Semantic Change of the Word " dowlat" in Persian: A Study based on Prototype Theory

In this paper we investigated the semantic change of the word “dowlat” in the history of Persian prose from the 4th century (Hijri) until now. Though seemingly the meaning of this word has not changed dramatically, but it has been used with 21 different meanings in the Persian texts we investigated. We made an attempt to explain the semantic change of Dowlat using the prototype theory, Geeraerts’ (1997) approach. The prototype theory explains the meaning changes of the word well, in terms of three of four prototype hypotheses. We found that some senses play central role in the process of meaning change and meaning changes take place in the margins of clusters, in relation to central senses; some senses are peripheral and more impermanent; and some senses root simultaneously from more than one conceptual cluster (hypothesis 2). We found some evidence which show that modulation in the boundaries could cause one sense to occur twice in the history of the word in question, and each time independent from the other one; that is to say semantic polygenesis (hypothesis 3). Finally we learnt that encyclopedic information has a significant role in conceptual development of the words (hypothesis 4).