AO2 Flashcards
Deborah Cameron - Verbal Hygiene
Refers to the collection of discourses and practices through which people attempt to ‘clean up’ language and make its structure/use conform more closely to their ideals of beauty, truth, efficiency, logic, correctness and civility
Jean Aitchson - 3 Metaphors
Crumbling Castle: Seeing language as a beautiful old castle that needs to be preserved, but it is unknown when this “golden age” / pinnacle of language was
Infectious Disease: We “catch” language change from those around us, people pick up change because they want to (convergence)
Damp Spoon Syndrome: Language change is caused by sloppiness or laziness
Greene - Declinism and Sticklerism
Declinism:
Sticklerism: Inflexible adherence to rules
Labov - Overt and Covert Prestige
Both are used when changing speech to gain prestige
Overt: Accent that is generally widely recognized as being used but the ‘culturally dominant group’ e.g. RP
Covert: Accent to show membership to an ‘exclusive community’ in the area, rather than to fit with the ‘dominant culture group’
Halliday - Functional Theory
Language changes to suit the needs of its users e.g. in the 1980’s, noun “CD” was popular, but as they’re now used less, words like “streaming” are more popular
Random Fluctuation Theory
Language change is not a logical or ordeal process, there are two types:
• Innovation = Creation of new ways of saying something, sometimes initially perceived as a mistake
• Diffusion = Change is often due to instability because of random errors e.g. “book” became a synonym for “cool” in texting due to typing errors
S-Curve Theory
Describes language change over time as starting slow, rapid growth in the middle, then the new word becomes a noun e.g. “TV”
Wave Theory
Within the original common language before differentiation, there are dialect differences, and the characteristics of these different dialects will spread to all directions like waves, so that different languages have some of the same characteristics
David Crystal - Tide Metaphor
Language is like a tide with ebbs and flows
Substratum Theory
Explains how changes can be made as a result of interactions with other languages and variations of English
Sharon Goodman - Informalisation
We are living in a time of increased informalisation
This is the process whereby language forms that were traditionally reserved for intimate relationships are now used throughout wider social context
Milroy - Belfast Study
People integrated into close-knit communities use more non-standard language forms, and men generally use more vernacular English than women
John Humphreys
“Pillaging our punctuation, savaging our sentences, raping our vocabulary”
John Sutherland
“Texting masks dyslexia, poor spelling and mental laziness”
Tom Chatfield
“Many of the initial intentions behind Standard English are already defunct”
Samuel Johnson’s first dictionary
Hoped to stabilise the rules of the English language - found it’s not possible to “fix”
Jonathan Swift: Academy of English
Established an ‘Academy of English’ that would “fix the language” (vocabulary, spelling, grammar) because “language has changed too much”
David Crystal: Texting and initialisms
“Texting is the latest manifestation of the humans ability to be linguistically creative”
“People have been initialising common phrases for ages ‘IOU’ “
Naomi Baron: CMC (Computer-
Mediated Communication)
“Use complex syntax and a wide range of vocabulary” while offering a new from that allows language to also take a visual form
Gary Ives Bradford Study: Teenagers and code-switching
Teenagers are able to “code-switch” depending on context, demonstrating that in serious situations, younger generations can speak more formally, meaning there should be no worry in terms of lack of education and vocabulary
Deutscher: 3 patterns in language change
Economy: Changes to save time & energy
Expressiveness: New ways to express and emphasise meaning
Analogy: Match how other changes have taken place
Penelope Eckert: Young people
“Young people are the movers and shakers of language change because they are free to challenge linguistic norms in society and identify with their social group using language”
Reflectionism
Language reflects society and societies views and attitudes about language e.g. “social distancing” was coined through covid
Determinism
Language determines how we think and behave, societies behaviour is a result of language
