SOCIOLINGUISTICS LIC MGC TASK NINE DEADLINE: June, Tuesday 14 th .

JANET HOLMES CHAPTER 9 LANGUAGE CHANGE

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. Write some examples of how the English language changed in
Shakespeare and Jane Austen’s time.
● Reading Shakespeare turns up many words, such as hie(hurry), stilly(softly) and
arrant(thorough), which have disappeared or changed their meaning
● Even since Jane Austen´s time the meanings of words have changed. in her books, a “pleasing
prospect” refers to a landscape more often than an expectation, and to be “sensible” means to
be aware or perceptive

2. In how many ways does language variation and change take place?
Language varies in three major ways are interestingly interrelated-over time, in physical space, and
socially.
Language change- variation over the time- has its origins in spatial (or regional) and social
variation. the source of change over time is always current variation.

3. How does the spread of vernacular forms happen?

Vernacular pronunciations also spread in speech communities. A linguistic survey made in 1950 in
Martha’s Vineyard, showed that the community use the vernacular forms of the earlier
generations to mark itself from the tourists or visitors to the island. Speakers changed their
pronunciation to seem more conservative that is associated with the area in the past. Even if this
pronunciation has died out, it was used to express solidarity and loyalty to the rural values of the
place. Therefore, they pronounced words like “light” as close to “layeet” and “house” as close to
“heyoose”.

4. How do changes spread?

The changes are in three aspects:
● From group to group. Understand the spread of language change from one group to another.
● From style to style. The change is from one style to another.
● From word to word. Sound change can also spread from one word to another.

5. How does language change from group to group?

There are three important points in this language change:
1- Any particular change spreads simultaneously to different directions, but not with the same
rate. Social factors such as gender, age and status affect.
2- In any speech community the waves intersect. A speaker simultaneously belongs to different
groups like social, age and region groups.
3- Linguistic changes infiltrate groups from the speech of people on the margins between social
or regional groups via the middle people who have contacts in more than one group.
6. How does language change style to style?
Changes from a more formal to more casual style. In the same time, it spreads from one individual
to another within a social group, and subsequently from one social group to another.
When a change is a prestigious one it usually starts at the top of the speech community, in the
most formal style of the highest social group of the community.

7. Explain how the lexical diffusion occurs.

It occurs when a sound change begins, all the words with a particular vowel dont change at one
speech of a community. People don't go to bed one night using the sound u: and wake up using au
in house, pouch, how and out. Instead, the sound change occurs first in one word, and then later
in another, and so on.
In Belfast, for example, a vowel change affected the vowel in the word pull before put, and put
before should. And in East Anglia, the vowel in must change before the vowel in come, which
changed before the vowel uncle , although they all started off with the same vowel, and they all
ended up with identical different vowels at a later point.

8. How do we study language change?

Language change is variation over time in a language's features. It is studied in several subfields of
linguistics: historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and evolutionary linguistics. Traditional theories of
historical linguistics identify three main types of change: systematic change in the pronunciation of
phonemes, or sound change; borrowing, in which features of a language or dialect are altered as a
result of influence from another language or dialect; and analogical change, in which the shape or
grammatical behavior of a word is altered to more closely resemble that of another word.

9. What does language change in real time means?

Language change is the phenomenon by which permanent alterations are made in the features
and the use of a language over time. All natural languages change, and language change affects all
areas of language use. Types of language change include sound differents, lexical changes,
semantic changes, and syntactic changes.

10. What are the reasons for language change?

Language changes for several reasons. First, it changes because the needs of its speakers change.
New technologies, new products, and new experiences require new words to refer to them clearly
and efficiently.
Another reason for change is that no two people have had exactly the same language experience.
We all know a slightly different set of words and constructions, depending on our age, job,
education level, region of the country, and so on. We pick up new words and phrases from all the
different people we talk with, and these combine to make something new and unlike any other
person's particular way of speaking

11. Explain the subtitle “gender and language change.

Differences in women’s and men’s speech are another source of variation which can result in
linguistic change. Sometimes women tend to be associated with changes towards both prestige
and vernacular norms, whereas men more often introduce vernacular changes.
12. What is interaction and language change?
Linguistic change generally progresses most slowly in tightly knit communities which have little
contact with the outside world. There are plenty of examples of places where insolation has
contributed to linguistic conservatism. Scottish Gaelic has survived best in the Western Isles of
Scotland. The far North and East Cape of New Zealand is where Maori has survived best. Little
mountain villages in Italy, Switzerland and Spain are places where older dialects of Italian, French,
and Spanish are preserved. Sardinia is another example of relatively isolated area which is
renowned for its conservative linguistics forms compared to other Italian dialects such as Sicilian