This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Corruption (linguistics) is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (August 2006) |
Corruption or bastardisation is a way of referring to certain changes in a language. The most common way that a word can be said to be corrupted is the change of its spelling through errors and gradual changes in comprehension, transcription, and hearing. This is especially common with words borrowed from another language. For example Guangzhou was formerly known as Canton, which is a transliteration of Guangdong following the rules of French sound structures. The terms "corruption" and "bastardisation" carry negative connotations, and are rooted in prescriptivist theories of language.
Language corruption may refer to two similar things:
- Change of words, as described above.
- Difference from the so-called "purity" of standard language. For example, the split infinitive has long been disputed as either a corruption or norm of the English language.
Text bastardisation is:
- Unauthorized alteration and publication of a text inconsistent with the original purpose or the author's intention. For example:
| “ | A year after rejecting the novel, Gallimard published a bastardised text called Ravages, which dispensed with the first, sexually explicit pages of the manuscript. | „ |
History
In the past, with unstandardized spelling for English and other languages, a word would be pronounced differently by people who encountered the word in text and not speech. Eventually, such changes could become standardized. A large number of these changes occurred during the 19th century. English is now highly standardized with some dialectal variation.
The mass written communication of the Internet promotes even greater standardization; however, its informal nature often encourages intentional language changes. In online interactive games, chat rooms and other situations, common typographical errors and attempts at humor have created a number of new alternate spellings (see leet).
Examples
|
|
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2008) |
Some commonly known words and phrases which are the result of linguistic corruption include:
- "vamoose" (from the Spanish verb vamos, which means "Let's go")
- "Cajun" (from "Acadian")
- "spitting image" (from "spirit and image")
- "parting shot" (from "Parthian shot")
- "That doesn't jive (with the facts)." (from "That doesn't jibe with the facts.")
- tow the line (from British parliamentary usage "toe the line")
See also
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 13 November 2008, at 04:43.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Corruption (linguistics)".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.