hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2015-06-27

■ #2252. Waldron による意味変化の分類 [semantic_change][semantics][folk_etymology]

　昨日の記事「#2251. Ullmann による意味変化の分類」 ([2015-06-26-1]) の最後で，Ullmann の体系的な分類にも問題があると述べた．批判すべき点がいくつかあるなかで，Waldron はなかんずく昨日の図の B の II に相当する "Transfers of senses" の2つ，Popular etymology と Ellipsis を取り上げて，これらが純粋な意味変化ではない点を批判的に指摘している．この問題については，本ブログでも「#2174. 民間語源と意味変化」 ([2015-04-10-1])，「#2175. 伝統的な意味変化の類型への批判」 ([2015-04-11-1])，「#2177. 伝統的な意味変化の類型への批判 (2)」 ([2015-04-13-1]) で触れているが，改めて Waldron (138) の言葉により考えてみよう．

To confine our attention in the first instance to the fourfold division which is the heart of the scheme, we may feel some uneasiness at the inequality of these four categories in consideration of the exact correlation of their descriptions. This is not a question of their relative importance or frequency of occurrence but (again) of the level of analysis at which they emerge. Specifically, it seems possible to describe transfers based on sense-similarity and sense-contiguity as in themselves kinds of semantic change, whereas name-similarity and name-contiguity appear rather changes of form which are potential causes of a variety of types of change of meaning. To say that so-and-so is a case of metonymy or metaphor is far more informative as to the nature of the change of meaning than is the case with popular etymology or ellipsis. The former changes always result, by definition, in a word's acquisition of a complete new sense, while the result in the case of popular etymology is more often a peripheral modification of the word's original sense (as in the change from shamefast to shamefaced) and in the case of ellipsis a kind of telescoping of meaning, so that the remaining part of the expression has the meaning of the whole. In neither case is the result as clear cut and invariable as metonymy and metaphor.

　Waldron は，B II に関してこのように批判を加えた上で，それを外して自らの意味変化の分類を提示した．B III の "Composite changes" も除き，A と B I からなる分類法である．Waldron は，A を "Shift" （Stern 流の分類でいう adequation と substitution におよそ相当する）と呼び，B I (a) を "Metaphoric Transfer"，B I (b) を "Metonymic Transfer" と呼んだ．図式化すると以下のような分類となる．

                        ┌─── Shift
Change of Meaning ───┤                      ┌─── Metaphoric Transfer
                        └─── Transfer ───┤
                                                └─── Metonymic Transfer

　これで，本ブログ上にて Stern ([2014-06-13-1]), Ullmann ([2015-06-26-1]), Waldron による古典的な意味変化の分類を3種示してきたことになる．##1873,2251,2252 で比較対照されたい．

　・ Waldron, R. A. Sense and Sense Development. New York: OUP, 1967.

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