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Quick Start Guide
DatSemShift is a database of attested semantic shifts documented across the world's languages. Each shift is an abstract pair of meanings — A (source meaning) and B (target meaning), for example 'head' → 'chief, boss'. Each shift is represented by one or more realizations: concrete lexemes in specific languages that exhibit the semantic shift.
Browse all shifts on the Semantic Shifts page, or use one of the search modes below to find shifts and realizations matching your criteria.
Search
Quick search
On the Semantic Shifts page there is a text filter above the table. Type any word or phrase to instantly filter the visible rows by meaning — no page reload required. This is useful for a fast first look when you know approximately what you are looking for.
Extended search
The Extended search form lets you combine multiple criteria. Parameters are grouped in two levels:
- Shift-level: Source meaning, Target meaning, Taxon. Enable Chain search to find indirect paths A → B → C between two meanings.
- Realization-level: Language, Glottolog ID, Language group, Realization type, Lexeme, Macroarea. When any realization field is used, results show one row per matching realization (with language, lexeme, and meanings).
Toggle Fuzzy meanings to also return shifts whose meanings are semantically close to your query even when the exact string doesn't match. Results can be downloaded as an Excel file using the button at the top of the results table.
Notation
The shift is recorded as a pair of meanings A and B, identified by conventional semantic labels in English (head, chapter (of a book), to move (tr.) etc.). The concrete linguistic facts demonstrating this shift are called realizations of the shift.
Angle brackets denote a semantic variable — a placeholder standing for any specific member of a category:
| Notation | Stands for | Examples |
|---|---|---|
<animal> | any animal | donkey, cat, horse, ox … |
<body part> | any body part | back, hand, foot, eye … |
<weapon> | any weapon | sword, spear, dagger, arrow … |
Some meanings use a slash label X/Y to mark that a language
does not lexically distinguish between two concepts that are separate in other languages:
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
hand | The language distinguishes hand from arm — this word means hand only |
arm | The language distinguishes arm from hand — this word means arm only |
hand/arm | The language uses one word for both hand and arm |
Meanings are grouped into higher-level categories called taxons (for example, snail belongs to the category 'Animals.Invertebrate').
Direction symbols
Each shift and each realization carries a direction symbol. Their meaning differs depending on whether they apply to a shift or to a realization:
| Symbol | Applies to | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| → | Shift | At least one realization of this shift has a confirmed direction. |
| → | Realization | The change goes from meaning A to meaning B, in the same order as the shift header. |
| — | Shift or realization | There is not enough information to establish the direction. |
| ∼ | Shift or realization | The concept of direction is in principle inapplicable for these cases. |
| ↔ | Shift only | The shift has realizations going in both directions: at least one A → B and at least one B → A. |
| ← | Realization only |
Used inside a bidirectional (↔) shift for the realizations which go in the reverse
direction — from B to A, opposite to the direction A → B in the shift header. Example: shift #0430 watermelon ↔ melon — Modern Hebrew avatiach (אבטיח) 'watermelon' and avatiach tsahov (אבטיח צָהוֹב) 'watermelon', lit. 'yellow watermelon' and French melon d'eau 'watermelon' from melon 'melon'. |
Realization Types
Each realization is assigned a type indicating the linguistic mechanism behind the semantic connection:
| Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Polysemy | A single word has two related meanings simultaneously. | Russian считать 'to count' — 'to think, to believe' |
| Semantic evolution | Meaning A belongs to the ancestor language, meaning B belongs to the descendant language. | Ancient Greek μετατρέπω 'to turn back' in Modern Greek denotes 'to transform' |
| Microevolution | A subtle, gradual shift in meaning documented within historical records of a single language. | Russian ревновать 'to strive' (until 19th c.) → 'to be jealous' |
| Derivation | Two morphologically related forms in the same language show the shift. | German Mund 'mouth' and Mündung 'mouth of a river' |
| Complex derivation | The derived word (expressing meaning B) includes two lexical components, one of which expresses the meaning A of the shift header. | Serbian миш 'mouse' → слепи миш 'bat' (lit. "blind mouse") |
| Cognates | Words in two cognate languages inherited from one word in the protolanguage. | German Knabe 'boy' — English knave 'servant' |
| Internal cognates | Etymologically related words within the same language. | Slovak jutro 'morning' and zajtra 'tomorrow' |
| Syncretism | A single word covers meanings that are lexically distinct in other languages. | Russian рука 'hand' and 'arm' |
| Borrowing | A word borrowed from one language into another, shifting meaning in the process. | Old East Slavic челѧдь 'valetry, servants' — Komi челядь 'children' |
Related Shifts
Two shifts can be marked as related when they are conceptually connected. Related shifts are listed in the Related shifts modal on any shift page; click Open to navigate directly to the related shift. Each relation can be assigned one of the following types:
Proximity B1‑В2
Both shifts share the same source meaning A but lead to two close (not identical) target meanings B1 and B2. The targets are near-synonyms or overlap significantly.
