Psychology of Language Lab 1: Hockett's Design Featurs

Psychology of Language Lab 5: Lexicon 1

Lexical Innovation, Variation and Change

1. Using the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), find the etymology of each of the following English words. Cite an earlier form and an earlier meaning of each word. What language(s) did each word come from? What type(s) of semantic change took place in the history of each word. [Semantic changes include amelioration (elevation), derogation, metaphor, broadening (extension) and narrowing.]

a. hussy                                                                                                                                             f. cloak
b. knight                                                                                                                                          g. check
c. assassin                                                                                                                                     h. hospital
d. silly                                                                                                                                                 i. duke
e. nice                                                                                                                                                 j. easel

On-line OED URL (requires Rutgers library barcode and PIN to access remotely):

http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/indexes/search_guides/oed.shtml

2. Every social group invents new words or alters the meanings of existing words to suit the special communicative needs of the group. Consider the special dialect that you speak with your college friends. List as many examples of lexical innovations as you can (minimum number: 3). For each word, describe the dialectal distribution of the word (i.e., do all college students use the word, only students at Rutgers, only Rutgers students in a particular major or dormitory, etc.)? For each word, say whether the word is a completely new word or whether it is an existing word that has undergone semantic change. If the word is a completely new word, speculate about its possible origins. For existing words that have developed new meanings, give the meaning of the original word and the new meaning and describe the type(s) of semantic change that have taken place [e.g., amelioration (elevation), derogation, metaphor, broadening (extension) and narrowing].

If you are drawing a blank about college slang, you can check out the following URLs for hints/reminders of current college slang:

http://www.csupomona.edu/~jasanders/slang/

http://www.csupomona.edu/~jasanders/slang/top20.html

If you use slang from these URLs, indicate whether the terms used by Rutgers students

3. Children also coin new words. The following examples of children's inventions are grouped into 3 broad classes. How would you characterize the process used in each case? The children's ages are given in years and months and the translations/contexts in brackets.

I. a. 2;0 plate-egg; cup-egg [fried egg; boiled egg]

b. 3;0 rat-man [experimental psychologist]

c. 3;0 rip-boy ... no ripper [someone who rips things]

II. a. 2;4 You have to scale it. [weigh]

b. 3;11 I'm going to earth this. [bury]

c. 2;4 I'm souping this. [eating soup]

III. a. 2;6 I'm darking the sky. [coloring a picture]

b. 3;0 How do you sharp this? [holding pencil]

c. 3;0 Full this up. [holding out a cup]

4. Here are some words that you have never seen before. Give a definition of the italicized word.

a. I blamp things all the time. I'm a blamper.

b. I need to nink this. Where's the ninker.

c. First I mibbed it. Then I dismibbed it.

5a. List at least three words that follow the blamper model.

b. List at least three words that folllow the ninker model.

c. List at least three real English words that follow the dismib model.

6. Sometimes a root word and prefix becomes so closely associated that the un-prefixed form of a word becomes extremely odd sounding. For example, refurbish is a fairly common word, whereas furbish is quite uncommon (although it is in Webster's Collegiate Dictionary). Come up with at least three more examples like this.

If you are completely stumped, you may check out the following URLs for suggestions

http://www.quinion.com/words/articles/unpaired.htm

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Lane/7867/humor/humor10.html

If you do use these websites, make sure you check whether the un-prefixed form is in a desktop dictionary (e.g., Webster��s Collegiate) and in the OED.