Diachronic Linguistics and Language Change

Vocabulary flashcards covering Diachronic and Synchronic linguistics, language contact, analogy, and grammaticalization based on lecture notes.

Diachronic Linguistics

The study of how languages evolve, change, and develop over time, often by tracking change through linking synchronic descriptions.

Synchronic Linguistics

The analysis of a language at one specific moment in time to understand how grammatical parts work together.

Internal Motivations

Changes in language that are driven by factors inside the language itself, such as grammar, sound systems, or usage patterns.

External Motivations

Changes in language triggered by sociological phenomena or contact with other languages through migration, trade, or conquest.

Code switching

Alternating between two or more languages within a conversation or even within the same sentence.

Macro Sociolinguistics

The study of linguistic patterns observed at the level of a whole society.

Micro Sociolinguistics

The study of linguistic patterns observed at the level of the individual language user.

Intra-sentential Code Switching

The act of switching between languages within the boundaries of a single sentence (e.g., "Vas a ir, or what?").

Inter-sentential code switching

The act of switching between languages outside of a sentence, such as starting a conversation in one language and finishing in another.

Koine

A common dialect that develops from the mixing of related regional or literary dialects and serves as a lingua franca.

Heptanesian

A modern Greek dialect spoken in the Ionian Islands, used to study the grammatical phenomena of noun borrowing.

$\text{deid\={o}}$ and $\text{phobo\~{u}mai}$

Ancient Greek verbs for fear that have no essential semantic difference and can mean 'to be terrified' or 'to be put to flight' depending on context.

$$\text{d\'{e}doika}$$

An outlier Ancient Greek verb for fear used specifically to describe a reaction of respect or awe.

Analogy

A relation of similarity or the mapping of knowledge from one domain to another, assuming relations between form and meaning differences.

Leveling

A mechanism of analogy where speakers apply an existing structure or pattern to other words to create regularity by filling in gaps.

Reanalysis

A change in the structure of an expression that does not involve immediate modification to its surface manifestation.

Indexicality

A property of a sign (like a word) where it points to an element within the context in which it occurs (e.g., 'now' indexes the current time).

Iconicity

A representation of what exists, where the form of the sign resembles its meaning (e.g., 'hiss' as iconic of snake sounds).

Grammaticalization

The process where a form loses its referential (lexical) content and gains structural (grammatical) function over time.

Desementicization

A mechanism of grammaticalization involving the loss of lexical meaning content.

Extension

In the context of grammaticalization, the use of a linguistic form in new contexts.

Decategorialization

The loss of morphosyntactic properties characteristic of a form, including the loss of independent word status.

Erosion

The tendency for widely occurring linguistic forms to lose phonetic substance, making them more predictable.