Khanbalaeva Sabina Nizamievna
Moscow State Institute of International Relations
Submitted: 11.07.2022
Abstract. The study aims to identify the regularities of the semantic field “town” in different periods of the English language development. The paper carries out a thorough analysis of the word “town”, which has significantly changed its meaning over the centuries and has acquired a wide range of meanings. This illustrates well the idea that words accumulate senses and associations in the process of historical development and that older lexemes, as a rule, possess more semantic connections than those that have appeared in the language only recently. Scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that it pays considerable attention to the reasoned explanation of semantic changes of the word “town”, as well as conducts a profound linguistic analysis of those changes of meaning and perception of the word “town” that have taken place over the centuries. As a result, the author concludes that it is the part of the language vocabulary which has existed for centuries and has grown roots in the minds of its speakers that gradually acquires new meanings and commonly has polysemy. The examples given in the paper illustrate the meanings and senses of words that can be found in Middle English.
Key words and phrases: лексема “town”, контекст, среднеанглийский период, полисемия, заимствования, lexeme “town”, context, Middle English period, polysemy, borrowings
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