theories

• Chaucer 


  introduced two poetic conventions, iambic pentameter and rhyme royals
• Shakespeare 


  introduced over 1700 new words through conversions, borrowing and affixations when he couldn't find a word that fit the descriptions in his plays
• Ray Kroc


  responsible for international success of McDonalds, introducing the 'Mc' prefix. for example, Germany's biggest gym chain is called 'McFit'
• Aaron Peckham


  introduced urban dictionary in relation to Samuel Johnson dictionary. for example, frienscaping became a new word (not of the oxford dictionary) with the meaning of the act in trimming a friends list on social media.
• dialect levelling 


  regional dialects are dying as people move to bigger cities
• Labov 


  Martha's vineyard - we subconsciously change our language to identify ourselves with one group rather than the other.
• Trudgill


  males use more non-standard language
• Donald Mackinnon


  incorrect or incorrect. pleasant or ugly. socially acceptable or unacceptable. morally acceptable or unacceptable. useful or useless.
• Philip Hensher 


  highlighted the complexility of situation that people in a group can call each other names but may seem offensive to people outside the group.
• robert louth 


  proposed multiple negation is contrary to intention, two negatives make a positive.
• Jonathon Swift 


  contractions are inelegant and corrupt the english language, sought to ascertain and improve the english language forever, criticising young sociolects.
• John Humphreys 


  dislikes text speak (brb/ily), superfluous repetition of synonyms (past history) and incorrect pronoun usage.
• Lynne Truss


  concerned with the accurate usage of apostrophes, blames 19th century custom of adding apostrophes before plural inflections of borrowed words.
• Jean Aitchison


  The crumbling Castle- view that the English is like a stately home and should be preserved, there was a time when language was 'perfect'. The Damp Spoon Syndrome- new forms arise from sheer laziness, like dipping a damp spoon back into sugar, only true lazy speech is drunken. The infectious Disease- changes in language are somehow contagious, people adopt new words/forms of speech because they like them.
• Dr Johnson


  first dictionary of english language initially introduced to fix it but later found this was impossible to achieve as language is always changing. it is the job of grammarians to record the current language as it is used.
• lexical gap theory


  neologisms are created to fill a gap that exists organically within the language. 'yous' fits the needs for 'you' lacking plural pronouns.
• random fluctuation theory


  language change is not a logical and ordered process as it can occur randomly due to incidents.
• wave model (schmid)


  language change is like throwing a pebble into a pond with ripples representing change spreading from a central point
• Howard Giles


  introduced CAT theory. people either converge to fit in with others or diverge to separate from others through distinct speech features.
• catalysts 


  the language change process can be sped up usually by social triggers such as prestige which can be conscious or unconscious.
• drew and heritage


  teachers are in the routine of question-answer sessions, negotiations and instructions to exercise control. while addressing issues of discipline, they use an authorities discourse to reinforce in controlling behaviour in the classroom
• dale spender


  language is man made - created by males species and is still primarily under male control
• cheshire (1982)


  boys more susceptible to influence of vernacular culture, whilst girls are less likely to adapt these forms suggests language isn't innate
• kerswill (2003)


  dialect levelling is a form of standardisation where local variations lose distinctiveness, regional features in favour of more urban mainstream dialect, so becoming more similar over time, reducing diversity
• watson: liverpool


  meryside twang getting broader as scouses are proud of their accent and use it as an identity marker. they always drop /t/ but it has become widespread, television being one of the influential factors
• o'barr and atkin (1980)courtroom


  the language lakoff claimed was used more by women was actually used by both men and women who were either in a vulnerable position or had lack of authority
• hultgren (2008) call centres


  service interactions in UK and denmark. females in both countries show high compliance. british agents have greater conformity to prescriptions than denmark
• eckert


  chronological age - the number of years a person has been alive. biological age - level of physical maturity reached. social age - determined by social standing and life experiences
• herswill: sociolinguistic maturation 


  the age (late teens/20's) at which a speaker becomes less susceptible to the influence of different varieties of language of their own usage, such as accent change in regional area
• stenstrom (2014)


  there are many features that make up teen speak; slang, conversational overlapping, shortening, taboo and expletives
• edward (1987) dudley


  becomes clear the more integrated the speaker into the black community, the more frequent use of patois is likely to be. education decreased frequency of patois
• sharma and sankaran (2011)


  London pronunciation of /t/ is glottalised whilst Punjabi 1st generationers is not glottalised. 2nd generationers glottalised /t/ speaking more locally born than parents
• pitts (2012) 


  young black english speakers felt mainstream society was ignoring them. there was a move 'sounding like ian wright to sounding like bob marley' suggested language became a symbol of resistance to identity
• halliday: antilanguage


  extreme versions of sociolect arise among subcultures who fall out of social norms. often the group has antagonist relationship with society and suspicion of outsiders make it difficult to understand language. 'queer'
• polari case study 


  secret language of gay men, mainly a lexicon of rhyming/backslang. use 'camp names' in certain contexts of gay co-culture. 'camp names' women's name gay people gave each other
• wenger: communities of practise


  learning is a social process rooted in experiences, interactions and relationships. offers framework to analyse factors; social identity, power dynamic, cultural practises and interpersonal relationships to understand language evolution
• powney: familect


  we all speak different language at home in a family. relates to comforting feelings when familect is spoken. "a sense of belonging and somewhere to let your hair down". family words are usually playful - humour/pun/sarcasm
• bulchotz (2001) whiteness of nerds


  whiteness is always construction yet multiple exist. nerdiness can be situated in broad context so cool whites are differentiated from blackness. culturally and racially acceptable whites had to mainstream delicate balance between embracing coolness and avoiding cultural practises
• fairclough (1996)


  informality is interwoven with conversationalisation and personalisation. conversationalisation is the spread into public domain associated with conversation. personalisation is construction of relationship between producer and receiver of public discourse
• milroy (1989)


  complaint tradition - complaining about the state of language, pinned on younger generations and technology in modern worlds, whilst uneducated working class in the past