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What is the difference between amelioration and pejoration?
What is the difference between melioration and pejoration?
What is an example of amelioration?
What is the difference between amelioration and aggravate?
May 14, 2014 · In language, one can see a dialectical movement, and it occurs through pejoration and amelioration. In pejoration, a word becomes more vulgar over time. In amelioration, a word is elevated over time, so that it loses vulgar connotations.
Dec 1, 2018 · This study examines two types of semantic change, namely amelioration and pejoration, through comparing the positive/negative senses of 20 English adjectives over time in the Oxford English...
- Silly
- Hierarchy
- Discreet
- Attitude
- Pejoration and Euphemism
- Generalizations About Pejoration
"The word silly is a classic example of pejoration, or gradual worsening of meaning. In early Middle English (around 1200), sely (as the word was then spelled) meant 'happy, blissful, blessed, fortunate,' as it did in Old English. . . . "The original meaning was followed by a succession of narrower ones, including 'spiritually blessed, pious, holy,...
"Hierarchy shows a similar, though more pronounced, deterioration. Originally applied to an order or a host of angels from the fourteenth century, it has steadily moved down the scale of being, referring to 'a collective body of ecclesiastical rulers' from c. 1619, from whence the similar secular sense develops c.1643 (in Milton's tract on divorce)...
"[U]sing language to 'spin' may worsen the meaning of the substituted language, a process linguists call 'pejoration.' That has happened to the previously innocuous adjective discreet, when used in 'personal' columns as a euphemism for illicit sexual meetings. A recent Wall Street Journal article quoted the customer service manager of an online dat...
"Let me give one final example of this kind of semantic corrosion--the word attitude. . . . Originally, attitude was a technical term, meaning 'position, pose.' It shifted to mean 'mental state, mode of thinking' (presumably whatever was implied by someone's posture). In colloquial usage, it has since deteriorated. He's got an attitude means 'he's ...
"One specific source of pejoration is euphemism . . .: in avoiding some taboo word, speakers may use an alternative which in time acquires the meaning of the original and itself falls out of use. Thus, in English, disinformation has replaced lying in some political contexts, where it has recently been joined by being economical with the truth." (Ap...
"Some few generalizations are possible: "Words meaning 'inexpensive' have an inherent likelihood to become negative in connotation, often highly negative. Lat. [Latin] vilis 'at a good price' (i.e. inevitably, 'low price') > 'commonplace' > 'trashy, contemptible, low' (the current meaning of It. [Italian], Fr. [French], NE. [Modern English] vile). ...
- Richard Nordquist
Nov 4, 2019 · Also called semantic shift, lexical change, and semantic progression. Common types of semantic change include amelioration, pejoration, broadening, semantic narrowing, bleaching, metaphor, and metonymy.
- Richard Nordquist
There are various types of semantic change including amelioration, pejoration, semantic broadening, semantic narrowing, and semantic shift. Amelioration refers to the process through which a word’s connotation becomes more positive over time.
Oct 5, 2018 · Amelioration refers to the upgrading or rise in status of a word's meaning. For example, meticulous once meant "fearful or timid," and sensitive meant simply "capable of using one's senses." Pejoration. More common than amelioration is the downgrading or depreciation of a word's meaning, a process called pejoration.
Amelioration is when a word acquires a certain, more pleasurable meaning than it once had. Pejoration is when a word acquires negative connotations that it did not have before. Common misconception. That the process of amelioration and pejoration mean a word completely changes its meaning.
