A must-read! Grammar, world Englishes and LC

I was looking for something that explored the debate as to whether punctuation is a grammar issue or not and I found this. I disagree, incidentally, as I think that punctuation and syntax are both grammar, but this post by an American English teacher explores and exemplifies a range of grammar and punctuation ideas and brings in American English and language change... so read and take notes but you don't have to agree!

A presentation collecting together some language change ideas and theorists

I've been searching for new theory for you and here is a presentation that seems to be a good starting point for you to do wider reading - particularly McKinnon's attitudes look like they might be useful for exploring contrasting evidence about language change. It's just a jumping off point - don't expect to understand it from these brief notes - do more research to understand ideas that seem useful  and there are a couple of good quotes to memorise.

I've also come across something called the PIDC model but no proper research to back it up yet - just people's revision sites. You can probably get a good idea by just googling 'language change PIDC' but I haven't got anything reliable to link to.

Language change - wave or tree?

Below my introduction is a copy-and-pasted section of an article that is on https://www.britannica.com/science/linguistics/The-comparative-method#ref411908.

It's a little academic but it talks about two contrasting theories/models of how language changes. First, belonging to the 'comparative' method of linguistic analysis (don't worry about that) is a 'family tree' model (August Schleicher's model), where change causes aspects of language to branch off from the standard and become separate e.g. dialects forming, or new languages splitting off from the parent language (for instance, pidgins and creoles). See if you can read closely to find out what the criticisms of this model are.

The contrasting model is the wave model (Johannes Schmidt), which visualises causes of change impacting like dropped stones in a pool where the waves spead out, becoming less powerful as they move from the impetus for change and can overlap and influence one another (see the diagram and explanation on the right of the Wikipedia article). This model explains why trends in language don't continue to create more and more diverse 'branches' but instead can re-converge, as we see in dialect levelling, or in standard language users using dialect or sociolect for covert prestige e.g. Martha's Vineyard.

Excerpt from the website link above:

Criticisms of the comparative method

One of the criticisms directed against the comparative method is that it is based upon a misleading genealogical metaphor. In the mid-19th century, the German linguist August Schleicher introduced into comparative linguistics the model of the “family tree.” There is obviously no point in time at which it can be said that new languages are “born” of a common parent language. Nor is it normally the case that the parent language “lives on” for a while, relatively unchanged, and then “dies.” It is easy enough to recognize the inappropriateness of these biological expressions. No less misleading, however, is the assumption that languages descended from the same parent language will necessarily diverge, never to converge again, through time. This assumption is built into the comparative method as it is traditionally applied. And yet there are many clear cases of convergence in the development of well-documented languages. The dialects of England are fast disappearing and are far more similar in grammar and vocabulary today than they were even a generation ago. They have been strongly influenced by the standard language. The same phenomenon, the replacement of nonstandard or less prestigious forms with forms borrowed from the standard language or dialect, has taken place in many different places at many different times. It would seem, therefore, that one must reckon with both divergence and convergence in the diachronic development of languages: divergence when contact between two speech communities is reduced or broken and convergence when the two speech communities remain in contact and when one is politically or culturally dominant.

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  August Schleicher, engraving

  Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin

The comparative method presupposes linguistically uniform speech communities and independent development after sudden, sharp cleavage. Critics of the comparative method have pointed out that this situation does not generally hold. In 1872 a German scholar, Johannes Schmidt, criticized the family-tree theory and proposed instead what is referred to as the wave theory, according to which different linguistic changes will spread, like waves, from a politically, commercially, or culturally important centre along the main lines of communication, but successive innovations will not necessarily cover exactly the same area. Consequently, there will be no sharp distinction between contiguous dialects, but, in general, the further apart two speech communities are, the more linguistic features there will be that distinguish them.

Frozen register - language change

This mental floss post is great for some examples of word whose meanings and use have been preserved through frozen register - I was familiar with all these idioms but not their backgrounds - try and apply some of the language change terminology to words that are familiar now with different meanings (in which ways have they semantically shifted?).

Revision tips

The audience for this article is teachers - think about how it might be written differently for students.

To sum up the key points, make yourself sit down and start; switch tasks and subjects rather than going for a long time on one; try and recall what you've learned when you finish a task (and do so again the next day would be my tip although that's not in there in so many words - at the start of the next day's revision session, recall what you did last time before you start); plan to go back over this information in a week or so; do some quizzes (e.g. On Quizlet) to practise digging info out from your brain; work next to or with someone who is working hard; and there may be one or two more tips in there that I've forgotten.

Also think about what works for you e.g. posters, recording yourself saying info, putting ideas to music, throwing a ball as you memorise info, putting it into silly stories e.g. Chomsky met a lad who was dressed as a Native American who told him not to overgeneralise then runned away on his fast feets but overextended hisseff and falled over a regular past tense suffix applied to an irregular verb.

Good luck!

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Sapir and Whorf came up with a complex proposition; the part of it we are interested in is to do with the idea that language doesn't only reflect how we think, it influences it. Basically, what we call something matters because it shapes opinions about what we are describing.

