Hor and English Language Changes

Text A, written by Edward Berens, is an excerpt from a series of ten letters that were written from an uncle to his nephew in 1832, meaning that it features lexis and language choice from the present modern English language period. Though the letters were written just a little under 200 years ago, language change can still be seen between 1832 and today. Being that Text A is a collection of letters written by Berens to his nephew, it shows language change simply because of the form of the text being a letter. Letters are not used as often today due to technological advances that have been made since then, which shows an example of how the English language has changed over time.

A couple of semantic changes can be seen throughout Text A. For instance, Edward Berens utilizes the word inmates to refer to people living in the same home. Today, one would likely not utilize the word inmate to refer to someone living in the same home, rather they would likely refer to them as a roommate or something of the like. Inmate has broadened since then, and not only refers to ‘an occupant of a house,’ but also to ‘one who is confined to an institution such as a jail, prison, or a hospital.’ Additionally, the word intimate was used by Berens to describe “two intimate friends” when discussing interest in the letter. Since these letters were written, intimate has also undergone semantic broadening and now has another meaning. In this letter, the word refers to someone who is ‘closely acquainted’ to Berens’ nephew. Today, intimate also refers to something that is ‘personal’ and ‘private.’ These two words have since broadened to have new meanings since they were used in the early days of today’s modern English period.

In Text B, a collocate chart exemplifies synonyms of the words taste and judgment, which also happen to highlight semantic changes between the meaning of the words then, and the meaning of the words now. The British National Corpus recorded these collocations between the 1980s-1993. Similar to Text A, the collocate chart shows data taken within the current modern English period. According to the chart, the word taste was often used alongside words such as ‘bitter’ and ‘good,’ which shows that taste had a negative connotation and a positive connotation during this time period. Furthermore, the word judgment was often used alongside words such as ‘professional’ and ‘dissenting.’ This shows that, similar to taste, judgment had a negative connotation and positive connotation as well. It is apparent in Text A that Edward Berens is discussing the positive connotations of the words taste and judgment as he tells his nephew to “take care that you never are guilty of such a violation of good taste and correct judgment.” Here, he is telling his nephew to ensure that he is always making good decisions as he is going into college.

Text C is an n-gram which illustrates the changes in usage over time of the phrases are apt to be, are likely to be, and tend to be between the years 1800 to 2008. Once again, similar to Texts A and B, the n-gram highlights data that is within the current modern English language period. The phrase, are apt to be, translates to ‘having a tendency to be.’ When looking at the n-gram, it is apparent that the phrase are apt to be has remained at a relatively constant and low level of usage during the time period. However, this is not the case with the other two. Are likely to be, expresses a probable action. For example, one would say something ‘certain fruits are likely to be ripe during the Spring season,’ to express a probable occurrence. When looking at the n-gram, it is apparent that between 1800 and around 1920, the phrase remained at a relatively constant level of usage. It was around 1920 when the phrase experienced an increase in usage, and continued to do so through 2008. Moreover, the phrase tend to be refers to being ‘likely to be,’ similar to the phrase are likely to be. This can be said due to the fact that both phrases experience a similar increase in usage over time. Like the prior phrase, tend to be remains at a relatively constant level between the years 1800 to 1920, where it then begins to increase in usage and continues to do so throughout the remainder of the time period. It can be said that the change in usage of these three phrases over time can be defined by WIlliam Labov’s Substratum Theory. Labov’s theory suggests that language changes due to spreading and the influence of other Englishes. It can be inferred that are apt to be likely originated in European English where it then spread and led to the now often used tend to be instead.

It should also be noted that Text A demonstrates grammatical and syntactical features that were prevalent during the time in which it was written. For example, Edward Berens opens his letter by telling his nephew; “You will, I am sure…” Today, these are shortened to create a contraction of you’ll and I’m. Similarly, Berens does this throughout the rest of the text as well, showcasing even further how the English language has changed over time.