Language change

• Precriptivism

  language change is bad and should be prevented
• Descriptivism

  language change is a good thing
• Lexical innovation


  using words we already have to form new words
• Blending


  taking parts of two existing words to create a new word

  e.g. brexit
• Clipping


  removing a part of a word

  e.g. exam from examination
• conversion


  word changes class

  e.g. email, google - change from noun to verb
• compounding


  combining 2 full existing words

  e.g. football
• acronyms


  taking the first letter in phrases to form a word

  e.g. laser, BBC
• Lexical invention


  using completely new words
• loan words


  words that are borrowed and brought in from other languages

  e.g. cafe, cigar, entrepreneur
• neologism


  when a completely new word is invented.

  e.g. Mx as a pronoun
• ameliorisation


  a word gains a more positive meaning

  e.g. dope, awesome
• Derogation


  word gets worse in meaning over time

  e.g. mistress
• Aitchson

  You can categorise perscriptivist views in 3 ways

  • crumbling castle - english is an ornate building that is eroding
  • damp spoon - changes to language are a result of laziness and disrespect
  • infectious disease assumption - change spreads like an infectious disease
• tide metaphor - crystal


  Language change is like a tide. Sometimes, it washes things ashore that might wash away again or stay for a long time.
• Bailey's wave model


  • drop of water creates a ripple, the closer you are to the drop the stronger the ripple
  • the people closest to the geographical location where the change occurs are more likely to pick up the change
  • e.g. MLE spread fast through London, but took longer to spread farther
• Trudgill


  • challenges wave model
  • language spread: big cities -> big towns -> smaller towns
  • it misses out country dwellings
  • e.g. in Yorkshire the archaic 'thee' and 'thou'
• Chen's S-curve


  1. change is made and some uptake
  2. more usage, limited to a geographical location or group
  3. many more people know it
  4. change has reached as many people as it can, not 100% uptake as people resist change

  
• Chen's S-curve example

  1. 'LOL' used by teens texting
  2. more teens started to use it nationally and globally
  3. other age groups started to use it
  4. many people know the term, however some old people may not know what it stands for
• Jargon


  language which is unique to the group in which it's used in and wouldn't make total sense to those outside the group