ENGLISH LANGUAGE UNIT 2 A.O.S 01- Language Across Time Flashcards
(68 cards)
0
Q
❓❓❓what did Fir William Jones do around the 18th century?
A
-discovered that Sanskrit was very similar to Greek and Latin. He hypothesised that some kind of Proto-Indo-European language had existed before they all came around
1
Q
❓❓❓define ‘proto’
A
-original/before
2
Q
❓❓❓when were P.I.E speakers around? Where is they live?
A
- lived around 4000 to 5000 BCE
- lived in southwest Russia
3
Q
❓❓❓what are the two theories that explain the speed of the PIE language?
A
- wanted to conquer their neighbours
- spread to look for better farming land
4
Q
☀️☀️☀️OLD ENGLISH
A
- three Germanic tribes arrived in the British isles during the 5th century AD (angles, Saxons, frisians, Jutes)
- one group migrated to the Brittany coast of France, where their descendants still speak the Celtic language of Breton
- angles named from engle, their land of origin. Their language was Englisc (English derives from this)
Four dialects of English developed:
- Northumbrian in Northumbria
- Mercian in Mercia
- West Saxon in the Kingdom of Wessex
- Kentish in Kent
5
Q
☀️☀️☀️OLD ENGLISH PT. 2
A
- old English began when the Germanic tribes migrated to Britain. Existed in ‘pure state’ until end of 11th century AD
- old English written in an alphabet called runic
- Latin alphabet brought over from Ireland by Christian missionaries, remained the writing system of English
- vocab consisted of an Anglo-Saxon base with words borrowed from Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norse) and Latin
- Latin influences= street, kitchen, kettle, cup, cheese, wine
- Vikings added Norse words= sky, egg, cake, skin, leg, window
- Celtic (place/river names) = Devon, Dover, Kent, Trent, Avon, Thames
6
Q
☀️☀️☀️OLD ENGLISH CHARACTERISTICS
A
- nouns could be of three genders (feminine, masculine, neuter)
- syntax was more flexible than modern English because of the noun inflections
- morphemes were dropped off words and simplified
- most famous piece of literary work if Beowulf
7
Q
☀️☀️☀️MIDDLE ENGLISH
A
- Norman French conquered Britain in 1066
- gave French words eg. Close, reply, odour, annual, chamber, power
- little use of distinctive words endings, unlike OE
- borrowed words from Latin, French, Scandinavian languages
- most famous literary work is ‘Canterbury Tales’ by Chaucer (14th century)
8
Q
☀️☀️☀️EARLY MODERN ENGLISH
A
- steady process of standardisation
- London standard began to dominate
- William Caxton introduced the printing press in 1476 (encouraged standardisation of the English language spelling system)
- 10,000 words added to English by using Greek and Latin affixes
- dictionaries published in 1623
- most significant dictionary was Samuel Johnson’s 1755 version
- Great Vowel Shift happened (1400-1600) and changed pronunciation
- adjectives lost more endings
- distinction between formal ‘you’ and informal ‘thee/thou’ decreased, leaving only ‘you’
- an example of writing is John Milton’s ‘paradise lost’ in 1667
9
Q
☀️☀️☀️MODERN ENGLISH
A
- increase in the use of progressive tense
- rise in class consciousness about speech
10
Q
☀️☀️☀️AMERICAN ENGLISH
A
-Noah Webster was the most vocal about the need for an American national identity with regards to the American English Language
11
Q
☀️☀️☀️ENGLISH AROUND THE WORLD
A
- UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have English as their official language, the U.S. Doesn’t have an official language
- cockney sometimes uses rhyming slang e.g ‘bees and honey’ for ‘money’ (sometimes rhyming word is dropped, so just ‘bees’
- British colonisation has spread English all over the world and it still holds prestige in South Africa, India and Singapore
- South Africa has 11 eleven official languages
12
Q
☀️☀️☀️NINETEENTH CENTURY: HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS (historical linguistics)
A
-1786 regarded s the ‘birthdate’ of linguistics (sir William Jones found similarities in languages and hypothesised PIE)
13
Q
☀️☀️☀️EARLY TO MID 20TH CENTURY : DESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTICS (historical linguistics)
A
- Swiss scholar Ferdinand De Saussure insisted that language is a carefully built structure or interwoven elements, which initiated the era of ‘structural linguistics’
- structural linguistics= the recognition that language is a patterned system composed of interdependent elements, rather than a collection of unconnected individual items
- discovery procedures= a set of principles which would enable a linguist to discover in a foolproof way the linguistics units (language structure) of an unwritten language
14
Q
☀️☀️☀️MID TO LATE 20TH CENTURY: GENERATIVE LINGUISTICS AND THE SEARCH FOR UNIVERSALS (historical linguistics)
A
-Chomsky claimed that a grammar should be more than a descriptions of old utterances, and should take into account possible future utterances
- generative grammar= grammar which consists of a set of rules which specify which sequences of a language are possible, and which are impossible
- language universals= common properties of language
- universal grammar= grammar rules that humans are ‘pre-programmed’ with, including what languages are like, and how they work
- descriptive linguistics= focused on the structure of explicitly stated language
15
Q
☀️☀️☀️21ST CENTURY: FUTURE TRENDS (historical linguistics)
A
- chomsky’s influence still holds
- corpus linguistics= the study and use of computerised databases for linguistic research (e.g. Deb Roy, putting camera in his hous to watch his kid acquire language
16
Q
☀️☀️☀️STANDARD LANGUAGE OF TODAY (future trends)
A
- we have a standard language but it still varies around the world
- language constantly changes
17
Q
❓❓❓what are the three aspects of language change?
