Insight English Language Year 11 VCE Units 1&2

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VCE® Units 1 & 2
STUDY DESIGN 2 02 4
Selina Dennis, Natalie Gleeson

Luke Francis & Anna Stewart
VCE® Units 1 & 2
ENGLISH
YEAR
STUDY DESIGN 2024
Selina Dennis, Natalie Gleeson,

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First published in 2023
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English Language Year 11: VCE Units 1 & 21 Selina Dennis, Natalie Gleeson,
ISBNs:
9781922771551 (bundle: print + digital)

9781922771544 (digital)
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Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................... v
Acknowledgements............................................................................................ vi
UNIT 1: LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION 1

Area of Study 1: The nature and functions of Language 1
Chapter Language and its functions.............................................................2

What is language?............................................................................................................................... 3
01
Chapter
Major functions of language............................................................................................................ 5
Constructing texts........................................................................ 11
Register................................................................................................................................................ 12
02 Tenor...................................................................................................................................................... 15
Audience............................................................................................................................................... 17
Cultural and situational context.................................................................................................. 18
Authorial intent................................................................................................................................. 22
Chapter Subsystems and metalanguage................................................... 24

Subsystems of language................................................................................................................. 27
03 Morphology......................................................................................................................................... TJ
Lexicology............................................................................................................................................ 31
Syntax....................................................................................................................................................48
Semantics............................................................................................................................................. 63
Phonetics and phonology............................................................................................................... 64
Discourse and pragmatics.............................................................................................................. 70
Practical strategies: Understanding the metalanguage ............................. 72

Practical strategies: Practising annotating texts.........................................73
Area of Study 2: Language acquisition 74
Chapter
Using the International Phonetic Alphabet.............................................................................. 76
Speech sound production............................................................................................................... 77
Connected speech processes........................................................................................................ 85
Chapter Understanding language acquisition........................................... 88

The characteristics and developmental stages of first-language learners...................89
05 Subsystem development of language in children.................................................................. 92

Theories of first-language acquisition....................................................................................... 98
The characteristics and developmental stages of additional-language learners.... 101
The critical age hypothesis.......................................................................................................... 106
© Insight Publications insight ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 iii

Language learning and multilingualism.................................... 108
First- and additional-language learning................................................................................. 108
Multilingualism................................................................................................................................ 110
Chapter Linguistic field work 119

An introduction to linguistic field work.................................................................................. 119
Collecting and analysing data.....................................................................................................120
Presenting your research.............................................................................................................. 129
Practical strategies: Describing language functions 131
UNIT 2: LANGUAGE CHANGE 132

------------ '
Area of Study 1: English across time 132
Chapter The history of the English language........................................... 133

The nature of language change................................................................................................134
08 Historical periods of English..................................................................................................... 134

The Indo-European family of languages............................................................................... 153
Chapter Changes to the English Language.............................................. 157

The process of language change.............................................................................................. 159
09 Changes across the subsystems of language...................................................................... 166

Attitudes towards language change...................................................................................... 183
Practical strategies: Responding to short-answer questions................... 186
------------1
Area of Study 2: Englishes in contact 187
The global spread of English...................................................... 188

English as a world language........................................................................................................ 188
Language and worldviews........................................................................................................... 197
Englishes aroundthe world......................................................... 199

World Englishes............................................................................................................................... 200
Pidgins and creoles........................................................................................................................ 204
World Englishes and creoles.......................................................................................................205
Languages in Australia............................................................... 212

Standard Australian English and Australian Indigenous languages.............................. 214
Language shift and loss................................................................................................................ 222
Language reclamation.................................................................................................................. 225
Language maintenance................................................................................................................. 227
Practical strategies: Writing English Language essays.............................. 229
References......................................................................................................... 231
insight • ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 © Insight Publications

Introduction
Insight’s English Language Year 11: VCE Units 1 & 2 is a comprehensive textbook
forthe VCE English Language Study Design: 2024-2028.
The VCAA has made numerous changes to the Study Design for Year 11. In
Unit 1, Area of Study 2, you are introduced to a new skill requirement: conducting
linguistic field work. This provides a taste of one of the potential pathways
for further study in linguistics. In Unit 2, Area of Study 1, after covering a brief
history of English you will study one of two modules in depth - 'Incursions’ or
'Inventions'. This gives you the opportunity to explore in more detail the impact
of society and culture on the English language, providing the foundations for
further sociolinguistic exploration in Year 12.
This book provides core knowledge that you will use throughout your studies,
with clear explanations for key concepts and metalanguage. It also includes
numerous features designed to support your learning, including the following.
> Activities throughout each chapter enable you to develop your

understanding of each concept. Answers to many of the activities
are available online. Scan the code or click here to access the
answers as well as other resources.
> Practical strategies at the end of each section provide advice on developing
the skills required in English Language, such as annotating texts and writing
essays.
> Chapters 1, 2 and 3 explain the specific linguistic metalanguage, including

many terms that will be required knowledge throughout Units 1-4.
> Chapter 7 introduces you to linguistic field work and leads you through the
collection and analysis of data, and methods for presenting your research.
> QR codes throughout the book (and web links in the digital version, which
can be accessed via the code on the inside cover) give access to extensive
supplementary material, including short videos, relevant websites and
additional sample responses.
English Language Year 11 is designed to help you build skills systematically and
efficiently so that you can analyse texts confidently, write accurately about
linguistic concepts and explore sociolinguistic topics and issues effectively. Our
aim is to provide you with a toolset that will lead to success not only in Years 11
and 12, but also throughout your life as you begin to understand the power of
language in our everyday interactions.
Selina Dennis, Natalie Qleeson, Luke Francis and Anna Steu/art
© Insight Publications insight • ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 V

