{"title":"语言变化是邪恶的:一个多义形容词的语义和社会意义","authors":"RHYS J. SANDOW, GEORGE BAILEY, NATALIE BRABER","doi":"10.1017/s1360674323000515","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"As a result of an ameliorative shift-to-opposite, the polysemous adjective <jats:italic>wicked</jats:italic> is an auto-antonym, having two senses opposite in meaning, that is, ‘evil’ and ‘good’. We discuss two studies which explore the social life of this word, with the first focusing on its production and the second on its perception. In the first study, conducted in Cornwall, United Kingdom, we find that young men are most advanced in the use of <jats:italic>wicked</jats:italic> ‘good’ while young women appear not to contribute to the incrementation, that is, the advancement, of this change. In the second study, conducted online across England, we find <jats:italic>wicked</jats:italic> ‘good’, relative to its synonym <jats:italic>good</jats:italic>, to be perceived as less young and to be evaluated positively across disparate characteristics relating to status and solidarity, particularly by older men. We find <jats:italic>wicked</jats:italic> ‘evil’, in contrast to its synonym <jats:italic>evil</jats:italic>, to be evaluated higher in status-type characteristics. This newly uncovered indexical field of <jats:italic>wicked</jats:italic> presents a possible explanation for the observed changes in production, contributing to ongoing questions about the role of social meaning in driving the incrementation of change. More generally, this article adds to the growing yet limited literature which explores semantic variation through the lens of variationist sociolinguistics.","PeriodicalId":45748,"journal":{"name":"English Language & Linguistics","volume":"19 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2023-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Language change is wicked: semantic and social meaning of a polysemous adjective\",\"authors\":\"RHYS J. SANDOW, GEORGE BAILEY, NATALIE BRABER\",\"doi\":\"10.1017/s1360674323000515\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"As a result of an ameliorative shift-to-opposite, the polysemous adjective <jats:italic>wicked</jats:italic> is an auto-antonym, having two senses opposite in meaning, that is, ‘evil’ and ‘good’. We discuss two studies which explore the social life of this word, with the first focusing on its production and the second on its perception. In the first study, conducted in Cornwall, United Kingdom, we find that young men are most advanced in the use of <jats:italic>wicked</jats:italic> ‘good’ while young women appear not to contribute to the incrementation, that is, the advancement, of this change. In the second study, conducted online across England, we find <jats:italic>wicked</jats:italic> ‘good’, relative to its synonym <jats:italic>good</jats:italic>, to be perceived as less young and to be evaluated positively across disparate characteristics relating to status and solidarity, particularly by older men. We find <jats:italic>wicked</jats:italic> ‘evil’, in contrast to its synonym <jats:italic>evil</jats:italic>, to be evaluated higher in status-type characteristics. This newly uncovered indexical field of <jats:italic>wicked</jats:italic> presents a possible explanation for the observed changes in production, contributing to ongoing questions about the role of social meaning in driving the incrementation of change. More generally, this article adds to the growing yet limited literature which explores semantic variation through the lens of variationist sociolinguistics.\",\"PeriodicalId\":45748,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"English Language & Linguistics\",\"volume\":\"19 6\",\"pages\":\"\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.9000,\"publicationDate\":\"2023-12-04\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"English Language & Linguistics\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"98\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1360674323000515\",\"RegionNum\":2,\"RegionCategory\":\"文学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"0\",\"JCRName\":\"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"English Language & Linguistics","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1360674323000515","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
Language change is wicked: semantic and social meaning of a polysemous adjective
As a result of an ameliorative shift-to-opposite, the polysemous adjective wicked is an auto-antonym, having two senses opposite in meaning, that is, ‘evil’ and ‘good’. We discuss two studies which explore the social life of this word, with the first focusing on its production and the second on its perception. In the first study, conducted in Cornwall, United Kingdom, we find that young men are most advanced in the use of wicked ‘good’ while young women appear not to contribute to the incrementation, that is, the advancement, of this change. In the second study, conducted online across England, we find wicked ‘good’, relative to its synonym good, to be perceived as less young and to be evaluated positively across disparate characteristics relating to status and solidarity, particularly by older men. We find wicked ‘evil’, in contrast to its synonym evil, to be evaluated higher in status-type characteristics. This newly uncovered indexical field of wicked presents a possible explanation for the observed changes in production, contributing to ongoing questions about the role of social meaning in driving the incrementation of change. More generally, this article adds to the growing yet limited literature which explores semantic variation through the lens of variationist sociolinguistics.
期刊介绍:
English Language and Linguistics, published twice a year, is an international journal which focuses on the description of the English language within the framework of contemporary linguistics. The journal is concerned equally with the synchronic and the diachronic aspects of English language studies and publishes articles of the highest quality which make a substantial contribution to our understanding of the structure and development of the English language and which are informed by a knowledge and appreciation of linguistic theory. English Language and Linguistics carries articles and short discussion papers or squibs on all core aspects of English, from its beginnings to the present day, including syntax, morphology, phonology, semantics, pragmatics, corpus linguistics and lexis.