Academics who sought to codify the English language
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What is codification?
The process of standaridization- creating a norm used by all English speakers
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What was the major era for grammarians?
The 1700s (18th Century)
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How did the grammarians settle language disputes?
Through reason, eptymology and examples from the classics.
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What did the grammarians try to reduce in the language?
Split infinitives, contractions, prepositions at the end of sentences, the clipping of verbs, double negatives, the capitalisation of all nouns of significance etc.
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What legislation had a great impact on standardisation?
The 1870 Education Act
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How would you define an prescriptivist approach to language?
The attitude/belief that one variety of a language is superior to others or that there is a 'correct' or 'proper' way to use language.
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How would you define an descriptivist approach to language?
The attitude/belief that no one usage of language is superior to another. The willingness to use language freely & not in accordance with standard form.
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Which famous author wrote a book that helped establish grammarian ideology?
Jonothan Swift
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What is orthography?
The appearance of letters, spelling & graphology.
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What is obsolenscence?
When a practice is no longer used.
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What is archaism?
When a practice is used but old-fashioned.
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What is ligature?
The linking of common letters in type script.
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Why were ligatures used?
To save time.
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Give an example of the ligature used.
'sh', 'ch', '&', 'ct'
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When was the long 's' used?
Before 1800.
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Why did the long 's' become obsolete?
The short 's' became fashionable in printing companies.
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Which two letters were used interchangably? Why?
'V' and 'U' because in Latin there was no difference between the two.
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What is trend in lexical change over the pqast 100 years?
Language is becoming simpler & more informal.
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What is clipping?
When parts of words are omitted for brevity e.g. advetisement > ad
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Can you name the types of clipping?
Back clipping, fore-clipping, middle clipping & complex clipping.
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What are compounds?
When two words are put together to form a new word.
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What types of compounds are there?
Two words, one word & hyphenated.
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What is the process of creating new words called?
Coinage
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What are new words called?
Neologisms
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What are loan words?
Words directly taken from othe languages e.g. barbecue is taken from Spanish
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What is affixation?
When prefixes & suffixes are added to a word to create a new one.
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What is blending?
When two words are blended together e.g. satnav is a blend of satelite navigation.
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What is initialism?
an abbreviation consisting of initial letters pronounced separately
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What is an acronym?
the abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word
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What is back-formation?
When a suffix of a word is removed to create a new word e.g. edit from editor
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How would you define semantic change?
How the perceived meaning of words has changed.
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What is amelioration?
When a word develops a more positive meaning
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What is perjoration?
When a word develops a more negative meaning
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What is broadening?
When a word developes more meanings
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What is narrowing?
When a word develops less meanings/ a more specific meaning
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How have irregular verbs changed over centuries?
The stem vowels have changed e.g. spake > spoke
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When did auxiliary verbs start to be used more often?
Around the 1600s
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How has noun use changed?
Until the 18th century almost all nouns of significance were capitalised
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Is the definite article used more or less now than in the past?
Less e.g. the Russian > Russian
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
What is codification?
Back
The process of standaridization- creating a norm used by all English speakers
Card 3
Front
What was the major era for grammarians?
Back
Card 4
Front
How did the grammarians settle language disputes?
Back
Card 5
Front
What did the grammarians try to reduce in the language?
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