New words for scrabble players!

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/21/official-scrabble-book-adds-lotsa-ridic-new-words

Today, an article was posted by the Mirror about the new words the people being the Collins Dictionary have added into the Scrabble dictionary, which are now allowed to be used by scrabble players all over. These words go from "lolz" and "bezzy" all the way to "hacktivist"  and "tweep". The mixture of arcyomns and blends you can tell have all been influenced by technology such as "thanx" being shortened to making texting quicker and words like "facetime" has been influenced from companies like Apple.  and shows how the English Language is changing. This suggests that there is an increasing descriptive approach to language and these forms of non-standard English will be disagreed with by those who still have a prescriptive approach to language. You can see this if you go down to the comment section, there are debates going on.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/may/01/icymi-english-language-is-changing-faster-than-ever-says-expert

This article, which was put out earlier in the month, supports what is being said about how technology is changing fast because of technology. The editor of Collins even said "The Internet has dominated language change for the last ten years."

History of English

This fun little youtube video helps to show how the English language has developed over a long period of time and how standardisation has come into play.

410 AD - Goodbye Romans and hello Anglos and Saxons = Anglosaxon
Not much Latin is left but Anglosaxon simple everyday words like "house", "women" and "loaf". Plus 4 days of the week are named after their Gods.

591 AD - Christian missionaries
Big influence that kept the use Latin words alive e.g "martyr", "bishop" and "font"

C. 800 - Vikings
e.g "drag", "ransack", "die", "give" and "take" = overall 2000 words

1066 - Norman conquest
Brought french language = language of official business like "clerk", "judge", "evidence" and "justice".
Latin was still used in churches
Normal people used English such as "cow", "sheep" and "swine" where as the for the French it would be "beef", "mutton" and "pork".
Overall, 10,000 new words.
The 100 years war against France, lead to language of power like "military" and "navy".

Shakespear 1564 - 1616
2,000 new wrods like "bible", "puppy dog", "anchovy", "dauntless", "alligator" and "hob-nob". Plus lost of good catchphrases that we still use today.
They may have been said by other people first by Shakespeare wrote them down. It showed that the English Language as a vibrant language that is full of expression and emotional power.

The King James Bible - 1611
The new translation meant the bible was finally able to be read by normal people, which has a whole new glossary of metaphor and morality that still shapes how how is spoken today.

17th century = Science
First used Latin but then changed it to English, which made it easier to understand.
They discovered things faster than they could name them like "acid", "gravity", "electricity", "pendulum", "tonsil", "ovary" ans "sternum".

The Great British Empire 1853 - 1914
Showed the world it had a language of science, the bible and Shakespeare.
But words started coming from other places:
Caribbean - "barbecue". "canoe" and "cannibal"
India - "yoga", "stairs" and "bungalow"
Africa - "vodo"
Australia - "nugget" and "boomerang"
New varieties of English begin to develop all over the world.

Dictionary's and Lexicographers
e.g Dr Johnson's Dictionary - 1746 - 55 = 42,773 words
Meant people could research what words meant for the first time and know the standard spelling but new words kept being invented.
1857 - 1928 - Oxford English Dictionary and gets edited allot.

American English - 1607
When the British first arrived in America , they needed new words for names of plants and animals, which they borrowed from the Native Americans like "raccoon", "squash" and "moose".
1709 - Dutsch arrived with words like "coleslaw" and "cookies"
Germans - "pretzels" and "delicatessens"
Italians - "pizza" and "pasta"
It spread a new language of capitalism such as "break even" and "bottom line".
1865 - commenter language needed to be developed such as "free ways" and "subways".
Words from America did start to come back to Britain such as "cool" and "groovy jazz" but some stayed in America as the old English word like "fall" and "Autumn"

Internet English
1991 - Internet arrives =  free global space to share information and words like "download", "toolbar" and "firewall" start appearing as new words or words with different meanings.
1972 - first email ever sent! = conversations are shortening, which introduce the use of abbreviations like "BTW" meaning "by the way" and words like "blog" and "poke" start appearing.
It starts to converge into spoken language too like "FYI" and "FAQ".

