Language Change Flashcards
Lexical change - historical change
New words enter our language.
Semantic change - historical change
As time goes on, the meaning of words change.
Angles, Saxons and Jutes - historical change
When they invaded, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes brought large amounts of their language within them and as such, imported lot of their language into Old English. Including:
- Words for family
- Verbs like ‘drink’ and ‘go’
- Prepositions
Vikings - historical change
The vikings bought with them new words like ‘sky’ , ‘skull’ and ‘anger’ and a simplifies grammatical system.
The Great Vowel Shift - historical change
Long vowel sounds moved from the front of the mouth to further back. Some sounds also became diphthongs. For example, ‘mouse’ was originally pronounced as ‘moose’.
Swift - historical change
Thought that English needed to be corrected, improved and ascertained. He felt it was being destroyed. He disliked:
- Contractions
- Long words
- New words
- Borrowed words
- Young people changing language
General - technological change
Over the course of the past 30 years, the increase in technology has been vast. The Internet and SMS messages allowed communication to be digital. This led to new varieties of English emerging to meet this new medium. Limits on characters encouraged users to be innovative with language and therefore, speed and length became a factor in language composition.
Shortis - technological change
Text language shows creativity.
Crystal - technological change
Text language is just the next stage in English’s evolution.
Fairclough - technological change
Computers mirror, actual conversation like with turn taking.
Shortis - technological change
The internet allows users to create an identity which isn’t real.
Aitchison - modelling change
You can categorise prescriptivist views in three ways:
- Crumbling castle view - English was once a thing of beauty and is now being ruined.
- Damp spoon syndrome - changes to language are a result of laziness and disrespect. Stems from the idea of putting a damp spoon in a bowl of sugar.
- Infectious disease assumption - change spreads like a plague, it should be avoided.
Hitchings - modelling change
All prescriptivist views are proxy arguments for something else.
Halliday - modelling change
Functional theory:
Language changes because the needs of its speakers need it to change. For example, when there were lots of new things being invented in terms of technology, we needed new words so we invented them. This only accounts for change, however in addition it shows that we can direct change but not control it.
Hockett - modelling change
Random fluctuation theory:
We make mistakes in language and these mistakes become codified. For example, smart phones often correct ‘fuck’ to ‘duck’.
However, if this is to be believed, it does not explain how similar changes occur in different languages.
Substratum theory - modelling change
This theory states that language changes primarily through contact with other countries.
Lexical gaps theory - modelling change
This theory states that new words enter our language where there is a space for it when we need it to express something. For example, when wireless Internet was invented, there was a gap for naming it.
Bailey - modelling change
Wave model:
A change starts in geographical centre and ripples out geographically. The closer you are to the centre, the quicker you will adopt the change.
Crystal - modelling change
Tide metaphor:
Language change is like the tide washing on a beach . The tide will sometimes wash things ashore - sometimes these things stay for a long time and sometimes they will be washed away again. This is just like changes made to the language.
Martha’s Vineyard Study
Labov looked at the inhabitants of the island of Martha’s Vineyard. He noted that the younger members (who worked or studied there for some of the year) converted to the vowel pronunciation of the old members of the island when tourists arrived to distance themselves.
Kerswill MK study
Children pronounce vowels significantly more than their parents
Kerswill dialect levelling
Different dialects converge and become more similar over time - fewer regional features and reduced diversity in language.
Koineisation
Produced when 2 existing dialects come into contact and create a new variety
