Language Change

• DIACHRONIC CHANGE

  Change that occurs over time
• GREAT VOWEL SHIFT

  1400-1700

  Period of radical change in how English is spoken

  Transition from Middle English to Modern English

  Shift significantly affected the words with long vowel sounds

  Population migration is said to have been a reason for it to occur - bought together people with different accent and dialects
• PRINTING PRESS - CAXTON

  1436

  There needed to be a spelling system - East Midlands dialect

  Attempts to standardize the language
• INKHORN CONTROVERSY

  1590-1600
• SAMUEL JOHNSON'S DICTIONARY

  1755
• ROBERT LOWTH'S GRAMMAR RULES

  1762

  18th century academics decided they knew best and published guides on grammar

  Multiple negation and multiple comparison is illogical

  The infinitive verb should not be split

  Prepositions should be before the noun to which they are applied
• FEATURES OF OLD ENGLISH

  Different spelling

  Different letters and words

  No paragraphs are used

  Commas and fullstops used
• FEATURES OF MIDDLE ENGLISH

  "thou" and "thee" used

  Similar alphabet to modern English

  "but" and "now" are used

  Similar words but different sentence structure

  French influence
• FEATURES OF EARLY MODERN ENGLISH

  Paragraphs

  Starting to use capital letters

  Latin influence

  Suffix /d/ appears
• NEOLOGISMS

  A new word
• COINAGE

  The invention of a new word or phrase
• SEMANTIC RECLAMATION

  When a derogatory term is reclaimed by that group and used positively
• DETERMINISM VS RELATIVITY - SAPIR WHARF

  Linguistic determinism - language controls and determines the way we thing

  Linguistic relativity - language reflects the way we think
• POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

  A term used to describe language that is intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society
• NEOSYMY

  When a new meaning develops for an existing word
• EUPHEMISM TREADMILL - STEVEN PINKER 2003

  A word becomes pejorative because of its reference to offensive concepts and so a polite word is introduced to replace it
• THREE METAPHORS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE - JEAN AITCHINSON 2013

  Crumbling Castle - suggests that language is an old building that needs preserving

  Damp Spoon - suggests language change is caused by laziness and sloppiness

  Infectious Disease - suggests that language change is 'caught' from those around us
• THE ELEMENTARY EDUCATION ACT

  1870

  Ensured education for all children between the age of 5 and 12
• ASSIMILATION

  Sounds that are next to each other "become similar" making pronunciation simpler
• OMISSION

  When speaking at speed, some sounds within a group of sounds might be left out
• CONSCIOUS CHANGES/CHANGES FROM ABOVE

  Change from those in a dominant power

  Dominant power influences the change to begin
• UNSCONSCIOUS CHANGES/CHANGES FROM BELOW

  Change is driven by the users of a language, developing or adapting language according to their own social need
• CHARLES HOCKETT

  Language change occurs through errors which we tend to pass on to other users

  Technological change - misspelling of 'owned' as 'pwned' has become a common term implying domination or humiliation or a rival among the gaming community
• DIFFUSION AND S-CURVE

  Illustrates the way that 'old' and 'new forms coexist until old forms are eventually lost

  Diffusion - where innovations are developed successfully and stay undisturbed

  S-curve - the spread of language change begins slowly, then the change feature takes off, the rate of change spreads quickly, the rate of change slows down and begins to stabilize
• FUNCTIONAL THEORY - MAK HALLIDAY

  Language changes according to the needs of its users

  This mainly covers lexical change - new discoveries, learning, inventions, technological words, slang

  This does not account for grammar nor pronunciation
• SUBSTRATUM THEORY VS BORROWING

  Substratum - imperfections are mostly evident in the phonology and sometimes in the syntax but the vocabulary remains largely unchanged

  Borrowing - when people borrow from other languages its mainly vocabulary that is affected naturalizing the borrowed words so that they seem to be part of the lexicon
• STANDARDIZATION - HAUGEN

  A gradual process, began as early as the 14th century

  Selection - language is selected, variety selected is usually a prestigious one

  Codification - reduction of internal variability, establishment of norms of lexis, grammatical structures and spelling

  Elaboration - the selected language is developed for a variety of purposes, this may involve expansion of linguistic resources

  Implementation - the standard language must be given currency by making texts available in it, encouraging users to develop pride and loyalty
• NEOSYMY

  The process whereby a new meaning develops for an existing word

  Weakening/bleaching - the reduction of the force or meaning of a word

  Metaphor - words acquire additional meanings or physical ideas are extended to abstract ideas with similar qualities

  Euphemism - the creation of polite, roundabout expressions for things considered unpleasant

  Polysemy - when words acquire many possible meanings which coexist with the original