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Component 02: Dimensions of linguistic variation

4 dot points across 4 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 deploy prescriptivism, descriptivism and the theories critically?

Attitudes and theories of language change: prescriptivism versus descriptivism, Aitchison's metaphors (damp spoon, crumbling castle, infectious disease), Halliday's functional view, Hockett's random fluctuation, and analysing attitudes in data (AO2 and AO3 in H470/02 Section C).
Attitudes and theories of language change for OCR A-Level English Language (H470/02 Section C): prescriptivism versus descriptivism, Aitchison's metaphors (damp spoon, crumbling castle, infectious disease), functional and random-fluctuation theories, and analysing the attitudes a text reveals.
13 min answer →

What drives language change, and how do you use historical, social and technological context to explain it?

Contexts and causes of language change: the influence of printing and standardisation, technology and the internet, contact and travel, social change, and using context to explain change across texts (AO2, AO3, AO4 in H470/02 Section C).
What drives language change for OCR A-Level English Language (H470/02 Section C): the influence of printing and standardisation, technology and the internet, contact and travel, and social change, and how to use historical, social and technological context to explain change across texts.
13 min answer →

How does English change over time, and how do you analyse processes of lexical, semantic and grammatical change in data?

Processes of language change: lexical change (borrowing, coinage, compounding, blending, clipping), semantic change (broadening, narrowing, amelioration, pejoration), and grammatical, orthographic and phonological change, analysed across historical and contemporary texts (AO1, AO2, AO4 in H470/02 Section C).
How English changes over time for OCR A-Level English Language (H470/02 Section C): lexical change (borrowing, coinage, compounding, blending, clipping), semantic change (broadening, narrowing, amelioration, pejoration), and grammatical, orthographic and phonological change, analysed across historical and contemporary texts.
13 min answer →

How do you answer the OCR language change question, comparing texts across time and integrating analysis, theory and context?

The language change question (H470/02 Section C, 36 marks): comparing historical and contemporary texts, integrating cross-level analysis (AO1), change theory (AO2), context (AO3) and connections over time (AO4) into an evaluated response.
How to answer the OCR A-Level English Language language change question (H470/02 Section C, 36 marks): comparing historical and contemporary texts and integrating cross-level analysis (AO1), change theory (AO2), context (AO3) and connections across time (AO4) into an evaluated, data-led response.
13 min answer →