Historia de la Lengua Inglesa

Prof. Dr. J.L. Martínez-Dueñas Espejo

TERMINOLOGICAL GLOSSARY OF
HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS

from

HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS
by Herbert Schendl

in

Oxford Introductions to Language Study

Series Editor H.G. Widdowson

Oxford University Press, 2001

1
 Historia de la Lengua Inglesa
Prof. Dr. J.L. Martínez-Dueñas Espejo

Page references to Section i (Survey) are given at the end of each entry.
actuation The beginning of a change. [77]

• affixation The formation of a new word by adding a prefix or suffix to a

base, e.g. unhappy, happiness. [26]

• agglutinating language A language in which words consist of

morphemes which are formally neatly separable and each have a single
meaning, such as Turkish, Japanese, See also inflecting language,
isolating language. [35]

• amelioration of meaning The process whereby a word loses its

negative or unpleasant meaning, or improves a neutral meaning, e.g.
marshal (originally 'keeper of horses'). [31]

• analogy A process by which a form or pattern becomes more similarto

another (usually more regular) one, e.g. mouses for mice, in analogy with
regular plurals in -(e)s. [37]

• analytic language A language in which the syntactic and semantic

relationships between words are predominantly expressed by separate
grammatical words, e.g. more difficult (vs. synthetic heavier); the house
of my friend (vs. synthetic my friend's house). See also synthetic
language. [36]

• apparent-time analysis A sociolinguistic method to infer from the

variable linguistic situation at a given point in time the possible future
development of a feature. See also real-time analysis. [75]

• assimilation The process whereby two neighbouring sounds become

more similar ('partial -') or identical (`complete -'). [49]

• back-formation The process of word-formation whereby a new word is

coined by cutting off an imagined suffix from an existing word, owing to the
morphological reinterpretation of the latter (e.g. editor > edit). [29]

• borrowing The process of introducing a linguistic feature, especially a word or

a grammatical feature, from another language or variety. [25]
• chain shift A series of interrelated unconditioned sound changes, in
which the phonetic realization of certain phonemes changes systematically,
with one change initiating another, e.g. the English Great Vowel Shift. [52]

2
 Historia de la Lengua Inglesa
Prof. Dr. J.L. Martínez-Dueñas Espejo

• codification The process of providing a systematic description of a language

in grammars and dictionaries, frequently connected with the establishment of
prescriptive rules of correct usage. [6]
• cognates Words or morphemes in genetically related languages which
derive from a common source in the proto-language. [17]

• comparative reconstruction The reconstruction of the non-attested proto-

language through the systematic comparison of cognates in the daughter
languages. [9]

• compensatory lengthening The process of lengthening a sound,

typically a vowel, due to the loss of a following sound. [50]

• compounding The process of word-formation in which two independent

words or 'free morphemes' are combined to form a new word, e.g. letter- box
(< letter + box). [26]
• conditioned sound change A sound change that occurs in specific
phonetic environments. [48]
• constraint A general restriction on possible linguistic changes. [76]

• convergence The process whereby languages become structurally more

similar to each other (as opposed to divergence, whereby they become less
similar). [58]
• conversion (also zero derivation) The word-formation process whereby a
word changes its class, i.e. undergoes a functional shift, without formal
change, such as verb to noun (to cheat > a cheat), or adjective or adverb to
verb (to lower, to up). [28]

• creole A pidgin adopted by a speech community as its first language, which

develops in grammatical and lexical complexity to account for the new
communicative functions. [59]

• creolization The process whereby a pidgin elaborates its simple linguistic

structures and stylistic range. [60]

• decreolization The process whereby a creole becomes more similar to a

dominant or standard language, leading to a post-creole continuum of
varieties. [62]

• deletion The diachronic process of omitting a linguistic element, especially a

sound. [48]

• devoicing The loss of voicing, i.e. the feature [voiced], as in the change

3
 Historia de la Lengua Inglesa
Prof. Dr. J.L. Martínez-Dueñas Espejo

from [b] > [p]. [22]

• diachronic The term referring to (the study of) linguistic change over time.
See also synchronic. [8]

• diphthongization The change of a pure vowel into a diphthong, i.e. a vowel

ending in a glide, as in [u:] > [au].[47]

• dissimilation The process whereby a sound becomes leas similar to

another, neighbouring one, as in pilgrim (< Latín peregrinus). [49]

• extension of meaning The process whereby the meaning of a word

becomes more general, such as Middle English bird `young bird' > `bird'. [30]
• family tree A model which represents the genetic relationship of languages
in the form of a tree diagram. [16]

• functional load (Functional explanation) The frequency with which a

phonemic opposition is used for distinguishing words or morphemes, such as
/r/ vs. /l/ as in read vs. lead. [69] or /t/ and /d/: trip vs dip.

