Chapter 7 Aice Eng Vocab

Early Modern English

From 1500 CE-1800 CE. European language influenced by Latin and Greek

Late Modern English

From 1800 CE onwards. Noted by scientific and social developments alongside a desire to establish rules of language

Old English

The main language spoken until 1100 CE pushed by the Anglo-Saxon settlers in Britain.

Middle English

The spoken and written language after the Norman invasion, which developed into Early Modern English.

Great Vowel Shift

A significant change affecting vowels that lasted approximately 200 years from 1350 CE onwards.

Estuary English

20th century English accent used by younger people that is a mixture of Received Pronunciation and London speech. Originated in the River Thames in London.

British English

The variety of English spoken by people in Britain.

Prefix

A group of letters added to the beginning of a word to form a new one.

Root/stem

The unchangeable part of a word that adjusts meaning depending on added prefixes or suffixes.

Suffix

A group of letters added to the end of a word to create a new word.

Derivation

Formation of a new word from an existing word, often by adding a prefix or suffix

Amelioration

A word becoming more positive over time.

Pejoration

A word becoming more negative over time.

Broadening

The meaning of a word becomes broader over time, shifting to include more things.

Narrowing

The meaning of a word becomes narrower over time, shifting to be more specific/exclusive.

Prescriptivism

The view that language should adhere to a strict set of rules in speech and writing.

Descriptivism

The view of language not needing to be by the rules all of the time. Variation is acknowledged and recorded rather than corrected.

Graphology

The study of writing forms.

Pragmatics

The study of how language is used in social contexts.

Semantics

The study of the meanings of words.

Grammar

The set of rules for the appropriate use of a language, including word order and meaning.

Colonialism

A country claiming ownership of another land, aiming to gain wealth from its products.

Archaic

Belonging to the past.

Obsolete

No longer used, with meanings that are not understood.

Lexis

All the words in a language.

Coinage

The creation of a new word that becomes commonly used.

Neologism

A newly invented word.

Eponym

A word that takes the name of its creator.

Conversion

The process of creating a new word or word class off an existing word.

Telescoping

The contraction of a phrase, word, or part of a word.

Blending

The formation of a new word by joining the beginning of one word to the end of another.

Coalescence

The merging of two sounds.

Compounding

Creating a new word by joining two or more standalone words together.

Backformation

The creation of a simpler version of a word that appears to be derived from it.

Reduplication

A sound that is repeated identically or with only slight change: characteristic of infant speech.

Neuter

Neither male nor female, as in 'It'.

Inflection

Any form or change of form that distinguishes grammatical forms of the same lexical unit; ‘-s’

Archaism

Words in the English language which are no longer in use or have lost a particular meaning in current usage.

Etymology

The study of the historical relation and development of a word from its earlier forms.

Discourse Genres

Styles of written and spoken communication.

Computer-mediated discourse

The specialized form of language between online users.

Transmission

The process of learning and passing information between people in a group.

Language family

Group of languages related in structure that have evolved from a common protolanguage

Protolanguage

A common language ancestor of modern languages.

Pidgin

A simplified mix of languages used for communication between people who do not share a common language.

Creole

A natural language developed from a blend of languages that is then spoken by native speakers.

Hypothesis

A statement of what a researcher is trying to investigate by carrying out a study.

N-gram

A sequence of items from a sample of text which varies in length based on the phrase being studied.

N-gram graph

A line graph displaying the frequency change of words or phrases over time.

Borrowing

The introduction of specific words, constructions, or morphological elements from one language to another.