Language change Flashcards
prescriptivism
language should be protected from change
descriptivism
all varieties of language are valuable and positive
archaic
old and out dated
codification
a change becomes officially recognised
lexical innovation
using current words and adapting to make new words
affixation
adding a prefix
blending
taking parts of two existing words
clipping
shortening a word
conversion
a word changes class
compounding
combining two full existing words
reduplication
combining two similar sounds
acronymisation
using first letters to make a word, said as a word
initialisation
using first letters to make a word, said as letters
lexical invention
creating fully new words
loan words / borrowing
new words from other languages
eponymisation
using someone’s name to form a word
neologisation
completely new word
amelioration
gains a more positive meaning
bleaching
loses power
derogation
gains a more negative meaning
expansion
definition covers more
metaphor / metonymy
a word / phrase becomes a metaphor and so its meaning changes
restriction
a word loses some of its meaning
neosemy
gains a completely new meaning