The Hoop-Petticoat text

The Hoop-petticoat text question about language change:

Similar to other texts that have been written during this time, the title is incredibly long (especially when compared to texts that have been written in the more modern day, for example 'The Great Gatsby', 'Titanic' and 'Harry Potter- The Chamber of Secrets'. 'The Enormous Abomination of the Hoop-Petticoat, as the Fashion Now Is, and Has Been for about These Two Years Fully Display'd:In Some Reflexions Upon it, Humbly Offer'd to the Consideration of Both Sexes; Especially the Female', is the title that has been written at the beginning of the text, the phrase 'The Enormous Abomination' displays a prescriptive attitude and a certainty, however its interesting that this certainty seems to dissolve by the later clause 'Humbly Offer'd' which softens the tone which suggests its more of a proposal (similar to Deborah Tannen's Difference Pairings, orders vs proposals). 'Especially the Female' is the last phrase that the viewers of the pamphlet would read, its possible that the pamphlets would have been given out for free in a department store on the ladies department- therefore the target audience may have been women and by the author favouring women in the text it may have encouraged them to read it.

Although there is no indication that the text was written by a man or a woman, we assume its a man who wrote it because of the period in time in which it was written and the possible presumption that men could only write texts; however the authors name doesn't state whether its male or female, the fact alone that the female sex seems to be favoured in this text is quite unusual during this time- it could be a female who wrote this text and who is trying to convey her opinions about the unfairness of women's fashion in comparison to male fashion. The author says 'upon my honeft word, that I am neither a Quaker, nor a methodift', when she compares a quaker to a methodist they could be comparing groups and possibly the genders. This phrase may be suggesting to the audience that they shouldn't judge what they see (like the cliche 'you shouldn't judge a book by its cover'), this could then imply that we shouldn't assume that this text was written by a male.

'Sweet females',  'daintly' and 'tatlers' are all adjectives and adverbs used to describe females. The word 'tatlers' is less recognised nowadays and has therefore undergone diachronic language change, as this word is most likely never used in modern society (archaic and outdated language). The adverb 'daintly' elicits connotations of something weak and small, connotations such as these can similarly be paired with adjectives for a helpless animal; societys understanding of the equality of the sexes has itself undergone a diachronic change, as during the period in which this text had been written women were possibly more known as the weaker sex and had a less important role in society. The author has also chosen to call women 'the DEAR CREATURES', this patronizing, zoomorphism phrase creates connotations that women are merely possessions of men and something to be looked at and used. However, throughout the text the author describes females with a protective and almost admiring tone, they even mention 'having never been a Woman-hater, but very far from it' possibly creates this idea of the author looking at females only in a sexual way, especially when he later says 'as All who know me can teftify, especially Thofe who live near my ancient Seat in Suffex'- the last phrase creates sexual connotations which then suggests that the text may appeal to a more male audience.

Because this text was written before the introduction of Dr.Johnsons dictionary (1755), there wasn't a standardised way of spelling and writing words during the time in which this text was written in 1745; this is shown in his random use of capitalisation and devoicing the 'f' to a voiceless 's'. Phrases like 'The Fafhion', 'Dimenfions' and 'I well remember Every Body' all show how standardisation wasn't recognised during this period in time. The random capitalisation of words may have been used to bring them to the audiences attention, especially as this text was written for the introduction of a pamphlet which may have been given out for free or found inside a newspaper of that time the author would need his text to stand out compared to the other similar texts during that time. Throughout the text the writer abbreviates some words using apostrophes and deletion; 'lac'd', 'obferv'd', 'expos'd' and 'cock'd' (used in the context 'cock'd up Hats' -the outdated phrase, possibly wouldn't be used in modern society as the word 'cocked' has undergone a semantic shift narrowing its meaning to that of a euphemism, although in some idiolects it may still be used in this way making it a polyseme) are some examples, they seem to replace the letter 'e' with a apostrophe which makes the words seem more colloquial. However, the author also deletes the 'h' from 'this' making it 'tis', this is the only word in which 'h' is deleted from, interestingly this isn't consistent throughout the text and the author sometimes includes the 'h' in this (this enforces the idea that language and punctuation wasn't standardized during the time in which this text was written).

