1 / 55

Language Change

Language Change. In the observed world, it is a constant fact that change is continual and inevitable. In human language the situation is no different. Language Change. Up until now we have learned some basic concepts that describe human language, and looked at the components of human language

tamal
Download Presentation

Language Change

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Language Change In the observed world, it is a constant fact that change is continual and inevitable. In human language the situation is no different.

  2. Language Change • Up until now we have learned some basic concepts that describe human language, and looked at the components of human language • In this unit we will look at some ways that languages change over time

  3. Language Change • Sir William Jones (1786) Expert in classical languages (Latin, Greek). Studied newly discovered Sanskrit Discovered that hundreds and hundreds of words were systematically similar

  4. Language change • Example of “systematic similarity” English water ~ German vasser Note w ~ v t ~ ss (between vowels) a ~ a r ~ r

  5. Language change • Jones announced that this could not be the result of chance; these languages must have derived from a single source

  6. *Cognates • This leads to the concept of cognates: systematically related words in different languages that derive from the same source — an earlier word in a ‘parent’ language

  7. Cognates • Through looking for and finding cognates, the historical comparison of languages became possible

  8. Cognates • All languages change continually • They also give clues as to how languages change over time • Cognates show how languages are (or are not) related

  9. Language change • Through time languages change in several ways

  10. Language change A language may change in its • phonetics • phonology • morphology and syntax • semantics • (these are what changes) p. 403, 404: Compare these texts to see examples of these changes

  11. Language change The primary changes involve • sound change • analogy • borrowing • (these are the means of change)

  12. *Sound change *New sounds can occur in a language: wife - wives /f/ → [v] / V_V (i.e., allophone [v] voiced between vowels) thereafter, /f/ = [f] ~ [v] → /f/, /v/ English had no distinctive /v/ until after the 11th century (result of influence of French)

  13. New sounds English acquired other new sounds from French influence: Ø → /ž/ (no yogh before French influence) /u/ → [u] ~ [ju] (palatalized [ju] from Fr. e.g. beautiful, cute, etc.; but tune (How do you pronounce Huber?)

  14. Sound change • *Sounds can change: [sk] > [∫] sceap → sheep scield → shield scittan → shit dish? shame?

  15. Sound change Sounds can simply change: hus /u/ → /au/ house [haus] riddan /i/ → /ai/ ride [raid] These sounds changed in all environments — part of the Great Vowel Shift (ca. 1450 – 1600)

  16. Sound change • *Sounds can be lost in words or environments: • krabba → krabbə → kræb ‘crab’ • hriŋg → riŋg → riŋ ‘ring’ • /knab/ → /nab/ ‘knob’

  17. Sound change • *Sounds can be inserted in words or environments - fault, vault rhymed with thought before the 18th C. (i.e., [l] added to these words) “O let him not debase your thoughts Or name him but to tell his faults” - Swift

  18. Sound change • Other examples of sounds being added • host, humble (added [h]) • often (for some, added [t])

  19. Sound change • Sound order can change (*Metathesis) Akse → ask Task → tax[ks] dox [ks] → dosc, dusk        'dusk' (for all speakers) cavalry → calvary album → ablum (for some speakers)

  20. Effect of sound change • One consequence of these sound changes is a change in the morphemes in which the sounds participate

  21. Sound change • This set of examples shows the interaction of change in phonology and morphology: hund ~ pl. hundas → hundəs → hunds → hundz This resulted in the (-s) plural of English today

  22. Another example of this process of weakening and loss of inflection vowel: eldres → eldrəs → eldrz ‘elders’ (note [s] → [z] in both e.g.s)

  23. *Analogy • Type of language change in which language forms change to become similar to other (familiar) forms • This often involves a change of pattern

  24. Analogy • If English had a noun called wug, what would the plural be? 2 wug__

  25. Analogy • Analogy can be explained as a proportion (parallel of process) • English has hound : hounds [z] wug : X

  26. Analogy A modern outcome of this process is: cow : cows [historically, kü : kine] kine (en plural → s plural) This is an example of shift to (-s) plural by analogy

  27. Analogy • mouse ~ mice but computer mouse ~ mouses • ox ~ oxen but “dumb oxes” ?

  28. Analogy • Examples of change in plural pattern, from an old (-en) plural to the modern (-s) plural shoen → shoes eyen → eyes eyren → eggs (? new word, a borrowed Scandinavian) But children, oxen, vixen still have (-en) pl.

