Evolution of Political Terminology in Chichewa and the Changing Political Culture in Malawi

According to Ullman (1970: 193) the vocabulary of a language is an unstable structure in which individual lexical items can acquire and lose meaning with the utmost ease. With regard to change in meaning, however, we can trace the basis of current meanings of lexical items in the earlier stages in the evolution of a language’s vocabulary. A lexical item in some cases, for example, acquires new referents, which it had not previously denoted, while in others, the semantic range may be restructured to specific referents. The latter case would result in specialized vocabulary such as terminology of the sciences, the arts, business etc. In most, if not all such cases, one is able to observe that whatever the cause may be the old and the new meanings are transparent. However, for these shifts to be so recognized, one condition has to be satisfied, namely, that a relatively large number of speakers be involved in their effective and consistent use.