Languages Are Constantly Changing English Language Essay

Languages Are Constantly Changing side Language EssayLanguages argon ever so-changing as the world is constantly changing. After the Second World War, English neologisms emerged in a remarkable way. parvenu vocabulary came into existence due to hot technologies and parvenuefound discoveries such as computing, internet , cell phones and the bid. Peoples daily kneadivities like dancing, looking and many new(prenominal)s, re crudeed their popularity giving birth to peeled lexicon. In deed, sore enounces argon invented rapidly and are developed quickly thanks to mass communication. They appear and fall into disuse when they return served their momentary purpose ( Bernhart 54).Only a few of them will get recorded in glossaries of neologisms of world-wide dictionaries.The matter of neologism becomes a raw(a) hot spot of research owing to its applicative(a) and prevailing use in reality. The study of neologisms evoked a whole cluster of questions-What are the reasons beyon d the rise of freshly lexicon?-Why are nigh new oral communication comely a flash in a pan?-Why are other vocalizes successful?-What are the qualities that make a word successful?-Are Neologisms markers of changes in societies?Chapter 01Literature Review1.Definition of a NeologismThe bourne neologism start ups from Greek neos means new, logos means word, i. e. a neologism is literally a new word.Neologism is the creation of a new lexical item as a response to changed circumstances in the external world, which achieves s dismountly currency within a speech community(qtd. in Chrystal 1992 264) at a particular cartridge clip.In philology, a neologism is a recently-coined word, or the act of inventing a word or phrase. Additionally it can imply the use of gaga words in a new sense (i.e., giving new meanings to living words or phrases). Neologisms are especially useful in identifying new inventions, new phenomena, or sexagenarian ideas which view taken on a new cultural context. The word neologism was coined around 1800 and was, at that time, a neologism itself. A person who develops a neologism is sometimes called a neologist neology is the act of introducing a new word into a language.l. 2. Background of English NeologismsThe famous American new word expert John Algeo wrote in the preface of his sacred scripture Fifty Years Among the New Words, Although the lexicon of new word is warmly welcomed by readers only in recent days, actually the compiling of English dictionary began with the collection of new word ever since 1604. The early English dictionaries like Table Alphabeticall (1604, Robert Cawdrey), English Expositor (1616, John Bullokar), and The English Dictionarie (1623, Henry Cockeram) all embodied some hard words, which were absolutely new words to deal in those days. Thus, those dictionaries somehow held the characteristics of neologism dictionary. However, the scientific and systematic study of neologism began at 200 years later, th e 20th century.In 1902, Leon Mead published a book telephoned Word-Coinage, being an Inquiryinto Recent Neologisms, also a Brief Study of Literary Style, Slang, andProvincialisms, which said to be the first book studying neologism in the 20th.Although it was not a neologism dictionary, it contained some articles nigh new words. Whats more than, Mead put forward the idea of devising research on new words for the first time in the history. He also provided laps of frameworks of new words created by some American writers at that time.In 1920, C.Alphonso Smith, the dean of the English department of AmericanNavy Institute wrote a book entitled New Words Self-defined, in which 420 newwords were illustrated by examples. This had proved to be a big progress in theresearch on the neologisms.From 1937 to 1940, the famous American scholar Dwight Bolinger first utilizenewspapers and magazines to introduce new word. He created a column, The Living Language, in the newspaper, Words. In 194 3, the column was brought into American speech and the title was changed into Among the New Words. Then, in the next year,Professor I. Willis Russell took the send off of Bolinger and became the chief-editor of the column. He wrote articles entitled Words and Meanings, New, to introduce new words and their new meanings.War is said to be the major cradle for the born of new words. Majorie Taylor, alibrarian in New York, collected numerous neologisms created during the World War II. In 1944, Taylor compiled a word-list, The Language of World War II Abbreviation, captions, Quotations, Slogans, Titles and Other ground and Phrases, in which every new word was explained. Similarly, Clarence Barnhart published his mental lexicon of U.S. Army Terms. At that time, some academic magazines also published articles to introduce new words. many an(prenominal) neologism dictionaries in the 1950s are very popular, especially the Dictionary of New Words in English compiled by Paul Charles Berg in 1953 and The Dictionary of New Words by Mary Reifer in 1955. During 1950s, Mr. Paul Charles Berg did a lot of job to collect