Attitudes to language change

English Language

Chapter 16 English Language Book

Page 217

Standardisation is a gradual process, in English it started as early as 14^th century. English is a hybrid language, made up of different dialects and this resulted in a language that was highly inconsistent. The need to establish a standard became important if English was to be taken seriously as a national language.

Haugen 1966 identifies 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 spelling

                                                     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 priced and loyalty

(Milroy and Milroy, 1985) standardisation, therefore, is an on-going process and ideological struggle

Attitudes towards language change-

English Language has taken centuries to develop, it is now an established language that is used on a global scale, and should we try and protect and maintain it? Or should we continue to change and develop it.

 Prescriptivism – language should be preserved and fixed. We have seen attempts to fix the language and impose rules of usage since the 16^th century with Swift’s proposal for a language academy, Johnson’s dictionary and the work of grammarians such as Lowth. Even today, those holding a prescriptivist viewpoint continue to make judgements about ‘correct’ usage , identifying ‘good’ and ‘bad’ examples of language.

Descriptivism – describing language use without judgement and recording change as it happens

16.7.3 More attitudes towards language change

The linguist Jean Aitchinson (2013) used a set of metaphors to describe peoples anxieties about language use.

Damp Spoon Syndrome- language change is caused by laziness, the kind of sloppiness you get with a damp spoon being left in the sugar bowl

Crumbling Castle- English language is a beautiful old building which needs to be preserved; the English language has been gradually and carefully created until it has reached the pinnacle of splendour

Infectious disease- we ‘catch’ change from those around us

Attitudes towards language change- Donald Mackinnon in 1996

He suggested that language can we seen as:

1. -          Correct or incorrect
2. -          Pleasant or ugly
3. -          Socially acceptable or socially unacceptable
4. -          Morally acceptable or morally unacceptable
5. -          Appropriate or inappropriate in their context
6. -          Useful to us or useless

Makinnon’s model is useful for exploring attitudes towards language uses over time

Why does change happen?

External factors play a significant role in language change. As society develops, the language  needs to adapt  to keep up with these changes.

The changing social climate

• From the time of the Norman Conquest, England followed a strictly feudal system

• From the late 15^th century, feudalism began to decline but clear division of class remained

• The industrial revolution saw increased urbanisation and the emergence of a new middle class

• The middle classes were conscious of their language. Many dictionaries, pronunciation guides and grammar guides were published during the 18^th and 19^th centuries, advising members of this new social group of ‘correct’ language usage

• The Elementary Education Act of 1870 was passed, providing compulsory education for all children aged between 5 and 12; thus literacy greatly improve

Additional external factors-

• -          Increased contact with a worldwide community:

• -          -the 20^th century has seen two world wars, both of which exposed the language to contact with countries from around the world, including America and colonial and post-colonial countries such as Australia, Canada, India.

• -          Post- war affluence has led to rise in travel and increased contact with other cultures and experiences, resulting in extensive borrowing

• -          The rise in technology has resulted in communication on a global scale

  DO world englishes 222 page

Australian English

Australian English-

First word from Australia to Britain- Kangeroo, documented 1770

To have kangaroo’s in your top paddock- you’re bonkers

Gammon- aboriginal English

Someone telling a lie- that’s gammon

Australian English is different from British and American English in that it has a bias towards invention, deception, profanity, humour and a classless society.

Idioms used-

·         "kangaroos loose in the top paddock"

·          "mad as a cut snake"

·         "built like a brick shithouse"

·         A shitshow - (disaster)

·         Bee's dick of a chance (no chance)

·         Didn't come down in the last shower (clever)

·         A dog's breakfast (mess)

They all illustrate a creative application of visual imagery to a linguistic discourse

Arvo- afternoon

In Australia, it is very common to hear words like arvo being used instead of afternoon. Known as diminutives, they are formed by taking the first part of a word and substituting an a,o, ie, or y sound for the rest. In all, about 5,000 diminutives have been identified in Australian English.

Diminutives, more informal (slang) "Australians who use these diminutives might be trying to sound less pretentious, more casual and more friendly than they would by using the full words."

