Examples For Change Flashcards
Examples of top down change failing
Jonathan Swift wanting to “fix” the English language by having a language academy. This attempt ultimately failed and other academies in countries such as Italy and Spain were also unsuccessful in fulfilling their purpose.
During William the Conquerer’s reign, French became the language of the courts and was used by the elite but it failed to spread to the ordinary people.
An example of a dialect that has a sense of prestige
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the dialect used by the BBC.
Examples of lexical change in reference to functional theory (technology)
Text (as a verb)
Blog
iPhone
Selfie
An example of semantic change in reference to technology
Mouse (the animal) and mouse (the device used in accompaniment with a computer)
Virus (something that causes illness) and virus (a computer virus)
An example of narrowing
“Meat” used to mean all food.
An example of broadening
“Butcher” used to mean slaughterer of goats
An example of amelioration
“Nice” used to mean foolish.
An example of perjoration
“Hussy” used to mean housewife.
An example of weakening
“Terrible” used to mean causing terror
Example of semantic change - SAD
Used to mean mature and trustworthy
Example of semantic change - GIRL
Used to mean young person of either sex
Example of semantic change - AWFUL
Inspiring wonder - full of awe - negative meaning
An example of semantic change - INMATE
A tenant or housemate - a prisoner
An example of semantic change - BULLY
Superb, wonderful - An unkind person
Example of semantic change - GAY
Light-hearted, joyous - happy - connotations of immorality - a term for homosexuals
An example of a metaphor
Bug=insect= to annoy someone
An example of a euphemism
Passed away=kicking the bucket=died
Examples of idioms
Break a leg
Beat around the bush
A blessing in disguise
An example of reflectionism (Sapir-Whorf theory)
“Key” in German is masculine “schlüssel” so German speakers may describe a key as “hard” and “heavy”
Key in Spanish is feminine “llave” so Spanish speakers may describe a key as “golden” and “intricate”
An example of Hockett’s random fluctuation theory
The misspelling of “owned” as “pwned” has become a common term in the gaming community.
An example of lexical gap theory
There is a term for when a child loses their parent (orphan) but there is not a term for when a parent loses a child.
Examples of French words that have entered our language
Duke
Parliament
Crime
Dress
Poem
Examples of words borrowed from Latin
Species
History
Scripture
Examples of compounding
Ice cream
Toothbrush
Thumbprint
Examples of back formation
Edit formed from editor
Choreograph formed from choreography
Examples of blends
Smog
Staycation
Hangry
Workaholic
Example of conversion
Text (noun)
To text (verb)
Examples of clipping
Telephone - phone
Influenza - flu
Bicycle - bike
Photograph - photo
Examples of initialisms
BBC
FBI
Examples of acronyms
NASA
NATO
SCUBA
Examples of affixation
Selfless
Hyperactive
An example of change from above
Political correctness
Examples of gender neutral job titles
Headmaster/mistress - principal or head teacher
Fireman/firewoman - firefighter
Policeman/policewoman - police officer
An example of semantic reclamation
The word “bitch” is now used as a sisterhood term in female rap music or between female friends instead of in a misogynistic way.
Examples of Webster’s American spelling reforms
Colour - color
Defence - defense
Theatre - theater
Capitalise - capitalize
An example of a homograph
Wind = a gust of wind or the verb to wind up
Examples of homophones
Through and threw
An example of schwa
Uhbout rather than about
An example of Th-fronting
“Fink” rather than “think”
An example of assimilation
“Hanbag” instead of “handbag”
Examples of loan words form 8th-11th centuries as a result of invasions from other countries
Scandinavia - skirt, cog and, skip
French - accompany, department, tax
Examples of loan words from the 16th-17th centuries as a result of Latin and Greek writers
Latin - benefit, temperature and the prefixes sub and trans
Greek - catastrophe, pneumonia and the morphemes auto and pan
Examples of loan words from the 18th-19th centuries as a result the British Empire
Malaysia - amok
India - shampoo
Examples of loan words from 20th century as a result of immigration to the UK and two world wars
China - wok
The world wars exposed our language to contact with countries from around the world
Post-war affluence led to a rise in travel and increased contact with other cultures
Example of politically correct language
Use ‘wheelchair user’ instead of ‘wheelchair bound’
Examples of omission
- When speaking at speed some sounds within a group of sounds may be left out e.g. George bang(ed) the drum (past tense markers might be omitted in normal colloquial speech)
- Makes language more fluent and flow more easily so it is not ‘lazy’
e.g. omitted the ‘t’ in ‘whistle’
Example of change in consonant use
- Before the 19th century, -ing was generally pronounced -in even by the middle and upper classes e.g. Walkin’
- Nowadays this is associated with the lower class
Examples of the Queen’s pronunciation
‘hand’ pronounced more like ‘hend’
‘tissue’ pronounced more like ‘tisyu’
What do CMC texts tend to involve?
- Increased interactivity
- Multi modal texts
- Text-image cohesion
- Intertextuality
- Collaborative writing/multiple authors
The Queens English Society, 1972
- A charity that aims to keep the English language safe from perceived declining standards
- They treat English as an object to be defended and owned
Example of grammatical change
Double negations: used to be common in English but is now considered non-standard English e.g. I don’t want nothing
An example of a lost superlative
Properest - Superlatives such as this one were grammatically accepted but in Present Day English you’d use ‘most proper’
An example of a multiple comparative
More cleverer (used in the 19th century)
Examples of changes in word function
Tech - nouns (text, email, Facebook) become verbs
Americanisms - adjectives used instead of adverbs e.g. I’m good!
Examples of contemporary English
Adverb ‘well’ used as an intensifying adverb e.g. ‘That was well good’
Tag question ‘isn’t it’ is often shortened to the slang ‘innit’
1990s - intensifying adverb ‘so’ used with ‘not’ e.g. ‘I’m so not OK’
Examples of 18th century grammar rules (Robert Lowth ‘short introduction to English grammar’)
Pronoun ‘thou’ should no longer be used
No split infinitives e.g. to quickly walk
There should be a differentiation between ‘who’, ‘which’ and ‘that’
Why were contractions popular in the 18th century?
Due to their use in poetry
An example of a significant event in standardisation
Caxton’s printing press, 1476
- The first ever printing press
- Meant that identical copies of a text could be produced and this allowed for standardisation
- Caxton decided which spelling to use
- He chose the dialects used in courts, universities like Oxford and Cambridge - this gave the dialect a sense of prestige
- Everyone was reading the same form of English
- Provided a benchmark standard of English
Examples of features of EFL (English as a lingua Franca)
- Dropping 3rd person present simple -s
- Using frequently used verbs of high semantic generality - ‘do’, ‘have’, ‘make’, ‘put’, ‘take’
- Explicit statements e.g. ‘how long time’
Example of the Great Vowel Shift evident in spelling
Blood was spelt as ‘blod’ in Middle English but was later spelt as ‘blud’ reflecting the move towards the long vowel
Examples of perceived difficulty with the spelling system
- Some words have silent letters e.g. knight
- Some words are spelt the same but sound different (homographs)
- Some words are spelt differently but are pronounced the same (homophones)
