AQA A-Level English Language Paper 2

AO1 (Questions 1 & 2 — 33%, Question 3 — 25%, Question 4 — 0%)

Students will apply linguistic methods and terminology, identifying patterns and complexities, apply different levels of language analysis in an integrated way, recognising how they are connected, apply levels of language analysis with rare errors, guide the reader.

AO2 (Questions 1 & 2 — 66%, Question 3 — 0%, Question 4 — 66%)

Students will demonstrate a synthesised, conceptualised and individual overview of issues, evaluate and challenge views, approaches and interpretations of linguistic issues.

AO3 (Questions 1 & 2 — 0%, Question 3 — 37.5%, Question 4 — 0%)

Students will evaluate use of language and representations according to context, explore analysis within wider social and cultural contexts.

AO4 (Questions 1 & 2 — 0%, Question 3 — 37.5%, Question 4 — 0%)

Students will evaluate the importance / significance / effect of connections found across texts.

AO5 (Questions 1 & 2 — 0%, Question 3 — 0%, Question 4 — 33%)

Students will use form creatively and innovatively, use register creatively for context, write accurately.

Aitchson's Metaphors : Explanation

Suggested that prescriptivists usually allude to language change with one of three metaphors: damp spoon, crumbling castle, or infectious disease.

Aitchson’s Metaphors : Damp Spoon Metaphor

Language changes through laziness — like sugar becoming lumpy after using a wet spoon to get some from the packet.

Aitchson’s Metaphors : Crumbling Castle Metaphor

Language changes with time — but older versions have more prestige and must be preserved and maintained instead of degraded and changed.

Aitchson’s Metaphors : Infectious Disease Metaphor

Language changes with exposure — newer language corrupts and kills old language.

Aitchson's Stages of Language Change : Explanation

Suggests that there are four stages a word needs to progress through to properly integrate into a language: potential stage, implementation stage, diffusion stage, and codification stage.

Aitchson’s Stages of Language Change : Potential Stage Definition

The first stage : A need for a new word arises due to something new in the world.

Aitchson’s Stages of Language Change : Implementation Stage Definition

The second stage : A few people start to incorporate the new word into their idiolects.

Aitchson’s Stages of Language Change : Diffusion Stage

The third stage : The word spreads and is used more widely.

Aitchson’s Stages of Language Change : Codification Stage

The fourth stage : The new word enters the dictionary and is used as a standard for language.

Beattie’s Interruptions : Explanation

Interruptions do not always reflect dominance — support can be shown through back-channelling.

Bernstein's Codes : Explanation

Focuses on how language is used, rather than what language is used (though, certain dialects may be associated with one code more than the other).

Bernstein’s Codes : Elaborate Code Definition

Arises when there is a gap or boundary between the speaker and listener which can only be crossed by explicit speech. It is typically used to communicate facts and abstract ideas. Has a more formally correct syntax.

Bernstein’s Codes : Restricted Code Definition

Arises when speech is exchanged against a background of shared experience and shared definitions of that experience. It is typically used to convey feelings and attitudes. Has a looser syntax and more implicit references.

Bucholtz’s Super Standard English : Explanation

Some white students (who characterised themselves as ‘nerds’) use a variety of English that is considered to be hypercorrect, exaggeratedly formal, and often reflects an overt and conscious effort to adhere to perceived standards of correctness and sophistication in language use. Speakers of SSE may deliberately avoid colloquialisms or any linguistic features that deviate from formal norms.

Burchfield’s Intelligibility : Explanation

Suggests that British and American varieties of English will soon no longer be mutually intelligible.

Chen's S-Curve Model : Explanation

Change starts in a limited way before getting faster as more users adopt the change. Language changes when people are willing to welcome new forms.

Cheshire's Reading Study : Explanation

A study to gain data about the relationship between between use of grammatical variables and adherence to peer group culture by boys and girls in Reading. Girls who approved of minor crimes were more likely to use non-standard language than those who didn't.

Coates’ Female Sensitivity : Explanation

Women have a sensitivity to other people, and use mitigative hedges to demonstrate respect.

Coulthard & Sinclair’s Teacher Talk : Explanation

The spoken discourse of classrooms can be described by a “initiation-response-feedback” (IRF) sequence undertaken by the teacher to reenforce power relationships.

Coulthard & Sinclair’s Teacher Talk : Teacher Inform Definition

Used by the teacher to convey information to the pupils, using the initiation part of the IRF structure.

Coulthard & Sinclair’s Teacher Talk : Teacher Direct Definition

Used by the teacher to direct a non-verbal response from the pupils, using the initiation and response parts of the IRF structure.

