Exam, Semester 2 Flashcards
Narrowing
The process of which the meaning of the word is changed to become more specific.
- Apple used to mean any fruit, now is specific
Broadening
The process of which the meaning of the word is changed to become more general.
- Holiday meant ‘Holy Day’ but now is meant for ‘any day off’
Meaning Shifts
The process of which a word changes in meaning that entirely different from its original meaning.
- Nice meant ignorant now it means good
Taboo Words
Words that are embarrassing, or difficult to discuss.
- sex
Euphemisms
Used in place of Taboo words, that are mild and are more suitable for offensive words
- passed away instead of dead
Compounding
A combination of 2 or more free morphemes to create 1 word.
- Hamburger, Girlfriend
Conversion
Creating a new word that belongs to a different part of speech than the original, without affixation.
- A noun to a verb
I am going to the market or I am going to the market this product
Affixation
Adding a bound morpheme to form new words.
- Pro + Active = Proactive
Blends
A process of word formation in which parts of two independent words are combined and used in a new word
- smog, blend of smoke and fog
Backformation
New words are formed by subtracting an affix which was wrongly thought to be part of an old word.
- ‘enthuse’ was taken from ‘enthusiasm’
Shortenings
Creating a new word by shortening a longer word.
- Insta from Instagram
Abbreviations
A form of a word or phrase with letters removed or substituted
- St for Street
Initialism
Taking the first letter from a string of words and saying those letters.
- DM (Direct Message)
Neologisms
New words that have been invented.
- Instagram
Acronym
Taking the first letter from a string of words and pronouncing them as their own word.
- ANZAC
Contraction
Using an apostrophe to indicate that letters have been elided
- Mightn’ve (might not have)
Commonization
Proper nouns being converted into common nouns or another part of speech.
- Internet, Coke
Nominalisation
The conversion of non-nouns, noun phrases, often verbs into nouns.
- Unfriending
Borrowing
New words that are taken from another language, especially in food.
- Giraffe from Arabic
Word Loss / Obsolescence
Refers to word or expression that are not commonly used, that remain in the language for technical terminology.
- Codpiece
Archaisms
Words or phrases that exist in fixed phrases or older texts not are not used outside of this context and have lost their general meaning.
- Hark exists in Church hymns
Elision
When a speaker drops a sound segment.
- lie-bri, Library
Assimilation
When a speaker makes one sound segment sound similar to an adjacent or neighbouring sound segment
Deterioration
Process of semantic change in which the overall value attached to a word becomes increasingly negative
- Fair being beautiful to moderate
Elevation
Process of semantic change in which the overall value attached to a word becomes increasingly positive.
- Mischievous has gone from being bad to ‘playfully annoying’
Pidgin
Type of language that emerges between groups of people of two or more different language backgrounds when there is no existing lingua franca. Not anyones first language but a mix of languages.
Lingua Franca
A language that is adopted as a common language between speakers who have different first languages
Creole
Type of language that often develops from a pidgin, when the pidgin is so useful to its language community that children learn it as a mother tongue. Can be a first language.
Cognate
a cognate can indicate and identify a relationship across languages, and can predict the ways of spelling and phonology, but will have consistent elements if their denotations (literal meanings)
Dialect
a variety of language that identifies a person’s geographical or social background. it could have distinctive language features or accent
Language Reclamation
language reclamation raises awareness of the related peoples and cultures, and goes in a way towards giving the marginalised languages a greater voice in society