At the start of the text and by indication from the title, it begins in quite a formal tone and register. The colloquialisms in the text are sometimes accompanied with qualifies and most of them are relative clauses (Robin Lakoff typical female speech habits) including phrases like 'no doubt', 'I think' and 'scarce any'. One phrase in particular that stands out is 'This, I think, was in, or about, the Year 1709'; the four commas in this short sentence suggest that this text is more casual than that of a planned and prepared text- which is unusual for a published text as the author would have known that a variety of readers would be reading this pamphlet, it could possibly suggest that this isn't the first text that the author has written to be published and that they are an experienced writer (possibly in the same lexical field as this text).  The small phrases created from the commas enforce the idea that this is a colloquial text, the author seems to just be writing their opinions and thoughts down (Jennifer Coates and Deborah Jones 'Scandal theory') about fashion during this time and possibly aim to persuade others to think the same (using their influential power as well as possibly converging their language to that of their target audience so that they can understand and relate to it). This is similar to the techniques bloggers use in modern society to convey their thoughts and ramblings across to the world through mass communication and social media. The Plain English Campaign is a modern organization which aims to make texts simpler to read so that a greater variety of audiences can understand them, documents are marked with the 'crystal mark' to show that this campaign has approved this text; however as the author of this text has used more colloquial phrases and has simplified their language it makes it easier for a wider audience to read and understand the text (the writer may have done this to appeal to a wider variety of audiences as they are unsure of who will receive the pamphlet).

synchronic language change

Synchronic language change:

Political correctness

The avoidance of forms of expression or action that can exclude or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (how what you say changes views) is a widely accepted part of this theory.  The language we use affects not just the messages we communicate, but the ways that we think and act. 

The problem arises when the linguistic constructs we use influence our way of thinking in negative ways; these negative influences from language can be called politically incorrect.

1. Subtle:  Words like policeman, mailman, fireman; referring to all people as man; referring to an individual as he.  These exclusionary words subtly influence our way of thinking.  The first three imply that these are roles for men only.  This kind of language can keep women from being comfortable aspiring to these positions.  The other general references of man and he are simply inaccurate and unnecessarily exclusionary.  They imply that masculinity is the default and superior gender trait.

2.      Offensive:  Words like gay or retarded to refer to something undesirable; words like fag or retard to refer to people.  The first set shows how these descriptions inherently link certain types of individuals to anything bad by using terms that refer to them as insults for other undesirable concepts.  The second set is offensive because of the pejorative connotations implied by these slurs.  There are appropriate ways of referring to individuals that does not unnecessarily demean them.

3. Blatant: The n-word to refer to black people or the c-word or b-word to refer to women.  This type needs little explanation.  These words are highly offensive and indicate a great deal of disdain.  They objectify and belittle entire groups of people based on one trait.

However there is the concept that people should be allowed to use almost any kind of language that they want to, up to a certain point.

Plain English campaign

A group that campaigns against gobbledeygook, jargon and misleading public information, their aim is to make English as plain as possible so it can be clearly understood by everyone.

The Crystal Mark

They are recognised by their ‘crystal mark’ which now appears on more than 21,000 documents worldwide. It is basically a symbol to show that the Plain English Campaign approves the documents.

Dog-Whistle Politics

Dog-whistle politics is political messaging using coded language that means one thing to the general population but has an additional, different or more specific meaning for a targeted subgroup. The phrase is often used as a pejorative because of the deceptive nature.

World Englishes

The many and varied dialects of English spoken in different parts of the world, including not only American and British English, but such varieties as Indian, Pakistani, Australian, and New Zealand English, as well as the English spoken in various African and Asian countries (English accents and idiolects). English was brought here because of the colonial period but now they all have independence and in other places English has been encouraged because of its widespread use as global communication.

