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English Language: Diversity and Change - Coggle Diagram
English Language: Diversity and Change
Gender
Otto Jespersen - Deficit Model
Women talk a lot and have smaller vocabulary than men
Women know their limited vocabulary so well that they are fluent and quicker spoken than men, who spend time to think of a precise word from their vaster vocabulary.
Men are responsible for bringing new words into language
Women have a debilitating effect on the language and it is reasonable for men 'certainly with great justice to object that there is a danger of language becoming languid and insipid if we are to consent to ourselves with women's expressions'
Peter Trudgill - Norwich Study
Wanted to find out why people's way of talking varied
Conducted research in Norwich by focusing on the pronunciation of the sufflix '-ing'
He found that:
the non-standard -ing forms appeared much more in men than women, through-out all social classes
When asked, women thought they had been using the standard 'ing' more than they did
Conversely, men said the opposite
Robin Lakoff - Deficit Model
Women's language lacked authority compared to men's
Women's language was constructed in favour of men's language so as to make women seem more submissive
Features of Women's language which appeared to be deficient:
Lacked authority - reflected a inferior social status -> indecisive and needy
Spoke less
Used less expletives or weak expletives (i.e blimey)
Used more intensifiers (i.e very)
Used hedges more often (e.g kind of, maybe)
Used more apologetic requests (e.g Im sorry, but could you...)
Used more tag questions - uncertainty (e.g This is nice, isn't it)
Used more indirect requests
Have more specialised vocabulary for domestic chores
Used more euphemisms
Used more 'empty' adjectives (e.g sweet, charming)
Dubois and Crouch
Men used more tags than women
Though it was not suggested that men were less confident because of this
Zimmerman and West
Wanted to find the presence of uncooperative interactive features (interruptions) in conversations depending on gender
They found that 90% of conversations included such features (i.e overlapping or interruptions) more frequently in men's conversations
Most interruptions (96%) made in mixed-sex conversations were mad by men
Men were dominant in conversation and sought to apply their dominance by applying constraints to the conversations
They believed that this reflected the male domination in society
Eakins and Eakins - Dominance Model
Study on verbal turn-taking -> focused on gender and interruption
Found that a women was interrupted the most
Men's turns ranged from 10.06-17.07 seconds
Women's turns ranged from 3-10 seconds
Men (on average):
have more frequent turns
spoke for greater lengths of time
interrupted others more
were interrupted less
Women (on average):
are most likely to express agreement
ask for another's opinion
less likely to interrupt others
were interrupted more
O'Barr and Atkins - Powerless language
Researched language in a courtroom setting
Believed that language differences are situation-specific and relied on who had authority and power rather than gender -> 'Powerless Language'
As this deficient language use was used by lower class men as well as women
Edelsky
The floor was 'a specific type of speaking turn that contains the acknowledged going on within a psychological time/space' -> This happens in turns within a conversation between 2 people or more
In a work environment, men usually speak for a longer time, whereas women were usually pressured into speaking for a shorter time and be much briefer.
