What are the main reasons for language change?

1. What are the main reasons for language change?

The main reasons for language change could be for various reasons; all languages change over time, and vary from different countries. They may change as a result of social or political pressures, such as invasion, colonisation and immigration. New vocabulary is required for the latest inventions, such as transport, domestic appliances and industrial equipment, or for sporting, entertainment and leisure pursuits.

Reasons for language change:

Transport and communication: transport links to advances in technology, as words are created to describe new modes of transport and communication, increasing number of text language.

Trade, work and urbanisation: focus on agriculture to industry has maintained some agricultural terminology in an urban context.

Globalisation/travel:  communication with other countries has led to us borrowing some terms from other languages and cultures, particularly brand names and foods.

Science and technology: technology has given us a great number of new terms as we name new inventions, meanings have also been broadened.

Politics: the rise and fall of British Empire led to foreign words entering our language. High political change led to the use of French words and spellings.

2.What are the ways in which language changes?

Lexical changes are the study of lexical changes forms the diachronic portion of the science of onomasiology. The on-going influx of new words in the English language helps make it a rich field for investigation into language change, despite the difficulty of defining precisely and accurately the vocabulary available to speakers of English. Throughout its history English has not only borrowed words from other languages but has re-combined and recycled them to create new meanings, whilst losing some old words.

Phonetic and phonological changes- Phonetics deals with the production of speech sounds by humans, often without prior knowledge of the language being spoken. Phonology is about patterns of sounds, especially different patterns of sounds in different languages, or within each language, different patterns of sounds in different positions in words.

Semantic changes- Semantic changes are shifts in meaning of the existing words. They include:

· pejoration, in which a term acquires a negative association

·amelioration, in which a term acquires a positive association

·widening, in which a term acquires a broader meaning

·narrowing, in which a term acquires a narrower meaning

Syntactic change- Syntactic change is the evolution of the syntactic structure of a natural language.  Over time, syntactic change is the greatest modifier of a particular language. Massive changes may occur both in syntax and vocabulary and are attributable to either creolization or relexification.

3.What are the key influential factors on the development of English as accessible to all?

The first key influential factor on the development of English, would be the development of the printing press, the development of printing, like the development of writing itself, had profound effects on human societies and knowledge. "Print culture" refers to the cultural products of the printing transformation. The actual printing press was typically used for texts, the invention and spread of the printing press are widely regarded as among the most influential events in human history, revolutionizing the way people conceive and describe the world they live in, and ushering in the period of modernity.
 

William Caxton printing press was the first English man to bring this from Germany and it was to standardise the English language and translate, 1746. Caxton affiliated himself with the household of Margaret, the duchess of Burgundy, sister of the English king Edward IV. She became one of his most important patrons and encouraged him with his translation of 'The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye' from French to English. Caxton's own translation of 'The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye' was the first book printed in the English language.

In 1476 Caxton returned to London and established a press at Westminster, the first printing press in England. Amongst the books he printed were Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales', Gower's 'Confession Amantis' and Malory's 'Le Morte d'Arthur'. He printed more than 100 books in his lifetime, books which were known for their craftsmanship and careful editing. He was the translator of many of the books he published, using his knowledge of French, Latin and Dutch.

4.What is the difference between a prescriptive and descriptive attitude to language use? 

A descriptive approach to language takes the view that language is a phenomenon that can be studied scientifically. Such an approach takes as its evidence all aspects of language use but, given the vast amount of data, most linguists concentrate on particular varieties of a language. 

The prescriptive approach to language, on the other hand, takes the view that there is an idealized form of a language to the use of which we all should aspire. Such an approach is often taken by those with little knowledge of how language works and little professional training in its study and it is often based on social rather than linguistic considerations.

5.What did Johnson think were the problems with his dictionary? Are these problems still evident in dictionaries today?

Johnson's dictionary was made when etymology was largely based on guesswork. His Classical leanings led him to prefer spellings that pointed to Latin or Greek sources, "While his lack of sound scholarship prevented him from detecting their frequent errors". For example, he preferred the spelling ache over ake as he wrongly thought it came from the Greek achos. Some of his spelling choices were also inconsistent: "while retaining the Latin p in receipt he left it out of deceit; he spelled deign one way and disdain another; he spelled uphill but downhil, muckhill but dunghil, instill but distil, inthrall but disenthrall.

6. What is lingua Franca and to what extent was/is English one?

English as a lingua franca is the use of the English language "as a common means of communication for speakers of different first languages". ELF is also "defined functionally by its use in intercultural communication rather than formally by its reference to native-speaker norms" whereas English as a foreign language aims at meeting native speaker norms and gives prominence to native speaker cultural aspects.

7. What are the prestigious forms of English now (overt and covert)?

Prestige influences whether a language variety is considered a language or a dialect. In discussing definitions of language, Dell Hymes wrote that "sometimes two communities are said to have the same, or different, languages on the grounds of mutual intelligibility, or lack thereof", but alone, this definition is often insufficient. Different language varieties in an area exist along a dialect continuum, and moving geographically often means a change in the local variety. This continuum means that despite the fact that standard German and standard Dutch are not mutually intelligible; the speech of people living near the border between Germany and the Netherlands will more closely resemble that of their neighbours across the border than the standard languages of their respective home countries.

8. How has politically correct language and the sapir-whorf hypothesis influenced modern English usages?

The Political Correctness movement is an intellectual effort to use language to allow and encourage social progress.  It has suffered from a great deal of ridicule and scorn, and it has also been confused by many.

The theoretical foundation of the PC movement is this: language creates categories for thought, and words can create either opportunities or boundaries.  The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is a widely accepted part of this theory.  All of language is a construct that attempts to signify abstract meaning, and any construct will be lacking.  The language we use affects not just the messages we communicate, but the fundamental ways that we think and act.  The problem arises when the linguistic constructs we use influence our way of thinking in negative ways.  These negative influences from language can be called politically incorrect.

9.Find three examples of obsolete English grammar that you can make references to in the exam?

Inflection is the name for the extra letter or letters added to nouns, verbs and adjectives in their different grammatical forms. Nouns are inflected in the plural, verbs are inflected in the various tenses, and adjectives are inflected in the comparative/superlative.
tense

complexety of syntax

10.Find three features of modern punctuation that take advantage of a lessening of prescriptive?

 

11.Find three neologisms from the past five years?

Science and technology:

·         black hole (1968)

·         meme (1976)

·         grok (1961) coined by Robert A. Heinlein

·         prion (1982)

·         beetle bank (early 1990s)

Science fiction:

·         hyperspace (1934)

·         waldo (1942)

·         Dyson sphere (circa 1960)

·         ansible (1966)

·         phaser (1966)

Politics: Category: Political neologisms

·         carpetbagging (19th century)

·         Gerrymandering (1812)

·         Dixiecrat (1948)

12.Do an internet search to find an article that interests you on language uses. Find a key quote to memorise. How does that writer communicate their ideas?

 

 

13.Read at least one chapter from a book from a library about language change; identify how the attitudes expressed in It are a product of when it was written?

 

 

 

 

14.What does gender theory reveal about English use through the ages?