Language: Language Change and Diversity
Language change and diversity is the A-level English Language study of how English vocabulary, grammar and meaning have altered over time, and how language varies by region, social group and situation. It covers semantic processes such as broadening, narrowing, amelioration and pejoration, alongside prescriptivist and descriptivist attitudes, assessed through data analysis and discursive essays.
Method
- Identify the type of semantic change shown by a word, i.e. broadening, narrowing, amelioration or pejoration, by comparing its historical and current meanings.
- For dialect or sociolect data, identify non-standard lexical, grammatical or phonological features and quote them precisely with a line reference.
- Link each identified feature to a plausible social or regional explanation, e.g. regional identity, covert prestige or generational change.
- When discussing attitudes to change, distinguish clearly between prescriptivist views, that change is decay, and descriptivist views, that change is natural.
- Support essay-style answers with named linguists or theorists, e.g. Aitchison, Trudgill, Milroy or Crystal, and their specific arguments.
- Structure longer answers around a clear line of argument, using textual or corpus evidence throughout rather than unsupported generalisation.
Worked example
The word 'meat' meant 'food in general' in Old and Middle English but now refers specifically to animal flesh. Identify the type of semantic change and explain it.
- Compare the historical meaning, food in general, with the current meaning, animal flesh.
- Note that the current meaning is more restricted than the historical meaning.
- Name the process: narrowing, also called specialisation, where a word's meaning becomes more specific over time.
- Give supporting context: related words like 'sweetmeat', meaning a sweet food item, preserve the older, broader sense.
Practice questions
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Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a English exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
The word 'girl' once referred to a young person of either sex but now refers only to a female child. Identify the type of semantic change and explain the shift, using the term 'narrowing' or 'specialisation' accurately.
A speaker from a north-east English town says: 'Am gannin yem the neet.' Identify two features of regional dialect in this utterance and suggest what each shows about the speaker's identity.
'Language change should be resisted wherever possible, as it represents a decline in standards.' Evaluate this prescriptivist view, referring to at least one named linguist or theorist.
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