Jenny Cheshire
Studied relationships between boys and girls and how it affected their grammar
In groups, she found that when the same gender were talking, they were more likely to conform on the subject topic
This changed the way they spoke around each other
Variation in dialect is a conscious choice, influenced by social attitude
Pamela Fishman - Dominance Model
Focused on the use of tags used in mixed-gendered conversations
Tags are used by women after declarative statements in order to maintain the conversation with males, as men don't always respond to declaratives
This helps women feel in control of the questions
Males perceive themselves as having a dominant role - unwilling to do the work for conversations to be successful
Women have to carry out the 'conversational shitwork'
Jennifer Coates
Suggested that different styles of speaking are different because of same-gendered friendship groups - creating gender stereotypes in language and different styles of speaking between males and females
Female language is co-operative and supportive due to tag questions and modal forms
Deborah Tannen - Difference model
Six different contrasts between men's and women's language
Men vs Women:
Status vs Support
Advice vs Understanding
Independence vs Intimacy
Information vs Feelings
Conflict vs Compromise
Order vs Proposals
Jane Pilkington
Women in same-sex conversations were collaborative and used positive politeness strategies to affirm solidarity and maintain relationships
Men in same-sex conversations were less collaborative, less complimentary and less supportive than women - they like to challenge and disagree with each others point of view
Janet Holmes
Focused on whether men and women spoke differently and whether it was related to gender or to power/ status
Found in doctor-patient conversations, female doctors were interrupted more than male physicians
In business organisations, men dominated the interactions over women
Angela Goddard - Diversity Model
Ideas about dominance and deficit are too generalised and the difference model doesn't analyse how we value these differences
Gender is increasingly thought of as something that we do that you preform rather than what you 'are'
Deborah Cameron - Diversity Model
Criticises the idea that there are innate differences between the way men and women speak
The idea that men and women use language in different ways and for different reasons is a myth
These stereotypes shape our expectations of how men and women should talk
Spoken language is more dependant on context and lexis than gender
External factors were more important to how a person might use language in that specific circumstance
Koenrand Kuiper
Studied male language use within a team of rugby players
Men used insults to express solidarity rather than using positive politeness strategies (used by women)
Jenny Cheshire
Grammatical variation in young children
Non standard 'has'
Non standard 'was'
Non standard 'what'
Boys used more non-standard forms that girls
This variation is due to linguistic and social factors
Boy's speech is learned from the social peer group (Sociolect)
Girl's speech appears to be a more personal process, less governed by peer groups (Idiolect)
Regional Variation
William Labov - Martha's Vineyard study
Phonological variation (dipthongs /au/ and /ai/)
Interviewed people of different ages and social groups
Labov found that:
Fishermen pronounced the diphthongs more prominently
They were trying to subconsciously distinguish themselves from the tourists - traditional island lives
Young people (31-45) centralised around theses sounds more than any other age group
Fisherman were thought highly of on island - seen as a desirable social group
Additionally may wanted to reject the speech style of the main land
Gary Ives - Code Switching Study
School A - Bradford:
95% of students from a Pakistani background
Results:
Students thought their language use was natural - as a result of where they were born
Further research found that they were making a much more conscious choice
Slang was linked to identity
Code switching was used for slang and taboo words
School B - South London:
Wide range of ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds
Results:
Language use was not about ethnicity but about where you live now
White British teens using Afro Caribbean dialect
Forms a group identity regardless of ethnicity or cultural background
James Milroy - Belfast Study
Closed network - One's contacts know each other
Open network - One's contacts don't tend to know each other
Found that people in a closed network used more non-standard forms
Men in tight-knit communities used more non-standard forms that women
Women tended to be in less tight-knit communities
Howard Giles - Capital Punishment Experiment
Interested in peoples attitudes towards different accents
Presented five groups with identical arguments against capital punishment
One group were given a written presentation, the other four were oral
Consisting of an RP speaker, Somerset speaker, South Welsh speaker, Birmingham speaker
Results:
The RP and written presentations were deemed the most impressive
The Birmingham presentation was deemed the least impressive
When asked their opinions before and after:
Those hearing the RP or reading the written presentations were less likely to change their options
Those hearing the regional speakers were more likely to change their opinion and agree with the speaker
Giles concluded that RP seemed more professional whilst the regional accents were more persuassive
Howard Giles - Matched Guise Technique
Interested in how people judge different accents
Listeners would hear recordings of the a speaker expressing their views on a subject
All of the recordings were recorded by the same speaker in different accents
Results:
1973 - The teenagers listening heard two identical speeches, apart for the speakers accent
