Text A, an excerpt from Advice to a Young Man upon First Going to Oxford: In Ten Letters, From an Uncle to His Nephew (1832) by Edward Berens, took place during Late Modern Language. This language was the first time in English history that introduced new textual materials. Over time our language has gone through numerous changes. This text was also written in the first person with the usage of ‘I.’ The genre of this text itself highlights its time period. As Beren writes his advice for a young man attending Oxford, he includes lexis such as ‘home’ and ‘you.’ These two words help convey the mood and message; “This feeling, with some young men, is so deep, that by separation, that they shun the mention of anything closely connected with their home as a sort of profanation, a deseraction of things sacred.”, “Interesting as your home and its inmates are to you, nothing can well be less interesting to those who are unacquainted with them.”
The British National Corpus information found in text B sheds light on the adjectives used during the 1980s-1993, as well as their comparisons to text A. “Take care that you never are guilty of such a violation of good taste and correct judgment.”, was quoted in text A. Your impressions of people and those you chose to surround yourself with the matter when planning for your future. This sentence includes the adjectives ‘taste’ and ‘judgment’ just like text B’s chart. The chart offers us a more in-depth explanation of each word. For example, when talking about the ‘taste’ of something, you could describe it as bad, good, bitter, first, or even personal. The words ‘good’ and ‘first’ have been rewarded amelioration because they tend to take a more positive connotation. When discussing ‘judgment’, you could express it with clinical, professional, dissenting, better, or final. This shows language change throughout the usage of each word.
These N-gram graphs help us locate the language change. They show us how far back lexical words and phrases can be located in our history. These graphs provide dates and percentages that help viewers locate the growth better.
The N-gram graph, 1800-2008, displayed in text C, relates back to text A, mentioning, ‘are apt to be.’ “You will, I am sure, my dear nephew, take in good part if I point out a few of the conversational faults, of which young men are apt to be guilty.” This first-person narrative introduced us to the topic with the Late Modern Language use of ‘are apt to be.’ Since then this phrase has grown and developed into something more. In today's colloquial we use the expressions ‘are likely to be’ and ‘tend to be’ more. In 1800 ‘are apt to be’ and ‘likely to be’ took off with a percentage of around 0.0001 each. As 1920 came along the usage of each utterance was modified. ‘Are likely to be’ took off and ‘are apt to be’ decreased. In 1920, ‘are likely to be’ was at 0.0002% while ‘are apt to be’ slowly decrease from 0.00015%. ‘Tend to be’, was introduced around 1900 with a percentage of 0.00005. From there it increased holding a percentage of 0.00140 in the year 2000.
These researched phrases experienced narrowing. ‘Are apt to be,’ ‘likely to be,’ and ‘tend to be’ continue to get shorter and shorter as the years go on. The narrowing is a type of semantic change where the meaning of a word or phrase becomes less general – in this case, that was ‘are apt to be.’ One of our most used concepts of language change is narrowing. Today, so many words/phrases in the English language experience this when aging.
Each text's grammar correlates with one another. Text A, B, and C all come together sharing the same language changes. Collocates for ‘taste’ and ‘judgment’ was researched while phrases like ‘are apt to be,’ ‘likely to be,’ and ‘tend to be’ were as well.
