Grammatical change - verb: -s, -ed, -ing and nouns: -s, -ess and Old English: hand = handa end eye = eyen
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Decay
concerns about the decline in the standard English, change is due to a lack of care or maintenance
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Evolution
Language is at a more efficient state - survival of the fittest. Language is adapting to the needs of the time
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Stalemate
Language remains at a substantially similar state. 'advance' or 'decline' held in check by opposing forces
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Diachronic change
refers to the study of historical language change, occurring over time
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Synchronic change
study of a language at a point in time, without considering historical context
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Prescriptive approach
'correct' forms, prescribes 'rules' that should be followed, elements of prejudice or elitism, lays blame, Milroy and Milroy 1980s against this, Cameron 1995 prescriptivism should not be discounted
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Descriptive approach
does not tell us how to speak, describes language, no language variety is considered superior, about the rules that people know and use, Oxford English Dictionary in the 20th century
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overt prestige
refers to the status speakers get from using a formal language
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Covert prestige
speaker chooses not to adopt the posh language
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borrowing
introducing words from another language, with or without changing it
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eponyms
the name of the person becomes the name of the object
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proprietary
the name of the company is used as the name on an object
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abbreviation
shortening an existing word; ad, burger
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acronym
lexicalised word made up from the initial letters of a phrase, sounded as a word, e.g. RADAR
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Initialism
initial letter pronounced seperatly e.g. CD
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Clipping
shortening the existing word e.g. editor - edit
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affixation
adding prefixes mega- or suffixes radical -ising
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conversion
changing the word class -text
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blend
smog, brunch
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compunds
using the word that exists to create new ones e.g. carbon footprint
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broadening/generalization
word retains its old meaning but gains another meaning holiday originally meant holy day, dog meant a particular breed of dog but now means all dogs
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narrowing/specialization
meat or bread originally denoted all all flesh, not just animal flesh, in the middle ages girl meant all women not just young
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amelioration
change gives the word a more positive meaning, pretty used to mean sly or cunning
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pejoration
the meaning becomes less favourable, cowboys dishonesty - cowboy builders
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metaphors
words acquire new meanings because they are used metaphorically, hawks and doves are also politicians
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idioms
over the moon, wake up and smell the coffee, under the weather
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euphemism
a mild and unoffensive way of describing something unpleasant
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political correctness
half caste replaced with mixed race
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
Decay
Back
concerns about the decline in the standard English, change is due to a lack of care or maintenance
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