language change Flashcards
(29 cards)
What is Functional Theory?
The idea that language changes and adapts to the needs of its users. New things are invented and older things become obsolete, so the language used to discuss them does the same.
How has Functional Theory influenced semantic change?
Technology has caused change in the meanings of words as they adapt to express things and concepts that did not previously exist e.g. mouse, crash, bug (semantic broadening)
How has Functional Theory influenced graphological change?
Electronic communications have led to increased innovation in graphology. Emojis have been employed to signal intonation and other paralinguistic features such as tone and volume.
Criticisms of Functional Theory
It only explains lexical and semantic change, sometimes new words replace existing words e.g ‘hounds’ to ‘dogs’
What is reclaiming?
Collective acts in which a derogatory sign or signifier is consciously employed by the original target, often in a positive sense
What are reflectionism and determinism?
Reflectionism argues a persons language reflects their way of thinking. Determinism argues that if people can be persuaded not to use such terms , but ones that are seen as more acceptable, this will determine a new way of thinking. This is the basis of PC.
How does Pinker criticise Sapir Whorf?
Argues that thought is independent of language. Human beings don’t think in a “natural” language, but in a “meta language” called “mentalese”.
What is Pinker’s Euphemism Treadmill
Claimed that words are not in charge of thought, but thoughts are in charge of words. If we give a concept a new name, and the name becomes coloured by the concept, the concept does not become changed by the name. This means that the new “correct” word pejorates and a new word must be found.
How has the movement of people changed grammar and syntax?
Contact between Old English and Norman French after the Norman conquest. This led to English having fewer word ending and English syntax being in a more rigid order. This simplification took around 200 years.
What is an example of how the movement of people caused grammar change?
Originally, ‘cwen’ was an indicator that the queen was the subject of the sentence, whilst ‘cwene’ indicated the object.
What was the Great Vowel Shift?
Between 1400 and 1600, English underwent the Great Vowel Shift e.g. from ‘shape’ to ‘sheep’
What are examples of contemporary phonological change?
- Estuary English e.g. glottal stop /?/ in words such as ‘water’, velarised /ł/ in ‘shelf’
- MUE e.g. metathesis of consonants in ‘ask’ from /a:sk/ to /a:ks/
What is Labov’s Substratum Theory?
Explains how change spreads, arguing it is natural. When speakers learn a language, they will learn it imperfectly and will pass these imperfections on to future generations e.g. Jewish settlers in New York pronounced ‘coffee’ as ‘caffee’, and the younger generations pronounced it ‘cawfee’ to distance themselves.
How can Substratum Theory be criticised?
It only explains a narrow range of changes, change happens in places and at times where there aren’t a significant number of non-English speakers learning a language.
What did Lave and Wenger propose?
Communities of Practice- Groups of people who share a concern or passion for something often use language as a marker of a group identity. For example, gamers may use the initialism ‘GG’ or ‘noob’.
What is Change from Above?
Labov stated some changes are imposed upon by speakers by more powerful groups e.g. some laws mean that the use of discriminatory language during cases of violent crime lead to an increased sentence.
What did Hockett propose?
Random Fluctuation and Cultural Transmission- suggested that language change occurs due to the unstable nature of language itself. Because it’s always having to change and adapt to new situations and speakers, this throws up random innovations e.g. affixed adverb ‘bigly’ used in America.
How can Hockett be criticised?
If this were entirely true, language would be chaotic and would not obey the rules it clearly does, language changes are too consistent to be explained by random change.
What is Lexical Gap Theory?
Proposed by Halliday, suggests words are created to ‘fill a gap’ where a word does not currently exist e.g. the feeling you get when you’re about to sneeze, laughing at an unfunny joke
What did Goodman suggest?
Goodman suggested we are living in a time of increased informalisation e.g. shortened terms of address, colloquial language and the use of active sentence constructions
What did Guy Deutscher suggest?
Claimed the reasons for language change include:
- Economy - the tendency to save effort and is behind the shortcuts speakers often take in pronunciation e.g. contractions (“innit”)
- Expressiveness - speakers try to avoid predictable language and cliches e.g. ‘incredible’ rather than ‘good’
- Analogy - we apply the rules of one word to other words to make language more regular
What is semantic bleaching?
Proposed by Dan Jurafsky - the process whereby words lose their intensity of meaning. For example, ‘horrible’ used to mean ‘inspiring horror’ but now is often used as a synonym for ‘bad’.
What is the Wave Model?
Bailey’s model suggests that distance (geographical, temporal and social) can have an effect on language change. A person or group close to the epicentre of the change will be most affected by it, whilst anyone further away from the centre is less likely to adopt it.
Outline standardisation
The process by which Standard English was created. Middle English had few fixed rules of word definitions, spelling and grammar. In the late 1600s, English underwent massive language expansion (12000 new words). English grammar and syntax shifted from Middle to Early Modern English and pronunciation began to change.
