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Language diversity and change

5 dot points across 5 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

Why do people judge some ways of using English as better than others?

Attitudes to language diversity: prescriptivism and descriptivism, standardisation, language attitudes and prejudice, and public debate about correctness and change.
A focused answer to the AQA A-Level English Language attitudes topic, covering prescriptivism versus descriptivism, standardisation, language prejudice and public debate about correctness and change, with reference to Aitchison, Crystal and Honey.
11 min answer →

How does the work people do shape the way they use language?

Language and occupation: occupational register and jargon, professional discourse communities, the language of the workplace and how occupation shapes identity and power.
A focused answer to the AQA A-Level English Language diversity topic, covering occupational register and jargon, discourse communities, workplace power and identity, with reference to Drew and Heritage, Koester and Swales.
11 min answer →

How and why has the English language changed over time?

Language change over time: lexical and semantic change, borrowing, neologisms, grammatical and orthographic change, and the historical phases of English from Old English to the present.
A focused answer to the AQA A-Level English Language change topic, covering lexical, semantic, grammatical and orthographic change, borrowing and neologisms, and the historical phases of English from Old English to Present Day English.
11 min answer →

Why does English vary by region, class and social group?

Social and regional variation: dialect, accent, sociolect, idiolect, Received Pronunciation, Standard English and the social meanings carried by linguistic variation.
A focused answer to the AQA A-Level English Language diversity topic, covering dialect and accent, sociolect and idiolect, Received Pronunciation and Standard English, and the social meanings of regional and social variation, with reference to Trudgill and Labov.
11 min answer →

What models explain how and why language changes spread?

Theories of language change: the wave and S-curve models, functional and random-fluctuation theories, lexical gaps, the substratum theory and named models of how change spreads.
A focused answer to the AQA A-Level English Language theory topic, covering the wave and S-curve models, functional theory, random fluctuation, lexical gaps, substratum theory and named models of how language change spreads, with reference to Hockett, Halliday and Aitchison.
11 min answer →