① the identification of the changes enables us to reconstruct the linguistic history of that language, hypothesizes its earlier forms
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
Language standardizationàlanguage planning is one way out of the communication dilemma.
Social variation (sociolect): linguistic differences associated with respective definable social groups even within the same geographical location.
Stylistic variation: (register)
① ranges on a continuum from casual or colloquial to formal or polite according to the type of communicative situation
② may be used by a particular group of people
③ a particular register often distinguishes itself from other register by having a number of distinctive words, by special grammatical constructions
Idiolectal variation: (idiolect)
A speaker’s linguistic performance is heterogeneous, rather than homogeneous.
Idiolect is a personal dialect of an individual speaker that combines aspects of all the elements regarding regional, social, and stylistic variation, in one way or another.
[C] Standard and non-standard language
The standard language is a superposed, socially prestigious dialect of language. SAE (Standard American English)ßà Network English
Non-standard, or vernacular, languages:
All dialects of a language are equally effective in expressing ideas.
Government policy, historical and cultural tradition
National (official) language
[D] Lingua franca, pidgins, and creoles
Lingua franca: is a variety of language that serves as a medium of communication among groups of people from diverse linguistic backgrounds. It can be generalized to refer to nay other language used as a trade or communication medium.
Pidgin: is a variety of language that is generally used by native of speakers of other languages as a medium of communication. It may contain significant grammatical features of two or more languages, but rule-governed.
Creole: is originally a pidgin that has become established as a native language in some speech community. A pidgin becomes a Creole when it is adopted by a population as its primary language, and children learn it as their first language.
[E] Diglossia and bilingualism
Diglossia: is a situation in which two very different varieties of language co-exist in a speech community, each with a distinct range of purely social functions and appropriate for certain situations. One is a more standard variety called the high variety (H-variety), the other is a non-prestige variety called the low variety (L-variety).
Classical languageà local vernacular
The use of a particular variety may not be determined by a speaker’s social status, but by the communicative situation the speaker is in.
Generally, these two levels of varieties are generally two varieties of the same language. But in the history, there are some other situations in which the high variety may have no genetic relationship with the low one. (the Middle Ages)
Bilingualism: refers to a linguistic situation in which two standard languages are used either by an individual or by a group of speakers, such as the inhabitants of a particular regions or a nation.