Change Theorists

Description

A Levels English Language (Language Change) Flashcards on Change Theorists, created by Hazel Meades on 24/04/2015.
Hazel Meades
Flashcards by Hazel Meades, updated more than 1 year ago
Hazel Meades
Created by Hazel Meades almost 9 years ago
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Resource summary

Question Answer
James Millroy He argues against the idea of the "Golden Age" of language. If there is one we're moving towards it, not away from it.
Peter Trudgill People change all the time. Language must change with them. Languages are self-regulating systems so change isn't good or bad, simply inevitable. The only languages which can't change are those such as Latin, which no one speaks. In some cases language changes do happen due to ignorance of a word's meaning but the context of a word often indicates the meaning. A word can't be misused if everyone understands and uses it. "Purists" will have trouble being understood.
Guy Deutscher A radical prescriptivist who proposed that language gets better as it changes. We can't always predict language. Metaphors, for example, are commonplace in language today. They are use to describe and break down abstract things, bringing unfamiliarity to a larger context to make the item of choice familiar. E.g: ground-breaking plans, my heart sinks, I am plagued with guilt etc.
Aitchison Proposed a more functional view of language change. It occurs both consciously and unconsciously. Language alters as the needs of the user alter. Hence coining and dropping of obsolete terms. Language can be influenced by external sociolinguistic factors (e.g: linguistic influences of fashion, foreign influence and social need) and internal psycholinguistic factors (e.g: the ease of pronouncing the language).
Damp spoon syndrome The idea that language is undergoing a slow decay due to laziness.
The crumbling castle The prescriptive idea that language is crumbling and needs to be preserved.
Infectious disease assumption The prescriptive view that bad language is spreading.
Millroy and Millroy Language change is a slow process.
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