If onomasiology is better served by restricting the field, semasiology performs better when restricting the task.
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A schematic illustration of these classifications is given below.The following comments and examples are taken from Grzega, Joachim (2004), Bezeichnungswandel: Wie, Warum, Wozu?, Heidelberg: Winter, p. 139, and Grzega, Joachim (2003), “Borrowing as a Word-Finding Process in Cognitive Historical Onomasiology”, Onomasiology Online 4: 22-42.
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After World War II few studies on onomasiological theory have been carried out (e.g. by Cecil H. Brown, Stanley R. Witkowski, Brent Berlin). But onomasiology has recently seen new light with the works of Dirk Geeraerts, Andreas Blank, Peter Koch and the periodical Onomasiology Online, which is published at the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt by Joachim Grzega, Alfred Bammesberger and Marion Schöner. A recent representative of synchronic onomasiology (with a focus on word-formation processes) is Pavol Stekauer.
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Onomasiology (from onomāzο 'to name', which in turn is from ὄνομα onoma 'name') is a branch of linguistics concerned with the question "how do you express X?" It is in fact most commonly understood as a branch of lexicology, the study of words (although some apply the term also to grammar and conversation). Onomasiology, as a part of lexicology, starts from a concept which is taken to be priorOED: "The study of language which deals with the identification of a preconceived meaning or concept by name or names" (i.e. an idea, an object, a quality, an activity etc.) and asks for its names.
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He obtained his habilitation (i.e. post- doctoral degree) in 2004. Professor Grzega has held interim or guest professorships in Münster, Bayreuth, Erfurt, Freiburg, and Budapest. His focus is on onomasiology, eurolinguistics, intercultural communication, teaching of English as a lingua franca, language teaching in general and the role of language and communication in the transfer of knowledge.
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Semasiology (from , ', "signification") is a discipline of linguistics concerned with the question "what does the word X mean?". It studies the meaning of words regardless how they are pronounced.Словарь литературных терминов, семасиология (ru. Dictionary of literary terms, semasiology) It is the opposite of onomasiology, a branch of lexicology that starts with a concept or object and asks for its name, i.e.
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Onomasiology was initiated in the late 19th century, but it didn't receive its name until 1902, when the Austrian linguist Adolf Zauner published his study on the body-part terminology in Romance languages. And it was in Romance linguistics that the most important onomasiological works were written. Early linguists were basically interested in the etymology (i.e. the word-history) of the various expressions for a concept which was mostly a clearly defined, unchangeable concrete object or action.
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He also developed the Basic Global English (BGE) system for English teaching. With Onomasiology Online (Onon), he created one of the first peer-reviewed free access German linguistics journals. His second journal is specially dedicated to the relatively young branch of eurolinguistics: Journal for EuroLinguistiX (Jelix). He is also involved in the field of university-level language teaching, particularly in the development and dissemination of the Learning by teaching model founded in the 1980s by Jean-Pol Martin.
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In historical onomasiology or in historical linguistics, a metaphor is defined as a semantic change based on a similarity in form or function between the original concept and the target concept named by a word.Cf. Joachim Grzega (2004), Bezeichnungswandel: Wie, Warum, Wozu? Ein Beitrag zur englischen und allgemeinen Onomasiologie, Heidelberg: Winter, and Blank, Andreas (1997), Prinzipien des lexikalischen Bedeutungswandels am Beispiel der romanischen Sprachen, Tübingen: Niemeyer. For example, mouse: small, gray rodent with a long tail → small, gray computer device with a long cord.
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Elias Wessén Elias Wessén (15 April 1889 – 30 January 1981) was a prominent Swedish linguist and a professor of Scandinavian languages at Stockholm University (1928–1956). In 1947, he was honoured with one of the 18 seats at the Swedish Academy (which for instance awards the Nobel Prize in Literature). His earliest work concerned morphological problems in the Germanic languages, Onomasiology and Norse mythology. He published parts of Sveriges runinskrifter, editions of medieval texts and together with Åke Holmbäck, a translation of the Swedish medieval province laws (with commentaries).
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Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression, semantic development, or semantic drift) is a form of language change regarding the evolution of word usage—usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage. In diachronic (or historical) linguistics, semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word. Every word has a variety of senses and connotations, which can be added, removed, or altered over time, often to the extent that cognates across space and time have very different meanings. The study of semantic change can be seen as part of etymology, onomasiology, semasiology, and semantics.
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The study of lexical changes forms the diachronic portion of the science of onomasiology. The ongoing influx of new words into the English language (for example) helps make it a rich field for investigation into language change, despite the difficulty of defining precisely and accurately the vocabulary available to speakers of English. Throughout its history English has not only borrowed words from other languages but has re-combined and recycled them to create new meanings, whilst losing some old words. Dictionary-writers try to keep track of the changes in languages by recording (and, ideally, dating) the appearance in a language of new words, or of new usages for existing words.
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These atlases include maps that show the corresponding names for a concept in different regions as they were gathered in interviews with dialect speakers (mostly old rural males) by means of a questionnaire. Concerning English linguistics, onomasiology as well as linguistic geography has been playing only a minor role (the first linguistic atlas for the US was initiated by Hans Kurath, the first one for the UK by Eugen Dieth). In 1931 the German linguist Jost Trier introduced a new method in his book Der deutsche Wortschatz im Sinnbezirk des Verstandes which is known as the lexical field theory. According to Trier, lexical changes must always be seen, apart from the traditional aspects, in connection with the changes within a given word-field.
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Later the Austrian linguists Rudolf Meringer and Hugo Schuchardt started the "Wörter und Sachen" movement, which emphasized that every study of a word needed to include the study of the object it denotes. It was also Schuchardt who underlined that the etymologist/onomasiologist, when tracing back the history of a word, needs to respect both the "dame phonétique" (prove the regularity of sound changes or explain irregularities) and the "dame sémantique" (justify semantic changes). Another branch that developed from onomasiology and, at the same time, enriched it in turn was linguistic geography (areal linguistics), since it provided onomasiologists with valuable linguistic atlases. The first ones are Sprachatlas des Deutschen Reiches of Georg Wenker and Ferdinand Wrede, published beginning in 1888, the ALF (Atlas Linguistique de la France) by Jules Gilliéron (1902–1920), the AIS (Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz) by Karl Jaberg and Jakob Jud (1928–1940), the DSA (Deutscher Sprachatlas) by Ferdinand Wrede et al. (1927–1956).
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