Language Change Theory Flashcards
Paper 2 Section A Revision
When new things are invented, older things become o _ _ _ _ _ _ _ so the language used to discuss them does the same
Obsolete
What does graphology mean?
How things look on the page
What is the name of the theorist who came up with ‘The Functional Theory’?
Halliday
What does The functional Theory claim?
That “Language changes and adapts to the needs of its users.”
Functional theory states that one of the reason language changes to adapt to the needs of its users is because of new inventions and d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Developments
One example that supports Halliday’s Functional theory and why language changes because of new inventions and developments is the noun ‘Large Hadron _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ‘
Large Hadron Collider
Why did the Large Hadron Collider not exist in the early 1900’s?
Because the technology to make one wasn’t available and the physics that it is used to explore, wasn’t then understood
Why has the noun ‘ballista’ become obsolete?
Because we now have more effective weapons.
As well as describing physical objects, lexical change reflects changes in knowledge, u _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and ideas.
Understanding
What does the noun ‘carbicide’ mean?
‘the act of eating too many carbohydrate-rich foods’
What does the verb ‘flexischooling’ mean?
‘the practice of attending school for part of the week and being home schooled for the rest of the time’
How does the noun ‘carbicide’ show a change in ‘knowledge, understanding and ideas’?
Because, previously, much more emphasis was placed on reducing fat intake if you wanted to lose weight.
One criticism of Halliday’s functional theory is that it only explains lexical and _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ change
Semantic
Another criticism of Halliday’s Functional theory is that new words _ _ _ _ _ _ _ existing words
replace
Why was the Old English noun ‘hound’ replaced by the noun ‘dog’?
For no apparent reason.
As people think differently about the world around them, their language changes to reflect this. What term do we use for this?
Changes in social attitudes
Explain what ‘reclaiming’ means
Reclaiming means the use of an abusive term by the group it was used to abuse.
Sapir-Whorf’s (Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf) theory of Reflectionism argues a person’s language reflects their way of what?
Their way of thinking
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ is the idea that, if people can be persuaded not to use offensive or prejudicial terms, but ones that are seen as more acceptable, this will determine a new way of thinking,
Determinism
Who criticised Sapir-Whorf?
Pinker
Steven Pinker argues that thought is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ of language.
Independent
Pinker says that human beings do not think in ‘n _ _ _ _ _ _’ language, i.e. any language that we actually communicate in.
Natural
Pinker says that we do not speak in a ‘natural’ language. Instead, we think in a ‘meta-language’ - what did he call this ‘meta-language’?
Mentalese
According to Pinker, speaking ‘Mentalese’ suggests that our thoughts are _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ of the language we speak in.
Independent