Coulthard & Sinclair’s Teacher Talk : Teacher Elicit Definition

Used by the teacher to elicit a verbal response from a pupil, using the initiation, response, and feedback parts of the IRF structure.

Coulthard & Sinclair’s Teacher Talk : Check Definition

Used by the teacher to discover how well students are responding to a task and to identify problems, using the initiation and response parts of the IRF structure.

Coulthard & Sinclair’s Teacher Talk : Pupil Elicit Definition

Used by the pupil to elicit a verbal response from the teacher, using the initiation and response parts of the IRF structure.

Coulthard & Sinclair’s Teacher Talk : Pupil Inform Definition

Used by the pupil to convey information to the teacher, using the initiation and feedback parts of the IRF structure.

Crystal’s Global Status : Quote

“A language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special role that is recognised in every country”

Crystal's Tide Metaphor : Explanation

Language is like a tide; it takes a while for complete change. With each 'tide', some words stay, whilst others fall out of use.

Crystal’s Tridialectalism : Explanation

British speakers of English will become tridialectal, speaking a regional variety for their region, standard English around the UK, and a global English in foreign contexts.

Cultural Transmission Theory : Explanation

Language is passed on from generations through socialisation (cultural learning). Language changes when individuals/groups feel a benefit in change (for status or belonging).

Deutscher's The Unfolding of Language : Explanation

Language changes to adhere to three basic principles : economy, expressiveness, and analogy.

Deutscher's The Unfolding of Language : Economy Definition

The tendency to save effort in language, leading to 'short-cuts' in pronunciation and writing.

Deutscher's The Unfolding of Language : Expressiveness Definition

The desire to achieve greater effect through an utterance, leading to hyperbole.

Deutscher's The Unfolding of Language : Analogy Definition

The craving for order, the instinctive need to find regularity in language, leading to regularising irregularities in language.

Dixon, Mahoney, & Cocks' Police Study : Explanation

119 participants listened to an exchange between a British male criminal suspect and a British male policeman. The results suggested that the suspect was rated significantly more guilty when he employed a Birmingham accent rather than an RP accent and attributions of guilt were associated with the suspect's perceived superiority and social attractiveness.

Drew & Heritage's Institutional Talk : Explanation

Premised on the idea that communication in institutional settings is significantly more structured than everyday conversation. Words, expressions, pauses, and other elements of communication are used purposefully to hint at specific roles and responsibilities. Examines how power structures are reflected and reproduced through language in these institutional encounters.

Drew & Heritage’s Institutional Talk : Goal Orientation Definition

Participants in workplace conversations usually focus in specific tasks or goals.

Drew & Heritage’s Institutional Talk : Turn Taking Definition

In some professional contexts (such as a courtroom), there are explicit turn taking rules imposed upon the conversational floor. In other professional contexts, however, these turn taking rules are implicit.

Drew & Heritage’s Institutional Talk : Allowable Contributions Definition

There may be restrictions on what kinds of contributions are considered ‘allowable’.

Drew & Heritage’s Institutional Talk : Professional Lexis Definition

Context may be reflected in lexical choice, as speakers may chose jargon over higher-frequency lexis.

Drew & Heritage’s Institutional Talk : Structure Definition

Workplace interactions may be structured in specific ways. (Link to Coulthard & Sinclair’s IRF structure).

Drew & Heritage’s Institutional Talk : Asymmetry Definition

Workplace interactions are often asymmetrical, as one speaker often has more power or knowledge than the other.

Dubois’ Tag Questions : Explanation

Suggests that men use tag questions such as “innit” too — they just are not considered ‘insecure’ as a result.

Eakin's & Eakin's Turns in the Workplace : Explanation

In seven university faculty meetings, the men spoke for longer. The men's turns ranged from 11 to 17 seconds, the women's from 3 to 10 seconds.

Eckert's Jocks & Burnouts : Explanation

The parents' socioeconomic class does not affect teens' speech patterns as much as the groups they hang out with, classified as "Jocks" (school-authority-centred) and "Burnouts" (blue collar job seekers seeking autonomy). Jocks value upward mobility, while Burnouts value freedom. Burnouts don't get enough vocational training and don't pick up skills that would help them in finding blue collar jobs, so the deference to authority is useless.

Edelsky's Meeting Structure : Explanation

In a series of meetings of a university department faculty committee, men took more and longer turns and did more joking, arguing, directing, and soliciting of responses during the more structured segments of meetings. During the 'free-for-all' parts of the meetings, women and men talked equally, and women joked, argued, directed, and solicited responses more than men.

Fishman’s Dominance Approach : Explanation

Women undertake conversational shitwork to sustain conversation — men are often reluctant to take on this role due to their perceived dominance. Where women are more supportive and emotion-orientated, men are more competitive and information-orientated.

