semantic bleaching

plural semantic bleachings

1. uncountableusuallyhuman sciencesThe process of a term losing its intensity over time.

   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.

   2009 February 26, Björn Hansen, “Modals and the boundaries of grammaticalization: the case of Russian, Polish and Serbian–Croatian”, in Björn Wiemer, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann, Walter Bisang, editors, What Makes Grammaticalization?: A Look from Its Fringes and Its Components, De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 252

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   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”).

   [2001 July 5, Robert Stockwell, Donka Minkova, “Semantic change, guesswork”, in English Words: History and Structure, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 157

   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.

   [2010, Ian Roberts, “Grammaticalization, the clausal hierarchy and semantic bleaching”, in Elizabeth Closs Traugott, Graeme Trousdale, editors, Gradience, Gradualness and Grammaticalization, John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 66