Language Change Terminology Flashcards
Varieties Revision
Explain what ‘lexical change’ is
Lexical change is when lexis (words) change
Define the term ‘archaism’
Words that are dead and no longer in use eg ‘zwoonds’
Explain what ‘dated lexis’ is
Words that are old fashioned and rarely in use, but not dead yet. e.g. gramophone
Explain what a ‘neologism is’
A neologism is a newly created word e.g. bingewatch
Explain what ‘semantic change’ means
Semantic change is when a word changes in meaning
Explain what ‘coining’ means
When words are invented eg Haagen Dasz
Explain what ‘compounding’ means
When new words are made up of two or more existing words
Explain what ‘blending’ means
When new words are made up from parts of two or more existing words e.g. spork (spoon & fork)
Explain what ‘clipping’ means
When new words are formed from parts of existing words e.g. phone (clipped from telephone)
Is AIDS an initialism or acronym?
Acronym
Is HIV an initialism or acronym?
Initialism
Explain what ‘affixation’ is
When new words are formed by adding a prefix or a suffix to an existing word e.g. supermarket
Explain what ‘eponym’ means
When proper nouns are used to name discoveries/inventions or brand names becoming generic
Some words meanings just change from one meaning to another. What do we call this?
This is called semantic shift.
Explain what ‘semantic amelioration’ is
When the word’s meanings changes to become more pleasant or less unpleasant. e.g. naughty
What is the term we use for when a word’s meanings changes to become more less pleasant or more unpleasant? e.g. notorious
Semantic pejoration
Explain what ‘semantic narrowing’ is
When the word’s meaning becomes more specific or restricted.
Explain what ‘semantic broadening is’
When the word’s meaning changes to be less specific or restricted
Older texts may say “a game at chess” rather than “a game of chess” - What do we call this?
Prepositional drift
Syntactical change refers to changes in the o _ _ _ _ that words and phrases come in.
Order
Modern texts tend to be in which syntactical order?
SVOCA
Identify the displaced adjective phrase in the following sentence: ‘I saw the leaders great and good.’
‘great and good’
‘Strong was he.’ is an example of a displaced?
Displaced complement
In Contemporary English, negators tend to come _ _ _ _ _ _ the verb they’re negating
Before
In older texts, negators often come _ _ _ _ _ the verb they are negating
After
‘She likes it not’ is an example of a displaced?
Displaced negator
When two words have been swapped over, what do we call this?
Inversion
‘Now there’s a surprise,’ said he’ is an example of what?
The subject ‘he’ and the verb ‘said’ are inverted.
Adverbials in Contemporary English are usually placed where?
At the start or the end of a sentence.
Identify the ‘median adverbial’ in the following sentence: ‘I for you shall do this’
‘For you’
A s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ is an old-fashioned grammatical rule that is rarely obeyed in Contemporary English apart from on the most formal occasions.
Solecism
What do solecisms say about prepositions?
The solecism says that you can’t put a preposition at the end of a clause e.g. you can’t say ‘that’s something I won’t stand for.’
What is the archaic 2nd person singular present tense inflection?
‘est’
What is the archaic 3rd person singular present tense inflection?
‘eth’
Explain what an archaic subjunctive is
When older forms of English use inflections of ‘to be’ differently from Contemporary English. e.g. ‘I thought he were dead’
Explain what ‘periphrastic do’ means
The inclusion of the verb ‘do’ where we wouldn’t use it today. e.g. ‘I do love thee’ or ‘she did love him’
In contemporary English we tend only to use ‘for’ as a p _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Preposition
It is common in older texts to see ‘for’ used as a c _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ meaning the same thing as ‘because’ in contemporary English.
Conjunction
What term would we use for ‘thou’
Archaic second person singular pronoun
What term would we use for ‘thy’
Archaic second person singular determiner
Give the word class for ‘thine’
Archaic second person singular possessive pronoun
Give the word class for ‘thyself’
Archaic second person singular reflexive pronoun
The choice of second person pronoun also depends on contextual factors such as the speaker’s relationship with the interlocutor. In which situation might you use ‘thou’ forms with your inferiors or your equals?
You use ‘thou’ forms to your inferiors or to your equals when you’re in an informal situation.
What term might we use for ‘fayth/faith’
interchangeable y and i
What term can we use for the following: ‘iudge / judge’
Interchangeable i and j
What term might we use for ‘euer / ever’
Interchangeable u and v
In which year did Samuel Johnson publish his dictionary?
1755
1755 is the _ _ _ _ _ of standardisation
Start
Early modern writers tended to use capital letters on the words they found most?
Important
Older forms of English tend to use proclitic elision. What does this mean?
When words are elided at the start. e.g. when ‘it is’ becomes ‘tis.
Contemporary English tends to use enclitic elision. What does this mean?
When words are elided at the end. e.g. when “It is” becomes it’s
In Middle English, many ‘ed’ inflections on verbs were pronounced as a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ syllable. E.g. ‘echoed’ would have been a three syllable word.
Stressed
In Early Modern English, the practice of stressed syllables was dying out.If a writer was being self-consciously modern, they might use an apostrophe to show they were using the modern pronunciation. Where would they put the apostrophe in the past tense verb ‘echoed’ ?
Between the ‘o’ and the ‘d’ - ‘echo’d’
In order to be politically correct, what might a contemporary English say instead of ‘policeman’
Police officer
In order to be politically correct, what might a contemporary English say instead of ‘fireman’
Firefighter
Explain what reclaiming means
Reclaiming is the process whereby a previously pejorative term was adopted and self-applied by the groups in question. e.g. the noun ‘queer’ when it is used by a member of its community.
