Introduction
The term flexibility of language is used to describe its ability to alter responding to new conditions and satisfying the existing demands. Besides, native speakers could be considered the main contributors to the creation of new forms and meanings (Yan & Vaseghi, 2010). Being the main agents who speak the language and affect its further evolution and alteration, they are legally entitled to the introduction of new forms into the language. Thus, the language is an ever-changing phenomenon that is impacted by the environment.
The great pace of life introduces the tendency towards new short forms and shifts of meanings of various parts of speech. For instance, native speakers could easily change the existing rules to introduce the new meanings or emphasize a certain part of a sentence (The English language, n.d.). Furthermore, their flexibility concedes significant alterations of rules that determine the functioning of the language. Altogether, native speakers flexibility conditions the appearance of the new forms and promotes the evolution of the language which is crucial for its survival and existence.
Examples of the language flexibility
Speaking about the flexibility of language, it is possible to provide numerous examples that evidence the existence of some forms and meanings of the same word. Yet, one accepts the fact that representatives of various communities and locations have different peculiarities of pronunciation, speech tempo, accent, etc. (Dewaele, 2015) However, considering these differences in terms of the language flexibility, it is possible to admit the fact that people from various regions might introduce absolutely opposite meanings to the same words ( Ghorshi, Vaseghi, & Yan, 2008).
For instance, central regions tend to verbalize any part of the word to introduce some additional meaning or emphasize the existing one (Cheung & Sung, 2016). A noun party could be used as the verb meaning to have a party, etc. (The English language, n.d). Furthermore, there are various approaches to adverbs used in the flow of speech. People from different regions might use any part of speech to introduce the new meaning (The English language, n.d). That is why it is possible to state the existence of various forms conditioned by the peculiarities of a certain location (Loots & Niesler, 2012).
Conclusion
Altogether, speaking about the term flexibility in terms of the English language, there are several important concerns. First, the existence of new forms results from the ever-changing character of language and the great impact of the modern environment. The appearance of the new forms tends to provide native speakers with the means to express their feelings.
Additionally, there are numerous peculiarities of the language that come from regional characteristics and peculiarities of local speech (Ladegaard, 1998). Flexibility should be considered the most important aspect of the modern language that guarantees its ability to describe the modern world and fit the most frequent contexts (Murphy, 2016). At the same time, the flexibility of native speakers comes from the unique character of the English language which allows usage of any part of speech in absolutely any context.
References
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