The teenagers were more likely to value the opinion of the speaker with an upper-class accent
1975 - Two groups listened to the same speech once in a Birmingham accent, once in RP
They rated the RP speech higher in terms of intelligence
Howard Giles - Accommodation Theory
Convergence - changing your language in order to move towards the language off another individual
Divergence - Changing your language to move away from that of another individual
Peter Trudgill - Norwich Study
Interested in the pronunciation of '-ing'
Results:
People dropping the 'g' off of '-ing' was higher in lower classes, especially in men
Women thought they dropped the 'g' less than they really did
Men thought they dropped the 'g' more than they did
People in all classes seemed to pronounce the '-ing' ending more when they were more focused on their speech
This was seen as an attempt to sound like you belong to the upper clas
"People who spoke with received pronunciation were immediately thought to be unfriendly and untrustworthy until they can demonstrate the contrary"
"Children who spoke with 'working-class accents' were seen ash having less potential than other children by teachers"
Peter Trudgill - Dialect Levelling
Rural dialects are dying out
Features, like irregular pronouns or regional lexical terms are fying out
More modern dialect are becoming more widespread, replacing traditional dialects
This is evidence of dialect levelling occuring in the UK
Peter Kerswill - Dialect Levelling
Dialect levelling is the process of an overall reduction in the variation (diversity features) between two or more dialects
Over time the same dialect is then found over a much wider area
Kerswill examined if dialect levelling was happening in the UK, he found that:
Dialects are levelling but the extent of which depends on where you are from and the social worth of changing dialects
Older towns with stronger dialectal history are more likely to retain dialectal features in younger generations
Kerswill believed that causes of dialect levelling are:
Greater social mobility
Reduction of rural employment
Construction of new towns
Kerswill - MLE
Wanted to defend MLE from claims that 'gangster culture has come to England' and how 'Jamaican patois has intruded England'
He found that:
Young Londoner's do not H-drop has much anymore
Some slang are from Jamaican backgrounds, (e.g bare) but there is also a lot of slang from England (e.g my ends)
This means Jamaican patois has not intruded on England
In areas that have 50% less white British people and have a lack of funding, people are more family-orientated and community based
This is how different cultures words mix in with English to create a new language
Young people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds use MLE, so, it is less about race, ethnicity or culture and more about age
Dixon, Mahoney, Cocks
Matched guise technique to see how we view someone's guilt
Participants listened to a recorded exchange between a British male criminal suspect and a male policeman
The results suggested that the suspect was deemed to be more guilty when he employed a Birmingham accent rather than a more neutral accent
Attributions of guilt were associated with the suspects perceived superiority and social attractiveness
Dialectal prejudices still exist throughout the UK
James Milroy - Causes of Dialect Levelling
Greater geographical mobility
Moving areas for jobs
Increased transport nowadays
Age
Jenny Cheshire
"Adult language, as well as child language, develops in response to important life events"
Penelope Eckert
Age can be broken into:
Chronological age - years since birth
Biological age - maturity
Social age - linked to life events
"Age is a person's place at a given time in relation to the social order: a stage, condition and place in history"
Unni Berland
Teenagers use of tags is class related
"Init" is more common among working class teens while "Yeah" is more middle class
Tags can signify a teen is unsure or is seeking reassurance
Penelope Eckert - Features of Teenspeak
Irregular turn-taking
Overlaps
Word shortenings
Teasing and Name calling
Slang
Taboo
Code-switching
Use of filers
Use of tags
Use of negative -> multiple negation
Differences in the way individual teens speak is greater than in any other age group
Conformity to specific language use is greater than to the general standard features of all young adults
Vivian de Klerk
4 influences on how teens speak:
A desire to establish group and personal identities
A desire to look different and unique from others in their age groups and older generations
A desire to keep up with the times
The freedom to challenge linguistic norms as a teenager
Don Zimmerman
Chief influences of teenspeak are:
Media
Newer forms of communication (i.e Snapchat)
Music
Street Art
Ignacio Palacios Martinez
Negatives are used more frequently by teenagers than adults
Teenagers tend to be more direct
Adults are more conscious of what they say so they don't offend
Negatives tend to be informal (i.e nope, nah, dunno) and use multiple negation
Christopher Odato
Researched the use of 'like'
He found it was being used not just by teens but in children as young as 4
He identified 3 stages:
Stage 1 - Children use 'like' infrequently, mainly at the beginning of a clause
Stage 2 - Girls at 5, Boys at 7 - 'Like' used more often and in more positions
Stage 3 - More frequent use of 'like' - use as a prepositional phrase
Girls move to this stage before Boys
'Like' is now being used more frequently than ever by Adults
The stages can be accounted for by how often they hear adults use 'like' in different ways
Children are more likely to copy most frequently-heard uses of 'like' earlier - accounting for the stages of acquisition
Gary Ives
Study on teenagers
He asked them: "Do you think people speak differently depending on their age?"
