1Which aspects are not on the spec?
Old English
Middle English
2Which aspects are on the spec?
Early-Modern English
Late-Modern English
Present-Day English
3When is Old English?
449-1100
4When is Middle English?
1100-1500
5When is Early-Modern English (EME)?
1500-1800
6When is Late-Modern English (LME)?
1800-present day
7When is Present-Day English (PDE)?
Present day onwards
8Why is "Old English" politically motivated?
Suggests English is pure and was created in isolation
LIE
Was actually influenced by so many other languages
9When was the Roman rule?
43BC-410AD
10When did the Saxons invade?
477AD
11When did the Angles invade?
547AD
12How did English develop?
From speech of Angles, Saxons and Jutes (Germanic)
13Where did Angles settle?
East Anglia
14Where did Saxons settle?
Essex
Sussex
Middlesex
Wessex
15Where did Jutes settle?
Kent
16Define language contact
Multiple languages come into contact with one another and influence each other
17Where did we first take lexical borrowings from?
From Latin
18Why did we take lexical borrowing from Latin?
Only educated able to read
Latin was language of religion = higher class so overt prestige (lower class conform)
19What did the Romans bring?
Reading and writing to large towns
20Who proposed the *myth of the ancient language*?
James Milroy
21What is the myth of the ancient language
The idea that English originated in isolation (therefore, called Old English)
Ignores idea of influences from other languages
22Differences between Old English and PDE
Old English = no silent letters, gender marking of nouns
PDE = some silent letters, no gender marking of nouns
23When was the Battle of Hastings?
1066
24Why did English lose prestige after the Battle of Hastings?
Norman-French invasion meant French spoken by ppl in power
Includes William the Conqueror
25How did the Norman-French invasion affect English?
English took on some French forms
26Define Diglossia
2 very different varieties of language exist alongside each other and each has a distinct social function and status
27How did English rise after the Norman-French invasion?
100 Year War positioned French language as the enemy
Black Death (1348) reduced population so increased social status of peasants who were proud of English'
Statute of Pleading (1362) meant English was the official language in court
English bible (1384)
English in schools (end of 14th C)
283 reasons why English has changed
Wars and invasions
Lexical borrowings
Prestige
29Attitudes towards diglossia during Norman-French invasion (Middle English)
Want uniformed language
Want to protect own identity and nationalism
Normans want divide? (Separated from lower class)
Or want to be accepted into country so believe everyone should speak French
Lower class (English) don't want to be associated with Normans
30Spelling and phonological features of Middle English compared to Old English
No standardised spelling
Norman qu replaced cw
hw became wh
Sound system = phonetic
Long vowel sounds written with 2 vowels (see instead of se)
31Where does the lexis from Middle English come from?
Lexical borrowings
French (crown, justice, army jewel)
Latin (affixes)
32Grammatical features of Middle English compared to Old English
No gendered nouns, determiners and adjectives
Most endings disappeared
33How did EME start?
1476 = printing technology
Caxton created 1st printing shop
Majority books in English
Caxton published 3mill words himself (added to other texts) and provided 1st use of 1300+ new words (eg. concussion and voyager)
34How did Shakespeare influence English?
Introduced 2000 new words and phrases (dauntless, alligator, breaking the ice)
35When was the 1st English dictionary produced and by who?
Cawdry 1604
36How many words in the 1st English dictionary?
3,000
37When were prescriptivist attitudes introduced?
Lowth's *A Short Introduction to English Grammar* 1762
Murray's *English Grammar* 1794
38When was the Great Vowel Shift?
1400-1450
39Why did the Great Vowel Shift occur?
New fashion and immigration
40Example of change due to Great Vowel Shift
Pronunciation of *i*
ee to eye
41When and why did EME end and LME begin?
High industrialisation (Industrial Revolution and British Empire) exposed English to many other languages
Lexical borrowings
A Dictionary of the English Language began standardisation (1755)
40,000 entries
Literacy rates increased
42Define lexical change
New words enter language
43Define lexical diffusion
New words gradually taken up by speech community
If it gains currency (different ppl and contexts), it becomes established - Aitchison 2012
44Why does lexical expansion take place?
