2) Origins of language, historical linguistics

Question 1

When a language first developed?

Answer 1

we don’t know

Question 2

What studies historical linguistics?

Answer 2

HL studies language diachronically, seeks to explain how Ls change over time

Question 3

What is a language family?

Answer 3

a group of sister languages

Question 4

What is a proto-language?

Answer 4

the latest common ancestor of a language family, common parent to all Ls

Question 5

What are the parts of Proto-Indo-European language family?

Answer 5

Celtic (Irish, Welsh, Scottish), Germanic (West- German, English, Yiddish, North- Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish), Hellenic (Greek), Slavic (Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Croatian), Baltic (Latvian, Lithuanian), Indo-Iranian (Old Persian, Kurdish, Hindi), Italic (Latin - French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian), Albanian and Armenian

Question 6

What are the two methods of linguistic reconstruction?

Answer 6

comparative method, internal method

Question 7

What discovered Sir William Jones?

Answer 7

similarities between Sanskrt, Latin and Greek - these Ls had developed from a common source

Question 8

Why is Rasmus Rask an important name in the field of historical linguistics?

Answer 8

he formalized techniques of the comparative method

Question 9

What did Jacob Grim do?

Answer 9

he described the systematic shift from Proto Indo European consonants to the Germanic consonants (Grimm’s Law)

Question 10

Which are the two causes of language change, and what are their subtypes?

Answer 10

internal (articulatory simplification, regularization) and external (language contact)

Question 11

What are the types of language change?

Answer 11

phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic

Question 12

What are the types of semantic language change?

Answer 12

broadening, narrowing, metonymy, pejoration, amelioration, metaphor, elipsis, grammaticalization, lexicalization

Question 13

Name the three mechanisms of language change

Answer 13

sound change, broadening, analogical creation

Question 14

What is conditioned sound change?

Answer 14

when a particular sound changes only in certain phonetic environments, depending upon the neighboring sounds

Question 15

What is unconditioned sound change?

Answer 15

a change in which every instance of a particular sound changes, regardless of its phonetic environment - First Sound Shift = Grimm’s Law, Great Vowel Shift

Question 16

What does Grimm’s Law explain?

Answer 16

a systematic shift from the PIE consonants to the Germanic consonants, correspondences between consonants found in Germanic languages with different consonants found in Sanskrit, Greek and Latin

Question 17

What is Great Vowel Shift?

Answer 17

an unconditioned sound change, the long vowels of Middle English were unconditionally but systematically raised in Early Modern English

Question 18

Name the processes of sound change

Answer 18

assimilation (regresive, progressive), dissimilation, deletion (syncope, apocope), epenthesis and prosthesis, metathesis, haplology

Question 19

What do the processes of analogy?

Answer 19

they help to reassert regularity in the patterns of the language

Question 20

What are the types of analogical creations?

Answer 20

contamination, hypercorrection, folk etymology, back-formation, metanalysis

Question 21

Name the stages of history of English

Answer 21

Pre-English (around 400 BC), Old English (450-1100), Middle English (1100-1500), Early Modern English (1500-1800), Modern English (1800-present)