Language Change Revision- Synchronic Change

Language Change Revision

1. Look up the following related topics, and post the findings to your blog:

• Political Correctness
• Plain English Campaign 
• The Crystal Mark
• Dog Whistle Politics
• World Englishes

Political Correctness

This is a term which, in modern usage, is used to describe language, policies, or measures which are intended not to offend or disadvantage any particular group of people in society. 

Prescriptivist View of Political Correctness- The group may be in favour of political correctness as it's prescribing 'correct' language. However it could also be seen as language change and an attack on language, linking to decay and the crumbling castle metaphor. 

Descriptivist View of Political Correctness- They may see political correctness as a form of prescriptivism and therefore be against it. 

Norman Fairclough- This theorist suggests that political correctness isn't enough and that we need to change society and the way it thinks about minority groups. 

Plain English Campaign 

Since 1979 the Plain English Campaign has been campaigning against gobbledygook, jargon and misleading public information. They help governments, organisations and their documents, reports and publications as they believe everyone should have access to clear and concise information. 

The Crystal Mark 

The crystal mark is approved by the Plain English Campaign and is the seal of approval for the clarity of a document. It now appears on over 21,000 different documents in the UK, Australia, Denmark, New Zealand and South Africa. It is the only internationally recognised mark of its kind. The Crystal Mark has a fee and allows people to edit subsequent minor changes to any Crystal Marked document that Plain English approve of. 

Dog Whistle Politics

This is a political messaging employing coded language that appears to mean one thing to the general population but has an additional, different or more specific resonance for a targeted subgroup. The phrase if often used as a pejorative because of the inherently deceptive nature of the practice and because the dog whistle messages are frequently distasteful to the general populace. The analogy is to dog whistle, whose high-frequency whistle is heard by dogs but inaudible to humans. 

World Englishes 

This is a term for emerging localised or indigenized varieties of English, especially varieties that have developed in territories influenced by the United Kingdom or the United States. 

2. Find some examples of the ways English is changing and link it to:

• Standardisation
• Simplification 
• Reasons for language change 

Standardisation 

This is the process by which conventional forms of a language are established and maintained. It may occur as a natural development of a language in a speech community or as an effort by members of a community to impose one dialect or variety as a standard. The term re-standardisation refers to the way in which a language may be reshaped by its speakers/ writers. 

Simplification 

Making the language less complex 

Also occurs a lot in CLA where children often simplify pronounciation by deleting certain sounds:

• Final consonants maybe dropped e.g. the sound 't' in 'hat' or 'cat'
• Unstressed syllables are often deleted e.g. 'banana' becomes 'nana' 
• Consonant clusters are reduced e.g. 'snake' becomes 'nake' and 'sleep' becomes 'seep'

http://revisionworld.com/a2-level-level-revision/english-language/child-language-acquisition/phonological-development

Reasons for Language Change

http://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/english-changing

"Language changes for several reasons. First, it changes because the needs of its speakers change. New technologies, new products, and new experiences require new words to refer to them clearly and efficiently. Consider texting: originally it was called text messaging, because it allowed one person to send another text rather than voice messages by phone. As that became more common, people began using the shorter form text to refer to both the message and the process, as in I just got a text or I'll text someone right now.

Another reason for change is that no two people have had exactly the same language experience. We all know a slightly different set of words and constructions, depending on our age, job, education level, region of the country, and so on. We pick up new words and phrases from all the different people we talk with, and these combine to make something new and unlike any other person's particular way of speaking. At the same time, various groups in society use language as a way of marking their group identity; showing who is and isn't a member of the group.

Many of the changes that occur in language begin with teens and young adults. As young people interact with others their own age, their language grows to include words, phrases, and constructions that are different from those of the older generation. Some have a short life span (heard groovy lately?), but others stick around to affect the language as a whole.

We get new words from many different places. We borrow them from other languages (sushi, chutzpah), we create them by shortening longer words (gym from gymnasium) or by combining words (brunch from breakfast and lunch), and we make them out of proper names (Levis, fahrenheit). Sometimes we even create a new word by being wrong about the analysis of an existing word, like how the word pea was created. Four hundred years ago, the word pease was used to refer to either a single pea or a bunch of them, but over time, people assumed Excerpt from Beowulf that pease was a plural form, for which pea must be the singular. Therefore, a new word, pea, was born. The same thing would happen if people began to think of the word cheese as referring to more than one chee.

