Paper 3 Question 1
In text A the author, Edward Berens, is talking about writing about advice to young men upon going to Oxford. Berens talks about how a young man should have a type of ‘feeling’ and how they should have a strong interest and interest increasing by the separation. This text is written in 1832, meaning it is from Late Modern English.
In the first text, A, Berens is bringing up words such as ‘coxcomb’, when now today in Modern English we don’t use that word anymore, or is very outdated. According to Michael Halliday’s theory it states that language changes according to the need of the users or people. It is replaced by new words for social and technological developments. Here ‘coxcomb’ in Modern English means ‘a fool’. Here is a perfect example of how Halliday’s theory related to how words can be replaced by newer words as time goes on and how it is obsolete.
Another word in Berens writes in text A is ‘party’. In the text the meaning of ‘party’ can be defined as accompanying or a ‘relations into…conversation’. In Modern English, the word ‘party’ can be defined as an act of people going to a place and having fun. Another meaning can have a play in this word such as meaning the ‘party’ of your beliefs. The word party has many approaches and has been broadened over time. It can also be an act of archaism, where the word is longer in everyday use and has been outdated and are/is no longer in use or has lost its meaning of that word.
In text B the British Nation Corpus brings up words such as ‘taste’ which back then meant the flavor of something can be a bitter ‘taste’, a sour ‘taste’, or a sweet ‘taste’. Now today in Modern English the word ‘taste’ now has different types of meanings as well. ‘Taste’ can refer to the style and judgment of others around you. Here this can be applied to the Substratum theory by William Lavo. According to the Substratum Theory, it is meant, the link of language changes to the spread of language and specifically that is when applied to English. The word ‘taste’ can link languages and change the meaning of the word, back then meant the flavor, now means style or the judgment of someone or something.
In Text C, it shows us an n-gram that have the words or phrases ‘are apt to be’, ‘are likely to be’, and ‘tend to be’. The years ranging from the timeline have been from Late Modern English to Modern Day English. As shown in the n-gram the phrase ‘are apt to be’ has been the last used out of the other three phrases. In text A the phrase ‘are apt to be’ is being brought up. It is very anomalous that since text A was written in 1832, according to the n-gram, in 1832 the phrase ‘are apt to be’ was rarely even said or been used.
In text A the phrase ‘are apt to be’ was the same meaning as ‘tend to be’ and ‘are likely to be’. The phrases ‘tend to be’ and ‘are likely to be’ can have the same meaning and can be compared/be defined the same as ‘are apt to be’, but the other two phrases have been commonly been used throughout the time period. According to the n-gram in text C, as time moved on, ‘are apt to be’ has been continuously been declining or decaying, while ‘are likely to be’ and ‘tend to be’ have been increasing and now since 2010 has been decreasing a little.
Hi Shahz, your blog was very good and you identified and explained each word in-depth. Your paragraphs were all structured and organized and it was easy to follow throughout. You did well on stating the language use and theories of each. “Michael Halliday’s theory.” You also compare each word to modern English. I felt like it was a little limited, however, and I would go a little more in-depth with each paragraph. For the AO2 I would then give you 3 marks since everything was developed clearly but I didn’t feel like it was fully effective.
ReplyDeleteFor the AO4, you describe the theory “substratum theory.” However, I feel like you should’ve included the dates and usage behind each of the words. This would’ve made it easier to identify theories behind the words and the reason behind them not being used as often anymore. You did very well at saying how words had many different approaches and meanings over time. Such as the word “party.” I would then give you 4 marks for the AO4 since it was very detailed however, you could’ve been more detailed with the linguistic choices of the writer.
In AO5, in all three texts, you identify words from each. Some of the words included “party” “coxcomb” “taste” and are “apt to be” and the use of the words over time. With each word, you could’ve included the date of the usage but you did very well on stating words that have replaced it such as “coxcomb” as “a fool.” I would then give you fourteen marks on the AO5 and you did very well. Next time, just include more detailed explanations of the words and their usage. Your total would be 21 out of 25 overall. Good Job!