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Chapter 13

Terms in this set (37)

synchronically
analysis of a language at a particular point in time
diachronic
language analysis over time
historical linguistics
concerned with language change
proto-indo-european
a single ancestor language for languages such as Latin, Breek, Gothic, Old Persian, and Sanskrit
family
a set of languages that share a common ancestor language
common causes of language change
geographical division, intrinsic variation between speakers, social barriers, language contact
relatedness hypothesis
the idea that two languages were the same language, but split into two different varieties over time that became separate enough to become different languages
cognates
words that have similar forms and meanings
protolanguage
an earlier, common language that similar languages are descended from
family tree theory
assumes that speech sounds change in regular, recognizable ways and that because of this, phonological similarities among languages may be due to a genetic relationship among those languages
wave theory
represents language relationships by recognizing the gradual spread of change throughout a dialect, language, or group of languages, much as a wave expands on the surface of a pond from the point where a pebble has been tossed in
where does family tree theory fail
does not describe inter-language mingling, dialects, or slow changes over time
sound change
alteration in phonetics of a sound as a result of phonological processes
phonetic change
refers to a change in the pronunciation of an allophone that has no effect on the phonological system of a language
phonological change
changes the phonological system in some way, by the addition or loss of a phoneme or by a change in the distribution of allophones
unconditioned sound change
every instance of a sound becomes a different one
conditioned sound change
when a sound changes because of the influence of a neighboring sound
types of sound changes
assimilation
dissimilation
deletion
insertion
monophthongization
diphthongization
metathesis
raising and lowering
backing and fronting
morphological change
introduces new forms of words or introduction of new words or morphological processes
analogical change
the influence of one form or set of forms over another
proportional analogy
a four-part proportion
paradigm
a set of inflectionally related forms
paradigm levelling
a change that takes place to make a paradigm more internally similar
back formation
involves creation of a new stem
folk etymology
obscure morphemes are reanalyzed into more familiar morphemes
ways to add new words
acronyms
blends
clipping
coinages
conversions
eponyms
syntactic change
change in grammar; includes changes in word order or co-occurrence
semantic extensions
set of referents increases
metaphorical extension
meaning of a word extended to include object/concept that is like the original referent in a metaphorical sense (nautical terms -> space exploration)
semantic reductions
set of referents decreases
elevation
word takes on grander or more positive connotations over time
degredations
occur when a word acquires a more pejorative meaning
reconstruction
methods of building older languages
internal reconstruction
analysis of data from a single language to make hypotheses about that language's history
comparative reconstruction
comparison of multiple related languages in order to make hypotheses about the protolanguage
comparative method procedure
compile cognate sets
determine sound correspondences
reconstruct a sound for each position
check for regularity of sound change
what are the reconstruction methods for each sound
total correspondence
most natural development
occam's razor
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