Language Change

Question 1

what is a new word to language?

Answer 1

a neologism

Question 2

what are words that seem old fashioned but heard occasionally?

Answer 2

dated

Question 3

what is a word that have died out completely?

Answer 3

an archaism

Question 4

what are the 7 ways that new words are formed?

Answer 4

coining, compounding, blending, clipping, acronyms/initialisms, affixing and borrowing

Question 5

what is coining?

Answer 5

words are made up

Question 6

what is compounding?

Answer 6

new words are made up of one or more existing words

Question 7

what is blending?

Answer 7

new words are made up from parts of one or more existing words

Question 8

what is clipping?

Answer 8

new words are formed from parts of existing words

Question 9

what are acronyms/initialisms?

Answer 9

new words are formed from the initial letters of other words

Question 10

what is affixing?

Answer 10

new words are formed by adding a prefix or a suffix to an existing word

Question 11

what is borrowing?

Answer 11

words from foreign languages are used in English

Question 12

what are the 6 types of semantic change?

Answer 12

semantic shift, amelioration, pejoration, narrowing, broadening and zero derivation

Question 13

what is semantic shift?

Answer 13

some words just change for no reason

Question 14

what is amelioration?

Answer 14

some words change to become something more pleasant
e.g ‘naughty’ once meant ‘poor’ and now means ‘michievous’

Question 15

what is pejoration?

Answer 15

some words change to become something worse
e.g ‘notorious’ has changed from meaning ‘famous’ to ‘infamous’

Question 16

what is narrowing?

Answer 16

some words’ meanings change to become more specific
e.g ‘meat’ once meant all food and now means ‘animal derived food’

Question 17

what is broadening?

Answer 17

some words’ meaning change to become less specific
e.g ‘virtue’ once meant goodness in men only but now can refer to women and children

Question 18

what is zero derivation?

Answer 18

some words change word class, this can include:
‘verbing’ - words becoming used as verbs e.g ‘text’
‘nouning’ - words becoming used as nouns
e.g ‘read’

Question 19

what is Halliday’s theory?

Answer 19

functional theory - language changes to suit the needs of the user

Question 20

what is reflectionism?

Answer 20

language reflects society.
it reflects the needs, views and opinions of its users.
to change language you first to need to change attitudes.

Question 21

what is determinism?

Answer 21

language determines society.
language controls our perception of reality, influencing us to think in certain ways. to change attitudes you first need to change language.

Question 22

what is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

Answer 22

the structure of a language greatly influences the modes of thought and behaviour characteristic of the culture in which it is spoken.

different cultures speak different languages, therefore people from different cultures think & behave differently.

Question 23

what is strong linguistic determinism?

Answer 23

we are entirely trapped by our language and can’t think beyond or outside it; the limits of our language is the limit of our perceptions of the world.

Question 24

what is weak linguistic relativity?

Answer 24

our language culture greatly influenced the way we think and behave, but is not entirely deterministic.

Question 25

what is prescriptivism?

Answer 25

suggests that language should be preserved and fixed.
anti- language change.

Question 26

what is descriptivism?

Answer 26

describes language change without judgement and records change as it happens.
does not actively seek to change language, rather simply observes it.

Question 27

what is Aitchinson’s theory?

Answer 27

set of metaphors to describe attitudes to language change:
1. damp spoon syndrome - change occurs due to laziness or sloppiness
2. crumbling castle - views english as a castle that needs to be preserved
3. infectious disease - we ‘catch’ language change from those around us

Question 28

what are some external factors that play a role in language change?

Answer 28

1. changing social climate e.g conquest, revolution, acts of parliament
2. worldwide contact
3. youth culture
4. technology

Question 29

what are some internal factors that play a role in language change?

Answer 29

ease of articulation, assimilation, omission, neatening

Question 30

what is ease of articulation?

Answer 30

saying words differently for ease

Question 31

what is omission?

Answer 31

leaving out sounds

Question 32

what is neatening?

Answer 32

smoothing out anomalies or ‘weak’ points of language

Question 33

random fluctuation theory:

Answer 33

Hockett 1958
Language change occurs due to the unstable nature of language itself.
The theory suggests that changes that occur within the language do so to the constant changing context of the language itself and its users.

Question 34

William Caxton:

Answer 34

Introduced the printing press in 1476
Printing homogenised regional dialects and adopting the London accent

Question 35

Samuel Johnson:

Answer 35

compiled ‘A Dictionary of the English Language’
‘language change is inevitable and cannot be stopped, there should still be0