PDE theorists

Question 1

Wave model, 1973 (Bailey)

Answer 1

~geographical distance
~person/ group close to epicentre of Lang change will pick it up BUT group further away from centre of change = less likely to adopt it

Question 2

S curve model, 1968 & 72 (Chen)

Answer 2

~lang change can occur at a slow pace > initial curve of the S
~increases speed as becomes more common & accepted into the lang
~can then slow down again
~level out once fully integrated into the lang & widely used
~Chen: users would pick up a lang change at a certain rate before spreading into wider lang usage & then slowing

Question 3

Informalisation, 1996 (Sharon Goodman)

Answer 3

~we are living in a time of increased informalisation
~lang forms traditionally reserved for close personal relationships NOW used in wider social contexts
~references Fairclough’s term “conversationalised” > some argue that increase in formalisation breaking barrier between ‘them’ & ‘us’

Question 4

Engineering of informality, 1996 (Norman Fairclough)

Answer 4

2 overlapping strands
~Conversationalisation: spread into public domain of linguistic features generally associated with conversation

~Personalisation: construction of a ‘personal relationship’ between the producers & perceivers of public discourse

Question 5

Sanders & Redeker, 1993

Answer 5

~readers appreciated new texts with inserted free indirect thoughts as more lively & suspenseful than texts without
~BUT also evaluated them as less suitable for the news text genre

~Pearce, 2005: public discourse (news texts, political texts) influenced by a general trend towards informalisation
~Pearce: Conversationalisation & personalisation > linguistic markers of these concepts have become more frequent in news texts over last 50 yrs

Question 6

The unfolding of language, 2005 (Guy Deutchser)

Answer 6

~Economy: tendency to save effort and is behind the short cuts speakers often take in pronunciation
~Expressiveness: speakers’ attempts to achieve greater effect for their utterances & extend their range of meaning
> results of this hyperbole can be self-defeating > repetition of emphatic phrases > inflationary process that devalues their currency
~Analogy: the minds craving for order, the instinctive need of speakers to find regularity in language

Question 7

David Crystal, 2001

Answer 7

~”dialogic character of e-messaging” (lang & the internet)
~dialogic > emails are part of an exchange of comms in the way trad. letters are not
~emails abbe sense of immediacy of reply

~”asynchronous” = groups where ‘postings’ are placed on ‘boards’ in chatrooms

~”synchronous” = groups who chat in real time

~in chatrooms silence is ambiguous > deliberate withholding, temporary inattention, or physical absence (without signing off)
~pragmatically, face-to-face > someone silent > presence still registered

Question 8

Philip Hensher, 2002

Answer 8

~complexity of the situation that ppl in a group can call each-other names (e.g. n-word)
~but when called these names by someone outside groups = offensive

Question 9

Philip Howard, 1977

Answer 9

~”revolving cycle of euphemism has turned full circle in the US”
~ e.g. black > Afro-American > Negro > coloured > darky > black