Freeborns’ Attitudes to Regional Varieties : Explanation

Summarised negative attitudes to regional varieties into 3 groups: Ugliness, Incorrectness, and Impreciseness.

Freeborn’s Attitudes to Regional Varieties : Ugliness View

The idea that some accents and dialects sound bad — this is more linked to prejudice and stereotypes than the truth.

Freeborn’s Attitudes to Regional Varieties : Incorrectness View

The idea that RP/SE are the only correct accent and dialect of English — this is only because of social status and perceived reputation.

Freeborn’s Attitudes to Regional Varieties : Impreciseness View

The idea that some accents and dialects are sloppy or lazy — features determined to be ‘lazy’ are logical developments of language and sometimes occur in RP/SE.

Giles' Communication Accommodation Theory : Explanation

People tend to adjust their behaviour while interacting to control the social differences between the conversation partner, or to get approval and set a positive image in front of the conversation partner.

Giles' Communication Accommodation Theory : Convergence Definition

Changing language to match and accommodate the language of a conversation partner.

Giles' Communication Accommodation Theory : Divergence Definition

Changing language to exaggerate the difference from a conversation partner.

Giles' Matched Guise Technique : Explanation

Four different accents (RP, Birmingham, Somerset, South Wales) performed the same speech. RP was considered to be the 'most impressive', but regional accents were considered 'more persuasive'. The Birmingham accent was considered the 'least impressive'.

Goodman's Informalisation : Explanation

Language forms traditionally considered to be exclusive for close relationships are being used more frequently in wider social contexts. Language use is becoming increasingly more informal across society.

Graddol’s Momentum : Explanation

English’s spread across the world may lose momentum.

Group-to-Group Theory : Explanation

Suggests that language originates from one group and spreads slowly to other groups when members interact in different group settings.

Halliday’s Attitudes towards AAVE : Explanation

Suggests that critics focus on sentence-level grammatical ‘errors’ rather than phonological deviations from SE. Some critics argue that AAVE has ‘no conjugation’ — this is due to final constant deletion rather than grammar, and also appears in white-majority American dialects. As such, criticisms are usually seen as prejudiced rather than prescriptivist.

Halliday's Functional Language Theory : Explanation

Language changes according to the needs of its users, with words being invented or adapted for new developments. Words that are no longer needed — due to being replaced or archaic — either die out or undergo semantic change.

Haugen's Schizoglossia : Explanation

The fear of using the wrong form of language in a particular setting. E.g., using formal lexis in a situation where informality is expected.

Herbet & Straight's Compliments : Explanation

Compliments tend to flow from those of higher rank to those of lower rank.

Herring's Emails : Explanation

In an email discussion which took place on a linguistics 'distribution list', 5 women and 30 men took part, even though women make up nearly half the members. Men's messages were, on average, twice as long as women's. Women tended to use a personal voice, whereas the tone adopted by the men who dominated the discussion was assertive.

Hockett's Random Fluctuation Theory : Explanation

Language is inherently unstable and thus change is unpredictable. Random events and errors lead to language change as a context of ever-changing factors.

Holmes & Marra's Humour : Explanation

Contrary to popular belief, women use just as much humour as men, and use it for the same functions, to control discourse and subordinates and to contest superiors, although they are more likely to encourage supportive and collaborative humour.

Holmes' Negotiation : Explanation

Female managers seem to be more likely to negotiate consensus than male managers, they are less likely to just 'plough through the agenda', taking time to make sure everyone genuinely agrees with what has been decided.

Holmes’ Tag Questions : Explanation

Suggests that tag questions function as a device to maintain discussion and politeness — female groups use more compliments as acts of politeness.

Holmes’ Work Talk Continuum : Explanation

Talk in the workplace expands from core business talk to work-related talk to small talk (made up of social talk and phatic communication).

Hornyak's Shift : Explanation

The shift from work talk to personal talk is always initiated by the highest-ranking person in the room.

Ives’ Bradford Study : Explanation

Studying bilingual teenagers found that they consciously code switched to diverge from those outside their postcode and converge with other Punjabi speakers to create a stronger group identity. However, outside of ethnic groups, this divergence did not occur.

Ives’ London Study : Explanation

Despite various ethnic backgrounds, the majority of people studied used various Afro-Caribbean lexicons, reflective of wider used MLE. This suggests that language depends on group identity rather than ethnicity, as convergence is prioritised.

Jenkins & Setter’s Lingua Franca Core : Explanation

A proposed set of pronunciation features that are crucial for intelligibility in English as a Lingua Franca. This focuses on aspects of pronunciation that are most likely to cause misunderstandings between speakers from different first language backgrounds, while being tolerant of variations that do not impede communication.

