8.1 Language Change and Evolution
How languages change: neologisms, semantic shift, and grammar.
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Language changeNeologismsSemantic shift
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The Living Language
English is not a museum artifact sealed behind glass. It is a living, breathing organism that grows, adapts, and transforms with every generation that speaks it. The English of Shakespeare would baffle a modern teenager, and the English you speak today would be unrecognizable to the Anglo-Saxons who first brought the language to Britain over 1,500 years ago.
Consider this: the word "nice" once meant "foolish" or "ignorant" in the 13th century. "Awful" used to mean "worthy of awe" -- a positive quality. "Meat" once referred to all food, not just animal flesh. These shifts happened gradually, driven by millions of small choices made by ordinary speakers.
Why does language change?
Language changes because the world changes. New inventions require new words. Social movements reshape how we talk about identity. Contact between cultures creates borrowings and blends. And each generation of speakers subtly reshapes the language they inherit, sometimes deliberately, sometimes without even noticing.
Key Areas of Language Change:
- Vocabulary (Lexical change): New words are coined, old words fade away
- Meaning (Semantic change): Existing words shift in meaning over time
- Grammar (Syntactic change): Sentence structures and rules evolve
- Pronunciation (Phonological change): The sounds of language shift across generations
- Spelling and writing conventions: Written norms adapt to new realities
In this chapter, we will examine how and why English changes, and what this tells us about the relationship between language and society.
Neologisms: The Birth of New Words
A neologism is a newly coined word or expression that has entered the language. English gains hundreds of new words every year, and major dictionaries regularly update their entries to reflect this growth.
How new words are created:
1. Coinage (Invention)
Creating a word from scratch. This is actually quite rare.
- googol (the number 10^100, coined by a 9-year-old in 1920)
- quark (borrowed from James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake" by physicist Murray Gell-Mann)
2. Compounding
Combining two existing words to create a new meaning.
- smartphone, livestream, crowdfunding, ghostwriter, brainstorm
3. Blending (Portmanteau)
Merging parts of two words into one.
- brunch (breakfast + lunch), smog (smoke + fog), podcast (iPod + broadcast), vlog (video + blog)
4. Clipping
Shortening an existing word.
- app (application), ad (advertisement), flu (influenza), fridge (refrigerator)
5. Acronyms and Initialisms
Using first letters to form a new word.
- FOMO (fear of missing out), LOL (laughing out loud), YOLO (you only live once), FAQ (frequently asked questions)
6. Borrowing (Loanwords)
Adopting words from other languages.
- tsunami (Japanese), kindergarten (German), avatar (Sanskrit), safari (Swahili)
7. Conversion (Zero Derivation)
Using an existing word as a different part of speech without changing its form.
- to google (verb from noun), to bookmark (verb from noun), a must (noun from verb)
8. Eponyms
Words derived from people's names.
- pasteurize (Louis Pasteur), boycott (Captain Boycott), algorithm (al-Khwarizmi)
✏️Example: Tracking a Neologism's Journey
How did the word "selfie" enter the English language and become officially recognized?
The Life Story of "Selfie":
2002: The earliest known use appears in an Australian internet forum. A man posted a photo of his injured lip with the caption: "Sorry about the focus, it was a selfie." The Australian English tendency to add "-ie" to words (barbie, arvo, brekkie) likely influenced the formation.
2004-2010: The word slowly spreads through online communities, particularly on early social media platforms like MySpace and Flickr. It remains informal internet slang.
2012: The word explodes in popularity alongside the front-facing camera on smartphones. Instagram, launched in 2010, accelerates the trend. Usage increases by 17,000% in a single year.
2013: Oxford Dictionaries names "selfie" its Word of the Year. It is officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary with the definition: "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media."
2014 onwards: The word becomes fully naturalized in English and is borrowed into dozens of other languages worldwide. Compound forms emerge: selfie stick, group selfie (groufie), belfie.
Word formation process: Clipping of "self-portrait" + Australian diminutive suffix "-ie" = selfie
This example shows how a casual, informal coinage can become a globally recognized word within a single decade.
