About language change throughout the years and how it evolved in aspects of phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics.

1. Hello!ZAIDAH BINTI JEFRI (A166785)
SHALENI KAVIRAJAN (A163485)

2. LANGUAGE CHAnge
The syllables of time

3. Language change is extensive,
taking place in virtually all
aspects of the grammar --- in
phonology, morphology, syntax,
semantics and such. Language
change is never an overnight
occurrence, otherwise,
communication would be
impossible.

4. English has been a written language for more than 13,000 yrs.
Old English is scarcely recognizable in the modern world.
Example:
Beowulf: wolde guman findan þone þe him on sweofote sare geteode.
'He wanted to find the man who harmed him while he slept.'

5. Approximately 500 years after Beowulf, Chaucer wrote the
Canterbury tales in what is now called Middle English, spoken from
around 1100 to 1500.
When that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droght of March hath perced to the roote...
'When April with its sweet showers
The drought of March has pierced to the root...'

6. 200 yEArs after Chaucer, Shakespeare WROTE, in his
work, Hamlet:
A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a
king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that
worm.

8. tHE REGULARITY OF
SOUND CHANGE

9. Sound correspondences
× The result of phonological changes that affect certain
sounds, or classes of sounds, rather than individual
words.
× can also account for dialect or regional differences,
EX: IN MIDDLE ENGLISH, Mouse [maʊs] is pronounced müs [mu:s]

10. aNCESTRAL
LANGUAGE

11. INDO-EUROPEAN
PROTO-GERMANICLATIN
FRENCH SPANISH ENGLISH GERMAN

12. English /f/
FATHER
FISH
FRENCH /P/
PADRE
POISSON
CAN’T BE A COINCIDENCE?

13. × Regular sound correspondences bring changes in the phonological
system.
× Example: the the velar fricative /x/. Night → [nɪxt] and drought →
[druxt].
× All words that were once pronounced with an /x/ no longer include this
sound. In some cases, the /x/ became a /k/, as in elk (eolh [ɛɔlx]). In
other cases it disappeared altogether to be replaced by a vowel, as in
hollow (holh [hↄlx]).

14. × An allophone of a phoneme may become a separate phoneme
and adding to the phonemic inventory.
× For example, Old English lacked the /v/ phoneme. The phoneme
/f/ however, had the allophone [v] when it occurred between
two vowels. And so ofer /ofer/ meaning ‘over’ was pronounced
[ɔvər].
× Speakers perceive the two sounds as separate phonemes, in
effect creating a new phoneme /v/

15. × This may result in lexicon changes → dialect
differences.
× Example: r-dropping rule (not pronounced after
a vowel.)
× British English and of American English dialects
spoken in the northeastern and the southern
United States.

16. The great vowel
shift

17. × In between 1400 and 1600,
something happened that
resulted in new phonemic
representations of words
and morphemes.
× The Great Vowel Shift is a
primary source of so
many spelling
inconsistencies of English
because the current
spelling system still
reflects the way words
used to be pronounced.
Middle english Modern english
[iː] [aɪ]
[uː] [aʊ]
[e:] [i:]
[o:] [u:]
[ɛː] [e:]
[ɔː] [ɔː]
[a:] [e:]

18. Morphological
change

19. × Old english had extensive case systems
expressed through noun suffixing.
× Modern English retain some semblance to
them.
× Nominative (he, she), genitive (his, hers), dative
and accusative (him/her).

20. × Old english had extensive case systems
expressed through noun suffixing.
× Modern English retain some semblance to
them.
× Nominative (he, she), genitive (his, hers), dative
and accusative (him/her).

21. LEXICAL CHANGE
Borrowings
New words
Loss of words

22. • The history of English lexical expansion is heavily characterized with heavy borrowing of
words or morphemes from other languages.
• Direct & Indirect borrowing
For example;
a) Direct borrowing – Feast borrowed directly from French & can
be traced back to Latin festum.
b) Indirect borrowing – Algebra -> Spanish -> Arabic (Spanish as
an intermediary).
• Examples of loan words;
i) French – government(gouvernement), crown(couronne),
beef(boeuf), mutton(mouton),etc
ii) Greek – drama, comedy, tragedy, scene, botany, zoology, physics
and anatomy, etc
iii) Scandinavian – they, their, them, etc

23. Word
formati
on rules
Coina
ge
Abbreviatio
n
Blendin
g
Compoundin
g
Clippin
g
Back-
formatio
n
Acrony
m
Derivati
on
NEW WORDS
● New words which are added
to English can also be
formed by using word
formation rules.