A
- change is gradual
- change often doesn’t come to a completion, but leaves behind residue
- change often introduces complexity and anomaly elsewhere in the language
18
Q
☀️☀️☀️THE GRADUAL NATURE OF CHANGE
A
- slowly comes into vocabulary and affects different groups of words at different times
- many vowels change during the Great Vowel Shift
- ‘yod-dropping’ = the drop of the /j/ sound in many words (e.g. Blue, true, rule)
19
Q
❓❓❓what was the Great Vowel Shift and when did it occur?
A
= a massive sound change which affected the long vowels of English by shifting them upwards in the mouth
- occurred in the -5th and 16th centuries
- happened in 8 steps
- short vowels were not affected
20
Q
❓❓❓define genetic relatedness
A
-when languages evolved from the same source, and the similarities can be seen
21
Q
❓❓❓what is the comparative method?
A
-comparing things to find similarities
22
Q
❓❓❓what is the parent language of English?
A
Proto-Germanic
23
Q
❓❓❓define cognates
A
-genetically related words in multiple languages
24
❓❓❓define Grimm's law
= a set of statements describing the inherited PIE stops as they developed in Proto-Germanic
-named after Jacob Grimm, one of the two Grimm's brothers who wrote fairy tales
-
25
❓❓❓what are the three parts of Grimm's Law?
- PIE voiceless stops changed into voiceless fricatives
- PIE voiced stops became voiceless stops
- PIE voiced aspirated stops become voiced fricatives, which became voiced stops
26
❓❓❓give three examples of consonant changes due to Grimm's Law
- /p/ became /f/
- /b/ became /p/
- /d/ became /t/
27
❓❓❓give three sets of examples of cognates
English: that
German: Das
Swedish: det
Dutch: dat
English: father
German: vater
Swedish: fader
Dutch: vader
English: thou (archaic)
German: du
Swedish: du
Dutch: du (archaic)
28
❓❓❓define etymology
= the study of the history of words
29
❓❓❓define philology
= the study of how words change from culture to culture over time
30
☀️☀️☀️TYPE OF WORDS ORIGINS
Most important:
- borrowing
- word formation
- onomatopoeia and sound symbolism
Origin of words I observed through:
- sound change
- semantic change
31
❓❓❓what are the four methods of etymology?
- philological change
- comparing different dialects of one language
- comparative method
- study of semantic change
32
☀️☀️☀️ENGLISH ETYMOLOGY
- English words with more than two syllables are likely to come from French
- scientific terminology relies on Latin and Greek words
33
❓❓❓what is a neologism?
= a words, term, or phrase which has been recently created
| Can also refer to an existing word, term, or phrase which has been assigned a new meaning
34
❓❓❓what is a calque?
= a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, "word for word" meaning
E.g. "Flea market" taken from the French "marché aux puces"
35
❓❓❓what does 'sense' in the phrase "changing sense" refer to?
-changing meaning
36
❓❓❓what three ways do words change their meaning?
- broadening
- narrowing
- shift
37
❓❓❓define and give an example of broadening (changing sense)
-refers to the expansion of contexts in which a words can appear
E.g. Bandaid, Google, play dough, Kleenex, jacuzzi
38
❓❓❓define and give an example of narrowing (changing sense)
-refers to a reduction in the contexts in which a word can appear
E.g. 'Seduce' used to mean only to "lead astray"
39
❓❓❓define and give an example of a shift (changing sense)
-a word comes to mean something different from what it once meant
E.g. Black used to mean white
40
❓❓❓what two ways cause a word to change in value (connotation)?
- elevation
| - deterioration
41
❓❓❓define and give an example of elevation (changing value)
-a word gains a positive meaning/connotation
| E.g. Politician used to refer to a sneaky person, but now refers to someone involved in the government
42
❓❓❓define and give an example of deterioration
-a word gains a negative meaning/connotation
| E.g. 'Accident' used to mean a 'chance event' but is now associated with misfortune
43
❓❓❓what are five reasons that words change their meaning?
