Lang Change Flashcards
Synchronic and diachronic variation
Syn chronic variation – variety of language being used at one time
Diachronic variation – changes which affect language overtime I. E. Old slang staying such as the bees knees.
Why does Lang change
EXTERNAL REASONS
Technology
Powerful groups of media e.g. bbc
Other language - loan words
Social attitude - language reform - euphemism treadmill - Stephen pinker
INTERNAL REASONS
Need for any language to work efficiently including entomology – use of articulation
Tendency for English to become increasingly regular in (regularisation) – regular past tenses clomb to climbed
Exaggeration / hyperbole - causes lots of semantic change - e.g. saying ‘I’m starving’
Standardisation and prestige
Change from a range of equal regional varieties to only one prestigious variety (standard form) and other (less prestigious) regional dialects
Varieties themselves don’t have prestige - they acquire prestige when prestige when their speakers have high prestige - MILROY
Forces of standardisation
Printing press and ICT developments - American ict - William Caxton
Dictionaries - Johnson’s dictionary 10th century
Grammars
Social mobility
Education
Media
Attitudes to change
Non linguists care about language change, often discussed in press and politics - new forms especially those used by low social groups usually criticised
Prescriptive attitude - defence standard form and older standard form they knew. Usually want language to stay as they learnt it – usually present in older people
Linguist tend to have descriptive attitude – describe language without changing it care more about usage
Lexical change
Mostly focus on new words such as genuine coinage and loan words - but old words change status too
Archaic - still used but sounds old fashioned
Obsolete - language no longer in use. Usually replaced by new better words for articulatory ease
NEW WORDS ENTERING THE LEXICON
Loan words - travel, war, migration, colonisation which overtime become anglicised in spelling and pronunciation
Eponyms - named after inventor
Proprietary names e.g. hoover
Genuine coinage - completely made up new words
Polysemy - same word different meaning e.g. active verb or concrete noun boot
MORPHOLOGY
lots of words created through morphology such as abbreviation and affixation
abbreviation - counts as a new word, longer form often forgotten I.e. pram instead for perambulator (clipping)
Acronym - pronounced as word e.g. nasa
Initialism - pronounced as letters
Clipping
Affixation - adding suffix bound morpheme and prefix bound morpheme
Conversion - used as a different word class - usually noun to a verb - such as Google and to Google
Compounding - where whole words are joined in their entirety in order to produce a new word
Blending - mixing two words through clipping and compounding to create new words
Backformation - noun formed from pre existing verb by removing a suffix - e.g. to locate from the verb location
Semantic and meaning of words changing
Polysemy - multiple meaning - teen sociolect
Amelioration
Pajoration
Metaphors
Why do semantics change
Overtime old meaning become forgotten
Technology - dashboard - dashboard in car used to be front part of carriage
Slang takes control of an old word - eg. Gay used to mean happy
Some attitudes mean some words pejorative and gain negative connotation - spastic was once a medical term now it’s offensive
If a word gains a taboo meaning this will very quickly become primary meaning
SEMANTIC CHANGE AND POWER
neutral words describing low status groups tend to pejorate the lexis associated with higher classes tend to ameliorate
The euphemism treadmill - Stephen Pinker
Effects both lexis and semantics
As terms for low status groups pejorate - new terms are coined
Particularly noticeable in terms for medical disabilities and minority ethnic groups
The term treadmill suggests this will be a continuous process of language change
SOLUTIONS
keep and or reclaim terms
Name yourself - what you want to be referred to
Examples of codification
Academy - Dryden and Defoe
Jonathan swifts proposal
Johnson’s dictionary
Both suggested establishment of an academy to control and he English language development
Jonathan swift proposed for correcting importing and ascertaining the English tongue
Johnson - first authoritative treatment of the lexicon - codified spelling, meaning and etemology
Processes of language change
- functional explanations of change (language changes for a reason)
Aitchison describes language change as house keeping
Regularision of irregular past tense
Filling gaps in lexicon - new invention or loan words
Aitchisons functionalist stages of language change - language changes due to an external force or internal weakness
1) Potential
2) Diffusion
3) Implementation
4) Codification
Chens s curve - change is slow at first but progresses as it becomes more widespread. Never fully affects all the population
Baileys wave model - People or groups close to centre of change will pick it up, however those further away are less likely to pick it up. Geographical distances has effect on its diffusion as it weakens exponentially as it gets further from centre of change
Random fluctuations - Charles hocket - language changes due to its instability
Substratum theory - change from below - Jamaican create plural suffix dem which is used in mle
The unfolding of language - duetsher
Economy - save effort
Expressiveness - hyperbole
Analogy - need of speakers to find regularity in language (regularisation of irregular last tense)
Attitude and discourse
Jonothon swift - proposal
Defoe - academy
PRESCRIPTIVIST DISCOURSES
-crumbling castle
-infectious disease
- damp spoon
-the ideology of the standard
Attitude and discourse
Jonothon swift - proposal
Defoe - academy
PRESCRIPTIVIST DISCOURSES
-crumbling castle
-infectious disease
- damp spoon
-the ideology of the standard
