Key Terms Flashcards
Define a loanword.
English word that has come into use having been ‘borrowed’ form another language.
Define codification.
Process of standardising a language.
Define Standard English.
Form of English often considered by prescriptivists to be the ‘correct’ form.
Define Standardisation.
Process of forming a uniform language codified in dictionaries, educational + gov texts that demands conformity by all variant lang forms.
Define overt prestige.
Refers to a dialect used by a culturally powerful group.
Define morphological derivation.
- Process of creating new word out of a word / affix
- Example: suffix -ly changes adjectives into adverbs- ‘nice’ becomes ‘nicely’.
Define nominalisations.
- Verb, adjective, or adverb is used as head of noun phrase- became evident in scientific discourse.
2 types found in English: - Derivational Suffix: used to create a noun (e.g. verb ‘concentrate’ becomes noun using suffix -action— ‘concentration’. Sentence ‘concentrate the solvent in water’ changes to ‘concentration of solvent in the water has resulted in a change’.)
- Zero Derivation: some verbs + adjectives can be used without a derivational suffix. (e.g. noun ‘change’ is also a verb: ‘I have changed my bank notes to get change for the car park.’)
Define etymology.
- History of a word, including language it came from (if appropriate) + when it began to be regularly used.
Define a semantic shift.
- Change in the meaning of a word.
Define amelioration.
Type of semantic shift.
* Word that adopts positive meanings + gains status.
* Example: Old English word ‘cniht’ meant boy but increased in prestige to the current ‘knight’ with connotations of high social status.
Define pejoration.
Type of semantic shift.
* Word adopts more negative connotations.
* Example: word ‘villian’ used to mean a farm labourer before gaining the meaning of a criminal.
Define weakening.
Type of semantic shift.
* Word loses strength of its original meaning
* Example: word ‘absolutely’ used to define finality, but is currently used in place of ‘yes’)
Define narrowing.
Type of semantic shift.
* Word becomes more specific in meaning
* Example: Old English word ‘deer’ referred to generic animal, whereas current usage refers to specific animal.
Define broadening (or generalisation).
Type of semantic shift.
* Word retains its original meaning but gains others.
* Example: ‘dog’ currently refers to all types of dogs, whereas it used to refer to only large dogs.
Define diachronic change.
- Study of historical language occurring over a period.
Define a grapheme-phoneme relationship.
- Correspondence between written shape of letter + sound.
• English spelling has many irregularities resulting in inconsistent grapheme-phoneme relationships, partly due to changes in pronunciation + import of words from other langs.
• Phonological changes have impacted development of spelling- occur faster than orthographic changes.
Define received pronunciation (RP).
- Prestige form of English pronunciation
- Example: ‘r’ sound in ‘cart’ is pronounced in many regional accents.
Define a glottal stop.
- Form of stop consonant made at back of throat to replace ‘t’ sound .
- No longer a socially pejorative form.
- Example: ‘wha?’ instead of ‘what?’
Define estuary english.
- Dialect of English that’s perceived to have spread outwards from London along South East of England- has features of RP + London English.
Define bidialectalism.
- Speaker’s ability to use two dialects of same language.
- One will be their regional dialect + other will be a more international variety used to communicate with English speakers globally.
