theories of language change

Question 1

What are the different steps in Aitchison’s lexical change flowchart?

Answer 1

1. Potential for change, including practical and social needs
2. Implementation including triggering and actuation
3. Diffusion words spreads throughout different social groups and used in different settings
4. Codification - recorded in dictionaries

Question 2

What are the ideas of functional theory?

Answer 2

• changes according to the needs of its users
• when there is a need for a new word, there’s a new creation

Question 3

What is the relevance of functional theory for language change?

Answer 3

• The Industrial Revolution, as well as modern technology are excellent evidence for thos
• also supported by reflectionism

Question 4

What are the main ideas of the borrowing theory?

Answer 4

• other languages and dialects come into contact with English
• adstratum = mutual borrowing
• superstratum = the influence of a socially dominating language which supplants existing vocabulary in the language

Question 5

What is the relevance of borrowing theory on language change/ today’s society?

Answer 5

• french borrowings
• the influence of americanisms could be considered superstratum

Question 6

What was the Inkhorn controversy?

Answer 6

• 1553 = words borrowed from classical literature that usually required knowledge of Latin or Greek to be understood, some of the terms did fill a semantic gap in English whereas others coexisted with native words with the same/similar meanings and often supplanted them

Question 7

What is the relevance of the Inkhorn controversy?

Answer 7

• an example of superstratum where vocabulary of classical literature was thought to carry prestige
• link to substratum = in that it ws thought that we were borrowing these words for a purpose, yet in some cases we already had a word that served such function

Question 8

What are the main points of random fluctuation theory?

Answer 8

• language changes due to instability and events
• change is seen as completely random and comes and goes
• supported by Paul Postal (1968) = ‘general tendency of human culture [is] to undergo stylistic change’

Question 9

What is the relevance of the random fluctuation theory to language change/todays society?

Answer 9

• could have an impact in certain situations, but not all = it’s contextually dependent therefore not considered to be hugely influential in changing language for the long term
• it does show how language can be adapted and used for purpose well

Question 10

What are the main points of the lexical gaps theory?

Answer 10

• when there is a natural gap in the language and the preconditions for a new word exist, it will be created
• e.g. conversions

Question 11

What is the relevance of the lexical gaps theory for language change and today’s society?

Answer 11

• the conditions have to be right for this process to occur
• Zimmer(1964) = not all gaps are acceptable to native speakers, some words may reject a particular affix and therefore the gap is unfilled

Question 12

What is an example of functional theory in language use?

Answer 12

• selfie
• cereal
• double negatives for emphasis

Question 13

What is an example of borrowing theory in language use?

Answer 13

• German borrowings e.g. zeitgeist, schadenfreudel
• French borrowings

Question 14

What is an example of random fluctuation theory in language use?

Answer 14

• slang words e.g. peng vs leng

Question 15

What is an example of lexical gaps theory in language use?

Answer 15

• ‘capping’ has left a gap for ‘cap’, ‘capper’, etc

Question 16

Who coined the s-curve?

Answer 16

Chen (1968 and 1972)

Question 17

What is meant by the s-curve?

Answer 17

• change entering the language would be taken up by its users at a certain rate:
• at first, the effects would be minimal
• the change would then accelerate
• finally, the pace of change would slow and plateau

Question 18

What is an example of the s-curve?

Answer 18

• it is particularly evident on slang e.g ‘bae’ is now ‘babe’, ‘era was accelerated by Taylor Swift’s tour

Question 19

What is a problem with the s-curve?

Answer 19

• this model doesn’t account for social factors ( such as age and gender) which can heavily impact on one’s tendency to pick up new words

Question 20

What else does the s-curve model illustrate?

Answer 20

• the way that ‘old’ and ‘new’ forms coexist until old forms are eventually lost (synchronic variation)
• e.g. Shakespeare using both ‘Thinkst thou…’ and ‘Dost thou think…’

Question 21

Who coined the wave model?

Answer 21

Bailey(1973)

Question 22

What is the wave model?

Answer 22

• it explored the impact of geographical distance and social strata on language change
• change would move across a particular geographical region, and across different social groups, as it did so, its effects would become weaker therefore the further away a person was, both socially and/or geographically, from the origin of a particular change, the less impact it would have on his/her language use

Question 23

What is an example of the wave model?

Answer 23

• can be seen in the use of dialectal differences across the UK e.g. the adjective ‘reem’ is likely to be used more in Estuary English but ‘canny’ will be used more frequently in the Geordie dialect

Question 24

What is a challenge to the wave model?

Answer 24

• the prominence of the internet/social media which demonstrates that the impact of geographical location on language change has little impact