Explain pejoration and amelioration in semantic change, with an example for each.

• A. Pejoration: term becomes more negative (awful). Amelioration: term becomes more positive (nice).
• B. Pejoration: becomes more positive; Amelioration: becomes more negative.
• C. Pejoration: neutral shift; Amelioration: neutral shift.
• D. Pejoration and amelioration refer to stylistic choices in punctuation.

Answer: (A)

When we talk about semantic change, the idea is that a word’s meaning can shift in how it’s valued socially—toward more negative or more positive connotations over time. Pejoration is that downward pull: a word takes on more negative senses than it once had. A classic example is awful, which once meant "inspiring awe" or "worthy of reverence" but came to mean something terrible or dreadful. Amelioration is the opposite: a word gains more positive senses. Nice is a standard example, because it started out meaning foolish or ignorant in earlier stages of English and gradually shifted to mean agreeable, pleasant, or kind.

The option that says pejoration is a move toward the negative and amelioration toward the positive is the right description. The other possibilities misstate what these processes involve (they aren’t neutral shifts, and they aren’t about punctuation or stylistic choices).