Grammatical change

Question 1

Syntax

Answer 1

the structure of words and phrases to create sentences in a language

Question 2

Morphology

Answer 2

how words change their form through the additions of inflections, prefixes, and suffixes

Question 3

Dummy auxiliary

Answer 3

The verb ‘to do’ is a dummy auxiliary verb because it has no meaning of its own and is only necessary in questions and negatives

Question 4

Prescriptivism

Answer 4

commonly thought of as the period between 1750 and 1800 although it began a hundred years earlier. It is an attitude towards language that makes judgements about what is right and wrong and holds language up to an ideal standard that should be maintained. An example is the publication of dictionaries and guides to grammar that ‘fixed’ the English language.

Question 5

Descriptivism

Answer 5

An attitude to language that seeks to describe it without making valued judgements. This is a more popular attitude today