Global English
Since the Romans, English has absorbed, evolved, invaded and stolen words. It started with foreigners, then language all of it's own and then travelling via seas and Internet.
350 language = global institution of 1.5 billion English speakers but how much is actually English now?

CLA Revision

Here are a few extra notes when talking about CLA. It's good to just remins yourself of these points when writing an exam answer: 

Over-extension - Children over-extend word meanings. This means that they will extend the meaning of one category of item more broadly than it should be. An example of this might be calling all round fruits ‘apples' when they are perhaps oranges, kiwis or cherries.

Under-extension - Children under-extend word meanings. This means that they will not accept that there are more examples of a category of item than the particular one that is familiar to them. So, for example, ‘dog' is used for the family pet but does not apply to any other dog, thus narrowing the word's meaning.

Noun Plurals - It is generally accepted that children acquire language through an in-built ability to recognise the patterns that exist. However, these patterns are not always straightforward and there are exceptions, so children inevitably make mistakes.

Verb Tenses - Young children's speech will reflect some application of regular patterns, for example, adding ‘ed' to form past tenses. However, as yet, irregularities will not form part of their understanding, so birds ‘singed' and children ‘runned' are completely understandable, if not completely accurate sentences.

Think about which stages or theories (AO2) you could link them to!

Stages:

• Crying: a child's only form of communication in the early weeks of life.
• Cooing: through which a child gains control of their vocal cords.
• Babbling: where reduplicated monosyllables (mama dada) often sound like a child is calling a parent.
• One-word stage: first words usually reflect a child's environment and they are often holophrastic in meaning.
• Two-word stage: demonstrates a child's first sentences and contains a primitive grammar.
• Telegraphic stage: sees utterances made up of words that tell us the main message but leave small unimportant bits out.

Source of information: http://xtlearn.net/S/2857

AO2 of language change

Standardisation and codification of language:

What? It is a gradual change of languge overtime so a mass audience can get the shared understanding 

Who? William Caxtons printing press on 1476 = printed texts meant easier for them to be read by a mass audience so a shared understanding of language needed to be created.

Samuel Johnsons Dictionary of 1975 = helped to show words which should be used in everyday life, increasing a chance of shared understanding.

Robert Lowth's "Introduction to Grammar" in 1762 = shows standardisation is a gradual process and it's helping to make the English language Easy to read via a mass audience.

Prescriptive vs Descriptive attitudes 

What? These two different attitudes to language are defined in other post but are important because it is about whether change is good for in the English language.  

Who? Samuel Johnson and John Humpreys are on the prescriptive side whether as Stephen Fry and David Crystal support to descriptive side.

Two other theorist come up such as Jean Aitchisons Language Web and Dennis Freeborn, who looks into the incorrectness view, ugliness view and imprecisness view.

Other things:

Phonogy: Great Vowel Shift, convergence and divergence and Labov's "Martha's Vineyard study" for informalisation.

And worldwide Englishs such as bidialectalism 

Grammar mistakes of today!

So here is a fine link which takes you to 15 common gramma mistakes. Some are obvious but some are new! See what you know and do wrong!

http://m.9gag.com/gag/ar4W4X0?ref=fbpc

CLA Theorists

Chomsky (1959)

Who: a theorist who supported the nature debate = believed we are born with innate ability to use language.
What: LAD - Language Acquisition Device. His theory suggests we are pre-programmed with this deep structure so that language can devlop. Chomsky's theory explains how children can understand sentences they've never heard before
Refuting this theory: Bard and Sachs (1977) argue that children don't learn to speak automatically. They need to communicate and interact with others – innateness alone is not enough.

