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CAUSES OF LANGUAGE CHANGE 1. Economy: Speakers tend to make their utterances as efficient as possible: they try to exert the least effort in communicating with language (abbreviations, simple grammar structures in spoken language). 2. Analogy 3. Language Contact TYPES OF LANGUAGE CHANGE All languages are constantly changing. The causes are many and varied. Lexical changes The constant influx of new words in the English language would make it an obvious choice of investigation into language change, although it is difficult to define precisely and accurately the vocabulary available to speakers of English. Throughout Its History English has not only Borrowed Words extravagantly from other languages but has re-combined and recycled them to create new meanings. Dictionary Writers try to keep track of the change in language by recording the appearance in the language of new words, or new usages for old words. Phonetic and phonological changes See Also: phonological change The sociolinguist William Labov famously recorded the change in pronunciation in a relatively short period in the American resort of Martha’s Vineyard and showed how this was the result of social tensions and processes.William Labov, 1963. "The social motivation of a sound change." ''Word'' 19.273-309. The 1963 study is widely recognized as a seminal work in the foundation of sociolinguistics. Even in the relatively short time that broadcast media have been available, we can observe the difference between the ‘marked’ Pronunciation of the newsreaders of the 1940s and the 1950s and the more neutral, ‘unmarked’ pronunciation of today. The greater acceptance and fashionability of regional accents in the media may also reflect a more democratic, less formal society. Small-scale phonological changes are difficult to map and record, especially as the technology of sound recording only goes back a hundred years or so. So the only evidence we have of how language has changed over the centuries is written evidence of what human languages have sounded like. Spelling changes The modern obsession with Spelling is a fairly recent trend. Differences in spelling are very often the most immediately obvious thing about a text from a previous century. In the pre-print era, when literacy was much less common, there was no fixed system and in the handwritten manuscripts that survive, words are spelt according to regional pronunciation and personal preference. The development of the spelled his own name in many different ways. Additionally, they were tempted to choose from the various spellings based on Typographical criterion, e.g. to get uniform line lengths when assembling type pieces on a composing stick. It being easier to make one of the lines of type longer than to make the other lines shorter, word lengths tended to standardize on the longer spellings. Unfortunately modern spellings were not the result of a single consistent system; rather, they show evidence of previous pronunciations which had changed over time. For example, the spelling of words such as "night" would have represented the original pronunciation, the "gh" representing a sound similar to that found in the Scottish "loch". Other examples that were previously pronounced include the 'k' in 'knee' and 'knight' and the 'ch' in 'chicken' and 'cheese' was once pronounced 'k' also. It could be said that spelling is stuck in the 15th Century, when William Caxton chose the East Midland dialect i.e. London ( Wessex ) variety of English for his first print in 1476. He had to discriminate against many duplicate words used in other areas of England (such as the East Anglia , Northumberland and Mercia ). For example, the Southern word 'eyren' was unintelligible with the Northern equivalent, 'egges' (modern 'eggs'). Of course, you know which form became dominant by the fact that 'eyren' is not used in Modern English . Semantic changes See Also: Semantic change The appearance of a new word is only the beginning of its existence. Once it becomes part of the language the meanings and applications it has for speakers can shift dramatically. Therefore, when reading a text from the past, you may think you recognize a word but may actually misunderstand the sense it conveyed when it was written. For example, 'villain' once meant a peasant, or farmhand, but now means a criminal individual. This has undergone pejoration, which means that a negative meaning has come to be attached to this word. Conversely, other words have undergone amelioration, where a positive meaning comes to be understood. If we consider the slang word 'wicked' (generally meaning 'evil'), it now means in a colloquial context, 'brilliant'. Other semantic change includes narrowing and broadening. Narrowing a word semantically limits its alternative meanings. For example the word 'girl' once meant 'a young child' and 'hound' (spelt 'hund') meant 'all canines', and now of course it means a particular type. Examples of words that have been broadened semantically include 'dog' (which once meant a particular breed) and 'gay' which now means 'homosexual' as well as, albeit in an unfashionable, archaic way, 'brightly decorated' or 'joyful'. Syntactic change See Also: Syntactic change To the extent that a language is are the product of Catastrophism is heavily disputed. SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGE CHANGE The Sociolinguist Jennifer Coates , following William Labov, describes linguistic change as occurring in the context of linguistic Heterogeneity . She explains that “ {Link without Title} inguistic change can be said to have taken place when a new linguistic form, used by some sub-group within a speech community, is adopted by other members of that community and accepted as the norm.”Coates, 1992: 169 Language change has been induced by a number of factors over the centuries. In modern times language change is for example being brought about by technology. The Internet and mobile technology have drastically altered language with the use of instant messaging and texting from mobile phones. NOTES REFERENCES
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