Paper 3 Blog

     Text A shows the change of language through its vocabulary since the author uses lexis that are no longer used in modern times. For example the word “coxcomb” is a lexi considered archaic. This example shows how language has changed due to the fact that the author uses language that is not used anymore. The term “coxcomb” comes from the middle ages and refers to a vain and conceited man or a jester’s cap. Since Jester’s are not used anymore this word has fallen out of use and shows the change of language in Text A. This supports the functional theory which means that the language has changed due to the needs of its users. Since the text was written in 1832 the users socially used the term ‘coxcomb’ however, today it is no longer needed and is archaic.

Language can change in many ways and phrases can change over time. When looking at the n-gram in Text C it is more apparent how the language has changed. Looking at the graph it shows when the phrase “are apt to be” and similar phrases were used. “Are apt to be” was the lowest of the graph and was mostly used from around 1880 to 1980. In the graph they compare the phrase to “are likely to be” and “tend to be” which are still in use everyday. This shows the change of the language since the author uses 

The “crumbling castle” view is a theory that the English language has peaked and it has been better than it currently is. Text A also supports the crumbling castle view with the word “bore. This is due to the fact that it stems from the old past tense form “to bare”. This shows the language change since the author writes with lexis that have changed. This affects the reader by making the text ‘worse’ or more informal since the author uses the “lazier” version of the word. 

Lexis are not the only things that have changed in language because sentence structure has changed as well. In text A the author chooses to start the sentence with the adjective, “Interesting as your home”. This shows a change in language since this style of writing is no longer used. In present times it would be changed or words may be added before the adjective. This has a large effect on the reader and how the text sounds.

Finally, A social change is apparent in the overall topic. The author speaks of how a young man should not tell more than two close friends his family business. In modern lifestyle this is not a common conversation especially with his reasoning being that long stories are not “interesting”. Text A brings up lots of advice that today would not be used and is out of date. However the author uses the more modern pronoun ‘you’ throughout. This means he is directly addressing the audience which adds a sense of personal engagement. The pronouns also point to the age of this text because it is not old enough to use ‘ye’.

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