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Component 2: Language Change Over Time

6 dot points across 6 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

What attitudes do people hold towards language change, and how do you argue critically between prescriptivism and descriptivism?

Attitudes to language change (Component 2): prescriptivism and descriptivism, the debate over decline and progress, purism and the role of authorities, attitudes in public discourse, and how to argue critically about responses to change with concepts and examples (AO2, with AO1 and AO3).
How to argue about attitudes to language change for Eduqas A-Level English Language (A700) Component 2: prescriptivism and descriptivism, the decline-versus-progress debate, purism and authorities, and attitudes in public discourse, argued critically with concepts and examples (AO2, with AO1 and AO3).
13 min answer →

Why has English changed over time, and how do you explain the social, technological and cultural causes of change?

The contexts and causes of language change (Component 2): the social, political, technological and cultural drivers (contact and trade, empire and migration, science and technology, the printing press, standardisation, education and the media), and how to explain why a change happened when it did (AO2 and AO3).
How to explain the contexts and causes of language change for Eduqas A-Level English Language (A700) Component 2: the social, political, technological and cultural drivers (contact and trade, empire, science and technology, printing, standardisation, education, the media), and why a change happened when it did (AO2 and AO3).
13 min answer →

What is the English in the Twenty-First Century question, and how do you analyse contemporary and digital language and the forces shaping it now?

English in the twenty-first century (Component 2 Section B): the language of digital and online communication, contemporary varieties and global Englishes, the technological and cultural forces shaping present-day English, and how to analyse and discuss current language change with concepts and examples (AO1, AO2 and AO3).
How to answer the Eduqas A-Level English Language (A700) Component 2 Section B question on English in the twenty-first century: digital and online communication, contemporary varieties and global Englishes, the forces shaping present-day English, and how to analyse and discuss current change with concepts and examples (AO1, AO2 and AO3).
14 min answer →

What are the processes by which English has changed since 1500, and how do you analyse change at the level of lexis, semantics, grammar, spelling and graphology?

The processes of language change (Component 2): lexical change (borrowing, coinage, affixation, compounding, blending), semantic change (narrowing, broadening, amelioration, pejoration, semantic shift), grammatical change, and orthographic and graphological change, and how to analyse them in dated texts (AO1 and AO3).
How to analyse the processes of language change for Eduqas A-Level English Language (A700) Component 2: lexical change (borrowing, coinage, affixation, compounding), semantic change (narrowing, broadening, amelioration, pejoration), grammatical change, and orthographic and graphological change, named precisely and read in dated texts (AO1 and AO3).
14 min answer →

What is the Component 2 Section A language change question, and how do you analyse dated texts and compare across time under exam conditions?

The language change question (Component 2 Section A): analysing dated texts from across the post-1500 period, naming the processes of change, explaining their causes, deploying theory, and comparing across the texts to build an argument about how and why English has changed (AO1, AO2, AO3 and AO4).
How to answer the Eduqas A-Level English Language (A700) Component 2 Section A language change question: analysing dated texts from across the post-1500 period, naming the processes of change, explaining causes, deploying theory and comparing across time, the multi-objective analytical task of the paper (AO1, AO2, AO3 and AO4).
14 min answer →

What models and theories explain how and why language changes, and how do you deploy them critically?

Theories and models of language change (Component 2): models of how change spreads and why it happens (the wave and S-curve models, random fluctuation, functional theory, substratum theory, lexical gaps, Aitchison's metaphors of damp spoon, crumbling castle and infectious disease), deployed critically with examples (AO2).
How to deploy the theories and models of language change for Eduqas A-Level English Language (A700) Component 2: how change spreads (the wave and S-curve models), why it happens (functional theory, random fluctuation, substratum, lexical gaps), and Aitchison's metaphors for attitudes to change, used critically with examples (AO2).
13 min answer →