Questions about how English has changed.
Questions about how English has changed.
Questions tagged [language-evolution]
146 questions
19
votes
4 answers
When does a mistake become standard usage?
We all know that word meanings and usage change over time (though not all of us are happy about it). How long does a word have to be used in a particular way for that usage to be "okay"? At what point does it become "correct usage" and what…
J.T. Grimes
- 6,853
13
votes
6 answers
How common is the confusion between "affect" and "effect"?
I stumbled onto a US Congress representative’s website with what I think is a blatant and very visible mistake:
Namely, the sentence in yellow, “How does the population change effect our district”. I am surprised to see this error in such a…
F'x
- 38,736
3
votes
2 answers
Is "learning", used as a noun, Denglish?
The English term "learning" is being used as a noun in German language, describing the process of learning something about a specific topic. ("Das Learning war, kein Wasser ins brennende Fett zu schütten." / "The learning was to not put water into…
jbxbergdev
- 133
3
votes
2 answers
Is the correct usage of “Diagnose (verb)” losing its ground?
In spite of many references on the correct usage of ”Diagnose”, usage of passive construction followed by a with-phrase – e.g. “The patient was diagnosed with cancer” — and usage of patient as object of this verb –e.g. “She helped with his story…
Mr.X
- 386
2
votes
0 answers
How do words get concatenated?
Lots of words in the English language are or were two words originally.
Somehow
Nobody
Erstwhile
But many often conjoined words are not 'allowed'. The one that springs to mind is 'alot'.
Why are some of these ok, and others not? How do these…
AncientSwordRage
- 1,264
2
votes
1 answer
Does English have a sister language other than Scots and Frisian?
Like I said in the title, I am aware that Scots is a sister language of Modern English. I am also aware that Frisian diverged from west Germanic, making it and it's modern variants sister languages, but is there a language, dead or alive, that…
Aaron Speedy
- 33
2
votes
1 answer
Same words interpreted as different meanings in different languages
https://www.ethnologue.com/guides/how-many-languages
Is it possible that there are so many languages in the world, the written words can be same in more than one language having different meanings?
In that case Google translator will detect the text…
Prashant Akerkar
- 123
2
votes
2 answers
What, if anything, would cause a common word's official spelling to change? (e.g. "have") Can this still happen today?
As we know, spelling and pronunciation change over time. However, it's hard to imagine any normal, common words having a shift in their spelling in our lifetimes.
The issue was brought to mind for me by the word "have," which it occurred to me is…
temporary_user_name
- 1,819
1
vote
1 answer
Did the meaning of fair change?
I have been reading a bunch of fiction books, such as the Lord of the Rings series and similar. They are definitely modern books, but use a literary language and constructs to give a bit of historical accents.
In these books, I've often encountered…
Paul92
- 182
1
vote
0 answers
Is written English becoming more and more simplifed?
I'm not sure if I have anything to base this on, other than a simple hunch. My general feeling towards written English, especially journalistic English, is that it is becoming simpler and simpler. Perhaps due to the rise in social media, lowered…
Mou某
- 5,377
0
votes
2 answers
"You are kindly asked to..." Is this new or just plain wrong?
I often hear or see things like
"You are kindly asked to put your dishes in the dishwasher, not on top
of it."
To me this sounds incredibly clumsy and wrong, as though someone has translated it literally from another language. I would have said…
RedSonja
- 1,083
0
votes
0 answers
What is the origin of the progressive
What is the origin of the progressive form of the english verbs
0
votes
1 answer
When did the distinction between the spoken and written English grammars became recognized?
It is generally accepted today that the grammars and vocabularies of the spoken and the written English differ in important ways. Is it known when this distinction between the English grammars become recognized - for example, mentioned in a book or…
0
votes
2 answers
Language Evolution: Use of 'It'
If, as it is written in Oxford Dictionaries, 'it' can be used to identify a person, 'it’s me', 'it’s a boy', why are 'she' and 'he' still used and, furthermore, why are people still discussing as to whether they should be replaced with the singular…
Elberich Schneider
- 4,404
-1
votes
1 answer
Question word usage
According to the Reading Teachers Book of Lists, of the 100 most popular (used most often) spoken words in American English, the question word "what"(there are six question words that are commonly used in journalistic and other research: what, who,…
Zan700
- 3,376