Keywords Flashcards
Language evolution
The gradual development of language over time, influenced by generational shifts.
Sociolect
A language variety associated with a specific social group (e.g., teenagers, nerds, jocks).
Vernacular Reorganisation
The shift from parental linguistic norms to peer-based language in adolescence.
Phonological Shift (from childhood to adoelesence)
A change in pronunciation patterns over time (e.g., vowel fronting in “duuuude”).
Age-Graded Feature
A linguistic trait used at a certain age but abandoned later (e.g., slang terms like “hecka”).
Linguistic Stabilisation
The tendency for adults to maintain their speech patterns rather than adopt new ones.
Peer Influence
The impact of social groups on language choices and linguistic identity.
Recentism
The belief that contemporary language change is more significant or problematic than past changes.
Diachronic variation
Language changes over time as it is passed from one generation to another.
Integeneration transmission
Language is passed down, but each generation adapts and alters it.
Language simplification
Younger speakers often shorten phrases (e.g., Ly for I love you), making language more efficient but potentially losing complexity.
Idiolect development
Adolescents develop their own individual language styles, influenced by peers.
Peer-group language
Younger people use language to construct identity and belong to social groups.
Youth sociolects
Specific vocabulary, slang, and phonetic features associated with youth culture (e.g., bra instead of bro).
Linguistic divergence
Young people often deliberately use language that differs from adult norms (Coulmas, 2013).
Multimodal communication –
Multimodal communication refers to the use of multiple modes (or channels) to convey meaning in communication.
These modes can include spoken language, written text, images, gestures, facial expressions, audio, video, and digital elements like emojis and GIFs.
Linguistic conservatism
Pescriptivism
Older speakers resist language change and maintain traditional vocabulary.
Cognitive factors
Conditions like memory loss affect fluency and coherence in speech.
Register stability
Unlike younger speakers, older adults do not modify their speech for different audiences (Kemper, 1995).
Overt prestige
Refers to a dialect used by a culturally powerful group
(Adults/The workforce)
What is covert prestige
Prestige distinct to a specific social setting
Refers to where non-standard languages or dialect are regarded to be of high linguistic prestige by members of a speech community, but not by the culturally powerful
What is code switching?
Ability to switch linguistically between 2 languages, dialects, sociolect etc under different circumstances
What is bidialectalism?
Speakers ability to use 2 dialects of the same language
Convergence
Adapting to your surroundings language use
Divergence
Adapting away from your surroundings speech
Socio-cultural climate
What our language reflects.
Ego-centric speech
Coined by Jean Piaget
Refers to speech in which individuals focus primarily on their own thoughts, needs, or perspectives, often without considering the listener’s point of view.
Heuristic function
Language is used to learn and explore
Imaginative function
Language is used for creativity, humour and storytelling
Instrumental function
Language is used to fulfill needs
Interactional function
Language is used to build and maintain relationships
Linguistic reflectionism
Our language reflects our thoughts
Linguistic determinism
Our language determines our thoughts
