Language change content

Question 1

what is prescriptivism

Answer 1

• notion that lang. should be fixed, prescribing to a set standard of rules for lang. usage – w/ any shift away from these rules or standards seen as incorrect

Question 2

what is descriptivism

Answer 2

• where no judgement or negative attitude is imposed on language change, but an examination of language as it is and how it’s used

Question 3

what is synchronic change

Answer 3

• study of language change at a particular moment in time

Question 4

what is diachronic change

Answer 4

• the historical development of language

Question 5

what are ‘inkhorn terms’

Answer 5

• foreign borrowing into English considered unnecessary or overly pretentious

Question 6

what is a ‘change from above / conscious change’

Answer 6

• change that’s usually initiated by those in a dominant social position or occupying a position of power and authority – usually in line w/ standard or ‘correct’ forms of usage and linked to prestige forms of lang.

Question 7

what is a ‘change from below / unconscious change’

Answer 7

• usually driven by the users of a lang. developing or adapting language according to their own social need; often initially appearing in vernacular forms that may be introduced by a social class

Question 8

what is a neosemy

Answer 8

• the process where a new meaning develops for an existing word

Question 9

what are ‘external factors’

Answer 9

• external pressures that will effect how language is used –either social, cultural or technological

Question 10

what are ‘internal factors’

Answer 10

• aspects of the language itself that contribute to change

Question 11

what is a ‘stative verb’

Answer 11

• a verb which describes a state of being e.g. to seem, to believe rather than a physical action; stative verbs don’t usually show ongoing action so they tend not to be used in the progressive form

Question 12

list processes involved with neosemy

Answer 12

• generalisation / broadening
• specialising / narrowing
• amelioration
• pejoration
• weakening / bleaching
• metaphor
• euphemism
• polysemy

Question 13

what is ‘generalisation / broadening’

Answer 13

• the meaning of a word broadens so that it retains its old meaning, but also takes on added meaning(s)
  e. g. ‘holiday’ – originally from ‘holy-day’ ; in the past people were often only permitted a day off during days of religious importance
• ‘place’ – originally referred to a broad street but now refers to any area

Question 14

what is ‘specialisation / narrowing’

Answer 14

• opposite of broadening – a word becomes more specific in meaning:
  e. g. ‘meat’ – the Old English ‘mete’ used to mean food in general, but now refers to one specific type of food
• ‘wife’ – used to refer to all women

Question 15

what is ‘amelioration’

Answer 15

• over time a word acquires a more pleasant or more positive meaning:
  e. g. ‘pretty’ – used to mean sly or cunning
• ‘brave’ – used to mean wild / savage
• ‘terribly’ – used to mean dreadfully, but now is used an intensifier

Question 16

what is ‘pejoration’

Answer 16

• the opposite of amelioration – over time a word becomes less favourable:
  e. g. ‘villain’ – used to mean ‘farm worker’
• ‘notorious’ – used to mean ‘widely known’ but now is linked to someone who’s famous for having done something bad
• ‘hussy’ – used to mean ‘housewife’ but now refers to a woman w/ loose morals

Question 17

what is ‘metaphor’

Answer 17

• words acquire additional meanings as physical ideas are extended to abstract ideas w/ similar qualities, allowing abstract ideas to be more clearly understood:
• ‘grasp’ – to physically grasp something, or to grasp an idea
• ‘high’ – physical height, or to get high

Question 18

what is ‘euphemism’

Answer 18

• the creation of polite, but roundabout, expressions for things that may be considered unpleasant:
• collateral damage – refers to military action that results in the unintentional death of civilians
• friendly fire – when gunfire is directed at your allies rather than enemies
• downsizing – often used to refer to making people’s jobs redundant

Question 19

what is ‘polysemy’

Answer 19

• words acquire many possible meanings, which coexist w/ the original:
  good: Tom is a good person who works hard for the benefit of others
• it was a good piece of work
  foot:
• when he got to the foot of the hill
• he stumbled and twisted his foot

Question 20

examples of words that follow the diffusion curve

Answer 20

• the term ‘selfie’ and slang in general

Question 21

examples of words that follow the S-curve overlap

Answer 21

• using the term ‘baby-boomer’ instead of ‘dinosaur’ – will notice this in your sociolect e.g. ‘really good’ / ‘slaps’ / ‘hits different’

Question 22

Grammatical features in Old / Middle English

Answer 22

• double or triple negatives – were used for evidence (we would consider this grammatically incorrect) e.g. that ther nis no so great felicitee
• the past tense of a verb had a ‘y’ at the front sometimes e.g. whan that he was in his bed ybrought
• Instead of using apostrophes to indicate possession, Chaucer uses the suffix ‘es’ e.g. the man’s hat (contemporary English) = the mannes hat (Middle English)

Question 23

grammatical change of ‘thou’ to ‘you’

Answer 23

• ‘thou’ was originally the singular counterpart to the plural pronoun ye
• following Norman invasion in 1066 ‘thou’ was used to express intimacy, familiarity or disrespect while ‘you’ was the objective form of ye and was used in formal circumstances
• in 17th century ‘thou’ fell into disuse

Question 24

What are Lowth’s grammar rules

Answer 24

• pronoun ‘thou’ should no longer be used
• there should be differentiation between ‘will’ (promise/ threat) and ‘shall’ (to foretell)
• there should be a differentiation among ‘who,’ ‘which’ and ‘that’
• there should be regularisation between ‘who’ and ‘whom’
• prepositions should be ‘before the noun to which they’re applied
• the infinitive verb shouldn’t be split
• multiple negation and comparison is illogical

Question 25

What is the crumbling castle theory [Aitchinson]

Answer 25

- the myth suggests that English was once a great castle, but over time it has decayed and ‘crumbled into the sea.’

Question 26

What is the damp spoon myth [Aitchinson]

Answer 26

- it suggests that ‘bad English’ sticks to people who are lazy and passive

Question 27

What is the infectious disease myth [Aitchinson]

Answer 27

- this myth suggests that ‘bad English’ is like a horrible disease that spreads from person to person - Aitchinson suggests that while changes are ‘caught’ and ‘spread’ — it isn’t a disease - people may change they’re language because they want to, to engage better w/ a social group

Question 28

Johnson's dictionary of English explained

Answer 28

- it was the first one to make an effort to standardize the spelling of the words, but it failed to circulate as it was only available to the upper class and most English people at the time were lower class