LANGUAGE CHANGE AND WORLD ENGLISHES Flashcards

Question

what is Random Fluctuation

Answer 1

Random mistakes and events lead to language change eg: - misspelling of 'owned' as 'pwned' common in online gaming community meaning a rival has been humiliated - random events like COVID affect language e.g. furlough, herd immunity

Answer 2

does not give the whole picture of language change as it implies language change isn't predictable and does not explain the majority

Answer 3

- language changes through contact with other languages - in the past mainly due to trade and invasion but nowadays due to social networking and immigration - influence of american english on british english because of this

Answer 4

Halliday - language changes and adapts according to the needs of its users - suggests there is a certain logic to language change as changes reflect the socio-cultural climate we are living in eg: words disappear over time becoming archaisms as things change: 'cassette' replaced with 'CD' which may also fall out of usage and be replaced with 'streaming'

Answer 5

Influence of foreign words 8th- 11th century invasions from other countries: french (accompany, department, tax), Scandinavia (skirt, cog, skip) 16th - 17th century word from Latin and Greek writers: latin (benefit, temperature and prefixes sub and trans), greek (catastrophe, pneumonia and morphemes auto and pan) 18th-19th century colonised countries: malaysia (amok), india (shampoo, bungalow, bangle) 20th century immigration and world wars: china (wok)

Answer 6

- words needed for hardware e.g. cat room, MSN, email, video call, TikTok, SMS - increased use of acronyms - word conversion e.g. text is no longer just a noun but also a verb - rise of tv and film exposed us to a range of regional, national and international dialects - political, economic, cultural influence of america

Answer 7

some believe the most important motivating force for language change is the creation of a more streamlined and efficient language eg: Assimilation Omission Neatening (Inconsistencies are repalced - plural of shoe used to be shooen. Now its shoes in line with standard forms)

Answer 8

1950s rise of youth culture: young people now seen as innovators of language use increased acceptance and discussion around gender neutrality and trans people: 'they' pronouns, mx to replace mr mrs ms

Answer 9

increased use of euphemisms and politically correct terms removing words and phrases that have negative connotations has had a major impact on language eg: old people - senior citizens half-caste no longer used for people of mixed race suffixes such as -ess or -ette no longer used e.g. actor is both male and female However some may argue its gone too far: 'Sanitiation Consultant' Job title AKA Cleaner

Answer 10

Chen 1972 Users pick up a language change at a gradual rate before it accelerates and spreads into wider usage before slowing down again and stabilising. innovators - Early adopters - Early Majority - Late Majority - Laggards

Answer 11

tend to be teenagers/younger generation. technology usage gay community (Influenced by the African Americans) celebrities also have great influence

Answer 12

Geographical distance has an impact on language change spread - change weakens the further from the 'epicentre' you are. A person/group close to the epicentre of a language change will pick it up whereas others further away are less likely to

Answer 13

Words adopted by multicultural youths in London are less likely to be taken up by white middle class speakers in Edinburgh (they're distanced from the epicenter)

Answer 14

Due to the influence of tv, media and influencers. American terms such as 'trash' are adopted but we are nowhere near America.

Answer 15

Old words New Words

Answer 16

words borrowed from other languages and then either anglicising (make them sound more english) them or retaining their original spelling or phonology eg: gateau (French), bungalow (Hindi), hygge (Danish)

Answer 17

Combinging words together to create new words eg: thumb + print = thumbprint, tooth + brush = toothbrush, hand + held = handheld

Answer 18

Words are shortened and joined together to form a new word eg: smog, hangry, brunch, staycation

Answer 19

adding Latin or Greek prefixes or suffixes to existing words e.g. greek '-hyper' eg: disinterest, regift, selfless, hyperactive, hypersensitive

Answer 20

word shifts from one word class to another, usually a noun to a verb eg: text, google, network, facebook, oftsed-ed

Answer 21

advances in medicine, science and technology cause new words and phrases to be coined eg: chemotherapy (1907), in vitro fertilisation (1970s)

Answer 22

when the shortened form of a word becomes the norm eg: celeb, phone, gym, flu, deli

Answer 23

first letters are taken from words to create a new term and pronounced as a single word eg: NATO, AIDS, NASA, RAM

Answer 24

first letters are taken from words to create a new term and pronounced as each letter separately eg: BBC, FBI, CD, MP3

Answer 25

a verb is created from an existing noun by removing a suffix eg: sculpt from sculptor, edit from editor

Answer 26

Increased use of Latin and Greek words began to be criticised as pretentious and artificial eg: Lexicon, Paradox, Skeleton, Tendon, Tibia

Answer 27

'I am of this opinion that our own tongue should be written cleanse and pure, unmixt and unmangeled with borrowing of other tongues' Criticism: No such thing as pure english. English is a mixture of many languages. The word 'pure' derives from Latin

Answer 28

Words are continually coming into English Words don't necessarily stay forever Words may fall out of use and die away The solution to coping with the new words, buy a recent dictionary

Answer 29

our language reflects our thoughts (thoughts come first)

Answer 30

our language determines and shapes our world view (language comes first)

Answer 31

language influences thought. the argument is that to change attitudes we need to change language. language controls and determines the way we think

Answer 32

attitudes do not go away despite the word changing e.g. words for disabled people constantly changed but will constantly be perjorated because as a society there is a negative view on disabled people

Answer 33

No way of proving whether language determines thought, or thought determines language although there are plenty of examples Implies that those without language would not think - how do babies learn? We can think about things we don't know the words for - lexical gaps What about multilingual people? Different views on the world? What about people with severe autism who may not have the language, but have incredible powers of thought e.g. brilliant mathematicians? What about cognitively challenged people whose language isn't impaired?

