Language change

Language change (Grafmiller, 2019) Language change is diachronic (changing over time), revealing linguistic patterns across different points in time (Clayton and Giovanelli, 2018) “Language change is not arbitrary, but exhibits patterns that are driven by sociocultural changes.” (Halliday) Systemic functional linguistics (SFL): study of the relationship between language and its function in social settings; follows the principles that language is used to make meaning that is influenced by the social and cultural context in which the language is exchanged, and that using language is a semiotic process that fundamentally allows users to make meaning by choosing. - Ideologies, attitudes and behaviour influences/reflects language, and vice versa Terminology for historical development of English: 1) 450-1100AC Old English 2) 1100-1500AC Middle English 3) 1500-1800AC Early modern 4) 1800AC-present Modern English - Vocabulary affected by vast social and technology changes since the industrial revolution, the interest is influencing the speed at which new words are entering English - Unprecedented growth of scientific vocabulary (scientific and technical terms now comrise ⅔ of the English vocabulary) - British empire at its peak covered ¼ of the Earth’s surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries - American English continues to grow as a dominant variety due to the emergence of the US as a leading economic power in the 20th century Factors for language change: 1) New concepts that need to be named in new cultures - Borrowing from other languages (to fill a referential gap to refer to notions and things that have been newly introduced to English speakers) “Blush”, the cosmetic product used to colour cheeks was first called “paint” as recorded from 1660. Those days, both men and women of higher social classes painted their faces to show their high status. In 1753, the term “rouge” meaning red was borrowed from French and it displaced “paint”. “Rouge” remained the usual word for the product for around 2 centuries before an advertisement in 1965 coined the term “blusher” for the product. The term “blusher” displaced “rouge”

in everyday speech and it underwent back-clipping to form the term “blush” that is commonly used today to refer to the same cosmetic product. - Coinage: social change giving rise to new concepts, the naming of new technology and innovations, etc.