Language Change Quizlet Flashcards
Diachronic change
The historical development of language
Synchronic change
The study of language change in a particular moment in time
Prescriptivism
The notion that language should be fixed, prescribing to a standard set of rules for language usage, with any shift away from these rules or standards being seen as incorrect.
Descriptivism
Where no judgement or negative attitude is imposed on language change, but an examination of language as it is and how it is used
Change from above
A conscious attempt to control or impede language change from a position of authority
Change from below
Language change caused by users adapting language to suit a particular need
Lexical change
The addition of new words and loss of old words from a lexicon
Semantic change
The development of language through shift in meaning of original words
Orthography
The conventional spelling system of a language. English has many perceived difficulties
Grammatical change
The changing of a languages grammatical structures or syntax. Less obvious and slower than lexical or semantic change
Standardisation
The gradual process of forming a Standard English from 14th Century onwards
World Englishes
Term coined by David Crystal to portray global variations of English as a group of languages rather than all subservient to one language
Old English
5th century Celts, Angles, Saxons, Vikings, Old Norse. Little consistency in written English.
Middle English
11th century Norman invasion, french language of court, Latin of church, English of people
Early Modern English
15th Century Caxton Printing Press. Shakespeare, King James Bible, beginning of British Imperialism, exports English and imports other languages.
Modern English
18th century Grammarians, Dictionary, Rise of Science, Industrial Revolution
Present day English
20th century media, technology, travel. English as dominant global language
Coinage/neologism
Deliberate creation of a new word e.g. widget, hobbit
Borrowing/ loan words
Borrowing of words or concepts from other language e.g. saga, pyjamas
Compounding
Combining words to make new words e.g. football, userfriendly
Clipping
Shortened forms of words becoming the norm e.g. phone, bus, blog
Blending
Combination of compounding and clipping e.g. moped, podcast
Acronym
First letters of a series of words that make a new word e.g. SCUBA, TARDIS, PIN
Initialism
First letters of a series of words but the letters are pronounced e.g. VIP, OMG
Affixation
One or more free morphemes are combined with one or more bound morphemes e.g. predestination, wonderfully
Conversion or functional shift
A word shifts from one word class to another (usually noun to verb)e.g. gift, e-mail
Eponym
Name of a person used in a word e.g. biro, hoover, chauvinism
Back formation
Verb created by removing suffix from a noun e.g. liaise, locate
Inkhorn terms
Foreign borrowing into English considered unnecessary or overly pretentious e.g. ameliorate, fatigate
Inkhorn controversy
An antagonistic distancing from Inkhorn terms in the 16th-17th century English
Neosemy
The process whereby a new meaning develops for an existing word e.g. below
Generalisations/ broadening
The meaning of a word expands to no longer be specific to one idea e.g. holiday, place
Specialising, narrowing
The opposite of broadening, a word changes to have a more specific meaning e.g. meat, wife
Amelioration
A word becoming more pleasant over time e.g. pretty, brave
Pejoration
A word becoming less pleasant over time e.g. villain, notorious
Weakening/ bleaching
Loss or reduction of the force of meaning of a word e.g. thing, shit
Metaphor
Words acquire metaphorical additional meanings extending to abstract ideas with similar qualities e.g. grasp, high
Euphemism
Creation of polite expressions for things considered unpleasant e.. friendly fire, facilities
Polysemy
Words have many possible meanings at the same time e.g. foot, milk, good
External factors of language change
External pressures affecting language change such as technology, social conventions, cultural changes
Internal factors affecting language change
Aspects of language contributing to change: metaphors, broadening
Homographs
Words that are spelt the same but pronounced differently e.g. read, wind
Homophones
Words that are pronounced the same but spelt differently e.g. there, their, through, threw
William Caxton
Attempted to standardise spelling. Was inconsistent and his Flemish typesetters made mistakes - 1476.
The great vowel shift
Gradual change in vowel pronunciation in 14th-18th century English. Led to a widening gap in grapheme and phoneme correspondence. ‘Seat’ used to be pronounced ‘sit’, ‘new’ was pronounced ‘noo’.
Grammarians - Robert Lowth, Lindley Murray, Joseph Priestly
18th century movement to establish English grammar. Rules grounded in Latin. Who/whom. Prepositions before noun. No split infinitives. No multiple negation
19th century attitudes
Attention to grammar led to change in written style - overly rhetorical and pompous. Grammar used to differentiate education + social class, multiple negation, h dropping
Modern attitudes
Prescriptivist attitudes tend to be strident and moralistic - as in 19th century poor grammar is a sign of poor education/ intellectual weakness
Grammar Nazis etc.
