language change

a level english language paper 2

diachronic change

evolution and development

synchronic change

a certain moment in time

old english

5th century

middle english

11th century

early modern english

15th century

modern english

18th century

present day english

20th century

neologism

new words

coinage

a new word being created

lexical change

how individual words have changed over time

the ‘english’ language

difficult to label it as one language

netherlands

sounds closest to old english

celts

survived invasion so had to learn and adapt to new language

latin

many words came from latin and script

lexical change

vocab

semantic change

meaning

grammatical change

rules

phonological change

sound

orthographical change

order

s curve model

users pick up language change at a gradual pace before it accelerates and becomes wider usage

wave model

geographical change has an impact on language change. change weakens from the centre

technology

increased use of acronyms. word conversion. tv has exposed to range of accents and dialects.

changes in society

rise of youth culture and young people are now seen as innovators of language use

borrowing

influence of foreign words. immigration, colonisation, invasion, world war

efficiency

most important motivating force behind language change

ease of articulation

assimilation. handbag to hanbag

ease of articulation

omission. t in whistle

ease of articulation

neatening. shoes from shooen

politeness

loss of thou and thee. significant marker of increased politeness. words with negative connotations have been removed

revolution

industrial revolution. new inventions meant new words and phrases

random fluctuation theory

random events and mistakes led to language change

substratum theory

language changes through contact with other languages

functional theory

language changes and adapts according to the needs of its users

archaisms

when old words cease to exist

inkhorn controversy

pretentious words that were only used for decoration

borrowing

taking words from other languages e.g. gateau

compounding

combining words together e.g. toothbrush

blending

words are shortened and joined together e.g. brunch

affixation

adding prefixes or suffixes to words e.g. selfless

conversion

a word shifts from one word class to another e.g. text

scientific progress

advances in medicine e.g. chemotherapy

jonathon swift

1712 proposed a similar idea to academie francais. didn’t like shortened words or contractions

changes from above

conscious attempts to change language from people of authority

changes from below

attempts to change language from people without authority

narrowing

meaning of a word becomes narrower

broadening

meaning of a word becomes broader

weakening

meaning a word becomes less strong

amelioration

meaning of a word becomes more positive

pejoration

meaning of a word becomes more negative

functional shift

word class shift

reflectionism

language reflects thoughts

determinism

thoughts reflect language

sapir-whorf

if we don’t have language then we don’t have thoughts

orthography

spelling and punctuation system of a language

standardisation

process of making language more uniformed

grammarians

people who study and write about grammar

lexicographer

person who compiles dictionaries

caxton’s printing press

1476 printing press. dialect of unis and london at the time. gave prestige. helped standardisation

johnson’s dictionary

1755 language was not pure and had to be standardised. lexicographers corrected and prescribed

american spelling reforms

concerned with divide between spoken and written form. editing dictionaries. wanted american english to be superior

milroy

people standardise in different ways and for different reasons

linguistic reflectionism

language reflects belief

initialism

using the first letter of multiple words to stand in for those words

acronyms

using the first letter of multiple words to create a new single word

textisms

a word that is only associated with texting language

number homophones

using numbers in the place of words

phonetic spelling

spelling a word the way it sounds

logograms

symbols used in writing language that stand for an entire word

vowel deletion

removing vowels from words to make them shorter

david crystal

myths on texting - young people, abbreviations, illiterate

derivational suffix

making new words by changing pre/suffix

e.g. happy → happiness, unhappy