language change

question 3 structure

1. how topic is presented, e.g. vocal fry.

2. how wider discourses are signalled, e.g. gender, slang, accent and dialect.

3. reader and writer positioning.

question 4 structure

1. title using title of another article to make fun of or agree with.

2. strapline to explain title in 1 or 2 sentences.

3. begin ‘having read… I was disappointed to see’.

ways of looking at change

• descriptivism: describes language features, don’t have an opinion, don’t judge.

• prescriptivism: tells people what to do with language, has strong opinion, judges.

• diachronic change: looking at how change happens over time.

• synchronic change/variation: looking at language differences at one point in time, e.g. ‘fullfil’ vs ‘fulfil’, ‘less’ vs ‘fewer’.

Aitcheson’s metaphors

• infectious disease: you can ‘catch’ language.

• crumbling castle: in the past language was perfect.

• damp spoon: laziness causes change as people can’t be bothered for ‘proper’ forms.

Mackinnon

• language judged as being:

  • correct or incorrect.

  • pleasant or ugly.

  • socially acceptable or unacceptable.

  • morally acceptable or unacceptable.

  • appropriate or inappropriate in its context.

  • useful or useless.

David Crystal

‘the only languages that don’t change are dead ones.’

Deutscher (2006)

‘no’ = deemed to weak for unenthusiasm → have to add more for emphasis, e.g. ‘not at all’, ‘never in a million years’.

Halliday

functional theory - language has to change to fit various societal functions.

Romaine

• there are external drivers for language change.

• e.g. neologisms (new words) created for new ideas/events, e.g. technology or world events, e.g. covid.

history of English examples

• 1066: William the Conqueror - French language introduced to previous Anglo-Saxon language → 10,000 new words from Normans.

• Middle English:

  • French and Latin lexis introduced especially legal, administration, academic and religious terms.

  • simplified grammar.

  • Latin words replaced 85% Old English words.

  • pronunciation change - Great Vowel Shift.

  • borrowings from other countries.

• 1349: Black Death kills over a third of the population, including Latin speaking clergy so English grew in popularity.

• 1476: Caxton created ‘printing press’ using his own dialect (spoken in London, Cambridge, Oxford) → beginning of standardisation.

• Shakespeare: 2000 new words and phrases made.

• 17th century: growth of science - Royal Society first worked in Latin then changed to English

• colonialism → English influenced by many countries by borrowing:

  • India (1610) - ‘yoga’.

  • Africa (1850) - ‘voodoo’.

  • Australia (1828) - ‘walkabout’.

• 1755: Johnson’s dictionary.

• modern society: technology impact communication, dominance of America.

the word ‘gay’

• late 14th century - ‘full of joy’ and ‘lewd’.

• 1890s: promiscuity - ‘gay house’ = brothel.

• 1940s: slang word for ‘homosexual’ - condemnatory.

• 1960s/70s: adopted by gay community to describe themselves.

• 2000s: teen slang words meaning ‘undesirable’ or ‘inferior’.

• conscious language change.

spelling reform

• 1755: Johnson’s dictionary - begins spelling reform.

• 1828: Webster’s dictionary - changes spelling to create an American English.

• 1908: simplified spelling society (later change name English spelling society).

• 1949/53: Mont Follick (labour MP) - 2 private members bills.

• 1960s: large scale educational research.

• 2023: English children take 2.5x longer than Europeans to learn functional literacy, Simon Horobin campaigning for spelling reform.

• complex and irregular because:

  • borrowings and not changing spellings, e.g. ‘zucchini’ from Italian.

  • attempts to follow Latin as seen as more prestigious, e.g. ‘receipt’.

  • standardisation doesn’t always happen regularly, e.g. because Caxton.

  • Great Vowel Shift and pronunciation change.

grammar change

• demand for etiquette books and dictionaries to cement social status.

• grammar books: Lowth (1762) and Murray (1794).

• lang of upper middle class promoted - 90% majority’s language deemed as being full of flaws.

Robert Lowth

• book still influences grammar today, but was based on his personal preferences.

• based largely on Latin grammar.

• influenced by 18th century scientific ideas - ordering and systemising.

• gave examples of ‘corrupt’ grammar even from ‘most approved authors’, e.g. Shakespeare, Austen.

Norman Tebbit

• ally of Margaret Thatcher and key figure in government in 1980s.

• imagines dystopian future where grammar and correct spelling are no longer important.

• says it would be only if there is no longer a right or wrong, punishment and reward and no distinguishing between criminals and ordinary people.

political correctness

• conscious language change.

• appeared in America in 1970s, term took off around 1990.

• linguistic reflectionism - language reflects thought, e.g. humans are racist leading to racist words → getting rid of the words won’t get rid of the thoughts.

Whorf

PC = an act of ‘linguistic determinism’.

Orwell

• no rebellious language = no rebellious thoughts.

• 1984 - cynical view - no words in which to express it, but still have those thoughts.

Pinker

• ‘euphemism treadmill’.

• transferring bad ideas into new words, e.g. crippled.

Cameron

• ‘in the mouths of sexists language will always be sexist’.

• PC language is a ‘cosmetic improvement’.