Language change

• What is neosemy?

  Words getting new meaning
• What is generalisation?

  Where the meaning of a word broadens, e.g. place used to mean street
• What is specialisation?

  Where the meaning of a word narrows, e.g. wife used to mean any woman
• What is amelioration?

  Where a word becomes more positive, e.g. pretty used to mean cunning
• What is pejoration?

  Where a word becomes more negative, e.g. villain used to mean farm worker
• What is weakening?

  Where the force of a word reduces, e.g. terribly is a mild intensifier now
• What is a metaphor in language change?

  Where words become more abstract, e.g. grasp meaning understanding
• What is euphemism?

  Where a word is used to prevent rudeness, e.g. restroom for toilet
• What is polysemy?

  Words with multiple meanings, e.g. park
• What is coinage?

  Deliberate creation of a word, e.g. addiction is a word made by Shakespeare
• What is borrowing?

  Taking a word from elsewhere, e.g. alcohol from Arabic
• What is compounding?

  Combining two words together without removing from either, e.g. user-friendly
• What is clipping?

  Shortening words, e.g. rizz
• What is blending?

  Combining words whilst taking away from one or both, e.g. brunch
• What is an acronym?

  Wording out the first letters of a phrase, e.g. LOL
• What is initialism?

  Spelling out the first letters of a phrase, e.g. OMG
• What is affixation?

  Free morpheme + bound morpheme, e.g. re-gift
• What is conversion?

  Where a word shifts class, e.g. google from noun to verb
• What is an eponym?

  Names of people becoming words, e.g. Sandwich
• What is back formation?

  Verb created by suffix removal, e.g. locate from location
• What was the Inkhorne controversy?

  Renaissance writers took vocabulary from other languages, referred to by critics as ‘strange Inkhorne terms’, with their being temporary said to corrupt language
• What did Wordsworth say about language change?

  Advocated for the ‘authentic’ use of language of ordinary people in his poetry - descriptivist approach
• What did Swift have to say about language change?

  Published a proposal for fixing the English language, disliking vagueness, clipping and unnecessary, blaming poets for shortening to fit rhythyms
• What is the Academie de Francaise?

  An official body which tries to prevent anglicisation of French
• What were Aitchinson’s three proposals of prescriptivists views?

  Crumbling castle, infectious disease, damp spoon
• What was Aitchinson’s PIDC theory?

  Potential for change, implementation, diffusion and codification
• What was Howard’s euphemism treadmill?

  Politicallt correct terms eventually become offensive themself and are replaced, e.g. dwarf
• What was Halliday’s functional theory?

  Language changes according to the needs of its users linked to simplification like clippings
• What was Goodman’s informalisation theory?

  Modern language is characterised by informalisation, with Fairclough finding this was most prominent in the workplace
• What is the etymological fallacy theory?

  The view that the historical meaning of a word is the best
• What was Mackinnon’s model of language?

  Language can either be or not be: correct, pleasant, socially acceptable, morally acceptable, appropriate or useful
• What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

  Language affects thought
• What is the simplified spelling board?

  Attempted to simplify and standardise, e.g. thru for through but only some changes like color were accepted
• What is the King’s English society?

  They seek to preserve traditions and standards - linguistic conservatism
• What did Priestly suggest about language reformation?

  He was a descriptivist who suggested it is ill calculated to reform languages and the best form will emerge from its superiority
• What was Haugen’s standardisation process?

  Selection, codification, elaboration and implementation
• What was Chen’s S curve model?

  Resistance followed by accelerated change then stability - common in digital age, e.g. selfie
• What was Bailey‘s wave model?

  A series of waves which affect larger and larger portions of the population, e.g. they as a non gendered pronoun
• What is lexical gap theory?

  Language is underscored by needs and experiences of a population - when there is a gap where no word describes something, a term is coined or borrowed, e.g. blog
• What is substratum theory?

  Language change is down to contact with other groups, sped up by globalisation, we learn the word imperfectly and pass this imperfection on