Chapter 8

Question 1

5 basic causes of language change

Answer 1

1. articulatory simplification
2. spelling pronunciation
3. analogy
4. reanalysis
5. language contact

Question 2

articulatory simplification

Answer 2

reduction in the effort of pronunciation (fifths to fifs)

Question 3

spelling pronunciation

Answer 3

a new pronunciation arises to fit the spelling

Question 4

analogy

Answer 4

reflects the preference of speakers for regular patterns over irregular ones. Ex: sting/stung and swing/swung. So bring to brung

Question 5

reanalysis

Answer 5

an attempt to attribute a compound or root + affix structure to a word that formerly wasn’t broken down into component morphemes. Ex: hamburger derived name from hamburg but now it’s known as fishburger, chickenburger.

Question 6

language contact

Answer 6

the situation where speakers of a language frequently interact with the speakers of another language or dialect. Extend borrowing can occur.

Question 7

Sound changes that occur within segments

Answer 7

assimilation, dissimilation, epenthesis, metathesis, weakening, deletion

Question 8

assimilation

Answer 8

simplification of articulatory movements
forms of partial assimilation: place, voicing, manner, nasalization

Question 9

geminate

Answer 9

a stop assimilated totally to a following stop (octo to otto)

Question 10

palatalization

Answer 10

a type of assimilation where front vowels and the palatal glide [j] make velar, alveolar, and dental stops more palatal.

Question 11

epenthesis

Answer 11

insertion of a consonant or vowel into a particular environment

Question 12

metathesis

Answer 12

a change in the relative positioning of segments. Old English wæps later became wæsp.

Question 13

weakening

Answer 13

vowel: vowel reduction (a full vowel reduced to a schwa-like vowel
consonant: degemination, frication, voicing, rhotacism ([z] to [r])

Question 14

deletion

Answer 14

vowel: apocope (word-final vowel), syncope (word-internal vowel)
Consonant: consonant deletion

Question 15

sound changes that affect individual segments (phonemes)

Answer 15

affrication, deaffrication, palatalization, substitution

Question 16

affrication

Answer 16

fricatives into affricates

Question 17

deaffrication

Answer 17

affricates into fricatives

Question 18

phonological changes

Answer 18

splits, mergers, shifts

Question 19

splits

Answer 19

allophones of the same phoneme became different phonemes due to loss of conditioning environment. Ex: [ŋ] was an allophone of /n/ but is now /ŋ/.

Question 20

mergers

Answer 20

two or more phonemes collapse into a single one. In Cockney English, /ð/ and /v/ combined to just be seen as /v/.

Question 21

shifts

Answer 21

a change in which a series of phonemes is systematically modified so that their organization with respect to each other is altered. Ex: Great English Vowel Shift

Question 22

cognate

Answer 22

words that have descended from a common source

Question 23

protolanguage

Answer 23

the common source language

Question 24

types of lexical change

Answer 24

borrowing, semantic extension, new word creation

Question 25

borrowing

Answer 25

language contact comes with incorporating outside words into your own language.
3 types: substratum, adstratum, superstratum influence.

Question 26

substratum

Answer 26

less politically/culturally dominant language affects more dominant one

Question 27

superstratum

Answer 27

more dominant language affects less dominant

Question 28

adstratum

Answer 28

two languages are in contact and neither is clearly politically or culturally dominant.

Question 29

semantic extension

Answer 29

indicates a word’s range of applicability by naming the particular object it denotes

Question 30

types of semantic change

Answer 30

broadening, narrowing, amelioration, pejoration, weakening, semantic shift, metaphor

Question 31

broadening

Answer 31

a word becomes more general or inclusive than its historically earlier form

Question 32

narrowing

Answer 32

the meaning of a word becomes less general and inclusive than its historically earlier meaning

Question 33

amelioration

Answer 33

the meaning of a word becomes more positive or favorable

Question 34

pejoration

Answer 34

the meaning of a word becomes more negative and less favorable

Question 35

weakening

Answer 35

the meaning of a word weakens over time

Question 36

semantic shift

Answer 36

a word loses its former meaning and takes on a new, but related, meaning

Question 37

metaphor

Answer 37

a word with a concrete meaning takes on a more abstract meaning without losing the original meaning