Paper 3, Question 1

      The English language has drastically changed over the years. The English language has been divided into three main stages: Old English, Middle English, and Modern English. Old English is conceded to this day as the first form of English. Old Eglish covered the usage of 700 years, from the 5th century to the late 11th century. Even for native English speakers, old English is very hard to understand. Middle English covered the usage of 300 years from 1150 CE to around 1450. Modern English first emerged in the 15th century, and it has continued to be in use ever since.

       Text A, an excerpt from Advice to a Young Man upon Firat Going to Oxford: In Ten Letters, From an Uncle to His Nephew. The Excerpt was written by Edward Berens in the year 1832, this means that text A is written in Modern Day English. In the text, Berens mentions a ¨mixed party¨ during the time when the letter was written, the word ´party´ had a different meaning from Present Day English. As used in the letter ´party´ referred to guests. Currently, the word ´party’ has a broader meaning. It can refer to a political party, festivity, etc. Towards the end of the 17th century, the meaning of this word changed drastically.

       Text B, a collocate chart which shows two main words ¨taste¨ and ``judgment.” Taste was first used in the early 14c. The word ´taste´ can be a verb, a noun and an adjective. In this case, the word taste is a noun. Text A, makes use of the word taste and the sense ´good´ that comes from it. For example, text A quotes ¨...guilty of such a violation of good taste.¨ The word ´Judgment´ shown in the chart comes from Old French. It was first used in the late 13th century, now it has a broader meaning. In Old French, ¨judger¨ means ¨to judge¨ and ¨-ment” is a suffix. In Present Day English, the semantics of this word has changed. Our society has created a negative connotation of this word. Society has adapted to the idea that this word means something negative, but in reality there is ¨professional” and ¨better¨ judgment that is supposed to be positive.

      Text C, an n-gram that conveys that frequency of phrases similar to ¨are apt to be¨ which was used in the first text A. The n-gram also illustrates the frequency of phrases like ¨are likely to be¨ and ¨tend to be,¨ while these words mean similar things. In the year. The phrase ¨are likely to be¨ became more popular, which reduced formability in letters. The phrase ``are apt to be” is used in text A, which makes the formability of the letter increasing. The semantic change of the phrase, for example, ¨tend¨ and ¨likely¨ reduced the formability of the phrase. Over the years, the phrase ¨tend to be,¨ gained more popularity. This ties back to the S- curve theory. Meaning that any change starts in a limited way, then accelerates as more speakers adapt to the change.

       Text A demonstrates several changes in grammar and syntax. For example, the letter makes use of phrases like ¨take care,¨ although this phrase is considered to be Present Day English, it illustrates that the levels of formability have changed over time. In early Modern English, syntax was the weakening of inflections on words. This is because the English people used back then used to be a lot more formal. Comparing that to Present Day English. Although some people still say the phrase ¨take care¨ other common phrases have gained more popularity, such as ¨be safe.”