new words about the war, which brought us his Dictionary of New Words in English in 1953.After the World War II, science and technology victimisation had greatlyinfluenced the society. Subsequently, a lot of scientific and technical words wereflooding into the language field. A lot of neologism dictionaries about words in those fields were published. Two of them are mostly welcomed An Explaining and Pronouncing Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Words by W. E. Flood Michael West and Words of Sciences and the History Blind Them by Isaac Asimov.From 1970s on, the study of English neologism drew great attention fromwestern scholars, many of them established special column to introduce new words in English, such as William Safire who was well chicanen for his On Language in New York Times weekly and Anne H. Soukhanow who was the chief-editor of Word Watch. In Safires column, he provided a considerably clear report of new words by citing typical examples, exploring their origins and performing their current tradition.Besides, the American Dialect Association Dispatches introduced some new words yearly to the public. For instance, in 1994, discipline superhighway was rewarded as the newest word cybersex was the most surprising word and mosaic culture the most unnecessary word.The digital revolution in 1990s is the ultra reshaping and restructuring ofsocial patterns. Because of the wild spread of internet, America is speaking a whole new language, said Shawn Holley in his The New Word Revolution. Lots of neologisms that have a historical significance by reason of the influence they exerted on the language field are brought into existence. According to the statistics, more than 20 neologism dictionaries have been compiled, among which some put emphasis on the academic field and some are distinctive by their popularity. Oxford English Dictionary, Websters Third New International Dictionary and Barhart Dictionary of New English are the ones with the highest academic value.New words are numerous. Sometimes it seems as if a new word has about as ofttimes chance of developing into a permanent addition to our vocabulary. Only few of them will remain as serious candidates for the dictionary. Books especially about new words are abundant. However, only a few scholars have ventured to propose brokers that make for the success of new words. One is Goran Kjellmer, whose article Potential Words in the diary Word for August 2000 also reviews previous proposals. The other is the executive secretary of American Dialect Society, Allan Metcalf who proposed the FUDGE scale. The two reached different conclusions.Along with books and periodicals, there is the Internet. In particular, it makes my extensive searches for examples of how words are actually used today possible. Here the author has searched thousands of pages indexed b y Google.com countless times to find current uses of words low discussion.A jump of several decades has showed us more researches on the neologisms.Language reflects our life, and the research on the neologisms has never been stopped.By collecting new words or phrases occurring in languages, the previous researches have provided precious solids for the further exploration in this field. Therefore, a careful look at the research background of neologisms carries an essential academic significance.In china, the study of neologism began from 1980s. Most of the specific worksand papers are mere introduction of theories from abroad lacking of much original study. To financial support up with the latest English vocabulary is really difficult, thus a thorough and systematic analysis about English new words is of practical significance both in learning and teaching of English as a foreign language.Chapter 02 Factors for the Rise of English NeologismsIt is not language change itself that h as engaged the attention of historical linguists for the past decades, scarcely the causes and the processes of change. Early researchers, such as Saussure (1922) or Bloomfield (1933), for instance, maintained that the causes of linguistic change cannot be established disdain numerous attempts at feasible explanations (Wardhaugh,1990187). The majority of the early researchers have maintained also that the actual processes of change cannot be viewd that what one can observe and perhaps analyses are the consequences of change. The findings of later research, however, envisage the process of change as an initial fluctuation between the new and the old, with the completion of the process occurring when the new re outranks the old (Fromkin et al.,1996295). In other words, if the new form, be it phonological, morpho-syntactic, lexical or semantic, spreads the change is in progress, if it eventually replaces the old form, the change has become a fait accompli it has gone to completio n(Holmes,1992212).In regard to the causes of change, although the reasons for an aspect of a language undergoing change at a particular point in time still remain unclear, a turning of theories have been proposed, depending on the orientation of individual