Recently, there has been much discussion about whether the people fleeing their war-torn countries should be termed 'migrants' or 'refugees'. By examining the implicature of these nouns, we can see why they leave the audience with different impressions of the same people. 'Migrants' suggests that they have chosen to move to improve their situation. 'Refugees' suggests that they have had to flee in fear of their lives. Which group would you be keener to help? But it is the same people.

Steven Poole called the manipulation of the audience through these kinds of choices 'unspeak' - deliberately choosing or avoiding emotive language to control opinion about an issue, even deliberately making the heart of the issue more difficult to understand. His book is worth dipping into. He tackles the interchangeable terms global warming/climate change in depth and this post does so more simply, so read that first.

Easter homework

Wonderfulls,

Jacobe has set some Language Change research questions which need to be done during independent study and one computer room lesson (A-Block started it on Friday) and he has emailed these to you.

We need to do plenty of exam practice and, with that in mind, here are two titles (do both). Each of these would be done in 45 mins in the exam - do it as exam conditions at home if you choose, or use your notes, but please handwrite the answers and practise writing faster and more than you do already. If you use your notes, please write a realistic amount that you could cover in the time in the exam or it won't be useful.

Have a good go - whatever you produce, I will help you improve it but I can't help you if you don't give me the essays and I would be justifiably concerned if you didn't submit the work on the first Tuesday back.

The gender one should be doable; there is some help for the LC question below - don't look at it if you don't want the help. If you look at it afterwards, please write targets on the essay of things you know you could have done and didn't, for me.

AO1 is worth 10 marks so you need examples of words/ideas with terminology attached and a cohesive essay that guides the reader through the ideas; AO2 is worth 20 marks so discuss the theories and concepts with reference to examples from wider reading (e.g. news stories, theories, historical examples for the LC question etc.). Don't forget to plan!!! And proofread/edit for 3-4 mins at the end!

1) Men and women do not speak differently. Evaluate this idea.

2) Evaluate the idea that language is becoming more informal over time.


Language change question help:

• the question references Fairclough's idea that our language is becoming more informal over time - think about examples where this is the case e.g. mixed-mode business communications via email instead of formal letters; news reporters with local accents instead of received pronunciation (for local news only at this stage); vocative issues like calling your teacher, doctor, boss etc. by their first name in some cases; the use of text language in company names and adverts and other examples I'm sure you can think of - how far do these indicate that language is becoming more informal and is there any opposing evidence?
• prescriptivists would oppose these diachronic changes and you can bring in examples like schools banning sociolect and dialect terms, people being asked to reduce their accent for their jobs, John Humphrys's rant about text speak (he's also against multicultural London English - MLE - look up his views on that), our Bristol grammar graffiti artist etc. You could evaluate which of Aitchison's metaphors best fit these attitudes etc. Always link back to how these examples of change could be regarded as 'informal' by prescriptivists.
• Include examples of features of English that might be regarded as 'hypercorrect' and are falling out of favour (e.g. the object pronoun 'whom', the indefinite pronoun 'one' and recieved pronunciation - heightened received pronunciation is so out of favour, The Queen has stopped using it and 'one' to refer to herself, and now the apostrophe is under threat) and link back to hypercorrect features in the past, like the loss of the long S; you could also consider contrasting the standardising effect of the printing press compared with the liberating effect of modern technology and the effect of this on 'formality'; consider evaluating why Lowth's grammar and other similar books might have imposed artificial rules that were influenced by Latin and are now regarded as optional rather than 'correct' e.g. never split an infinitive - link to whether this is more informal and why those rules were ever considered 'correct' and prestigious
• Also bring in Giles's CAT, covert prestige e.g. Martha's Vineyard etc. to try and explain why informalisation might be happening and link to reasons for language change such as technology/changes in attitudes in society/globalisation (e.g. code switching in other varieties of English e.g. Manglish, the simplicity of Business/International English - the need for English as a lingua franca etc.). You could maybe link to the effectiveness of synthetic personalisation in advertising (look at how brands like Innocent address the consumer) and why being called 'Madam' by a shopkeeper might be now offensive rather than polite and how your junk mail uses your first name (even my Fitbit does!).
• Anything else you think links to the idea of informalisation - definitely explore how it is difficult to define and separate from language diversity - e.g. is using an accent other than RP less formal?
• For top grades, really try and identify patterns and complexities in establishing what might or might not be more informal; it's hard to challenge theory when there isn't much but contrast prescriptive and descriptive ideas
• Use the terms 'diachronic' and 'synchronic' and as many other terms as you can cram in attached to examples e.g. the ones in bullet point three and any others you can think of
• Just do your best and don't panic! Read up on some of these ideas if you need to - now, or in the next few weeks - remember, LC will definitely be on the paper!

Back in

It was wonderful to see most of you on Friday - I am very happy to be back with you! Please see the following post with essay titles for the holiday. Thanks.