From The Student Room
TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > English > Language Change 1
Discourse
- How is cohesion created?
- Is there evidence of contrasting registers?
- Is there evidence of dialogue or narrative structures? Are there any interpersonal features?
- Is there evidence of different discourse conventions?
- Is there one general viewpoint or several?
- Is the register formal or informal?
- Is there a difference in purpose between the texts or in an older text compared to your knowledge of modern texts?
Pragmatics
- Is the reader expected to recognise and identify with specific societal roles?
- Is the reader expected to share social codes and values?
- Is the reader expected to accept particular roles and responsibilities?
- Is the reader expected to accept particular social attitudes/ cultural assumptions?
- What attitude is expressed about language: prescriptive or descriptive?
- Are assumptions made about the readers’ knowledge and understanding?
- Is there evidence of changing values or ideologies?
Lexis
- Is there obsolete lexis or for old roles and practices?
- Is there archaic language or archaic slang?
- Is the lexis Latinate, or of classical derivation, or polysyllabic or formal? Are the collocations archaic or unfamiliar?
- Are there unusual allusions e.g. classical or religious?
- Are there any unexplained references?
- Are there differing specialist terms?
- Is there evidence of borrowing, clippings conversion, neologisms or coinages?
- Does lexis suggest technological development?
- Are there any emotive overtones to the lexis?
- Is there evidence of colloquial or slang lexis? Is the lexis of Old English origin or short words or informal? *Is it largely intelligible and familiar?
- What influence has technology had?
Semantics
- Identify the semantic fields
- Are there specific connotations, metaphors, innuendo or figurative language?
- Is there evidence of semantic shifts or changes
- Is there any pejoration or amelioration?
- Is there anything significant in the terms of address, are there politeness markers?
- Is there any difference between the texts in the degree of implicitness?
- Is the text accessible and easy to understand?
- Is there any relevance in how much authority the text has?
- Are there examples of special collocations or metaphors?
Grammar
- Are grammar choices formal or informal?
- Does syntax seem outdated? Does it suggest a classical style? Are there any complex or Latinate grammatical structures? Is there any unfamiliar syntax?
- Comment on the verb forms, adverbs, pre-modification.
- Are prepositions used differently?
- Are there differences in conjunctions/punctuation?
- Do the texts use modal auxiliaries? What do they convey?
- Does the text use pronouns for immediacy of address
- Are any questions used without auxiliary verbs?
- Are minor sentences used?
- Are there any variations in sentence length and complexity?
- Is there use of syntactic parallelism or repeated sentence structures?
- Do the texts use the forms of informal speech?
- Does the text use a lot of imperative, declarative, exclamative or interrogative sentences?
- Orthography
- Are capital letters used differently?
- Do texts use different letter forms e.g. the long s
- Are words abbreviated in a familiar way?
- Are there any differences in spelling or punctuation?
- Are there competing or unusual spellings?
- Are spellings similar to modern English?
- Are there approximations of foreign spellings or unusual letter strings for English spelling?
- Are plurals formed differently?
- Does the spelling in the texts relate to your knowledge of standardization?
- Are conventions related to technology?
Graphology
- How are fonts used, for example - to assist discourse structure/for emphasis?
- How are illustrations used?
- Are there different design or layout conventions, for example - bar code, price and logo slogans?
- Is there a greater use of graphological devices to signal text structure, for example - space-shifting, textboxes, bullet points; or systematic, colour coded layout, headings.
A04
- What sort of societal roles are implied?
- How does the text position the reader?
- What are the shared social values?
- What attitudes to the text are assumed?
- Is there an authoritative tone?
- Is there a religious context assumed?
- Is there an assumption about the reader’s education?
- Is there evidence of a prescriptivist attitude?
- What principles are assumed to be self evident, true or desirable?
- What stage of language development is exemplified in the text?
- Is the use of language very specific to this type of text or can you generalise?
A05
- Situational as well as temporal variation.
- What can be assumed about the audience and how the text is read e.g. is the text intended to be read aloud?
- What is the social and linguistic context?
- Can you find any relationship to key/landmark texts you are aware of? (e.g. Lowth’s grammar; Johnson’s dictionary)
- What evidence does it supply about attitudes to language change?
- What evidence is there of attitudes to gender, class and ethnicity?
- What evidence is there of the society’s different technologies and priorities?
- What sort of situation produced this text? What are the genre conventions of this text?
- What sort of priorities is does the author/audience seem to have?
- Can you make connections with other texts you have seen?
- Does it reflect specific economic or scientific priorities of the time?
- What comparisons can you make to modern texts/use of language?
- Does the text represent the views of a particular section of society?
Research coverage
- Stronger answers will place the text within a sociolinguistic and socio-cultural perspective.
- Some students will be able to make connections between this text and other texts they have encountered.
- There may be references to other developments relevant to language change including those in education, economic development and popular culture.
- Can you show differences in situational as well as temporal variation- you are aware of how the situation in which this text is produced influences the language as well as when it was produced.
Temporal variation
- Technological context e.g. relatively unsophisticated print methods of older texts.
- The more Informal and conversation style of modern texts.
- Change in attitudes towards language: grammatical preoccupations of previous years, compared with communicative competence model of modern texts.
Also See
Comments
These notes are aimed at people studying Language Change for A2 English Language Module 6.
Originally posted by Shuv on TSR Forums.
