Language Change

Question 1

Bailey’s Wave Model

Answer 1

closest to the geographical location of where the change occurs are more likely to pick up the change
e.g MLE quickly through London, took longer to diffuse out

Question 2

Aitchison’s PIDC model

Answer 2

Potential- there is a gap / potential for change
Implementation- the change occurs
Diffusion- the change spreads
Codification- the change is official e.g added to dictionary

Question 3

Chen’s ‘S-curve’ model curve

Answer 3

point 1 - change is made, some uptake
point 2 - more people, limited to location or group
point 3 - more people know it now
point 4 - many as possible, no change can ever reach 100%, resist change

Question 4

Trudgill

Answer 4

challenges wave model
change comes from big cities to big towns to small towns missing country dwellings
key case: Yorkshire - archaic ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ instead of ‘you’

Question 5

Halliday

Answer 5

language change as a result of needs and requirements of users

Question 6

Halliday’s functional theory

Answer 6

lexical gaps - gap in lexicon needed to describe something
function shifts - a word exists but different word class

Question 7

Aitchison’s Damp Spoon Syndrome

Answer 7

people are lazy and disrespectful of language e.g ‘g-dropping’

Question 8

Aitchison’s infectious disease metaphor

Answer 8

changes are like germs which spread and infect the language e.g texting

Question 9

Aitchison’s crumbling castle view

Answer 9

English at the ‘golden age’ and now in disrepair

Question 10

Crystal’s tide metaphor

Answer 10

all change is different
lasts differing amounts of time
affects different groups of people

Question 11

Hockett’s random fluctuation theory

Answer 11

accounts for errors
errors can be standardised and recognised
e.g iphone ‘duck’ and ‘fuck’ autocorrecting

Question 12

substratum theory

Answer 12

changes made from interactions with other languages and variations
e.g British English - ‘like’ increase as a result of FRIENDS

Question 13

substratum changes

Answer 13

media
invasion e.g French invasion 1066
immigration e.g MLE
travel and exploration e.g birth of America

Question 14

Amelioration

Answer 14

gain positive status and meaning e.g sick

Question 15

pejoration

Answer 15

gains a negative meaning e.g cunning

Question 16

linguistic reclamation

Answer 16

an attempt to remove the stigma by ‘claiming the term’ e.g queer younger LGBTQ+ generation as form of empowerment

Question 17

weakening

Answer 17

loses strength e.g soon (immediately - anytime)

Question 18

narrowing

Answer 18

more specialised e.g engine machine - power source

Question 19

broadening

Answer 19

widens it’s meaning e.g place ( wide street - area)

Question 20

metaphorical

Answer 20

new meaning when used metaphorically e.g bug (insect, annoy, fault in system)

Question 21

blending

Answer 21

two existing words make new word e.g smog

Question 22

clipping

Answer 22

when part of a word is removed but meaning remains e.g sync

Question 23

compounding

Answer 23

when two existing words are stuck together e.g blackbird

Question 24

conversion

Answer 24

the word class of an existing word has changed e.g text

Question 25

affixation

Answer 25

adding a bound morpheme to change the word class of a word e.g ‘ing’ to form present progressive form texting

Question 26

back formation

Answer 26

removal of morpheme in order to change the word class of an existing word e.g verb ‘enthuse’ from noun ‘enthusiasm’

Question 27

reduplication

Answer 27

repetition of words which are similar e.g nitty gritty

Question 28

neologising

Answer 28

new words created e.g yeet

Question 29

neosemic shift

Answer 29

gay
1st half of 20th century
joyful - homosexual label
societal dislike - term became pejorated
then narrowed
to only meaning homosexual

Question 30

acronym example

Answer 30

SCUBA

Question 31

intialism

Answer 31

BBC

Question 32

sharon goodman

Answer 32

increased formalisation

forms reserved for close personal relationships, not used in wider social contexts