Word order also changes, though this process is much slower. Old English word order was much more 'free' than that of Modern English, and even comparing the Early Modern English of the King James Bible with today's English shows differences in word order. For example, the King James Bible translates Matthew 6:28 as "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not." In a more recent translation, the last phrase is translated as "they do not toil,” because English no longer places not after the verb in a sentence.

The sounds of a language change over time, too. About 500 years ago, English began to undergo a major change in the way its vowels were pronounced. Before that, geese would have rhymed with today's pronunciation of face, while mice would have rhymed with today's peace. However, a 'Great Vowel Shift' began to occur, during which the ay sound (as in pay) changed to ee (as in fee) in all the words containing it, while the ee sound changed to i (as in pie). Overall, seven different vowel sounds were affected. If you've ever wondered why most other European languages spell the sound ay with an ‘e’ (as in fiancé), and the sound ee with an ‘i’ (as in aria), it's because those languages didn't undergo the Great Vowel Shift, only English did."                                             

3. Find a quote to memorise for AO2 and AO3

• AO2- Concepts and Issues 
• AO3- Contextual Factors

http://crossref-it.info/files/files/Language_change.pdf

4. Find some words to exemplify language change, and terminology to attach to them 

http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/languagechange.htm

                                                            

The 17th Century

Cambridge Elevate
16.7 Standardisation

This is a gradual process and in English began as early as the 14th century. As we have already seen English is a hybrid language (amalgamation of 2 things) which is made up of different dialects and this has resulted in a language that is highly inconsistent. The need to establish a standard became important if English was to be taken serious as a national language.

Haugen (1966) has identified a four stage process to standardisation:

Selection 

Language Selected- Variety selected is usually a prestigious one 

Codification 

Reduction of internal variability, establishment of norms of lexis, grammatical structures and spellings 

Elaboration 

The selected language is developed for a variety of purposes. This may involve expansion of linguistic resources 

Implementation

The standard language must be given currency by making texts available in it, encouraging users to develop pride and loyalty 

(Milroy and Milroy, 1985) Standardisation, therefore, is an ongoing process and an ideological struggle 

Why Do Words Change Meaning?

Cambridge Elevate- 16.4.3 Why Do Words Change Meaning? 

It is difficult to predict which words will undergo shift in meaning when examining semantic change. However, it can be possible to examine internal and external factors which may influence neosemy (when we see words in older texts which may not mean the same as they do now.)

External factors such as cultural changes, technological innovation or social convention may affect how a word is used. E.g. the rise of technology has seen developments in words such as 'virus', 'bug', 'windows', 'crashes' and so on.

Changing social ideas can mean that a need for a new term arises such as LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender), to replace words that are no longer acceptable.

Cultural changes can result in broadening or bleaching of words as the original word looses significance. 'Guy' originally referred to Guy Fawkes but was then applied to anyone of grotesque (ugly) appearance as guys were burned in effigy on Guy Fawkes Night. This slowly replaced 'fellow' to refer to any man, and this meaning exists alongside the current usage of guys to refer to both males and females.

Internal factors can also affect semantic change. The basic meanings of a word can be linked to some similarity, either a specific attribute or an abstract concept. E.g. an actual virus can be likened to a computer virus. Similarly progress can be used literally to refer to a step forward but can also be used metaphorically to suggest personal growth or movement towards improvement.

Why Does Language Change? 

Language changes for several reasons:

1. Needs of speakers change
2. New technologies
3. New products 
4. New experiences

For example when texting, this was originally called text messaging. Called this because it allowed one person to send a text to another rather than by voice message. As this became more common we now use the shorter for of text to refer to both the message and the process. 

Another reason for language change is that no two people have experienced exactly the same language experience. We all know a slightly different set of words and constructions dependent on things such as our job, education, age, region of the country and so on. We develop our vocabulary and pick up new words all the time from different people that we talk to.

Many changes of language begin with teens and young adults. As young people interact with others their language grows to include words, phrases and constructions that are different from those of the older generation. Some words have a shorter life span, others live on to affect our language as a whole. We can also get words from different places e.g. borrowing them from other languages. For example 'sushi' and we also shorten words, combine words and create new words. 

16.4.4- Attitudes Towards Lexical and Semantic Change 

Simon Heffer comments on some changes in meaning that he does not approve of in The Daily Mail.