Need new vocab to discuss new social and cultural experiences
Contact with others (technology, travel, immigration etc.)
45Who created functional theory?
Halliday
46What is functional theory?
Language changes to suit the needs of its users
47How many words in the English Language?
650,000 to 1mill
48What percentage of words in the English Language are estimated to be lexical borrowings?
70%
49Outline Aitchison's characteristics of borrowings
Vocab easily detached from original source language due to prestige
Fits in with structure of borrowing language (eg. reflects phonological features)
Borrow from language which resembles features of its own
Borrowing language makes small adjustments to internal structure
50What did Aitchison investigate?
Characteristics of lexical borrowings
51Define portmanteau
New words made by compounding 2 words together
Also known as blending
Eg. bromance, smog, Brexit, laptop, hangry
52Define clipping
Existing word shortened but keeps original meaning
Also called shortening
Eg. celeb, gym
53Define back-formation
New word looks like an affix has been removed from it
Eg. sculpt, burgle
54Define conversion
Moving word from 1 grammatical category to another without changing the word
Eg. my friend becomes to friend (noun to verb)
55What type of word is:
AWOL
FAQ
AWOL = acronym
FAQ = initialism
56Define infix
Word put it another word
Eg. fan____tastic
57What are Aitchison's 4 stages for language change?
Potential
Implementation
Diffusion
Codification
58Describe the potential stage
Reason for a new word to be introduced (lexical gap or for covert prestige/slang)
Intersects with functional theory
59What and who is the random fluctuation theory?
Charles Hockett
Language change occurs due to the unstable nature of language itself
Changes in language are random
Language influenced by random errors and events
Eg. "book" became "cool" due to texting
60Describe the implementation stage
New word used by small, discrete language community
61Describe the diffusion stage
New word spreads to wider use
Some users resist
62Describe the codification stage
New word is formalised by recording in the dictionary
63What did Chen do and when?
Created the S Curve Model
1968
64Describe the S Curve Model
Language change occurs slowly
Then rapidly increases speed as it becomes more common
Slows down and plateaus once it is fully integrated
65What did Bailey do and when?
Created the Wave Model
1973
66Describe the Wave Model
Geographical difference affects language change
Ppl closest to epicentre of language change pick it up
Further away = less likely to adopt it
67Features of PDE
New vocab
Lexical borrowings
Influence of technology
Regional accents
English as a lingua franca
World Englishes
Prestigious and desirable
Responsible for extinction of less common languages
68Define amelioration
Word's meaning improves over time
Eg. nice = ignorant in Latin but now is kind
69Define pejoration
Word takes on a more negative meaning over time
Eg. gay = happy to negative of homosexual
70What did Kleparski suggest and when?
Pejoration more common than amelioration for women
1998
71Example of pejoration relating to women
Wench
Original = child of either sex
13th C = child of female sex
14th C = females in service
16th C = young females in working class
72James Milroy attitude towards language change
No standard language
Prescriptivists are unreliable
No "Golden Age" of language
No common ancestor of English (constant influences)
Myth of the Ancient Language (Old English is politically motivated as it was hardly even English due to high number of influences)
73Define declinism
Way in which precriptivists view language as being in a state of constant decline from a once great peak
74Define diachronic
Way in which language has developed and evolved over time
Descriptivist
75Define synchronic
Only viewing language from one point in time (eg. from Golden Age)
76Who outlined metaphors used by prescriptivists?
Aitchison
77Aitchison's precriptivist metaphors
Language change is a disease
Language change is lazy behaviour
Language is a listed building/crumbling castle
78Who created a descriptivist metaphor for language change?
David Crystal
79Crystal's descriptivist metaphor for language change (+ explanation)
Language is a tidal flow
Constantly changing
Unpredictable
Retains some uniformity
Natural
80Who created the euphemism treadmill?
Pinker
81Explain the euphemism treadmill
Words used to replace offensive words eventually becoming offensive themselves
Eg. idiot/moron were used by doctors, then mentally handicapped, but we now use intellectual disability