Why language is changing:

• Because of the new influences that we now have including things like social media, celebrities ect.
• Social group influences and reputations and ideals (cultural environment- converging language)
• Foreign influences – migration/movement
• Standardisation
• Borrowing language from other languages
• Social prestige (changing our language depending on what we are doing and who we are speaking to- may converge or diverge our language)
• Semantic changes: narrowing, borrowing, amelioration, pejoration ect
• Syntactic change (the evolution of the syntactic structure of a natural language- naturally evolving language)

Accents and dialects:

Prescriptive attitudes:

Schools now are trying to cause children’s language to ‘evolve’ by trying to reduce the amount of regional language and dialects in their language and instead try and encourage the use of Standard English which is a prestige dialect. Some slang like ‘coz’ and ‘aint’ (dialectal words) are banned from these environments as some believe that it can sometimes create a negative impression. However, some people think that we need to adapt our language and use Standard English in specific environments like interviews to give a more positive impression. If we converge our language it will create a larger sense of success. This is using ideas on synchronic language change, we are now banning language and only starting to see the huge social value of speaking ‘properly’ and are adapting our language to use it more.

Quotes:

• Ongar Academy says it’s not banning words, but “evolving” its pupils’ speech and “may not favourably reflect on them when they attend college and job interviews”
• Bidialectalism: facility in using two dialects of the same language; and the teaching of Standard English to pupils who normally use a nonstandard dialect.

Descriptive attitudes:

Regional dialects are part of a person’s identity and connect us to a community as well as towards our self-image. There also those that argue in some environments we are required to use social dialects in order to fit in and participate with classroom discussions; this idea is encouraging people to use slang, colloquialisms in our idiolect as this makes us who we are. People who use slang and common dialectal words are diverging their language to stand out and be different as well as to fit in with the socialect and connect with those around them. Descriptivist David Almond writes about how slang is part of our identity and we shouldn’t be ashamed of it, one of his articles in particular he wrote only using slang, phonetic sounds and substitution of words (similar to CLA theorists Bruner and Vygotsky idea about social interaction and how children’s language changes depending on what we hear) language to portray his ideas. Descriptivist’s incorporate more diachronic language change ideas because the change of regional soicalects and slang has been happening over a long period of time and the amount of colloquialisms we use (depending on our environment) is slowly increasing with each generation.

Quotes:

• James Sledd: “To use slang is to deny allegiance to the existing order … by refusing even the words which represent convention and signal status.”
• Sociolinguist Julia Snell: “to learn and develop, children must participate actively in classroom discussion; they must think out loud, answer and ask questions”
• Idiosyncrasy: a mode of behaviour or thought particular to that individual and communicating with someone on their level – speaking in slang/socialect/colloquialisms (similar to using diminutive forms to speak to children e.g. ‘doggie’, Bruner’s interactional theory and Vygotsky’s ZPD theory.
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Standardisation

Standardisation:

Many of the rules of grammar we observe today began in 18th century when several influential books of grammar were written.

In particular Samuel Jonson developing his dictionary of English in 1755 which brought in standardisation to not just spellings but also definitions and meanings.

It also confirmed the Midlands accents (Oxford and Cambridge) as the preferred way of writing and spelling.

The 18th century also had standardisation in the growth of education and literacy - many accepted regional expressions and phrases were replaced by standardised ones - particularly in writing.

The invention of printing with Caxton in 1476 created a requirement for standardisation as printers were competing with each other.

Caxton himself chose to print texts in the East Midland dialect - London, Oxford, Cambridge as these were seen as the most prestigious and "correct" form of English Printing also impacted in that spelling and punctuation became more standardised and in the 17th century a modern punctuation system began to occur.

15th century 'The Great Vowel Shift':

A major factor separating Middle English from Modern English is known as the Great Vowel Shift, a radical change in pronunciation during the 15th, 16th and 17th Century, as a result of which long vowel sounds began to be made higher and further forward in the mouth (e.g. sheep would have been pronounced more like “shape”; me as “may”; mine as “meen”; shire as “sheer”; mate as “maat”; out as “oot”; house as “hoose”; flour as “floor”; boot as “boat”; mode as “mood”; etc). It was, however, a peculiarly English phenomenon, and contemporary and neighbouring languages like French, German and Spanish were entirely unaffected.

