Unit 3 - variation over time

• Prescriptivist is an attitude that language should be fixed and that there are standard rules for its usage, and any deviation from said standard is incorrect. Descriptivist, is no judgement or negative attitude is imposed on language use, instead it is examined and observed in how it is used.
• Lexical expansion is when new words are added to a language vocabulary over time.
• A neologism is a new word within a language.
• Processes of lexical change:

  1. Derivation
  2. Acronyms and intialism
  3. Blending
  4. Borrowing
  5. Clipping
  6. Compounding
  7. Eponym
  8. Conversion
• Derivation - process of forming a new word from an existing word by adding an affix.
• NASA is an acronym, whilst OMG is an initialism.
• Blending - combining parts of multiple words
• Eponym - word named after a person or place
• Conversion - a word becoming useable as another word class
• Semantic change is the phenomenon whereby words shift in meaning or layer in meaning over time.
• Neosemy is a word developing a new meaning over time. Polysemy is a word growing to have multiple meanings over time.
• Process of semantic change

  1. Metaphor
  2. Broadening
  3. Narrowing
  4. Amelioration
  5. Peroration
  6. Metonymy
  7. Weakening
  8. Euphemism
• Metaphor is when a formerly concrete word expands to a more abstract meaning
• Broadening is when a words meaning becomes less exclusive
• Narrowing is when a words meaning become more exclusive
• Weakening is a words meaning losing impact over time.
• Amelioration is a words meaning becoming more positive over time. Peroration is a words meaning becoming more negative over time.
• A euphemism is a word or phrase being used as an indirect expression of a more taboo meaning.
• Old English 500-1100

  Middle English 1500-1700

  Late Modern English 1700-1900

  Present Day 1900-PD
• Archaic language is language that is no longer commonly used. An archaism is a word that is no longer commonly used. Obsolete describes a word that no longer exists within the language, whilst old-fashioned and outdated refers to words that are only common with an older generation.
• Extrinsic factor: when language changes as a result of contextual factors

  Intrinsic factors: when language changes as a results of a language’s desire to be simple
• Why syntactic change occurs:

  -              Simplification

  -              Regularisation

  -              Technological factors

  -              Social and cultural factors

  -              Literature and education
• Participle clauses: clauses starting with -ing words
• Early Modern English syntax

  • chaotic

  • sentence structure loose and linear as it mimicked spoken language

  • subordination limited

  • Latin seen as superior language due to association with science and elite

  • relative and participle clauses be some common, making really really long sentences

  • needed to express things that had never been expressed before (complex scientific artistic and cultural ideas)
• Late Modern English syntax

  • syntax began to settle due to standardisation and a growing prescriptivist attitude from grammarians

  • structure remained complex but followed clearer grammatical rules

  • rise of the novel, expanding role of writing and prose in entertainment, leading to experimentation with sentence length and complexity.