=L2)
two cognate words from two genetically related languages: W1 from the language L1 and W2 from the language L2;
a borrowed word W2 and its source W1: W1 from the language L1 (donor) and W2 from the language L2 (target)

14. The description of each realization of a given semantic shift contains the following fields:
1.1) name of the L1;
2) W1 [having meaning A]
3) translation for W1
4) example for W1 (with reference to it source)
5) translation of the example
2.1) name of the L2;
2) W2 [having meaning B]
3) translation for W2
4) example for W2 (with reference to it source)
[NB! W1 and W2 can be one and the same word, L1 and L2 can be one and the same language]
3. Type of the realization
4. Comments to the realization
5. Contributor’s name

15. Direction of the semantic shift
Unidirectional shifts
‘moon’  ‘month’
Russian mesjac 'moon' — ‘month’
(2) Bidirectional shifts
‘for nothing, for free’  ‘in vain, uselessly’
Russian darom 'for nothing, for free’  'in vain'
Geez bakka 'in vain, uselessly’  'for nothing’
‘sun’  ‘day’
Proto-Semitic *yawm- ‘day’  Jibbali yum ‘sun; day’
Proto-Semitic *ŝamš- 'sun’  Soqotri šɔm ‘sun; day'

16. Similar projects DECOLAR
(Dictionnaire étymologique et cognitive des langues romanes:
CLICS
List, Johann-Mattis, Thomas Mayer, Anselm Terhalle, and Matthias Urban (2014) CLICS: Database of Cross-Linguistic Colexifications. Marburg: Forschungszentrum Deutscher Sprachatlas (Version 1.0, online available at

17. Tasks for the seminar (to be sent to mbulakh@mail.ru)
(Obligatory):
Detailed description(s) of one or several semantic shifts.
2. Example of unique vs. universal (or very rare vs. widespread) semantic shift(s) (with realizations)
3. Examples of unidirectional vs. bidirectional semantic shifts (with realizations)