100% of the 63 teenagers said 'Yes'
General assumption by teens that as we get older our language becomes standardised
We will stop swearing, use more Standard English and become 'posh'
When asked about their language, their lexicon included informal register with taboo
There was a consensus that relationships and slang was a prevalent characteristic of teenagers language
Van Eeden
Experience and knowledge impacts language use not age
Impacts both adults and children
Supporting evidence - In some countries people have no knowledge of their age
Howard Giles - Accommodation Theory
When another group is attractive or powerful, we adapt our language to be like them
Convergence - Choosing language that the other person will understand
Divergence - Choosing language to distance from the person or group listening
Sexuality
Robin Lakoff
Claimed that gay males deliberately imitate female's speech
Their speech includes superlatives, inflected intonation, and lisping
David Crystal
Men of an "effeminate" voice use:
A widened range of pitch
Glissando effects between stressed syllables
Greater use of fall-rise and rise-fall tones
Vocal breathiness and huskiness
Points out that an "effeminate" voice does not necessarily correlate to a man's sexuality as research has not confirmed any unique intonation or pitch qualities of gay speech
Rusty Barrett
Gay men and lesbians may form speech communities
A speech community is a community that shares linguistic tends and tends to have community boundaries that coincide with social units
Membership is often assumed based on stereotypes about the community
Speakers may resist dominant language by maintaining their own varieties of speech (i.e drag community)
People may be members of multiple communities
Which community they want to be most closely associated with may vary
Moonwomen-Baird
Found a link between intonation and conformity to gender roles in lesbian speech
Suggested that lesbian speakers engage in a more monotone speech pattern that somehow "deviates" from stereotypical heterosexual female speech
Sean Crist
Identified a marked pronunciation of sibilant consonants (/s/ and /z/) in gay men's speech, often interpreted colloquially as a 'gay' lisp
It is important to note that Munson and Zimmerman state that not all gay American men speak with this hyper-articulated /s/ and some men who identify as heterosexual also produce this feature
Henry Rogers and Ron Smyth
Researched the stereotype that gay men sound effeminate and are recognised by the way they speak
Asked participants to listen to recordings of 25 men, 17 of them gay
In 62% of the cases the listeners identified the sexual orientation of the speakers correctly
The "straightest-sounding voice" was in fact a gay man
The sixth "gayest-sounding voice" was a straight man
Deborah Cameron and Don Kulik
Some speech features are stereotyped as markers of a gay or bisexual male
These features include:
Carefully enunciated pronunciation
High pitch
Breathy voice
Munson et al.
Examined how people perceived sexual orientation
They had 40 listeners rate 44 talkers' sexual orientation on a 5 point scale
The 40 speakers included an equal number of LGBT and straight people
When averaged across the 40 listeners, ratings for individual talkers showed some overlap between LGBT and straight people
For example, the two "most gay" men included a straight man
While there are group level differences between LGBT and straight people in the 'gayness' of their voices, overlap does exist:
There is no clean cut between the linguistic patterns of LGBT and straight peopl
Rieger et al.
