Language change content Flashcards
what is prescriptivism
- 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
what is descriptivism
- where no judgement or negative attitude is imposed on language change, but an examination of language as it is and how it’s used
what is synchronic change
- study of language change at a particular moment in time
what is diachronic change
- the historical development of language
what are ‘inkhorn terms’
- foreign borrowing into English considered unnecessary or overly pretentious
what is a ‘change from above / conscious change’
- 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.
what is a ‘change from below / unconscious change’
- 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
what is a neosemy
- the process where a new meaning develops for an existing word
what are ‘external factors’
- external pressures that will effect how language is used –either social, cultural or technological
what are ‘internal factors’
- aspects of the language itself that contribute to change
what is a ‘stative verb’
- 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
list processes involved with neosemy
- generalisation / broadening
- specialising / narrowing
- amelioration
- pejoration
- weakening / bleaching
- metaphor
- euphemism
- polysemy
what is ‘generalisation / broadening’
- 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
what is ‘specialisation / narrowing’
- 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
what is ‘amelioration’
- 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
what is ‘pejoration’
- 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
what is ‘metaphor’
- 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
what is ‘euphemism’
- 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
what is ‘polysemy’
- 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
examples of words that follow the diffusion curve
- the term ‘selfie’ and slang in general
examples of words that follow the S-curve overlap
- using the term ‘baby-boomer’ instead of ‘dinosaur’ – will notice this in your sociolect e.g. ‘really good’ / ‘slaps’ / ‘hits different’
Grammatical features in Old / Middle English
- 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)
grammatical change of ‘thou’ to ‘you’
- ‘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
What are Lowth’s grammar rules
- 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