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).

What this dot point is asking

OCR Component 02, Section C, examines language change over time, mainly through the comparison of historical and contemporary texts. The marks come from analysing the processes of change, naming them precisely and tracking their direction across the texts. This dot point covers lexical change (how words enter and leave the language), semantic change (how meanings shift), and grammatical, orthographic and phonological change, and how to analyse them in data (AO1, AO2 and AO4).

The answer

A process-of-change answer succeeds when it names the processes precisely (AO1, AO2) and tracks their direction across the texts (AO4). The unifying idea is that change is systematic and directional: words enter and leave, meanings drift in recognisable ways, and structures regularise, so the analyst's task is to identify the process at work and read the trajectory, not to mark the older text against the modern one.

Lexical change

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

• Borrowing. Words taken from other languages (for example culinary and legal vocabulary borrowed across history).
• Coinage and neologism. Newly invented words, often for new things (technology spawns many).
• Compounding. Joining words ("laptop", "smartphone").
• Blending. Merging two words ("brunch", "smog").
• Clipping and acronyms. Shortening ("phone" from "telephone") and initialisms.
• Affixation. Adding prefixes and suffixes to form new words.
• Obsolescence. Words falling out of use (archaisms), the other side of lexical change.

Semantic change

Meanings shift in recognisable directions, and these four terms cover most cases.

• Broadening (generalisation). A word widens its meaning (for example a brand name coming to mean a whole category).
• Narrowing (specialisation). A word restricts its meaning over time.
• Amelioration. A word gains more positive connotations.
• Pejoration. A word gains more negative connotations.

Grammatical, orthographic and phonological change

Beyond words and meanings, change affects structure, spelling and sound. Grammatical change includes the loss of older inflections and the regularising of irregular forms. Orthographic change is most visible in the standardisation of spelling and punctuation since the spread of printing, so older texts show variable, non-standardised spelling that is not error but a pre-standard state. Phonological change alters pronunciation over time, though it is harder to read from written texts. Naming these as processes, not deficiencies, is the analytical move.

Examples in context

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

A model lexical-change paragraph. "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.

A model semantic-change paragraph. "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.

Try this

Q1. Name three processes of lexical change. [2 marks]

• Cue. Borrowing, coinage or neologism, compounding, blending, clipping, affixation, obsolescence (any three).

Q2. What is the difference between narrowing and pejoration? [2 marks]

• Cue. Narrowing restricts the range of a word's meaning; pejoration gives a word more negative connotations. One is about range, the other about connotation.

Q3. Analyse how the language of an earlier text differs from present-day English, identifying the processes of change at work. [18 marks]

• What the marker wants. Precise identification and naming of the processes of change (AO1, AO2), tracked across the texts over time (AO4), treating older forms as earlier states, not errors.

A note on the processes

This guide is AI-written and not individually human-reviewed. The processes named here are standard for H470; confirm the expected coverage against the current specification and your centre's materials. Always name the process precisely and read change as systematic and directional.