researchers. For instance, Mcmahon M.S (1994 179-182) discussing causes of semantic change, delineates the followingLinguistic causesHistorical causes (subdivided into ideas and scientific concepts)Social causesPsychological causes (subdivided into emotive factors and taboo)Foreign influenceThe necessitate for a new nameQuite a lot of reasons are responsible for the creating of English neologisms.Any new thing or new concept, which takes place in our society, may provide a foundation for the creating of the new words. In the following, four of the majorreasons will be emphasized 1) the rise of new concepts and new ideas in socialculture 2) new discoveries in science and technology 3) the manufacture of new products in economy, a nd 4) the events in the field of politics. Accompanied by a series of neologisms, we can have a clearer understanding of the current English neologisms.2.1. Sociolcultural Changes2.1.1. New Concepts and ideas in Social Culture.The improving living condition and the enhancing cultural model have formeda solid basis on which a large number of new things find their occurrence. It is not necessary to demonstrate that with the development of social culture, new concepts and ideas are introduced into us constantly. Since there are many more concepts than there are existing words, there will unendingly be new words created. Changes in social outlook and manners of behavior call for new marchess such as beatnik, peacenik, and hippie. Even new culinary ar leanments demand new labels and in English they have some forth in the form of cheeseburger, chiliburger, mushroomburger, etc.(Anderson, 1973)Brian Foster presents us a striking example of how fast English vocabularychanges. In the year 1914, a young girl named Monica Baldwin entered a convent, remaining secluded there until 1941. When she returned to the outer world, she found herself in a totally different world the conditions of everyday life altered by technical developments and social changes were beyond recognition. Whats more puzzling to her was the language people speaking. During a railway journey, the bourn luggage in advance meant nothing to her. Reading the daily newspapers made her feel idiotic in the extreme, because words like jazz, Gin, Hollywood, Cool, noshing and Isolationism were completely incomprehensible to her. Not to mention how bewildered she was at hearing friends say, Its your funeral or believe it or not.(Brian Foster, 1981)Lets look at another example moonlighting. It was anything but new to thevocabulary, and it gained a brand new meaning in 1957 as the verb to moonlight and its related noun, moonlighting. Time magazine, beamed moonlighting at its readers in its issue of July 22nd, 19 57. According to Time, it was in fact not just a new name, but a new trend and a new concern. MOON-LIGHTING, proclaimed the headline A difficulty Born of Prosperity.As a noun, moonlight goes back with the moon itself to the beginning of theEnglish language and even earlier to the Germanic and Indo-European ancestors of English. Presumably ever since humans could speak, they have talked about the light of the moon. As a verb, to moonlight is more recent, but it still goes back to the nineteenth century. From the start it has meant doing something by the light of the moon, but at first this was something that could get one arrested. In the nineteenth century, moonlight was a slang term for the activity of burglars, who benefited from moonlight at their work. In the twentieth century, it was also used for herding cattle and hunting deer by moonlight. Whether it was the illegal work that in 1957 caused the transmutation of moonlight into a standard term for legal work, or whether this new meaning was independently derived from the original moonlight, nobody knows. And it doesnt matter much. Either way, moonlight meaning the light of the moon easily took on its second meaning of to work a second job, and Americans have been moonlighting ever since. This second meaning seems likely to stay in the vocabulary, as long as people continue to hold down second jobs.2.1.2.Disguising Language, MisnomersWhile taboo words are words that have been banned by the speech community,misnomers are words that individuals have decided to coin in order to deceive the hearer by disguising unpleasant concepts. posers E. friendly fire instead of bombardment by own troops.2.1.3.Prestige, FashionLexical change may be based on the prestige of another language or another variety of the homogeneous language, certain fashionable word-formation patterns or certain fashionable semasiological centers of expansion. The kernel of this force is mostly found outside of language. It is often the pre stige of a culture, the superiority of a group or politics which cause speakers to adopt linguistic elements (words, morphemes, morphs, sounds) from the prestigious groups speech. Example English, for instance, borrowed heavily from French during the ME. period because the upper social classes were made up of Frenchpeople garment, flower, rose, face, prince, hour, question, dance, fork, royal, loyal, fine, zero