Unit 3 Language over Time overview: how to study the WJEC A2 English Language unit
A complete overview of WJEC A2 English Language Unit 3, Language over Time: diachronic change in lexis, grammar and orthography, the theories that explain change, the 1 hour 30 minute exam, and how to compare texts from different periods.
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This overview maps WJEC A2 English Language Unit 3, Language over Time. It moves the course from analysing present-day texts to tracing how English itself has changed, so it adds a historical dimension to the language levels you already know. The task is comparison and explanation across periods.
What Unit 3 tests
Unit 3 is a written examination of 1 hour 30 minutes that tests diachronic understanding: how English has changed over time and why. It rewards systematic comparison of texts from different periods through the language levels, the accurate naming of processes of change, and explanation using theories of language change.
The focus of the unit
This module's single page covers the whole unit: the analysis and comparison of texts over time.
- Lexis and semantics. Archaic and obsolete words, borrowings, and semantic change (broadening, narrowing, amelioration, pejoration).
- Grammar. Older inflections, word order and constructions once standard, such as the double negative.
- Orthography and graphology. Variable spelling before standardisation, older print conventions, and evolving punctuation and layout.
- Theories of change. Standardisation, substratum and functional explanations, and the descriptivist stance.
How to study Unit 3
- Learn the processes. Master semantic change and the terminology for lexical, grammatical and orthographic change.
- Compare, do not describe. Always analyse the texts together, level by level, not one after the other.
- Explain with theory. Use standardisation, functional and descriptivist ideas to account for the changes.
- Recognise period features. Learn the signs of Early Modern and eighteenth-century texts so you can frame comparisons.
- Judge change and continuity. Practise weighing what has changed against what has stayed the same.
Where this fits in the qualification
Unit 3 is an A2 unit alongside Unit 4 and the Unit 5 investigation. Its diachronic perspective complements the synchronic, present-day focus of the AS units and the spoken-language analysis of Unit 4. For the official specification, past papers and mark schemes, see wjec.co.uk, and always revise from the current specification because question style is board-specific.