Key concepts

• Lexical gap in gender:

  • Shortage of negative words for men and positive words for women
• Trivialising suffixes in gender:

  • Gender neutralising suffixes like '-ess' in actress are removed, leaving 'actor' to refer to both males and females
• Default assumptions in gender:

  • Language makes assumptions of what is 'usual' and 'normal', e.g., surgeon having a male connotation but can be general to mean female too
• Universalising in gender:

  • Gender differences cannot be generalized universally, with men exhibiting "feminine" conversational qualities and women using conversational styles associated with men
• Overt prestige in gender:

  • Prestige enjoyed by speakers of the standard dialect due to social factors, assumed to be well educated and intelligent
• Covert prestige in gender:

  • Prestige for those who do not identify with the standard dialect
• Verbal hygiene in gender:

  • The urge to meddle in matters of language
• Inferential frameworks in occupation:

  • Knowledge built up over time to understand implicit meanings
• Discourse community in occupation:

  • A group aiming to achieve a specific shared goal in conversation through intercommunication
• Vernacular subculture in region:

  • Those using non-standard forms have different social norms
• Velar nasal in region:

  • The "-ing" sound in "walking"
• Restricted code in class:

  • Language of the working class, simplistic and informal
• Elaborated code in class:

  • Language of middle and upper class, formal and complex
• Instrumental power in power:

  • Exerting hierarchical authority over others
• Influential power in power:

  • Influencing or persuading others with language
• Convergence in power:

  • Adapting communication to become more similar to another person
• Divergence in power:

  • Accentuating differences between you and another person
• Power in discourse in power:

  • Features and methods of speech used to set up and enact power relations
• Power behind discourse in power:

  • Context enabling power to be established (authority, legality...)
• Synthetic personalization in power:

  • Technique in a text to create an imaginary "personal relationship" with the text receiver to better position them to accept the ideology of the text producer
• Lexical overrepresentation in language change:

  • More words to describe one thing than necessary
• Amelioration in language change:

  • Process where a word gains a positive meaning over time
• Pejoration in language change:

  • Process where a word gains a negative meaning over time
• Semantic reclamation in language change:

  • Process where a word or phrase used against a specific group is then used by that group, e.g., ni**er
• Broadening in language change:

  • Process where a word gains more meanings over time, e.g., birds (used to mean young birds)
• Narrowing in language change:

  • Process where a word with a general meaning becomes more specific, e.g., meat (used to mean all food)
• Reflectionism in language change:

  • Idea that a person's language reflects their way of thinking
• Determinism in language change:

  • Idea that using more acceptable terms can determine a new way of thinking
• The euphemism treadmill in language change:

  • Process where words introduced to replace an offensive word become offensive themselves over time