Abstract
Semantic change is a universal phenomenon across languages, resulting in changes to the number of meanings a word may conventionally possess. In addition to the original meaning, derived senses emerge. However, before these derived senses become stabilized, what Evans and Wilkins (2000) term “bridging contexts” may occur–intermediate, transitional contexts that facilitate the shift from speaker-specific (utterance-level) meaning to conventionalized (system-level) meaning. This paper outlines the concept of bridging contexts and explores its applicability to the Vietnamese verb nghe (“to hear”).
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