language change terminology Flashcards
What are the 6 language change features you look out for in your coursework
Lexis ,semantics,syntax x grammar, orthography, spelling
What is your first paragraph in your coursework
lexical change
what does lexical change mean
words that are changing
What do we mean by archaisms
words that are dead; they are no longer in use e.g zwoonds -means god’s wounds 9swear words)
what is dated lexis
words that are not dead, they are just falling out of use e.g twin tub
What are neoligisms
new words created (polyamerous )
What is coining
words forming out of nothing
what is compounding
words that are made out of 2 or more exisiting words
what is blending
new words that are made from PARTS of two or more existing words
What is clipping
new words that are formed from PARTS of existing words
What are acronyms and initialisms
new words that have formed through the initials of other words.
what is affixation
new words that are formed by adding prefix, suffix to an existing words
what is borrowing
when words from foreign languages are used in english
what is eponym
proper nouns that are used to name discoveries or inventions or brand names that are becoming generic
What is semantic change
changing in the meaning of words
what is semantic drift
when words change meaning from one to another.
For example, gay =happy-> colourful-> deliberately delf-adopted by gay people to mean a homosexual.
What does amelioration mean
word changes meaning to become more pleasant/ les s unpleasant e.g naughter- evil-midely disobedient/sexual connotations
What is a pejoration
word meaning changes to become more less pleasant or more unpleasant e.g notorious means bad, but it use to mean worth paying attention to, used for the highest praise.
What is narrowing
words that have become more specific or restricted e.g meat use to mean anything you could eat now it means muscle skin
What is broadening
words become less specific and less restictive e.g troll- creature now means bully
What is a prepositional drift
changing in the meaning of prepositions.
e.g a game at chess-> a game of chess
What is syntax change
order of words have changed. order of words didnt matter, the endings did
Syntax rules are strict . True/ false
true
when should you talk about syntactical change
in older texts.
What does modern syntax tend to be
svoca
main clause -subordinate clause
adjective-noun
negator -verb
What is displacement
what has been moved in a sentence, we would call this a displaced X
Give an example of displacement
‘i saw the leaders great and good’
‘great and good’ are displaced adjectives.
Describe displaced negators
negators tend to become before the the vern, but in older englishes they don’t
Give an example of a displaced negator
‘She’s like it not’-> ‘she does not like it’
does acts as a ellided dummy auxillary verb (grammar).
What is inversion
where two words have been swapped over
‘said he’ instead of ‘he said’
we say the x and Y are inverted.
What are median adverbials
found in the middle of a sentence. in contemporary english they come at the start of the clause or the end.
what are explanations of syntax
-english used to be a highly infelcted lang
-use to be more flexible than it is now
-after norman invasion english became a conquered peasant lang- simplified by losing word endings
-rely on order not endings
-now:svoca
What is a solecism
an old fashioned grammatical rule that is rarely obyed in contemporary englishapart from formal occasions
what are the two types of solecisms
- split infinitives
prepositions at the start of the sentence.
describe split infitives
solecism says you can’t put a particle between to and the verb
‘to_ describe’ ‘to_ run’
in older texts writers go to great extents to not break this.
describe prepositions at the end of sentence
-cant put a preposition at end of clause cause it is called ‘‘pre’‘position so it has to go before something
What did winston churchil stay to refute preposions at the end of the sentence
-‘that is something up with which I will not put’
what is a grammar change
change in word endings and pronouns.
Describe anglo-saxon verbs
there where highly inflected, use to have around 17 different inflections, they all died slowly at different rates,but some survived in regional dialects
What are type of archaic inflection are ‘est’ and ‘eth’
‘est’- archaic second person singular present tense inflections (1700)
‘eth’ archaic third person singular present tense
By 1600, ‘est’ ellided into whT
THE ARCHAIC second person singular present tense ‘‘walk’st’’ and ‘shalt’’
Some archaic forms as still seen for example
the inflection ‘sungen’ for ‘sang’
any weird ending say archaic
What is the strongest verb in english
to be
If there is a weird inflection of ‘to be’ what do we say
it is in the subjunctive
describe grammar change
english use to be a highly infelcted language , where the inflections died gradullay overtime at different rates. Contempory english has fewer inflections. English language changed from synthetic to analytic.