I really like how you introduced each text with what it is about and how it relates to the language of text A. In your first paragraph, you state that text A ‘took place during Late Modern Language’, and then continued to mention history about the language; very beneficial. I like how you state the perspective of the text and how the genre ‘highlights its time period’. In your second paragraph, you made really good references to the words used in text A and how text B shows the same words. However, I think that you could have gone more in depth when describing the words used in the chart and how their meanings are related or not related to that in text A. I think that some of your pieces of evidence could have been shorter. For example, in your fifth paragraph, you include the entire sentence in which the phrase ‘are apt to be’. I think it would have been more beneficial for you to just include the phrase and how it affects the language used in the text. In positive regard to your n-gram evaluation, I think you did a really good job explaining what the phrase changes are and the specific date and percentages used. The only thing I suggest is adding possibilities as to why the phrases increased or decreased more. Your ending paragraph really brought a nice close to your essay. For your AO2 score, I would give you 4 marks. I think you had a very effective expression and not many errors at all. All of your content was relevant and your ideas were developed in an effective manner. For AO3, I will be giving you 3 marks. You had a clear understanding and appropriate reference to issues and concepts, as well as methods and approaches. For AO5, I am giving you 7 marks. While you were very organized and clearly showed your understanding, there could have been more references to specific words and language features. You clearly understood the text, yet there could have been more specifics. Overall, you are given 14 marks.
ReplyDeleteHi Madison! I loved reading your response.
ReplyDeleteScores- AO2: 4 AO4: 2 AO5: 8
Within the AO2 section, you highlighted ideas that were “relevant” to the topic, since you used words like “taste” and “judgment” in your paper. This was great! Your quotes that you used were selected with careful consideration, which added to your piece. It would make your paper very poignant if you tried to shorten your sentence quotes into shorter phrases. In regards to AO4, I thought the buzzwords that you included (like “narrowing”) were insightful, and I would love to see more! For example, try to throw in various theories in your response. For instance, Caitlyn tied Text C’s change to “Michael Halliday’s Functional Theory.” In the AO5 section, I thought that you had a “clear and appropriate selection of language data” since you analyzed how the n-gram fluctuated over time. It would really enhance your writing if you consistently correlated your discussion of Text B or Text C with Text A. For example, when you are talking about “are apt to be,” you can discuss how it is used in the first text and that it has a very formal tone. Overall, I thought that you put a lot of thought into your paper and that it was solid.
Hello Madi,
ReplyDeleteAO2,
I would give you a level 4/5 You had effective expressions, with a few minor errors which do not impede the ability of the reader to not understand your paper. For example, you misspelled a few words but those are mistakes you can easily correct. You understood what the prompt was asking, as the content was relevant to the audience and purpose. You have examined each text and most of the time you made a point, you had evidence to back it up. An example would be, ¨…In 1800 ´are apt to be´ and ´likely to be´ taken off with a percentage of around 0.0001% each . Your ideas seemed to flow well in your paper. It was notorious that you planned before you started to write.
AO4,
I would give you 3/5. You had a clear understanding of the texts. You did a great job explaining each text, but I I noticed that you didn't really talk about the theories. If you talked about the theories I would have given you a 5/5 in this part. It seemed like you had a detailed understanding of everything else but you did not include the theories. I really liked the fact that you referred to linguistic issues and consents in your paper. You have a few buzzwords but maybe add ´semantics´ and ´syntaxes´
AO5,
I would give your blog 12/15 You had effective and appropriate selection of language data from all three texts. You went in-depth when it came to analyzing the texts. You had a detailed and effective analysis of language data. As well as, effective synthesis of evidence from all three sources of language data. Good Job.
AO2: You displayed effective expression, with a high level of accuracy. For example, “These two words help convey the mood and message” All of your content was fully relevant, and your ideas were developed in a sophisticated manner. For example, “how far back lexical words and phrases can be located.” I give you 4 marks.
ReplyDeleteAO4: There was a detailed understanding of, and effective reference to, linguistic issues, concepts, methods, and approaches. For example, “rewarded amelioration because they tend to take a more positive connotation.” and “The narrowing is a type of semantic change where”. I gave you 4 marks.
AO5: There was a clear and appropriate selection of language data from at least two sources. For example, “displayed in text C, relates back to text A,” and “British National Corpus information found in text B”. There was a clear analysis of the language data. For example, “adjectives ‘taste’ and ‘judgment’ just like text B’s chart.” and “one of our most used concepts of language change is narrowing.”. As well as the clear synthesis of evidence from at least two sources of language data. I gave you 8 marks.