Language Change Quizlet Flashcards

Question

Affixation

Answer 1

One or more free morphemes are combined with one or more bound morphemes e.g. predestination, wonderfully

Answer 2

A word shifts from one word class to another (usually noun to verb)e.g. gift, e-mail

Answer 3

Name of a person used in a word e.g. biro, hoover, chauvinism

Answer 4

Verb created by removing suffix from a noun e.g. liaise, locate

Answer 5

Foreign borrowing into English considered unnecessary or overly pretentious e.g. ameliorate, fatigate

Answer 6

An antagonistic distancing from Inkhorn terms in the 16th-17th century English

Answer 7

The process whereby a new meaning develops for an existing word e.g. below

Answer 8

The meaning of a word expands to no longer be specific to one idea e.g. holiday, place

Answer 9

The opposite of broadening, a word changes to have a more specific meaning e.g. meat, wife

Answer 10

A word becoming more pleasant over time e.g. pretty, brave

Answer 11

A word becoming less pleasant over time e.g. villain, notorious

Answer 12

Loss or reduction of the force of meaning of a word e.g. thing, shit

Answer 13

Words acquire metaphorical additional meanings extending to abstract ideas with similar qualities e.g. grasp, high

Answer 14

Creation of polite expressions for things considered unpleasant e.. friendly fire, facilities

Answer 15

Words have many possible meanings at the same time e.g. foot, milk, good

Answer 16

External pressures affecting language change such as technology, social conventions, cultural changes

Answer 17

Aspects of language contributing to change: metaphors, broadening

Answer 18

Words that are spelt the same but pronounced differently e.g. read, wind

Answer 19

Words that are pronounced the same but spelt differently e.g. there, their, through, threw

Answer 20

Attempted to standardise spelling. Was inconsistent and his Flemish typesetters made mistakes - 1476.

Answer 21

Gradual change in vowel pronunciation in 14th-18th century English. Led to a widening gap in grapheme and phoneme correspondence. ‘Seat’ used to be pronounced ‘sit’, ‘new’ was pronounced ‘noo’.

Answer 22

18th century movement to establish English grammar. Rules grounded in Latin. Who/whom. Prepositions before noun. No split infinitives. No multiple negation

Answer 23

Attention to grammar led to change in written style - overly rhetorical and pompous. Grammar used to differentiate education + social class, multiple negation, h dropping

Answer 24

Prescriptivist attitudes tend to be strident and moralistic - as in 19th century poor grammar is a sign of poor education/ intellectual weakness Grammar Nazis etc.

Answer 25

1755 - first English dictionary along with grammarians, an early attempt to impose order on English

Answer 26

4 stages of standardisation: selection - language selected for standardisation (therefore an ideological process) codification - reduction of internal variability, establishment of norms lexis, grammatical structures, spelling elaboration - language developed for a variety of purposes implementation - texts made available to give languages currency

Answer 27

Institution founded in 1635 to protect and preserve the french language (french dictionary, french radio and television language quotas)

Answer 28

Term used to refer to prescriptivist who perceive themselves as ‘defenders’ of language. Can be perceived as a tool of subjugation and social control

Answer 29

A DESCRIPTIVIST who used metaphors to describe negative (i.e. prescriptivist) attitudes to language change.

Answer 30

English is a beautiful and perfectly formed language and must be preserved. Compare modern language to language of Chaucer, Dickins, Greene

Answer 31

Language change is ‘caught’ from those around us e.g. slang, contractions, new lexis

Answer 32

Six ‘contrasts’ on how language change can be perceived by language users: Correct/incorrect, pleasant/ugly, socially acceptable/unacceptable, morally acceptable/unacceptable, appropriate/inappropriate in context, useful/useless

Answer 33

(James Milroy) Every generation perceives their use of English as preferred, so when is the ‘Golden Age’ from which we should stop language change? Counter argument against prescriptivist attitudes

Answer 34

Illustrates the process of forming World Englishes with reference to colonial influences: 1. Foundation 2. Exonormative Stablisiation 3. Nativisation 4. Endonormative Stabilisation 5. Differentiation

Answer 35

A language (normally English) that is specified as the preferred language of people from different linguistic backgrounds speaking together.

Answer 36

English arranged as a wheel with a central hub (World Standard English), Middle Wheel of regional standard accents and outer wheel of localised varieties emerging from the middle Inner Circle - World Standard English Second Circle - Regional Standards Outer Circle - localised varieties

Answer 37

World Englishes defined as existing in 3 broad groups, which are represented as concentric circles: Inner Circle: English as First Language Outer Circle: Varieties of English spoken Expanding circle: English used for business, education etc.

Answer 38

A language that evolves from combining one or more distinct languages e.g. Spanglish, franglais, hinglish

Answer 39

Term used to refer to prescriptivists who perceive themselves as ‘defenders’ of language. Can be perceived as a tool of subjugation and social control

Answer 40

A DESCRIPTIVIST who used metaphors to describe negative (i.e. prescriptivist) attitudes to language change: Damp Spoon Syndrome, Crumbling Castle, Infectious Disease, Damp Spoon Language change is due to laziness Glottal stop, h dropping

Answer 41

English is a beautiful and perfectly formed language and must be preserved. Compare modern language to language of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickins, Greene

Answer 42

Language change is ‘caught’ from those around us e.g. slang, contractions, new lexis

Answer 43

Six ‘contrasts’ on how language change is perceived by language users: Correct/incorrect, pleasant/ugly, socially acceptable/ unacceptable, morally acceptable/unacceptable, appropriate/ inappropriate in context, useful/useless

Answer 44

James Milroy - every generation perceives their use of English as preferred, so when is the ‘golden age’ from which we should stop language change? - counter argument to prescriptivist attitudes

Answer 45

As prevailing ideologies change the use of language is likely to change to accommodate this. Access to education, literacy rates, class system, need for literate middle class to act as ‘managers’ following Industrial Revolution.

Answer 46

Greater links between countries mean loan words, different pronoun citations and grammatical forms are more likely to be incorporated into a language British Empire, 20th century conflicts, rise of communication technologies, mass migration, travel…

Answer 47

Longer life expectancies and lower child morality mean people don’t have to work until older. This produced a new social group: teenagers who have been using slang, swearing and use of fillers

Answer 48

Working together, society’s changing expectations have led to people speaking to each other more politely whilst also abandoning old-fashioned principles of formality. Boundaries of private/social life and speaking/writing far less defined

Answer 49

Newer technologies make it more likely to hear and speak to people from other regions, countries, cultures: Television/ film, telephone, email, social media, internet slang…

Answer 50

Ease of articulation - when phonemes are close to each other speakers are more likely to blend them together e.g. hambag, gimme

Answer 51

Leaving out phonemes when talking at speed