Language Change Flashcards
Dictionary
Nathaniel Bailey
2
- Compiled a more complete universal etymological English dictionary than any extent supposed to have been published in 1721.
- This was a great improvement on all previous attempts, and formed the basis of Johnson’s work. Idea of spelling ‘mistake’ still not evident.
Dictionary
Samuel Johnson
1
Between 1747 and 1755, Johnson wrote perhaps his best-known work A Dictionary of the English Language.
Grammar
Robert Lowth
1
- Published: A Short Introduction to English Grammar in 1762.
PDICM
Jean Aitchinson
5
- Potential, Diffusion, Implementation & Codification Model.
- Potential: there is an internal weakness or an external pressure for a particular change.
- Diffusion: the change starts to spread through the population.
- Implementation: people start using the variant - it is incorporated into people’s idiolect - group/local languages.
- Codification Model: written down and subsequently put into the dictionary and accepted officially.
Codification Model:
1
Written down and subsequently put into the dictionary and accepted officially.
Implementation:
1
People start using the variant - it is incorporated into people’s idiolect - group/local languages.
Diffusion:
1
Change starts to spread through the population.
Potential:
1
There is an internal weakness or an external pressure for a particular change.
Errors
Charles Hockett, Random Fluctuation (1958)
5
- Fashions in language are as unpredictable as fashions in clothes’
- Charles Hockett devised a theory that put significance on random errors and events as having an influence on language change.
- Suggesting that 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.
- An example of this as mentioned in the AQA English Language A textbook is that the word book’ became a replacement for the word ‘cool’ due to mobile phone predictive text corrections, which is a random way for a word to have changed usage.
Distance
Bailey, Wave Model (1973)
3
- Bailey suggested that geographical distance could have an effect on language change.
- Just as someone who is close to the epicentre of an earthquake will feel the tremors, a person or group close to the epicentre of a language change will pick it up whereas a person or group further away from the centre of change is less likely to adopt it.
- For example, a word adapted or adopted by multicultural youths in London is unlikely to affect white middle class speakers in Edinburgh, as they are removed from the epicentre both culturally and socially.
Adaptation/Evolution
Functional Theory
- This theory suggests that language always changes and adapts to the needs of its users.
- Changes in technology and industry often fuel the need for new words. Words fall out of usage, such as ‘vinyl’ for records and are replaced by initialisms such as MP3.
- Colloquialisms and slang also manifests changes, creating new words or new usages and then discarding them as they strive for social identity and/or personal/ group expression.
Reflection, Prejudice, PC
Sapir-Whorf, Linguistic Determinism
3
- Reflectionism in language is based on the theory that a person’s language reflects their way of thinking, so someone who uses derogatory slurs such as ‘Paki’, could be said to be using language that reflects their prejudice towards immigrants.
- Determinism is based on the idea that if people can be persuaded not to use such terms, but ones that are seen as more acceptable i.e. exchanging ‘Paki’ for ‘Asian’ can determine a new way of thinking, and this forms the basis on which political correctness is formed.
- Words such as ‘nigger’ and ‘pikey’ seen as slurs are exchanged for words with more positive connotations such as ‘African-American’ or ‘Gypsy/Romany and are therefore perceived as being less offensive in their usage, and to those ethnic minorities they are being used to represent.
Standards
John Honey
2
- Believes that the standards of the English language are falling.
- John Honey states that the grammar he believes should be taught is that of ‘standard English’ and he claims that ‘standard English’ is”…the language in which this book is written, which is essentially the same form of English used in books and newspapers…”
Rate of change, natural
Chen, The S Curve Model (1968 & 1972)
4
- The S Curve model is based on the idea that language change can occur at a slow pace creating the initial curve of the ‘S’ and then increases speed as it becomes more common and accepted into the language.
- This can then slow down and again and level out once it has fully integrated into the language and is widely used.
- This model is based on Chen who asserted that users would pick up a language change at a certain rate before spreading into wider language usage and then slowing.
- This change can be measured on a chart and will produce a curve resembling the letter ‘s.
ascertaining, prescriptivist
Jonathan Swift (1712)
1
- Wrote a ‘proposal for correcting, improving and ascertaining the English tongue.
Acronomy
1
- Abbreviation using the first letter of a group of words and pronounced as a single word. eg OPEC, NASA, RAM.
Diachronic
1
- Study of history and language.
Sychronic
1
- Study of language at a particular moment in time.
Lexical Diffusion
1
- The stage in which use of words spreads.
Pejoration
2
- When a word starts of as neutral
but gains negative meaning over time. - Gay used to mean happy but gained derogatory connotations.