Samuel Johnson
1755 - first English dictionary along with grammarians, an early attempt to impose order on English
Haugen, 1996
4 stages of standardisation:
selection - language selected for standardisation (therefore an ideological process)
codification - reduction of internal variability, establishment of norms lexis, grammatical structures, spelling
elaboration - language developed for a variety of purposes
implementation - texts made available to give languages currency
Academie francaise
Institution founded in 1635 to protect and preserve the french language (french dictionary, french radio and television language quotas)
Gatekeeper
Term used to refer to prescriptivist who perceive themselves as ‘defenders’ of language. Can be perceived as a tool of subjugation and social control
Jean Aitchinson (2013)
A DESCRIPTIVIST who used metaphors to describe negative (i.e. prescriptivist) attitudes to language change.
Crumbling castle analogy
English is a beautiful and perfectly formed language and must be preserved. Compare modern language to language of Chaucer, Dickins, Greene
Infectious disease analogy
Language change is ‘caught’ from those around us e.g. slang, contractions, new lexis
Donald Mackinnon (1996)
Six ‘contrasts’ on how language change can be perceived by language users:
Correct/incorrect, pleasant/ugly, socially acceptable/unacceptable, morally acceptable/unacceptable, appropriate/inappropriate in context, useful/useless
Golden age
(James Milroy)
Every generation perceives their use of English as preferred, so when is the ‘Golden Age’ from which we should stop language change? Counter argument against prescriptivist attitudes
Dynamic Model (Schneider, 2007)
Illustrates the process of forming World Englishes with reference to colonial influences:
1. Foundation
2. Exonormative Stablisiation
3. Nativisation
4. Endonormative Stabilisation
5. Differentiation
Lingua Franca
A language (normally English) that is specified as the preferred language of people from different linguistic backgrounds speaking together.
Wheel/ circle model (Tom McArthur)
English arranged as a wheel with a central hub (World Standard English), Middle Wheel of regional standard accents and outer wheel of localised varieties emerging from the middle
Inner Circle - World Standard English
Second Circle - Regional Standards
Outer Circle - localised varieties
Three circles model (Braj Kachru, 1992)
World Englishes defined as existing in 3 broad groups, which are represented as concentric circles:
Inner Circle: English as First Language
Outer Circle: Varieties of English spoken
Expanding circle: English used for business, education etc.
Creole
A language that evolves from combining one or more distinct languages e.g. Spanglish, franglais, hinglish
Gatekeeper
Term used to refer to prescriptivists who perceive themselves as ‘defenders’ of language. Can be perceived as a tool of subjugation and social control
Jean Aitchison (2013)
A DESCRIPTIVIST who used metaphors to describe negative (i.e. prescriptivist) attitudes to language change: Damp Spoon Syndrome, Crumbling Castle, Infectious Disease, Damp Spoon
Language change is due to laziness
Glottal stop, h dropping
Crumbling castle analogy
English is a beautiful and perfectly formed language and must be preserved. Compare modern language to language of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickins, Greene
Infectious disease analogy
Language change is ‘caught’ from those around us e.g. slang, contractions, new lexis
Donald Mackinnon (1996)
Six ‘contrasts’ on how language change is perceived by language users:
Correct/incorrect, pleasant/ugly, socially acceptable/ unacceptable, morally acceptable/unacceptable, appropriate/ inappropriate in context, useful/useless
Golden Age
James Milroy - every generation perceives their use of English as preferred, so when is the ‘golden age’ from which we should stop language change? - counter argument to prescriptivist attitudes
Social climate in relation to language change
As prevailing ideologies change the use of language is likely to change to accommodate this. Access to education, literacy rates, class system, need for literate middle class to act as ‘managers’ following Industrial Revolution.
Worldwide community
Greater links between countries mean loan words, different pronoun citations and grammatical forms are more likely to be incorporated into a language British Empire, 20th century conflicts, rise of communication technologies, mass migration, travel…
Teenagers and link to language change
Longer life expectancies and lower child morality mean people don’t have to work until older. This produced a new social group: teenagers who have been using slang, swearing and use of fillers
Increased politeness/ decreased formality
Working together, society’s changing expectations have led to people speaking to each other more politely whilst also abandoning old-fashioned principles of formality.
Boundaries of private/social life and speaking/writing far less defined
Technology
Newer technologies make it more likely to hear and speak to people from other regions, countries, cultures:
Television/ film, telephone, email, social media, internet slang…
Assimilation
Ease of articulation - when phonemes are close to each other speakers are more likely to blend them together e.g. hambag, gimme
Omission
Leaving out phonemes when talking at speed
