Paper 1: Language Change Flashcards
What is a prescriptivist?
Believe language should have set rules to be adhered to and not deviated from. Subjective view.
What is a descriptivist?
Accepts there are many forms of language and change is necessary
What did David crystal say? (He’s a descriptivist)
“Language change is inevitable”
Who was the prescriptivist Robert lowth?
Robert Lowth was the Bishop of the Church of England, a grammarian, poet and author of ‘A short introduction to English Language (1762)’ - This was one of the most influential books of its time. The book argued that some grammatical constructions were incorrect e.g split infinitives
What happened in old English - 5th century?
- Roman settlement (A.D.43) - Latin had a huge influence on the formation of the english
- Anglo Saxons invaded Britain and Germanic influences further influenced English language development
- Different areas of settlement resulted in the formation of different dialects
What happened in Middle English - 11th century
- Dialect differences were still extremely prevalent
- Middle of the 14th Century that English began to regain a stronghold
- Norman conquest resulted in the inclusion of many French terms in the English lexicon
- French became the verbal language of the court and law, and took an administrative and prestigious role in Britain
What happened in Early Modern English?
- A form of the English language used from 1500 to around 1650 (Shakespeare)
- English took hold and increasingly used for literature, law, science and religion
- William Caxton introduced the printing press from Europe
- King James 1 commissioned the first authorised version of the Bible (English)
What was Jean aitchisons - the damp spoon view?
ean describes that sloppiness and laziness cause much of a language change e.g. a damp/wet spoon in sugar or crumbs. Suggests it doesn’t make you lazy when she argues the only truly lazy speech is drunken
What was Jean aitchisons crumbling castle view?
Jean suggests language has crumbled and worn down/withered over time after standardisation, implying that we haven’t looked after the English language
What was Jean aitchisons infectious disease view?
ean suggests we can catch bad grammar from others and places around and we should fight
What are the reasons for prescriptivism?
- Linguistic ‘table manners’: Halliday speech functions, artificial rules, think before we speak, encourages people to speak correctly
- Generational divides: younger people use more slang for many reasons, mainly media
- Common sense?: grammar and proper English should be obvious in prescriptivist POV
- Perception of Standard English: standard language used so people can understand eachother
- Reframing speech: research released that isn’t necessarily right, James Milroy is against
- Nostalgia and Tradition: pride and fond memories and don’t want to change their accent
- Media and Non-Experts: abbreviations and online influences
- ‘Necessity’: believe that it is a necessity for success e.g. Lynn Truss, Robert Lowth
Henry Watson Fowler - A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926)
Argued against some of the rules outlined by Lowth and said they should be used if they ‘sounded comfortable’
e.g.
“That depends on what they are hit with” (negative)
“That depends on with what they were hit”
(accurate)
- You should avoid ending sentences with a proposition
Lynne Truss - Eat, Shoots and Leaves - Prescriptivist
Truss has a ‘declinist’ view → A tendency for prescriptivists to view language as being in a constant state of decline from once a great peak
What is language like in present day English
Develop the influence of the media, technology, impact, scientific development etc.
- England and America’s global economic and political power power has ensured the spread of English
- We incorporate loan words from American English
What was it like in Middle English - 11th century
Dialect differences were still extremely prevalent
- Middle of the 14th Century that English began to regain a stronghold
- Norman conquest resulted in the inclusion of many French terms in the English lexicon
- French became the verbal language of the court and law, and took an administrative and prestigious role in Britain