- 'to strike, hit' → 'to attack' and 'to strike, hit' → 'to fight'
- 'head' → 'leader' and 'head' → 'chief'
Proximity А1‑А2
Both shifts lead to the same target meaning B but start from two close source meanings A1 and A2.
- 'mouth' → 'entrance' and 'lips' → 'entrance'
- 'light, bright, clear' → 'comprehensible' and 'transparent' → 'comprehensible'
Dual Proximity
The source meanings A1 ≈ A2 are close to each other and the target meanings B1 ≈ B2 are close to each other — a near-parallel pair of shifts.
- 'mind (n.)' → 'memory' and 'to think' → 'to remember, recall'
- 'to sail' → 'to fly' and 'to float' → 'to soar'
Opposition В1‑В2
Both shifts start from the same source A but lead to opposite (or strongly contrasting) target meanings B1 and B2.
- 'to raise, lift (tr.)' → 'to begin (tr.)' and 'to raise, lift (tr.)' → 'to end, finish (tr.)'
- 'cold' → 'pleasant' and 'cold' → 'unpleasant'
Opposition А1‑А2
Both shifts arrive at the same target B but from opposite (or strongly contrasting) source meanings A1 and A2.
- 'to tie' → 'to begin (tr.)' and 'to untie, unbind' → 'to begin (tr.)'
- 'summer' → 'year' and 'winter' → 'year'
Dual Opposition
A1 and A2 are opposite, and B1 and B2 are also opposite — the two shifts are mirror images of each other.
- 'straight' → 'correct, right' and 'curved' → 'false, wrong'
- 'black' → 'dirty' and 'white' → 'pure'
- 'in front of' → 'before (temporal)' and 'behind' → 'afterwards, later'
Tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| Maps | Interactive map showing all languages where a shift is attested. Points are colour-coded by realization type. Open via the Show map button on any shift page. |
| Compare Shifts | Select multiple shifts by ID and view them overlaid on a single map to compare their geographic distributions. |
| Similarity Search | Enter source and/or target meanings; returns examples from external dictionaries ranked by semantic proximity using vector similarity. |
| Compare Taxons | Compare sets of shifts by semantic taxon. Find shifts shared between two taxons, or shifts where one taxon is the source and another is the target. |
| Taxon Heatmap | Heat-map matrix showing how frequently each pair of taxons appears as source/target across all shifts in the database. |
| Shift Chains | Enter a starting meaning; generates a directed graph of all shifts reachable from it up to a configurable depth (max 5 steps). |
| Compare Semantic Profiles | Compare how different languages distribute their shifts across semantic taxons (e.g. which domains are most active in a given language). |
| Word Histories | Browse reconstructed word-history entries linked to shifts — etymology and attested semantic evolution of individual lexemes. |
| Related Shifts | Browse all pairs of related shifts ordered by relation count. For logged-in users: assign or change the relation type (Proximity, Opposition, Dual variants) and delete relations. |