VCE English Language Unit 2 AOS 1

Period of Old English

400-1100

period of middle english

1100-1500

Period of Early Modern English

1500-1800

period of late modern english

1800-present

norman invasion

The great conquest of England that occurred in 1066, caused for french to become the predominant language spoken in England, especially among the upper class. This also caused for several french words to be adopted into the english language

great vowel shift

- occured 15thC-18thC
- changes in the pronunciations of vowels over time, for example long vowels "shifted upwards" in pronunciations

printing press

popularised in 1450s-1500s
allowed for printed books, newspapers etc to be mass produced
integral in the creation of a "standard" of english

Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition)

The second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, published on the 30th of March 1989, brought along around 5,000 new entries, as well as containing all entries from the original first edition.

caused over 5,000 words to become codified, therefore entering them into the received standard of english

key events of old english

roman invasion
norman invasion
viking invasion

key events of middle english

black plague
the work of Geoffrey chaucer

key events of early mod english

great vowel shift
rise of printing press
standardisation

key events of late mod english

2nd edition oxford dictionary
technological revolution
industrial revolution

codification

refers to the process by which language is considered 'standard' by being recorded in a dictionary

standardisation

refers to the idea that "correct" and "incorrect" words, spellings and grammatical structures exist in language

prescriptivism

the belief that the standard in English is to be strictly adhered to, and the rules should not be "bended". Conservative view on language

descriptivism

the belief that the standard in English can be stretched to allow for the development of language alongside societal change. Acknowledges that different dialects of english exist, not just one.

semantic shift

where a word changes meaning over time

semantic elevation

when a word adopts a more positive connotation over time

Semantic deterioration

when a word adopts a more negative connotation over time

semantic broadening

when a word's meaning expands over time

semantic narrowing

when a word's meaning becomes more specific over time

collocation

words that habitually go together to form phrases - e.g heavy traffic, safe and sound - large aspect of idioms and predicative text

blends

produced by using parts of two words to form one - e.g bromance, brunch

compounding

words created by combining two FREE morphemes - e.g blackboard, bittersweet

affixations

adding bound morphemes to existing words -e.g bestest

initialisms

made up of the initials of a sequence of words, pronounced by each letter individually as opposed to a word - e.g DVD, FYI

acronyms

made up of the initials of a sequence of words, pronounced as one word as oppose to "spelling out" each letter - e.g NASA, ANZAC, QANTAS

shortenings

words formed by omitting parts of an existing word - e.g "phone" from telephone, "ad" from "advertisement"

borrowing

the adoption of words, constructions or morphological elements from foreign languages - e.g 'street' was taken from latin

commonisation

turning proper nouns into common words - e.g referring to all insect repellant as "aeroguard", using "google" as a verb

archaism

use of an older or obsolete form of language in a certain context - e.g using "merry" in "merry christmas"

contractions

the process of shortening two words by omitting letters and sounds, to form one word - e.g can't, they're, didn't