Name the four main processes of semantic change.

• A. Borrowing, Calqueing, Loanwords, Back-formation
• B. Metaphor, Metonymy, Synecdoche, Irony
• C. Broadening, Narrowing, Amelioration, Pejoration
• D. Semantic Bleaching, Metaphor Extension, Calques, Loanwords

Answer: (C)

Semantic change happens when a word’s meaning shifts over time. The four main processes are broadening, narrowing, amelioration, and pejoration. Broadening (generalization) is when a word gains more senses than it had before, like holiday, which used to mean a holy day and now means any festive day. Narrowing (specialization) is the opposite, where a word’s sense becomes more limited, such as meat, which moved from referring to food in general to animal flesh specifically. Amelioration is when a word takes on a more positive meaning, for example nice, which once meant foolish and later came to mean pleasant. Pejoration is the downward shift in meaning, where a word gains a more negative sense, like awful, which once meant inspiring awe and now means very bad. The other options mix processes from other areas (like borrowing or word-formation) or mention figurative devices, so they don’t capture the standard four semantic-change processes.