The English Language: Evolution from Tribal to Global and Transformation from Commodification to Simplification – An Insight.

Author(s):  
Allison Burkette

This chapter provides some suggestions for the inclusion of the history of American English into the larger context of the History of the English Language (HEL). By touching on themes found throughout within the external and internal history of English, for example, language contact and specific morphological and phonological processes, respectively, one can include lessons on American English and its varieties as an extension of the History of English, demonstrating to students that language “evolution” is an ongoing process and that variation within the language is a natural result of historical, linguistic, and social forces. This chapter begins with a (brief) general narrative of the development of American English and then offers a series of possible themes that could be incorporated into a HEL class for special focus, along with assignments and/or additional resources that encourage students to engage with the focus topics more deeply.


Author(s):  
Oksana Dobrovolska ◽  

Background: The article deals with the scientific problem of the reconstruction of language evolution in the aspect of historical dynamics of linguistic processes in the semantic system of the English language. The topicality of the research is determined by the need to study the issues of the theories of language development, language changes, modern systemic linguistics and language interference in the parameters of the complex dynamic adaptive system on the basis of the numerical empirical material within the long chronological period in different functions. Purpose: It is relevant to study the development of a particular series of synonyms as a sub-system within the lexical-semantic group in the aspect of determinant analysis. The research methodology is the combination of the traditional linguistic methods together with new systemic functional techniques of the reconstruction of the evolution of semantic system. The aim of the article is to reconstruct the development of the semantic subsystem of the names of potters in Middle English by establishing the specifics of the support of the internal determinant of the semantic group of occupational terms in Middle English at the level of the series of synonyms. The tasks of the research are the following: to make analyses of the etymological composition of the word-stems, functional differentiation and chronological stratification of the first written attestations of the Middle English names of potters. The subject of the study is the etymological composition, functional differentiation and chronological stratification of the Middle English occupational terms. The object of the study is the series of synonyms – the names of potters as a subsystem of the semantic group of Middle English occupational terms. Results: There 8 names of potters in Middle English, forming 0.33% of the total number of Middle English occupational terms. The formation of the series of synonyms under study predominantly belongs to the 12th – 15th centuries, only one word being neologism of the Modern English period. The ratio of English words, loan-blends and borrowings is 55 %:15.5 %:12.5 %. Discussion: The scientific novelty of the research lies in the new functional approach to the history of vocabulary study, as well as the usage of new techniques of linguistic investigation applied to the new object of the study, esp. a particular series of synonyms as a constituent part of the larger systems of language. The results indicate the strict subordination of functioning and development of the series of synonyms of the Middle English names of potters to the language determinant of the semantic group of occupational terms and the English language as a whole. The article draws the prospective of further studies in the field of language evolution of the semantic system in the aspect of determinant analysis of its subsystems.


2010 ◽  
Vol 278 (1713) ◽  
pp. 1794-1803 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shijulal Nelson-Sathi ◽  
Johann-Mattis List ◽  
Hans Geisler ◽  
Heiner Fangerau ◽  
Russell D. Gray ◽  
...  

Language evolution is traditionally described in terms of family trees with ancestral languages splitting into descendent languages. However, it has long been recognized that language evolution also entails horizontal components, most commonly through lexical borrowing. For example, the English language was heavily influenced by Old Norse and Old French; eight per cent of its basic vocabulary is borrowed. Borrowing is a distinctly non-tree-like process—akin to horizontal gene transfer in genome evolution—that cannot be recovered by phylogenetic trees. Here, we infer the frequency of hidden borrowing among 2346 cognates (etymologically related words) of basic vocabulary distributed across 84 Indo-European languages. The dataset includes 124 (5%) known borrowings. Applying the uniformitarian principle to inventory dynamics in past and present basic vocabularies, we find that 1373 (61%) of the cognates have been affected by borrowing during their history. Our approach correctly identified 117 (94%) known borrowings. Reconstructed phylogenetic networks that capture both vertical and horizontal components of evolutionary history reveal that, on average, eight per cent of the words of basic vocabulary in each Indo-European language were involved in borrowing during evolution. Basic vocabulary is often assumed to be relatively resistant to borrowing. Our results indicate that the impact of borrowing is far more widespread than previously thought.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia M. Nepomniashchikh ◽  
Yana A. Volkova

