Language Change Theories
Prescriptivism?
The attitude or belief that one variety of a language is superior to others and should be promoted as such.
Descriptivism
the view that language is defined by what people actually do with it. Studying the usage of real people in a real-world context allows us to uncover the principles of a language.
Codification
process where certain linguistic features are recognised as standard and others are rejected; designing a writing system and writing conventions for a language.
Standardisation
process by which conventional forms of a language are established and maintained; may occur as a natural development or as an effort by members of a community to impose one dialect or variety as a standard.
Tide metaphor (David Crystal)
The metaphor illustrates that all change is different, affects different groups of people, and lasts for different amounts of time.
Functional theory (Halliday)
language alters as the needs of its users alter. New lexemes appear as they are required for new inventions, ideas etc.
Lexical gap theory
new lexemes coined through necessity fill ‘lexical gaps’. These neologisms will not already be in use, but will fit the current patterns within the language, and may also fill phonological gaps, eg. git, get and gut already exist, so ‘gat’ could fill a lexical gap.
Random fluctuation (Postal)
language is as unpredictable as fashion; hard to foresee future trends. Hockett also believed change to be unpredictable due to the errors which occur by chance and are then transmitted through contact eg. typo ‘pwned’ for ‘owned’ has spread in online gaming.
Linguistic Reflectionism
the theory that a person's language reflects their way of thinking; use of sexist language reflects a sexist viewpoint
Linguistic Determinism
the idea that language can determine thought; if a person has non sexist language available to them, then they are less likely to hold sexist attitudes.
Linguistic Relativism
the idea that the language a person speaks has an influence on this person's thought
Process of Standardisation (Haugen)
Selection: a prestigious variety of a language is chosen
- Codification: linguistic norms are established, reducing internal variability - Elaboration: language is developed for a variety of purposes
- Implementation: language variety is given currency through production of (official) written texts
Wave model (Bailey)
a new aspect of language (innovation) is initiated in one place at one time and spreads outwards from that point. Just as someone close to the epicentre of an earthquake will feel the tremors, a person or group close to the epicentre of a language change will pick it up, whereas a person or group further away from the centre of the change is less likely to adopt it.
S-curve model of diffusion (Chen)
A pronunciation change occurs on one, or a small number of words, such as the 16th Century prosodic change of stressing the first syllable of nouns ‘record’ and ‘rebel’. The innovation then gathers momentum, and the rate of diffusion to other lexemes becomes rapid, as with the trend for stressing the first syllable of most nouns during the 17th Century.
Polarised views to language (Mackinnon)
Language is viewed towards extremes - correct or incorrect - pleasant or ugly - socially acceptable or unacceptable - morally acceptable or unacceptable - appropriate or inappropriate in context - useful or useless
Language change as a slow decay (Aitchison’s metaphorical models)
Damp spoon syndrome: Attitude that slovenliness and laziness are leading to change and variation in language, like placing a damp spoon in the sugar bowl - Crumbling castle: View that the English language is a beautiful old building that needs to be preserved, but has long passed its pinnacle
- Infectious disease: Changes are ‘caught’ through contact with dangerous/inferior varieties
Economy as progress (Jespersen)
considers language change as progressive when it creates economy; change is progress when we can ‘express the greatest amount of meaning with the simplest mechanism’.
Linguistic 'illusions' (Zwicky):
Frequency Illusion - Once you've noticed a phenomenon, it seems to happen a lot.
Recency Illusion - The belief that something is a recent phenomenon, when it has actually existed a long time.
Adolescent Illusion - The belief that adolescents are the cause of undesirable language trends.
The Principle of Economy (Martinet)
language tends to change in ways that reduce effort for speakers while maintaining clarity for listeners.
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