Jesperson’s Gendered Language : Explanation

Suggested that “women’s vocabulary is less extensive and more emotional than men’s” and that “the development of new words is only for men’s speech”.

Johnson's Dictionary : Explanation

Created the first dictionary in 1755 to "embalm his language and secure it from corruption and decay" and standardised spelling. However, he found that “no dictionary can ever be perfect” since “some words are budding and some are falling away”.

Jones’ Female Gossip : Explanation

Female gossip often falls under one of four categories : house talk, scandal, bitching, and chatting.

Jones’ Female Gossip : House Talk Definition

Exchanging information connecting to a female role.

Jones’ Female Gossip : Scandal Definition

Judging other’s behaviour in terms of domestic morality.

Jones’ Female Gossip : Bitching Definition

The overt expression of anger over the inferior status of females, in private to other women.

Jones’ Female Gossip : Chatting Definition

Mutual self-disclosure, nurturing others.

Labov’s Martha's Vineyard Study : Explanation

Among the younger (31-45 years) speakers a movement seemed to be taking place: diverging from the pronunciations associated with the standard New England norms, and converging towards a pronunciation associated with conservative and characteristically Vineyard speakers. These speakers seem to be exploiting the resources of the non-standard accent.

Labov's Social Stratification : Explanation

A small part of a population begins to pronounce certain words that have, for example, the same vowel, differently from the rest of the population. At some later point in time, this difference in pronunciation starts to become a signal for social and cultural identity. Others of the population who wish to be identified with the group either consciously or unknowingly adopt this difference, exaggerate it, and apply it to change the pronunciation of other words.

Labov's Substratum Theory : Explanation

Language changes through contact with other dialects and languages. This change used to occur through trading and invasion but now occurs through social media and immigration.

Lakoff’s Deficit Approach : Explanation

Despite being largely based on assumptions rather than statistics, this outlined features of women’s speech. These features included : hedging, empty adjectives, tag questions, relative pronoun imperatives, hypercorrect grammar, and (super) polite forms.

McArthur’s Family of Languages : Explanation

English is changing so radically around the world that it may fragment into a family of languages.

McArthur’s Wheel Model : Explanation

English should be organised into three different circles. The circle in the middle of the model contains World Standard English. The second circle contains regional varieties of English that have been standardised (e.g. British SE, Australian SE). The third and outermost circle contains varieties that are not codified in standard forms (e.g. Scottish English, Appalachian English).

Miller & Swift’s Gender Representation in Writing: Explanation

Where women were described by appearance, relationships, and referred to as ‘girls’, men were described by achievement, independence, and referred to as ‘men’

Milroy's Belfast Study : Explanation

The variations of language use in working-class communities in Belfast could be explained by the residents' social networks. Where people had a high-density score (due to working together, socialising with each other, etc.) their accents were reinforced and stayed strong. Where people had a low-density score (due to being unemployed, looking after children at home, etc.) their accents were less strong.

Nerrière’s Globish : Explanation

Suggests the need for a non-native lingua franca that has a small vocabulary of 1500 words to simplify and make English accessible.

O’Barr & Atkins’ Courtroom Language : Explanation

Argued that Lakoff’s features assigned to women were more indicative of less powerful participants than gender. Suggested that these features were dependent on situation-specific authority.

Ostler’s Technology and Language : Explanation

Suggests that as Britain and America lose world power, English will lose its status as a lingua franca, with technology intervening allowing for all languages to be understood universally.

Rosewarne's Estuary English : Explanation

Estuary English is overtaking RP as the accent used to disguise origins, as it obscures sociolinguistic backgrounds to appear more middle-class, and is often viewed as 'less hostile' than RP.

Sapir & Whorf's Determinism : Explanation

Language and its structures limit and determine human thought, as well as other thinking processes such as categorisation, memory, and perception. This dangerously implies that people who speak one language inherently think differently to people who speak another. However, this could be positive in terms of political correctness.

Schmidt's Wave Model : Explanation

A new word evolves from an original geographic centre and 'ripples' out, becoming slower to or less adopted as it expands away from the centre.

Seidlhofer & Deterding’s Nouns : Explanation

Interactions between EFL speakers usually do no distinguish between mass and countable nouns.

Sharma & Sankaran’s Punjabi English : Explanation

When studying 3 age groups of Punjabi speakers in London, older generations had wider variation, switching from 100% Punjabi to 100% English depending on the listener — perhaps due to experiencing more pressure of linguistic integration. Younger generations tended to live in more mixed neighbourhoods, and so tended to intrasentially code-switch.

Spender’s Dominance Approach: Explanation

Suggests that women are trapped in a world that was not a part of their making — hence why some of the strongest taboo lexis refer to female body parts.