Week 12 - Language Change-sociolinguistics.pptx

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1. Language Change Week 12 - Sociolinguistics

2. Language Change: Introduction All languages change over time and change is inevitable for any living language. History records that languages change over time at every level of structure which includes vocabulary, phonology, morphology and syntax ( PBS, 2005 ). For many people, it may not be easily apparent or obvious in a day-to-day communication on a personal level because many individuals are so intimately connected to their language that they may fail to see its changes. However, languages do indeed change and some languages flourish, some expand, and some languages even die.

3. Language Change: Introduction Generation by generation, pronunciations evolve, new words are borrowed or invented, the meaning of old words drifts, and morphology develops or decays. The rate of change may vary from one place to another but whether the changes are faster or slower, they do happen and they happen for a good cause (Jones & Singh, 2005). There are types of English language change which include lexis (word), semantics (meaning of word), phonology (sound), and syntax (grammar) and the study of these different types can be extremely complex.

4. Cause of language change Political factor- which is caused by foreign invasion, migration and colonization. Social factor - which means foreign influences from Latin, French, American, Australian, Indian and others. The unique way that individuals speak also fuels language change. Vocabulary and phrases people use depend upon the place, age, gender, education level, social status. Cultural factor - This means the exposure of one language group to another via television, radio, films, music, magazines and fashion. Technological factor- which means rapid advances in information technology, industries, products and economy simply require new words that drive language change. Moral factor- which is about recent developments in anti-racism and environmentalism (Beard, 2004).

5. Political factor in language change Many times, language change has some kind of political roots such as human migration and invasion. When people move to a country and learn a new language, they learn their adopted language imperfectly. They then pass on these slight imperfections to their children and to the people in their social circle, and eventually alter the language (Aitchison, 1991, p.109). Besides the language changes brought about by migration, politics play some roles in language change in more immediate ways by the public debates. New political words such as “9/11” (2001), “weapons of mass destruction” (2002), “red state/blue state/purple state” (2004), “subprime” (2007) can now be seen in newly edited dictionaries.

6. Technology factor in language change The ever-changing technology is creating difficulty for the English language users to keep track on new vocabulary and expressions. In fact, language itself changes slowly but the internet has speeded up the process of those changes even more quickly. For example, some entirely new words like the verb “to google' , “ facebooking ”, and many other words that are not yet in the Oxford English Dictionary, have come into popular use (Duffy, 2003). However, not all these new words and slangs being used right now will survive forever. Over a decade ago, the term 'floppy disk' was considered a brandnew lexical development, but now it is rarely used or featured in today's conversations as it has been replaced with 'memory stick'(Wu & Ben-Canaan, 2006).

7. Technology factor in language change The text messaging language is something new the abbreviation such as LOL, BFF, IMHO, and OMG (that's laugh out loud, best friends forever, in my humble opinion and oh my God) have recently added in the Oxford Dictionary, legitimizing the terms used by millions in texts, emails and instant messages ( Yoskowitz , 2011)

8. Social factor in language change Changes in politics, economics and technology usually lead to social changes. Social changes produce changes in language. In other words, once society starts changing, then language change produces special effects. In almost every society, some people have social prestige, power, and money, while others have little of these commodities. Typical variables include occupation, level of education, income, and type of residential dwelling, with ranked levels within each variable. People with different level of social status response and perceive things differently and vocabulary and phrases differently. ( Finegan & Rickford, 2004, p.62 ). For example, individuals who are poor and who cannot afford an education or who grew up in a rural area where proper grammar wasn't encouraged, their ways of speaking will not be as eloquent as someone of higher standing.

9. Foreign influence factor in language change One of the most common reasons for one language to borrow from another is when it needs to refer to notions and things that have been newly introduced to its speakers. For example, the Italian word pizza only entered English when the food to which it refers was adopted by English speech communities. McMahon (1994) has given a few examples of common words borrowed from other languages: hammock, hurricane, maize, tobacco (Caribbean), gull (Cornish), howitzer, robot (Czech), brogue, blarney, clan, plaid, shamrock (Gaelic and Irish), ukulele (Hawaiian), bungalow, dungarees, jodhpurs, jungle, loot, polo, pajamas , shampoo, thug (Hindi), paprika (Hungarian), bonsai, sumo, origami (Japanese), bamboo, ketchup, orang-utan (Malay), paradise, lilac, bazaar, caravan, chess, shawl, khaki (Persian), taboo, tattoo (Polynesian), flamingo, marmalade, veranda (Portuguese), mammoth, soviet, vodka (Russian), coffee (Turkish), and flannel (Welsh).

10. Types of Language Change

11. Lexical and Semantic Change Lexical change refers to people using different words today than people from the past. A semantic change is very closely linked to lexical change but semantic change has something to do with changes in meaning behind the words. Semantic change which is also known as semantic shift describes the evolution of word usage. In semantic change, the modern meaning of the word is different from the original usage. Ex.: The word “awful” originally meant "inspiring wonder or fear". It is a portmanteau of the words "awe" and "full", used originally as a shortening for "full of awe". In contemporary usage the word usually has negative meaning.

12. Syntax Change History records change in grammatical constructions. English syntax is very slow to change compared with vocabulary change which can be seen as fairly superficial and ephemeral. Modern English grammar is different from old English in many aspects. I n modern English, the word “you” is used for both the singular and the plural form. In old English, the word “thou” was used for addressing one person; ye for more than one. However, the word “You” was around then, and while thou and ye were used as a subject of a clause, “you” was used as the object. In Early Modern English, the distinction between subject and object uses of ye and you had virtually disappeared, and you became the norm in all grammatical functions and social situations. The use of “Ye” had eventually become old-fashioned.

13. Phonological/ Sound change Sound change consists of the practice of language change which causes the phonetic change or phonological change. It also includes the substitution of phonetic feature which lead to the total loss of the original sound and a new one is introduced. English pronunciation is gradually changing, although it continues to reflect both geographical and social differences among speakers. No longer is it true, if it ever was, that all educated people speak with Received Pronunciation (RP). A person’s speech can gradually alter over the years in the direction of those around, as is shown by British people who pick up an American accent in a very short time (Aitchison, 1991, p. 108)

14. Spelling Change There are regulatory organizations to preserve national languages in many countries but neither the US nor Great Britain have such regulatory bodies in place. The English language changes with the publication of new dictionaries, or the way media uses language, or with the creation of collqual terms

15. Spelling change

16. Language Change: Progress or decay? Language, without a doubt, is an important marker of ethnic identity which means attachment to language is as strong as people’s regard of themselves as a social group. A negative ethnic identity contributes to the low prestige of the ethnic group’s language which, in turn, makes it more susceptible to shifting to a high prestige language, such as English.

17. References Aitchison, J. (1991). Language Change: Progress or Decay? (2nd ed). NY: Cambridge University Press. Aitchison, J. (2001). Language Change: Progress or decay? (3rd ed). NY: Cambridge University Press. ( 2001). Beard, A. (2004). Language Change. NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis group. Jones, M. & Singh, I. ( 2005). Exploring Language Change. NY: Routledge. McMahon, A. (1994). Understanding language change. NY: Cambridge University Press.