On Oct 1, 12:21 pm, "
benli...@ihug.co.nz" <
benli...@ihug.co.nz> wrote:
> On Oct 1, 1:42 am, "Peter T. Daniels" <
gramma...@verizon.net> wrote:
>
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> > On Sep 30, 12:25 am, Joachim Pense <
s...@pense-mainz.eu> wrote:
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> > > Am 29.09.2012 22:48, schrieb Peter T. Daniels:
>
> > > > On Sep 29, 11:22 am, Joachim Pense <
s...@pense-mainz.eu> wrote:
> > > >> Am 29.09.2012 14:43, schrieb Peter T. Daniels:
>
> > > >>> On Sep 29, 1:53 am, "
benli...@ihug.co.nz" <
benli...@ihug.co.nz> wrote:
> > > >>>> On Sep 29, 5:15 pm, Joachim Pense <
s...@pense-mainz.eu> wrote:
>
> > > >>>>> Am 28.09.2012 22:48, schrieb
benli...@ihug.co.nz:
>
> > > >>>>>> On Sep 29, 12:08 am, "Peter T. Daniels" <
gramma...@verizon.net> wrote:
> > > >>>>>>> On Sep 28, 1:20 am, "
benli...@ihug.co.nz" <
benli...@ihug.co.nz> wrote:
>
> > > >>>>>>>> They may not recognize their diachronic significance, but they
> > > >>>>>>>> certainly do notice them.
>
> > > >>>>>>> Once again, how is that not _exactly_ what I have been saying?
>
> > > >>>>>> Because what you said, several days ago, was:
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> > > >>>>>> "People _don't_ notice language change. That's how it can happen!"
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> > > >>>>> If I don't notice the diachronic significance of a change, then I don't
> > > >>>>> notice the change. I only may notice the variation. So I don't see a
> > > >>>>> contradiction in what Peter wrote here.
>
> > > >>>> What we were discussing was the existence (or lack) of recorded
> > > >>>> comments on AusEng pronunciation from the early years. So even if
> > > >>>> Peter's general claim were correct in the sense you and he propose, it
> > > >>>> would not explain an absence of such comments, since people may
> > > >>>> perfectly well comment on differences without giving a historical
> > > >>>> explanation of them.
>
> > > >>> Wait a minute ... the absence of comments on "language change" shows
> > > >>> that they recognized that "language change" was proceeding all around
> > > >>> them, just as it always had been and always will?
>
> > > >>>> Certainly if someone is comparing two different dialects of a
> > > >>>> language, they may notice differences without being aware of their
> > > >>>> diachronic significance (that one dialect is innovative relative to
> > > >>>> the other). But can that be true of generational differences? If
> > > >>>> grandma notices the young folks talking in a new way, she has noticed
> > > >>>> a change.
>
> > > >>> She has noticed what YOU CALL a change. What she has noticed is that
> > > >>> they are talking sloppy or wrong and tries to correct them. She hopes
> > > >>> they'll grow out of it as they grow out of their adolescence.
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> > > >>> Pretty obviously, that's a denial of the existence or possibility or
> > > >>> acceptability of change.
>
> > > >>>> She knows she didn't talk that way when she was their age.
> > > >>>> She may attribute it to moral decline, or foreign corruption, or
> > > >>>> whatever; she may not know whether the change will last or be just a
> > > >>>> passing fad. But it would seem very perverse to say that she has not
> > > >>>> noticed a change.
>
> > > >>> Why do you claim that any difference is a change? Why can you not
> > > >>> accept that it is simply a difference -- and that the origin of
> > > >>> differences became a topic of academic study for a handful of
> > > >>> scholars, that has still, over 200 years later, not filtered down to
> > > >>> the gen.pub.?
>
> > > >> Everyone notices that "gay" meant something different 50 years ago. A
> > > >> difference between earlier and today is called a change.
>
> > > > No. It is a difference. It is an added meaning. It is not grasped as a
> > > > change in the language, because the concept of "change in a language"
> > > > is not available. In this case, it's not a mistake or merely a
> > > > difference, but an improvement. (Except to those who think it's a
> > > > corruption.)
>
> > > An added meaning is not perceived as a change?
>
> > It's an addition to the dictionary, not a change to the language.
> > (Remember, words haven't "really" been created until they appear in a
> > dictionary.)
>
> > Not the linguist view. The gen.pop. view. (In case the quibble faction
> > is itching for something else to quibble about.)
>
> I think we really need to get clear about who qualifies as a
> "linguist", the sort of person uniquely capable of understanding that
> languages change. So for example, when Caxton (1490) writes
> "...certaynly our langage now vsed varyeth ferre from that whiche was
> vsed and spoken whan I was borne" (just a few lines before the "eggs"
> anecdote we discussed recently)...is he being a linguist?
Oh, and here's another one. Rather more generally formulated, but hey,
it's Chaucer so it's worth hearing:
Ye knowe eek, that in forme of speche is chaunge
With-inne a thousand yeer, and wordes tho
That hadden prys, now wonder nyce and straunge
Us thinketh hem; and yet they spake hem so,
And spedde as wel in love as men now do;
Eek for to winne love in sondry ages,
In sondry londes, sondry ben usages.
- Troilus and Criseyde, Book II, 22-28