"wrong when he suggests that children are born with detailed linguistic knowledge which is triggered by only minimal exposure to language"

B.F. Skinner (1959)

Who: a behaviourist theorist who supported the nurture debate.
What: language is gained through imitation and reinforcement. Aproval for a caregiver means that the child has more motivation to say it that way the next time.
Refuting this thoery: Children have to learn tens of thousands of words and complex grammar and syntax in a very short space of time. Virtuos errors are not from immitation such as "I cleaning my tooth" because caregivers/adults don't speak like that.

Piaget (1936)

Who: took a cognitive approach to language development.
What: Piaget observes that children initially view themselves as the centre of the universe believing that objects exist only in relation to themselves. At around 18 months children begin to realise that objects have an existence that is nothing to do with them. About relationship between language and thought.
Refuting this theory: though the theory only seems to stand up for the first 18 months of a child's life.
http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html

Lenneburg

Who: came up with the Critical Acquisition Hypothesis.
What: children need to be learning language before the ages of 12 - 13 and that once this period has passed language learning slowed down or in effect was no longer possible. Examples come from Geni and Victor (the feral child).
Refuting this theory: Some ask the question: Were Genie and Victor intellectually damaged from birth and incapable of learning how to speak?
Other ask: Were the speech therapists and specialists' methods inadequate in helping Genie and Victor? Would they have fared better in the care of others?


Vygostky (1978)
What: argued that a child is only able to acquire language when they are interacting with people in their environment and, in particular, in co-operation with his peers. Obviously, neither Genie nor Victor had the opportunity to do this.
http://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html

Brunner

Who: suggests there is a LASS = Language Acquisition Support System.
What: caregiver support children's language development through social situations.
http://www.simplypsychology.org/bruner.html 

Deb Roy (2010)

Who: theorist who filmed his son's development from 0 - 3. Named it the Speech Home Project.
What: that children's semantical ability outstrips their phonological ability. Also, caregivers scaffold their children's language, converge to it and use CDS.

Test yourself: http://quizlet.com/23965396/child-language-acquisition-theorists-flash-cards/
(there are some on here though which we won't use but there are the basics)
Click here for more: http://www.simplypsychology.org/language.html

Spoken Language Terminology

Here is some is imporant terminlogy to revise from when you are looking at a spoken language text like a trasncript for CLA, Language Change or both.

Spoken Language – Genres of Speech

Referential Interaction – These are utterances communicate facts, such as the passing on of information in the classroom. 

Planned speech – almost always written down first with the intention of being spoken later. Charcteristics are: fewer non-fluency features, in ‘conversations' there are fewer overlaps and interruptions, the words that are used are very carefully chosen and in many cases the register is more formal

Unplanned Speech - When conversation is free-flowing. Characteristics are: the register is informal, there's a lot of interaction, there are a number of deictic expressions and there are interruptions and overlaps

Phatic Utterances – These are short greetings or exchanges that show that we are being polite or that we want to begin a conversation. They don't contain much meaning in themselves – but as indicators of our feelings and intentions, they are very important.

A deictic expression - It cannot be understood unless the context of the utterance is known. Examples are ‘here’ and ‘there’.
 

Active Voice - When the subject in a sentence is doing the action, the verb is said to be in the active voice.

Passive Voice - When the subject of the sentence is not doing the action but is the recipient of the action, the verb is said to be in the passive voice.

Interactions for writing - Writers have to use different approaches e.g using the interrogative mood and/or the second person.

Colloquial - Characteristic of informal spoken language or conversation. 

Rhetorical - A persuasive variety of language (speech and writing) often used in the public/political arena.

Pattern of three – This is a rhetorical technique.

Connotation - The association(s) suggested by a word. The subjective or personal part of lexical meaning - which may include individual emotional associations.

Overlapping - Where two or more speakers speak simultaneously.

Spoken Language – Conversation analysis

Verbal Cues - asking a direct question; mentioning the name of the person you want to talk next, using tag questions to prompt a response, dropping the volume of speech and elongating a final syllable.

Non-Verbal Cues – These are when the speaker wishes to stop talking. 
Examples are: leaning back in a chair, adopting a relaxed pose and looking at a listener.

Conversational Dominance - where one participant has more control over what is said than others.

