Abstract

The present study was conducted to investigate the psycholinguistic bases and realization mechanism of semantic changes. Semantic extension that occurs in words comprehended in original nominative meaning has many times been the objective of linguistic investigations. As modern linguistics focuses more and more on the relationship of language and cognition, language and psychology, linguistic analyses and studies of word semantics are also directed to cognitive and thinking processes. The article aims to scrutinize main factors that bring about semantic changes. The semantic structure of a word undergoes multilateral changes throughout the historical development of language. Most words in language may assume additional meanings in functional speech that are not fixed in their lexicographic definitions. These peripheral or potential semantic components of meaning are realized in the thoughts of people in certain contexts. One of the reasons bringing about polysemy is explained by generalizing character of human thinking. The current study explains the approaches of both traditional and cognitive linguistics towards the above-mentioned linguistic phenomenon. The article also provides the interpretation of semantic development on the basis of the element of reality—the minimum unit that is comprehended, introduced in the theory of Linguo-Psychological Unity (LPU) newly created in Azerbaijani linguistics.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.