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Loan-induced semantic change in Formosan languages

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Abstract
This paper presents a systematic investigation of loan-induced semantic change in Formosan languages, focusing on two major processes: semantic shifts of loanwords and semantic extensions of native words. A semantic shift occurs when a borrowed term acquires a different meaning in the recipient language than in the donor language. These shifts reflect various cognitive-associative mechanisms, including cohyponymic transfers (‘sibling-of’ relations), generalizations and specializations (‘kind-of’ relations), metaphors (‘similar-to’ relations), metonymies (‘neighbor-of’ relations), and synecdoches (‘part-whole’ relations). In contrast, semantic extension involves native lexical items becoming polysemous to incorporate newly introduced concepts without directly borrowing their forms. This study also highlights loan translations, which reproduce foreign expressions with native morphemes, and pseudo-Japanese loans, which are lexicalized forms or compounds coined with Japanese-derived elements but patterned after Mandarin structures. These processes of semantic change are not purely linguistic but are deeply shaped by cultural conceptualization, whereby speakers reinterpret novel experiences and artifacts, especially those associated with modernization, through existing lexical and cultural frameworks.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Research on language contact in Formosan languages
    • 2.2Semantic change
    • 2.3Loanwords vs. loan-induced semantic change
  • 3.Loan-induced semantic change
    • 3.1Semantic shift in loanwords
      • 3.1.1Cohyponymic transfers
      • 3.1.2Generalization of meaning
      • 3.1.3Specialization of meaning
      • 3.1.4Metaphors
      • 3.1.5Metonyms
      • 3.1.6Synecdoches
    • 3.2Loan-induced semantic shifts in native words
      • 3.2.1Tattoo and writing
      • 3.2.2Noodles
      • 3.2.3Candle
      • 3.2.4Time
      • 3.2.5The Hakka people
      • 3.2.6Boat/canoe
    • 3.3Loan translation (calque)
      • 3.3.1Structural types of loan translation
      • 3.3.2Pseudo-Japanese loans
  • 4.Cultural conceptualizations and loan-induced semantic change
    • 4.1Defining cultural conceptualizations
    • 4.2Loanwords as carriers of cultural conceptualizations
    • 4.3Loan translations and cultural conceptualizations
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • List of abbreviations
  • Author queries
  • References
References (65)
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