English- Change

Subdecks (2)

Cards (45)

  • Swearing
    Swearing has had semantic weakening over time
    -1936: first person said "@rse" on live radio
    -1972: the Oxford Dictionary includes "Fck" and "Cnt" for the first time
    1999- Channel 4 had used all swear words in entertainment programmes
  • Verbs over time

    the past tense of verbs has changed a lot- irregular verbs have changed particularly.
    (i.e. "spake" is now "spoke")
  • Adjectives over time

    some changes in comparative and superlative adjectives can be seen (some though are errors).
    (i.e. "properest" means the most proper, now we would say "the most proper")
  • Nouns over time

    -until 18th century, nouns were capitalised
    - there was less use of the definite article (i.e. "Russian" isntead of "the Russian")
  • Syntax over time

    -since 1700s, sentences have become shorter and less complicated
    -sentences contain far fewer subordinate clauses now.
  • Contractions over time

    -common in early 18th century
    -18th century writers thought that they were inelegant
    -uncommon in 19th century
    - second half of 20th century; contractions came back into fashio in informal settings.
  • Double Negatives over time

    -Robert Lowth used mathematical logic to argue that double negatives were not acceptable
    - therefore, 18th century writers did not use them
    - today, double negatives are debated but used more in spontaneous spoken speech.
  • Changes in Word Function
    nouns become verbs
    (i.e. "text", "email" and "google" were nouns)

    adjectives become adverbs
    (i.e. "I'm good" rather than "I'm well")
  • Newspaper Layout 1909
    -Line spacing is very dense
    -text is small
    -no photos or illustrations
    -all black and white
  • Newspaper Layout 2009
    -text is less dense
    -range of colour
    -non-standard typogrophy
    -information about what is inside of the paper
  • Magazine Layout 1700
    -decorative illustrations
    -title
    -dense print
    -black and white
  • Magazine Layout 2009
    -glossy photographs
    -different font types
    -colours
  • The Great Vowel Shift- long vowels were established from short vowels; only in spoken language and took many years
  • Features of Early Modern English
    Shakespeare coined around 1700 new words
    European Renaissance- a huge number of Latin, French and Greek words entered English; words were needed for new concepts like "psychology"
    World Exploration- brought new words from African, Asian and New World languages
  • Influences of Latin
    Latinate- words originally from Latin, e.g. colossal, dignified, emotion
    Prefixes and Suffixes- many come from Latin origins, e.g. anti-, post-, -ic, -ate
  • Modern Developments
    • English is now a world language of communication
    • Electronic Media, like mobile phones and the internet, have radically changed communication
    • a more colloquial and casual style of language reflects major social changes
    • Estuary English has become widespread in the UK
    • American English is becoming the default
  • Examples of the Influence of Other Languages
    Anglo-Saxon; water, sad, dead
    Norman French; change, morose, deceased
    Latin; aquifer, transform, depressed, moribund
    Greek; hydraulic, metamorphose, catatonic