Lecture 26 Flashcards
(20 cards)
Why is there variation?
inguistic patterns gradually diverge
when separated geographically (or socially).
* Differences build up over time.
* Population movements have an important effect
* Sociolinguistic attitudes can create (or remove) social
barriers
Why does Language Change?
Childhood language Learning
Language use
Language Contact (through migration, conquest, trade…)
- Children reconstruct their language based on the input received
- imperfect process
- Cognitive biases come into play
Childhood language Learning
- Languages are used to communicate semantic meaning and to express
social identity - Both processes can cause change
- Low contact and random drift lead to divergence
- Innovations spread through contact
Language use
- Borrowing of words very common, but sometimes even grammatical
constructions are borrowed (through intense contact) - Adults learn new language as a second language
- Children may grow up bilingual
- Often over time: Language shift (i.e., replacement)
Language Contact
what is the terminology of romance languages?
- ancestor language
- (proto-language: reconstructed, not directly recorded, ancestor)
- daughter languages
- family of genetically-related languages
what is the comparative method?
- Look for words with similar sounds and meanings.
- To avoid coincidental resemblance:
- Find many examples
- Look for systematic correspondences only
- To avoid borrowed words,
it’s safest to stick to basic vocabulary
(e.g., numbers, kinship, animals, body parts).
words that share a common
ancestor
cognates
consonant changes between
Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Germanic
Grimm’s Law
- became fricatives in Germanic, but not in Latin, Greek, or Sanskrit
- devoiced in Germanic, but not in Latin, Greek, or
Sanskrit - deaspirated in Germanic, fricated in Latin (f, f, h),
devoiced in Greek (pʰ tʰ kʰ), retained in Sanskrit
Grimms law
TRUE OR FALSE: Grimm’s Law applies to a reliable set of
correspondences between particular Indo-European
languages.
TRUE
similarities between words or grammatical structures in different languages that arise purely by coincidence, rather than due to a shared ancestry or language contact
chance resemblence
recurring, predictable sound or grammatical patterns between languages, suggesting shared ancestry or contact
systematic correspondences
what are examples of Morphological change?
- “Strong” verbs used to be more common
- Overgeneralization is slowly eliminating them
what are examples of semantic change?
- Extension
- Narrowing
- Shift
same word with broader meaning
extension
same word with more tightly
focused meaning.
narrowing
word gets a new meaning to reflect
change in culture or conditions
shift
Changes brought about by
misinterpretations of a word’s etymology
Folk etymology
the creation of a new word by removing a supposed or actual affix from an existing word
backformation
