Abstract:
As other structural units of a language, sense is also subject to change. Sinhala
language is an old language with a number of written documents from 3
rd
century B.C.
Hence, there are plenty of Structural changes in Sinhala language. This is based on
Semantic changes in Sinhala Nouns. The problem of this research is to study ‘what are
the types of Semantic change in Sinhala nouns’. To study the types of Semantic change
in Sinhala nouns, ‘Sikhavaḷa˜da ha Sikhavaḷa˜da vinisa’ and ‘Siyabaslakara’ are used
as primary resources. In this research, Morphological, Syntactic and Semantic criteria
are used to identify Nouns as abstract units. First, alphabetized all the identified nouns
and then studied the types of Semantic changes of Sinhala Nouns. Historical Semantic
methods are applied to analyze the identified set of data. In this research, there are few
limitations too. Types of Semantic change in Sinhala nouns are investigated on the
purpose of studying how sense changed from Sanskrit and Pali languages’ stage to
primary sources’ language stage. As a result of this research, the following eight
semantic change types are identified. Those methods are Semantic widening, Semantic
narrowing, Semantic transformation, Semantic amelioration, Sematic pejoration,
Sematic opposition, Semantic diminution and Synecdoche. In conclusion, it can be
stated that the Sense of Sinhala nouns is changed throughout the eight types of
Semantic change.
