Exam prep

Question 1

British Empire

Answer 1

the group of countries that in the past were ruled or controlled by the U.K., including Australia, Canada, India, and many parts of Africa

Question 2

Ownership of English

Answer 2

• newly independent and decolonized countries accepted English, made certain tweaks to make it “their own”

Question 3

World Englishes

Answer 3

all forms of English used in the world, includes English varieties spoken by people with a lower level of knowledge of English. (British English, and, of course, forms such as Nigerian, Malaysian, or New Zealand English)

Question 4

New Englishes

Answer 4

is a term that is taken to encompass all forms of English resulting from and emerging from post-colonial backgrounds. (excludes British English but includes American or Australian English, the “New Englishes,” and English- related creoles). Schneider (2007)

Question 5

English as a native language

Answer 5

speakers who acquired English as their mother tongue by the majority of the population (L1 or ENL)

Question 6

English as a second language

Answer 6

speakers who speak English in addition to their native language and do that intranationally (within one nation, in addition to native languages being spoken) (ESL or L2)

Question 7

English as a foreign language

Answer 7

• English is taught during the educational process
• individuals want to learn it due to the fact that it is useful in international settings
• does not play any role in internal interactions

Question 8

The Three Circles Model

Answer 8

Inner circles — have English as their native language, majority population speaking English

Outer circle — don’t have English as their native language, large population speaks English whilst a large population speaks the native

Expanding circle — don’t have a large population that speaks English, limited amount of ppl fluently speaking English. Higher population speaking their native tongue

Question 9

Rhoticity

Answer 9

n English is whether or not the rhothic consonant /r/ is pronounced in various contexts by the speakers. British English is considered to be non-rhotic, therefore, speakers of this variety of English do not pronounce /r/.

Question 10

Variation at various linguistic levels: phonetics, phonology, morphology, (morpho)syntax, lexis, pragmatics

Answer 10

notebook

Question 11

Borrowing

Answer 11

At times, local languages can adopt words from different languages and cultures they come into contact with.

Question 12

Transfer

Answer 12

• multilingual individuals import grammatical/pronunciation features from native language into second language
• same applies to items of vocabulary
• can lead to phonological innovations (accent, which is then (partially) shared by the local community)
• literally translated phrases – part of this process

Question 13

Language shift

Answer 13

• inferior group abandons original language + adopts another (generally dominant group’s) as own
• can happen due to multiple variables
• forced emigration and or immigration in a country
• subdued or oppressed ppl in a nation usually are subjected to language shifts

Question 14

Language death

Answer 14

an attempt to suppress the usage of a certain language with the intent of marginalising smaller communities and their cultural identities.

Question 15

Koineization

Answer 15

• process when many dialects get combined with one another
• accompanied by the disappearance of extreme dialect forms (they tend to be unsuccessful in conveying information)
• creation of a compromise dialect that can be comprehended by all sides

Question 16

Colonial lag

Answer 16

• term proposes that colonial societies lean towards the conservative side (preserving and respecting old forms of behaviour
• leads to the myth that some American dialects represent pure “Shakespearean English”

(In relation to American English being conservative)

Question 17

Founder effect

Answer 17

implies that the immigrants that arrived the earliest have a disproportionate advantage on influencing the formation of a language compared to those who come later. This is correlated to the absence of any pre-existing linguistic standard to adjust to.

Question 18

Preverbal marker

Answer 18

a grammatical particle that is used to express tense and aspect relations. To understand that loaded sentence, you first must understand tense-aspect-mood (TAM for short).

Question 19

Monophthongization

Answer 19

the reduction of a diphthong to a long vowel.

Question 20

Article reduction

Answer 20

a dialect feature which can be characterised by an article, for example, the, being reduced to a plain stop t’. (e.g. the chair → t’chair)

Question 21

Linguistic merger

Answer 21

confusion or homophony of mid- high and high front vowels (/e, i/) before nasals

Question 22

Superstrate

Answer 22

• a language that comes “from above” and from those in power
• language of the socially superior group
• assumed to be the target of language acquisition and shift

Question 23

Substrate

Answer 23

• language that has lower prestige than another
• English with contributions from indigenous languages
• language of the socially inferior group, gradually given
• assumed to exert some influence on the newly adopted language through the transfer of some of its properties

Question 24

Vowel shift

Answer 24

changes in certain monophthongal long vowel pronunciations

• mouse rhyming with shoes
• time sounded like team

Question 25

Drift

Answer 25

• unintentional change of a language through time

Question 26

Nativization

Answer 26

• question of ownership of English (that variety) comes up
• local population finds new and specific use cases and innovations for their use of English, slowly transforming it into a New English
• being nativized, the group using this particular variety has at least some claim to ownership, yet full ownership might still be contested

Question 27

Exonormative stabilization

Answer 27

• in a colonial situation the “mother country” (politically superior) dictates linguistic norms
• elite bilingualism disperses amidst some parts of the native population
• continuation of lexical borrowing

Question 28

Endonormative stabilization

Answer 28

• rise of new linguistic form after independence
• motivated by the want of a separate national identity
• gets accepted in society, codified, is employed in literature

Question 29

The Berlin conference

Answer 29

multiple discussions that took place in 1884-5 in order to make a decision on how to split Africa’s resources between 14 European countries and the United States. Any representative from Africa were not present. The main aim of this conference was to divide the continent into parts and claim possession over them, as well as utilising them for economic and political gain.
- titular and unnatural borders were set in place, without taking into account the ethnic composition across the regions. - resulted in linguistic heterogenity.

Question 30

The scramble for Africa

Answer 30

multiple competitions between European powers for the colonisation of Africa with the intention of gaining economic power.

Question 31

Reduplication

Answer 31

using a word twice in a row through a hyphen with the intent of intensifying the meaning of a word. (e.g. small-small means ‘very small’)

Question 32

Trade colony

Answer 32

colonies where sailors and merchants voyaged to new lands in order to exchange various possessions with native people.

Question 33

Plantation colony

Answer 33

characterised by settles relocating in order to create colonial bases with the intention of cultivating agriculture in the tropics.

Question 34

Settler colony

Answer 34

• large-scale population relocation

- establishment of permanent settlement in the new territory of English-ancestry people resident in foreign lands

Question 35

Exploitation colony

Answer 35

set up in order to gain political authority and to capitalise on aboriginal resources with the excuse of aiding the “mother country”.

Question 36

Indentured labourers

Answer 36

individuals who were in debt or were deported and had to serve in a colony for several (usually seven) years, most of them stayed (e.g. Carribean)

Question 37

Indirect rule

Answer 37

the approach that aided the Empire in maintaining control over colonies with (English speaking and educated) native leaders being given more authority and persuaded to be loyal to the Crown.

Question 38

Archaism

Answer 38

a word or expression that is no longer used to convey its original meaning, only used in specific areas or studies.

Question 39

Overt prestige

Answer 39

• Received Pronunciation English/BBC English (used in early radio and TV broadcasts)
• varies in terms of pronunciation, yet is thought to be one accent that is privileged/classy
• was presented as “correct” and “more suitable”

Question 40

Covert prestige

Answer 40

• nonstandard languages or dialects that have high linguistic prestige
• hip-hop phrases used in mainstream
• Yorkshire English – trustworthy and hardworking