Language change content Flashcards
1
Q
what is prescriptivism
A
- notion that lang. should be fixed, prescribing to a set standard of rules for lang. usage – w/ any shift away from these rules or standards seen as incorrect
2
Q
what is descriptivism
A
- where no judgement or negative attitude is imposed on language change, but an examination of language as it is and how it’s used
3
Q
what is synchronic change
A
- study of language change at a particular moment in time
4
Q
what is diachronic change
A
- the historical development of language
5
Q
what are ‘inkhorn terms’
A
- foreign borrowing into English considered unnecessary or overly pretentious
6
Q
what is a ‘change from above / conscious change’
A
- change that’s usually initiated by those in a dominant social position or occupying a position of power and authority – usually in line w/ standard or ‘correct’ forms of usage and linked to prestige forms of lang.
7
Q
what is a ‘change from below / unconscious change’
A
- usually driven by the users of a lang. developing or adapting language according to their own social need; often initially appearing in vernacular forms that may be introduced by a social class
8
Q
what is a neosemy
A
- the process where a new meaning develops for an existing word
9
Q
what are ‘external factors’
A
- external pressures that will effect how language is used –either social, cultural or technological
10
Q
what are ‘internal factors’
A
- aspects of the language itself that contribute to change
11
Q
what is a ‘stative verb’
A
- a verb which describes a state of being e.g. to seem, to believe rather than a physical action; stative verbs don’t usually show ongoing action so they tend not to be used in the progressive form
12
Q
list processes involved with neosemy
A
- generalisation / broadening
- specialising / narrowing
- amelioration
- pejoration
- weakening / bleaching
- metaphor
- euphemism
- polysemy
13
Q
what is ‘generalisation / broadening’
A
- the meaning of a word broadens so that it retains its old meaning, but also takes on added meaning(s)
e. g. ‘holiday’ – originally from ‘holy-day’ ; in the past people were often only permitted a day off during days of religious importance - ‘place’ – originally referred to a broad street but now refers to any area
14
Q
what is ‘specialisation / narrowing’
A
- opposite of broadening – a word becomes more specific in meaning:
e. g. ‘meat’ – the Old English ‘mete’ used to mean food in general, but now refers to one specific type of food - ‘wife’ – used to refer to all women
15
Q
what is ‘amelioration’
A
- over time a word acquires a more pleasant or more positive meaning:
e. g. ‘pretty’ – used to mean sly or cunning - ‘brave’ – used to mean wild / savage
- ‘terribly’ – used to mean dreadfully, but now is used an intensifier
16
Q
what is ‘pejoration’
A
- the opposite of amelioration – over time a word becomes less favourable:
e. g. ‘villain’ – used to mean ‘farm worker’ - ‘notorious’ – used to mean ‘widely known’ but now is linked to someone who’s famous for having done something bad
- ‘hussy’ – used to mean ‘housewife’ but now refers to a woman w/ loose morals
17
Q
what is ‘metaphor’
A
- words acquire additional meanings as physical ideas are extended to abstract ideas w/ similar qualities, allowing abstract ideas to be more clearly understood:
- ‘grasp’ – to physically grasp something, or to grasp an idea
- ‘high’ – physical height, or to get high
18
Q
what is ‘euphemism’
A
- the creation of polite, but roundabout, expressions for things that may be considered unpleasant:
- collateral damage – refers to military action that results in the unintentional death of civilians
- friendly fire – when gunfire is directed at your allies rather than enemies
- downsizing – often used to refer to making people’s jobs redundant
19
Q
what is ‘polysemy’
A
- words acquire many possible meanings, which coexist w/ the original:
good: Tom is a good person who works hard for the benefit of others - it was a good piece of work
foot: - when he got to the foot of the hill
- he stumbled and twisted his foot
20
Q
examples of words that follow the diffusion curve
A
- the term ‘selfie’ and slang in general
21
Q
examples of words that follow the S-curve overlap
A
- using the term ‘baby-boomer’ instead of ‘dinosaur’ – will notice this in your sociolect e.g. ‘really good’ / ‘slaps’ / ‘hits different’
22
Q
Grammatical features in Old / Middle English
A
- double or triple negatives – were used for evidence (we would consider this grammatically incorrect) e.g. that ther nis no so great felicitee
- the past tense of a verb had a ‘y’ at the front sometimes e.g. whan that he was in his bed ybrought
- Instead of using apostrophes to indicate possession, Chaucer uses the suffix ‘es’ e.g. the man’s hat (contemporary English) = the mannes hat (Middle English)
23
Q
grammatical change of ‘thou’ to ‘you’
A
- ‘thou’ was originally the singular counterpart to the plural pronoun ye
- following Norman invasion in 1066 ‘thou’ was used to express intimacy, familiarity or disrespect while ‘you’ was the objective form of ye and was used in formal circumstances
- in 17th century ‘thou’ fell into disuse
24
Q
What are Lowth’s grammar rules
A
- pronoun ‘thou’ should no longer be used
- there should be differentiation between ‘will’ (promise/ threat) and ‘shall’ (to foretell)
- there should be a differentiation among ‘who,’ ‘which’ and ‘that’
- there should be regularisation between ‘who’ and ‘whom’
- prepositions should be ‘before the noun to which they’re applied
- the infinitive verb shouldn’t be split
- multiple negation and comparison is illogical
25
Q
What is the crumbling castle theory [Aitchinson]
A
- the myth suggests that English was once a great castle, but over time it has decayed and ‘crumbled into the sea.’
26
Q
What is the damp spoon myth [Aitchinson]
A
- it suggests that ‘bad English’ sticks to people who are lazy and passive
27
Q
What is the infectious disease myth [Aitchinson]
A
- this myth suggests that ‘bad English’ is like a horrible disease that spreads from person to person
- Aitchinson suggests that while changes are ‘caught’ and ‘spread’ — it isn’t a disease
- people may change they’re language because they want to, to engage better w/ a social group
28
Q
Johnson’s dictionary of English explained
A
- it was the first one to make an effort to standardize the spelling of the words, but it failed to circulate as it was only available to the upper class and most English people at the time were lower class
