What is language change?

Question 1

What is Diachronic language change?

Answer 1

Historical development of language and evolution

Question 2

What is Synchronic language change?

Answer 2

The study of a language at a given point in time

Question 3

What did AITCHISON come up with?

Answer 3

3 metaphors to describe peoples anxieties about language use

Question 4

What were AITCHISONS three metaphors?

Answer 4

1- Damp Spoon Syndrome
2- Crumbling castle
3- Infectious disease

Question 5

Damp spoon syndrome

Answer 5

• change caused by laziness and sloppiness
• difficult to find evidence
• the glottal stop ‘street’ as an example

Question 6

Crumbling Castle

Answer 6

• sees English Language as a beautiful old castle that needs to be preserved
• no indication of when this golden age of language was reached
• presupposes a rigid system is better than flexible
• but flexible is necessary to cope with changing social circumstances

Question 7

Infectious disease

Answer 7

• catch change from those around us
• social contact is a key driving force
• pick up change because they want to
• should not be seen as a force that we are powerless to resist

Question 8

Donald Mackinnon

Answer 8

• correct or incorrect
• pleasant or ugly
• socially acceptable or unacceptable
• appropriate of inappropriate

Question 9

What are the 6 ways of coining neologisms?

Answer 9

1- borrowing
2- compounding
3- blending
4- affixation
5- conversion
6- scientific progress

Question 10

What is borrowing?

Answer 10

Taking words from languages and either anglicising them or keeping them as is
- Gateau, French - Bungalow, Hindi - Hygge, Danish

Question 11

What is compounding?

Answer 11

Combining words together to form new words
thumb + print = thumbprint
- toothbrush, ice cream

Question 12

What is blending?

Answer 12

Combination of clipping and compounding- words are shortened and joined together to form a new word
- smog, brunch, hangry, brexit, staycation

Question 13

What is affixation?

Answer 13

Many words in the English Language have been created by adding Greek or Latin prefixes or suffixes to existing words
(Greek hyper)
- disinterest, regift, hyperactive, selfless

Question 14

What is conversion?

Answer 14

A word shifts from one word class to another, usually a noun to a verb
- text, google, ofsted, network

Question 15

What is scientific progress?

Answer 15

Advances in medicine, science and technology cause new words and phrases to be coined
- chemotherapy, malware, in-vito

Question 16

What are the 4 methods of shortening?

Answer 16

1- clipping
2- acronym
3- initialism
4- back formation

Question 17

What is clipping?

Answer 17

When the shortened form of the word becomes the norm
- celeb, deli, flu, gym

Question 18

What is an acronym?

Answer 18

First letters are taken from words to create new terms
- you pronounce it as a single word
- NASA, NATO, AIDS

Question 19

What is an initialism?

Answer 19

The first letters are taken from words to create a new term- each letter is pronounced separately
- BBC, CS, FBI, MP3

Question 20

What is back formation?

Answer 20

A verb is created from an existing noun by removing a suffix
- sculpt, sculpture
- edit, editor

Question 21

David Crystal?

Answer 21

linguistic economy
WAG acronym worked well in tabloid coverage

Question 22

What is semantic bleaching?

Answer 22

When a word loses impact or meaning due to overuse
-awesome, amazing, crazy
LAKOFF- empty adjectives