Language Change Theories and Concepts
Jean Aitchison's Metaphors and Language Change Stages
Infectious Disease Theory:
Suggests that people "catch" language changes from those around them, implying that such changes are like diseases that ought to be fought.
Challenges the virus metaphor by arguing that language change is intentional; people want to adapt their speech due to sociolects and the desire to fit in with specific social groups.
Crumbling Castles Theory:
Represents the view that language is a grand structure that should be preserved intact in a golden age of perfection.
Refutes this concept by asserting that language has never been perfect and must continuously change to adapt to shifting social circumstances.
Used to challenge the notion that language change represents language decay.
Damp Spoon Theory:
Addresses the view that language change is caused by laziness or sloppiness, comparing it to leaving a damp spoon in a sugar bowl.
Argues against the idea that language has become lazy, noting that the only true "lazy language" is drunken language.
Serves as a metaphor to challenge the belief that certain language forms are inherently ugly or distasteful.
Critique of Prescriptivism:
Argues against prescriptive views that identify vast networks of rules and check usage rigidly against them.
Highlights that complaints made by prescriptivists are rarely about a genuine failure to communicate, but rather a failure to communicate in a specific, prescribed manner.
Stages Explaining How New Words Enter Language:
1. Potential: A need for a new word arises due to something new occurring or existing in the world.
2. Implementation: A small group of people begin using the new language form.
3. Diffusion: The innovation spreads outward and achieves wider usage across society.
4. Codification: The new language form enters formal reference works, such as dictionaries, and becomes recognized as a standard form of language.
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and Substratum Theory
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis & Linguistic Determinism:
Linguistic Determinism: Asserts that language and its underlying structures limit and determine human knowledge, thought, and cognitive processes (such as categorization, memory, and perception).
Implies that speakers of different languages possess fundamentally different ways of thinking and perceiving the world.
Substratum Theory:
Explains how a dominant incoming language is altered through sustained contact with a native language.
Focuses on how different language varieties—including dialects, sociolects, and occupational lexis—influence mainstream language usage over time.
Accounts for specific mechanics of language change, including borrowing, hyper-correction, omission, and other contextual adaptations.
Models and Mechanics of Language Change
S-Curve Model:
Describes the velocity at which a new word or linguistic meaning grows in usage.
Characterized by a gradual, slow start, followed by a period of rapid increase in adoption, and culminating in a levelling-off phase.
Wave Model:
Explains how linguistic innovations diffuse across geographical and social space.
Analogous to ripples expanding outward on a pond from a central point of origin.
Young Cuckoo Process:
Describes the competitive replacement of language forms over time.
New words gradually increase in usage relative to older words, eventually replacing the old forms entirely.
Random Fluctuation Theory (Charles Hockett):
Proposes that language is inherently unstable and that language change is largely unpredictable.
Random events, errors, and slip-ups lead to lasting language changes as a consequence of ever-changing contextual factors.
Functional Theory (Halliday):
Explains that language changes specifically to satisfy the evolving communication needs of its speakers.
Accounts for both the emergence of slang (to fulfill new social or group needs) and the abandonment or preservation of archaisms.
Reflectionism:
The theory that language changes directly in response to underlying changes in human thoughts, attitudes, and societal beliefs.
Lexical Gaps (Halliday):
The concept that the creation of a new word or meaning opens up space in the lexicon for related morphological forms.
Example: The creation of the word Brexit spawned related forms such as brexiter and brexiting.
Drift:
Describes the slow, gradual shifting of a word's meaning over an extended period of time.
Evolution Hypothesis:
The suggestion that language has continually developed and adapted to serve human needs, rather than decaying from a pristine state.
Social Contexts, Discourse, and Register Changes
Norman Fairclough’s theories :
Conversationalisation: The ongoing convergence of spoken and written discourse styles.
Conversationalisation and Personalisation: Highlights how promotional, advertising, and marketing texts increasingly mimic natural speech, often employing synthetic personalisation to address public audiences in a direct, individualized manner.
Bidialectism: The practical usage of both a national standard language and a regional dialect depending on context.
Sharon Goodman’s theories :
Informalisation: The widespread process whereby language forms historically restricted to close personal relationships are increasingly adopted in wider, public social contexts, reflecting the broader informalisation of modern society.
Economisation: A more condensed, compressed style of written communication designed to transfer information with maximum efficiency.
David Crystal:
Asynchronous Communication: Describes interactions where postings or messages are left on boards in chat-rooms without requiring real-time response.
Synchronous Communication: Describes real-time language exchanges, such as live verbal conversations.
tides theory: that language change is fluid and unpredictable and mimics that of tidal waves on a beach .
Register & Lexical Classifications:
Colloquialisation: A shift in written register towards incorporating vocabulary and grammatical structures traditionally characteristic of spoken language.
Standardisation: The process of unifying and conforming all regional and individual variations of a language into a single, recognized normative version.
Codification: The formal establishment of standardized spelling, vocabulary, and grammar rules for a language.
Archaic: Refers to a word or phrasing that is rarely used in everyday contemporary language, associated primarily with historical or older modes of speech.
Obsolete: Refers to a word that is no longer used or recognized in active language.
Ideologies, Historical Perspectives, and Institutions
Prescriptivism vs. Descriptivism:
Prescriptivism: A language ideology that establishes rigid standards and makes value judgments regarding what is "right" or "wrong" in linguistic usage.
Descriptivism: A language ideology that focuses on observing, analyzing, and documenting language usage without making normative or value judgments.
Suzanne Romaine:
Distinguishes between internal and external histories of language.
External (Descriptivist Focus): Examines language through shifting social, historical, and cultural contexts, treating language as an ongoing, fluid process.
Internal (Prescriptivist Focus): Examines the internal mechanisms of language, such as word formation and dictionary influence, viewing language isolated from external social factors.
The Queen's English Society:
Represents an autocratic language organization that maintains a strictly prescriptive stance toward language usage, opposing perceived language decay and advocating for strict adherence to traditional standards.
Etymological Argument:
A traditional prescriptive position used as the basis for criticizing modern usages of words when they deviate from their original root meanings.
Example: Criticizing the generalized modern usage of the word decimate (meaning widespread destruction) on the grounds that its original etymological meaning was specifically to destroy or remove one-tenth of something.