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
words bought by vikings
sky
skull
anger
norman influence
large amount of French terms
the great vowel shift
long vowel sounds moved from front of mouth to further back
moose –> mouse
Caxton
bought printing press to england in 15th century
johnson
published a dictionary in 1755 containing 40,000 words and spellings
trying to control language is like trying to ‘lash the wind’
swift
believed that English needed to be corrected and improved. he disliked
- contractions
- clipped words
- new words
- borrowed words
- young people changing language
lowth
wrote a grammar book for teaching
stated that multiple negation isn’t acceptable (this has become codified)