  29. Analogy • The (-s) plural as we know it developed from the Old English plural pattern that supplied (-as) originally: hund ~ pl. hundas → /hundəs → hunds → hundz This was the majority pattern, so it dominated later plural formation

  30. Analogy Now, all new words get the (-s) plural wug ~ wug[z] is the result of analogy

  31. Analogy • We see this in many plurals stadium, stadia → stadiums virus – viri → viruses (e.g., coronaviruses MSNBC 4/16/03) index ? historical Pl. is indices child → childrens (?)

  32. Analogy • Dominant (regular)modern verb pattern in English usually supplies (–ed)

  33. Analogy geshaven → shaved (but clean shaven?) geladen → loaded (but laden?)

  34. Morphological change • Changes in the morphology often involve the principle of analogy

  35. Morphology and Syntax • Reduction in morphology in three Old English noun inflections s. pl. s. pl. s. pl. Nom hund hundas cild cildru oxa oxan Acc hund hundas cild cildru oxan oxan Gen hundes hunda cildes cildra oxan oxena Dat hunde hundam cilde cildrum oxan oxum Of all the possibilities for noun plural morpheme, the one that persisted was the (-s), which influences other words by analogy — words with the –as plural were in the majority

  36. Morphology and Syntax • Verb morphology, syntax I. old weak (-d, -t, -ed) pattern cepan cepte geceped → to keep kept kept hieran hierde gehiered → to hear heard heard Note: loss of vowel in participle and conditioning of (-d, -t) Otherwise unchanged in modern English

  37. Verb morphology, syntax • II. Strong type –source of “irregular” verb pattern Inf Sg. past Pl. past Part. riddan rad ridon geriden → to ride rode ridden swimman swamm swummon geswummen → to swim swam swum gifan geaf geafon gegifen → to give gave given

  38. Verb syntax • changes in verb paradigms involves morpho-syntax loss of ge- in participles have now being used to make the forms with participle: geshaven → have shaved

  39. Verb changes • How do we account for hang~ hanged ~ hung ? dive ~ dived~ dove ? speed ~ sped ~ speeded? (-ed by analogy?) shave ~ shaved/ shaven? load ~ loaded/ laden? drag ~ dragged (~ drug?)

  40. Analogy • This tendency in language for grammatical processes to conform to a familiar pattern is called analogy

  41. Old English pronouns Pronouns in OE M. F. N. Pl. • Nomin. hēhē hit hī • Accus. hine hī hit hī • Dative him hire him him, heom • Genitive hishire his hira, heora Where did ‘she’ come from? They? Them?

  42. Other changes in morphology • safer ~ more safe ? • clearer ~ more clear ? • commoner ~ more common ?

  43. More vs. (-er) • Couldn’t be more clear • Couldn’t be more fun • Couldn’t be more happy • Couldn’t be any more simple • The people who were the most proud • He used to be more quiet (Do we see a tendency to replace the inflection with the word?)

  44. Other changes in syntax? • During our senior year we became good friends ~ Senior year we became good friends

  45. Borrowing • Languages import words (and occasionally grammar) from other languages • The results, in the receiving language, are called ‘loan words’ or ‘loans’

  46. Borrowing • (Gr > Eng) orchestra → Jp. okesutora oke| + Jp. kala => kalaoke → Ch. Ka la OK and many other languages

  47. Borrowing • English borrows from every language it comes in contact with boondocks < (Tag.) bundak ‘mountain’ ketchup < (Cant.) kegiap ‘eggplant paste’ beef < (Fr.) bouef ‘meat of cow’ schmooze < (Yiddish) shmues ‘a chat’

  48. Borrowing • Borrowing in every-day language taco, tortilla (Esp) pizza, spaghetti (Ita) from Persian lemon li:mu: lime li:mu: turban tulband ‘head’ tulip tulband ‘head’ julep gula:b ‘beverage’

  49. Borrowing • Spanish loans from English in border areas cora quarter carro car troka truck parkiar park (cf. estacionar) marketa market (ie. for grocery shopping)

  50. Borrowing • Borrowing by Japanese McDonald’s macudonaludo Taxi takushi

More Related