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’