Language change

• Diachronic change

  The historical development of language
• Synchronic change

  The study of language change at a particular moment in time.
• Lingua Franca

  A language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different.
• Latinate lexis

  words that derive from Latin root words
• Early modern English (1450s - 1700s)

  1) printing press - sped up standardisation of English

  2) great vowel shift - blood and good don't rhyme

  3) Shakespeare

  4) latinate language added
• Late modern English (1700s - present)

  1) dictionary

  2) compulsory education

  3) national curriculum
• Michael Halliday - functional theory (descriptivist)


  Language changes according to the need of it's users. - explains archaisms.
• Charles Hockett (1958) - random fluctuation theory (descriptivist)


  Random events and errors lead to language change
• Innovation

  Creation of a new word, meaning or way of saying something
• Diffusion

  Spread of a feature from an original user to a wider group
• Chen ( 1968 & 1972) - S-curve model


  Users would pick up language at a certain rate, before spreading into wider language use and then slowing
• David Crystal - Tide Metaphor (descriptivist)


  Language is like a tide, constantly changing. Changes are not for the worse, "just changes."
• Inflection

  The change in the form of a word to mark such distinctions as tense, person, number, gender, mood, voice, and case
• Clipping

  Shortening a word. Eg, 'omnibus' to 'bus
• Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis


  The idea that the particular language someone speaks, influences the way they think about reality
• Euphemism

  A word or expression that is used to make something sound more pleasant and less crude
• Dyphemism

  A word or expression that is deliberately more blunt and more crude
• Idioms

  Words or phrases that aren't meant to be taken literally
• PC terms

  The use of language that is politically correct and not discriminatory
• Pinker (1994) - Euphemistic treadmill (descriptivist)


  The process by which words used for euphemisms for a concept that's 'tainted' end up becoming 'tainted' themselves. Society then creates a new 'correct' term and so on.
• Amelioration

  When a word becomes more positive
• Pejoration

  When a word becomes more negative
• Reflectionism

  Language reflects the society that produces it
• Semantic reclamation

  Groups of people reclaiming those words used in prejudice against them, to overturn those negative connotations
• Semantic shift

  change in the meaning of words over time
• Jean Aitchison (1987) - Damp spoon syndrome (descriptivist)


  Def) language has become lazy

  Crit) language is economical rather than lazy
• Jean Aitchison (1987) - Crumbling castle view (descriptivist)


  Def) language should be preserved; used to be perfect

  Crit) language is in constant change; never perfect
• Jean Aitchison (1987) - infectious disease assumption (descriptivist)


  Def) language is 'contagious', bad habits spread

  Crit) people adopt new language habits because they like them, not against their will
• Donald Mackinnon (1996) - attitudes to language change (descriptivist)


  Categorised attitudes people may have to language use:

  1) incorrect or correct

  2) pleasant or ugly

  3) socially acceptable or socially unacceptable

  4) morally acceptable or morally unacceptable

  5) appropriate in context or inappropriate in context

  6) useful or useless
• Compounding

  Putting two entirely separate words together
• Polysemy

  A word that has 2 or more related meanings. Eg, bright - shining/intelligent, deposit - mineral/money in the bank.
• Samuel Johnson (1755) - (prescriptivist)


  Wrote an important dictionary, for the standardisation of English
• Robert Lowth (1762) - (prescriptivist)


  Believed English should follow Latin grammar rules. For example, splitting the infinitive verb should not be allowed
• John Humphreys (2004) - (prescriptivist)


  1) refers to a 'linguistic virus'

  2) against shifting gendered language - they
• Deborah Cameron (1995) - verbal hygiene, (prescriptivist)


  the notion that our language needs constant maintenance if it is to function properly, that it needs to be "cleaned up."
• Jonathan Swift (1772) - (prescriptivist)


  1) wanted to 'fix' English

  2) didn't want English to be 'polluted'

  3) against neologisms
• Blending

  Putting two words together to form a new one
• Milroy & Milroy (1985) - (descriptivist)


  1) 'ideology of standardisation'

  2) the ideal of a completely standard or fixed code of English is a myth