Language Change

• Sociolinguistic explanations

  • language as an indicator of personality
  • influence of powerful groups
  • new technology
  • social activities
• Systematic explanations

  • regularisation
  • increased efficiency
  • spelling mistakes
• English as a global language

  • 1.5 billion English speakers only 400 million are native
  • Singlish, Chinglish, English takes on new identities around the world
• Old English

  • Latin alphabet adopted
  • French influence
• Caxton's printing press

  • standardised English in printing
  • still inconsistencies in Caxton's work
  • egges anecdote
  • year 1476
• Webbster's Dictionary

  • simplifies English's inconsistencies
  • made America's own English for independence
• Jean Aitchison

  • Crumbling castle
  • damp spoon
  • infectious disease
• Jean Aitchsion's criticisms

  • cc: language has never been perfect, it is constantly evolving
  • ds+id: language change does not happen by accident or against our will it is a conscious choice
• David Crystal

  • 'because people are changing all the time, their language changes too, to keep up with them'
• Suzanne Romaine- factors

  • language changes as a result of internal influences within the language e.g. the dictionary
  • and external influences of social contexts e.g. age and gender
• Charles Hocket- random fluctuation

  • Suggesting that language change occurs due to the unstable nature of language itself
• Theory of lexical gaps

  • A word will be invented, adapted or borrowed to fill a gap in usage
• Halliday

  • functional language
• Crystal- Tidal metaphor

  • language ebbs and flows like a wave bringing in new words and taking out others naturally
• The Queens English Society

  • Autocratic movement of heavy prescriptivism
• Sappier-Whorf

  • language shapes the way we think, linguistic determinism
  • The way we think changes our language
  • If language was decaying it would no longer be functional, but it is so language is just changing
• Political correctness

  • Language change is accommodating minorities through political correctness
  • Tidal metaphor language change is taking out old language for positive change
  • many older people reject political correctness as they fear their language and in turn them, will become irrelevant as idiolect can be very personal
• Linguistic reclamation

  • the cultural process by which a group reclaims words or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group
  • more positive language change
• Stephen Fry- don't mind your language

  • perfect knowledge of grammar is not necesary to enjoy and celebrate the diversity of our language
  • language change and diversity is what makes our language beautiful
• Benign prescriptivism

  • Language should only change in certain circumstances to better language and be rid of offensive terms
  • e.g. political correctness
• Aitchison PIDC

  • potential- a lexical gaps appears
  • Implementation- the language change occurs
  • Diffusion- The change spreads
  • Codification- the change is made official
• Aitchison PIDC

  • potential- a lexical gap appears
  • Implementation- language change appears
  • Diffusion- language change spreads
  • Codification- it is made official