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English A Level Terminology > Unit 7 - Language Change > Flashcards

Unit 7 - Language Change Flashcards

(71 cards)

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1
Q

Early modern English

A

Used between 1500 and 1800

Mark by relatively sudden distinct change in pronunciation + European lexis + Latin and Greek lexis

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2
Q

Graphology

A

The study of writing forms such as the alphabet

Writing systems of the language, visual elements on the page

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3
Q

Grammar

A

The rules for organising meaning in the language – syntax

Relate to the rules for the appropriate use of a language – word order, meaning

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4
Q

Orthography

A

Part of a language concerned with letters in spelling

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5
Q

Phonology

A

Pronunciation and sound patterns which affect understanding of words

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6
Q

Pragmatics

A

Study of the ways in which language is used in a social context – how the context in which words and phrases are use affect their meanings

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7
Q

Morphology

Lexis

A

Structure of words with their meaning

The vocabulary of a language

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8
Q

Semantics

A

The study of the meaning of words

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9
Q

Syntax

A

The order of the words in a sentence

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10
Q

Old English

A

Language of Anglo-Saxon settlers

Used until 1100

Modern English lexis is closely derived from old English, however, old English form is drastically different to new English

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11
Q

Middle English

A

Spoken and written language which emerged after the Norman invasion

Dated from 1100 to 1500

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12
Q

Early modern English

A

1500 to 1800

Contains the great vowel shift

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13
Q

Great vowel shift

A

A series of changes, which lasted approximately 200 years, affecting the pronunciation of English, and effecting the vowels used
~> 1400 - 1700

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14
Q

Late modern English

A

Used from 1800s to present day

Change was initiated by scientific/social development, in order to establish rules of a language
Example of social/industrial development: colonialism; industrial revolution

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15
Q

Industrial revolution

A

Takes place during the 18th and 19th centuries

Affected areas such as fashion, food, leisure, medicine, chemistry, psychology.
Creating words such as locomotive; Cereal; rugby; ambulance; halogen

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16
Q

British English

Colonialism

A

This is the variety of English spoken by people in Britain

When a country claims ownership and takes control of another land, usually accompanied by an intention to gain wealth from the product of that country

Colonialism was use to help spread English

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17
Q

Archaic

A

Belongs to the past

Examples can be: thou; thee; hast; ye

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18
Q

Obsolete

A

No longer in use; after the meaning is no longer understood

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19
Q

Lexis

A

All the words in a language

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20
Q

Derivation

A

Forming a new word from an existing word, often by adding a prefix or suffix

Example: happy ~> happiness

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21
Q

Coinage

A

Creation of a new word which people start to use

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22
Q

Neologism

A

Is a newly invented word

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23
Q

Eponym 

A

A word which takes the name of its inventor or discoverer

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24
Q

Prefix

Suffix

Root/stem

A

A group of latest added to the beginning of a word to make a new word

A group of letters added to the end of a word to make a new word

The part of a word which cannot be changed and which can be added to for a change in meaning– these add ones would be prefixes and suffixes

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25
Conversion
Creating a new word, a new word class, from an existing one or a completely new word class Example: green – represents the colour green; green – in Horseriding represents a young untrained horse
26
Telescoping
Contraction of the word/phrase Example: biologically degradable ~> biodegradable
27
Compounding
Forming a new word from two or more units
28
Blending
Forming a new world by joining the beginning of one word to the end of another Example: smoke and fog ~> smog
29
clipping
Shortening of longer words Example: mathematics ~> math
30
Coalescence
The phonological process whereby to sound merge into one Example: WH pronounced as W
31
Back formation
Formation of a simpler word from an existing one that appears to be derived from it This is a form of clipping Example: enthusiasm ~> enthuse
32
Reduplication
Sounds are repeated with identical or only very slight change – characteristic of infant speech Example: quack quack
33
Borrowing
Introduction of specific words/construction, Oh morphological elements from one language to another This has enrich the English Lexus by incorporating words from languages of invaders and settlers Example: Latin = Pictura; flamma; schola Greek = Cosmos French = weekend; bouquet
34
Neuter Inflection
In language terms, neither male nor female Any form of change/form which distinguishes grammatical forms of the same lexical unit Example: boy ~> boys
35
Etymology
Study of the historical relations between a word and earlier forms of forms from which developed
36
Amelioration
A more positive connotation over time
37
Pejoration 
 When a word takes on a more negative connotation over time
38
Broadening
What is the meaning of the word becomes broader/inclusive genitalia meaning
39
Narrowing
Meaning of the word becomes Nara/exclusive minutes earlier meaning
40
Prescriptivism
The view that language should have structure of rules that must be obeyed in speech and writing
41
Descriptivism
The view that no use of language is incorrect, the variation should be acknowledged and recorded rather than corrected
42
Computer mediated discourse
The specialist form of language between online users
43
Transmission – cultural transmission theory
The learning and passing on of information between people in a group
44
Estuary English – random fluctuation theory
A 20th-century English accent, often used by younger people. Originated in areas around the Thames river in London. First recognised by a distinct active in the 1980s. Formed by a Mixture of Received Pronunciation
45
Proto language
A common ancestor of modern languages Example: Latin to English Relates to wave model/tree model of language change
46
Language family
Group of languages that are related in structure/evolved from a common Proto language Example: French; Portuguese; Romanian Relates to wave model/tree model of language change 
47
Pidgin Creole
A simplified mix of languages, used to communicate between people who do not share the same language A natural language, spoken by native speakers, which has developed from a mixture of languages Relates to wave model/tree model of language change
48
Hypothesis
Statement of what the researchers trying to investigate from carrying out a study
49
Bibliography
List of all books and other sources used in the research
50
Field of study
A specific area within a broader topic from which an investigation can develop
51
Null hypothesis
Is a hypothesis which says that there is no statistical difference between two variables or conditions – a researcher aims to disprove the null hypothesis
52
Corpus
A large and structured set of texts, usually stored electronically
53
Corpus data
The information stored in a corpus comprising of read new text/transcriptions of spoken language
54
Acronym
A word formed from the initial letters of two or more successive words
55
Diachrony
The study of the changes in a language over time
56
Corpus linguistics
Is the study of language and how it changes over a long period of time, based on the analysis of large collections of different text types
57
Sample
A third of data/responses collected from a percentage of the whole population selected by a defined procedure
58
Random sample
Where everyone who is a member of the population being investigated has an equal chance of being selected for the sample
59
Respondent
The person replying
60
Open question Closed question
Where the respondent is free to put any answer Where the respondent chooses from options given
61
Pilot survey
A set of questions devised and distributed to a small population to test the questionnaires questions, and the planned analysis procedure before the main survey
62
Plagiarism
Passing of someone else’s work as your own without any acknowledgement
63
Research ethics
Principles which car do universally agreed acceptable behaviour to be followed in carrying out research investigations
64
Synchronic linguistics
The study of language of a particular time usually a present
65
word sketch
A page summary of word information derived from the corpus
66
Lemma
Base or stem word
67
Collocation
Relation in a corpus whereby two lexical items frequently appear together
68
Mutual information score
A measure of how frequently do lexical items collate in a corpus, compared to how often they would be expected to do so
69
Concordancer
A software program which analyses patterns from the corpus
70
n-gram
In a sequence of items from a sample of text which can be different in length according to the phrase being studied
71
n-gram graph
Is a line graph based on data from a particular corpus, which displays change in frequency of use for particular words or phrases over a given time period

English A Level Terminology (9 decks)

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