Answer 34

The process by which a new meaning of a word develops

Answer 35

The process by which a word narrows eg: Meat used to mean all food

Answer 36

when the meaning of a word broadens eg: Butcher used to mean slaughterer of goats

Answer 37

Terrible used to mean complete devastation and destruction

Answer 38

A negative word becomes positive eg: pretty used to mean cunning, nice used to mean foolish

Answer 39

A meaning becomes more negative eg: notorious used to mean well known, hussy used to mean housewife

Answer 40

when a word class changes eg: text from noun to a verb

Answer 41

William Labov Found that the pronunciation of certain vowel sounds was subtly changing and shifting away from standard American pronunciation Source of change - island's fishermen Labov believed that the inhabitants of Martha's vineyard were speaking in this way to distance themselves from the 'outsiders' who holidayed on the island

Answer 42

Change from Below (Unconscious change) Change from Above (Conscious change)

Answer 43

Kerswell and Williams They found that children's speech not only differed from their parents but also from older native inhabitants of the area The children's speech was closer to that of children in london Estuary English - an accent that is spreading outwards across the country from London and the south-east E.g. 'waaw' (wall), 'cauwt' (caught), 'auwfuw' (awful)

Answer 44

Stage 1 - the speech of a particular social group differs in some way from the usual pronunciation of the area in which they live Stage 2 - a second social group begins, possibly unconsciously, to imitate the speech of the first group Stage 3 - the new pronunciation becomes established among the second group and is now part of their usual accent Stage 4 - a third social group now begins to model itself on the second group and the process repeats itself

Answer 45

it is a sociolect (youth dialect) age related - does not discriminate between gender or race Features: - glottal stops - 'th' as 'f' - 'g' dropping of words unding in 'ng' instead pronounced with 'n' - 'll' as 'w' sound e.g. ball as baw - h dropping on its way out, h tends to be pronounced in MLE David Starkey: 'The whites have become Black'

Answer 46

A stretching out of the vocals at the end of a word, often used by young women

Answer 47

destructing speech patterns means 'disowning your power' vocal fry makes young women sound 'less competent, less trustworthy, less educated and less hireable' it is difficult for young women to be heard or even responded to if they do not strengthen their voices

Answer 48

Criticizing vocal fry is just another excuse not to listen to women It it just the latest in a long history of finding excuses to not listen to women, especially young women Claudine Herrmann's The Tongue Snatchers - suggest language itself is constructed in a way that marginalizes women We should not be criticizing the way women speak instead we should criticize the sexism and prejudice against them

Answer 49

Rarely make a semantic difference They are wasteful - businesses spend so much money on proofreaders A tool of snobbery - people who imagine that nonstandard apostrophe usage represents a 'falling of standards' tend also to assume that means they can look down on people who don't follow the rules Current technology makes it time consuming to use theme e.g. text messaging Don't help communication and understanding Birmigham and Cambridge have removed them from all road signs.

Answer 50

It will avoid confusion over whether apostrophes should be used The monarchy no longer own either Kings Heath of Kings Norton so arguably it is no longer grammatically correct to include the possessive apostrophe The Plain English Society and the Plain Language Commission have said there is no rule in Britain regarding possessive apostrophes in place names

Answer 51

It is an example of 'dumbing down' Teachers trying to teach children correct grammar and punctuation so it doesn't set a good example if they don't see the use of possessive apostrophes in the real world First step towards linguistic anarchy - is there any point in the use of other punctuation at all if apostrophes are abolished?

Answer 52

Speech from Angles, Jutes and Anglo-Saxons 5th - 11th Century

Answer 53

Normand invaded. French became dominant. 11th - 15th Century

Answer 54

Growing pride and interest in english as a language, dictionary published and Claxtons printing press introduced, different word order 15th - 18th Century

Answer 55

increase in travel and british empire (loanwords), compulsory schooling, thous and thus started to die out, contractions more commonly used 18th - 20th Century

Answer 56

development and influence of media, technology and travel established english as a global language and coined new words/meanings american english now influenced british english fully standardised 20th Century onward

Answer 57

French and Laton Due to the french invasion bringing lexis for the monarchy and the legal system

Answer 58

The Black Death - churchmen killed so french and latin decreased 100 Years War - French became the enemy

Answer 59

Transition of middle english to modern english. Vowels became shorter. Changing the ways words were pronounced e.g. leef became life, teem became time

Answer 60

Shakespeare produced his work in English. King James I made a new version of bible written in English Scientists communicated in English

Answer 61

Selection - This is the choice of a language variety for specific purposes. It is associated with official status or national roles in status planning. Codification - This step is related to the stabilization of the norm selected. It is also related to the standardization process in corpus planning. Elaboration - This step involves the expansion of language functions and the assignment of new codes, such as scientific and technical. It is also called language modernization by Fishman. Implementation -This step involves the actions of government agencies, institutions, and writers in adopting and using the selected and codified norm. Adopted by mass media.

Answer 62

inner, outer and expanding circle

Answer 63

They said that the reason for the spread of English was due to colonisation, as a result English gained importance for the administration of the country; serving an official purpose in the country within law, education, and the government.

Answer 64

They said that the reason for the spread of English wasn't just colonisation, this explanation is too simplistic, instead it was because of power.