The cooperative principle - A linguist called H.P.Grice developed the idea that there are 4 maxims for successful conversation: The maxim of quantity - Say just the right amount for the situation. The maxim of relevance - What you say should be relevant to the topic being discussed. The maxim of manner - You should speak in a clear, orderly way. The maxim of quality - What you say should be truthful.

Face - Irving Goffman developed the idea of ‘face needs' in the 1950s. He felt that we present a particular image of ourselves to others in our conversations and that we try to approach the person we are talking to in the ‘right' way – we adjust what he termed our conversational ‘footing' to suit the individual.

Positive face - It means that we want to be liked and approved of. We show an awareness of a person's positive face needs when we greet or address them appropriately or offer compliments.

Negative face - It is not the opposite of positive face! It means that we know that someone doesn't want to be imposed on or threatened. We show a sense of someone's negative face needs by beginning a request with ‘I'm sorry to bother you, but...' or we soften potentially unpleasant remarks by saying, ‘I don't like to mention it, but...'.

The Politeness Principle - Robin Lakoff maintained that speakers usually try to follow three rules when talking to others. These rules were: don't impose, give options and make your receiver feel good.

Brown and Levinson – Positive politeness is shown when we: show people that we like/admire/have sympathy with them and make jokes (that we know the person will like), avoid disagreements – e.g. by choosing ‘safe' topics to talk about, or by softening our own disagreements and assert what we have in common and are in agreement. 

Negative Politeness is shown when we: are indirect to avoid intrusion, use hedges or questions, defer to someone by giving a superior form of address – e.g. ‘sir' and are apologetic.

Systematic frameworks for analysis, Exam techniques 

Assonance – The repetition within successive words of similar vowel sounds.

Semantic Field ­– This is a grouping of words with related and similar meanings by being connected through a certain context.

Determiner – A words used before a noun to indicate quality, identity and significance.

Preposition – A word that relates one words to another

Spoken Language, Exam techniques 

Utterance - a spoken word, statement, or vocal sound.

Unvoiced Pauses – a silent pause in speech.

Tag Questions – A question attached to the end of a statement. 

Direct Speech - This term is used to refer to the exact words spoken by a speaker. The words are given between quotation marks (" ") in writing.

Non – fluency Features - Features which demonstrate that speech is spontaneous rather than planned such as hesitation, repetition, fillers.

Click on this link for more terminolgy: http://xtlearn.net/CCache/2/epic_FK2_Spoken%20language,%20Genres%20of%20speech/html/glossary.htm

Question and answers for language change

Language Change questions:

What are the main causes for language change?

Technology, migration, political like wars, trade, work and urbanisation, popular culture, globalisation/travel, religion, gender, science and technology, transport and communication.

What are the ways in which language changes?

Semantic shifts and narrowing, broadening, euphemism and cliché, lexical changes like borrowing, affixation, compounds, blends and jargon, pragmatics of the implication of language become shared knowledge, spellings being irregular, discourse of how the text is laid out in relation to purpose and audience, phonetics like accents, dialect, vowel shift and Estuary English and finally graphology looking at fonts, images, colours and layouts for formality, moods and feelings and how to capture the audience’s attention.

 What are the key influential factors on the development of the English as accessible to all?

The invention of the printing press by William Caxton so therefore a mass audience for texts, Samuel Johnsons OE dictionary,  Prescriptive and descriptive attitudes, the need for Standard English, the increase in the written word, the idea of disintegration  by Robert Burchfield (1978), the invention of the internet and it being able to be quickly updated like news articles.

What is the difference between prescriptive and descriptive attitude to language use?

Prescriptive – wants language to stay standard and keep grammar and punctuation the same. It rejects non-standard terms like slang. Language change is seen as decay for language. “ [Prescriptivism is the] policy of describing languages as we would like them to be, rather than as we find them. Typical examples of prescriptivist attitudes are the condemnation of preposition stranding and of the split infinitive and a demand for It's I in place of the normal It's me."

