Language Change PDF

Language change 1. Sound change -- an alteration in the phonetics of a sound as a result of a phonological process. If a phonological process is introduced into a language where it did not formerly occur, it may result in a sound change. Assimilation the Old English word...

Language change 1. Sound change -- an alteration in the phonetics of a sound as a result of a phonological process. If a phonological process is introduced into a language where it did not formerly occur, it may result in a sound change. Assimilation the Old English word for ‘wolves,’ wulfas [wulfas] pronounced [wulvas] in Middle English → the voiceless fricative assimilated to the surrounding sounds by becoming voiced Dissimilation fifth [fIfθ] ending with two consecutive voiceless fricatives; in some varieties the second fricative replaced by a voiceless stop [t], giving the pronunciation [fIft] Deletion Deletion of unstressed word-final [ə], e.g. Middle English nose [nO:zə] > Modern English nose [noUz] Insertion athlete /ˈæθliːt/ pronounced in some varieties as /ˈæθə liːt/ Monophthongization Middle English the diphthong [aU] in words such as law, taught, laundry, claw, daughter; Modern English this diphthong became a simple vowel [ɔ] (or [ɑ]); an unconditioned change because all instances of Middle English [aU] have changed.; Unconditioned Sound Change –a Sound change that occurs without influence from neighboring sounds. Conditioned Sound Change – a sound change that occurs under the influence of nearby sounds. Diphthongization Middle English is [i:s] became Modern English ice [aɪs]. This is parallel in many ways to the diphthongizing change discussed earlier of [u:] > [au], seen in Old English hus [hu:s] > Modern English house [haus]. Metathesis a reversal in position of two sounds in a word frist → first brinnan → beornan (burn) bridd → bird hros → horse wæps → wasp Yule 2006: 189 ⚫ epenthesis, involves the addition of a sound to the middle of a word. æmtig → empty spinel → spindle timr → timber ⚫ Prothesis involves the addition of a sound to the beginning of a word. It is a common feature in the evolution of some forms from Latin to Spanish, e.g.: schola → escuela (“school”) spiritus → espı´ritu (“spirit”) Raising/lowering [oː] moving up to [uː], as in mo¯na→moon) Backing/fronting [a] became the front vowel [æ], for example, in words like calf, path, glass, past, ask. 2. Semantic change  Semantic extension holy day → holiday, foda → food, docga → dog Xerox, Kleenex, coke, Semantic reduction hund → hound, mete → meat, wif → wife, worm Semantic elevation knight, chivalrous, squire, Semantic degradation lust, wench, silly, 3. Syntactic changes Word order -in OE the subject could follow the verb, as in ferde he (“he traveled”), and the object could be placed before the verb, as in he hine geseah (“he saw him”), or at the beginning of the sentence, as in him man ne sealde (“no man gave [any] to him”). -a possessive determiner followed the noun it modified as in fæder ure. (NP → N+Det) -the positioning of main verbs in questions and negative statements a. O heaven! How got she out? O treason of the blood! (Act 1, Scene 1) cf. How did she get out? b. Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters’ minds. By what you see them act. (Act 1, Scene 1) cf. Do not trust your daughters’ minds. c. But though they jump not on a just account,— (Act 1, Scene 3) cf. They do not jump. -the passage from Old English to Modern English has seen a change in the way that grammatical function—a matter of sentence structure—is marked (from a “case-marking” morphological system to a syntactic system based on word order); -inflectional suffixes are lost from many parts of speech, sealde (“he gave”) and sealdest (“you gave”) - adjectives in Old English regularly agreed with the noun they modified in gender (masculine/feminine/neuter), number (singular/plural), and case (e.g., subject/ object, etc.); -double negative no longer possible Ex 1 What sound changes are illustrated by the following pairs? (a) thridda → third (b) scribere → escribir (c) glimsian → glimpse (d) hring → ring (e) slummer → slumber Ex 2 Which of the following words are likely to be from Old English and which from French: bacon, beef, calf, deer, ox, pig, veal, venison? Ex 3 The Old English verb steorfan (“to die, from any cause”) is the source of the Modern English verb starve (“to die, from lack of food”). What is the technical term used to describe this type of meaning change? Source: Language Files (13); Yule 2006 (Chapter 17)  LANGUAGE CHANGE Fill in the table metaphorical extension, semantic reduction, degradation/pejoration, monophthongisation, coinage, raising/lowering, backing/fronting, acronym, assimilation, blend, clipping, insertion, conversion, semantic extension, elevation/amelioration, dissimilation, deletion, diphthongization, metathesis one sound becomes more like another sound two similar sounds become less like one another a sound is no longer pronounced a sound is added to the pronunciation of a word a change from a diphthong (a complex vowel sound consisting of two vowel sounds) to a simple vowel sound a change from a simple vowel sound to a complex one a change in the order of sounds changes in the height of the tongue in the production of vowels alterations in the frontness or backness of the tongue in the production of vowels formed by taking the initial sounds (or letters) of the words of a phrase and uniting them into a combination that is itself pronounceable as a separate word combinations of the parts of two words, usually (but not necessarily) the beginning of one word and the end of another shortening words without paying attention to the derivational morphology of the word word created without employing any other word or word parts already in existence new word created simply by shifting the part of speech of a word to another part of speech without changing the form of the word the set of appropriate contexts or referents for a word increases the meaning of a word is extended to include an object or a concept that is like the original referent in some metaphorical sense rather than a literal sense the set of appropriate contexts or referents for a word decreases a word takes on somewhat grander or more positive connotations over time a word acquires a more pejorative meaning over time