Different Paths for Words and Money: The Semantic Field of Commerce and Finance in Middle English

Abstract

[Abstract] Our aim in this paper is to examine the relationship between society and language change. Development such as the discovery of new territories and the introduction of new and exotic products and practices are known to have caused a significant increase in the number of terms with economic nuances from the sixteenth century onwards. We belive that the economy is a good indicator of relations among different groups of people and of the way in which those relations contributed to the evolution of language even from the early stages, a conclusion we base on the etymological origin of specialised terms introduced during Middle English.