Attitudes Towards Language Change Flashcards
Who held the most power in terms of literature in history
literacy and production of texts was held primarily by the higher classes.
The King James Bible features
The translators often opted to use older, more archaic forms of language when more contemporary ones were available.
Unlike Shakespeare’s influence on Early modern English, The King James Bible does not offer a wealth of neologisms.
Equally the Bible is regressive in its use of grammatical structures that were, elsewhere falling out of use.
Penelope ekert, 2016
Quote
“I will argue further that language is not just a system that happens to change, but a system whose change is central to it’s semiotic function”
Complaints throughout the ages
In the 14th century, a monk complained that the English practise was a…
“strange wlallying, chytering, harrying and garrying grisbittyng”
Latin as a model
In the 18th century, the fixed grammar of Latin was much admired. In 1771, Jonathan Swift urged the formation of an academy to regulate language use.
But what constitutes “correct” English
English, like all languages, does have rules (e.g. where we put the verb in a sentence) but this type of rule is really a recurring pattern in order to aid communication and avoid breakdowns.
Who was an influential grammarian in the 18th century
One of the most ionfluential grammarians of the 18th century was Robert Lowth
Examples of prescriptive grammar rules
- Rejection of Double negatives
- Prepositions should not end a sentence (who does this belong to?)
- Splitting infinitives is “wrong” (to boldly go)
- Correct pronoun should be used (between you and me)
Why may some people display concern over language change
Many concerns are to do with “taste” and “good manners”
Language rules are being invented as a social ideology.
Many complaints ate not about a failure to communicate, but a failure to communicate in a certain way (e.g. “lazy” speech of the younger generation)
Norman Tebbitt (1985)
Tebbit was a politician who said:
“If you allow standards to slip to the stage where good English is no better than bad English … then there’s no imperative to stay out of crime”
MacKinnon (1996) categorises the attitudes people may have to language use:
(5)
Language use as correct or incorrect
Language use as pleasant or ugly
Language examples as socially acceptable or unacceptable
Language examples as morally acceptable or unacceptable
Language examples as appropriate or inappropriate in their content
Aitchinson (1962)
Damp spoon analogy
Aithison 1962. The idea of a damp spoon dipped back into the sugar after stirring tea.
Aichinson used this imagery to explain how some prescriptivists see people as just lazy pr careless because they use a changed form of English
This theory is particularly emotional rather than a linguistic one. Remember language is closely ties with emotional identity
Aitchinsion argues that “The only truly lazy speech is a drunken, where alcohol affects coordination, and English is not getting like drunken speech”
Aitchinson (1962)
Infectious disease
Aitchinson uses the imagery to sum the idea that language changes because a) people make mistakes and change the English language so b) others pick up the errors without realising it (catch the virus) s) This keeps damaging it, and there is no way of stopping this (no ‘vaccine’). People with this beleif argue that we should resist and fight changes.
Does this metaphor make prescriptivists the cure or the doctors?
BUT: Aitchinson says that people only use changes because they want to- they want to belong“…the decades metaphor falls down…people pick up changes because they want to”
PLUS: Changes only happen because they are useful “changes are not random”. They take hold only if the language is predisposed to move in a particular direction. Social contact can trigger a change only if it was already likely to happen….anomalies tend to get smoothed out…”
Aitchinson (1962)
Crumbling Castles
Aitchison uses this imagery to sum up the idea held by some that the English language is crumbling and needs to be preserved and protected.
Implies that the language of English was gradually and lovingly assembled until it reached a maximum point of splendour at some unspecific time in the past. Yet no year can be found when language achieved some point of perfection, like a vintage wine – Aitchison
This is sometimes referred to as a declining view.
Crumbling castle additive theory
Linguist Lane Greene also said that prescriptivists tend to see language as being in a state of constant decline from a once great peak)
Aitchinson (1962)
Fear of decay + Why may people experience this?
Aitchinson states that “a wide web of worries, a cobweb of old ideas, ensnares people as they think about English”
Now, English didn’t always have an idea of a ‘fixed’ grammar system.
However, during the 18th century, there was much admiration for the structure grammar system of Latin, which was a particularly prestigious language.
This period saw an overhaul in the grammar system if English, and an increase in the number if grammar books, such as Robert Lowth’s A short introduction to English grammar, which detailed how the English grammar system worked.
Many believe it is this fixed grammar system that adds prestige to the English language and if this system is not adhered to, English will fall into decline.
What is Aitchinson’s perspective on language change
A change tends to sneak quietly into a language, like a seed, which enters the soil and germinates unseen. At some points it sprouts through the surface.
Similarly, people may become socially aware of a change only when it reaches certain crucial point”
What is a key phrase concerning attitude towards language change
“Language changes but the concerns remain the same”
The inkhorn controversy reaction
This controversy was over the massive influx of new words imported into English from Latin (and Greek and French0
These were called ‘Inkhorn terms’.
They were deliberately introduced into the language, largely by academics and scholars (middle class, educated, male…)
These were people at the time who though the words were ‘pretentious’ or ‘artificial’
The inkhorn controversy
During the 16th and 17th centuries, there was ongoing widespread debate over the plainness or eloquence own the English language.
The Inkhorn controversy fell on the side of ‘eloquence’
The inkhorn Controversy words forced into English by academics, mainly from Latin
Then came the Enlightenment which bought a stronger emphasis on plainness, and distributed rhetoric.
Thomas Wilson on the inkhorn terms
(+ comparison to Shakespeare)
Thomas Wilson in The Arte Rhetorique referred to inkhorn terms as pretentious and artificial.
Many writers used these terms, including Shakespeare who is said to have introduced 1700 new words, Those who thought the terms were a problems said the would corrupt the English language because they were just fashion.
Goodman - The informalisation of English
Sharon Goodman argues that there was a golden age of English, around the 18th century. English has informalised over time. Goodman says that English speakers ‘have to become producers of promotional texts’ as marketisation informalisation have changed the way we see ourselves and the ways we interact. We feel pressure to use new and more informal language to promote ourselves.
Informalisation is the incorporation of aspects of intimate, personal discourse (such as colloquial language) into public forms of spoken and written communication.
Norman Fairclough on the informalisation of language
This engineering of informality, friendship and even intimacy entails a crossing of boarders between the public and the private, the commercial and the domestic, which is partly constituted by a simulation of the discursive practices of everyday life, conversational discourse
Features of informalisation
Which theorist?
Norman Fairclough
- shortened terms of address
- contractions of negatives
- auxillery verbs
- the use of active rather then passive sentence constructions
- colloquial language and slang.
It can also involve the adoption of regional accents or increased amounts of self disclosure of private feelings in public contexts (e.g. talk shows)
