Changing Use of Language

A detailed Summary of Changing Use of Language

I chose to find the entomology of a word that most people can usually not go through a day without using at least once, computer. With the explosion of the personal computer in the last ten years, most households in America own at least one. However, the meaning of the word "computer" has changed in the last century. The word itself is found in text as far back as 1646 when Sir T. Brown said, "The calendars of these computers." The use of "computer" in this sense, as defined by the OED, is one who computes; a calculator, reckoner; a person employed to make calculations in an observatory, in surveying, etc.

Then, around 1897, the use of "computer" began to change. In the January 22 edition of Engineering, this usage appeared: "This was... a computer made by Mr. W. Cox. He described it as of the nature of a circular slide rule." This usage began the change of the definition. In the supplement to the OED, "computer" is now defined as a calculating machine; an automatic electronic device for performing mathematical or logical operation.

The word "computer" stems from the verb "compute" which came from the French comput-r and the Latin computa-re. It was formed by adding com - together and putare - to clear u

The last level Chomsky used to understand language was the Syntactic level. This level consisted of the syntax or the structure of the utterance. This level was used to explain the understanding of how a sentence was put together. Chomsky said that there were two parts to every sentence, the surface structure and the deep structure. The surface structure contains the words that are used to create the utterance and syntax. The deep structure was the meaning of the utterance. Chomsky said that a sentence can consist of two different surface structures and still have the same deep structure. The meaning of the sentence is transcendent of the words used to make it. So, for a sentence such as, "The horse raced past the barn fell", is still understood as "The horse that was raced past the barn fell."

His third level needed for understanding language is the Morphemic level. This level consists of morphemenes, which are the smallest unit of meaning of an utterance. This explains the usage of prefixes and suffixes such as the use of an "s" to make a word plural.

In order to understand language, Chomsky believed that there were four levels needed. The first of his four levels was the Lexicon. He described the Lexicon as a mental dic

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Approximate Word count = 831
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous

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Changing Use of Language

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