What is perpihrastic do
using the verb ‘to do’ where we would not use it today in contempory english.
What is an example of periphrastic do
‘i do love thee’
‘she did marry him’’
was used to show coninuousness
Describe ‘for’ being used as a conjunction
it is common in older texts to do ‘for’ as a conjunction meaning the same thing as ‘because’.
for example, she did marry him for she loved him.
In contempory english what do we call for
a preposition
What is thou/ thee and their connotations
they show friendliness
Describe features of middle english
no right or wrong spelling. spelling changed into french spelling patterns from old english
no standardised spelling;they spelt the way they thought.
pronunciation has changed since, spelling tried to replicate this.
William shakespear was spelt in three ways what were these spellings?
Willism Shakspere
willm shackspere
william shakspeare
What did William Caxton’s advance of printing do in the 15th century
printing ontributed to standardisation of spelling. This is as he printing was done in the east middleands dialect. Was thought to be correct
what were some spelling differences during the advance of printing
i an y interchangeable
j and i interchangeable
v and u interchanfeable
‘TH’ sound describe this change
as the letters thorn and eth died out the letter ‘y’ was sometimes used to replace the sound. around the 1600’s ‘y’ was regularly used in abreviated words that started with the sound ‘th’
what is y^s
abrieviated of the word this
what is y^e
abrieviation of the word the
what is y^t
abreviation of the word that
Why may spelling vary
English spelling was not standardised up until 1800’s
and due to lack of education( posh people were educated more than us.)
What happeened in 1755 and provide examples
Samuel Johnson published the ‘dictionary’ this was the start of standardisation, but took another century to take full effect
-ironick(ol)
What is affecting British spelling
American spelling (it is taking over) for example, color and realize.
What is orthograohic change
change in the appearance of letters on a page
Describe long S
it was the little and last thing to survive (looks like an F) long s came at start and middle of sentence. normal s at end.
Describle letter ash
anglo-saxon (AT )
went in the 20th century
On two-word place names or street names tended to be written with…
one capital and a dash
in old english what was capitalised
the important words
what is proclitic elison
start of words that have elided
it is - tis
what is enclitic elision
start of words elide
it is - it’s
By the early modern period the printing industry had become…
more widespread and so books were no longer available to just the rich
what did printers rationalise
orthography in order to make it simpler and quicker.
Name the abandoned letters
d with line on tail
ae (merged)
The printing industry established the ______________
the conventions of punctuations on capital letters on proper nouns not elsewhere.
the stressed syllable ‘ed’ became?
unstressed
how would a writer be self-conciously modern
echo’d ( 2 syllables)
what does electronic communication encourage and what do they convey
emojies,emoticons, smilies, sincerity
voice, facial expression. They are paralingusitic aspects in speech
What does phonology refer to
sounds
in phonology what causes the inconsistency of spelling and pronunciation
the fact that english phonology is fluid as spelling has changed but pronunciation hasnt
e.g aigburth-> egg birth
Describe contempory phonology change
-spread of glottal stop
-spread of uptalk or the austrailian question inotation
-simplified in mue
-increase in vocal fry
political correctness: why have words died out
they are pejorative/ offensive
words for african heritage in 1786 , mid 1800, late 1800, mid 1900 and late 1900?
1) n-word came from portugese
2)’negro’ intended to be nicer (anti-rasist
3) coloured - deliberate intention to not be rasict
4)Black
5) black / afro-carribbean
words for homosexual men in 1200’a, 1700’s 1892 AND 1960’s
1) sodomite ( bible connotations of sin
2) maly- brothel for men, connotes crime
3)homosexual
4) gay- slang word from san francisco to celebrate
where does homosexual come from
Kreft -ebbing’s book. German
medical diagnosis called Psychoathia sexualis ( SICKENESS AS CONNOTATION).
what is reclaiming
process whereby previous pejorative terms was self adopted and sel-applied by the groups in question
e.g LGBT =Queer=umbrella term for lgbt
