Quick questions on Historical language change - Edexcel A-Level English Language

Comparing a 1700 text and a modern text, you might find "nice" used to mean "precise" or "foolish" in the older text. A strong paragraph would name this as semantic amelioration (the word's connotations have risen from foolish or fussy to broadly positive over three centuries), contrast it with a pejorated word such as "silly" (from "blessed" or "innocent" to "foolish"), and explain the social mechanism: words drift as the attitudes attached to the things they describe drift. The point is the precise type, direction and example, supporting an argument about how meaning is unstable across time.

Comparing a 1620 pamphlet and a modern article on the same subject, the older text shows variable spelling, the long s, "u" for "v", and "hath"; the modern text shows fixed orthography and modern verb forms. A strong paragraph would not list these as differences but argue them as evidence of standardisation: the variable forms predate Caxton's press and Johnson's dictionary fixing the modern conventions, while the modern uniformity is the product of that fixing plus mass education. The comparison becomes an argument about a historical process, not a catalogue of contrasts.

Define semantic narrowing and amelioration, each with an example. [4 marks]

Name one driver of the standardisation of English and explain its effect. [3 marks]

Analyse how English has changed over time as shown by an older and a modern text, referring to language levels and historical influences. [16 marks]