World English

Question 1

What is hegemony/hegemonic?

Answer 1

• Influence or authority over others. Social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant group.
  
  • e.g. colonisation, teaching white history to colonies.

Question 2

What is an inkhorn term?

Answer 2

• Any foreign borrowing into English (esp from Latin/Greek) deemed to be unnecessary or overly pretentious.
  
  • examples include ‘dismiss, celebrate, encyclopaedia, commit etc.’

Question 3

What was the Inkhorn controversy?

Answer 3

• The extended dispute, largely in the late 15th century and early 16th centuries, over whether English should continue to add words from Latin and Greek.

Question 4

What is neosemy?

Answer 4

• The process which existing word develops new meaning, e.g. ‘pretty’ used to mean ‘cunning’ (perjoration).
  
  • ‘nice’ used to mean ‘foolish’.
  • ‘butcher’ used to mean slaughterer of goats.

Question 5

What is sticklerism?

Answer 5

• Finger-wagging approach to others’ use of lang.

- Describing what others say as wrong due to it being ‘illogical/incorrect’.

Question 6

What is an acrolect?

Answer 6

• A variety of speech closest to standard prestige lang, especially in the area which creole is spoken.
  
  • E.g. Standard Jamaican English is acrolect where Jamaican Creole is spoken.

Question 7

What is a basilect?

Answer 7

• The speech that is most remote from the prestige variety, esp in area where creole is spoken.
  
  • E.g. Jamaican Creole is basilect whereas Standard Jamaican English is the acrolect or prestige lang.

Question 8

What is a mesolect?

Answer 8

• Any variety of a language in a creole continuum that is an intermediate point in post-creole continuum.

Question 9

What is the Random fluctuation theory?

Answer 9

• Theory that language changes due to errors, e.g. ‘book’ became a synonym of ‘cool’ (predicative texting).
  
  • e.g. ‘pwned’ from ‘owned’ (error in spelling in gaming community).