2. Variation and change: profile and parameters

1. Explain the following parameters of linguistic change: natural, inevitable, unceasing, uneasy to observe.

• natural – all languages are changing
• inevitable – no way how to stop the change unceasing – the change is happening continuously
• uneasy to observe – normally non-existent for a normal speaker

2. Explain the relation between unstoppability/uncontrollability of language change and linguistic prescriptivism.

• A lot of people believe that the change is for the worst – people try to ascertain the language = to get rid of any variation in the language (“There’s one thing, so there must be one name for the thing, no synonyms, nothing else.”). People believed the language is “corrupted” and needs “purifying”, certain words were “forbidden” to use for ex. because of religious reasons.

3. Identify and describe the principal ways change in language spreads.

• communal change: adopted by the whole community except old/young
• or intergenerational change: typical for a generation
• dependent on social variables: is it coming from below? – ex. BrE x cockney or from above? – adopting the higher classes’ speach
• variables: education, sex,…

4. Describe the role of internal and external conditioning factors in the process of language change.

• internally – structural, anything that comes from the structure itself and comes as the language is used
  • economy (easiness) – simplification (e.g. haplology: ME humblely > humbly); similarity (analogy); spelling pronunciation (foreign learners learn E from writing – [ofn] –> [oftn], the rare the words are the more common this is)
  • overdoing it – hypercorrection; overgeneralisation (programme, profile vs. project, problem)
  • clarity – amplification; transparency (want to make it more transparent – highness x height, heaviness x weight); perceptual (dissimilation: PDE pilgrim < OF pelegrin < Lat peregrīnus (‘foreigner, alien’), OE þēofþ : PDE theft (vs. stealth))
  • symmetry (phonological, morphological…) filling the gaps: EModE introduction of [ʒ], as counterpart of [ʃ]: rouge, beige, azure OE nom. pl. scip-u, word-0, glōf-a, bāt-as... >> PDE: ships, words, gloves, boats
  • renewal – mighty, wondrous, terrible, intensification of adjectives reanalysis – used differently, structure acquire new meanings: He is going to the beach. –> He is going to swim. –> He is going to come.
• externally – from the society
  • contact-induced changes
    • traditional model: substratum (the inferior languag) – superstratum (the superior language) – adstratum
    • �“borrowing“ model: reflects social and geographical conditions, how closely the languages interact: cultural borrowing (the least close, Lat from Greek); intimate borrowing (the speakers of the languages live together); dialectal (internal) borrowing (one dialect borrows from another dialect, a very intense contact)
  • languages are separate, but they mix – mainly pidgins and creoles (more official version, a child of 2 speakers of pidgin speaks creole), many changes happen there: simplification (in creole everything becomes regular)
  • language death – language murder (speakers are forced to abandon their native language by the society) x language suicide (the speakers themselves are actively adding new words and adopting more and more features from another language)

5. Identify and describe at least five different potential causes of language change generally.

• phonetic causes: haplology, overgeneralisation (proublem)
• linguistic causes:
  • internal (above)
  • external (above)/social
  • change in the way the language is written (Great Wovel Shift)
• semantic causes:
  • semantic changes, broadening of the meaning of the world, the world changes, the technology changes –> the context chang

6. Discuss the problem of directionality of change in language.

Languages do not improve or deteriorate (just as there are no superior or inferior, primitive ones), they can merely lose their communicative function (language death, not based on change in time but tied to the destinies of the community) – Indian languages. The directionality of language change is disputable because it is so easy to say that the language change has been “seen” or “perceived”, that it “surely had to happen” – there’s no reason for such statements.

7. Explain the difference between substratum, superstratum and adstratum.

• substratum: a language of low power and prestige
• superstratum: a language of more power and prestige they both influence ea.o.
• adstratum: two neighbouring languages that do not differ in power or prestige

8. Explain the difference between cultural, intimate and dialect borrowing.

• cultural: the least close – Latin from Greek
• intimate: the speakers of the language live together
• dialect borrowing: one dialect borrows from another dialect, a very intense contact

9. Explain the principal reasons for the existence of semantic change.

• open-endedness of vocabulary
• structured nature of vocabulary (cf. the case of loaf and bread)
• ambiguous contexts
• inextricable link to the quickly changing and constantly challenging reality: there are always more meanings than words
• the context changes all the time

10. What are the principal conditions of semantic change?

• polysemic nature of (most) words – as we learn from our parents, we take it differently
• discontinuous transmission of language
• arbitrary nature of linguistic sign – onomatopoeic X relative stability of items that are not arbitrary in this respect (onomatopoeia)

11. What are the general causes of semantic change?

linguistic, historical, social, psychological (e. g. taboo and euphemism)

12. Explain, using examples, the difference between a) semantic generalisation and specialisation; b) semantic strengthening and weakening; c) semantic amelioration and pejoration; c) changes based on metaphor and metonymy.

• semantic generalisation and specialisation: gen. – drive –> harddrive; spec. – daor “a wild animal” –> deer
• semantic strengthening and weakening: s. – “hustý”; w. – “To je strašný!”
• semantic amelioration and pejoration: a. – bloody “discovered blood” –> “bloody”; p. – nice “foolish” –> “nice”
• changes based on metaphor (Prices are going up.; spring –> “coming up” –> the season) and metonymy (“meal” used to be the time for the meal, not the meal itself)

13. Other key concepts: social variables; scope of language change; pace of language change; economy, amplification; hypercorrection/generalisation; clarity; symmetry, renewal, reanalysis; pidgins, creoles; language death (murder; suicide); folk-etymology.

• social variables – class, education, sex
• scope of language change – how large? a language level/phonetic level or a more general level
• pace of language change – starts with few items and affects all the items, slow beginning, a fast phase, a long stage of the stange being basically finished but some items remain unchanged (irregular verbs – to be), tied to political stability, written standards
• economy, amplification – internally conditioned changes – simplification (e.g. haplology: ME humblely > humbly); similarity (analogy); spelling pronunciation (foreign learners learn from writing – [ofn] –> [oftn], the rare the words are the more common this is)
• hypercorrection/generalisation – internally conditioned changes – hypercorrection; overgeneralisation (programme, profile vs. project, problem)
• clarity – internally conditioned changes – amplification; transparency (want to make it more transparent – highness x height, heaviness x weight); perceptual (dissimilation: PDE pilgrim < OF pelegrin < Lat peregrīnus (‘foreigner, alien’), OE þēofþ : PDE theft (vs. stealth))
• symmetry – int.cond.changes – filling the gaps: EModE introduction of [ʒ], as counterpart of 
[ʃ]: rouge, beige, azure, OE nom. pl. scip-u, word-0, glōf-a, bāt-as... >> PDE: ships, 
words, gloves, boats
• renewal – int.cond.changes – mighty, wondrous, terrible, intensification of adjectives
• reanalysis – int.cond.changes – used differently, structure acquire new meanings: He is going to the beach. –> He is going to swim. –> He is going to come.
• pidgins, creoles – ext. changes – languages are separate, but they mix – mainly pidgins and creoles (more official version, a child of 2 speakers of pidgin speaks creole), many changes happen there: simplification (in creole everything becomes regular)
• language death (murder; suicide) – language death – language murder (speakers are forced to abandon their native language by the society) x language suicide (the speakers themselves are actively adding new words and adopting more and more features from another language)
• folk-etymology – a type of semantic change, (protéger –> protežovat –> protěžovat)