| Lemma | drift |
|---|---|
| Categoria grammaticale | N |
| Lingua | inglese |
| Sigla | Sapir (1921) |
| Titolo | Language |
| Sinonimi | tendency (inglese) |
| Rinvii | content (inglese) direction (inglese) expression (inglese) grammatical element (inglese) individual variation (inglese) language (inglese) phonetics (inglese) position in the sentence (inglese) sound (inglese) speaker (inglese) speech (inglese) to embody (inglese) to mold (inglese) word (inglese) |
| Traduzioni | |
| Citazioni | Language moves down time in a current of its own making. It has a drift. The linguistic drift has a direction [...] only those individual variations embody it or carry it which move in a certain direction, just as only certain wave movements in the bay outline the tide. The drift of a language is constituted by the unconscious selection on the part of its speakers of those individual variations that are cumulative in some special direction. In the long run any new feature of the drift becomes part and parcel of the common, accepted speech, but for a long time it may exist as a mere tendency in the speech of a few, perhaps of a despised few. [...] knowledge of the general drift of a language is insufficient to enable us to see clearly where the drift is heading for. At least three drifts of major importance are discernible [...] The first is the familiar tendency to level the distinction between the subjective and the objective [...] the tendency to fixed position in the sentence[...] the drift toward the invariable word. Nothing is perfectly static. Every word, every grammatical element, every locution, every sound and accent is a slowly changing configuration, molded by the invisible and impersonal drift that is the life of language. [...] we do not yet understand the primary cause or causes of the slow drift in phonetics, though we can frequently point to contributing factors. The drift of language is not properly concerned with changes of content at all, merely with changes in formal expression. |