Semantic shift

Semantic shift is most immediately associated with the change in meaning that can be observed at different historical stages of a language in the way one might trace semantic shifts of words from Middle English to Modern English. This is semantic shift on the grand stage of history. But semantic shift can also be understood in ways which make it manifest in very ordinary kinds of language activity as happens in our lived experience, without reference to the historical stages of a language spanning centuries. It is this kind of semantic shift that will be the focus of this chapter, even if the study of semantic shifts of meaning change on the grand scale can still contribute, importantly, to this approach.