Leakage
2
- When words serve multiple uses and
meanings. - e.g ‘like’
‘He was , like, I like fish…’
Semantic shift
2
- Change in one of the meanings of words.
- e.g Awful used to mean full-of-awe.
Implementation word
1
- First stage of acceptance of a word being used.
Bleaching
2
- The loss or reduction of meaning in a word as a result of semantic change.
- Reduction of a words intensity. ‘I literally died laughing.’
Composites
2
- Something that is constructed of various parts.
- Originates from Latin for ‘putting together’ and can be used as a noun or an adjective * examples: Eco - System.
Potential
2
- Refers to a situation in which there is need for a new word.
- Such needs may arise due to practical, social reasons or because ideas change.
Sticklers, Mackinnon, negative change
Concerns about Language change
4
- New words may not have good “taste,” or demonstrate ‘good manners.’
- Language rules are invented as a social ideology
- “Lazy” speech is typically associated with the younger generations.
- Donald MacKinnon (1996) catergorises the attitude people may have towards language use :
Language use as correct or incorrect.
Pleasant or ugly
Socially acceptable or socially unacceptable
Morally acceptable or morally unacceptable
Appropriate or inappropriate in their context
Useful to us or useless
attitudes, standards
Donald Mackinnon in 1996
8
He suggested that language can we seen as:
- Correct or incorrect
- Pleasant or ugly
- Socially acceptable or socially unacceptable
- Morally acceptable or morally unacceptable
- Appropriate or inappropriate in their context
- Useful to us or useless
Makinnon’s model is useful for exploring attitudes towards language uses over time
errors
Random fluctation
2
- Implementation of non- logical (non ordered process) misspellings due to keyboard typos or autocorrect.
- ‘Duck’ for fuck
wave, centre point, diffusion
Wave model
3
- A model to represent how language speaks and changes from a central point.
- pond —> ripple
- Peng —> London spread, meaning fit.
Uptalk
1
Using interrogative voice when you speak.
Amelioration
2
- A process where a word develops a more positive connotation.
sick - illness, sickness —> cool, epic
Semantic reclamation
1
Taking a new word that has negative connotations and trying to overturn the meaning into something new by using it in different settings.
Compounding
2
- Adding two existing words together to create a new word.
- e.g. headache.
Linguistic relativity
2
- The idea that language shapes our thinking
but does not completely control it. - Pronoun application “HE knocked it over. “
Blending
2
- Using parts of existing word to form
a new word. - e.g. romance + brother
→ bromance
Borrowing
3
- Foreign words used in our language
E.g pajamas, pae jama
- 70% of words are borrowed.
Jean Aitchison
4
- Proposed three attitudes towards Language Change:
- Damp Spoon Syndrome
- Infectious Disease
- Crumbling Castle View
“Damp spoon” syndrome
3
- Sloppiness and laziness causing language to change.
- “Bad English” sticks to those who are lazy.
- e.g. “wa’er” “bu’er” —> dropping of the ‘t’
Crumbling castle view
2
- Seeing English as a beautiful old castle which needs to be preserved.
- Supposes a time when the language reached a peak of perfection.
Infectious disease idea
1
→ Language catches change like a disease. We pick up changes and try to adapt to fit in.
stickler, standard, rules, traditional
Prescriptvism
1
- The notion that language should be fixed, prescribing to a set standard of rules for language use, with any shift away from these rules or standards being seen as incorrect.
Freedom, David Crystal, Aitchinson
Descriptivism
1
- Where no judgement or negative attitude is imposed on language change, but an examination of language as it is and how it is used
Synchronic Change
- The study of language change at a particular moment in time.
Diachronic Change:
- The historical development of language.
Why does language change?
9
- To communicate new ideas
- Technological developments leading to a growing lexicon
- Drawing on languages from countries in the British Empire
- Scientific Development
- Influence by religion
- Social class – the influence of the upper class leading to a more Standard English
- Gender – only boys had access to Education
- Attempts to address (perceived) inequalities within a language – Political Correctness
- Historical invasion and power
Descriptivist, expressive
David Crystal
“Language changes and moves in a different direction evolving all the time. Where a lot of people see deterioration, I see expressive development”
Haugen’s four-stage process to standardisation
-
Selection:
Language selected – variety selected is usually a prestigious one -
Codification:
Reduction of internal variability, establishment of norms of lexis, grammatical structures and spelling.
Semantic
Word formation processes: Lexical change
6
- Semantic shift
- Semantic broadening / polysemy
- Semantic narrowing
- Semantic amelioration
- Semantic pejoration
- Lexical conversion
evolution, leech
Changes in Grammar: Colloquialisation
2
- Geoffrey Leech’s research used corpus linguistics (study of large databases of language) to study grammatical change over time.
