Language Change
Sound Change
Morphological and syntactic change.
1. Change in “Agreement”rule.
2. Change in negation rule.
3. Process of simplification.
4. Loss of inflections
Vocabulary Change
Vocabulary change can include:
A) addition of new words. B) Loss of words C) Changes in the meaning of words
1. Additon of new words
A) Coinage
A new word can be coined outright to fit some purpose.
B) Clipped words
Clipping refers to the abbreviation of longer words or phrases.
C) Blending
A blend is a word formed by combining parts of other words.
D) Acronyms
Acronyms are words derived from the initials of several words.
E) Back formation
New words may be coined from already existing words by ‘subtracting’an affix thought to be part of the old word. Such words are thus called back-formation.
F) Functional shift
Words may shift from one part of speech to another without the addition of affixes.
G) Borrowing
When different cultures come into contact, words are often borrowed from one language to another.
2. Loss of words
Many new coinages are very short-lived. One of he most common causes for the loss of lexical items is the discontinuation of the object they name, e.g. soap flake, wash board, rumble seat are on the way out.
3. Changes in the meaning of words
There are three processes of semantic change, namely, widening, narrowing, and shift in meaning.
A) Widening of meaning
B) Narrowing of meaning
C) Meaning shifting
Some recent trends
1. Moving towards greater informality
A) conversational forms like ain’t. don’t and can’t are commonly used in articles in the press.
B) People prefer to use informal style, such as It’s me and who did you see?
2. The influence of American English
Foe many years American English has been assaulting the British Isles with ever-increasing weight and persistence, through movies, newspapers, magazines, radio and television.
3. The influence of science and technology
With the development of science and technology, new words and expressions are coined in three different domains:
A) Space travel: space suit, heat-shield, splash-down, space station, linkup, readout, lunar module etc.
B) Computer and internet language: program, input, output, email, hacker, information highway etc.
C) Ecology: Ecology refers to the study of the relationship between plants, animals, people, and their environment, and the balances between these relationships.
e.g. ecoactivist, ecocide, ecocatastrope, visual pollution, noise pollution, graffiti pollution, eco-friendly, planet-friendly, environment-friendly
Causes of language change
The linguists have little idea what causes a language to change.
A) the rapid development of science and technology has led to the creation of many new words:bullet train, fax.
B) Social and political changes and political needs have supplied the English vocabulary with great quality of new words and expressions: shuttle diplomacy, mini-summit, jungle war, Euro, hot line.
C) Woman movement and feminist movement make women aware of their social positions:
D) The way children acquire language provides a basic cause of change
E) Economy of memory results in grammar simplification: internal borrowing