Provided evidence that showed some listeners were able to distinguish between lesbian and heterosexual women simply by listening to their voice
William Leap
Members of the LGBT community communicate with each other in ways that are "different from the linguistic practices of non-lesbian or non-gay speakers"
Identified pronoun use as an example
Munson
There is no great difference in between gay speech characteristics
The speech of other groups include many of the same characteristics other speakers use when attempting to speak with special carefulness or clarity
This includes:
Over-articulating
Expanding the vowel spaces in the mouth
Benjamin Munson
Confirmed features among lesbians
Use of lower pitch
More direct communication styles
More backed varients of back vowels
He noted that differences between lesbians and straight women are "even more subtle" than differences between gay and straight men
Ethnicity
Roger Hewitt and Mark Sebba
Identified 'Black Cockney' in the 1980s
A style rather than a discrete variety of Cockney
Used by young, black speakers in London, particularly those from a Caribbean background
Made up of Cockney, RP and Creole
Sue Fox
MLE is influenced by the dominant immigrant population in each borough in London
For example, young people with Bangladeshi roots who live in tight-kit communities in the East End borough of Tower Hamlets speak in a way that is similar to MLE but with more Bengali features than in other boroughs
Ben Rampton
Creole was widely seen as cool, tough and good to use
Associated with assertiveness, verbal resourcefulness and competency
Cheshire et al. - Features of MLE
Flattening of the vowel sounds in words such as price, mouth and face
The vowel sounds in words like face are produced with a raised position of the tongue
The vowel sounds in words like price are produced with a lowered position of the tongue
The vowel sounds in words like goose are produced with a very fronted position of the tongue
DH-stopping
Using 'd' for 'th' (i.e dem = them)
TH-stopping
Using 't' for 'th' (i.e tree = three)
Article simplification
Using 'a' for all indefinite articles (even if it should be 'an)
'Man' used as a pronoun
Use of pragmatic markers (i.e you get me, innit)
John Pitts - Black British English
Noticed a shift in young black speakers in London
They felt that mainstream society was ignoring them and forcing them into a resistance identity
Language used was used to express an identity of ethnicity as they felt their language from their race was being invalidated
Features:
Phonology: consonant cluster reduction
Lexis: Greater creativity in describing things (i.e bald man = peelhead)
Drummond
Studied language of Polish immigrants, there were two groups:
Those who intended to stay in the UK
Those who intended to return to Poland
He found that the group who wanted to stay had positive attitudes and tended to adopt their local accent in an attempt to sound like the local teens
However, those who intended to return to Poland tended to adopt non-standard features that distinguished them from the locals (i.e -'ink' for -'ing')
Concluded that language used reflects the speakers attitudes towards their Polish identity and their desire to integrate into UK life
Sue Fox and Ruth Kircher
Conducted an online survey (800 Londoners) to find out attitudes towards MLE
Asked several questions on a 5 point scale
The people who answered the survey gave MLE an overall score of 2.2
Interestingly, people who claimed to speak MLE gave it a better rating than those who didn't (2.37)
As did people who had frequent contact with MLE speakers, people whose first language wasn't English and people with high levels of education
Exposure and education breed tolerance and acceptance and, eventually, positive feelings
Sue Fox
"Multicultural English, while drawing on different ethnic varieties, has become the unselfconscious vernacular of young people regardless of ethnic origin"
Julie Walton and Robert Orlikoff
Conducted a study in speaker race identification
50 black and 50 white men record a single vowel sound
Listeners heard two one-second vowel sounds
They were told one of them was from a white man and the other from a black man
They had to determine which was which
On average, they could do it 60% of the time
This suggests that we can make reasonably accurate judgements about a person's race just based on their voice
Gary Ives - Code Switching Study
School A - Bradford:
95% of students from a Pakistani background
Students thought their language use was natural - as a result of where they were born
Further research found that they were making a much more conscious choice
Slang was linked to identity
Code switching was used for slang and taboo words
School B - South London:
Wide range of ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds
Language use was not about ethnicity but about where you live now
