ABSTRACT
This chapter describes and exemplifies different types of lexical change, changes in lexical form, changes in lexical meaning, changes in lexical distribution and changes associated with language contact. It discusses of lexical change it is worth considering the particular case of the development of proper names. Typically, proper names have their origins in expressions which mean something in a general kind of way and which then become attached to specific places, people or things. The chapter returns to the conscious creation of new terms in the present section and we shall then home in on the ideological dimension of 'lexical engineering'. These have tended to focuses on what have been perceived as sexist, racist, classist and ageist usages and on the lexicalization of sexual orientation and mental and physical handicap. The core methodologies of historical linguistics, the comparative method and internal reconstruction, have remained substantially unchanged since the nineteenth century.
