Introduction to LinguisticsChapter 7: Language Change

Instructor: LIU Hongyong

Review: Pragmatics

To fully understand the meaning of a sentence, we must understand the context in which it is used.

Pragmatics is concerned with how people use language within a context.

Semantics: The meanings of words and sentences are studied independent of language use.

Pragmatics: It would be impossible to give an adequate description of meaning if the context of language use is left unconsidered. Therefore, context is taken into consideration.

Review: Pragmatics vs. semantics

Both semantics and pragmatics study the meaning of a linguistic form. However, they are different. What essentially distinguishes them is whether the context is considered.

If it is not considered, the study is in the area of semantics; if it is considered, the study is in the area of pragmatics.

Review: Four maxims

The maxim of quantity Make your contribution as informative as required. No

more and no less. The maxim of quality Do not say what you believe to be false and do not say

what you lack evidence for. The maxim of relation Be relevant The maxim of manner Avoid obscurity, ambiguity. Be brief and orderly.

Introduction All languages change through time, but how they

change, what drives these changes, and what kinds of changes we can expect are not obvious.

By comparing different languages, different dialects of the same language, or different historical stages of a particular language, we can discover the history of languages.

Introduction

Historical linguistics is concerned with language change. It is interested in what kinds of changes occur (and why), and equally important, what kinds of changes don’t occur (and why not).

Languages change in all aspects o the grammar: the phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics.

Sound change

Sound changes tend to be systematic; it is possible to see a regular pattern of pronunciation changes throughout the history of the English language.

Example: knight [nait]

Modern English spelling contains many “silent letters,” which are actually just remnant indicators of earlier pronunciations. To anyone leaning English, the presence of such letters can be quite troublesome.

(i) Word-initial velar stop consonants [k] and [g] were lost when they occurred before the nasal [n]:

Middle English Modern English

gnawn gnaw

knixt knight

(ii) Initial [w] was lost when it occurred before [r]:

Middle English Modern Englishwritan write [rait]

wrekken wreck [rek]

(iii) Word final [b] was lost when it occurred after [m]:Middle English Modern English

dumb dumb [dAm]

Morphological and syntactic change

1. Change in “agreement” rule 2. Change in negation rule 3. Process of simplification 4. Loss of inflection

(Refer to the examples on P.96-97)

Process of simplification

In Modern English, a noun phrase such as our father has the same form regardless of whether it is a subject or an object, as in

(subject) Our father drinks a lot of coffee.

(object) We love our father

Old English:

(subject) fæder ure

(object) fæder urne

Vocabulary Change:Addition of new words

1. Coinage 2. Clipped words 3. Blending 4. Acronyms 5. Initial letters

6. Back-formation 7. Functional shift 8. Borrowing 9. Derivation 10. Compounding

See P. 98-100 for examples

Loss of words

Reason: One of the most common causes for the loss of lexical items is the discontinuation of the object they name.

soap flakes, wash board, rumble seat

Changes in the meaning

1. Widening of meaning 2. Narrowing of meaning 3. Meaning shift a. elevate b. degrade

Some recent trends

1. Moving towards greater informality

2. The influence of American English

3. The influence of science and technology

a. space travel

b. computer and internet language

c. ecology

Causes of language change

1. The rapid development of science and technology

2. Social and political changes and political needs

3. The way children acquire the language

4. Economy of memory

5. The desire to be intelligible