Language Change

English Language Section B Language Change Practise Essay 4. school texts I and J two provide advice about dancing etiquette. Text I is from How To Dance. A transact Ball-Room and Party Guide, published 1878. Text J is from an article, Dancing to Romance, from The beau Book, a girls annual published in 1965. ?Referring to both schoolbookual matterual matters in detail, and to pertinent ideas from wording study, discuss how language has limitingd over time. Language is a silver and flexible phenomenon which experiences capacious change on a regular basis.Theorists much(prenominal) as David Crystal have taken an open-minded fire to much(prenominal) change, explaining that there is no predictable direction for the changes that ar taking place. They be just that changes. Not changes for the better nor changes for the worse just changes, sometimes sledding one way, sometimes another. This statement articulates the prescriptivist view that language is an organic scatt er of life which evolves and grows to suit the needs of its contextual time, just as living(a) organisms do.Texts I and J show a distinct journey of change in the English lexicon between 1878 and 1965, ranging from graphological features through to the individual lexical choices and thus far the ways in which the audience of from each one of the texts is addressed. In exploring these texts, conclusions will be drawn as to the extent of the change that language has undergone, and what the causes, and indeed the impacts of these changes whitethorn have been. One of the most notable differences between these texts is their graphological presentation.Text I is be in an expressly simple way, using a serif expression which was likely to have been produced on a printing press, given up that the text itself appears to have jagged edges, impeaching that ink had been applied to a block or stamp in order to produce the text something uncommon to modern-day means of printing. It is als o interesting to note the complete lack of images, and the warrant alignment of the text throughout. The text is not split up at all, other than into paragraphs and here is no use of italics or bold text at any point in the text. Text J, conversely, uses a graphologically Gordian structure, with an image to text ratio of around 11. Three blocks of text are tended to(p) by three images of men and women together, two of which march a dance scene and the last of which displays the onset of intimacy the craved goal of the text which was pen as an instructional piece, seemingly aimed at the female gender.The images supplied are directly photograph, rather than illustrations, representing the development of technology and the availability of photography cameras and digital arrangement of photographs and text to create much(prenominal) a publication. Text J also makes use of italicisation in order to mark the lexical items those and your. The use of the lexical item those here is a deictic word expression, implying a shared pragmatic and contextual knowledge between the maker and the reader of the text.This is echoed throughout the text, where an informal and friendly tone is adopted throughout. This is affirm by the consistent application of elision, forming contractions of lexis such as do not to become dont, showing the adoption of a in the main informal register. The method of address john be con positioningred in footing of Norman Faircloughs theory of synthetic personalisation, where first person pronouns are used to directly address the reader and indicate a winning of relationship between the writer and reader, where some shared understanding and common-ground can be found.This personalised and informal approach to writing is another body politic of particular development from the older text. Text I, in stark strain to text J, adopts a formal register throughout, using latinate lexis to imply an ascendant status to the reader. This is connec ted to gender theories, where men are a good deal considered to be much direct, and to write with a stronger tone of allowance. Some of the lexical choices made in this text show the lexical development of language specifically, as archaic latinate terms like effrontery are found throughout the text.This is indicative of the broadly formal approach to this text, in opposition to the relaxed, informal approach within text J. Text I appears to adhere to the rules of the oppositional table in check to written and spoken discourse, where a predominantly objective approach is taken, other than a single abduce with the pronoun your is made to the reader. Other than this instance, the text remains entirely objective, referring in the terce person to entities for the purpose of explanation. Text J, on the other hand, uses the interpersonal approach which is more common to spoken discourse to address its audience.In terms of the oppositional table, a further consideration can be made a s to which side these texts sit more appropriately. This observation is made specifically in regard to the grammatical complexity of the texts, for which text I is more advanced. The use of more advanced punctuation such as the regular application of the semi-colon is exclusive to text I, where the aim is to extend the length of sentences in many places. The semi-colon is accompanied by regular use of commas, where sentences often run to such lengths that they omit entire paragraphs.This shows the direct intention of the producer to create an undoubtedly written piece of text which was designed to be a basis of authority on a subject of which the producer holds superior knowledge to the reader. When examining text J for the same reasons, the opposing side of the table can be identified, where a grammatically simple text uses exclamatory sentences to deliver impact, and guard a short and chatty tone to convey the points at hand. Text J also uses some unusual starters to sentences, flush using conjunctions to put down not only sentences, but paragraphs too.The purpose of these texts display an underlying affable and contextual development over the time between the production of each of the texts, where an audience shift from the male to the female appears to take place, showing ontogenesis levels of egalitarianism among genders. The growth of significance of the female gender in the administration of relationships has caused the male tone to be muted somewhat, opting for a more gender-neutral tone, even in a text which was principally written for the female gender, given its contextual location of appearance.While a focus on politeness in the content of the texts remains the same, the way in which this message is conveyed has undergone vast and varied development. A growth in the status of women through social and policy-making development has given the female gender a more fair to middling position in the audience position of writing such as this. Fur ther to the contextual factors, the means of production of text has also undergone vast development with the advent of digital technology, increasing the ease of production of such texts, and expanding on the flexibility of presentational and graphological features.