language change

Question 1

prescriptivism

Answer 1

belief that language should be prevented from changing

Question 2

descriptivism

Answer 2

belief that all language varieties are positive

Question 3

archaic

Answer 3

old and outdated

Question 4

political correctness

Answer 4

avoiding language which could be deemed offensive

Question 5

codification

Answer 5

a change becoming officially recognised e.g. being added to dictionary

Question 6

strong verbs

Answer 6

verbs which change when changing the tense e.g. swim swam

Question 7

weak verbs

Answer 7

verbs which take an inflection when changing tense e.g. walk walked

Question 8

lexical innovation

Answer 8

using words we already have to form new ones

Question 9

affixation

Answer 9

adding a prefix to an existing word e.g. remainers

Question 10

blending

Answer 10

taking parts if two existing words e.g. brexit

Question 11

clipping or abbreviating

Answer 11

removing part of a word e.g. exam instead of examination

Question 12

conversion

Answer 12

a word changes class, e.g. email went from noun to verb (it’s both)

Question 13

compounding

Answer 13

combining two existing words e.g. football

Question 14

reduplication

Answer 14

combining two similar sounds e.g. walkie talkie

Question 15

acronymisation and initialisation

Answer 15

taking the first letters of phrases and forming a word e.g. bbc and laser

Question 16

lexical invention

Answer 16

using completely new words

Question 17

borrowing/loan words

Answer 17

new words are brought in from other languages e.g. blitz from german

Question 18

eponymisation

Answer 18

using someone’s name to form a word e.g. to google something

Question 19

neologisation

Answer 19

a completely new word invented, e.g. mx as a new pronoun

Question 20

amelioration

Answer 20

a word gaining a more positive meaning e.g. dank

Question 21

bleaching

Answer 21

a word loses power, e.g. crap

Question 22

derogation

Answer 22

a word gets a worse meaning over time e.g. spinster

Question 23

expansion

Answer 23

a words definition expands to cover more e.g bird only uses to mean small birds

Question 24

restriction

Answer 24

a word loses some of its meanings e.g. gay has lost its meaning of happy

Question 25

neosemy

Answer 25

a word gains a completely new meaning e.g. surf the waves and surf the internet

Question 26

jean aitchinson quote

Answer 26

“language change is not a disease”

Question 27

aitchisons metaphors

Answer 27

1. damp spoon
2. crumbling castle
3. infectious disease

Question 28

s curve

Answer 28

the process where a word is introduced and then dies out over time

Question 29

wave

Answer 29

new word stays for longer, becomes standardised

Question 30

stiklerism

Answer 30

nagging about the control of someone’s language

Question 31

the great vowel shift

Answer 31

long vowels moved from front of mouth to further back, e.g. “moose” became “mouse”

Question 32

the british empire

Answer 32

the colonisation bought new words from places

Question 33

the industrial revolution

Answer 33

rise in industry caused mass migration and so new regional accents developed, e.g. liverpool accent comes from irish

Question 34

the renaissance 16th and 17th century

Answer 34

“correct” spelling of english words became important for distinction

Question 35

vulgar (semantic derogation)

Answer 35

used to mean “of the people”, now means disgusting

Question 36

robert lowth

Answer 36

prescriptivist, wrote several books on “correct”grammar

Question 37

joseph priestley

Answer 37

descriptivist, wrote book around same time as lowth but about observations of grammer variations

Question 38

samual johnson

Answer 38

english dictionary in 1655, changed from prescriptivist to descriptivist

Question 39

david crystal

Answer 39

language is like a tide and is constantly changing