White British teens using Afro Caribbean dialect
Forms a group identity regardless of ethnicity or cultural background
Class
William Labov - New York Department Store Study
He carried out a study looking at differences in accent across different socio-economic groups
He was looking at the rhotic /r/ sound to see how pronunciation differed between classes
He focused on three department stores in New York: Saks, S.Klein and Macy's
Of these stores, S. Klein was the cheapest, Saks was the most expensive and Macy's had average prices
The different price ranges of the stores was used as indicators of the socio-economic class of the people shopping in them
In each store, Labov asked workers where something was that would require them to reply with 'the fourth floor'
He would then pretend to not hear them so they would have to repeat themselves
The first time they're response was completely natural, the second time they would be more careful in their speech to ensure they're heard
Results:
The use of /r/ was highest in Saks and lowest in Klein's, showing it to be a typical language feature of the higher socio-economic classes of New York
In careful speech of the lower class shop workers, the /r/ was also present, suggesting that they used overt prestige and altered their speech when they were more aware of being listened to by a stranger
Basil Bernstein - Elaborated and Restricted code
Conducted a study to account for differences between the poor performance of working-class pupils compared to their middle-class counterparts
Restricted code:
Has looser syntax
Uses more words of simple coordination ('and', 'but')
More cliches
More implicit references
Greater number of pronouns
Arises when speech is exchanged against a background of shared experiences and shared definitions of that experience
The speech is 'context dependant' as participants rely on their background knowledge to supply information
Elaborated code:
More formally correct sentences
More subordinating clauses
More logical connectives ('if', 'unless')
Arises where there is a gap or boundary between speaker and listener which can only be crossed by explicit speech
Conclusion:
Both classes use both codes and will understand both codes
The differences between them is when they use the two codes (i.e working class will have difficulty using elaborated code within school)
Peter Trudgill - Norwich Study
Interested in the pronunciation in different socio-economic status groups and their different speech styles
Specifically (-ng) with it's standard and prestigious velar variant and the non-standard variant in Norwich
Results:
The higher the socio-economic status of the speaker, the more they used the standard varient
Style stratification existed in England
All socio-economic groups used more standard variants with increasing formality
Malcolm Petyt
Measured the frequency of H-dropping by people of different social classes.
Results:
UMC: 12%
LMC: 28%
UWC: 67%
MWC: 89%
LWC: 93%
The results illustrates the divide between the middle and working class, with the biggest gap between LMC and UWC
He concluded that as individuals move up the social classes, they modify their speech to be more like RP in order to fit in
O'Barr and Atkins - Powerless language
Researched language in a courtroom setting
As this deficient language use was used by lower class men as well as women
Believed that language differences are situation-specific and relied on who had authority and power -> 'Powerless Language
Occupation and Power
Howard Giles - Accommodation Theory
Speakers can try to make their language use more in-line with their audience to improve communication through
Convergence
Speakers can also make their language use less in-line with their audience to distance themselves from other through
Divergence
O'Barr and Atkins - Powerless language
Researched language in a courtroom setting
Believed that language differences are situation-specific and relied on who had authority and power in the situation -> 'Powerless Language'
Brown and Levinson - Positive and Negative Face
Every member of society has two opposing needs or wants:
Negative face: The want of every member to feel freedom in their actions
Positive face: The want of every member to feel respected and valued
Politeness strategies are are used to avoid FTAs to mitigate their impact through a variety of verbal strategies, frequently involving indirectness
Moreal
Suggested that humour was used in the workplace to maintain good working relationships
Drew and Heritage
'Institutional talk' differs from ordinary conversations in a number of ways:
Goal Orientation
Turn-taking rules or restrictions
Allowable contributions
Professional Lexis
Structure
Asymmetry
Bernstein
Suggested that imperatives are used in the workplace when power relationships are clear and stable in the organisation
Holmes and Stubbe - Power in the workplace
