English Language Change Theories

- Made best universal etymology English dictionary 1721

- Formed basis of Johnson's work

- Idea of spelling 'mistake' still not evident

- Between 1747 and 1755 - wrote A Dictionary of the English Language

- Published A Short Introduction to English Grammar in 1762

- His grammar is the source of the many prescriptive origins that are the studied in schools 

- Led to people judging language in addition to describing it

- His method included criticising 'false syntax' from famous writers' work

- His approach was largely based on Latin grammar, and applying Latin grammar to English arrived at a number of his judgements, though this contradicted his own stated principles

- His stylistics opinions acquired the force of law in the classroom

- Published A Short Introduction to English Grammar in 1762

- His grammar is the source of the many prescriptive origins that are the studied in schools 

- Led to people judging language in addition to describing it

- His method included criticising 'false syntax' from famous writers' work

- His approach was largely based on Latin grammar, and applying Latin grammar to English arrived at a number of his judgements, though this contradicted his own stated principles

- His stylistics opinions acquired the force of law in the classroom

- Potential = there is an internal weakness or an external pressure for a particular change

- Diffusion = the change starts to spread through the population

- Implementation = people start using the variant - it is incorporated into people's idiolect - group/local languages

- Codification model = written down and subsequently pu into the dictionary and accepted officially

- The S Curve model is based on the idea that language change can occur at a slow pace, creating the initial curve of the S (on a graph)

- Then increases speed as it becomes more common and accepted into the language

- This can then slow down again and level out once it hhas fully integrated into the language and is widely used

- This model is based on Chen, who asserted that users would pick up a language change at a certain rate before spreading into wider language usage and then slowing

- This change can be measured on a chart and will produce a curve resembling the letter S

- Suggested that geographical distance could have an effect on language change

- Just as someone who is close to the epicentre of an earthquake will feel the tremors, a person or group close to the epicentre of a language change will pick it up

- Whereas a person or group further away from the centre of change is less likely to adopt it

- For example, a word adopted by multicultural youth in London is unlikely to affect white middle class speakers in Edinburgh

- Suggests that there's a logical reason to create words to 'fill a gap'

- Words can be borrowed, converted or invented in order to fill a gap in usage as well as a phonological gap in our language

- Influence of different forms of languages that come into contact with English affects how it changes

- This is mainly though the language of non-native speakers or regional dialects

- Language from a community below the 'standard form' comes into, and is adopted by the 'standard'

- For example, 'dry' meaning harsh, unreasonable, and unfair or boring is adopted into the standard, so these people stop using it as much

- Suggests that language always changes and adapts to the needs of its users

- Changes in technology and industry often fuel the need for new words

- Words can also fall out of usage, such as 'vinyl' for records, and are replaced by new lexis (neologisms) such as initialisms like MP3 and 'download' 

- Damp Spoon Theory = the idea of laziness - you don't do things properly, it's distasteful. Often to do with phonological/grammatical features that we don't like 

- Crumbling Castle Theory = at some point in the past, the language was 'perfect'. It now has deteriorated and we have to look after it, in order to stop it from getting any worse

- Infectious Disease Theory = we catch bad usage of language from other people and it spreads

- 'Fashions in language are as unpredictable as fashions in clothes'

- He devised a theory that put significant random errors and events as having an influence on language change

- Sugesting that language change occurs due to the unstable nature of language itself

- The theory suggests that changes that occur within the language do so to the constant changin context of the language itself and its users

- For example, the word 'book' became a replacement for the word 'cool' due to mobile phone predicitve text corrections, which is a random way for a word to have changed usage

- Reflectionism in language is based on the theory that a person's language reflects their way of thinking, so someone who uses derogatory slurs such as '****', could be said to be using language that reflects their predjudice towards immigrants

- Determinism is based on the idea that if people can be persuaded not to use such terms, but ones seen as more acceptable, i.e. exchanging '****' for 'Asian' can determine a new way of thinking, and this forms the basis on which political correctness is formed

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- Economy = the tendency to save effort, and is behind the short cuts speakers often take in pronunciation

- Expressiveness = refers to speakers' attempts to achieve greater effect for their utterances and extend their range of meaning

- The results of this hyperbole can often be delf-defeating, since the repetition of emphatic phrases can cause an inflationary process that devalues their currency

- Analogy = he minds craving for order, the instinctive need of speakers to find regularity in language

- They all believed that the English language was 'rustye' and 'cankered', it was not 'ornate' enough

- Writers like Thomas Elyot and George Pettie were enthusiastic borrowers of new words, whereas Thomas Wilson and John Cheke argued against them

- Pettie believed that we needed to borrow these 'inkhorn terms', otherwise it would be very difficult to speak, 'our mouths would be full of ink'

- Wrote a 'proposal for correcting, improving and ascertaining the English tongue'

- Believes that the standards of the English language are falling

- States that the grammarhe believes should be taught is that of 'standard English'

- Claims that standard Enlgish is "the language in whcih this book is written, which is essentially the same form of English used in books and newspapers"

- Recognised in 'Mind Your Language' (2006) that language "must adapt to changing times"

- But nonetheless went on to say that it is "important to make a fuss about the mangling and manipulating of the language"

- He claimed that "word by word, we are at risk of dragging our language down to the lowest common denominator and we do so at the cost of its most precious qualities: subtlety and precision"