Lexical change comes from various places.
From 18th century onwards, lexical change came from many avenues:
Technology - inventions are single biggest source of lexical change, whilst most have Latinate/Greek roots - some are created in different ways.
Travel - as travel has become easier - so to have our ways of picking up words. In Victorian times, Indian words came into our lexis from the Empire e.g. pyjamas, verandah, etc.
We now have more words from Eastern cultures e.g. Tsunami, kamikaze, karaoke. In 20th Century lexical change has come from influence of the US as a superpower - many Americanisms has come into our language.
From 18th century onwards, lexical change came from many avenues:
Technology - inventions are single biggest source of lexical change, whilst most have Latinate/Greek roots - some are created in different ways.
Travel - as travel has become easier - so to have our ways of picking up words. In Victorian times, Indian words came into our lexis from the Empire e.g. pyjamas, verandah, etc.
We now have more words from Eastern cultures e.g. Tsunami, kamikaze, karaoke. In 20th Century lexical change has come from influence of the US as a superpower - many Americanisms has come into our language.
Words formed from existing words
Affixing - most common source of new words - adding prefixes or suffixes to existing words to form new words - prefixes -micro (microwave) -multi (multimedia) inter- super- mega-
Suffix -ism now used to indicate prejudice as in ageism sizeism, -gate become a suffix denoting scandal
Compounding - when words are combined to form a new larger word or expression - blackbird and laptop are compounds - compounds sometimes divided by a hyphen blue-eyed and can be seperate words head waiter happy hour
Blends - only parts of each word are joined together to form a new word - smog from smoke and fog - motel from motor and hotel - computer term bit from binary and digit
Conversion - word class of an existing word changes creating a new use for the word - noun to a verb, verb to a noun, adjective to verb
Abbreviation/clipping - new word formed by shortening an existing word in some way - ad from advertisement - bus from omnibus - burger from hamburger
Back formation - a word of one type - usually a noun - is shortened to form a word of another type - usually a verb - edit from editor - donate from donation - burgle from burgular
Acronyms - words formed from the initial letters of existing words - radar from radio detection and ranging - scuba from self contained under water breathing apparatus - computer language BASIC from beginners all purpose symbollic instruction code
Affixing - most common source of new words - adding prefixes or suffixes to existing words to form new words - prefixes -micro (microwave) -multi (multimedia) inter- super- mega-
Suffix -ism now used to indicate prejudice as in ageism sizeism, -gate become a suffix denoting scandal
Compounding - when words are combined to form a new larger word or expression - blackbird and laptop are compounds - compounds sometimes divided by a hyphen blue-eyed and can be seperate words head waiter happy hour
Blends - only parts of each word are joined together to form a new word - smog from smoke and fog - motel from motor and hotel - computer term bit from binary and digit
Conversion - word class of an existing word changes creating a new use for the word - noun to a verb, verb to a noun, adjective to verb
Abbreviation/clipping - new word formed by shortening an existing word in some way - ad from advertisement - bus from omnibus - burger from hamburger
Back formation - a word of one type - usually a noun - is shortened to form a word of another type - usually a verb - edit from editor - donate from donation - burgle from burgular
Acronyms - words formed from the initial letters of existing words - radar from radio detection and ranging - scuba from self contained under water breathing apparatus - computer language BASIC from beginners all purpose symbollic instruction code
Standardisation
Many of the rules of grammar we observe today began in 18th century when several influential books of grammar were written.
In particular Samuel Jonson developing his dictionary of English in 1755 which brought in standardisation to not just spellings but also definitions and meanings.
It also confirmed the Midlands accents (Oxford and Cambridge) as the PREFERRED way of writing and spelling
The 18th century also had standardisation in the growth of education and literacy - many accepted regional expressions and phrases were replaced by standardised ones - particularly in writing.
The invention of printing with Caxton in 1476 created a requirement for standardisation as printers were competing with each other.
Caxton himself chose to print texts in the East Midland dialect - London, Oxford, Cambridge as these were seen as the most prestigious and "correct" form of English Printing also impacted in that spelling and punctuation became more standardised and in the 17th century a modern punctuation system began to occur.
In particular Samuel Jonson developing his dictionary of English in 1755 which brought in standardisation to not just spellings but also definitions and meanings.
It also confirmed the Midlands accents (Oxford and Cambridge) as the PREFERRED way of writing and spelling
The 18th century also had standardisation in the growth of education and literacy - many accepted regional expressions and phrases were replaced by standardised ones - particularly in writing.
The invention of printing with Caxton in 1476 created a requirement for standardisation as printers were competing with each other.
Caxton himself chose to print texts in the East Midland dialect - London, Oxford, Cambridge as these were seen as the most prestigious and "correct" form of English Printing also impacted in that spelling and punctuation became more standardised and in the 17th century a modern punctuation system began to occur.
