In the course of the historical development of a language, the meaning of words change, e.g.: glad had the meaning of bright in OE; husband had the meaning of master of the house-hold; meat had the meaning of food, etc.
Change of meaning has been profoundly studied. This problem embraces three points (aspects):
1. the causes of semantic change;
2. the nature of semantic change;
3. the result of semantic change.
When we discuss the causes of semantic change we concentrate on the factors which bring about this change, we try to find out why the word changed its meaning, what circumstances cause and stimulate their development.
When we analyse the nature of semantic change we try to understand how different changes of meaning were brought about, how it happened (under what conditions).
When we analyse the result of the semantic change we try to find out what has changed. We do it by comparing the result and the original meanings and describe the difference between them.