Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Language Change
Theorists
- Norman Fairclough
- Conversationalist
- Spoken language
drives change in
written mode
- there have been 'shifting
boundaries between written and
spoke discourse practises and a
rising prestige and status for
spoke language'
- Jean Aitchison
- describes attitudes
to language change
using metaphors
- parodies of prescriptivism
- damp spoon
parody
- crumbling castle parody
- infectious disease parody
- Dennis Freeborn
- similar to Aitchison
- parodies prescriptivism
- describes trends in
Spoken language
change
- 3 main views
- incorrectness view
- all accents are
correct compared
to SE and RP
- Freeborn refutes this-
RP standard due to
fashion and convention
- ugliness view
- some accents
don't sound
nice
- linked to stereotypes
and negative
connotations
- least-liked accents often
found in poorer urban areas
- inprecisness view
- lazy and sloppy accents
- e.g. estuary English
- Howard Giles
- Accomodation Theory
- Speakers adjust their speech
to accomodate others
- showing need for approval
- convergence
- some exaggerated accent in
order to distance selves from
others, reinforcing identity
- divergence
- informalisation
- the general belief that language is
getting increasingly informal over
time
- Standardisation
- process that occured throughout late
Modern Period where rules of spelling,
punctuation and grammar were
standardised
- standardised to resemble English as
we know it, following printing press and
emergence of dictionaries and
grammar guides
- context
- William Caxton's
printing press- 1476
- Samuel Johnson's
Dictionary- 1755
- first fascicle of
OED published-
1884
- Prescriptivism vs Descriptivism
- Prescriptivits
- believe that there's
a 'correct' way to
speak and write
English
- judge
non-standard uses
as inferior to SE
and RP
- Jonathan Swift was a
prescriptivist
- Descriptivism
- describe changes in English
using non-judgemental/
neutral terms
- David Crystal
is a good
example of this
- William Labov (1963)
- 'Martha's Vineyard Research'
- suggested we subconsciously
change our language to suit
ourselves with one group rather
than another
- Searle (1976)
- 5 different groups of semantics
- assertives
- state/ suggest/ boast
- directives
- order/ demand/ request
- commisives
- promise/ offer
- expressives
- thank/ comiserate
- declaratives
- name things/ appoint