Spelling:

In regards to spelling, Australia uses a mix of American and British spelt words. As a general rule, words less than five letters tend to be spelt in the British style while those over five letters are more likely to be American. Some of the identity politics involved were illustrated in the spelling of labour. The Australian Labor Party adopted American spelling in the early 20th century in order to associate itself with American libertarian ideals. While using American spelling for the Labor Party is acceptable, British spelling for the act of labour is expected due to fears of an American cultural colonisation of Australia. American spelling for words like "organization" is more common than British "organisation", probably because it makes more sense to spell a z sound with the letter z and words over 5 letters are too complicated for some Australians to worry about where it came from.

Grammar:

Like spelling, Australian grammar is a mix of British and American English. In Britain, collective nouns are usually defined as plural. For example, the British would say, "The couple are happy." American grammar is more pattern orientated so a noun is defined as plural when it has an s. For example, Americans would say, "The couple is happy" (singular) but "The two cowboys are happy." In Australia, there isn’t sufficient knowledge of grammar to reject either British or American tradition so both have become standard as a result of American television and American computer grammar checks mixing with traditional British instruction.

 

 http://www.convictcreations.com/culture/strine.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08fdhrx

Language change

Language change

Shifting meanings (semantic shift)

e.g. ‘fond’

·         current meaning: to like something, be affectionate (e.g I am extremely fond of cupcakes)

·         Earlier meaning: foolish, silly

The meaning of ‘fond’ has ameliorated (become more positive over time), moving from fairly negative semantics to more positive.

Neosemy: the process whereby a new meaning develops for an existing word

Processes involved with neosemy:

Generalisation/broadening-

-          The meaning of a word broadens so that it retains its old meaning but also has new meanings

-          Holiday- originally from ‘holy-day’; in the past people were only permitted a day off during days of religion importance

-          Place- original referred to a broad street but now refers to any area

Specialising/narrowing-

-          The opposite of broadening – a word becomes more specific in meaning:

-          Meat- the Old English ‘mete’ used to mean food in general but now refers to a specific type of food

-          Wife- used to refer to all women, not necessarily those who were married

Amelioration-

Over time a word acquires a more pleasant or more positive meaning;

-          Pretty- used to mean sly or cunning

-          Brave- used to mean wild/savage

-          Terribly- used to mean dreadfully but now is used as am intensifier

Pejoration-

-          The opposite of amelioration – over time a word becomes less favourable:

-          Villain- used to mean farm worker

-          Notorious- used to mean ‘widely known’ but now is linked to someone who is famous for having done something bad

-          Hussy- used to mean ‘housewife’ but now refers to a woman with loose morals

Weakening/bleaching-

-          The loss of reduction of the force of meaning of a word:

-          Thing- in Old English this referred to a meeting or assembly but now can refer to an unspecified object or anything

-          Shit- along with its literal meaning, it’s not uncommon for people to use expressions such as ‘I’m getting my shit together’ which has weakened to refer to stuff’

Euphemism- 

polite form of expressions for things that may be considered unpleasant:

-          E.g. he passed away instead of ‘he died’

-          Downsizing, is often used to refer to making peoples jobs redundant

Polysemy- words acquire many possible meanings, which coexist with the original:

-          Milk/milking it: where ‘milking it’ has evolved from the verb ‘to milk’ in its original sense

-          Good: Tom is a good person who words hard for the benefit of others

-          It was a good piece of work

-          Foot: when he got to the foot of the hill, he stumbled and twisted his foot

Why do words change meaning?

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 development in words such as: virus, bug, crash, windows

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

-          Cultural changes can result in the broadening or bleaching of a word as the original usage loses significance

Internal factors can also affect semantic change-

-          The basic meaning 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.

Process	Definition	Example
Coinage/neologism	The deliberate creation of a new word, not a common process of word formation	Widget hobbit spoof
Borrowing/loan words	Borrowing of words/concepts from other languages. Words are either anglicised (made more English so we no longer recognise them as loan words) or they may retain their original phonology	Bungalow (from Hindi) Landscape (dutch) Futon (Japanese) Saga (Icelandic)
Compounding	Words are combined together to form new words	User-friendly Long winded Handheld
Clipping	Words are shortened and the shortened form becomes the norm	Pram Phone Deli Bus Gym Flu
Blending	A combination of clipping and compounding: words are abbreviated and joined together to form a new word	Moped (motor and pedal) Newscast (news and broadcast)
Acronym	First letters are taken from a series of words to create a new term	NATO AIDS
Intialism	The first letters from a series of words form a new term, but each letter is pronounced	BTW CD MP3 OMG
Affixation	One of more free morphemes are combined with one or more bound morphemes	Disinterest regift