Quick questions on The contexts and causes of language change: why English changed - Eduqas A-Level English Language

A handful of drivers account for most change in English.

"The early modern text's dense Latinate vocabulary in a scientific context is best explained by its cause: the Renaissance revival of classical learning and the need for a precise vocabulary to discuss new knowledge drove heavy borrowing and coinage from Latin and Greek. The features (the borrowed, polysyllabic lexis) are not just 'formal' but the product of a specific historical driver, learning and the expansion of knowledge, which is the AO2 explanation the change topic rewards." This explains a feature by its cause.

"The variable spelling in the seventeenth-century text (the same word spelled more than one way) reflects the period before standardisation fixed English orthography. Reading this as pre-standard variation, soon to be reduced by the spread of printing and, decisively, by Johnson's Dictionary and the prescriptive grammars of the next century, explains why the spelling looks unstable: it predates the codification that fixed modern spelling." This explains variation by the process of standardisation.

Name three causes of language change. [3 marks]

What is standardisation, and name one key stage in it. [2 marks]

Discuss the social, technological and cultural factors that have driven changes in English, with reference to dated texts. [16 marks]