are all Gallicisms. Today, English is now the most prestigious language for many parts of the world.2.1.4.Social, or Demographic, ReasonsBy social, or demographic, reasons we shall refer to the involvement between different social groups. This pass on may easily, and sort of subconsciously, trigger off lexical change- the more intensive the social contact is, the more intensive the linguistic exchange. Example In the history of the English language, the two prominent instances of exchanges between two social groups were the one with the Vikings in the eighth to 11th centur ies and the one with the French in the 11th to 15th centuries. The force of direct contact between different speech communities must(prenominal) not be mixed up with the prestige force, where no direct contact with the other speech community is necessary. Thus, wecan say that the early French loans (from Northern French) rather go back to theeveryday contact with the English population and the French soldiers, not so early French loans (from Parisian French) go back to the prestige of the French aristocracy, the French loans in the official bilingual phase of Englands history may either go back to prestige or to the social contact or to both. Examples The inherited ey is replaced by Scandinavian egg, the inherited nimen is replaced by Scandinavian taken except for theform benumb, throwen is supplemented by Scandinavian casten early French loans are army, carpenter, catch.2.1.5.Culture-Induced saliency of a Concept (Cultural Salience)Sometimes concepts are not salient to humans bec ause of gerenal human nature, but because of the concepts cultural values. Their salience can change with the change of culture. Example The increased sizeableness of arts and fashion has affected the lexical treatment of the conceptual field of colors from a vague differentiation between black-market blue and light blue to a neat distinction between cobalt blue, royal blue, indigo etc. (such neat detailed differentiations often originate in expert slang and then penetrate the language of the general speech community).Conceptual fields which have gained salience through cultural importance may very well serve as designations in other conceptual field in the form of metaphors. Example In the US, a lot of metaphors in general language have been taken from the field of baseball, e.g. to be off base to be completely wrong, to hit a home expelling to be highly successful and from the field of entrepreneurship.2.1.6.Word-PlayThe category of word play includes humor, irony and puns. Alt hough word-play often goes hand in hand with other factors (such as taboo, prestige or anthropological salience), it can also trigger lexical change on its own. Example ModE. perfect lady prostitute, to take French break to leave secretly (without paying), to cool look (2.2 New discoveries and Products In Science and TechnologySuppose youre advancing the cause of science rather than pitching a product,and you have something new to report-a new element, a new compound, or a new species. How does it get a name? No new science is possible without neologisms, new words or new interpretations of old words to describe and explain reality in new ways. How could Aristotle have developed the logic of syllogisms or northward thetheory of dynamics without new vocabularies and definitions? They were neologists, and everybody wanting to contribute new knowledge must be. For new knowledge there is no way around the creation of new terms and concepts. For new objects and new inventions, scientifi c discoveries, technical theories, etc, the new name is usually the work of one man or of a very few. To slump neologisms, often despicably, is to reject scientific development. No sign of scientific conservatism is so telling as the rejection of all but the established concepts of a train of thought. Neologisms are, however, relative to the terminological paradigm actually dominating a field ofknowledge. It may be a radical renewal to introduce terms from a tradition believed to be outmoded.Nowadays the idea of the technical highway has been very familiar to people.Development in the science and technology has brought tremendous energy to the progression of our civilization. And these achievements also find their reflections in language. Technical advancements in a society demand new designator terms, many of which can be found in linguistics such as hypercorrection, phoneme, allomorph, etc. The progress of science and technology give ins occasion for the large majority of new words for a new thing we must have a new name hence, for instance, motor, argon, and appendicitis. It is interesting to see that the last word did not exist, or was at least too obscure to be recorded, when the Oxford Dictionary began to come out in 1888 but we cannot do without it now.Take the word software for example, that computer term was invented by JohnW. Tukey, a actuary at Princeton University. As long ago as 1958, he used the word in the American Mathematical Monthly. Today the software comprising the carefully intend interpretive