He is evidently very upset about some of the language change that has gone on over the years. E.g. He says 'ACCESS is a noun and not a verb. 'Can I access your website?' is wrong: either say 'can I gain access?' or 'can I see?' If the access is literal rather than metaphorical, use 'enter': not 'Can i access the premises?' but 'Can I enter the premises?'  

Language Change Presentation Summary

The Effect of Social Media Language Change 

Social media has helped us to develop a whole new range of ways to communicate including:

         •Acronyms such as ‘LOL’

         •Abbreviations such as ‘cus’ instead of ‘because’
•Neologisms (new words) such as ‘selfie’ which is a newly coined word or expression
•So people can get their point across quicker
•So that people can use emoticons and hash tags in their tweets
•Shorter tweets are also much more eye catching 

On some social media sites such as twitter you are restricted to only 140 characters therefore you have to adapt your language to communicate. This provokes people to using emoticons to express emotions, acronyms and abbreviations to shorten words as well as the hash tag (#) to categorize their tweets.

Such changes in language like hash tags are used in our everyday language, you can also find them all over popular culture such as cards, t-shirts and on TV.

Due to twitter users being limited to the amount of characters they can use they don’t type the way they would speak. This is for a variety of reasons:

1. People get their point across quicker 
2. So that people can use emoticons and hash tags in their tweets 
3. Shorter tweets are also much more eye catching

Lots of people assume that social media has dumbed down the English language, abbreviating words and changed meanings. However, there are also ways in which social media is strengthening the English language.

         •Social media can in fact help students to boost their creativity and become more aware of misspellings and poor grammar.

       •It also allows for language to be developed and updated to modern day

       •Social media language helps to save lots of time when wanting to talk to friends etc.

 

However, some spelling and grammar has deteriorated because of clippings and abbreviations being used so often on social media. 

Language Change Homework

Homework 22/01/16
Language Change


There are a few different attitudes towards language change, these terms express attitude:


Descriptivism- Happy to explore and embrace the change in English
Prescriptivism- Unhappy about the development in English and disapproving of the evolving language


Attitudes to Language Change and Technology- John Humphrys, Mail Online


John Humphrys has written an article about language and technology on the Mail Online. It is evident that John Humphrys has a prescriptive attitude towards language and technology and how our language is evolving. His prescriptive attitude demonstrates he is unhappy about the developments in English and is also very disapproving of the evolving English language.


John's prescriptive attitude is present in the title of the article 'I h8 txt msgs', this gives an immediate example of the fact that John has a prescriptive attitude as he is clearly unhappy with the development of technology and emphasises the use of abbreviations in the heading. To begin the article John comments on the fact he would much rather look up an unknown word in the dictionary as he states /infinitely more satisfying than looking something up on the internet'. This demonstrates John's disapproving attitude of how our language is evolving and also how we are putting technology to use in modern day life to find words that we are unsure of.


John describes his relationship with the Oxford English Dictionary: 'my lifetime love affair with the OED is at risk'. He uses comedy to share with his audience how he feels about the dictionary and how much more useful he finds it compared to looking up words on a computer. It is also evident that John has a prescriptivism attitude when he talks about how hyphenated words have changed in the last couple of years. 'It has removed the hyphen from no fewer than 16,000 words.' John uses statistics to back up his points which shows he is strong and passionate bout his beliefs.

Language Change

Task One
New words in the oxford dictionary

• E-cigarette- Another term for electronic cigarette which is a cigarette-shaped device containing a nicotine based liquid that is vaporised and inhaled to simulate the experience of smoking tobacco.  
• Netbook- A netbook is a small laptop computer designed for internet based applications
• Photobomb- To spoil a photograph of a person or things unexpectedly by appearing in the camera's field of view as the picture is taken, typically as a prank or practical joke.
• Retweet- On the social media website Twitter; to retweet means to repost or forward a message posted by another user
• Tan line- A tan line is a visually clear division on the human skin between an area of pronounced comparative paleness relative to other areas that have been suntanned by exposure to ultra violet (UV) radiation. The source of the radiation may be the sun, or artificial UV sources such as tanning lamps.
• Twerk- To dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance.
• On trend- Very fashionable.
• Blu-ray- A format of DVD designed for the storage of high definition video and data.
• Totes- Totally
• Jeggings- Tight fitting stretch trousers for women, styled to resemble a pair of denim jeans.

