A Study of Lexical Change of Word Meaning under the ECM

The changes of word-meaning can be classified into five categories: expansion, contraction, degradation, elevation, and transfer. The event-domain cognitive model (ECM) is a cognitive model proposed by Wang Yin, which makes up for the shortcomings of cognitive models proposed by Langacker, Talmy, Lakoff, and others, and has strong explanatory power. Applying ECM for the explanation of word-meaning changes, we can have a better understanding of the classification of word-meaning changes and the word itself. Besides, we can also figure out the relationships between different classifications of word-meaning changes, which enables us to understand the changes at multiple levels.