Language Change

Question 1

Amelioration

Answer 1

semantic change of words to a more positive meaning e.g ‘pretty’ meant cunny and crafty

Question 2

Prejoration

Answer 2

semantic change of a word to a negative, less respectable meaning e.g ‘silly’ meant happy or fortunate

Question 3

Semantic Reclamation

Answer 3

a cultural process where a group reclaims words that were used in derogatory way e.g ‘queer’ is now a sexual identity instead of an insult

Question 4

Functional Theory

Answer 4

•using language to perform a specific function
•language is always changing and adapts to the needs of it users

Question 5

Guy Deutscher - Linguistic Evolution
1. Economy

Answer 5

•speakers make shortcuts to save effort usually in pronunciation e.g ‘innit’ instead of ‘isn’t it’

Question 6

Guy Deutscher - Linguistic Evolution
2. Expressiveness

Answer 6

•words get bleached of their meaning and they begin to lack effectiveness so speakers look for a new word e.g awesome or incredible instead of ‘good’

Question 7

Guy Deutscher - Linguistic Evolution
3. Analogy

Answer 7

•the idea that words evolve e.g plurals used to have an ‘-en’ ending e.g ‘housen’ and now they have an ‘-s’ ending e.g ‘houses’

Question 8

Norman Tebbitt

Answer 8

•he was a former conservative MP
•he said there is a correlation between the ability to use ‘good English’. personal hygiene and a life of crime
•once you lose the standard there’s no imperative to stay out of crime

Question 9

Jean Aitchison

Answer 9

•she suggests that language change is indicative of progress rather than a decline even though they are often viewed as ‘sloppy’ and ‘lazy’.
•she proposed the PIDC model of Language change

Question 10

John Humphreys

Answer 10

•he argues our language is showing signs of obesity, which is the consequence of feeding on junk words.

Question 11

Crumbling castle view

Answer 11

This suggests that language is an ornate building that once had a peak of perfection but is now falling apart

Question 12

Infectious Disease Assumption

Answer 12

This suggests that language change are like germs which spread and infect the language ought to fight against such diseases.

Question 13

John Sunderland

Answer 13

Texting is penmanship for illiterates

Question 14

Bailey’s wave model

Answer 14

•He suggested that language change is like a drip of water hitting the surface of a lake - it spreads.
•The closest to the origin of the new language change is more likely to pick of the change. e.g, MLE spread quickly in London before getting to other states

Question 15

Chen’s S-curve Theory

Answer 15

•He suggested that language change starts to occur at a slow pace and then increases speed as it becomes more common and accepted into language - creating an ‘S’ curve
•He also stated that language change can ever be fully effective because some people will resist the change

Question 16

Jean Aitchison PIDC model

Answer 16

•Potential - there is a potential for language change
•Implementation - the change occurs
•Diffusion - the change spreads
•Codification - the change is made official

Question 17

Bidialectism

Answer 17

The use of national standards and regional dialect.

Question 18

David Crystal

Answer 18

He uses the term ‘asynchronous’ to describe groups wherepostings are placed on boards in chat-rooms and ‘synchronous’ to describe groups of people who chat in reallife.

Question 19

Random Fluctuation Theory

Answer 19

He says that when someone makes an error ‘random fluctuation’, these errors can be standardised and recognised as somewhat synonymous.
For example, iPhones famously autocorrect ‘fuck’ and ‘fucking’ to ‘duck’ and ‘ducking’, sparking social media attention and memes.

Question 20

Tide metaphor

Answer 20

•proposed by David Crystal
•he proposed that language change is like a tide - new things get washed up on shore, and the tide takes other things away.
•sometimes, things make it onto the language permanently, others only momentarily.

Question 21

Neosemy

Answer 21

when a word gains a new meaning.