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).

What this dot point is asking

The processes of language change are the mechanisms by which English has changed since about 1500: how its vocabulary, meanings, grammar and spelling have shifted over time. In Eduqas English Language this is the analytical core of Component 2 Section A, where you analyse dated texts and must name the processes precisely. This dot point covers the four levels of change (lexical, semantic, grammatical, orthographic and graphological) and the terminology you need to read change in a text rather than just calling features old-fashioned.

The answer

Analysing language change succeeds when you name the processes precisely (AO1), illustrate each from the dated texts (AO3), and read what the change reveals about its period (AO2). The unifying idea is that change is systematic and nameable: English has not simply drifted but changed through identifiable processes, and the analytical skill is to recognise and label them, not to describe a text as quaint. The four levels below give you the toolkit.

Lexical change

Vocabulary changes most visibly and quickly. The key processes are borrowing (loanwords from contact languages, French, Latin, and later from across the empire and the world), coinage and neologism (new words for new things), affixation (adding prefixes and suffixes), compounding (joining words) and blending. Words also leave the language: archaism (a word becoming old-fashioned) and obsolescence (a word dropping out entirely). Name the specific process, and note why the vocabulary entered or left.

Semantic change

Meanings shift over time through nameable processes. Narrowing: a word's meaning becomes more specific ('meat' once meant any food, 'deer' any animal). Broadening: a meaning becomes more general ('place' once meant a street). Amelioration: a meaning becomes more positive ('nice' once meant foolish or precise). Pejoration: a meaning becomes more negative ('silly' once meant blessed). Semantic shift: a meaning moves sideways. Name the process and read what the change reveals about the society that drove it.

Grammatical change

Grammar changes more slowly but is rich to analyse. The processes include the loss of inflections (older verb endings such as '-eth' and '-est', the decline of 'thou'), word-order change (English has become more fixed in its word order as it lost inflection), changes in negation (older multiple negation, the rise of 'do-support' in questions and negatives), and the regularisation of irregular forms. English has shifted broadly from a more synthetic (inflected) towards a more analytic (word-order-dependent) grammar.

Orthographic and graphological change

Spelling and the look of texts change too. Orthographic change covers spelling variation before standardisation (the same word spelled several ways), the long s and other older letterforms, and the gradual fixing of spelling by dictionaries and printing. Graphological change covers typography, layout and the visual conventions of texts across periods. Name these as orthographic or graphological features, distinct from semantic or grammatical change.

Examples in context

The texts are unseen and dated, so the moves below are illustrative.

A model lexical and semantic paragraph. "The text's vocabulary shows several processes of change. The word 'physic' for medicine is now archaic, displaced by borrowed and coined alternatives, while 'awful' is used in its older, ameliorated sense of 'awe-inspiring' rather than its modern pejorated sense of 'very bad', an example of semantic change. Naming these as archaism and pejoration, and tying them to the eighteenth-century date, turns the observation that the language 'looks old' into precise analysis." This names the processes and dates them.

A model grammatical paragraph. "Grammatically, the older text marks change through its inflections and negation: the verb ending '-eth' ('hath', 'doth') reflects an inflectional system since lost, and the multiple negation ('never did no harm'), standard in earlier English, has since been stigmatised out of Standard English. Naming inflection loss and the change in negation, rather than calling the grammar quaint, shows the shift from a more synthetic towards a more analytic grammar." This names grammatical processes.

Try this

Q1. What is the difference between narrowing and broadening? [2 marks]

• Cue. Narrowing makes a word's meaning more specific (meat: any food to flesh); broadening makes it more general (place: a street to any location).

Q2. Name three processes of lexical change. [3 marks]

• Cue. Any three of: borrowing, coinage and neologism, affixation, compounding, blending, archaism, obsolescence.

Q3. Analyse how the lexis, semantics and grammar of English have changed, using dated examples. [16 marks]

• What the marker wants. Precise process terminology at each level (AO1) tied to dated evidence and read for what it reveals (AO3, AO2), with comparison across the texts (AO4).

A note on the topic

This guide is AI-written and not individually human-reviewed. The processes and terminology of language change are a standard part of the topic; the exact texts and mark scheme are set by Eduqas, so confirm them against the current A700 specification and sample materials, and practise naming the processes in real dated texts from across the post-1500 period.