Language Change Flashcards
what is a new word to language?
a neologism
what are words that seem old fashioned but heard occasionally?
dated
what is a word that have died out completely?
an archaism
what are the 7 ways that new words are formed?
coining, compounding, blending, clipping, acronyms/initialisms, affixing and borrowing
what is coining?
words are made up
what is compounding?
new words are made up of one or more existing words
what is blending?
new words are made up from parts of one or more existing words
what is clipping?
new words are formed from parts of existing words
what are acronyms/initialisms?
new words are formed from the initial letters of other words
what is affixing?
new words are formed by adding a prefix or a suffix to an existing word
what is borrowing?
words from foreign languages are used in English
what are the 6 types of semantic change?
semantic shift, amelioration, pejoration, narrowing, broadening and zero derivation
what is semantic shift?
some words just change for no reason
what is amelioration?
some words change to become something more pleasant
e.g ‘naughty’ once meant ‘poor’ and now means ‘michievous’
what is pejoration?
some words change to become something worse
e.g ‘notorious’ has changed from meaning ‘famous’ to ‘infamous’