Language Change Flashcards
What are the 3 main topic of language change
- What has changed
- How has language changed
- Why has language changed
what is a Word formation process and example
neologism/coinage
Example - selfie, twitter
what is Blending and example
blending to words together like
Bromance, Jeggings, Sharknado
What is Obsolete
Example
Words that have stopped being used because there is no need for them anymore
Thou
Neologism
New words required to describe new inventions and ideas like twitter and Car
Diachronic
The way language has evolved through time
Compounding and Example
Two separate words being put together in a single word. Headache
What’s a Initialism
Example
First letter of each word. Phrase shortened down to letters
For example Sos or Sym
Functional theory of language change
Language changes to suit the need of tis users.
Saphir Whorf Hypothesis
States our language shapes our view of the world
What’s a reflectionists view ( Weak Saphir Whorf hypothesis
Language is a tool that reflects the needs view and opinions of its user. )For example seeing a advertisement poster and it could encourage us to buy the product but not force)
to change language you need to first change attitudes
Determinisms view
Language controls our perceptions of reality, influencing us to think in certain ways. to change attitudes you first need to change language.
Great vowel shift ( phonological change )
Example
Massive sound change affecting the long vowels of English during the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries.
Owl or expOsure
Phenomenon ( grammatical change )
A significant thing or event that happened.
Biggest change in language
English went from being a language where grammar is controlled by morphology to one where grammar is based in syntax of a sentence
Basically, order become more important than the inflection on words
The printing press
William Caxton 1476
Help standardise English language
Inflection ending
The way the verb changes to show the tense
Inflectional morpheme
Example
A suffix that’s added to a ( noun, verb, adjective, adverb) to assign a particular grammatical property to that word
Ran, runnin, run
Early modern symbols ( phonology )
Thorn
Eth
Wynn
Early modern english
Interchangable ‘I’ and ‘Y’ and silent ‘E’ on end of words
Gyven - Given
Vylonce - Violence
Inhorn words
Latin words that writers borrowed for prestige
Theory - Hockett 1960
the word ‘pwned’ ( meaning beaten in a game) which is believed to be from a typo for ‘owned’ proving that language change can occur randomly
The S Curve - Chen, Bailey and Labov
The s curve is patterns
Wave model
Changes that liken to throwing a stone into a pond, with the ripples representing change spreading from a central point.
Jean Aitchison
Whether
