Language Change Flashcards
What does Halliday’s functional theory suggest?
The idea that language changes as a society does: vocabulary changes to suit the needs of it’s users.
What do internal factors mean?
a factor to do with the internal structure of the language, for example English used to have different forms of “you” (thee,thou,ye)- to show the familiarity or respect between speakers (like the French tu and vous).
What do external factors mean?
to do with external forces- for example, with the invasion of the French- the addition of French lexis and constructions e.g lingerie
What does borrowing mean?
words can be borrowed from Latin and Ancient Greek and combined to creare a new word, for e.g (micro) small and phone (voice) and etc.
What does compounding mean?
combining two existing words into a single new word. for e.g black + board= blackboard
What does affixation mean?
by adding suffixes to existing words
What are suffixes?
for e.g., adding al, ness, or less after a word = culture would become cultural, happy would become happiness, and hope would become hopeless.
What are prefixes?
for e.g., adding trans, sub, anti before a word = trans-Atlantic, sub-Standard subway, and antipathy.
What libfixing mean?
Adding a “liberated” suffix to a word, for example, “nik” (from Sputnik).
Other examples:
- Peacenik
- Beatnik
- Refusenik
What does Infix mean?
using swear words. for example, absofuckkinglutely or absobloodylutely.
What does back formation mean?
less frequent than affixation, is the opposite process of black formation. This is the creation of a verb from an existing noun. for e.g editor (noun) becomes edit (verb)
What does clipping mean?
This is the process by which a word is created by extracting a portion of a longer word.
for e.g., phone from telephone.
What does blending mean?
occurs when arbitary portions of words are chopped off and sticthed together to form a new word. for example, motor + hotel = motel.
What does an acronym mean?
In which words are derived from the inital letter of a whole phrase. for e.g., radar-radio detection and ranging.
What does initialism mean?
PTSD, U.N
What does coingae mean?
inventing a completely new word for example, Widget.
What is the meaning of eponyms?
Those cases in which a person gives their name to something. for e.g Ernst Bio
