Quick questions on Processes of language change: lexis, semantics and grammar - OCR A-Level English Language

Lexis changes fastest, and naming the process precisely is the AO1-and-AO2 foundation.

"The earlier text's vocabulary shows both obsolescence and borrowing: words now archaic sit beside terms borrowed from Latin and French that have since become core English, evidence of the layering by which English has absorbed foreign lexis over centuries. Set against the present-day text's coinages and compounds for modern technology, the comparison tracks a continuous process of lexical renewal, words entering by borrowing and coinage and leaving by obsolescence across the period." This names processes and tracks the trajectory.

"The word's earlier use in the historical text carries a broad, general sense that the present-day text has narrowed to a specialised meaning, a clear case of semantic narrowing. Reading the two uses together shows the trajectory: the meaning has contracted over time rather than shifted in connotation, so this is narrowing, not pejoration, a distinction the precise naming of the process makes clear." This names the process accurately and connects the texts.

Name three processes of lexical change. [2 marks]

What is the difference between narrowing and pejoration? [2 marks]

Analyse how the language of an earlier text differs from present-day English, identifying the processes of change at work. [18 marks]