Theorists for Language Change
- J Aitchison’s Potential, Diffusion, Implementation & Codification Model
1. Potential – there is an internal weakness or an external pressure for a particular change
2. Diffusion – the change starts to spread through the population
3. Implementation – people start using the variant – it is incorporated into people’s idiolect – group / local languages
4. Codification Model – written down and subsequently put into the dictionary and accepted officially
- Chen (1968 &1972) – gradual then accelerating change, before levelling off – the S-curve Model
- Bailey C.J. (1973) – Wave Model: how changes weaken exponentially across a particular geographical region & across different social groups
- Theory of Lexical Gaps – a word will be invented, converted or borrowed in order to fill a gap in usage as well as a phonological gap in our language
- Substratum Theory: that language changes primarily through contact with other languages: consider the effect of Yiddish speakers hypercorrect pronunciation of /do-er/ and /caw-fee/ on the distinctive New York accent of today
- Functional Theory – language changes according to the needs of its users
- Jean Aitchison’s Parodies of Prescriptivism
- Damp Spoon parody
- Crumbling Castle Parody
- Infectious Disease Parody
- Random Fluctuation Theory – Charles Hockett 1958 – language changes owing to its instability, because of random errors and events within the language system, as a response of the ever changing context of language use and its users. E.g. Why has “book” become a synonym for “cool” (predictive texting) – a pretty random occurrence.
- Guy Deutscher – The Unfolding of Language (2005)
a) Economy – the tendency to save effort, and is behind the short-cuts speakers often take in pronunciation.
b) Expressiveness – refers to speakers’ attempts to achieve greater effect for their utterances and extend their range of meaning…. the results of this hyperbole can often be self-defeating, since the repetition of emphatic phrases can cause an inflationary process that devalues their currency.
c) Analogy – the mind’s craving for order, the instinctive need of speakers to find regularity in language.
Awaken English 