- He concluded that written language was becoming more ‘speech like’ with increased usage of:
Phrasal verbs
Present progressive aspect
Deletion of relative pronouns
Increased use of contractions
Standardisation: Some key dates
4
- William Caxton’s printing press (1476)
- Samuel Johnson’s dictionary (1755)
- Grammar books published by Robert Lowth (1762) and Lindley Murray (1795)
- The Education Act (1870)
thoughts, beliefs
Linguistic Reflectionism:
4
- Language is shaped by our thoughts.
- It is a reflection of the way that we are and the way that we think.
- Language reflects the attitudes and values of society.
- As attitudes change so does language.
Norman Fairclough:
- Synthetic Personalisation
- Readers addressed as individual’s – the use of 2nd person pronoun, informal register and suggested co-presence
implement, standard
Codification:
1
- Codification of new words in dictionaries such as the Oxford English Dictionary help to reinforce a standard.
spread, natural
Geographical diffusion
– Peter Trudgill’s gravity model of diffusion proposes that change spreads from the largest to the next largest city (e.g. Estuary English)
social media, icons
The influence of electronic communication
1
– Twitter, Facebook, MSN, Mobile Phones (e.g. textese, emoticons)
Types of diffusion
3
- Geographical
- Technological
- Social
Language change from above:
4
- Above the level of social awareness (conscious)
- Driven by social factors
- Introduced by the dominant social class
- First appears in careful speech (e.g. Political Correctness)
Change from below:
5
- Below the level of social awareness (unconscious)
- Changes first appear in vernacular speech (Labov)
- May be introduced by an social class (Labov)
- Most advanced changes are found in the speech of adolescents.
- The speaker with the highest local prestige: upwardly-mobile individual’s; from ethnic groups who entered the community recently (e.g. MLE)
first, pronounced
Initialism
4
- The first letters from a series of words form a new term, but each letter is pronounced
- CD
- MP3
- OMG
noun, verb
Conversion or functional shift
4
- A word shifts from one word class to another, usually from a noun to a verb
- Text
- Network
noun, suffix
Back Formation
5
- A verb is created from an existing noun by removing a suffix.
e.g: - Liaise – from Liaison
- Surveil – from Surveillance
- Locate – from Location
- Insert – from Insertion
morphemes
Affixation
4
- One or more free morphemes are combined with one or more bound morphemes.
E.g. - Disinterest
- Marketeer
- Regift
Johnson, prescriptivist, fix, standards
Fixing the Language
11
- Towards the second half of the 17th century, there were attempts to similarly ‘fix’ the English language.
- The most notable protester against lexical development was Samuel Johnson
- In 1712, he published A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining The English Tongue.
Swift’s main concerns were a dislike of:
- Vagueness in language; he was anxious about the ‘poverty of conversation’
- Shortened words (e.g. mob – short for mobile)
- Unnecessary contractions (e.g. disturb’d) – poets were to blame for these contractions so that their ideas could fit verse lines
- Unnecessary polysyllabic words, which made meaning unclear
- Words ‘invented by some pretty fellow’ (e.g. banter, shuffling) which he claimed had unknown etymologies or that had undergone semantic shift; he claimed that these were mere ‘fashion’ and therefore like to fall out of use.
- Nothing came of Swift’s proposal, but just a few years later in 1755, Samuel Johnson published his dictionary in one of the first major attempts to fix and therefore stabilise the language.
- However, in the preface to his dictionary, Johnson acknowledged that ’no dictionary of living tongue can ever be perfect since while it is hastening to publication, some words are budding, and some falling away’.
Prententious, latinate, french
The Inkhorn Controversy
5
- Thomas Wilson in The Arte of Rhetorique (approx. 1553) reffered to ‘struange ynkehorne terms’ (the inkhorn was a vessel for carrying ink – it became a symbol of authorial self-importance).
- These so called inkhorn terms were considered pretentious and artificial, but they enabled creativity and many writers made use of these terms, including Shakespeare, who is said to have introduced over 1700 ‘new’ words.
- However, those opposing these terms believed that they would ‘corrupt’ the English language as they were seen as merely fashionable, likely to fall as quickly out of use as they had come into use.
- Inkhorn Terms:
Foreign borrowing into English considered unnecessary or overly pretentious - In 1599, Samuel Daniel spoke of English as ’the treasure of our tongue’, ‘the greatness of our stile’ and ‘our best glorie’.
- Concerns in 1985 stated:
- Standards being allowed to slip lose the imperative to stay out of crime.
Examples of amelioration
- Pretty: used to mean sly or cunning
- Brave: used to mean wild/savage
- Terribly: used to mean dreadfully, but is now used an intensifier
