2.3.2 Mechanisms of Language Change

• Match the mechanism with its example:

  Broadening ↔️ "Holiday" used to refer only to religious festivals

  Narrowing ↔️ "Meat" originally referred to any food

  Amelioration ↔️ "Nice" used to mean foolish

  Pejoration ↔️ "Silly" used to mean blessed
• Grammatical change refers to the evolution of grammar rules and structures
• Order the types of semantic change:

  1️⃣ Broadening

  2️⃣ Narrowing

  3️⃣ Amelioration

  4️⃣ Pejoration
• Broadening refers to the process of expanding a word's meaning to cover a wider range of contexts
• What is the opposite of amelioration in language change?

  Pejoration
• Mechanisms of language change refer to the various processes through which the meanings of words shift and evolve
• Loan phrases often maintain their original structure when adopted into another language.


  True
• Semantic change refers to the shift in the meaning of words over time
• What are mechanisms of language change categorized into?

  Meaning shifts over time
• Amelioration makes a word's connotation more positive.

  True
• What is an example of a loan word from Italian to English?

  Pizza
• Reanalysis can lead to new grammatical rules in a language.


  True
• What did the word "silly" originally mean before pejoration?

  Blessed
• What are the four main types of mechanisms of language change?

  Broadening, narrowing, amelioration, pejoration
• Match the mechanism with its example:

  Broadening ↔️ "Holiday" used to only refer to religious festivals

  Narrowing ↔️ "Meat" originally meant any food

  Amelioration ↔️ "Nice" used to mean foolish

  Pejoration ↔️ "Silly" used to mean blessed
• Déjà vu is an example of a loan phrase
• Simplification in grammatical change reduces complex grammatical forms
• Match the semantic change type with its example:

  Broadening ↔️ "Holiday" used to refer only to religious festivals

  Narrowing ↔️ "Meat" originally meant any food

  Amelioration ↔️ "Nice" used to mean foolish

  Pejoration ↔️ "Silly" used to mean blessed
• Give an example of a phonetic change in English.

  "Knight" used to have a hard "k"
• What is one example of technology's impact on language change?

  Abbreviations in digital communication
• Changes in societal attitudes can lead to the amelioration or pejoration of certain words and expressions
• Demographic shifts, such as immigration, can lead to the borrowing of words and phrases from other languages
• The standardized form of a language is often seen as the "correct" version, granting it prestige and legitimacy
• Borrowing is the process where words and phrases from one language are adopted into another
• A loan word is an individual word adopted and sometimes adapted phonetically to fit the new language's system
• Match the grammatical change mechanism with its example:

  Simplification ↔️ Loss of case endings in English

  Regularization ↔️ "Childs" becoming "children"

  Reanalysis ↔️ Transformation of "a nice" to "an ice"
• Semantic change is a key mechanism of language evolution.


  True
• What is the example of narrowing provided in the text?

  Meat now means animal flesh
• Borrowing is the process where words are adopted from one language into another
• What is an example of regularization in English grammar?

  Childs became children
• The word "nice" underwent amelioration, changing its meaning from foolish to pleasant
• What is an example of phonetic change in the word "knight"?

  Silent 'k' sound
• Match the role of media with its explanation.

  Rapid Diffusion ↔️ Spreads new linguistic features quickly

  Prestige and Trendiness ↔️ Elevates certain linguistic styles

  Technological Adaptation ↔️ Adapts language to new technology
• The media's ability to shape cultural trends makes it a powerful driver of language change
• Narrowing refers to restricting a word's meaning to a more specific context
• Loan words are always adapted phonetically to fit the new language's system.


  True
• What are the key mechanisms of grammatical change?

  Simplification, regularization, reanalysis
• What are the four main types of semantic change?

  Broadening, narrowing, amelioration, pejoration
• Phonetic changes alter sound patterns, while phonological changes modify individual sounds.

  False
• The media's influence can promote certain linguistic styles as prestigious.


  True