Meaning of semantic bleaching | Babel Free

Definitions

The process of a term losing its intensity over time.

uncountable, usually

Examples

“Another type⟳ of status change⟳ is semantic bleaching, where the original meaning of the word has been eroded away and generalized by heavy usage, as in words like⟳ very (originally “true”), awful (“full of awe”), terrible (“able to cause terror”).”

“Before answering the question⟳ regarding whether the Slavonic modals exhibit semantic bleaching or not, we have⟳ to describe⟳ the semantic space of modality as it is represented in three Slavonic languages.”

“It has often been observed that grammaticalization involves what can be intuitively characterised as ‘semantic bleaching’ (see⟳ the discussion of Gabelentz 1891 in Hopper and Traugott 1993:20). For example, when nouns are reanalysed as determiners, they lose⟳ inherent descriptive content; when verbs are reanalysed as auxiliaries, they lose⟳ argument structure⟳.”

CEFR level