Paper 3 Question 1

Text A is a letter written by Edward Bernes and is considered to be a letter from an uncle to a nephew, this was written in 1832. Text B then goes on to show different uses for the lexis ‘taste’ and ‘judgment’. Text C goes on further to display the changes in usage of “and apt to be”, “are likely to be” and “tend to be”, over time with an ngram.

The use of formality within the letters, compared to today's usage is starkly contrasting. To begin the letter, the author takes a long time to not only introduce the nephew but as well as introduce the reasoning for his letter. Bernes uses phrases such as “Take it in good part” when introducing the overall theme of his letter, in modern English, this can be interpreted as ‘to not cause offense’. Later on in the letter, the author uses the terminology “apt to be” and when referencing text C, the n-gram shows the use of “apt to be” hitting a significant decrease in recent years. The use of this phrase is somewhat prominent from the 1800s to the late 1920s and then went downhill from the 1920s to the early 2000s. This is likely to have to do with the lessening of formality over the decades, a theory that proves this is the crumbling castle theory by Aitchison. This theory believes that English was originally created with the utmost formality and elegance, however, over the years it has simplified to reach the understanding of any person, educated, or not.

There are more examples of this archaic lexis throughout the letter by using lexis that is no longer used in modern English. For example, “Coxcomb” is no longer used in today's language, the meaning of it would be vain or conceited. This type of lexis was common during early modern English. One theory for this lack of usage is the damp spoon theory, this theory is closely related to the overall formality of this letter. The damp spoon theory is one that believes that due to our laziness within the English language words have simplified and lost formality. Another example of the time period is the often references to religion, specifically the Christian and Catholic religions. While they still influence our society, Catholicism held a much tighter grip and influence on early modern English. For example, Bernes states “Desecration of things scared”, desecration meaning a sacrilege to religion, which is further referenced by later on stating ‘scared’. Another reference to religion of some form is the use of ‘spirit’. For example, “With spirit” is used to describe the liveliness of which one is using. He uses this to warn him of going too far when conversating with others.

Another example of the times affecting the phrasing of the letter is when discussing tendencies younger men tend to fall into. When listing these Bernes often speaks of only one man to give an example. For example, the phrases this as “his own feelings, his own achievements” create a sense of individuality, rather than referencing men as a whole. In modern English, this is most likely to be phrased as ‘their feelings and achievements’. In-Text B the differences in language are proven even further with the meaning of taste and judgment in modern times. Bernes often references ‘taste’ in the same way judgment is used today. However, when referring to a corpus ‘taste’ is used solely to represent food, whereas judgment is still used when showing the difference or ranking something or someone. For example, Bernes states “Violation of good taste” and “Ridicule or distaste”, both of these phrases are using taste in replacement of the word judgment.