Language Change Over Time - Essay Practice 3

Referring in detail to both texts and to relevant ideas from language study, analyse the way in which language has changed over time.

Text Q -
G - Twitter timeline
A - anyone following the riots #
P - to inform
Text written: 6 August 2011

Text R -
G - a letter
A - John Spink
P - to inform
Text written: 1780

It is clear immediately that language has very much influenced language over time. When text R was written in 1780, technology was not at all advanced and social networks like Twitter did not exist, so you would have expected to see a text like text Q being spoken on the radio. However, technology has now allowed sites like Twitter to be the most accesible, quick and easy way to reach people and achieve the texts purposes of informing their reader. Text R now may be seen sent as an email or text message rather than a letter.

Due to the 140 character limit of Twitter, Paul Lewis has had to use NetSpeak, to ensure that the information he wants to inform his reader on fits the limit. Examples of NetSpeak that Lewis has used are initialism's, such as "BBC" and "ABC", rather than their full name "British Broadcasting Corporation". This allows Lewis to write more in his individual 'tweet' as BBC uses 3 characters in comparison to 32 of his 140 characters. However, Text R uses features similar, such as abbreviations of names like "Lord Sh" and "Nh", instead of writing their full names. This could have been done to emphasise the haste that Ignatius Sancho was writing the article in, rather than to fit under a character limit like Text Q.

Lewis in Text Q also omitts many of his articles like "a" and "is" to make his setences shorter "Police van arriving pelted with bricks". By omitting the articles as well as auxiliary verbs like "being" he is able to put his message across in a shorter verb, and ensuring that the sentence still makes sense. As well as this, we can see the use of compounds like "HiFi" and also clipping from "Journalist" to "Journo".

We also see the use of hashtags "#tottenham" and "tottenhamriots" that create hyperlinks that the reader can use to access more articles specifically about the Tottenham Riots. This shows how technology has made language extremely accessible, as the reader is able to click on any of the hyperlinks on the page (another example are the usernames of other accounts, which are made into a hyperlink with the "@" sign for example "@journodave") to find any other information they may want.

Both texts vary drastically in formality. Although Text R has some colloquial features like its abbreviations, overall it is extremely formal. Ignatius opens the letter with "DEAR AND MOST RESPECTED SIR" which shows he believes he is speaking to someone with a much higher status and more power than he has. This is also evident in the sign off "Yours ever by inclination". This is an extremely arhaic term of phrase, if not completely obsolete. On the other hand Text Q is much more colloquial. Although it has been written in 2011, a time where language is very much standardised and technology like computers and phones have an 'autocorrect' feature, the text is very inconsistent. We see that Lewis varies between capitallising the nouns "Tottenham" and "Blackberry" (referring to the mobile phone. The word "blackberry" has broadened over time and now also means a mobile phone brand). He also uses lots of text speak like "u" rather than the word "you" which emphasises the informality of the text.

Texts R and Q share the same semantic field of military and chaotic jargon, for example the active dynamic verb "defend" as well as the nouns "riot" and "mob". These leximes relate to the subject of each article well and could have been used to emphasise the authors of the texts' knowledge on the subject or situation. Text R also frequently uses hyphens and commas to create pauses in sentences, for example "- the guards flew to his assistance- the light-horse scowered the road, got his chariot, escroted him..". This gives the text a spoken and fictional story-like element, as the text can be read in a spoken fashion where John Spink the reader will follow the text and pauses. This is really effective in achieving the texts purpose of informing John Spink about the riots as it fills the sentences completely with extremely informative information that Ignatius would like him to know, meaning nothing will be missed.