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’
what is narrowing?
some words’ meanings change to become more specific
e.g ‘meat’ once meant all food and now means ‘animal derived food’
what is broadening?
some words’ meaning change to become less specific
e.g ‘virtue’ once meant goodness in men only but now can refer to women and children
what is zero derivation?
some words change word class, this can include:
‘verbing’ - words becoming used as verbs e.g ‘text’
‘nouning’ - words becoming used as nouns
e.g ‘read’
what is Halliday’s theory?
functional theory - language changes to suit the needs of the user
what is reflectionism?
language reflects society.
it reflects the needs, views and opinions of its users.
to change language you first to need to change attitudes.
what is determinism?
language determines society.
language controls our perception of reality, influencing us to think in certain ways. to change attitudes you first need to change language.
what is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
the structure of a language greatly influences the modes of thought and behaviour characteristic of the culture in which it is spoken.
different cultures speak different languages, therefore people from different cultures think & behave differently.
what is strong linguistic determinism?
we are entirely trapped by our language and can’t think beyond or outside it; the limits of our language is the limit of our perceptions of the world.
what is weak linguistic relativity?
our language culture greatly influenced the way we think and behave, but is not entirely deterministic.
what is prescriptivism?
suggests that language should be preserved and fixed.
anti- language change.
what is descriptivism?
describes language change without judgement and records change as it happens.
does not actively seek to change language, rather simply observes it.
what is Aitchinson’s theory?
set of metaphors to describe attitudes to language change:
1. damp spoon syndrome - change occurs due to laziness or sloppiness
2. crumbling castle - views english as a castle that needs to be preserved
3. infectious disease - we ‘catch’ language change from those around us
what are some external factors that play a role in language change?
- changing social climate e.g conquest, revolution, acts of parliament
- worldwide contact
- youth culture
- technology
what are some internal factors that play a role in language change?
ease of articulation, assimilation, omission, neatening
what is ease of articulation?
saying words differently for ease
what is omission?
leaving out sounds
what is neatening?
smoothing out anomalies or ‘weak’ points of language
random fluctuation theory:
Hockett 1958
Language change occurs due to the unstable nature of language itself.
The theory suggests that changes that occur within the language do so to the constant changing context of the language itself and its users.
William Caxton:
Introduced the printing press in 1476
Printing homogenised regional dialects and adopting the London accent
Samuel Johnson:
compiled ‘A Dictionary of the English Language’
‘language change is inevitable and cannot be stopped, there should still be0