The first recognised dictionary in 1755:

Dr Johnsons dictionary was published in 1755, each word was defined in detail; the definitions illustrated with quotations covering every branch of learning.
However, much the lexicographer may want to fix or 'embalm' his language, new words, phrases and pronunciations are constantly appearing. As we have new language now, lexicographers are required to add/delete words from the dictionary, as society and the OED has more of a descriptive attitude; in comparison with Dr Johnson's Dictionary which is mainly perceived to be a prescriptive text as it is said that in some parts he was offensive to some people and cultures (e.g. when defining the word oats he offended the scotts) he even made up some words. His main aim was to stabilise the language of that time and to make people aware of how they should speak using correct English.

Lowths grammar texts in the 1762:

In the 18th century there were many published texts which were created to standardise grammar. Lowth's grammar texts is one example, it helps give guidance to the growing middle class on how to use ‘polite’ or ‘correct’ English.
Robert Lowth was a American Bishop, so some of the words mentioned in his books are Americanisms e.g. 'gotten', but this could also be found in some British regional dialects.

On Stella's Birth-Day 1719 by Jonathan Swift

Stella this Day is thirty four,

(We shan't dispute a Year or more)

However Stella, be not troubled,

Although thy Size and Years are doubled,

Since first I saw Thee at Sixteen

The brightest Virgin on the Green,

So little is thy Form declin'd

Made up so largely in thy Mind.

Oh, woud it please the Gods to split

Thy Beauty, Size, and Years, and Wit,

No Age could furnish out a Pair

Of Nymphs so graceful, Wise and fair

With half the Lustre of your Eyes,

With half your Wit, your Years and Size:

And then before it grew too late,

How should I beg of gentle Fate,

(That either Nymph might have her Swain,)

To split my Worship too in twain.

Before we even begin to look at the poem, the word 'birthday' from the title has been split in two and is separated by a hyphen as well as being capitalised; this shows how the language has changed from once being two single words to now become a compound which has possibly undergone weakening or broadening to connote celebration (polyseme). This understanding stems from an awareness of birthday celebrations rising in popularity over the years, as more people were able to (correlating with a rise in business).

Similarly, in the first line 'Day' has been capitalised, perhaps to emphasise the importance of this day or because this was a standard form during this time or because there wasn't a standard at this time. We see this frequently throughout the texts, it is interesting to explore the use of capitalisation and purpose; 'No Age could furnish out a Pair' this combined with the lineation (line break between 'Pair' and 'Of Nymphs') proves eye catching. With today's writing techniques this appears odd, the break seems unnatural and oddly placed (if only to complete the rhyming couplet) - with the capital appearing to highlight the phrase and the break potentially encouraging thought or purely for aesthetic appeal.

Although this text is mostly old English, it entwines some outdated language with todays high frequency lexis; 'thy', 'twain' and 'virgin' (pre-semantic shift).

The lexical choices appear to speak of the society; the use of religious and mythical references add a layer of meaning to the poem. When looking at other texts created in this period we see such references to appear frequently, does society's value upon faith affect language? Has science in today's society diluted the mythical aspects (as they seem less accessible).

By Steph and Natalya

Quotes made my Jonathan Swift

• The proper words in the proper places are the true definition of style
• Books, the children of the brain
• May you live all the days of your life
• A lie does not consist in the indirect position of words, but in the desire and intention, by false speaking, to deceive and injure your neighbour.

Bibliography:

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jonathan_swift.html http://nfgsa2englishlanguage.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/standardisation.html
http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126709.html

Why does language change?

When examining semantic change, its important to examine the amount of influence that society has on our language. There are external and internal influences that impact these changes. Before the 20th century, most of the evidence that survives of language is of written forms. We have some second-hand written evidence of spoken language forms, but no recorded speech earlier than that allowed by modern recording technology.

External factors that influence language change such as cultural changes, technological innovations or simple social conventions can have an impact on how a word is used.

