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True or False: Old English relied heavily on word order to show grammatical relationships.
False; Old English used inflections, not fixed word order, to show grammatical relationships.
Which modern European language still uses cases and flexible word order similar to Old English?
German: Modern German still uses cases like nominative, accusative, and dative.
What historical event and language most influenced Middle English syntax?
The Norman Conquest and Old Norman French; French influence reshaped Middle English syntax.
By Middle English, what replaced case markers for expressing grammatical relationships?
Word order; French syntax inspired reliance on word order instead of case markers.
Which of these is not a syntactic change in Middle English:
Growth of standardised auxiliary verbs
Standardisation of present participle spelling
Heavier reliance on prepositions
Increase in inflectional endings
In Early Modern English, reductions in what type of morphemes significantly impacted both nouns and verbs?
Inflectional morphemes; their reduction affected verbs and nouns in Early Modern English.
What is the difference between denotation and connotation?
Denotation = literal meaning; Connotation = positive/negative associations.
Over time, connotative changes can lead to what type of shift?
Denotative shifts; changes in connotation can eventually alter the literal meaning.
Which semantic process causes a word’s connotations to become more negative over time?
Deterioration; connotations become more negative over time.
Put these synonyms in order from oldest to most recent in English: scent, smell, stench, odour.
Stench, Smell, Odour, Scent
Give one example of a word that has undergone semantic deterioration due to gender or social imbalance (disempowered groups).
Hussy or Gossip; both shifted from neutral/positive to negative meanings.
What is the opposite of deterioration, where a word gains more positive connotations over time?
Elevation; connotations become more positive over time.
Which of these is an example of broadening?
“Meat” shifting from “any food” to “animal flesh”
“Awful” shifting from “inspiring wonder” to “very bad”
"Tablet" shifting from an engraved block to a touch screen
“Google” becoming a verb for online searching
Narrowing refers to a lexeme’s meaning becoming more [blank].
more specific
Which process is rarer: broadening or narrowing?
Narrowing is less common than broadening.
A prescriptivist believes language change is generally...
Negative and in need of control
