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).

What this dot point is asking

Language change provokes strong attitudes, and OCR Component 02, Section C, examines them as well as the processes themselves: texts often express a view about change, and questions ask you to analyse and evaluate those attitudes. The marks come from framing the prescriptivism-descriptivism debate and deploying the key theories critically. This dot point covers the debate, Aitchison's metaphors, the functional and random-fluctuation theories, and how to analyse the attitudes a text reveals (AO2 and AO3, on a foundation of AO1).

The answer

An attitudes answer succeeds when it frames the debate, deploys the theories critically (AO2), reads the attitude a text expresses in context (AO3), and grounds the analysis in language (AO1). The unifying idea is that attitudes to change are social, not linguistic facts: change is neither decay nor progress in itself, so the task is to read and weigh the attitude rather than share it.

Prescriptivism versus descriptivism

The central frame is the prescriptivism-descriptivism debate, and stating it clearly is the AO2 foundation.

• Prescriptivism. The view that there is a correct form of language and that change, especially from "lower" sources, is decline to be resisted. It judges usage against a standard.
• Descriptivism. The view that the linguist's job is to describe how language is actually used, without judging it; change is natural and inevitable, neither good nor bad.

The exam rewards a descriptivist analytical stance (analysing change as systematic) while being able to read and evaluate prescriptivist attitudes critically.

Aitchison's metaphors

Jean Aitchison identified three metaphors that capture prescriptivist anxiety about change, and crucially rebutted each. Naming both the metaphor and her rebuttal is the high-value AO2 move.

• The damp spoon. The idea that change comes from laziness and sloppiness (like leaving a damp spoon in the sugar). Aitchison rebuts this: change is not lazy but systematic.
• The crumbling castle. The idea that English was once a perfect structure now decaying. Aitchison rebuts this: there was no perfect past state; English has always changed.
• The infectious disease. The idea that people "catch" changes and that this is to be cured. Aitchison rebuts this: people adopt changes by choice, not infection.

Descriptivist theories

Two descriptivist accounts counter the prescriptivist view and explain why change happens.

• Halliday's functional view. Language changes to meet the changing needs of its users, so change is functional and adaptive, not decay.
• Hockett's random fluctuation. Some change arises from random variation and error that happens to spread, so change need not have a single cause or direction.
• Lexical gap. New words often fill a lexical gap, a need for a label that did not previously exist (especially with new technology and concepts).

Examples in context

The texts in the exam are unseen, so the moves below are illustrative.

A model attitudes paragraph. "The columnist's lament that texting is 'destroying' English rests on the crumbling-castle metaphor: it assumes a once-perfect language now decaying. Aitchison's rebuttal is decisive, since there was no perfect past state from which to decline, and Halliday's functional account reframes the very features the columnist deplores as adaptations to a new mode of communication. The attitude is thus a recognisable prescriptivist stance, persuasive rhetorically but not well-founded linguistically." This names the metaphor and deploys the rebuttal.

A model evaluation paragraph. "The text's infectious-disease framing, describing slang as 'spreading' and needing to be 'stamped out', constructs change as a contagion, but this misdescribes how change works: speakers adopt new forms by choice, for identity and function, not by infection. Set against Hockett's and Halliday's accounts, the attitude reveals more about the writer's anxiety than about language itself, which is the critical point the analysis reaches." This weighs the attitude against theory.

Try this

Q1. What is the difference between prescriptivism and descriptivism? [2 marks]

• Cue. Prescriptivism judges usage against a correct standard and resists change as decline; descriptivism describes how language is actually used without judging it, treating change as natural.

Q2. What does Aitchison's crumbling-castle metaphor describe, and how does she rebut it? [2 marks]

• Cue. The prescriptivist idea that English was once perfect and is now decaying; Aitchison rebuts it by noting there was no perfect past state, since English has always changed.

Q3. Evaluate the view that language change should be resisted, with reference to a text and relevant ideas. [18 marks]

• What the marker wants. A critical evaluation framing the prescriptivism-descriptivism debate (AO2), using Aitchison's metaphors and rebuttals and descriptivist theory, reading the attitude in context (AO3), grounded in analysis (AO1).

A note on the theories

This guide is AI-written and not individually human-reviewed. The attitudes and theories named here are standard for H470; confirm the expected coverage against the current specification and your centre's materials. Always deploy the theories critically and read attitudes as social positions, not facts.