How does language change

how does lexis change- they stabilise over time

semantics- if there is a change in meaning over time - also known as a diachronic change

amelioration- when a words meaning changes to a more positive one -

perjoration- is the opposite, it's when a words meaning changes to a more negative one

narrowing- when a word has a much more restricted meaning- girl meant young person but now it's very gender specific

broadening- opposite of narrowing, for example business meant to be anxious but now it means all kinds of work, bird only meant a young bird but now we use it as a general name for the animal

Process of change:

coinage- the creation of a new word like Google or Instagram

neoligism- some words appear to come from nothing

derivation- new words are made from existing ones- so like by adding suffixes or prefixes like bicycle or tricycle to cycle or un to happy or cycling from cycle etc

eponyms- where a word is the name of the person that created, invented or discovered it

telescoping- contraction of a phrase, word of part of a word

acronyms- word made from the first letters of a word, WHO for worl health organisation

compunding- adding two words together to make a new word, butterfly or toothbrush

blending- two parts of different words being put together - motel from motor and hotel or spanglish from Spanish and English

clipping - shorting of longer words- like maths from mathematics

coalescence- when sounds are clipped from endings of words like whine and wine are pronounced the same cus the w and h gets out together

backformation- is a form of clipping where a long word becomes shortened to give a new word in a different form like babysitting becomes babysit verb

onomatopoeia and reduplication - are processed which replicate the sounds of a word like mao or quack as well as duplicate sounds. when sounds are duplicated making them lively and informal like chick flick air ping pong

borrowing- when you have words coming from different languages due to invasions, colonialism or contact with other countries, Latin greek, Spanish etc

grammatical change- changes in grammar and style over the years

other sources of change:

change arises from the digital age, emergence of social media

language change and standards of English prescriptivists versus descriptivists