Language Change questions

Language change questions – Joe Worgan

1.      What are the main reasons for language change?

·       Technology

·       Geographical and social mobility

·       Political correctness

·       Historical changes and war

·       Pop culture?

2.      What are the ways in which language changes?

·       How language is actually written – even a simple pen can be considered as technology and how we write

·       Semantics – what the words mean. This can be semantic conversion, pejoration, amelioration etc..

·       Lexis – what words have been coined? Rise of technology in 21^st century allowed for a insurgence in new lexical items

·       Grammar – the structure of sentences and how they are spelt and received.

3.      What are the key influential factors on the development of English as accessible to all?

·       Industrial revolution in 17^th century – English was the language for science and technology

·       The great vowel shift – the pronunciation of words started to shift

·       Standardization – English was made to be more consistent

·       Caxton’s printing press and how the language of the South perhaps started to become used by a wider range of sociolects.

4.      What is the difference between a prescriptive and descriptive attitude to language use?

·       Prescriptive – Someone who believes that language should be ‘fixed’, usually opposing the idea of ‘slang’ and ‘teenspeak’ also.

·       Descriptivism – Someone who embraces language change and believes it is a natural occurrence.

5.      What did Johnson think were the problems with his dictionary? Are these problems still evident in dictionaries today?

·       Language is ever-changing, so how can a dictionary be made to reflect all of the uses of language when new words are being coined potentially every day?

·       What Johnson may think is the meaning for one thing – may be thought as differently by another. So, who is Johnson to claim that a word has a definite meaning when it may be different on other regions or societies?

·       In fact, some dictionaries insert slang words as a way to cause controversy – a way for advertisement!

6.      What is a lingua franca, and to what extent is English one?

·       When English is seen as the primary language to use by two speakers whose native language is foreign.

·       For instance, a Spanish and Italian man meet in a bar and start talking English. Why? Because that’s the only language they both know how to speak.

7.      What are the prestigious forms of English now?

·       Because now there are so many different forms of English, then it is difficult to label one as ‘prestigious’.

·       Although it could be said that received pronunciation (RP) can conjure connotations of authority, some people may distance themselves from the accent as it can be seen as ‘snobby’ or arrogant

·       Although written language can be considered as the most prestigious and accurate form of English, technology has meant that a completely new form of English has been introduced

8.      How has politically correct language and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis influenced modern English usages?

·       Derogatory terms have perhaps become more apparent. The use of the word ‘gay’ to reference something negative perhaps represents someone’s negative thoughts towards homosexuality.

·       If we teach children at a young age that this use of vocabulary is correct, then they will adopt this language in the future and believe it to be acceptable?

·       Sapir-Whorf is the proposition that language not only reflects our thoughts, but also affects them too.

9.      Find three examples of obsolete English grammar that you can make reference to in the exam.

·       The use of the long ‘S’

·       The capitalization of nouns to depict something as significant and to add emphasis towards the subject

10.   Find three neologisms from the past five years.

·       Selfie – Concrete noun that has been derived from ‘self’ to indicate a photo taken from the position of the subject

·       Brexit- Blending of the Proper noun ‘Britain’ and the dynamic verb ‘Exit’ used to signify the process of Britain leaving the EU.

·       OMG – Initialism to signify ‘Oh my god’, used as an abbreviation from computer-mediated-communication.