DOI: http://doi.org/10.31972/vesal12.05

Abstract

Semantic transfer, or sometimes semantic change, occurs when a word drops its old meaning and comes to refer to something different. This results in a change in a word’s meaning. The changes in meaning are usually gradual. Many words in both languages, English and Kurdish, have gone through semantic transfer, whether the change is an extension or narrowing of the original meaning of them. This paper compares a set of words in the two languages in terms of their semantically transferred sense of the original meaning they used to convey. Those words are sometimes used interchangeably by the Kurdish students as a result of language interference between their first language which is Kurdish, and English which is the target language of their learning.

Keywords: Second Language Learning, Semantic change, Semantic transfer.

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