AS LEVEL ENGLISH

MADE BY TANISHA SADIK

ENGLISH AS LEVEL NOTES
By Tanisha Sadik
Structure for paper 1
(you can follow your own structure this is just my preferred one)
Purpose
Background and mode
Audience
(mention as many features as you can identify)
Include theory wherever relevant
Tone/Register
Structure and syntax
Conclusion

Features:

Dialect - a regionally-specific non-standard variety of language; includes accent, grammar, and

word variations from the standard variety

Sociolect - a non-standard variety of language spoken by a particular social group

Ellipsis - the omission of words and phrases

Ellison - the omission of sounds and syllables

Transactional - something like conversation or text with a specific purpose

Interactional - describing a conversation whose purpose is entirely social

Semantic field - the range of vocabulary - same word that may change in meaning or have
same meaning but different context

Lexicon - the intention/application of a word

(high frequency & low frequency lexus)
Implying - not direct answer and allows people to think what they think (speaker)

Inference - when listener is given a response but it depends on how they perceive it (listener)

Shared resources - way of referring to the common knowledge or cultural understanding that
an audience is likely to have

Intertextuality - the ways in which texts are interrelated and the meanings that arise out of this

Paralinguistic features - does not use words to convey; informs about the mood of person; are
identified independently solely based of variations in pitch, loudness, duration and
silence
Prosodic features - Language features that actually talk about sounds; consist of variations
in pitch, loudness, duration and silence

THEORIES

CAT THEORY - How language is adjusted to accommodate the audience

Developed in 1973 by Howard Giles
Convergence and Divergence

Grice Maxims -
Developed in 1975 by Paul Grice
describes how effective communication in conversation is achieved in common social situations
Maxim of relation: speakers make contributions that are relevant to the question
Maxim of quantity: speakers say neither too much nor too little
Maxim of quality: speakers say what they know to be true or what they have evidence for
Maxim of manner: speakers organize their speech to make it clear

Kachru’s Circle - described the spread of English in terms of three concentric circles:
the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle and the Expanding Circle. These circles represent “the
type of spread, the patterns of acquisition and the functional domains in which English is
used across cultures and languages

Deborah Tannen - (Difference theory)

Men are more likely to seek solutions and independency
Women are more likely to seek intimacy and comfort

David Crystal - (Language acquisition theory)

children learn in 5 stages
Stage 1 - simple vocab usually to get what they want or someone’s attention
Stage 2 - begin asking questions
Stage 3 - questions with intonation alone
Stage 4 - when children use increasingly complex sentence structures and begin to:
● Explain things
● Ask for explanations using the word: “why?”
● Making a wide range of requests: “shall I do it?”

Stage 5 - adult language, can ask and answer questions

Peter Trudgill - (Norwich theory) theory surrounded dialect and accent after the emergence of
new zealand eng. Studied why different english vary. He discovered the higher the social class
and women were more likely to use the full long form of a word and vice versa
Piaget - (cognitive development) suggests that children move through four different stages of
mental development. His theory focuses not only on understanding how children acquire
knowledge, but also on understanding the nature of intelligence.

Skinner - (operant conditioning) reward for good behaviour, punishment for bad. Believed it
was only important to look at external factors and not internal in order to assess behavior.

Willam Labov - (variationist theory) Studied variation in linguistics and how different
languages vary because of small differences because of how words are enunciated etc because
of things like socio economic class. He said that such differences should be encouraged.

Zimmerman & West - (Gender theory) men interrupted more than women, confirmed that
male domination was a thing

Noam Chomsky - (Chomsky theory) born wired with language in our brain, we do not learn or
watch from our parents. He believed it was more than a coincidence that all languages had
similar structures or rules.

M (Halliday) - (Hallidays theory) lexical and grammar rules are related as the same
phenomenon. Language is acquired as life goes on, he believed language was more
environmentally affected based on a system of choices.
Has 7 functions; personal…
Instrumental function - language that is used to fulfil a need, such as to obtain food, drink or
comfort. This typically includes concrete nouns.

Regulatory function - language that is used to influence the behaviour of others including
persuading, commanding or requesting.

Interactional function - language that is used to develop relationships and ease interaction. This
could include phrases like "I love you mummy" or "Thank you".

Personal function - language that expresses personal opinions, attitudes and feelings including
a speaker's identity.

Representational/Informative function - language that is used to relay or request information.

Heuristic function - language that is used to explore, learn and discover. This could include
questions or a running commentary of a child's actions.

Imaginative function - the use of language to tell stories and create imaginary constructs. This
typically accompanies play or leisure activities.