Grandiloquent Dictionary

• This is the result of an ongoing project to collect and distribute the most obscure and rare words in the English language. It also contains a few words which do not have equivalent words in English. At present, the dictionary contains approximately 2700 words, though it is constantly growing.

Your task is to look at the small selection of words and see if you can use one of these words in the course of today’s lesson. Make a note of the one(s) you want to use.

Grandiloquent Dictionary

bacillophobia - ( )  A fear of germs

barathrum - ( )  A person who eats like they

were a bottomless pit

battology - ( )  Tiresome and repetitive

talking

beldam - ( )  A foul old woman maledicent - ( )   One who is addicted to

abusive speech

maledictaphobia - ( )   Fear of bad words

misosophist - ( )   One who hates all wisdom

or learning

saponaceous - ( )   2. Being very nice and

ingratiating

schadenfreude - ( )   Taking pleasure in the

misfortunes of others

simphobia - ( )   The fear of speaking

straight forwardly and in simple terms

Language Change and Linguistic Methods AO1: what we need to consider

• English Lexicon as words enter and leave the language or change meanings

• Syntax between earlier and later forms of English

• Phonology of spoken English and its representation in written texts

• Graphology (including typography and orthography); how texts are arranged on a page, font styles and their punctuation and spelling

• Discourse structure and the organisation of texts

This is our focus today!

Lexical Change

There are 10 examples of how new words can be created. How many of the 10 can you identify / remember? Please fill in your ideas on the table.

Lexical ChangeTerm Definition Example

Coinage The creation of completely new words. Very few words enter the

language like this.

?

Borrowing When words are taken from other

languages

Soprano (italian), prince (french), lager

(german), alcohol (arabic)

Affixing

Prefixing and suffixing

When existing words are used to create new words, e.g.

Prefixes include ‘micro’ and ‘multi’

Examples of affixes include ‘-ism’

Lexical ChangeTerm Definition Example

Compounding When words are combined to form a new larger word or

expression.

Blackbird, laptop, blue-eyed, head

waiter, happy hour, size zero, carbon

footprint

Blending Two words are fused to create one

Smog, motel, wannabes

Conversion When the word class of an existing word changes creating a new use for a word

Noun to verb: ‘bottle’ to ‘to bottle’

Verb to noun ‘a ‘contest’

Lexical ChangeTerm Definition Example

Abbreviation A new word is formed by

shortening an existing word

Ad rather than advert

Burger rather than hamburger

Back formation Creating a new word by removing affixes

Editor becomes edit

Burglar becomes burgle

adj. "couth" from "uncouth"

Acronyms Words are created from the initial

letters of existing words

NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

Lexical Change

Term Definition Example

Initialisms Words are shortened using their initial letters. However,

words are not formed.

BBC –British Broadcasting

Company

CD – compact disc

Words from names - Eponyms

Some words are created based on

names of people or places

Sandwich – the Earl of Sandwich

created the sandwich

Hoover

So what is Lexical Change?

Imagine that you are chatting to a Year 11 student who is currently writing their

Spoken Language Controlled Assessment.

How would you explain Lexical Change to them?

Write down in no more than 100 words what you would tell them.

Classification of word formation

• Using the diagram (circles), the headings and the words, decide which categories you would place each example in.

• One term you might not be sure of …. a functional shift occurs when a word that is already identified and used extensively in one manner begins to acquire a second use that is of a completely different

nature in both the spoken and the written word.

Looking more closely at borrowings

1. What countries do you think the underlined words have come from? (there are 19 different countries represented)

2. Group the words into semantic fields to help you consider:

3. Why do you think English needed to borrow these particular words?

4. Can you make any connections with the reasons for language change we looked at in previous lessons?

Looking more closely at borrowings

Should I wear a poncho, an anorak or my favourite parka when I went out on the ski slope? I packed some clothing and chocolate in my knapsack. My enjoyment of tobogganing was curtailed after I kamikazed into the igloo which was obstructing my path. The anonymous owner was absent but his tattooed neighbour suggested a pow-wow. Fearing he was a cannibal or an assassin, I fled. I trekked back to my hotel and as zero hour approached, I decided some food would cheer me up greatly. What should I choose? If it had been breakfast I would have chosen marmalade and coffee, but it was evening and my mouth watered for sushi, tortilla, moussaka or a shish kebab. Strangely I also fancied a cup of tea and some sherbert. I changed into my dungarees and went to where the barbeque was being held. Next holiday I will go on a safari or kayak down a river, or go on a cruise. I thought about lying on a hammock in the sun, although I don’t like mosquitoes. After eating I changed into my pyjamas and strummed on my guitar.

Source for the words used: David Crystal ‘The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language 2003

Poncho, hammock, mosquito, guitar, tortilla

Spain or South America

marmalade Portugal

Anorak, parka, igloo, kayak

Artic region / Inuit Shish kebab, sherbert

Turkey

Dungarees, pyjamas

India Sushi, kamikaze Japan

Ski Norway Tea China

Chocolate France Safari, trekked Africa

Knapsack, cruise Holland Barbeque, cannibal

Caribbean

Tobogganing Canada Tattooed Polynesia

Anonymous, Moussaka

Greece Assassin Eygpt

Pow-wow North America Zero, coffee Arabic origin

But as words enter the English Language….

Others become archaic or obsolete

Twerpchump nitwit bird-brain

twit clot barmpotpea- brain WallyWhat would you call someone ‘thick’ when you were at first school? Would you use the same word / phrase now?

What is your current word?

What word must we preserve?

Last lesson we thought about words that we would love to see disappear

from the English Language.

Today I would like you to identify the word that you would hate to see leave the English Language. Please consider

and be ready to share your answer with the rest of the class.

Good newspaper articles

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jul/17/thank-you-fell-out-of-fashion

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/8850281/Drat-Spiffing-old-words-dying-out-soz.html