borrow from other languages, adapt existing words or create completely new ones
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what influences our language?
scientific/medical advances, trade, social, ideological and cultural changes.
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why do we have many synonyms?
because of the varied influences and we can use these in different modes and contexts.
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what does it mean by borrowing a word?
the introduction of a word from one language to another.
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what is proprietary names?
the name given to a product; one organisation becomes the commonly used name for similar products
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what is called when words acquire new meaning?
neosemy
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what are the external factors that cause words to change meanings?
cultural changes, technological innovations, social ideas
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what are the internal factors that cause a word to change meaning?
the basic meaning of a word can be linked to some similarity either a specific attribute or an abstract concept
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what is it often claimed that english has in terms of spellings?
no real system
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what have our spellings been affected by?
historical impact
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when was the roman alphabet introduced and who by?
introduced in the 16th century by the christian missionaries.
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what kind of language was the old english?
phonetic - words were spelled as they sounded
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what happened in 1066 in terms of the alphabet?
the norman conquest where new letters were introduced or given more importance ae k q x z th g
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what did william caxton attempt to regulate?
spelling to help with his printing
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why was caxton problematic?
he used both 'boke' and 'booke' in his own writing
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CAXTON what were the flemish typesetters unfamiliar with?
english way of spelling
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when was the great vowel shift?
mid 14th century to mid 18th century
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what did the great vowel shift consist of?
a gradual changing of vowel pronunciation where the production of long vowels was raised so that the position of the tongue moved closer towards the roof of the mouth
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what century were reformists?
19th century
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what did reformists believe?
that we needed more letters in our alphabet to show all our sounds
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what did reformists suggest?
keep the alphabet but address some of the tricky spelling problems
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what do the english spelling society try to tackle?
the tricky aspects of spelling but to no avail
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what do the english spelling system believe?
a simpler spelling system will enable people to learn the rules of british spelling and apply them over american rules
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what does Noah webster believe about american rules?
they are more logical and should be given precedent over english rules
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what does grammatical change tend to be slower than?
slower than changes in lexis and spelling
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when did focus shift to grammar and why?
shifted in the 18th century after the establishment of the lexicon and spelling system was codified in the dictionary
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what did robert lowth publish?
short introduction to english grammar in 1762
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what did lowth believe?
that an understanding of english grammar would assist with learning more rigorous grammatical rules of latin
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what kind of theorist was lowth?
prescriptivist
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what were his rules?
the pronoun 'thou' should no longer be used, should be differentiation between 'will' and 'shall', should be regularisation between who and whom
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what did steven spinker say about forcing modern speakers of english to not split an infinitive as it isnt done in latin?
makes as about much sense as forcing modern residents of England to wear laurels and togas
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what did lindley murray publish?
'english grammar' 1795
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whos work was murray heavily reliant on?
lowths
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how did murray and lowth differ?
in some cases where lowth suggested tendencies, murray established rules
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what did murray state?
all parts of a sentence should correspond with each other; a regular and dependent construction, throughout should carefully be preserved
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
what influences our language?
Back
scientific/medical advances, trade, social, ideological and cultural changes.
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