Descriptive – where language changes without a judgement and recognises the importance of a standard and a non-standard form. It is part of how language changes and is worth studying wherever it is used. Supported by David Crystal and him saying: “you can’t go into a garden and say that one flower is better that the other” 

What did Johnson think his problems were with his dictionary? Are these problems still evident in dictionaries today?

The problems with his dictionary is that even though he tried to keep the prescriptive approach is in idea to “fix” the English Language, it couldn’t keep up with the ever changing use of lexis and semantics (the nature of the language itself). Dictionaries defiantly going through the same problems today as language is changing every year. However, they are more accepting of this and try to include as many new words as possible which have become popular and even non-standard like selfie and vape.

 What is a “lingua franca” and to what extent was/is English one?

Definition from the OED: A language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different.

To some extent this is true as the English has many word borrowed from languages around the world like Latin and French, countries that used to belong to the empire, however from the beginning it started as basic anglo-saxon and lots of conquering has developed the English Language ever since. English has a West Germanic language.

What are the prestigious forms of English now?

They are known as covert and overt and are linked to dialects. Overt prestige is when a dialect is widely recognised as being used by a culturally dominated group like RP for England. Covert is when a dialect is used by a culturally known group but is seen as inferior and is used to belong to a community like the idea of “street cred”.

How has politically correct language and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis influenced modern English usages?

Political Correctness - a term used to describe language, ideas, policies, or behavior seen as seeking to minimize offence to gender, racial, cultural, disabled, aged or other identity groups.

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis - the theory that an individual's thoughts and actions are determined by the language or languages that individual speaks.

These two things are interlinked and are influential because they seem to control language use and if thoughts or actions are negative then they should be corrected. Example: you can’t sing “baa baa black sheep” anymore due to racist connotations. There are some suggested that could be taken too far but in the past you could consider this idea as important for the English language as it helped to improve social progress.

Three examples of obsolete English grammar that you can make a reference to in the exam.

1. "Thou", "thee", "thine" and "thy" - pronouns that have dropped out of the main dialects of Modern English.

2. “Start’d” – contractions to show the past

3. Use of the medial s in words

Find three features of modern punctuation that take advantage of a lessening of prescriptivism.

1.'In order to protect your computer, you should do the following: run a trustworthy anti-virus system such as AVG and keep it updated.' - colon usage

2.The use of multiple '?!' as expression and shock

3. ':-)' use of punctuation to create faces and expression 

Find three neologisms from the past five years.

Oversharers, digital detox and tweet cred

Do an internet search to find an article that interests you on language uses. Find a key quote to memorize. How does that writer communicate their ideas?    
“This is not the first time this has happened in history but certainly the increase in the pace of change has resulted in our language changing equally rapidly, and with it, our thoughts.” – From http://theconversation.com/how-technology-is-changing-language-and-the-way-we-think-about-the-world-35856.The author uses technology as an example for how language has changed over time and affected ho we know language today.

  

 Read at least one chapter from a book from a library about language change; identify how the attitudes expressed in it are a product of when it was written.  
'Language Change' by Adrian Beard. Page 49-51 - Text Messaging. Published in 2004.                                                                                        
Descriptive. - Although gives examples of how it would be prescriptive. Doesn't seem to take sides. 'emoticons are the sketch of imagination, iconic representations of an action or emotion'. There are reasons for the conventions; the limit of words, 60 characters, to be playful and inventive, privacy - silly, sexual, informative. 'ideal for criminals, stalkers and bullies'. When text language is used in a GCSE exam, is it really wrong? Should it be marked as incorrect? If people can understand what is meant, and that’s how people in reality speak, why should it be any different in an exam?

What does gender theory reveal about English use through the ages?  
Stereotypical language use for females has changed e.g lots of adjectives and attributes that make women seem inferior and looked down on by men have been challenged and made women as equal as men. Also, language that women could use has changed. For example in Tudor times women weren’t allowed to use colloquial and offensive terms against men whereas today they can.