Process of Language Change
Map and explanations of different factors and processes which influence and impact on the ways in which language can develop and change.
- Created by: Elliott Lauder
- Created on: 16-01-13 14:52
View mindmap
- Process of Change
- Blurring of the class structure
- Post war: - All men fought together no matter what social class - all women started work.
- Decline of Deference - where one respects one's elders. Instead emerged respect for individuality
- Rise of the middle class, blurs the boundaries between the dictions of the upper and working classes. Standardization and decline of RP.
- Education
- Broadening availability of education for all - greater competency of literacy and state schools bringing children from different social classes together.
- University has become less elitist (4% went in the 1920/30s, 35% go nowadays) - Brings together people from different areas - dialects. Merging of social classes.
- Introduction of public broadcasting
- In 1922, the BBC set out the exemplify 'correctness' by only broadcasting formal speech with and upper class dialect.
- Rise of the middle class, blurs the boundaries between the dictions of the upper and working classes. Standardization and decline of RP.
- Later introduction of Television in the 1950s brought about a rise in broadcasted local dialects. Whilst trying to uphold RP through the 60s and 70s, this declined recently.
- In 1922, the BBC set out the exemplify 'correctness' by only broadcasting formal speech with and upper class dialect.
- Popular Youth Culture
- 'Teenagers' as a social group did not exist pre-1950s. Childhood went straight to adulthood with people going to work at 14 years old.
- Modern 'baby boom' and change in education laws meaning affluent 14-18 year olds. Popular culture aimed at this group, e.g. music
- Liverpudlian regional accent became fashionable amongst youths during The Beatles era - impacting dialect and language.
- Teenagers more open to change and fashions than older people. Dialects and linguistic features picked up at this age are likely to stick.
- Some say teenage language is a decline in standards, or 'sloppy'. They might argue it's a progression and a more comfortable form of speech.
- Proliferation of film and video
- Film acquiring sound in 1927 - public first being exposed to American accents
- US speech became fashionable. Less social stigma surrounding the short 'a' sound which is common in the north of England.
- American Influence - not as large as some say, often exaggerated by those who disapprove of change. Many 'Americanisms' originate from 17th century British, 'gotten' for example.
- Decline of rural dialect and the rise in urbanisation
- After the Industrial revolution, more people live and work in the city, with less extended families living together in the country. Resulting in a decline of rural dialects.
- Global Communications
- Introduction and progression of new technologies has connected people from afar. ('tele' in telephone and telegram - from Greek 'far')
- Language had to adapt to new discourses from new technologies, e.g e-mail structure.
- Medium such as e-mail has own distinct language rules, informal lexis, symbol emoticons and tolerance of spelling errors.
- Globally recognized terms emerging from common technologies. 'Net' referring to the Internet - a multi-lingual term.
- Blurring of the class structure
Comments
No comments have yet been made