Language Change Essay

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Discuss reasons for language change in both written and spoken English, and analyse recent changes. One of the three universal truths of Buddhism is impermanence, the notion that all things change. Language is no exception to this general principle, and is always in flux. Every generation has its commentators who bemoan the decline of “proper” English, despite the fact that there is no universal agreement of what is proper. Where attempts have been made to define “Standard English” it has usually been in terms of the language used by the powerful. When Samuel Johnson wrote his English Dictionary, he chose to represent the written and spoken language of the upper classes (Aitchison (2001), p 10) and David Crystal defined Standard English as: a minority variety (identified chiefly by its vocabulary, grammar and authography) which carries most prestige and is most widely understood (Crystal, 1995, p110). Crystal has added understandability as an additional criterion, a sort of lingua franca which transcends all local dialects. Thus most people in England will be able to understand Standard English, though few will use it as their natural form of communication. Often, however, critics of declining standards are basing their dismay at the demise of what they regard as proper English on personal preferences. Aitchison (2001, p. 13) says, “the puristic attitude toward language, - the idea that there is an absolute standard of correctness which should be maintained – has its origin in a natural nostalgic tendency, supplemented and intensified by social pressures”. Aitchison calls the belief that language is in a process of decay the Crumbling Castle hypothesis. She argues against the idea that language change is a process of inexorable destruction, pointing out that language tends to evolve towards greater consistency. For example the word chicken was

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