Cht. 5 time Flashcards
what happens to a language over time?
it naturally changes
how are differences in language over time seen?
the different variaties must be seen during the period that the feature changed (comparing old and young speakers)
what is the apparant time hypothesis?
when young speakers show many differences to older speakers, it means that the young’s version is more increasing in the community
what is a semantic drift?
when words change meaning over time (metaphorical sense or social purpose)
what is a broadening semantic drift?
when a word can mean multiple things (extention, generalization)
what is a narrowing semantic drift?
when a word now only means one thing (specialization)
what is an amelioration semantic drift?
when a word gets a more positive meaning
what is a pejoration semantic drift?
when a word gets a more negative meaning (downgrading)
what is the uniformation principle
when you look at the changes happening in a language today and apply the “why” to the reason why a language changed in the past
where did the changes in a language start often
in the interior classes (middle & upper working class)
what are the principles of a language changing over time?
1: in a stable sociolinguistic stratification men use more non-standard forms than women
1A: if noticed women prefer prestige forms over men
2: in unnoticed women often are innovators
women change faster than men!
what is the embedding problem?
determining the combination of social and linguistic behavior in which language change happens
what is the actuation problem?
determining why change in language happens when it does
what can trigger language changes
changes in society (migration, work, perception), it can make people move away or cling to traditional variaties
how can questions about the apparent time hypothesis be addressed?
by using a real-time studies to test
what can happen to sounds
they can merge (which & witch) or shift (vowels)
what is a stable variation?
when a variation doesn’t change over time
what is the order of sociolinguistic acquisition among children?
- kids (even under 3) acquire the variation in the surrounding language
- kids pick up on style shifting (understanding that people change their speech according to who they’re speaking with)
- kids pick up on linguistic constraints on variation (factor that governs the use of the variant)
