New words – language change

Spend a few minutes in class making a list of all the new words which have entered the language recently.  Examples are: bff, twitter, bushism, 9/11, Duchess of Cambridge.

You might also review some words which have come and gone within the last few years, which are soooo yesterday.  They’ll know these words better than you do.

There are also slang words which have lasted for decades, like cool, and hip.

These words are evidence of the pervasiveness, speed, and inventiveness of, well, of everybody.  Syntax changes more slowly, though it does change.  We now say “There is lots of reasons” and nobody bats an eyelid.

language change, linguistics in the classroom, semantics, The scary science: Linguistics

Historical Linguistics, Semantics, Syntax