Paper 3 - Language change, Processes of Language Change and Metalanguage Flashcards

Graphology

The writing system of a language as well as other visual elements on a page.

Grammar

The rules for organising meaning in a language, syntax is part of grammar

Orthography

The part of the language concerned with spelling

Phonology

The pronunciation and sound pattern which affect understanding of words

Pragmatics

how the context in which words and phrases are used affects their meaning

Morphology

The structure of words with their meaning

Lexis

The vocabulary of a language

Semantics

The meaning of words

Derivation

New words form as they are changed from existing words

Coinage

The creation of new words such as google, they are often nouns but can be changed to verbs

Neologisms

Words that are newly coined or created, often to describe new concepts, ideas, or inventions.

Eponyms

A noun that takes the name of its creator, usually products of discoveries

Affixation

The addition of prefixes and suffixes to an existing word to create new words or modify their meanings.

Conversion

The process of changing a word's grammatical category without altering its form, such as converting a noun into a verb.

Telescoping

The contraction of a phrase, word, or part of a word, on the analogy of a telescope being closed: biodegradable for biologically degradable

Compounding

The creation of a new word through the joining of two complete words, which has an independent meaning, e.g. flowerpot, toothbrush

Blending

The process of combining parts of two or more words to create a new word with a combined meaning, e.g. brunch, fanzine

Clipping

The shortening of longer words, such as exam instead of examination

Coalescene

The phonological process whereby two sounds often produced at speech merge into one, e.g. ‘whine’ pronounced as ‘wine’. This leads to changes in pronunciation

Backformation

The process of creating a new word by removing a supposed affix from an existing word, often changing its grammatical category, e.g. "edit" from "editor."

Reduplication

Where sounds are repeated with identical or only very slight change, e.g. mish-mash, ping-pong

Loanword

a word adopted from a foreign language with little or no modification.

Calque

a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation.

Early modern English noun gender

Nouns other than those directly relating to gender (such as man and girl) became neuter

English reliance change

English became more reliant on word order instead of inflections, which is where the form of the word shows what its function is such as (I jump / I jumped)

Modern English verb ending change

Modern verb ending ‘s’ replaced ‘th’, e.g. ‘speaketh’ to ‘speaks’

semantic narrowing

when a word’s meaning becomes less general over time

semantic broadening

when a word gains broader or additional meanings over time, e.g. a mouse

semantic amelioration

when a word undergoes an improvement overtime and develops positive connotations, e.g. ‘nice’

semantic pejoration

when a word acquires negative connotations over time, e.g. attitude

Idiom

a group of words whose meaning cannot be interpreted from the meaning of the constituent words

Euphemism

a polite expression for things too inappropriate to speak of directly

Metaphor

words acquire new meanings due to metaphorical connections, the representation of words change

Political correctness

when words and phrases that have acquired a negative meaning have been substituted