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

Standardisation of the English language

1700s Standardisation of English language. Dictionary's and Grammar books

Shakespeare spelt his name in a variety of ways: Shakspere or Shaksper or even apparently Shake-speare. This was because spelling was not standardised while he was alive.

Rise in prescriptive attitude- there is a wrong and right way of using English. More dictionary and grammar books to know the rules

Examples of the earliest dictionary:
Sir Thomas Elyot (1538)
Robert Cawdrey (1604)

Who sought to gather up 'hard English wordes'

- Magnitude: greatness
- Parentate: to celebrate one's parents funeral.


'Samuel Johnson's dictionary (1755) is often regarded as the first 'authoritative' treatment of the English lexicon and it came at a time when there was much unease about the 'degeneration' of the language.'

'It took Johnson nine years to research the 40,000 words for his dictionary and he illustrated their meanings with about 114,000 quotations.'


'OATS. n.s. (a_en, Saxon) A grain, which in England is given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.'
He is implying that Scotland are poor by suggesting that Scotland eat animal food due to eating the same food that English people give to horses.

The story of the first Oxford English Dictionary:  first suggested by the Philological Society (1857)

Published 1928

Thought it was going to take them 10 years, it took them 71 years


Timeline of dictionary's: http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126715.html

https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/e-magazine/articles/14693

George Transcript

Young readers should be corrected whenever they make a mistake

Young readers usually make miscues; early readers make miscues such as whole word errors, letter confusion such as d and b, and blending errors. Miscues are mistakes that readers make; sometimes they use virtuous errors whilst attempting to read something.

When George is trying to read with his mother he pauses for 2 seconds after saying ‘with’, this shows that he may be struggling to read the word after, which is ‘sandbags’, a more complex word. His mum then uses the phonics strategy to help him out by saying ‘sound it out’. It is likely that George has been taught phonics in school so he may be able to do it after being told to use the strategy. George’s mum helping him supports Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal development theory, scaffolding. George is at the zone of proximal development, he is unable to read the word himself but with help from his mother he is capable of doing it. After having help from his mother he was able to have a go at sounding it out and eventually says the correct compound ‘sandbags’. When sounding it out he was unable to make the ‘d’ sound so his mother did it for him. She may have been aware that George may find that sound more complex due to letter confusion, d looking very similar to b. Rather than asking him to try and do the sound himself, she uses the scaffolding technique. This may give him confidence, he is in the process of learning to sound the word out so if he was pushed harder to try and make the ‘d’ sound he may of given up. Georges mum then goes on to say ‘well done’ which supports Skinner’s theory, operant conditioning, giving him positive reinforcement in order for his speech to develop further. Skinner believes that if speech isn’t given a response, it won’t develop any further. Positive reinforcement is giving the child praise or a response, negative reinforcement is punishment or getting ignored. He believes that children are like empty blood vessels in which language has to be put in to. George says ‘people (2.0) were taking the s (.) sandbags’ he has a false start as he has only just learnt how to say the word, and then when saying sandbags he makes a virtuous error by missing out the ‘d’ sound which shows he is still struggling with the word even though his mother had just helped him.

Imitation is used in this transcript which also supports Skinner’s theory. Skinner believes that children imitate people in order to learn language. When his mother was helping him out with saying ‘sand’ and ‘bags’ George repeated her, this shows that he can’t do it on his own but if he gets help from his mother he is able to do it. This also supports Vygotsky’s theory, when given guidance; the child is able to complete it. George imitating his mum does not support Chomsky’s Language Acquisition theory. Chomsky believes that children do not learn language through imitation as language adults use are usually ungrammatical and broken up, he believes children will usually notice if a sentence used is ungrammatical.

Throughout the transcript there is a pattern of George missing out the endings and making whole word errors due to this. His mother had picked up on this as he said ‘never’ instead of ‘need’, she told him to watch his endings. When George first said ‘we never’ his mother uses negative reinforcement ‘nooo’ which causes for George to then self-correct himself and repair the virtuous error he had made. This supports Skinner as he believes in operant conditioning, behaviour is influenced by its consequences. George realises he had gone wrong after getting negative reinforcement which caused for him to try again. His mother said ‘nooo’ instead of ‘no’, she is protecting his positive face needs, not trying to bring his confidence down by using a firm ‘no’, she softens the word instead which gives him the chance to have another go.

