Language Change

Is our language sick? You might think so, judging from complaints in newspapers:

“The standard of speech and pronunciation in England has declined so much . . . that

one is almost ashamed to let foreigners hear it.” “The language the world is crying out

to learn is diseased in its own country.” “We are plagued with idiots on radio and

television who speak English like the dregs of humanity, to the detriment of our

children.”

But why? At a time when English is a major world language, is it really in need of

hospital treatment? A wide web of worries; a cobweb of old ideas ensnares people as

they think about language - any language, and this must be swept away. But clearing

the cobwebs is only the first stage. The Language Web is the title of all these lectures.

Webs, especially cobwebs, may entangle. But webs themselves are not a tangle. They

have a preordained overall pattern, though every one is different in its details. Nature

forces humans to weave the language web in a particular way, whatever language they

speak. We are free only within a preset framework, so liberty within limits will be a

major theme. I will be looking at some key topics: how language changes, how it

began, how children learn it, and how we remember words.

David Crytstal

Beth's English Language blog