How Language Changes—Meaning and Order

Words’ meanings naturally shift in various ways through time, usually not having the same connotation at any given time as they did a thousand years before. The word silly began meaning “blessed” and acquired its current meaning in a series of gradual steps of reinterpretation. Words’ meanings narrow: meat once referred to all food; words’ meanings broaden: bird once referred only to small birds. Languages’ word order also changes over time. All possible orders of subject, verb, and object are attested in the world, and one order can change to another one. In English, the verb used to usually come last.