Language Change
- Created by: Lauren Ellis
- Created on: 30-05-13 12:30
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- Language Change - Theories
- Jean Aitcheson theories
- Crumbling castle view
- language was perfect at one point in time
- now is crumbling
- Needs to be preserved
- Damp Spoon theory
- language is changing due to increasing laziness
- Infectious disease theory
- catch changes from those around us
- people pick up changes as want to be included in social groups
- social prestige and change in society
- in formalisation of mass communication
- Crumbling castle view
- Language Decay
- 18th centaury - language is decaying
- decay due to speakers of language increasingly careless about speech
- modern speakers are 'decadent' as allowed language to decay into 'simple' language
- highly subjective - personal opinions not facts
- linguists moved beyond 18th centaury theory of language decay
- Natural Law
- late 19th centaury
- natural process by neogrammarians
- stated that changes are automatic and mechanical
- cannot be observed or controlled by speakers of language
- sound like 'single' to human ear is actually collection of familiar sounds - low level deviation
- cannot be observed or controlled by speakers of language
- no reinforment for theory
- patched theory - adding reasons to reinforce deviation of simplification of sounds or children learning speech of parents wrong
- Social Bonding
- during this centaury is a social one - American linguist - William Labov
- he found small population pronounce same vowel differently to rest of population
- signal for social and cultural identity
- Jean Aitcheson theories
- language was perfect at one point in time
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