Diachronic Change-This is where language is being analysed over several moments in time.
Political Correctness:
This is a modern term used to describe something which can be seen as offensive. For example, it can describe language, policies or certain measure which are designed not to offend of disadvantage any group of people. This has been used since around the early to mid 20th century and is still being used to this day. Whereas in the 20th century is was used to mean giving correct political positions within certain matters now in modern language it can be applied to many things. A key example of this would be looking at things such as a person's sexuality and where it was deemed appropriate for people to call a gay man a 'faggot' where political correctness deem this inappropriate as the correct term would be to call the man a 'homosexual'. This can also be applied to race where the word 'half-caste' is becoming less common as describing someone of two races would now be someone of 'dual-heritage' or 'multi-national'.
Plain English Language:
This is referred to as 'layman's terms' which means writing in a way in which all people can easily understand what is being said without the use of specific topic jargon for example 'parent and sister companies' when discussing multiple establishments who are owned by one big company. It was often seen to contain more Germanic and Anglo-Saxon words rather than applying more words which derived from Latin or Greek. A famous example of this is George Orwell's 'Politics and the English Language' essay in which he wrote to parliament saying how the language was 'in danger' of the 'ugly and inaccurate' contemporary written English especially in politics. However, as language become more modern and more varied in terms of words which were 'borrowed' from other languages coupled with things such as 'broadening' and 'weakening' Plain English Language was no longer seen as the way forwards.
The Crystal Mark:
This puts a clear stamp on all documents, especially in the USA and the UK, to communicate clearly with the public. This stamp means that the document has been approved at understandable for those who read it and will know how to act upon the given information. If this is not the case, the stamp will not be approved and is currently being used by around 1600 organisations. There is a certain criteria in which The Crystal Mark looks for before deeming a document applicable to obtain the stamp. The things they initially look for are as followed:
- a good average sentence length (about 15 to 20 words)
- plenty of 'active' verbs (instead of 'passive' ones)
- everyday English
- words like 'we' and 'you' instead of 'the insured', 'the applicant', 'the society' and so on
- conciseness
- clear, helpful headings with consistent and suitable ways of making them stand out from the text
- a good type size and clear typeface
- plenty of answer space and a logical flow (on forms)
Not only is The Crystal Mark used as a way of analyzing documents but they can also be applied to things such as websites, magazines, long books and computer software. They can do this by having specific stamps for specific items meaning that almost anything which may require this can obtain it.
Dog Whistle Politics:
This is a way of making language carry more than the one given or perceived meaning. This means that an organisation or person can use coded language to mean one thing for the general population but have the additional, different or more specific meaning which can be understood by a targeted sub-group. An example of the term 'dog whistle' would be the subtle tweak in question-wording which can have a major effect on results when giving those listening the slightly differing questions. An Australian politician named Robert E. Goodin says that this is a problem because 'it undermines democracy, because if voters have different understandings of what they were supporting during a campaign, the fact that they were seeming to support the same thing is democratically meaningless'.
World Englishes:
This is a term used to signify the expansion of different countries developing the English language. These are seen a localized or indigenized varieties of English which are more common to be found in territories which have had influences on them from the USA or the UK. There are three main groups in which English is used by other groups.
- A native language-This is the main language that a country uses ans is seen as the majority way of communication throughout the population i.e.USA, UK, Australia
- A second language-This is seen as an additional language that can be spoken over a group's first tongue. They're seen as multi-lingual and can use this as a way of international communication i.e.India, Nigeria and Singapore. This is a result of imperial expansions in which the language was brought to multiple parts of the world.
- A foreign language-Used primarily for international communication and will not commonly be used in a group's home country i.e.Japan
