LINGUISTIC CHANGE AND ITS
MECHANISMS
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A
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The changes
that have caused the most disagreement are those in pronunciation. We have
various sources of evidence for the pronunciations of earlier times, such
as the spellings, the treatment of words borrowed from other languages or
borrowed by them, the descriptions of contemporary grammarians and
spelling-reformers, and the modern pronunciations in all the languages and
dialects concerned From the middle of the sixteenth century, there are in
England writers who attempt to describe the position of the speech-organs
for the production of English phonemes, and who invent what are in effect
systems of phonetic symbols. These various kinds of evidence, combined with
a knowledge of the mechanisms of speech-production, can often give us a
very good idea of the pronunciation of an earlier age, though absolute
certainty is never possible.
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B
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When we study the
pronunciation of a language over any period of a few generations or more,
we find there are always large-scale regularities in the changes: for
example, over a certain period of time, just about all the long [a:] vowels
in a language may change into long [e:] vowels, or all the [b] consonants
in a certain position (for example at the end of a word) may change into
[p] consonants. Such regular changes are often called sound laws. There are
no universal sound laws (even though sound laws often reflect universal
tendencies), but simply particular sound laws for one given language (or
dialect) at one given period
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C
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It is also
possible that fashion plays a part in the process of change. It certainly
plays a part in the spread of change: one person imitates another, and
people with the most prestige are most likely to be imitated, so that a
change that takes place in one social group may be imitated (more or less
accurately) by speakers in another group. When a social group goes up or
down in the world, its pronunciation of Russian, which had formerly been
considered desirable, became on the contrary an undesirable kind of accent
to have, so that people tried to disguise it. Some of the changes in
accepted English pronunciation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
have been shown to consist in the replacement of one style of pronunciation
by another style already existing, and it is likely that such substitutions
were a result of the great social changes of the period: the increased
power and wealth of the middle classes, and their steady infiltration
upwards into the ranks of the landed gentry, probably carried elements of
middle-class pronunciation into upper-class speech.
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D
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A less specific variant of the
argument is that the imitation of children is imperfect: they copy their
parents’ speech, but never reproduce it exactly. This is true, but it is
also true that such deviations from adult speech are usually corrected in
later childhood. Perhaps it is more significant that even adults show a
certain amount of random variation in their pronunciation of a given
phoneme, even if the phonetic context is kept unchanged. This, however,
cannot explain changes in pronunciation unless it can be shown that there
is some systematic trend in the failures of imitation: if they are merely
random deviations they will cancel one another out and there will be no net
change in the language.
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E
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One such
force which is often invoked is the principle of ease, or minimization of
effort. The change from fussy to fuzzy would be an example of assimilation,
which is a very common kind of change. Assimilation is the changing of a
sound under the influence of a neighbouring one. For example, the word
scant was once skamt, but the /m/ has been changed to /n/ under the
influence of the following /t/. Greater efficiency has hereby been
achieved, because /n/ and /t/ are articulated in the same place (with the
tip of the tongue against the teeth-ridge), whereas /m/ is articulated
elsewhere (with the two lips). So the place of articulation of the nasal
consonant has been changed to conform with that of the following plosive. A
more recent example of the same kind of thing is the common pronunciation
of football as football.
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F
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Assimilation is not the only
way in which we change our pronunciation in order to increase efficiency.
It is very common for consonants to be lost at the end of a word: in Middle
English, word-final [-n] was often lost in unstressed syllables, so that
baken ‘to bake’ changed from [‘ba:kan] to [‘ba:k3],and later to [ba:k].
Consonant-clusters are often simplified. At one time there was a [t]
in words like castle and Christmas, and an initial [k] in words like knight
and know. Sometimes a whole syllable is dropped out when two
successive syllables begin with the same consonant (haplology): a recent
example is temporary, which in Britain is often pronounced as if it were
tempory.
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Questions 28-31
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN
THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 28-31
on your answer sheet.
The pronunciation of living language undergo changes throughout
thousands of years. Large scale regular Changes are usually called 28
_________________. There are three reasons for these changes. Firstly, the
influence of one language on another; when one person imitates another
pronunciation(the most prestige’s), the imitation always partly involving
factor of 29 _________________. Secondly, the imitation of children from
adults1 language sometimes are 30 _________________, and may also
contribute to this change if there are insignificant deviations tough later
they may be corrected Finally, for those random variations in
pronunciation, the deeper evidence lies in the 31 _________________ or minimization of effort.
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Questions 32-38
Do the following statements agree with
the information given in Reading Passage?
In boxes 32-38 on your answer sheet,
write
TRUE
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if the statement agrees with the information
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FALSE
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if the
statement contradicts the information
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NOT GIVEN
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if there is no information on
this
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32
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It is impossible for modern people to find pronunciation of words in
an earlier age
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33
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The great change of language in Russian history is related to the
rising status and fortune of middle classes.
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34
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All the
children learn speeches from adults white they assume that certain language
is difficult to imitate exactly.
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35
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Pronunciation with causal inaccuracy will not exert big influence on
language changes.
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36
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The word
'scant' can be pronounced more easily than 'skamt'
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37
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The [g] in gnat not being pronounced will not be spelt out in the
future.
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38
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The sound
of ‘temporary’ cannot wholly present its spelling.
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Questions 39-41
Look at the following sentences
and the list of statements below. Match each statement with the correct
sentence, A-D.
Write the correct letter, A-D,
in boxes 39-41 on your answer sheet
A Since the speakers can pronounce it with less effort
B Assimilation of a sound under the influence of a neighbouring one
C It is a trend for changes in pronunciation in a large scale in a
given period
D Because the speaker can pronounce [n] and [t] both in the same time
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39
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As a consequence, ‘b’ will be pronounced as
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40
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The pronunciation of [mt] changed to [nt]
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41
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The omit
of ‘f in the sound of Christmas
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