English Language Linguistic Evidence

Dr Samuel Johnson

“Thus have I laboured to settle the orthography, display the analogy, regulate the structures, and ascertain the signification of English words…”

Joseph Priestly

“In modern and living languages… The general prevailing custom, where ever it happen to be, can be the only standard for the time that it prevails.”

Kate Burridge

“A non-standard dialect is as valid a communication system as the standard.”

David Crystal 1 (on change)

“They are just that: changes. Not changes for the better; nor changes for the worse; just changes, sometimes going one way, sometimes another.”

David Crystal 2 (on pace and the internet)

“Language itself changes slowly, but the internet has speeded up the process of those changes so you notice them more quickly.”

David Crystal 3 (on texting)

“Texting has added a new dimension to language use, but its long-term impact is negligible. It is not a disaster.”

David Crystal 4 (on the internet on voice)

“The Internet offers endangered languages a chance to have a public voice in a way that would not have been possible before.”

Henry Hitchins

“many prescriptivists have tended to focus on very small concerns… not how to make grammar easier to master... but on the alleged odiousness of a certain word of pronunciation.”

Vivian Cox

“rather than continually carping about the decline of the English language… understand and develop the amazing resource”

Gretchen McCulloch 1 (informal language)

“The internet didn’t create informal language, but it did make it more common”

Gretchen McCulloch 2 (declining standards)

“I’d gladly accept the decline of standards that were arbitrary and elitist in the first place in order to better connect with my fellow humans”

Rebecca Jennings (commentator/journalist)

“new terms compete for space in your brain ‘orange peel theory’, ‘microcheating’, ‘girl hobby’… not because they are relevant or necessary but because random people have made videos inventing these terms in the hope that the wording will go viral.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone.”

phrases Shakespeare invented

“Break the ice” (The Taming of the Shrew), “Heart of Gold” (Henry V) “Green-eyed monster” (Othello), “What’s done is done” (Macbeth)

words with French origins

governement = government, buef (old) = boeuf (modern) = beef

words with Latin orgins

fungus (1520s), formula (1630s)

words with Old English origins

fisc = fish, hors = horse

etymology of marmalade

Greek (for quince) melimēlon (“meli” honey + “mēlon” apple) = Latin melimelon = Poruguese marmelo = marmelada (for jelly) = French marmelade

etymology of barbecue

Arawakan (Haiti) barbakoa "framework of sticks set upon posts" = American Spanish barbacoa = 1690s "framework for grilling meat, fish, etc." + 1733 "outdoor feast of roasted meat or fish as a social entertainment" + 1931 "grill for cooking over an open fire"

example of prestige for words coming from French origins over English

beverage versus drink

example of codifiction: Caxton’s Printing Press

spread the Mercian dialect, add/removed letter to make text fit better on the page, without a standard record various factors determined spelling (eg. The letter “b” was added to “debt” to reflect the Latin lexeme “debitum”, despite the term originating from the Middle English “dette”. This spelling occured because debt pertained to the law and the church, an area with strong Latin influence.)

example of codification: Dr Johnson’s Dictionary

established a style for future dictionaries through A dictionary of the English language, clearly articulated definitions, classifications, etymologies, pronunciations and usage, attempted to guess etymology, personal bias in definitions, limited lexical knowledge (aided by only six transcribers), errors, made up words to protect copywright (which is often done in dictionaries) but did not identify which were made up

What was the Great Vowel Shift?

The upheaval pronunciation long vowels 1400-1700CE (eg. “oo” (as in “boot”) = “ow” (as in house), so now you would say a “bout” instead of a “boot” of illness)). While the cause is unclear, historical linguists have three main theories as to the cause: mixing of dialects due to the Black Death, following the hundred year war people may have wanted to adopt different sounds to demonstrate they were anti-French or wealthier middle class hyper-correcting to sound more French.

morphological change example

The loss of inflectional morphemes since the Middle English period meant English went from a synthetic to an analytic language.

lexical change example

During the Middle English period we gained over 10,000 words from the French.

syntactic change example

Overtime the use of word order to denote word role has become more prevalnet and during the Middle English period English became an SVO (Subject Verb Object) language to align more closely with French which is an SOV language.

semantic change example

Under Norman rule English became a diglossic language decause of the feudal system. French gained associations with the elite, whereas words of Norse origins gained coarse or common connotations.

phonological change example

During the Early Modern English period h-dropping was common and went in and out of vogue (hence the inconsistency as to whether it is applied as a semivowel or consonant).

Describe the use of “liao” in Winnie-da-Pooh, a translation of Winnie-the-Pooh by Dr Gwee Li Sui

“Liao” is a sentence-final particle used in the sentence “I think the bees suspect something liao” to mark a change in state, signifying that the bees have now started to be suspicious. This adds emphasis to the terms of which Winnie-da-Pooh’s speech take place, revealing a focus on clarity and circumstance in Singlish. The use of sentence-final particles (which express the speaker’s attitude, emotion or intention) were likely adopted from Mandarin Chinese, reflecting the many influences on Singlish.

Describe the use of “Your house got umbrella?” in Winnie-da-Pooh, a translation of Winnie-the-Pooh by Dr Gwee Li Sui

Here the sentence has been simplified by ommitting the indefinite article “an”, the auxilary verb “do” and preposition “in”, rearranging words to clarify meaning without these lexemes and using the verb “got” to mark possession as it is simpler than “have”. These features of the phrase “Your house got umbrella?” (translated from the original “Have you an umbrella in your house?”) get to the heart of the question and show Singaporean priorisation of efficiency and the way Singlish is part of everyday life, holding covert prestige and, therefore, has no room for formality.

Describe the use of “wan” in Winnie-da-Pooh, a translation of Winnie-the-Pooh by Dr Gwee Li Sui