Fuzziness: there is a fuzzy area in which judgements about grammaticality are

not as clear-cut as grammarians would like them to be. The fuzziness is an
indicator of ongoing changes because in such cases speakers don’t stick to
established rules and norms.
•

• genetically related Languages which go back to the same parent or proto-

language are genetically related. [15]

• grammaticalization The process whereby an independent lexical word

gradually acquires a grammatical function, sometimes even becoming an

affix, such as Latín mena, mentís 'sense' > French suffix -ment, as in
heureusement 'fortunately'. [39]

Two parameters that influence speakers’ behavior are their social class and the
formality of the situation, also age:

• hypercorrection The adjustment of speech to a more prestigious norm,which

results in the overuse of a linguistic feature. [74]
• implementation The spread of a change in the linguistic system of individuals
and/or a speech community. [77]
Better explained in reference to phonological change.
• inflecting language A language in which grammatical relationships like
4
 Historia de la Lengua Inglesa
Prof. Dr. J.L. Martínez-Dueñas Espejo

number, tense, etc. are predominantly expressed by grammatical affixes. See

also agglutinating language, isolating language. [35]

• internal reconstruction A procedure whereby unattested stages of a

language are reconstructed by using available material from this same
language. [21]

• isolate A language with no known genetical relationship to other languages,

e.g. Basque. [23]

5
 Historia de la Lengua Inglesa
Prof. Dr. J.L. Martínez-Dueñas Espejo

• isolating language A language in which words generally consist of single

and clearly distinguishable morphemes. See also agglutinating language,
inflecting language. [35]

• language family A group of genetically related languages, i.e. of

languages that descend from a common proto-language. [16]

• language planning The process of deliberate interference with the status

of a language ('status -') or aspects of its form and functions ('corpus -').
[86]
• lenition The cover term for processes which involve some `weakening' of
sounds, such as voicing, spirantization, vocalization of consonants, or
deletion. [48]

• lexical diffusion The gradual spread of a (sound) change through the

vocabulary of a language. [78]

• lingua franca A general language of communication used by people

with different first languages. [61]

• linguistic area A number of languages in contact within a specific

geographical area, which share certain linguistic features. [58]
• linguistic variable A linguistic unit for which there are alternative
realizations, according to factors such as social class, age, and sex. [73]
Example: pronunciation of going in /n/ or /velar/

• loan word A word borrowed from another language or variety. [25]

• merger see phonemic merger

• metaphor The transfer of a term because of a real or imagined

similarity, e.g. neck 'part of the body' > 'part of a bottle'. [30]

• metonymy The semantic change in which an attribute of a thing is used

to denote the whole, e.g. White House for the American president. [30]

• monophthongization The process whereby a diphthong becomes a

monophthong, i.e. a vowel with a perceived stable quality, e.g. [ai] > [a:].
[47]

6
 Historia de la Lengua Inglesa
Prof. Dr. J.L. Martínez-Dueñas Espejo

• morpheme The smallest meaningful unit of language; 'free' morphemes

may occur on their own, such as cat, while `bound' morphemes only occur
in combination with other morphemes, such as dis-, -able, etc. [22]

• narrowing of meaning The meaning change in which a word

becomes more specific, like focal `bird' > `focal'. [22]

• palatalization A sound change in which the position of the tongue is

fronted towards the hard palate, e.g. [u] > [y] (as in French une), or [k]
> [t∫] (cf. Latin centum [k] and Italian cento [11 `100') . [47]

• pejoration of meaning The process whereby a word loses its neutral or

positive meaning and acquires a negative one, e.g. knave (originally
`boy'). See also amelioration. [31]

• phoneme The abstract distinctive sound unit of a particular language.

[45]

• phonemic change A sound change on the level of the abstract

phonemic system, as opposed to phonetic change, a change on the

concrete level of speech production. [45]

• phonemic merger The phonemic change whereby one phoneme

merges (completely or partially) with another one, thus leading to a loss
of phonemic opposition. [51]

• phonemic split The phonemic change whereby one phoneme splits into
two different ones; often combined with phonemic merger. [51]

• phonetic change see phonemic change

• phonological change (also sound change) The cover term for

phonetic change and phonemic change. Some linguists, however, use the
term synonymously with phonemic change. [45]

• pidgin An auxiliary language of communication between speakers of

mutually unintelligible languages, with a reduced grammatical structure,
lexicon, and range of styles. [59]

7
 Historia de la Lengua Inglesa
Prof. Dr. J.L. Martínez-Dueñas Espejo

• proto-language The unattested common ancestor of a language family

or group of languages, reconstructed by comparative reconstruction. [15]

One parameter that influences speakers’ behavior is age:

• real-time analysis The analysis of particular linguistic features in the same

speech community at different points in time. See also apparent- time
analysis. [75]

• reanalysis The reinterpretation of a sequence of morphemes

(`morphological -') or a syntactic construction ('syntactic -'), by reassigning
them a new function or internal structure. [29]

• regularity hypothesis (also Neogrammarian hypothesis) The view

that sound change is regular and without exception. [78]

• relative chronology The relative temporal order in which different

changes take place. [23]

• relexification The extensive replacement of the vocabulary of a language by

borrowing from another language, especially in pidgins and creoles. [60]

• semantic change A change in the meaning of words or morphemes.

[26]

• spirantization The sound change from stop to fricative, as in [p] > [f]. [47]

• substratum (also substrate) The linguistic influence of a subordinate

language, often given up by its original speakers, on the sociallydominant
adopted language. [65]

• synchronic The term referring to (the study of) the state of a

language at a given time, not necessarily the present. See also
diachronic. [8]

• synthetic language The cover term for agglutinating and

inflecting languages. [36]

8
 Historia de la Lengua Inglesa
Prof. Dr. J.L. Martínez-Dueñas Espejo

• typology The classification of languages according to structural

features (phonology, morphology, syntax). [35]

• unconditioned sound change A sound change that affects all

occurrences of a specific sound, irrespective of context. [48]

• variable see linguistic variable

• variant One of a number of possible alternative realizations of a

linguistic item. [73]
Variation: second indicator of change
•

• velarization The sound change in which the back of the tongue is

moved backwards towards the velum, e.g. [e] > [o]. [47]

• word-formation The process of coining new, complex words out of

existing words or morphemes. [25]