Politics and societal values are also reflected in the words we use. Men is no longer acceptable when referring to both genders; after the Feminist movement, women and men should be indicated by saying people. Other distinctions that may have mattered to older generations such as when to use "fewer" or "less" and the difference between "lie" and "lay". Language has remained incredibly flexible and people constantly find new methods of communication.
Looking further into this idea that languages do not stay the same, I was curious about any theories of language simply decaying or remaining stagnant. As Professor Boroditsky mentioned, there are instances in which imperialism wipes out languages in a single generation. However aside from extreme cases such as this, there is not much evidence for instantaneous decay of language. As stated by the author of this website: http://www.ancientscripts.com/hl_why.html, "anything that can be expressed in the ancient tongue can still be expressed today". American linguist William Labov proposed that languages actually bond socially over time. He advocated that a small portion of the population pronounces certain words differently or uses different words and eventually others want to identify with that group or enjoy the newly formed methods for communication and adopt it.. This has happened in many fields, especially with computer and technology related words such as email which were used originally by a small group and are almost universal now.
Here's the first article I read: http://www.dunnvillechronicle.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2522931
I know that you mentioned English to be a "liquid language" but aren't most world languages even more fluid than english? Isn't it more common to have other languages incorporate english words into their vocabulary (aka what the academie francaise is trying to prevent?) Also you mentioned the idea of a language decaying, are you suggesting that these languages are slowly getting wiped out or just getting assimilated into other more dominant ones?
ReplyDeleteYour discussion of liquid language brings up the question: should we redefine and rewrite our key texts every now and then? I agree that meanings change over time, so perhaps we should take a more careful look at the language used in the documents that serve as the foundation for our nation's values and ideas.
ReplyDeleteOh I didn't intend the example of English to mean that English is the only liquid language and I do agree that other languages do incorporate lots of English words. The language decay theory actually has very little evidence and no one has proven that languages experience spontaneous decay. I think the death of languages is largely due to assimilation, imperialism, or society's lack of interest in speaking the language.
ReplyDeleteI think critical texts should be rewritten after long periods of time. Classroom textbooks and other important pieces of literature are constantly being updated with new editions.