Task Two- Attitudes


There are a few different attitudes toward language change. Your task is to learn and define the following terms which express attitude:

• Prescriptivism- Also known as linguistic prescription; this is the practice of elevating one variety or manner of language use over another. It could imply some forms are incorrect, improper, lack communicative effect or of a low aesthetic value
• Descriptivism- This is the belief that the meanings or ethical or aesthetic terms and statements are purely descriptive rather than prescriptive, evaluative or emotive.
• Synchronic change- A diachronic study or analysis concerns itself with the evolution and change over time of that which is studied; it is roughly equivalent to historical. Thus diachronic linguists is also known as historical linguistics. A synchronic study of analysis, in contrast, limits its concern to a particular moment of time

Task Three
Attitudes to Language Change & Technology
The following TED talk and 3 articles are all about the relationship between language and texting. You may remember looking at the TED talk in your AS study. Watch and read them and make notes on the viewpoints of the writers and speaker. Do they display a descriptivist or prescriptivist attitude?

• John McWhorter TED Talk
• John Humphreys
• John Sutherland on Texting
• David Crystal on Language

Lexical and Grammatical Development of Children Summary

The Pre-Verbal Stage

• The cooing stage occurs when a child is roughly 8-20 weeks old where they produce sounds such as "aaaaah."
• The babbling stage occurs when a child reaches 9 months old and can produce sounds such as "ba, ba , bbb." 
• The next stage is known as verbal scribbling and happens when the child is 30 weeks old, this is where the child uses a range of consonants, vowels and fricative sounds which are produced when sounds escape through a small air passage in the mouth. 
• Melodic Utterance occurs when the child is roughly 9-18 months and the sounds they utter become more recognizable.  

Lexical and Grammatical Development 

Stage One- The Holophrastic Stage 

• Stage one is known as the holophrastic stage, this occurs when the child is roughly 12-18 months old. In this stage the child utters their first word and builds a vocabulary of holophrases also known as single words to convey meaning. At this age the child has learnt about 50 words and so from the pre-verbal stage has developed to understand 5 times more words. It is known as holophrase as oppose to words as they all convey the meaning of a phase or sentence through body language, intonation and volume related to the child everyday life e.g. "doggy" and "gaga". 

Stage Two- The Two Word Stage 

• Stage two is known as the two word stage, this is where children of aged 18 months begin to use two words at a time. Some call this stage the 'emergence of grammar' as it is now possible for a child to choose word order and make a simple grammatical analyses of the meanings of these sentences. They often consist of a noun and a verb the same as an objects and an action.                                           The type of utterances are more flexible with a range of grammatical functions e.g. 

1. An action affects an object- "Make bridge"
2. An order performs an action- "Mummy sleep"
3. An object is given a location 

• It is possible to work out grammar behind utterance and there are quite a few that defy definition and understanding including: "hot pretty", "mummy-daddy", "teddy-juice". These do not make sense but it is evident  that the child is asking for their teddy and some juice however they do not have the language skills to differentiate asking for this in two separate sentences. 
• The meaning relies heavily on context and a sympathetic listener 
• Correct syntax (Word Order)- "My Bed"
• Begin to use preposition- "On Head"
• Possession Words- "My Cat"
• Pronouns- "She Cold" = The child is able to refer to others as well as themselves

Stage Three- The Telegraphic Stage 

 

• At the age of 2-2 and a half years a child goes into the telegraphic stage, this is where the child begins to use sentences containing up to 4 words in length. Sentences with gaps where the non lexical words ( those without a dictionary meaning) such as "and", "but" and "if" (conjunctions) "the", "a" (articles) "is", "has" (auxilary verbs) as well as endings like "ing" are lost. E.g. go swim instead of go swimming. The child combines 3-4 words in a variety of constructions e.g. a statement sentence, a question sentence and a command sentece.
• After the age of 3 child langauge advances in leaps and bounds, although massive developments happen simultaneously and are linked together. The simpliest way is to divide them into four categories, these are:

1. Semantics
2. Phonology
3. Grammar
4. Pragmatics

Stage Four- Post Telegraphic Stage

 

• The post telegraphic stage begins at roughly 36 months in a childs life, this is where they start to become more grammatically complex and their development of reading and writing skills begin to improve.