Language Change Flashcards
Diachronic change
The historical development of language
Synchronic Change
The study of language change at a particular moment in time
Descriptivism
Where no judgment or negative attitude is imposed on language change, but an examination of language as it is and how it is used
Prescriptivism
The notion that language should be fixed, prescribing to a set standard of rules for language usage, with any shift away from these rules or standards bein seen as incorrect
How do we create new words
External Factors
Internal Factors
Create entirely new words
Coinage
The deliberate creation of a new word. This is not a common process of word formation
Borrowing/Loan words
Borrowing of words/concepts from other languages. Words are either anglicize or they retain their original spelling or phonology
Compounding
Words are combined together to form new words. These can be open, hyphenated or solid
Clipping
Words are shortened and the shortened form becomes the norm
Blending
A combination of clipping and compounding
Acronym
First letters are taken from a series of words to create a new term
Initialism
The first letters from a series of words form a new term but each letter is pronounced
Affixation
One of more free morphemes are combined with one or more bound morphemes
Conversion or functional shift
A word shifts from one word class to another, usually from a noun to a verb
Eponym
Names of a person or company are used to define particular objects. Often they are the inventors or distributors of the object
Back formation
A verb is created from an existing noun by removing a suffix
Samuel Johnson
Wrote the first dictionary in 1755
Inkhorn terms
Foreign borrowing into English considered unnecessary or overly pretentious
Jonathan Swift 1712
Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining The English Tongue
Swift main concerns
Vagueness in language; he was anxious about the ‘poverty of conversation.’
Shortened words
Unnecessary contractions
Unnecessary polysyllabic words
Words ‘invented by some pretty fellow’
Change from above
Change that is usually initiated by those in a dominant social position of power and authority
Change from below
Usually driven by the user of a language, developing or adapting language according to their own social need
Neosemy
The process whereby a new meaning develops for an existing word
Processes involved with Neosemy
Generalization/Broadening
Specializing/narrowing
Amelioration
Pejoration
Weakening/bleaching
Metaphor
Euphemism
Polysemy
External factors
External pressures will affect how language is used, either social, cultural or technological
Internal factors
Aspects of the language itself contribute to change