routines, compilers, and other aspects of automotive programming are at least as important to the modern electronic calculator as its hardware of tubes, transistors, wires, tapes and the like. Tukey was already known for inventing another now- famous computer term. In 1946 he used the little word bit as the designation for a unit of information, a binary digit with value 0 or 1. That led a decade later to bytes (groups of bits, now always eight , a term invented by Werner Buchholz at IBM) and to todays kilo-, mega and tera-bytes of computer storage and information.2.3 The Manufacture of New Products in EconomyEconomic development is the mainstream of our era. The improvement oflanguage, to a certain extent, benefits a lot from the new phenomenon that occurs in the economic field. In this competitive world, any innovation or fresh things taking place in economy will soon find their share in the language. If theres anything a new product needs, its a brand name. To the extent that the product succeeds, the name will too. Its a sure thing, the one way to plight that a new term will be a success spend mighty amounts of money on marketing persuade people to secure and keep on buying a product, and they will call it by the name you give it.When you want a product, a company would like you to call of its brand name.The Coca-Cola Company wants people to think of a vitamin C when they want a soft make merry. But if the marketi ng is successful enough and the name Coke is embedded in peoples vocabulary, people will ask for a Coke and be satisfied if they get a Pepsi. In fact, in the southeastern linked States, home of Coca-Cola, Coke is such a successful brand that many people there (and in the rest of the country) refer to any soft drink as a coke.Some brand names even joined the pack of the general vocabulary. Here aresome of themAspirin a name for acetylsalicylic acid, trademarked by the Bayer Company ofGermany at the start of the twentieth century.Elevator and escalator both originally trademarks of the Otis Elevator Company.Zipper a name given to a separable fastener by the B.F. Goodrich Companymany years after it was invented. The new name helped the zipper attainpopularity in the 1930s.Loafer for a moccasin-like shoe.Cellophane for a bold wrap made of cellulose.Granola a trademark registered in 1886 by W K. Kellogg, now used for anatural kind of breakfast cereal.Ping-pong for table tennis, a trade mark registered by Parker Brothers in 1901.Xerox for photocopier.Kleenex for facial tissue.Band-Aid for adhesive bandage.Tupperware for storage container.Scotch tape for transparent adhesive tape.Jazzercise for exercise to jazz music.2.4. The Events in the Field of Politics.The forming of English new words is sometimes considered as the result of thepolitical changes. Language reflects the society, as it has always been. Politics is an essential part of the development of the world therefore, it can easily find its relative neologisms in the language field.For instance, when Mr. Bill Clinton was elected as the chair of the US., hisname has been associated with many political words. His policy is Clintonian, he is carrying out the Clintionism, his economics policy is Clintonomics, and his supporters were called Clintonites, he ultimately wanted to realize his Clintonization. Another widespread usage of affixes is -gate, which came from the historical Watergate event. People took us e of Irangate to disclose the involvement of some American government office workers in U.S. selling arms to Iran. Camillagate was used to mean the tell apart affair of British Prince Charles and his lover Camilla Parker.Nannygate was pointed to the illegal hire of baby-sitter or the hire of illegalimmigrants. Another striking example, On September 11, 2001, the peace of a sunny late-summer morning was shattered by the impact of four hijacked airplanes on the World slew Center towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. There were more direct casualties in these disasters than on any previous day in American history, and soon the entire country felt the impact of damaged or destroyed lives, businesses,and sense of security. Out of the ashes came patriotism, resolve, and unity. And out of the ashes came new words, too, to describe new situations never before imagined.The events stir memories of Pearl Harbor and Oklahoma City, and we refer to other memorable occasions by thei r locations Lexington and Concord, Gettysburg, Little Big Horn, and Wounded Knee but in this case the name of place wont work. Its not just because several places were involved, but also because the places are too famous. New York City and Washington, DC, have too many other connotations, so do the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.For lack of a suitable designation deriving from place, we have used the date as a reference point September 11. That does have a well-known precedent. One other event in American history is referred to by its date July 4 or the Fourth of July, the date in 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed in Philadelphia.In