Language Change Flashcards
Evolution
suggestion that language has developed and adapted rather than decayed.
Prescriptivism
a language ideology that makes judgements about what is right and wrong.
Descriptivism
a language ideology that seeks to describe without making value judgements.
Economisation
a more compressed style of writing to communicate information more efficiently.
Young Cuckoo Process
new words slowly get used more than the old and eventually the new word will replace the old.
- E.g. “Cool” replacing “groovy” or “swell”
Wave Model
explains how changes diffuse through geographical and social space, likely ripples on a pond.
Functional (Halliday)
Explains that language changes to meet new needs.
Linguistic Determinism - Sapir + Whorf
The language we use, to some extent, determines the way in which we view and think about the world around us.
- According to Benjamin Whorf, the Hopi language lacks specific tense markers for past, present, and future, which he claimed affected how Hopi speakers perceive time as a continuous process rather than discrete segments.
Linguistic Relativism - Sapir + Whorf
People who speak different languages perceive and think about the world quite differently from one another.
- Pirahã People (Amazon): Their language lacks specific number words beyond one, two, and many. While this limits their ability to perform precise counting tasks, it does not prevent them from understanding numerical concepts when exposed to external systems.
Infectious Disease Theory (Aitchison)
We ‘catch’ changes from those around us and we ought to fight such diseases. However, perhaps it is not a disease because people want to change due to sociolect - they want to fit in with the language that specific social groups use. This metaphor challenges the idea that changes in language are like a virus.
Crumbling Castles Theory
Language should be preserved intact, but language has never been perfect and must continue to change in order to cope with changing social circumstances. This metaphor is used to challenge the idea that language change means language decay
Damp Spoon Theory
This stems from the distasteful act of leaving a damp spoon in a bowl of sugar.
This implies that people are lazy and disrespectful of language.
For example, the growing trend of ‘g-dropping’.
Stages to explain how new words enter the language
Potential - a need for a new word arises because of something new in the world.
Implementation - a few people start to use the new language.
Diffusion - the innovation spreads and is used more widely.
Codification - the new language enters the dictionary and is used as a standard for of language.
Norman Fairclough
Conversationalisation and Personalisation - Advertisements and marketing texts are increasingly attempting to mimic speech - includes synthetic personalisation.
Conversationalisation - convergence of spoken and written discourse.
- Friendly slogans: Brands like McDonald’s (“I’m lovin’ it”) or Nike (“Just Do It”) use conversational language that mimics informal speech.
Sharon Goodman
Informalisation - the process whereby language forms that were traditionally reserved for close personal relationships are now used in wider social contexts. The way in which language is becoming increasingly informal in all areas of society
- For example, Emails: Formal greetings like “Dear Sir/Madam” have been replaced with more casual greetings like “Hi [Name]” or even “Hey” in professional emails.
