1. Grammatical Change - Overview
What grammatical change patterns can you notice here? Should we be concerned about it or is it just linguistic creativity which should be celebrated?
Grammatical Change - Overview
LO: to understand some key ways in which English has undergone grammatical change

2. Grammatical Change Slower than lexical/semantic change
Often attributable to diversity or creativity
We don’t often notice it! A phrase like ‘I googled it’ still makes use of the subject- verb-object syntactical pattern so we are easily able to identify that the word ‘Google’, normally a noun, is being used as a verb (functional shift).
There are grammar ‘rules’ but they are often broken, either due to linguistic creativity/punning, or because of the influence of spoken language, as speakers do not tend to stick rigidly to ‘rules’ because of the spontaneity of spoken language and frequent false starts etc.

3. Match the Grammatical feature to the example
He told me in our journey
She was small of her age
Irregular verbs
She say you to the day?
She doubted not
Tense usage
It is nothing of a part
To be taken of the account
Contracted forms
Fanny shrunk back
much was ate
prepositions
I am so glad we are got acquainted
So you are come at last!
articles
The properest manner
The richest of the two
Auxiliary verbs
Will it not be a good plan?
It would quite shock you…would not it?
adverbs
I stood quite still for a moment, feeling dreadfully.
It is really very well for a novel.
Comparative/superlative adjectives
These are examples from various Jane Austen novels, so early 19th century writing

4. Discussing Grammatical change effectively
This text is from Hester Thrale Piozzi’s 1789 work Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey Through France, Italy and Germany, compiled from her travel journals.
What do you notice about the grammatical and syntactic differences between this language and contemporary English?

5. Discussing Grammatical change effectively
Negation (in contemporary English we use the dummy auxiliary ‘do’)
Syntax
Pronouns (‘one’)
Prepositions
Contractions
Punctuation
Sentence types

6. How far are these examples ‘errors’
How far are these examples ‘errors’? Can you attribute them to particular ‘voices’ or sociolects? Are they being used for particular effects, quite consciously by the writer?
Grammatical Errors?
Can you identify grammatical ‘errors’ in these examples?
He nevere yet no vileynye ne sayde in al his lyf unto no maner wight (The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer)
No one can never fill the place that’s empty (David Copperfield, Dickens)
She owned that, considering every thing, she was not absolutely without inclination for the party’ (Emma, Austen)
I will preserve myself; and am bethought To take the basest and most poorest shape (King Lear, Shakespeare)
Well! of all the artful and designing orphans that ever I see, Oliver, you are one of the most bare-facedest.’ (Oliver Twist, Dickens)
We are such stuff as dreams are made on. (The Tempest, Shakespeare)

7. How can we account for these changes?
Sentences used to be longer – due to the antecedent of Latin, it was fashionable to use multiple subordinate clauses and to suggest higher education/literacy levels.
Writing used to be valued as more separate from speech, particularly during the 18th century.
Additionally, society was more hierarchical and formal in structure, with emphasis on conventions and rules. Today, rejecting conventions and rules is often seen as praiseworthy!
However, into the 19th century, class attitudes underwent a shift, while education became more universal. Dialectal voices began to be represented in literature, for example Dickens’ novels.
Now, due to social levelling and globalisation, the process of informalisation, the growth of the entertainment and leisure industries, syntax has become simpler, and non-standard forms are more prevalent, often used for deliberate effect, or as a way to highlight a social or regional identity.
Synthetic personalisation (Norman Fairclough) lends an artificially conversationalist tone to much communication.
The modern distinction between spoken and written language is becoming less clear.

8. Paper 2 Section B Questions

9. 2 homeworks, 2 questions Homework 1: Question 3 /40 = /10 for AO1
This is similar to GCSE-style language analysis but you need to consider ideas such as audience positioning and representations
Homework 1: Question 3
/40 = /10 for AO1
/30 for AO3 (Analyse and evaluate how contextual factors and language features are associated with the construction of meaning)
Homework 2: Question 4 (This will be much like the original writing question on the AS paper). 10 marks are available for AO5, and 20 for AO2 (concepts and theorists).