② also it enables us to determine how non-linguistic factors, such as social, cultural and psychological factors, interact over time to trigger linguistic change
[B] The nature of language change
Language change is universal, continuous and, to a considerable degree, regular and systematic; a gradual and constant process, often indiscernible to speakers of the same generation
Language change is extensive, all aspects of grammar-phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon, and semantics.
[C] Major periods in the history of English
The division of changes in English only makes it easier, more convenient and more practical to study language change.
Old English: (449-1100)
Middle English: (1100-1500)
Modern English: (1500-now)
[D] Linguistic change of English
Language change is essentially a matter of change in the grammar.
① sound change
a) vowel sound changeàca. 1400-1600, known as the great vowel shift
b) sound loss (apocope) 词尾脱落
c) sound addition (epenthesis) 插音
d) sound movement (metathesis) 换位
② morphological change
a) affix loss: loss of gender and case markings
        drop of causative verb formation rule
b) affix addition: -able, -ment (from French), -ize
③ syntactic change
a) rule loss: (1) adj, agree with the head noun in case, number and gender; (2) double-negation rule
b) rule addition: (1) particle movement rule; (2) distinction between auxiliary verbs and main verbs
c) rule change: (1) negation way; (2) sentence structure: SVO, VSO, SOV, OSV
The loss of case contrasts in English was compensated for with the adoption of the consistent SVO order.
④ lexical changeà most vigorous and on-going change
a) lexical loss: no longer in use
b) lexical addition: borrowing and word-formation (refer to syntax)
c) Semantic change: (1) semantic broadening; (2) semantic narrowing; (3) semantic shift: a process of semantic change in which a word loses its former meaning and acquires a new, sometimes related one.
[E] Language familyà historical and comparative linguistics
Protolanguage: the original form of a language family that has ceased to exist
A language family is established by the use of a method known as comparative reconstruction.
The Indo-European Family: 150
The Sino-Tibetan Family: 300
The Austro-wesian Family: 1000
The Afro-asiatic Family: 250
Grim’s (the German scholar) major contribution to historical linguistics is his explanation of the relationships among cognates in terms of a sound shift.
Grim’s law:
Voiced stops become voiceless
Voiceless stops become fricatives
Voiced aspirates become de-aspirated
[F] The causes of language change
As a matter of fact, no linguist has ever claimed to know all the causes of language change.
Physiological, linguistic, or sociological factors
① sound assimilation
② rule simplification and regularization
③ internal borrowingàanalogue
④ elaboration: 规则细化
⑤ social triggers: Norman Conquest, British colonial settlement, the country’s political, cultural and economic advances in distant lands
⑥ cultural transmittion
⑦ children’s approximation toward the adult grammar: 儿童语言习得
Children acquire their native language not through formal instruction of grammatical rules.



Chapter 11  Sociolinguistics
The sub-discipline of linguistics that studies language in society
[A] Speech community and speech variety
SC: a speech community is a group of people who form a community, which may have as few members as a family or as many members as a country, and share the same language or a particular variety of language.
The linguistic markers that characterize individual social groups may serve as social markers of group membership.
SV: also known as language variety refers to any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or group of speakers.
A speech variety is no more than a dialectal variety of a language.
Regional dialects
Sociolects (social dialects)         carry no value judgment and simply
Registers (functional dialects)      refer to a distinct form of a language
[B] Regional, social, stylistic, and idiolectal variations
Regional variation: is a speech variation according to the particular area where a speaker comes from, which is the most discernible and definable
Geographical barriers: loyalty to one’s native speech; physical and psychological resistance to change
Accent (refers to a way of pronunciation which tells the listener something about the speaker’s regional or social background); pronunciation; vocabulary; syntax