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0 The English language is full of words which have changed their meanings 3lightly
or even dranmatically over the centuries. Changes of meaning can be of a number of
I (of の用法)【nice の意味の変遷)
different types. Some words, such as nice, have changed gradually. Emotive words tend
例示1企
今例示2
2(文構造)
to change more rapidly by losing some of their force, so that awful, which originally
とzthe
meant ‘inspiring awe', now means Very bad’ or, in expressions such as awfully good,
い
5
simply something like *very. In any case, all connection with ‘awe' has been lost.
2 Some changes of meaning, though, seem to attract more attention than others.
(0This is perhaps particularly the case where the people who worry about such things
3 (the case where 】 【文構造】
believe that a distinction is being lost. For example, there is a lot of concern at the
moment about the words uninterested and disinterested. In modern English, the positive
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form interested has two different meanings. The first and older meaning is approximately
今説明
4 las の用法)
'having a personal involvement in', as in
otniab
neit
The second and later, but now much more common, meaning is ‘demonstrating or
He is an interested party in the dispute.
pd
cooig
不説明
1s experiencing curiosity in, enthusiasm for, concern for, as in
和
He is very interested in cricket.
(2)It is not a problem that this word has more than one meaning. Confusion never
小理由
seems to occur, largely because the context will normally make it obvious which meaning
is intended. In all human languages there are very many words which have more than
one meaning-
this is a very common and entirely normal (3)state of affairs. Most
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English speakers, for example, can instantly think of a number of different meanings
for the words common and state and affairs which I have just used.
