How to Write About Language Gaining marks for AO1
Learning Objectives Write about language to gain AO1 marks in the AS and A Level exams. Explore: register, narrative voice, structure, lexis choice, literariness/poetic language and the phonetic impact of language.
Task: match the formal and informal equivalents. To assist To receive To regret To check Needs To help To be sorry Requirements To be put off More Further To request To get To get in touch with To ask for To contact To verify To postpone
Register Formal Informal Business/ official language Often Latin root words Full sentences Colloquial language Slang Abbreviations Note forms Phrasal verbs With a partner, find examples of formal and informal language in texts from AQA Anthology Paris. Which words showed the register? Why was this register used?
Narrative Voice First person narrative: storytelling from a character’s perspective, convention of memoir/autobiography Second person narrative: direct address Third person narrative: omniscient narrator: more formal or literary language Consider alternating narrative voice
Which narrative voice is used in the following texts and why? French Milk by Lucy Knisley Paris for Children, “The Rough Guide to Paris”, Rough Guides “Cruise the Carousels”, NOT-FOR-PARENTS-PARIS – Everything you ever wanted to know, by Klay Campbell
Structure Simple or complex sentence structure Short or long paragraph structure Other aspects of modality What can you say about the structure of the texts we just looked at? What is the effect? French Milk by Lucy Knisley Paris for Children, “The Rough Guide to Paris”, Rough Guides “Cruise the Carousels”, NOT-FOR- PARENTS-PARIS – Everything you ever wanted to know, by Klay Campbell
Lexis choice Positive and Negative connotations in word choice to create a particular tone or style of writing Selectivity of content Know your grammar to describe the words. Revise Unit 6 of the course book. What does Nancy Miller select to focus on in “Breathless: An American Girl in Paris”, Waiting for Goddard? What adjectives, adverbs and other lexical choices enable her to present the information to create a particular effect?
Temporal language Verb tenses Time phrases Analepsis or prolepsis to interrupt/change chronological order Find examples in Understanding Chic by Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni and explain why they have been used in this text.
Literariness (poetic language) Personification/ anthropomorphism Simile Metaphor hyperbole
Task: Find examples of literary language in Bill Bryson’s Neither Here Nor there: Travels in Europe, from line 199 to the end.
Phonetics Phonetics: the actual sounds produced and how they are produced. The IPA (International phonetic Alphabet)
The music of speech Consider the sound of languages. What mood or emotion might a foreigner hear in German, French or Italian? Why? Does the sound of a language match the stereotype of the country it comes from?
Homophones and Heterophones
Prosodics It’s not what you say, it’s the way that you say it! Pay attention to sound in spoken texts. Consider how meaning is affected by changes in volume, speed, pitch and intonation Puns
Task: Listen to “Stories Are Waiting in Paris”, Eurostar. Make note of the following and discuss the effect of it: The narrator’s accent The narrator’s voice quality and tone Repetition of words and sounds Rhythm
Literary sound patterns: Match the words to the definition Onomatopoeia Alliteration Consonance Assonance Sibilance A repeated first letter in words Vowel sounds in succession Frictive sounds (like s, f, z) in succession Words that sound like the sound they describe Consonant sounds in succession
Task: Look at “Encore Une Fois” Just Another American In Paris. Find examples of sound patterns and explain what effect they have.