lang change Flashcards
lexical changes
archaic words = words completely died out
dated words = words on their way out
neologisms = new words
types of neologisms
- coinage = a made up word
- compounding = a word made from putting 2 words together e.g. whiteboard
- blending = a words made from parts of other words e.g. brunch
- clipping = getting rid of part of a word e.g. telephone became phone
- acronyms e.g. AIDS
- initialisms e.g. HIV
- affixation = new words formed by adding a prefix/suffix to the word e.g. retweet
- borrowing = words used in english that’re from another language e.g. chorizo
- eponyms = proper nouns of inventions/descoveries becoming generic e.g. the Heimlick
what is semantic shift
when the meaning of a word changes
types of semantic shift
amelioration = words getting better in meaning
pejoration = words getting worse in meaning
narrowing = words meanings getting smaller
broadening = words meanings growing
what is an example of semantic change
preposition drift e.g. prepositions wander about in meaning
types of syntax change (changes in the order or words)
- displacement = the order of words in a sentence being unusual
- displaced negators = negators tend to come before the very they’re negating but they can be in the wrong place e.g. she likes it not
- inversion = words being swapped over e.g. said he
- median adverbials = adverbials that go in the middle of a sentence, not at the start/end
what is a soleism
a old rule in english language no one cares about anymore
2 types of soleism
- split infinite e.g. i want to quickly call in here (quickly should go at the start/end)
- prepositions at the end of sentences
examples of grammar changes (specifically archaic infelctions)
- archaic 2nd person singular present tense inflection = “thou walkest”
- archaic 3rd person singular present tense inflection = “he walketh”
- using ‘for’ as a conjunction
- the periphrastic ‘do’
interchangeable letters in spellings in olden days
i / y
j / i
v / u
what happened in 1755
samuel johnson published his dictionary which started the process of standardisation
how did capitalisation change
in the olden days they didn’t capitalise all roper nouns and chose to capitalise the stuff they found important
what is proclitic elision
eliding the start of words e.g. ‘twas (old fashioned)
what is enclitic elision
eliding the middle and end of words e.g. it’s (contemporary)
how did the printing industry change orthography
printers rationalised orthography to make it simpler and quicker, so they got rid of any unnecessary letters and established conventions for punctuation e.g. capital letters and punctuation
how have ‘ed’ endings changed
changed in the pronunciation of the +ed pronunciation of the past tense inflection from a stressed to an unstressed syllable
what is reclaiming
process by a previsously pejorated term is self-adopted by the group
what is the generic male
using ‘man’ to mean people e.g. one small step for man
what are non-equivilent paralells
where the female and the male version mean the same but have different connotations (usually the female is worse) e.g. master and mistress
what is a gratuitous modifier
an additional adjective that isn’t needed e.g. ‘lady’ doctor