📝Oppgave 1
Which word formation process is used to create the word "brunch"?
Semantic Shift: When Meanings Wander
Semantic shift (also called semantic change) occurs when the meaning of a word changes over time. There are several distinct patterns:
1. Amelioration (Improvement)
A word gains a more positive meaning over time.
- nice: "foolish, ignorant" (Latin nescius) → "pleasant, agreeable"
- knight: "boy, servant" (Old English cniht) → "noble warrior"
- pretty: "cunning, crafty" → "attractive"
2. Pejoration (Deterioration)
A word develops a more negative meaning.
- villain: "farmworker" (from villa, farm) → "evil person"
- silly: "blessed, happy" (Old English sælig) → "foolish"
- awful: "full of awe, inspiring wonder" → "terrible"
3. Broadening (Generalization)
A word's meaning becomes wider and more general.
- dog: originally a specific breed → any canine
- bird: originally "young bird" → any bird
- thing: originally "assembly, meeting" → anything at all
4. Narrowing (Specialization)
A word's meaning becomes more restricted.
- meat: "any food" → "animal flesh"
- deer: "any animal" → a specific animal
- girl: "young person of either sex" → "young female person"
5. Metaphorical Extension
A word gains new figurative meanings.
- web: "spider's web" → the World Wide Web
- cloud: atmospheric phenomenon → cloud computing
- viral: relating to a virus → rapidly spreading online content
✏️Example: Grammar Evolution in Action
How has the use of "they" as a singular pronoun changed over centuries?
Singular "they" -- a case study in grammatical change:
14th Century: Geoffrey Chaucer uses singular "they" in The Canterbury Tales (c. 1395): "And whoso fyndeth hym out of swich blame, They wol come up..."
16th-18th Century: Singular "they" appears regularly in the works of Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and other major writers. It is a natural, unremarked feature of English.
19th Century: Prescriptive grammarians declare that "he" should be the default singular pronoun. Textbooks begin teaching that singular "they" is "incorrect." This prescription was driven by social attitudes rather than linguistic logic.
20th Century: Despite prescriptive rules, singular "they" persists in everyday speech. "Someone left their umbrella" remains far more natural than "Someone left his umbrella" for most speakers.
21st Century: Singular "they" gains new importance as a pronoun for non-binary individuals. In 2019, Merriam-Webster names singular "they" its Word of the Year. The American Psychological Association (APA) officially endorses its use.
The lesson: What seems like a modern innovation is actually a return to a centuries-old usage. Grammar rules are not fixed laws of nature -- they are conventions that societies negotiate and renegotiate over time.
📝Oppgave 2
Match each word with its original (historical) meaning. Then identify what type of semantic shift occurred.
a
"Silly" originally meant...
b
"Meat" originally meant...
c
"Knight" originally meant...
d
"Deer" originally meant...
📝Oppgave 3
Identify the word formation process used to create each of the following words.
a
"Blog" (from "web log")
b
"To bookmark" (saving a webpage)
c
"FOMO"
Key Takeaways
Language change is inevitable and natural. Every living language changes constantly. Only dead languages (like Latin) remain frozen in place.
New words enter English through many paths: coinage, compounding, blending, clipping, acronyms, borrowing, conversion, and eponyms. Understanding these processes helps you analyze and appreciate the creativity of language.
Word meanings shift over time through amelioration (improvement), pejoration (deterioration), broadening, narrowing, and metaphorical extension. A word's current meaning may be vastly different from its original one.
Grammar evolves too. Rules that seem fixed and permanent are actually conventions that change across centuries. What one generation considers "incorrect" may become standard in the next.
Forces driving change include: technological innovation, social movements, cultural contact, generational turnover, and the basic human need to express new ideas and experiences.
The key insight: Language change is not corruption or decay -- it is a sign of vitality. A language that cannot change cannot survive.
📝Oppgave 4
Which of the following is an example of semantic AMELIORATION?
📝Oppgave 5
Write a short essay (200-250 words) discussing whether language change should be resisted or embraced. Use at least three specific examples from this chapter to support your argument.