Concept SCARCITY and its Historical Development in English

Abstract

With the general assumption of cognitive linguistics that semantic meaning is the primary linguistic phenomenon the article focuses on the analysis of the meaning of the concept in diachronic perspective using diachronic analysis methods and I. Shevchenko’s algorithm for determining historical transformations of the concepts. The content of the concept SCARCITY is stored in the verbal form and manifested by its name – the polysemous lexeme scarcity (n.) formed by the nominal Latinate suffix -ity from scarce (adj.) and the etymon – PIE stem of the verb kerp- (‘to gather harvest’). The semantic structure of the name of the concept went through nine stages of evolution from 1340 up to present time motivated by the inner form ‘state of being limited in amount’ and it is based on the categorical semantic property ‘a state/condition/degree of being scarce’ which together with other meanings profiled within the domains ECONOMICS and COMMERCE, MATHEMATICS, POVERTY, MEANNESS take part in the formation of the stereotypical perception of the concept SCARCITY in the English worldview defined by its name.