Language Change Phonological Change

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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter aims to discuss the fundamental theories related to this research. There are two elements discussed in this chapter; the theoretical description and the theoretical framework.

A. Theoretical Description

The theoretical description involves the discussion about language change, English sound change, and English sound production. 1. Language Change All physical aspects of the universe and all aspects of human life are subject to change, and languages are no exception Schendl 2001, p. 3. Language changes also because they are used by human beings not machines. Human being shared common physiological and cognitive characteristics, but members of a speech community differ slightly in their knowledge and use of their shared language Fasold and Linton 2006, p. 277. Different regions, social classes and even generations will create a different use of a language. Moreover, Croft 2000, p. 1 also says that language change is a historical phenomenon, which becomes a thing to be dealt with historical linguistics. Historical linguistics is sometimes called diachronic linguistics which is more concerned with changes in languages over time and synchronic linguistics that deals with languages at a single period of time Campbell 2004, p. 4. This research used a synchronic perspective as it was conducted to describe the actual pronunciation of present-day English spoken in a 8 particular speech community. These explanations below are the causes of language change and the types of language change.

a. The Causes of Language Change

As mentioned before that languages change because they are used by human beings not machines, it explains that as long as human beings exist the language will keep changing as human are growing with many supporting factors not stable like a machine. Campbell 2004, p. 316 mentioned that the internal causes include the physical and psychological factor. The physical factor is for example, the physiology of human speech organs. The psychological or cognitive factor involves the perception, processing and learning of language. While, the external causes involve factors such as expressive uses of language, positive and negative social evaluations prestige, stigma, the effects of literacy, prescriptive grammar, educational policies, political degree, language planning, language contact, and so on. Related to the theory, Fasold and Linton 2006, p. 277 state that the language change is motivated by the physiological, cognitive, and social forces which can be attributed to articulatory simplification, regularization, and contact between the languages. They are explained as follow. 1 Articulatory Simplification Fasold and Linton 2006, p. 277 express that many changes in the phonology of a language are motivated by the physiological goal of enhancing the ease of articulation. It can be inferred that some people “simplify” the mechanism of sound production when they found it difficult to be pronounced. Ur 1999, p.