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Language Change :silhouettes: - Coggle Diagram
Language Change :silhouettes:
AO1
Semantic Change
Weakening/Bleaching
The loss or reduction of the force of meaning of a word, eg, awesome, horrific, shit.
Metaphor
Words acquire additional meanings as physical ideas are extended to abstract ideas with similar qualities, eg. grasp, high.
Pejoration
Over time a word acquires a more negative meaning, eg. villain, cowboy, cunning.
Amelioration
Over time a word acquires a more positive meaning, eg. sick, wicked, brave.
Idioms
Phrases formed from existing words; they assume a certain shared knowledge between speakers so they can understand each other, eg. under the weather, over the moon, in the doghouse, pull your socks up.
Narrowing/Specialisation
The meaning of a word narrows, the meaning of a word becomes more specific, eg. deer, girl, wife, meat.
Euphemisms
A polite way of describing something (sometimes influenced by political correctness), eg. cash flow problem, visually impaired, downsizing.
Broadening Generalisation
The meaning of the word broadens so it keeps its original meaning but takes on added meanings as well, eg. dog, holiday, place.
Lexical Change
Coinage
The process of creating words that are completely new and not derived from any other word,
eg. internet
Neologism
A new word
Borrowing/Loan Words
Words taken from other languages,
eg. k-pop, bungalow, spiel, nosh
Abbreviation
A new word formed by shortening an existing word or words,
eg. brb or asap
Compounding
When words are combined to form a larger word or expression. Can be hyphenated or as two separate words that exist as a single lexical item,
eg. couch potato
Back Formation
When word type (usually a noun) is shortened to form a word of another type (usually a verb).
eg. 'to edit' from 'editor'
Blending/Portmanteau
Similar to compounding but only parts of words are joined to together (usually the start of one word and the end of the other),
eg. jeggings
Conversion
When the existing word class of a word changes and creates a new use for it.
Morphology
Affixing
Infixes
Prefixes
Suffixes
Acronym
Words formed from the initial letters of existing words and pronounced as a word, eg. awol, asap, lol
Eponyms
Words formed from names or places,
eg. 'sandwich' from the 4th Earl of Sandwich
Initialism
Words abbreviated to their initial set of letters but not pronounced as a word, eg. brb, gtg, smh
Archaisms
Words or phrases that become obsolete
Other
Ease of Articulation
Pronunciations are changed to fit the needs of the speaker, to make some words easier to say, eg. sandwich is pronounced samwhich.
Why Words Change Their Meaning
External Factors
Cultural Changes - 'Guys' from 'Guy Fawks' was used to address badly behaved men but now is just used to address everyone.
Technological Changes - eg, virus, bug, crash, windows, etc.
Social Changes - eg, LGBTQ language and the rise of political correctness.
Internal Factors
Aspects and meaning of language itself contribute to change.
Eg. 'virus' can be applied to a computer virus and 'journey' is used literally and metaphorically, etc.
Technofear
A fear of technology and its impacts, especially on language.
18th and 19th Century
'Good' grammar began being associated with status whilst 'bad' language was an indicator of low social status and a lack of morality.
AO2
Hitchings
Zwicky
Texting and Literacy - Dr Wood
Texting develops phonological awareness and reading. It allows children to practice reading, writing and spelling.
Verbal Hygiene - Deborah Cameron
TED Talk on Texting - McWhorter
He said texting is not writing.
That language has existed for 150,000 years, speech comes first and writing comes second.
In casual speech, people speak in packets of 7 - 10 words, so it's telegrammatic.
Formal speech is speaking how you write, whereas texting is writing how you speak.
Texting is loose in its use and doesn't use capital letters or grammar.
Texting is a way of using language between people and the expansion of linguistic repertoire.
Critical Discourse Analysis - Fairclough
Sticklerism - Green
There is a need to correct and criticise peoples language use, even if it is in need of correcting or not.
Coleman
Complaint Tradition - Milroy
There is a constant tradition about complaining about the state of the English Language.
Green
Declinism Green
The idea that English is on an irreversible decline from its once great peak. The blame is mostly put on young people, technology and immigration. However, Green states that people can read and write more than in the past.
Leech
Metaphors - Aitchison
Latin Grammar Rules - Pinker
Influence of Technology - Fairclough and McWhorter
They both recognise a blurring between the rigid distinction of written and spoken language, particularly in recent years.
Crystal
Reflectionism - Spender
The idea that language reflects the views of society.
Functional Theory - Haliday
Language changes and adapts to the needs of its users.
'Language reflects the multidimensional nature of human experience and interpersonal relationships'.
Changes in technology fuel the need for new words. Words fall out of usage such as vinyl and are replaced by words such as streaming.
Colloquialisms and slang also create changes, creating new words or usages and then discarding them as they strive for social identity or personal/group expression.