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Another linguistic cause is discrimination of synonyms
which can be illustrated by the semantic development of a number
of words. The word land, e.g., in Old English (OE. land) meant
both ’solid part of earth’s surface’ and ‘the territory of a nation’.
When in the Middle English period the word country (OFr.
contree) was borrowed as its synonym, the meaning of the word
land was somewhat altered and ‘the territory of a nation’ came to
be denoted mainly by the borrowed word country.
Some semantic changes may be accounted for by the
influence of a peculiar factor usually referred to as linguistic
analogy. It was found out, e.g., that if one of the members of a
synonymic set acquires a new meaning other members of this set
change their meanings too. It was observed, e.g., that all English
adverbs which acquired the meaning ‘rapidly’ (in a certain period
of time — before 1300) always develop the meaning
‘immediately’, similarly verbs synonymous with catch, e.g. grasp,
get, etc., by semantic extension acquired another meaning — ‘to
understand’.
Results of semantic change can be generally observed in the
changes of the denotational meaning of the word (restriction and
extension of meaning) or in the alteration of its connotational
component (ame-lioration and deterioration of meaning).
Changes in the denotational meaning may result in the
restriction of the types or range of referents denoted by the word.
This may be illustrated by the semantic development of the word
hound (OE. hund) which used to denote ‘a dog of any breed’ but
now denotes only ‘a dog used in the chase’. This is also the case
with the word fowl (OE. fuzol, fuzel) which in old English denoted
‘any bird’, but in Modern English denotes ‘a domestic hen or
cock’. This is generally described as “restriction of meaning” and
if the word with the new meaning comes to be used in the
specialised vocabulary of some limited group within the speech
community it is usual to speak of specialisation of meaning. For
example, we can observe restriction and specialisation of meaning

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