Linguistic Change in Progress: Back to the Inner Circle

Abstract

If you ask native speakers of English how the language is changing today, after hesitation they will probably mention new vocabulary, or possibly some changes in pronunciation, but it is unlikely that grammar will appear on the agenda. This is probably for two reasons. First, most native English speakers are ignorant about the grammar of their mother tongue. Ask them about a grammatical problem, and they will dissolve into joking embarrassment. Second, grammar is an aspect of language that changes slowly, so it is popularly assumed to be unchanging, its rules set in stone. No one who has read this book, we are sure, will make that mistake. The grammar of standard English keeps changing, as it always has. However, within one generation there are likely to be few dramatic changes: what we can observe are changes of preference, of frequency. Interestingly, changes in recent English grammar tend to follow particular patterns, which we list as follows:

• Grammaticalization — Items of vocabulary are gradually getting subsumed into grammatical forms, a well-known process of language change.

• Colloquialization — The use of written grammar is tending to become more colloquial or informal, more like speech.

• Americanization — The use of grammar in other countries (such as the UK) is tending to follow US usage.

Time changes all things: there is no reason why language should escape this universal law.

Ferdinand de Saussure, Cours de Linguistique générale (1916)