I've attempted a past paper for Language Change could anyone offer some comments on how to improve it because I feel totally unprepared for this question
It's the June 2012 paper for reference!
Because all three texts are derived from the early modern period, we would expect, according to Fairclough’s view, that the register of the texts will be highly formal as register gets more informal overtime. Lexis and grammar should all be standardised by 1779 due to the text being published after Johnson’s dictionary (1755), therefore we should expectthat the language used is all in Standard English. As all three texts are glorified begging letters we should also expect that the purpose of the texts are to influence thus using persuasive lexis whilst being affected by social change as it is expected that in the late 1700s not many people would be ableto read and write.
All three texts appear to be extremely formal by the use of elevated lexis including phrases such as “especially with an audites of authority” from Text F and “now you are acquainted with the necessity of it” from Text G thus making the piece sound extremely sophisticated and helping toappeal to its affluent audience. The polysyllabic, precise and literal words such as “circumstances” and “pitiable” clearly emphasise the situation the family are in and the emotive lexis used throughout all three letters such as“poor little daughter” from Text E and “his dear Harriot” from Text F aim to pullon the heartstrings of the wealthy merchant audience aiding the persuasivepurpose of the texts. The manipulative use of women and children portrayingthem as poor and helpless also tells us much about social change, as the texts clearly present women and children as inferior to males which would be expectedof the time as women were expected to stay at home, cook, clean etc.
There appears to be a lexical field of capital throughout Text E, shown by words such as “remittance”, “expense” and “cash”.This sums up the purpose of the text, as the writer writes with a tone of despair in order to gain financial support. The informal phrase “Ready Cash”appears to be an anomaly in the formality of the piece whilst having connotations of greed and impatience. Additionally, there is a semantic fieldof illness and desperation in both Texts F and G shown by phrases such as “havinggiven up all hopes” and “confined to his room with gout” which acts as afurther persuasive device, creating a tone of hopelessness and aiming to forcethe wealthy into action. The colloquial and emotive metaphor used in Text F “my heart bleeds for em” makes the language more intimate and relatable unlikesophisticated lexis, which gives a more pretentious superior tone. The sentence constructions of all three texts aremostly compound and complex, for example “poor Mr. Atherton arrived here onMonday evening, and on Tuesday we took her to her final resting place…”. Thepurpose of this extensive syntax is to convey as much information as possiblewhilst reflecting spoken discourse, as not many people could read and write inthe 18
th century. The idiom “resting place” is used as a politenessfeature instead of using the more inconsiderate word “graveyard” along withother polite lexis such as “your friend and humble servant” in order to act asa influential device.
There are a variety of non-standard sentenceconstructions such as “you was kind enough” from Text E and “the youngest poorlittle boy is sent to Hulton”. This highlights that education on grammar wasseverely limited in the 18
th century and despite all spelling andgrammar supposedly being standardised after Lowth’s publication of AnIntroduction to English Grammar in 1762, not everyone followed these rules.Furthermore, there are a number of misspelt words throughout all three textssuch as “woud”, “immagining” and “afording” thus it is clear that despite thepublishing of Johnson’s dictionary not everyone would get their hands on ittherefore phonetic spelling was often used in letter writing, along with thevarious examples of shorthand – “favd” and “recd” – which again highlights anexample of social change as it is expected that many men learned how to writein shorthand whereas today it is limited only to places such as courtrooms. Finally, there are a number ofexamples of random capitalisation, mainly on nouns and verbs such as “expense”,“boy” and “bleeds”. The purpose of this may be to emphasise those certain wordsor the practice came from one of the of English Language’s influentialcountries such as Germany.
In conclusion, it is evident that although the textwas produced after Johnson’s dictionary my hypotheses were incorrect as allthree texts are not in Standard English whilst showing examples of poorspelling and typographical conventions. Social change has a clear effect on thetext through the manipulative use of women and children, the fact that readingand writing was limited and the practice of writing in short hand. However myhypothesis on the register of the piece was correct as it is written largely inthe formal register despite some colloquial anomalies.