What to Memorise Flashcards
(33 cards)
What’s standardisation
Making all variations of language conform to standard language
Difference between diachronic and synchronic change
D- Historical language change that happens over time
S - Language at a certain point in time
Overt vs covert prestige
Overt is becoming more prestigious in order to gain prestige
Covert is deviating from a standard form to make themselves different from society
What 5 things usually change in a language over time
- Lexicon (words)
- Syntax (word order)
- Phonology (pronunciation and the way they’re expressed)
- Graphology
- Discourse (structures)
What are the 5 main influences for language change
- Globalisation
- Colonisation
- Technology/science advances
- Social changes
- Media
What are the 3 ways neologisms are found? Give examples
- Borrowing (bungalow from India)
- Eponym - named after someone (Sandwich)
- Proprietary names - The name of a company that soon becomes the name for the object (hoover)
What are the 3 ways to abbreviate a word? Give examples
- Acronym (NASA)
- Initialism (WTO)
- Clipping (fridge)
What’s the difference between blending and compounding
Blending is 2 words fusing together to make one word (smoke and fog make smog)
Compounding is taking 2 full words and putting them next to each other (thumbprint)
What is weakening?
AKA. semantic reduction. Word loses its original meaning (love is over-used now)
Difference between narrowing and broadening
Narrowing is when a word becomes more specific (meat - used to mean all food, now just animal flesh)
Broadening is when a word now means many things as well as its original meaning (pudding - once meant just black pudding, now it refers to ever dessert)
What are metaphor changes, euphemisms and idioms
Metaphor - a word acquires a meaning that metaphorically fits (bug - to annoy someone, like a fly does)
Euphemism - Way of describing something unpleasant in a pleasant way (passed away)
Idiom - An expression that doesn’t actually make sense but pragmatically we all understand (raining cats and dogs)
Reasons for orthographical changes
Phonological, technological, standardisation
Name 2 ways grammar has changed over time?
Adverbs are being replaced by adjective ‘you’ve done great’ instead of ‘you’ve done greatly’
Pronoun use is changing - whom replaced by who
Double negation - I didn’t do nothing
How has standardisation affected language?
Lexis, orthography and semantics - dictionaries, spell check
Grammar - Grammar rule books
Graphology - Printing exemplifies how writing should be
What is the timeline of The English Language
1066 - Norman conquest - French/Latin
1450 - Great Vowel Shift - Changed vowel sounds
1476 - Caxton’s printing press - Started standardisation
1702 - First newspaper
1755 - Samuel Johnson’s dictionary - standardisation
1762 - Lowth’s Grammar book
1927 - Television invented
1928 - Women get the right to vote
1980 - Rap
1990 - WWW
1992 - First text message
What are the 2 main attitudes to language change
Prescriptivism - Correct language usage, follow rules
Descriptivism - Describes how language is used, neither correct or incorrect
What could be the future for the English Language
Disintegration - British English will break up into many variations across the world
Uniformity - A world standard English may form, with the varieties of English already becoming similar, they will all merge into one uniform language
Biadialectalism - People will ‘code-switch’ which dialect they use depending on the context they’re in (support for this is Giles’ Accommodation Theory
What are the 4 stages of English, what year did they end and what who brought what words?
Old English - Angles, Saxons, Jutes ( ended 1150) Short and forceful lexis (it, anger, give, but, down)
Middle English - Norman (French) (ended 1476) Government, fashion and food words were borrowed
Early Modern English - Latin from Romans (ended 1700) many affixations (pre-, anti-, -ate)
Present Day English (PDE) - technology - ipad, wifi
What’s determinism and reflectionism?
Reflectionism - Language reflects thoughts (racist remarks) (we control language)
Determinism - Language determines thought (language controls us)
How does political correctness affect language
Instead of ‘headmistress’, ‘head teacher’
What’s polysemy
One word with 2 or more meanings
Read or Pupil
What’s coinage
A neologism that has come from nowhere. It is completely made up
What’s semantic reclamation
When society ‘reclaim’ a word for use of their own
What are Aitchison’s metaphors
Neither descriptivist nor prescriptivist, Aitchison uses metaphors to describe how language changes
Crumbling castle
Infectious disease
Damp spoon - people have become lazy with language