Argue that power is not a personal attribute but more a part of a role, behaviours people carry out as part of their jobs
Superiors in organisations 'do power' to carry out their role
Koester - Phatic talk in the workplace
Phatic tokens are ways of showing status by orienting comments to oneself, to the other, or to the general situations
Self-oriented phatic tokens are personal to the speaker
Other-orientated tokens are related to the hearer
A neutral token refers to the context around the people
Workers need to establish relationships and have conversations not about work in order to work more effectively
Swales
Specialist lexis indicates employees are part of the same discourse community
A discourse community has members who:
Have a set of common goals
Communicate using a least one genre of communication
Use specific lexis
Have a required level of knowledge and expertise to participate in the community
Change
Robert Lowth
the 'godfather' of grammar discourse
"Politest part of the nation" - people who speak and write properly
Created prescriptivist grammar book, rooted in Latin
7 Grammar rules:
1) Pronoun 'thou' should no longer be used
2) There should be a differentiation between 'will' (promise/threat) and 'shall' (to foretell)
3) There should be a differentiation between 'who' and 'which'//that'
4) There should be standardisation between 'who' and 'which'
5) Prepositions should not be placed before the noun
6) The infinitive verb shouldn't be split
7) Multiple negation and multiple comparison is illogical
Lindley Murray
Made Lowth's suggestions into official rules
Considered pronunciation to be of great importance
Divided English grammar into:
1) Orthography - form and sound of letters
2) Etymology - word derivation and word types
3) Syntax - sentence structure
4) Prosody - pronunciation, intonation and rhythm
Haugen - Stages of Standardisation
1) Selection - Language is selected (normally prestigious)
2) Codification - establishment of lexis, grammatical structure and spelling
3) Elaboration - Selected language is developed
4) Implementation - Standard language is given currency by making texts available to it and by encouraging users to develop pride and loyalty
Jean Aitchison - Prescriptivist metaphors
Metaphors that describe prescriptivist view:
"Crumbling castle" - language is slowly decaying to to change
"Damp spoon" - Language is slowly changing as people are too lazy to follow standards
"Infectious disease" - Language change is like a virus, spreading through speakers and causing harm to the language
She believes:
Change is inevitable
Change is neither decaying nor progressing, and is an inevitable feature of language
Language needs to change to remain alive
Samuel Johnson
Wrote the first 'correct' dictionary
He understood that change is inevitable, but was still prescriptivist
His dictionary was important as the words included were standardised and 'spelt correctly'
Suzanne Romaine
Refers to the internal and external history of language
internal influence or external influence
External change - changing social context, language change is an ongoing process
Internal change - formation of new words and influence of dictionaries
Michael Halliday - Functional Theory
Language changes according to the needs of its users
Words become obsolete and drop out of usage, while new words are also created
This tends to take the form of:
New discoveries
Technological words
Slang
Paul Postal - Random Fluctuational Theory
Language is as unpredictable as fashion - changes in language are totally random
Charles Hockett:
Proposed a different angle, the random mistakes lead to language changing
Substratum Theory
Explains changes in language coming about through language contact
In the past this happend through trade and invasion
Nowadays, it might happens through social networking and immigaration
Jean Aitchison
There are 3 aspects to the way a change takes place:
1) Potential for change: a speaker makes a linguistic choice
2) Implementation: the choice becomes selected as part of a linguistic system
3) Diffusion: the change is imitated beyond the site of orgin
Chen and Bailey - S curve model
Language change can occur at a slow pace creating the initial curve and then increases speed as it becomes common and accepted into the language
This then slows down again once it fully integrated into the language and is more widely used
Chen and Wang - The wave model
A change starts in one certain area then slowly over time it ripples into the closest geographical area to the originator
The model suggests that the further away from the source of change a person is, geographically and socially, the less impact it will have on them
Johnathan Swift
First person in the 1700s to say language was in decline
First to understand that language needed 'saving'
Save language from change and keep it the same