Language Change

• Studies language change from 1700 (eighteenth century) to present...

• The “Late Modern” period, when there is a concerted effort at standardization

• Standardization: the fixing of norms/standards to English (grammar, spelling, lexis etc.) and its variations

• Synchronic change: change occurring at a fixed “point” or “moment” in time (this moment, though, is theoretical or imaginary – we might be taking “the eighteenth century” as our “moment”)

• Diachronic change: Change occurring across historical

time

“Drivers” of Change: Science & Technology

• New words (often Greek/Latin in derivation) borrowed or coined as needed

• Scientific innovation during the Renaissance (roughly C16-mid C17) and the Enlightenment (roughly mid C17 – C18) required expansion of the lexicon; no language for the new discoveries

• New inventions require new words (e.g., a machine that washes the dishes is called... um... a dishwasher [neologism; compound])

“Drivers” of Change: Travel

• Travel – because of trade and tourism/leisure industry – brings different languages and cultures into contact with one another

• More borrowings/loan words (e.g., “curry”; in C18 “currey,” when it was a neologism without standard spelling)

“Drivers” of Change: Social, Political, Ideological

• Changes in public attitudes (e.g., towards gender/race) make certain lexical choices more/less acceptable

• Political correctness exerts a pressure: – some words undergo pejoration, & fall out of use; – Coinages/neologisms replace older, now archaic

terms;– changing attitudes can affect which registers will

be adopted in certain contexts

“Drivers” of Change: Media

• Might affect attitudes (& therefore register – journalism more/less formal today that 100 years ago?)

• Introduce coinages, initialisms, acronyms• Slang/colloquialisms become part of

“standard” lexicon (e.g., “Gotcha”)• Hyperbole [“hy-per-b(u)lly”] and abbreviation

(initialisms, acronyms, clippings) typical of “journalese”

Change through abbreviation• Initialism (e.g., HQ)• Acronym (e.g., SCUBA) • Clipping (also “truncation” & “shortening”): Reduction of a word by

dropping one or more syllables; specific to lexical/semantic field (e.g., from School: exam(ination), math(ematic)s)

Reasons/Effects:• Make specialist/expert language more accessible/common knowledge

(e.g., DNA & BSE)• Save time and space

– important in commercial publishing and some specialist/academic writing (avoids clumsy repetition of long noun phrases)

• Humorous (can affect tenor) – e.g., WAG

How new words enter the lexicon

• Coinages/neologisms• Borrowings/loan words• Compounds• Portmanteaus/Blends• Back formation• Conversion • Affixation

Back Formation

• Removal of imagined affix from an existing word. E.g., “edit” (C18) from “editor”

• “Editor” actually the root/base word

Conversion

• When a word is “converted” to another word class, without any morphological change.

• Produce (verb & noun)• Google (verb & noun)

Affixation

• Prefixing– E.g., “mega-”; “super-” (Pinker calls it

“promiscuous” because...)• Suffixing (especially verbing &

nominalization)– E.g., -ization & -ize (radicalize/radicalization)

• Backformation, conversion, affixation often reflect significant cultural shift

• E.g., “radicalization”/“radicalizing” – common since so-called “War on Terror”

• “Edit” as back-formation of “editor” – from late C18, reflecting spread of literacy, standardization, book production etc.

Semantic Shift/Drift

• Amelioration• Pejoration• Weakening: lessening of intensity of a word (e.g.,

“soon”: used to mean “straightaway”)• Strengthening: increasing intensity of word (e.g.,

“appalled”: feeble, pale; now deeply dismayed)• Broadening/Generalization: expansion of

meanings/connotations of a word• Narrowing/Specialization: Opposite of broadening

Semantic Shift through metaphor

• Broadening can occur because of figurative/metaphorical uses of words:

• Metaphor• Euphemism: A mild figure of speech, designed

to mitigate• Idiom

• Amelioration• Pejoration• Weakening• Narrowing/specialization• Broadening/generalization• Polysemy• Connotation• Denotation• Metaphor• Euphemism• Idiom

• Lexicon• Political correctness:• Archaism• Register• Slang/Colloquialism• Journalese• Overt Prestige• Covert Prestige• Antonomasia• Eponym• Trademark

Erosion/Proprietary Name

Playdough!!

Define

• Standardization• Synchronic change• Diachronic change

“Drivers” of Change: Science & Technology

• New words (often Greek/Latin in derivation) borrowed or coined as needed

• Scientific innovation during the Renaissance (roughly C16-mid C17) and the Enlightenment (roughly mid C17 – C18) required expansion of the lexicon; no language for the new discoveries

• New inventions require new words (e.g., a machine that washes the dishes is called... um... a dishwasher [neologism; compound])

“Drivers” of Change: Travel

• Travel – because of trade and tourism/leisure industry – brings different languages and cultures into contact with one another

• More borrowings/loan words (e.g., “curry”; in C18 “currey,” when it was a neologism without standard spelling)

“Drivers” of Change: Social, Political, Ideological

• Changes in public attitudes (e.g., towards gender/race) make certain lexical choices more/less acceptable

• Political correctness exerts a pressure: – some words undergo pejoration, & fall out of use; – Coinages/neologisms replace older, now archaic

terms;– changing attitudes can affect which registers will

be adopted in certain contexts

“Drivers” of Change: Media

• Might affect attitudes (& therefore register – journalism more/less formal today that 100 years ago?)

• Introduce coinages, initialisms, acronyms• Slang/colloquialisms become part of

“standard” lexicon (e.g., “Gotcha”)• Hyperbole [“hy-per-b(u)lly”] and abbreviation

(initialisms, acronyms, clippings) typical of “journalese”

Change through abbreviation• Initialism (e.g., HQ)• Acronym (e.g., SCUBA) • Clipping (also “truncation” & “shortening”): Reduction of a word by

dropping one or more syllables; specific to lexical/semantic field (e.g., from School: exam(ination), math(ematic)s)

Reasons/Effects:• Make specialist/expert language more accessible/common knowledge

(e.g., DNA & BSE)• Save time and space

– important in commercial publishing and some specialist/academic writing (avoids clumsy repetition of long noun phrases)

• Humorous (can affect tenor) – e.g., WAG

Types of abbreviation and their effects

How do new words enter the lexicon?

• Coinages/neologisms• Borrowings/loan words• Compounds• Portmanteaus/Blends• Back formation• Conversion • Affixation

Back Formation

• Removal of imagined affix from an existing word. E.g., “edit” (C18) from “editor”

• “Editor” actually the root/base word

Conversion

• When a word is “converted” to another word class, without any morphological change.

• Produce (verb & noun)• Google (verb & noun)

• Backformation, conversion, affixation often reflect significant cultural shift

• E.g., “radicalization”/“radicalizing” – common since so-called “War on Terror”

• “Edit” as back-formation of “editor” – from late C18, reflecting spread of literacy, standardization, book production etc.

Effects of backformation, conversion, & affixation

Semantic Shift/Drift

• Amelioration• Pejoration• Weakening: lessening of intensity of a word (e.g.,

“soon”: used to mean “straightaway”)• Strengthening: increasing intensity of word (e.g.,

“appalled”: feeble, pale; now deeply dismayed)• Broadening/Generalization: expansion of

meanings/connotations of a word• Narrowing/Specialization: Opposite of broadeningProcesses of semantic shift