24. ❑Compounding
- is a process of combining
two or more words into one
lexical unit.
❑ For example;
- afternoon, bigmouth,
egghead, chickenhearted,
railroad, etc
❑ Derivation
- process by which words are
formed by the addition of
affixes to the roots, stems or
words.
❑ For example;
- nation -> national ->
nationalize -> nationalization
-> internationalization

25. ❑ Acronym
- process of creating a word
by combining the initials of a
number of words.
❑ For example;
- VIP (very important person)
- OPEC (organization of
petroleum exporting
countries)
❑ Blending
- process of forming a new
word by combining parts of
other words.
❑ For example;
- medicare (medical + care)
- smog (smoke + fog)
- brunch (breakfast + lunch)

26. ❑ Abbreviation
- is a shortened form of word
or phrase which represents
the complete form.
❑ For example;
- kg (kilogram)
- TV (television)
- Mr (Mister)
- Dr (doctor)
❑ Clipping
- is kind of abbreviation of
otherwise longer word or
phrases.
❑ For example;
- gym (gymnasium)
- copter (helicopter)
- zoo (zoological garden)

27. ❑ Back-formation
- is a process by which new
words are formed by taking
away the suffix of an existing
word.
❑ For example;
- enthuse (enthusiasm)
- burgle (burglar)
- babysit (babysitter)
❑ Coinage
- refers to the invention of
new word often from the
brand-name or trade-mark
of a product.
❑ For example;
- Kleenex for facial tissue; to
wipe a face with Kleenex

28. • CHANGES IN SOCIETY can cause lexical items often fall into
disuse because the object or notion they refer to has become
obsolete.
• A word lost through INATTENTION
• For example;
- Shakespeare (Romeo & Juliet) -> beseem = “to be suitable”
-> wot = “to know”
-> wherefore “why”

29. o As a language may gain or lose lexical items additionally
the meaning or semantic representations of words may
change, shift or become broader or narrower.

30. Word Past Meaning
Present
Meaning
Dog
A kind of
hunting dog
Any kind of
dog
Manage Handle a horse
Handle
anything
Holiday A holy day Any day off
SEMANTIC BROADENING
• Refers to the process in which the meaning of a word becomes more
general or inclusive than its historically earlier denotation.
• For example;

31. Word Past Meaning
Present
Meaning
Deer
Beast or
animal
A particular
kind of animal
Hound
(German
“Hund”)
Any kind of
dog
A dog used
for hunting
Semantic Narrowing
• Is a process in which a word becomes less general or inclusive than its
earlier meaning.
• For example;

32. Word Past Meaning
Present
Meaning
Nice Ignorant Pleasant
Board
A piece of
timber
A council or
authoritative
body
Fond Foolish
Loving,
affectionate
Semantic Shift
• Is a process of semantic change in which a word loses its former meaning
and acquires new, sometimes related meaning.
• For example;

33. Causes of Language Change
• No one is able to provide a consistent account for the exact causes
of ALL the language change.
• Although most linguists believe that physiological, linguistic or
sociological factors contribute to language change.
• Study of linguistic change = Historical and comparative linguistics
• Historical -> because it deals with history of particular languages.
• Comparative -> because it deals with relations between languages.

34. Historical Linguistics
• These historical records are studied to find out how languages were
once pronounced.
For example; the versions of English in Shakespeare or Chaucer or
the author of Beowulf.
• Another great example;
- [English history] all words spelled with “er” were pronounced as if
they are spelled with “ar” like perfect pronounced as parfet.

35. • This method of analyzing languages is known as the
comparative method, and linguists using it are
referred to as comparative linguists.
• study of the relationships or correspondences
between two or more languages and the techniques
used to discover whether the languages have a
common ancestor.

36. Proto-
Germanic
English German Dutch Danish Norwegian Swedish

39. • Through comparative method, linguists find sound correspondence and
build cognates.
• A cognate is a word related genetically to other words that together
form set of cognates descending from proto language
• For instance;
pater (Latin)
pitar (Sanskrit)
father (English)
the sound correspondence
p-p-f shows that the
languages are genetically
related (Indo-European)

41. Language Change
• The changes are more gradual, particularly changes in the phonological and
syntactic system.
• A basic cause of change is the way children acquire the language
• The need to create new word and expression to refer to newly developed concepts
& new things.
• For example;
- younger generations tend to use fridge while older generations
prefers icebox.

42. THANKS!