change Flashcards
Halliday’s functional theory
Coining
“language changes and adapts to the needs of its users”
- new words needs to be created in order to change with advancements in technology/culture
e.g. the large hadron collider
likewise, words become obsolete
e.g. ‘ballister’
Halliday’s functional theory
Semantic change
- using existing words, but with semantic change
e.g. mouse, virus, crash, bug are all reference to computers
Halliday’s functional theory
Graphology
- electronic communication has led to increased innovation in graphology
- used to convey short, demotic, ephemeral, phatic messages associated with speech
- they have developed away of signaling intonation and paralinguistic content that speech often relied on
Halliday’s functional theory
Change in Knowledge, understanding and ideas
- ‘carbicide’ was developed in the 2000s to mean the act of eating too many carbohydrate-rich foods, showing an increased understanding in dietetics
- similarly, nouns such as ‘cronut’ and verbs like ‘flexischooling’ have also used the act of combining to create new words
Criticisms of functional theory
- can’t explain why verb endings have changed, Old English used to have various verb inflections such as ‘est’ and ‘eth’ which we no longer use
- there has also been lexical change which has happened not due to necessity, such as the transition from ‘hound’ to ‘dog’
Sapir-Whorf Reflectionism
- argues that a person’s language reflects, and is determined by, their way of thinking
- so, a person who uses racial slurs is inherently racist
Sapir-Whorf Determinism
- the idea that, if people can be persuaded to use more socially acceptable language, this will gradually dictate their way of thinking
- as this determines a new way of thinking, it acts as the basis of political correctness
Steven Pinker’s criticism of Sapir-Whorf
- Steven Pinker argues that thought is independent of language entirely
- Human beings do not think in any ‘natural language’ (a language in which we communicate/converse in) but instead in a ‘meta-language’ called ‘mentalese’
Steven Pinker’s Euphemism Treadmill
- the use of existing words, such as ‘coloured’ in a negative context eventually pejorates them, until they become socially unacceptable
- this can cause prejudice against people who aren’t necessarily bigoted, but just unaware of language change
Donald Mackinnon
- claimed that language change is caused by users’ attitudes to language such as whether a variation is:
- socially acceptable or unacceptable
- morally acceptable or unacceptable
- useful or useless
Movement of people
Grammar and Syntax
- Old English used to be a highly inflected language
- after the Norman invasion, a lot of the verb endings became obsolete, as conquered languages often simplify due to the reduction of second-language speakers
- English used to be a synthetic language, using endings to show function rather than order (analytic language)
“Cwen slaith mann” - man killed woman
“Cwene slaith mann” - woman killed man
Movement of people
Phonology
- The Great Vowel Shift (1400-1600)
- perhaps due to population shift in England, as a consequence of the black death
- ‘ʃi:p’ became ‘ʃeɪp’
Movement of people
Contemporary Phonological change
Estuary English
use of the glottal stop /?/ in ‘water’ and photograph
- John Wells attributed this to increased social and geographical mobility in Britain
MUE
British variety
‘a:sk’ becomes ‘a:ks’ (metathesis)
Movement of people
Labov’s substratum theory
- small groups of immigrants effecting the overall language
- / ): / cawfee
- Jewish New Yorkers, recently arriving in America pronounces coffee distinctively, that distinctive variety became associated with NY people and spread
Criticisms of Labov’s substratum theory
- can’t explain the loss of verb endings ‘es’ / ‘eth’
- can’t explain the lesser vowel shift
