Language change theories

Question 1

Who is Kachru (1985) and what is his theory about?

Answer 1

Circles of english:
Inner circle- UK, USA (traditional speakers)
Outer circle- India, Nigeria (creole/Pidgin English speakers)
Expanding circle- China, Asia (where English is not normally spoken

Question 2

What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

Answer 2

the structure of a language affects the user’s view of the world
perceptions are relative to their spoken language
Language determines thought and linguistic categories limit and determine cognitive categories.

Question 3

Who talked about the Euphemism Treadmill and what is it?

Answer 3

Stephen Pinker

words are introduced to replace an offensive word, and over time become offensive themselves, endless cycle

Question 4

What are Jean Aitcherson’s 3 views of language change?

Answer 4

decay(crumbling castle, perscriptivist)
progress (partially descriptivist)
inevitable (descriptivist)

Question 5

What did William Caxton do?

Answer 5

Invent printing press

Standardised English through printing

Question 6

what is the belief that the oldest or original meaning of a word is correct?

Answer 6

Etymological fallacy

Question 7

what is the Inkhorn debate?

Answer 7

an inkhorn is any foreign borrowing into english. The inkhorn controversy is whether to have these terms in the english language (16-17th century debate)

Question 8

What did Jean Aitcherson say about language change?

Answer 8

“Changes aren’t random. They take hold only if language is predisposed to move in a particular direction. It is no sense wrong for human language to change”

Question 9

What is David Crystal’s tide of change theory?

Answer 9

Tide of Language change- language is constantly going in and out of use with new words, like the tide on the shore

Question 10

Who is Charles Hockett, and what did he say about language change

Answer 10

random errors and event have an influence on language change. For example, predictive text messaging is the one example of random fluctuation.

(Random fluctuation theory)

Question 11

What is Michael Halliday’s functional theory, and what did he say about language change

Answer 11

Functional theory- Language changes to meet new needs

He also explains the use of archaisms and slang

Question 12

Who is Samuel Johnson, and what did he create?

Answer 12

First publication of the dictionary, to stabilize the English Language

Question 13

Who made “a proposal for correcting, improving and ascertaining the English tongue”

Answer 13

Johnathan Swift

Question 14

What is the queens English Society?

Answer 14

a charity that aimed to keep the sanctity of the English language from borrowings and language change. Mostly old white men

Question 15

What is the Academia Frances?

Answer 15

A charity aimed at keeping the sanctity of the French language, Like the QES but more successful

Question 16

What is the positive version of language decay?

Answer 16

Evolution- the idea that language has developed and adapted rather than decayed

Question 17

What is the negative (Perscriptivist) version of evolution?

Answer 17

Language Decay- language has gotten worse and more primative over itme

Question 18

What is Descriptivism

Answer 18

A language ideology that seeks to describe without judging

Question 19

What is Perscriptivism

Answer 19

A language ideology that makes judgments about what is right and wrong

Question 20

What is the young cuckoo process?

Answer 20

New words slowly get used more than the old and eventually the new word will replace the old

Question 21

What are Jean Aitchison’s 3 metaphors about language decay?

Answer 21

The crumbling Castle- view that the English is like a castle and should be preserved (she argues- change is constant, when was the perfect castle in existence?)

The Damp Spoon Syndrome- new forms arise from sheer laziness, like dipping a damp spoon back into sugar. (she argues- only true lazy speech is drunken speech)

The infectious Disease- changes in language are somehow contagious. (she argues- people adopt new words/forms of speech because they like them)

Question 22

What term did David crystal use?

Answer 22

Uses the term ‘asynchronous’ to describe groups where postings are placed on boards in chat-rooms and ‘synchronous’ to describe groups who chat in real time. Pragmatically, in a face-to-face encounter, if someone is silent their presence is still registered.

Question 23

What did Jean Aitchison say about Prescriptivism

Answer 23

Argues against a prescriptive view of language, which identifies a vast network of rules and checks usage against these rules. Complaints by prescriptivists are often not about failure to communicate but failure to communicate in a certain way. People are only lazy in their speech when they are drunk and lose full control.

Question 24

canagarajah

Answer 24

Commented on Kachru’s circles theory, said that the circles were leaking and blending over time

Question 25

From last blurt

Answer 25

Definition of Sapir Whorf
Inkhorn debate/ inkhorn words
Hocket-Random fluctuation theory
Halliday's functional theory
Wrong about Swift-Johnson made dictionary
Academia Frances/ queens English society
Damp spoon is for laziness
7 ish mistkes/ didnt remembers

Question 26

John Humphreys

Answer 26

Said that texting and emoji are signaling a decay of language

Question 27

From last blurt

Answer 27

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis- perceptions are relative to spoken language
William Caxton- printing press, standardisation of language
Inkhorn debate
Jean Aitcherson + Charles Hockett (both sound like random fluctuation theory)
Michael Halliday’s functional theory
Samuel Johnson- Dictionary
Jonathan swift-a proposal for correcting, improving and ascertaining the English tongue
young cuckoo
Crystals asynchronous

Question 28

From last blurt

Answer 28

Sapir Whorf
Aitcherson's 3 views of lang change 
inkhorn controversy 
random fluctuation 
Samuel Johnson 
Crystal's asynchronous idea

Question 29

John McWhorter

Answer 29

Described texting as a “linguistic miracle” and said it was more like speech than writing