1. Cultural changes can result in broadening or the pejoration and then amelioration of a word: for example 'Guy' use to refer to Guy Fawkes, but was then used to describe all those affected by the fire that night and who got burnt, (undergoing pejoration and broadening) this then gradually replaced 'fellow' to describe any man (amelioration and broadening) and now its a term used to describe any man or woman.
2. As an example technology developments have impacted on new neologisms and coinages like the inventions of: a virus, bug, crash and windows ect. New inventions need a name which has lead to new creations of coinages, as well as propriety names (verbing words such as google- undergone conversion).
3. Social ideas can also have an impact on new terms and acronyms like LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) to replace words that are no longer considered to be acceptable and are sometimes considered offensive.
4. Language is passed down through generations, parents teach their children language: no two individuals speak the same so there are many natural changing occurrences of language
5. Large-scale shifts often occur in response to social, economic and political pressures. History records show language change was fuelled by invasions, trade, colonization and migration.
6. Even without these kinds of influences, a language can change dramatically if enough users alter the way they speak it.

Internal factors can also affect semantic change, this includes the morphology and phonology of how a word looks and how it is pronounced.

1. The basic morphology of a word can also be linked to change as an internal factor as if a word looks similar or sounds similar to another one then this could have an impact of connecting the words so they both relate to a similar thing.
2. A polyseme word that has a similar concept as another word like 'virus' can be linked to an actual virus and a computer virus. Similarly, the word progress can be used to mean the development of something but can also be used metaphorically to show a personal growth or a step towards improvements.

Agents of change:

• David Lightfoot, NSF assistant director for social, behavioural and economic sciences say that children serve as agents for language change when, in the process of learning the language of previous generations, they internalize it differently and propagate a different variation of that language.
• The Great Vowel Shift was a gradual process, with change occurring at different rates in different parts of the country. It is not clear why this shift began, but evidence can be seen in rhymes and also in comments from contemporary writers, illustrating where phonological change was occurring. This was also evident in the spelling; blood was spelt as blod in Middle English, reflecting the pronunciation, but later was spelt as blud illustrating a move towards a long vowel.

Change in phonology, orthography (how a word looks and sounds) punctuation and spelling:
Punctuation can be used to show emotion and add emphasis to how a phrase or word should be said, although this is difficult to compare to when we only had transcripts written down until the 20th century when we had this technology- this would have had an impact on standardising how words would have been said and the influence of the socialects and dialects from the radio and tv would have had on society; this would have created a standard form of the phonology of words, similar to Johnson's dictionary who created a standardised form of how words should be spelt.  Johnson's dictionary establishes a standard spelling form since 1755,  it records what is in Johnson's (very wide) reading the most common form, making allowance for consistency of like elements, and showing etymology, for those who know other languages. Johnson also disarms critics by quoting usage, not merely laying down a preferred form, this suggests to us that he had a descriptive and not an prescriptive attitude. There has never been a standardised form for spelling as it depends on the phrase being said and more than  likely each phrase someone says will be different, some may say that punctuation itself has undergone weakening as now in some books or on social media when we see a phrase that has three exclamation marks we find this relatively shocking and it has an impact on us, but when we see one exclamation mark we don't see it as having much of an impact, this was different a couple of decades ago. It is often claimed that there is no logic to the spelling system of English, but the spelling system has been affected by the historical impact on the language. Because of our influences words have changed their orthography and spelling and pronunciation.

Middle English pronunciation	Present-day pronunciation	Discussion
sit	seat	In these two examples, a short vowel has become a long vowel
loss	lose
teem	time	In these two examples, a long vowel has become a diphthong
hoose	house
noo	new	/nu:/ has changed to /nju:/ rather than changing to a diphthong
boat	boot	Here a diphthong has moved to a long vowel

Techniques to show language change:
Broadening
Weakening
Conversion
Amelioration
Pejoration
Acronyms/ Initialisms
Inflection (many words undergo changes of form (spelling or pronunciation) to show changes of grammar)


Good link:
http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/languagechange.htm

Origins of English

Old English- 5th century:

English developed from the language from Saxons (Anglo-saxon) English was also influenced by the Old Norse language.
Latin was regarded as the language of a really formal civilisation.
The different areas of settlement of the different civilisations resulted in different dialects.
At this time the English language was mainly spoken using phonetic sounds and it was never really written down so there was little consistency.
This added many Scandinavian terms into the English lexis.

