Language Change (Modern)

Question 1

What is Amelioration?

Answer 1

The process of a word’s meaning changing and picking up more positive connotations over time.

Question 2

What is Pejoration?

Answer 2

The process of a word’s meaning changing and picking up more negative connotations over time.

Question 3

What is Broadening?

Answer 3

The process of a word’s meanings becoming generalised over time.

Question 4

What is Narrowing?

Answer 4

The process of a word’s meanings becoming more specialised over time.

Question 5

What is Descriptivism?

Answer 5

A way of viewing language as being standard or non-standard, not making judgements about correctness.

Question 6

What is Prescriptivism?

Answer 6

A way of viewing language as correct or incorrect, prescribing a ‘correct’ way to use language.

Question 7

What is Declinism?

Answer 7

A tendency noted by Robert Lane Greene for prescriptivists to view language as being in a state of constant decline from a once great peak.

Question 8

What is a Lexicon?

Answer 8

The vocabulary of language.

Question 9

What is Linguistic Purism?

Answer 9

A pejorative label used for a view that sees a language as needing preservation from things that might make it change, such as dialect variation and borrowings from other languages.

Question 10

What is Uptalk?

Answer 10

A way of speaking in which the intonation pattern moves up towards the end of a declarative utterance.

Question 11

What is a Speech Community?

Answer 11

Any socially or regionally defined group in which its members share a number of linguistic characteristics.

Question 12

What is an Acronym?

Answer 12

First letters are taken for a series of words to create a new term.

Question 13

What is Affixation?

Answer 13

One or more free morphemes are combined with one of more bound morphemes.

Question 14

What is Back Formation?

Answer 14

A verb is created from an existing noun by removing a suffix.

Question 15

What is Blending?

Answer 15

A combination of clipping and compounding. Words are abbreviated and joined together to form a new word.

Question 16

What is Borrowing?

Answer 16

The process of taking a word from another language and inserting it into the lexicon of another.

Question 17

What is Clipping?

Answer 17

Words are shortened and the shortened form becomes the norm.

Question 18

What is Compounding?

Answer 18

Words are combined together to form new words. These can be open, hyphenated or solid.

Question 19

What is Functional Shift?

Answer 19

A word shifts from one word class to another, usually from a noun to a verb.

Question 20

What is an Eponym?

Answer 20

Names of a person or company are used to define particular objects. Often they are the inventors or distributors of the product.

Question 21

What is Initialism?

Answer 21

The first letters from a series of words form a new term, but each letter is pronounced.

Question 22

What is a Loan Word?

Answer 22

A word that has been borrowed into a lexicon.

Question 23

What is a Neologism?

Answer 23

A completely new word

Question 24

What is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?

Answer 24

This states that the certain thoughts of an individual in one language cannot be understood by those who live in another language. The way people think is strongly effected by their native languages.

Question 25

What is Linguistic Determinism?

Answer 25

Language determines the way that someone views the world

Question 26

What is Linguistic Reflectionism?

Answer 26

The language that a person uses, reflects how a person is viewed

Question 27

What is the Substratum Theory?

Answer 27

The way that different forms of languages come into contact with English. These create imperfections that is then passed down generationally, in turn, altering language forms

Question 28

Explain Aitchinson’s Damp Spoon Metaphor

Answer 28

Language forms that are lazy stick, like a damp spoon in a sugar bowl

Question 29

Explain Aitchinson’s Crumbling Castle Metaphor

Answer 29

The beauty of English is crumbling away and decaying like a castle that is worn away over time

Question 30

Explain Aitchinson’s Infectious Disease Metaphor

Answer 30

Lazy forms of language spread

Question 31

What is David Crystal’s linguistic economy view? (2001)

Answer 31

The way we communicate online is similar to how we communicate in real life. He believes we are now living in a linguistic economy in which now language is more practical than formal, we shorten words for practicality, this has derived from things like text talk

Question 32

What does Sharon Goodman explore relating to informalisation? (1996)

Answer 32

Explores two aspects of language change: Firstly, she states that that we are living in a time where language has become informalisation, this the idea that language which was used in close personal relationships is now being used in wider sociological context.

She also talks about supercharged typographic icon- Letters in the English language act as symbols in modern society with meanings behind them. e.g. x meaning incorrect.

Question 33

What are Donald Mackinnon’s categories of perceptions on language? (1996)

Answer 33

Categorises the attitudes people may have to language use: 1. As incorrect or correct; 2. As pleasant or ugly; 3. Socially acceptable or socially unacceptable; 4.Morally acceptable or morally unacceptable; 5.Appropriate in context or inappropriate in context; 6. Useful or useless.

Question 34

What is Hockett’s Random Fluctuation Theory?

Answer 34

Charles Hockett, 1958, proposed that random mistakes and events lead to language change. For example, the misspelling of ‘owned’ as ‘pwned’ has become a common term in the online gaming community meaning a rival has been humiliated. Random events, such as the Coronavirus pandemic, may also affect our language.

Question 35

What is Halliday’s Functional Theory?

Answer 35

Halliday proposed that language changes and adapts according to the needs of its users. Words disappear over time (becoming archaisms) as things change – for example, advances in technology means ‘cassette’ has been replaced with ‘CD’ which may also fall out of usage and be replaced with ‘streaming’. This theory suggests that there’s a certain logic to language change: changes reflect the sociocultural climate we’re living in.

Question 36

What is Crystal’s Tide Metaphor?

Answer 36

He suggests that language is like a tide – constantly changing.

Question 37

What is Crystal’s view on Texting?

Answer 37

Texting requires a more knowledgeable understanding of language so is not suggesting that young people are becoming less intelligent. It is an evolutionary strand of linguistics and reinforces language evolving over time