External Factors:
Cultural changes, technological innovation or social conventions can affect how a word is used.
E.g. Virus, Bug, Crash, Windows have all been
Changing social ideas also mean that a need for new terms arises.
E.g. LGBT = Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender to replace words that are no longer acceptable.
Cultural changes can also result in broadening/ bleaching of words as the original usage loses its significance.
E.g. Guy
1. Guy Fawkes
2. Someone with a grotesque appearance
3. Gradually replaced fellow to refer to any man
Internal Factors:
Basic meanings 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.
Thursday, 24 March 2016
Thursday, 17 March 2016
The Origins of English
Timeline of historical and linguistic development
Old English 5th Century
Language of Britain was Celtic. English developed from speech of the Jules, Angles and Saxon. Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse had a big impact on the English language. Vocab drawn from both. Latin very influential part of the formation of English from this time onwards. English language was mostly phonetic so meant little consistency in written language.
Middle English 11th Century
Norman invasion significant event in the history of English. French = verbal language of the court and administration while Latin remained important in written documentation. (especially by the church).
Early Modern English 15th Century
Caxton introduced printing press from Europe which helped contribute to the establishment of a standard form of English.
Modern English 18th Century
Present-day English 20th Century
Old English 5th Century
Language of Britain was Celtic. English developed from speech of the Jules, Angles and Saxon. Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse had a big impact on the English language. Vocab drawn from both. Latin very influential part of the formation of English from this time onwards. English language was mostly phonetic so meant little consistency in written language.
Middle English 11th Century
Norman invasion significant event in the history of English. French = verbal language of the court and administration while Latin remained important in written documentation. (especially by the church).
Early Modern English 15th Century
Caxton introduced printing press from Europe which helped contribute to the establishment of a standard form of English.
Modern English 18th Century
Present-day English 20th Century
Thursday, 10 March 2016
Drop
The word 'Drop' has numerous meanings in different dictionaries. The first dictionary I researched was the "dictionary.com" website. This website provided me with 74 different definitions. The first named Drop as a noun and explained that it was "a small quantity of liquid that falls or is produced in a more or less spherical mass; a liquid globule." This was followed by a number of similar definitions including "the quantity of liquid contained in such a globule." and "a very small quantity of liquid." These definitions vary slightly but are different showing us how specific language has become and that one word can be broadened to have the same topic but specific meanings within the subject of for example - small amount of liquid.
There is a variety of definitions provided for Drop such as "an act or instance of dropping" "a small, usually spherical, piece of candy" such as lemon drop as well as "to come to an end" in the context of a matter being dropped by the police etc.
The next dictionary I researched was the Cambridge dictionary which provided the definition of Drop as a verb and described as tofall or to allow something to fall. This is a very formal way of describing the word Drop. However, the following definition is "Drop Dead" which I believe to be quite informal, especially for the Cambridge dictionary.
In the urban dictionary, the word Drop has a number of meanings which differ from the conventional dictionary definitions. The first suggestion that is given to me is as a verb and provides the following three definitions:
1. To knock someone over, usually associated with the first hit in a fight
2. To spend (generally a lot of) money; to buy something
3. To release an album
There is a variety of definitions provided for Drop such as "an act or instance of dropping" "a small, usually spherical, piece of candy" such as lemon drop as well as "to come to an end" in the context of a matter being dropped by the police etc.
The next dictionary I researched was the Cambridge dictionary which provided the definition of Drop as a verb and described as tofall or to allow something to fall. This is a very formal way of describing the word Drop. However, the following definition is "Drop Dead" which I believe to be quite informal, especially for the Cambridge dictionary.
In the urban dictionary, the word Drop has a number of meanings which differ from the conventional dictionary definitions. The first suggestion that is given to me is as a verb and provides the following three definitions:
1. To knock someone over, usually associated with the first hit in a fight
2. To spend (generally a lot of) money; to buy something
3. To release an album
Friday, 4 March 2016
1700s Dictionary to Now
Dictionaries have changed from the 1700s to the present day as they were previously created by a single man names Samuel Johnson. They are now created by numerous lexicographer who add and remove words into the dictionaries that are being used and that are no longer being used in today's society. In 175, Samuel Johnson created the dictionary which took him over 8 years to complete and included 40,000 words, some of which he has created himself which are completely unrecognisable to our current English language
Examples of this include:
Deosculation : Warm Kiss
Odontalgik : Tootache
Nowadays, the dictionary is reviewed 4 times a year by the lexicographers and edited in response to the change in our English language. The OED is also online and includes features such as audio clips which allows you to hear the word if you are unsure of the pronunciation.
Another online dictionary that has been newly developed is the Urban Dictionary which is an online slang version of the current OED. The Urban dictionary allows members of the public who are not lexicographers to add words into this dictionary in which the administrators of the website will verify if the input is a valid addition.
Words such as:
Earphone Zombie
Kanye Not
Pied - are some of the words that have been added and accepted into the Urban dictionary.
Another feature of the urban dictionary is that you are able to 'like' or 'dislike' a word if you think it is correct or incorrect and should've or shouldn't have been included into the urban dictionary. This highlights the language change that has occurred over the years and how technology has influenced the way our dictionaries work as we are now able to share words through Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites in order to share new words that someone has discovered.
Examples of this include:
Deosculation : Warm Kiss
Odontalgik : Tootache
Nowadays, the dictionary is reviewed 4 times a year by the lexicographers and edited in response to the change in our English language. The OED is also online and includes features such as audio clips which allows you to hear the word if you are unsure of the pronunciation.
Another online dictionary that has been newly developed is the Urban Dictionary which is an online slang version of the current OED. The Urban dictionary allows members of the public who are not lexicographers to add words into this dictionary in which the administrators of the website will verify if the input is a valid addition.
Words such as:
Earphone Zombie
Kanye Not
Pied - are some of the words that have been added and accepted into the Urban dictionary.
Another feature of the urban dictionary is that you are able to 'like' or 'dislike' a word if you think it is correct or incorrect and should've or shouldn't have been included into the urban dictionary. This highlights the language change that has occurred over the years and how technology has influenced the way our dictionaries work as we are now able to share words through Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites in order to share new words that someone has discovered.
Tuesday, 1 March 2016
Jean Aitchison's Metaphors For Prescriptive Attitudes To Language Change
The Damp Spoon model highlights the apparent laziness and sloppiness over the ways language changes - such as dropping apostrophes and the subjunctive (basically all prescriptivists see change as negative). It's called this because it's similar to the laziness Aitchison felt when a damp spoon was put back into a sugar bowl.
The Crumbling Castle view treats English as a beautiful, pristine, precious building that must be preserved. Any change would be like letting the castle fall to ruin. The issue is that the language has to have been at a 'perfect' state at some point. But this isn't true as standardisation never fully set down 'rules' (Latin rules, so again, trash) until 300 years ago.
The Infectious Disease model sees language change as an 'infection' that people can catch, in much the same way that floating germs spread disease. The issue with this is that people change their language use because they want to use the changed meanings, in order to fit in etc. In defence of the model however, it functions in much the same way as the bull's eye theory.
The Crumbling Castle view treats English as a beautiful, pristine, precious building that must be preserved. Any change would be like letting the castle fall to ruin. The issue is that the language has to have been at a 'perfect' state at some point. But this isn't true as standardisation never fully set down 'rules' (Latin rules, so again, trash) until 300 years ago.
The Infectious Disease model sees language change as an 'infection' that people can catch, in much the same way that floating germs spread disease. The issue with this is that people change their language use because they want to use the changed meanings, in order to fit in etc. In defence of the model however, it functions in much the same way as the bull's eye theory.
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