Editing Language change (section)

===Semantic changes===
{{Main|Semantic change}}

Semantic changes are shifts in the meanings of existing words. Basic types of semantic change include:
* [[pejoration]], in which a term's connotation goes from positive to negative
* amelioration, in which a term's connotations goes from negative to (more) positive
* broadening, in which a term acquires additional potential uses
* narrowing, in which a term's potential uses become more restrictive

After a word enters a language, its meaning can change as through a shift in the [[Valence (psychology)|valence]] of its connotations. As an example, when "villain" entered English it meant 'peasant' or 'farmhand', but acquired the connotation 'low-born' or 'scoundrel', and today only the negative use survives. Thus 'villain' has undergone [[pejoration]]. Conversely, the word "wicked" is undergoing amelioration in colloquial contexts, shifting from its original sense of 'evil', to the much more positive one {{as of | 2009 | lc = on}} of 'brilliant'.

Words' meanings may also change in terms of the breadth of their semantic domain. Narrowing a word limits its alternative meanings, whereas broadening associates new meanings with it. For example, "hound" ([[Old English]] ''hund'') once referred to any dog, whereas in modern English it denotes only a particular type of dog. On the other hand, the word "dog" itself has been broadened from its Old English root 'dogge', the name of a particular breed, to become the general term for all domestic canines.<ref>{{Cite book|title=An Introduction to Historical Linguistics|last1=Crowley|first1=Terry|last2=Bowern|first2=Claire|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0195365542|location=New York, NY|pages=200–201}}</ref>