On useful darkness: loss and destruction of transparency by linguistic change, borrowing, and word creation

Abstract

It is claimed that speakers play an important role in language change through conscious revisions of lexical items that result in a loss of transparency. In many lexical items found in German, the meanings of compound words are becoming increasingly opaque. Such loss of morphological transparency may be due to diachronic change or borrowing, but a number of other changes are intentional on the part of a speech community. These include word creation, such as the English item smog from 'smoke+fog', shortening through clipping or acronyms, & alienation, which is used to disguise the input beyond recognition. It is claimed that there are also functional motives behind the loss of transparency, such as iconic symbolization of holistic concepts, support of sociolinguistic identity, secret talk, prestige, & euphemism. Brand names & proper names are other sources of the loss of morphological transparency. 42 References. L. Davidson