Middle English- 11th century:

The Norman invasion has a massive influence on the English language and became the spoken language in courts and Latin became important for written documentation, especially in the church.
Dialectal differences remained with marked differences throughout the country. This turned many French terms into the English lexicon; many of these were used in administration by law.

Early Modern English- 15th century:

Caxton introduced the printing press to Europe, helping to contribute to the standard form of English.
English was spoken more with pride and people like Shakespeare started writing his works as well as James I who commissioned the first Authorisation of the Bible. English became more useful and was used for a variety of purposes like literature, science, and religion. Increased travel has also given rise to the extensive borrowings from around the world. Some disagreed with this rapid expansion of language so this led to the emergence of prescriptivist ideas, leading to the development of dictionary grammar guides, forming correct ways of speaking.

Modern English- 18th century:

English has grown at a rapid rate with words being borrowed from Latin, Greek and around the world. There was now a correct way of speaking and writing which had been structured around the way people spoke and used words.

Present day English:

English has continued to develop and be influenced by the media, technology and travel and has now become a global language.

English facts:

Its a hybrid language that has been made up from multiple sources including, Germanic tribes, Norman French, Vikings and Latin.

The Inkhorn Controversy:

The "Inkhorn controversy" is the name generally given to the extended dispute, largely in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, over whether English should continue to add words from Latin and Greek (prescriptive attitudes).

Response to the article in The Daily Mail in 2014 written by Simon Heffer 'The Pedant's Revolt: In this joyously combative series, Simon Heffer goes to war on sloppy English'

Even at the start of the article in the title, Simon Heffer describes this article as a 'combative series' which suggests this article is illustrating the ideas strong opinions that he has on modern day language users and how they use their language. By using the pre modifier 'joyously' is almost contradicting about what is going to be said next and creates a slight sense of mockery like this article is going to be a battle of what's right and what's wrong with language pronunciation. Similarly, the title also says 'Simon Heffer goes to war', the noun 'war' suggests to the audience that he has strong opinions and he's ready to prove his point until he wins- this suggests that he has a extremely strong prescriptive attitude. He describes modern English as becoming 'sloppy', the adjective shows that we should be becoming more aware of our language and that possibly modern language has become 'lazy' and people could be less interested in how we use our language nowadays. His lexical choices in words like 'abomination' and 'violence' describing language change and adaptation suggest a strongly prescriptive attitude, they also create connotations of negative opinions and the ultimate sin which shows Heffer is using hyperbole to exaggerate the changes in the occurrence of our language.
He uses a formal language throughout the text, and in some way his language diverges from that of his audience possibly to create a clear distinction of authority and knowledge, which may be trying to create this idea that he knows what he is talking about so we should listen to what he has to say and agree with him. Heffer's choice of lexis also links to the idea of 'correctness', he incorporates many terms like 'wrong', 'correct', 'problem' and 'misused', this is again supporting his prescriptive attitude and is exaggerating his strong opinions in how language is changing while still comparing language to how it used to be years ago.

Analysis of Sandi Toksvig article

To sum up the basics of the article:

She has a very descriptive attitude, saying about how language changes and how we should start accepting it as development. She is also encouraging language experimentation.

Ways in which she has a descriptive attitude:

• Her adjectives used to describe the neologisms e.g treasures
• She personifies the word 'language' as if its a person, which makes it more appealing to the idea of changing and developing
• Possibly because she's Danish she could be more interested in word origins
• Advises people to look into 'Urban Dictionary' and create new words

Article's GRAPE:

The article is from The Telegraph which usually aims its articles at older readers, which could possibly be argued to have more prescriptive attitudes. The article would therefore be to persuade as well as possibly convert those with prescriptive attitudes to have the same attitude as her and have a descriptive attitude. This text could possibly be received well but could equally be received badly because of her audience possibly being more less open to the changes in language. This isn't the traditional text that would normally be found in the telegraph, as normally articles from here use old fashioned language techniques and are quite traditional.