- social change
- language of special group
- old words in a new world
- prejudice
- proximity of words
44
❓❓❓explain social change (why meaning changes)
-e.g. Celebrity now means a 'famous person' but used to mean a 'solemn ceremony'
45
❓❓❓explain language of a special group (why meaning changes)
-when ordinary language borrows terms from specialist language
E.g information overload, user friendly
-opposite can happen
E.g. Hacker, speed, input
46
❓❓❓explain old words in a new world (why meaning changes)
-objects, ideas and institutions can change over time but the words can remain
E.g. Dial tone, dashboard, dial, pen
47
❓❓❓explain prejudice (why meaning changes)
- responsible for changes that affect value judgements that are attached to words associated with particular humans groups
- can elevate or deteriorate the meaning of a word
E.g. Lewd used to mean 'uneducated' then 'worthless' the 'indecent'
48
❓❓❓explain proximity of words (why meaning changes)
-some words pick up associations from their proximity to other words, which triggers change
E.g. Queen/quean
49
❓❓❓explain 'ellipsis'
-when, in an expression of two or more words, one or more can drop out of the expression
E.g.
Newspaper -> paper
Alarm clock -> alarm
50
❓❓❓define eponym (word coinage)
-words that are coined from proper nouns
E.g.
Sand which from the earl of sandwich
Jumbo from an elephant
51
❓❓❓define and give an example of compounding (morphological and lexical changes in words)
-involves the combination of two or more free morphemes
| E.g. Girlfriend, headstrong, carpool, website, download
52
❓❓❓define and give an example of affixation (morphological and lexical changes in words)
-when a bound morpheme is added to an existing word
| E.g. Proactive, vaporise, subhuman
53
❓❓❓define and give an example of conversion (morphological and lexical changes in words)
-occurs when a word changes from one word class to another without the use of an affix
E.g
"I am going to the market", "I am going to market"
"Sign of the cross", "cross off the list"
54
❓❓❓define and give an example of backformation (morphological and lexical changes in words)
```
-occurs where new words are formed by subtracting an affix which is wrongly thought to be part of the old word
E.g.
Beggar -> beg
Television -> televise
Editor -> edit
Irritations -> irritates
```
55
❓❓❓define and give an example of borrowing (morphological and lexical changes in words)
-occurs when words are taken from other languages
(Approx. three-fifths of English vocab is derived from other languages)
E.g. Souvlaki, sushi, pesto, paparazzi
56
❓❓❓define and give an example of commonisation (minor methods of word formation)
```
-a process where a proper nouns comes to be used for a general class of items, with the eponym undergoing the process of broadening
E.g. Biro is any ballpoint pen, iPod is any MP3 player, jacuzzi is any hot tub
```
57
❓❓❓define and give an example of acronyms (minor methods of word formation)
-pronounceable words, with each letter representing a word
| E.g. Anzac, tab, Qantas, nab
58
❓❓❓define and give an example of initialisms (minor methods of word formation)
-letters that are pronounced as letters
| E.g. Pto, lmao, btw, tbh,
59
❓❓❓define and give an example of blends (minor methods of word formation)
-words that are essentially a combination of two existing words
E.g. Fantabulous, flush
-can also lead to the creation of new morphemes (aholic used to be only for alcoholic)
60
❓❓❓define and give an example of shortenings (minor methods of word formation)
-shortened versions of existing words
S.g. Avo, sis, bro, spag bol, uni, min, bye, slaw
-diminutives= words that are shortened, and then a vowel is added
E.g. Maccas, dimmy, footy, popo, chippie, postie
61
❓❓❓name the three reasons why words are lost
- obsolescence
- confusions with other words
- unknown reasons
62
❓❓❓define and give an example of obsolescence (word loss)
-when words become obsolete (not used anymore)
| E.g. Tuffet, curds, whey
63
❓❓❓define and give an example of Confusion With Other Words (word loss)
-phonetic change can lead to words becoming similar
| E.g. Queen/quean
64
❓❓❓define and give an example of Unknown Reasons (word loss)
-sometimes it is difficult to see why words stop being used
| E.g. Firkytoodling, velleity
65
❓❓❓define and give an example of analogy
-a process whereby a conclusion is based on parallel cases
| E.g. Book/books, leg/legs
66
❓❓❓define nominalisation
-the process of turning verbs into nouns
67
☀️☀️☀️NOMINALISATION
-verb becomes a concept rather than an action
Has four main effects:
-actions or processes becomes concepts
-the people doing the action can often be left out, creating an impersonal, formal tone in writing
-transforming actions into abstract concepts allows you to comment further upon the concept from an objective stance
-the number of clauses of information is reduced
