Language Change Flashcards
Neologism/ coinage
The deliberate creation of a new word. Not a common process of word formation e.g. hobbit
Borrowing / loan words
Borrowing words /concepts from other languages. Words are either anglicised (no longer recognise them as loan words) or they may retain their original spelling or phonology
E.g. bungalow (Hindi), landscape (Dutch), futon (Japanese)
Compounding
Words are combined together to form new words. These can be open, hyphenated or solid
E.g. user-friendly, handheld
Clipping
Words are shortened and the shortened form becomes the norm
E.g. pram, rizz (charisma), phone, deli
Blending
A combination of clipping and compounding. Words are abbreviated and joined together to form a new word
E.g. brunch, newscast
Acronym
First letter are taken from a series of words to create a new term and pronounced as a word
E..g NASA
Initialism
The first letter from a series of words form a new term but each letter is pronounced
E.g. OMG, CD
Affixation
One or more free morphemes are combined with one or more bound morphemes
E.g. disinterest, regift
Functional shift
A word shifts from one word class to another usually from a noun to a verb (denominalisation)
E.g. ghost, text, network, google
Eponym
Names of a person or company are used to define particular objects. Often they are the inventors or distributors of the objects
E.g. silhouette, boycott
Back formation
A verb is created from an existing noun by removing a suffix
E.g. locate, insert
Amelioration
Words gain a more positive meaning over time
E.g. pretty used to mean sly
Pejoration
A word takes on a more negative meaning over time
E.g. idiot used to mean private citizen
Broadening
A word acquires other meanings in addition to the original
E.g. place used to only mean a broad street
Narrowing
A word becomes more specific in its meaning
E.g. meat used to mean any type of food
Weakening
A word becomes less specific in its meaning
E.g. soon used to mean immediately
Semantic reclamation
The process where words which are considered negative and are reclaimed by the particular group towards which they are used in a derogatory way so they lose the negative power associated with them
E.g. the n-word and bitch and queer
Metonymy
The use of an attribute or feature is used to denote the whole thing it is being referred to
E.g. 10 Downing Street refers to the whole UK government
Inflections
Indicate a words grammatical relationship or category
E.g. in Spanish “vivo” means I live but “vives” means you live
Old English made use of BLANK through the use of BLANK at the end of words
Inflections, Morphemes
E.g. “cyning” for king” as the subject and “cyninges for the object
Present day English retains only a few BLANK in the form of some plural endings
Inflections
E.g. ox and oxen, tooth and teeth, goose and geese
Old English syntax vs late modern English syntax
Late Modern English = subject-verb-object e.g. “Miss M drank the Diet Coke “
Old English =subject-object-verb e.g.” Miss M the Diet Coke drank”
How did early and late modern English deviate from old and Middle English grammatically?
- reduction in use of article “the”
- greater frequency in modal and auxiliary verbs within a sentence to indicate the interrogative mood or to demonstrate modality
- sentence grew into simple, compound and complex
- adjectives moved before the noun instead of being separate
- less overall variation
- changed syntax
- preposition choices varied e..g “in London” rather than “at London”
- more contractions
Polygenesis theory
Languages developed all over the world at roughly the same time. Accounts for all the different languages.
