Language in a Changing World

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LANGUAGE IN A CHANGING WORLD LIN 2602 ASSIGNMENT 1 SEMSTER 2 716533 QUESTION 1 One can notice clear differences in the spelling, punctuation and writing style in email and sms communication as opposed to the formal letters. Letters usually have a form of address such as “Dear John” for example, followed by the main news and a formal ending of some sort. For example, “With every expression of respect, I remain, your Excellency’s humble servant, Jen Doe.” Conventions like capital letters for names and standard punctuation are usually followed. E-mail can be quite formal and follow these written norms, or it can be more in the style of a slang sms, with plenty of abbreviations, like ur for your. Minimal exaggerated punctuation, and its own special symbols in the form of “smileys” such as the sad face, ”;(”. The main point to note is how the pragmatic norms of communication have changed with the coming of new technology and the fast pace of modern life. QUESTION 2 a) Prescriptive b) Prescriptive c) Descriptive d) Descriptive QUESTION 3 a) Phonological (sound) changes often occur in languages. For instance, there are many words in English like light, night, dough, draught, where the” gh” sound used to be pronounced like the Scottish “ch” in Loch or Afrikaans “g” in lig. Today the gh is silent the pronunciation of these words, but the spelling has remained the same. b) Changes may also affect the internal structure of words. An example of a change at the morphological level is that some unusual plurals in English have become more regular. This just means that an exception to the rule changes so that it follows the normal rule. For example, the plural of formula is formulae and the plural of index is indices and the plural of cactus is cacti. These days, even the written English, you will commonly find that these plurals
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