Language Change

Question 1

Norman Fairclough

Answer 1

conversationalisation and personalisation

• advertisements and marketing texts are increasingly attempting to mimic speech
• conversationalisation - convergence of spoken and written discourse

Question 2

Suzanne Romaine

Answer 2

• external (descriptivist) - changing of social contexts, looks at language as an ongoing process
• internal (prescriptivist) - formation of new words and the influence of dictionaries, looks at what happens inside the language with no external influences

Question 3

Halliday

Answer 3

functional theory - explains that language changes to meet new needs

Question 4

Charles Hockett

Answer 4

random fluctuation

• language is inherently unstable and change is unpredictable
• random events and errors lead to language change as a consequence of ever-changing contextual factors

Question 5

Sharon Goodman

Answer 5

informalisation - the process whereby language forms that were traditionally reserved for close personal relationships are now used in wider social contexts

Question 6

David Crystal

Answer 6

uses the term ‘asynchronous’ to describe groups where postings are placed on boards in chat rooms and ‘synchronous’ to describe groups of people who chat in real life

Question 7

Einar Haugen

Answer 7

schizoglossia - anxiety about what is the right form of language to use in a particular moment

Question 8

Sapir-Whorf

Answer 8

• linguistic dererminism
• different languages have different thoughts
• language and structure limit thought