Grandiloquent Dictionary

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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 todays lesson. Make a note of
the one(s) you want to use.
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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

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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!
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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.

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Lexical Change
Term 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
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Lexical Change
Term 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
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Lexical Change
Term 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
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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
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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.

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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.

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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?

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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
  dont 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
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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
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But as words enter the English Language.

• Others become archaic or obsolete
• Twerp chump nitwit bird-brain
• twit clot barmpot pea- brain Wally

What would you call someone thick when you were
at first school? Would you use the same word /
phrase now? What is your current word?
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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.

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Good newspaper articles

• http//www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jul/1
  7/thank-you-fell-out-of-fashion
• http//www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/885
  0281/Drat-Spiffing-old-words-dying-out-soz.html