addition to the spelled-out month and day, the numerals 9/11 or 9-11 havebeen used. Never before has such a historic event been so labeled, but because of the striking coincidence that 911 is the telephone number to call for help in an emergency, that numerical designation has been a success. advertise writers like the conc ision of this expression, just three numerals to take in all the events of that day. So far, the events of that day have resulted in just one new term ground zero, for the place of impact, the center of destruction in New York City where the World Trade Towers once stood. That phrase has succeeded because it is not really new its an old term for the location on the ground directly under a vast atomic explosion, corresponding to air zero, the location in the air preceding(prenominal) the ground where the bomb goes off. Ground zero had been gathering dust on the shelf in recent years because of a fortunate lack of atomic explosions. No one knows who first said ground zero in reference to the site where the World Trade Towers were attacked and collapsed, but the term immediately caught on because of its familiarity and emotional power.Chapter 03Success of English Neologisms3.1. How are Neologisms Found?The authority for a word in fact, the authority for a language rests with the us ers of the language. Thus, the process of adding new words to the dictionary begins with a systematic examination of almost everything printed and said in English. As far as Among the New Words is concerned, this important task credit entry with source information (qtd. in Algeo 1991a 3) is fulfilled by active members of the Words Committee, who contribute the words they regard as new in any material they read or listen to (Algeo 1991a 3).The cited word must contain the name of the publication, the day, and the page number. Concerning oral citations, the source information must consist of the day the objurgate was heard and where and when one came across it (Algeo 1991a 3). The following list shows that usually American dictionaries are consulted (with the exceptions of two British dictionaries the OED and Websters Third) to check the newness of each contribution (Algeo 1991a 2)Random hold Websters College Dictionary, 1991.Oxford English Dictionary, 2d ed., 1989.World Book Dict ionary, 1989Websters New World Dictionary, 3d College ed., 1988.Random House Dictionary, 2d ed. Unabridged, 1987.Websters Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, 1983.Websters Third New International Dictionary, 1961.Only if the new word is assumed to be British, are additional British dictionaries referred to. To make sure that a neologism has not been lexicalize yet, the following dictionaries of neologisms are usedThird Barnhart Dictionary of New English. 1990.Chambers English Dictionary, 1988.Collins Concise Dictionary, 2d ed., 1988.Collins Dictionary, 2d ed., 1986.Longman Dictionary, 1984.Readers Digest prominent Illustrated Dictionary, 1984.If a word entered one of these dictionaries, then it is usually not recorded in Among the New Words (Algeo 91a 2).Since Among the New Words receives more citations than there is outer space to print, a selection has to be made. The criteria on what and when to enter a word is up to the lexicographer. As I said, lexicographers have different opini ons (Algeo 1991b 75) and therefore it is hard to give exact rules. However, two principles can be set up the absolutely newness of a word and the reflection of the zeitgeist.3.2. Reasons of Success of Neologisms3.2.1 The frequency of occurrencesThe most important factor is that a word appears in as many different sources as possible. The more sources (newspapers, magazines, books etc.) a word appears in, the more obvious is the frequency and range of the term (Sheidlower 33). Besides, the more a word is cited the more popular it is and consequently the more likely it is to be included in a dictionary.3.2.2 Range among sourcesIt is of interest to know the range of the new word because if a word is only common in a special field, it is not a candidate for a general dictionary but rather for a technical one. Therefore, a general dictionary excludes technical terms or terms well known in a certain field because they are not of general interest. However, there are exceptions the term int ellectual property1was limited to certain fields. Today, its use is widespread because new technologies are invented thus the intellectual property has to be preserved (Sheidlower 33).3.2.3 DurabilityThe use of a term over a certain time gives information on its durability. Nevertheless, this criterion must not be overrated. It is true that a word that appears over a certain time span, but differently does not constitute sufficient evidence (qtd. in Barnhart 59) probably will not be included however, a brandnew word with sufficient evidence (frequency of occurrences, range among sources, cruciality in a given field) is likely to enter a dictionary (Sheidlower 34).Sheidlower points out that the criterion should rather be the number and range of citations than the newness of the word (34