Diachronic Semantics in Literary Texts

This article examines semantic shift in selected evaluative lexical items in Jane Austen’s fiction and argues that diachronic change creates recurrent risks for interpretation and translation. Although Austen’s language may appear transparent to modern readers, many socially and morally charged words in her novels belong to an early nineteenth-century semantic context in which lexical choices function as judgments, reputational signals, and moral calibrators. Focusing on seven recurrent items—sensible, improper, attachment, amiable, regard, respectable, and connection—the study compares historically salient meanings with predominant present-day interpretations in order to identify divergence zones where modern semantic interference may occur. Using an author-centered corpus consisting of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma, the methodology combines corpus-supported retrieval, contextual close reading, and diachronic lexicographic profiling. The findings identify three recurring patterns of drift: evaluative weakening, semantic narrowing or privatization, and sociopragmatic rescaling. These shifts can blunt characterization, weaken the stakes of propriety and reputation, and alter the irony of Austen’s narrative world by changing its moral “temperature.” The article proposes historically informed lexical mapping as a practical safeguard for translators and readers, supporting more semantically accountable interpretation and translation of historically situated literature.