Semantic Change of the Selected Cebuano Words

Semantic Change of the Selected Cebuano Words* Rowanne Marie R. Maxilom, Ph.D University of San Carlos P. del Rosario Street, 6000 Cebu City {wannex_007@yahoo.com} Abstract This study attempted to determine the types of semantic change of the selected Cebuano words from the written texts, specifically the Bisaya magazine and spoken language of Cebuano speakers aged 15 – 40 years old living in Cebu province. Twenty (20) Cebuano words were analyzed using Campbell’s (1998) and Crowley’s (1997) classifications of the semantic change. The results revealed that metaphor was the dominant type of semantic change in the written text and broadening was frequently-used in the spoken language. Keywords: broadening, metaphor, semantic change, widening 1. Introduction “Earlier grammars and dictionaries reveal that Cebuano-Bisaya has undergone rapid changes in the course of the last four centuries.” (Wollf, 2001, p. 121). There are words listed in the earlier dictionaries that seem to be unknown in the current time. In fact, some of the young Cebuano speakers who are more exposed to other languages such as English do not understand the speech of their elders who used old Cebuano terms. Trask (1994) also pointed out that the young generation had a hard time in reading what the ancestors wrote 400 years ago. In the same manner, the descendants would surely find reading what the current generation of speakers is writing presently or the future generation could even hardly understand the tape recordings and films shown these days. Because of the cultural influences, the language was also affected. There are many Cebuano terms that are currently used by the native speakers that were originated in English and Spanish. In fact, “when the Spaniards left the Philippines in 1898 after almost 350 years of colonization…” as reported by Gonzalez (2004, p. 73), ten percent of the Filipinos spoke in Spanish. * Acknowledgment This paper was made possible because of the following persons: Dr. Shirley Dita, who invited me to submit an article to PACLIC, Dr. Hsiu-chuan who encouraged me to write a paper in Historical Linguistics, Ms. Ma. Lourdes Apodaca, Mrs. Letty Espina, Mr. Joselito Flores, Miss Haidee Palapar, Dr. Hope S. Yu, and Mrs. Norly Plasencia, who were my informants and consultant, respectively. Copyright 2008 by Rowanne Marie R. Maxilom 282 22nd Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation, pages 282–289 However, thirty percent of the Filipinos could speak in English after the Philippines had been colonized by the Americans for forty eight years. In this manner, the colonization by the Spaniards and Americans could possibly account for the semantic change that was undergone by some Cebuano words. Bloomfield (1933) and Campbell (1998) defined semantic change as a change in the concepts that were associated with a term and the innovations that change the meaning of words. With regard to the types of semantic change, Campbell (1998) and Crowley (1997) have the following classifications: First, widening or broadening refers to the increase of the meaning of words (Campbell, 1998) and a change in meaning which could …

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