Having become a Lingua Franca, English is undergoing constant changes in its phonetic, lexical and grammatical systems. Nowadays, rapid technological development, a growing number of information sources, and many other substantial transformations contribute to the language evolution. In addition, complex interaction between different social and cultural groups has a significant impact on the language as well. These changes may affect phonetic, lexical, semantic and syntactic aspects of the language. The purpose of this paper is to reveal and analyze the semantic changes that have taken place in the English language due to the development of “net-English”. Several lexical units, ‘twit’ (or ‘tweet’), ‘surf’, ‘google’, ‘share’, ‘like’ among them, were taken as examples. Generally, this type of language change can be explained by the emergence of new concepts in different spheres. But it is connected not only with physical changes such as new technological achievements or development of new products and tools. There also exist more subjective reasons, such as human perception, which is constantly changing as well. Semantic change can be classified into different types including metonymic transfer, generalization, metaphorization, etc., all which are traced in the Internet discourse. The research employs the traditional research methodology of definitional and contextual analysis and involves the comparative study of vocabulary definitions and the contextual meaning of the lexical units under analysis; excerpts from the National Corpora (British National Corpora and Corpus of Contemporary American English), online forums and the Internet articles (blogs, twits) serve as the empirical basis for the research. The study concludes the existence of the global “semantic shift” in modern English, the assessment of which and its influence on the English and global culture requires further thorough research and detailed linguistic description. Keywords: computer-mediated discourse, the Internet discourse, lexical meaning, transformation, “semantic shift”


Author(s):  
Olena Andrushenko

The article deals with the preconditions of focusing adverbs grammaticalization in Old English, which function as one of the markers of sentence information structure in Modern English. With major strategies of highlighting the components of information structure in the language of VII-XI cen. being analyzed, the study found that the order of arranging the elements in the sentence was, namely, most sensitive to old/new information allotment, as well as, sentence topic and focus marking, which explains the word order variations in the clause. Adverbs as a class in this period were represented by temporal, VP- and sentential ones. All these types have relevance for the current study given that they may serve as one of the sources of grammaticalization for focusing adverbs in further periods of the English language development. The other source for the highlighted adverbs formation were adverbial suffixes -ly or -e added to adjectives, nouns and verbs. It was proved that the major adverbial discourse markers in Old English are temporal adverbs þa/thonne, her and nu. Therefore, this class presumably served the basis for the formation of new focusing adverbs at further stages of the language evolution.


2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (Spring) ◽  
pp. 115-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsey Leacox ◽  
Carla Wood ◽  
Gretchen Sunderman ◽  
Christopher Schatschneider

Author(s):  
Nancy Lewis ◽  
Nancy Castilleja ◽  
Barbara J. Moore ◽  
Barbara Rodriguez

This issue describes the Assessment 360° process, which takes a panoramic approach to the language assessment process with school-age English Language Learners (ELLs). The Assessment 360° process guides clinicians to obtain information from many sources when gathering information about the child and his or her family. To illustrate the process, a bilingual fourth grade student whose native language (L1) is Spanish and who has been referred for a comprehensive language evaluation is presented. This case study features the assessment issues typically encountered by speech-language pathologists and introduces assessment through a panoramic lens. Recommendations specific to the case study are presented along with clinical implications for assessment practices with culturally and linguistically diverse student populations.


Author(s):  
Vera Joanna Burton ◽  
Betsy Wendt

An increasingly large number of children receiving education in the United States public school system do not speak English as their first language. As educators adjust to the changing educational demographics, speech-language pathologists will be called on with increasing frequency to address concerns regarding language difference and language disorders. This paper illustrates the pre-referral assessment-to-intervention processes and products designed by one school team to meet the unique needs of English Language Learners (ELL).


ASHA Leader ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 64-65
Author(s):  
King Kwok

A graduate student who is an English-language learner devises strategies to meet the challenges of providing speech-language treatment.


2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 95-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Kraemer ◽  
Allison Coltisor ◽  
Meesha Kalra ◽  
Megan Martinez ◽  
Bailey Savage ◽  
...  

English language learning (ELL) children suspected of having specific-language impairment (SLI) should be assessed using the same methods as monolingual English-speaking children born and raised in the United States. In an effort to reduce over- and under-identification of ELL children as SLI, speech-language pathologists (SLP) must employ nonbiased assessment practices. This article presents several evidence-based, nonstandarized assessment practices SLPs can implement in place of standardized tools. As the number of ELL children SLPs come in contact with increases, the need for well-trained and knowledgeable SLPs grows. The goal of the authors is to present several well-establish, evidence-based assessment methods for assessing ELL children suspected of SLI.


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