The transcript of George reading a book with his mum supports Bruner’s interaction theory. Bruner believes that interaction between the child and care giver is key to language development. When speaking to children, caregivers use child directed speech, they adjust their speech to interact with the child. Georges mum uses phonology, she asks him interrogatives in order for adjacency pairs to take place. ‘What do you think is happening’ she gives him an open interrogative; this may enable him to broaden his imagination and develop his speech whilst having to decide for himself. George uses a strategy to look at the pictures to work out the story. George replies with 'look at that flood (.) you'll have to get loads there and one there(.) and one there and one there' this shows that he is interacting with his mum, replying to her interrogative with a declarative and he may be pointing at the pictures whilst explaining it to his mum. Bruner's theory is supported here as interaction with his mum is enabling him to answer a question and give an explanation to his mum showing he can work things out independently.

Comparison of Children's writing

  

'Nature'. Kyra Hollingsworth: Year 4 student

'California' Denise Svoboda: Year 6 student

The year 4 student uses simple declarative's. The simple sentence's are repetitive,  they each begin with the pronoun 'This' which shows the child may not be very knowledgeable of vocabulary at this stage. There are no conjunctions used, at stage 2, the consolidation stage, the conjunction 'and' is usually used by the child. The child may not be familiar with using compound sentences. This stage is usually when the child is up to age 6. The child will be at the age 8-9. The child uses pictures, recognising the different bird types having different proper nouns. The child writes the words as they sound, which is also stage two. She writes 'magpiy' instead of 'magpie'. There are many spelling errors of the bird types, this may be due to the names being complex. She has invented her own names for the birds such as a 'signing', 'loh taltit' and 'tree otiepe'. The year 4 students is familiar of the bird 'Robin' this may be because it is a popular bird, and it is spelt how it sounds. 

Tom Transcript

Imitation and reinforcement are the most crucial tools for children’s language acquisition. Evaluate

The genre of this text is a spontaneous conversation. It has an informal register as there are paralinguistic features such as the child giggling. The audience of this transcript is Tom, his mother and his father. The mode of the transcript is spoken as it is an interpersonal and unplanned dialogue. The purpose of this transcript is to discuss the subject of Tom using his dad’s bike.

Imitation is when something is being copied; in this example speech is being copied. The child imitates his mother when she models a phrase that he has said. In one of Tom’s utterances, he says “the dad bike”. His mother then goes on to model him by saying “Dad’s bike” in order to provide him with the standard form. Tom then goes on to imitate “dad’s bike” however the first time he says, he says it the original way “the dad bike” and then repairs himself, eventually saying “dad’s bike” multiple times. He hears the standard form, he then uses the non – standard form however self corrects himself and uses the standard form with the suffix. Skinner is a theorist in which believed that imitation is key, like Bruner, he believes that when interacting with a child, the child will imitate you and that is how they learn to acquire language. Skinner believed that children are like ‘empty blood vessels’ in which language had to be put into, they learn language from the environment, people. Chomsky is a theorist which disagreed with Skinner. Chomsky suggested that a child has a built in LAD (language acquisition device) and learning language is a natural ability. He believes LAD converts the major principles of a language and its grammatical structures into the child’s brain. Children then learn different/new vocabulary and relate the syntactic structures from the LAD to form different sentences.  Chomsky said that imitation is not how children learn due to adult’s language sometimes being broken up and ungrammatical. Children will usually recognise if an adult uses an ungrammatical sentence. Tom imitating his mother in this transcript supports Skinner’s theory as he does learn the Standard English form from imitating his mother.

Operant conditioning is a theory that B.F Skinner came up with; it is based on whether behaviour is determined by its consequences. Positive and Negative reinforcements are used. Positive reinforcement is where praise or response is given, Negative reinforcement is where they are punished or ignored. Tom’s mother gives him positive reinforcement when he uses a non-standard form “Is dat your talker”. His mother replies with ‘My talker? Yeah (.) that’s a tape recorder”. She gives him positive reinforcement by repeating what the noun he says and replies with ‘yeah’ even though it isn’t the standard name. She is impressed with his recognition of the communication noun. Giving him positive reinforcement may give him confidence whilst speaking, and modelling him at the same time using the correct noun, ‘that’s a tape recorder’ may help him to learn more complex language in the future. Tom saying ‘talker’ supports Chomsky as he would not of imitated  this noun from anybody as his mum calls it a tape recorder.

She also gives him positive reinforcement when he is counting the chickens. He counts “one (.) two(.) three (.) four (.) one (.) two (.) three (.) four (.) five (.) six (.) seven (.) eight (.) nine (2.0)”. His mother counts “One (.) two(.) three (.) four (.) five”. His mother is helping him learn how to count by doing it the correct way; she may be using a strategy such as pointing at the chickens or counting from left to right in order to teach Tom a simpler way of doing it correctly. Tom may have counted the chickens twice as he may not have had a method to use, however he is at the Zone of Proximal Development, Vygotsky, where he may be able to do it with help from his mother.