The authors and publishers of English Language Year 11 thank the following individuals
for their contributions: Dr Denise Angelo, Dr Kate Burridge, Dr Al Fricker, Dr Howard Manns,
Dr Jean Mulder and Dr Jane Simpson.
Insight Publications is grateful to the following individuals and organisations for

permission to reproduce copyright material.
Texts:
Karen Neste for the adapted text from Social language skills: Conversation pack; The
Conversation for the extracts from 'They're on our coat of arms but extinct in Tasmania.
Rewilding with emus will be good for the island state's ecosystems’ and 'Can reading help
heal us and process our emotions - or is that just a story we tell ourselves?'; The ABC for
the transcripts from Q&A; Melanie Flower for the extract from 'Improving your handwriting’;
Jonathan LZittrain and Harvard University for the extract from The future of the internet;
The International Phonetic Association for the reproduction of the International Phonetic
Alphabet chart; Kate Burridge for her quote; shareourpride.org.au and Reconciliation
Australia for the quotes from Professor Mick Dodson and Cassandra Lawton; The Indigenous
LAW Centre for the quote from The Uluru Statement from the Heart (bonus content); Dave
Barry for the quotes from blogs.herald.com/dave_barrys_blog/ (bonus content).
Images:
Speedbump and Dave Coverly for the 'I'd like my first word to be ...' cartoon; Sidney Harris
for the 'What’s the big surprise...' cartoon; Flickr and Ann Longmore-Etheridge for 'William
Shakespeare, the Cobbe portrait’; Jeremy Norman’s collection of images for 'Caxton showing
specimens of his printing...'; Patricia Konigsberg and Glenys Collard for 'The language iceberg
model’ (adapted); Peulle for the triangular trade map (adapted); Dr Jane Simpson for 'The
language ecologies map’; Yeti Hunter at English Wikipedia for 'Map of Kaurna'; Bilingual
Kidspot for 'Being bilingual’ (bonus content).
All other images from Alamy, Shutterstock or Wikimedia Commons.
VCAA material: text drawn from the VCE English Language Study Design 2024-2028 is
© Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), reproduced by permission.
Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to trace the original source of material used in this
book, and to obtain permission from copyright owners prior to publication. Where the
attempt has been unsuccessful, the publishers would be pleased to hear from the copyright
owners to rectify any errors or omissions.
URLs and links to websites contained in this book are correct at the time of publication;
Insight Publications disclaims responsibility for the content of third-party websites
referenced in this publication.
vi insight * ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 © Insight Publications

UNIT
LANGUAGE AND
COMMUNICATION
Area of Study 1: The nature and functions Df language
The first three chapters of this textbook present the key knowledge, and help you to
develop the required skills, for Unit 1, Area of Study 1. The English Language Study
Design outlines the following key knowledge points:*
-» language as a meaning-making system that can be both arbitrary and

governed by conventions
♦ major functions that language serves when used in a given context
♦ the properties that distinguish human communication as unique
♦ the influence of register, tenor and audience
♦ the influence of situational and cultural contexts - including field,

language mode, setting and text type - and authorial intent on language
choice and preparedness
♦ the subsystems of language: morphology, lexicology, syntax and

semantics
♦ introduction to the subsystems of language: phonetics and phonology,

and discourse and pragmatics
♦ features that distinguish speech from writing, such as paralinguistics

and prosodies
♦ metalanguage to discuss aspects of the nature and functions of

human language.
Each chapter introduces the concepts and metalanguage - the precise and specific
terms used for writing about language - relevant to a particular area of knowledge
and understanding. Chapter 1 outlines the main functions of language, while
Chapter 2 covers the factors that influence how people use language and the choices
that language-users make. Chapter 3 provides detailed explanations of the language
subsystems, and defines much of the metalanguage you will use throughout the
English Language course.
In each chapter, definitions and explanations are followed by activities so you can
apply your knowledge and practise using the metalanguage.
Key knowledge points are © VCAA, reproduced by permission.

CHAPTER
Language and
01 its functions
In Chapter 1 we consider human language as a form of communication, and how
it came to exist. Language is designed to communicate meaning, but words
themselves are typically arbitrarily created - they have arisen by chance rather
than by design - and are useful only because a society agrees on their use and
meaning. Human communication is fascinating because it seems to be a unique
construct in the animal kingdom - our ability to compose our thoughts and discuss
ideas sets us apart from other life forms.
This chapter will introduce you to some of the metalanguage that you will use in
English Language, and ask you to consider how words come to exist and why they
take the form they do. You will consider the intent behind the creation of texts and
the messages they convey, and begin to use technical language to discuss these
intents scientifically and objectively.
Key knowledge covered:

♦ language as a meaning-making system that can be both arbitrary and
governed by conventions
♦ the properties that distinguish human communication as unique
♦ major functions that language serves when used in a given context
Metalanguage and linguistic terms
Language A meaning-making system that allows humans to convey

information to each other. It can be written, spoken or signed.
In VCE English Language, we focus mainly on the written and
spoken forms of language.
Language functions The purpose of a message. Language has six functions:

referential, emotive, conative, poetic, phatic and metalinguistic.
These are explained on pages 5-9.
2 insight • ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 © Insight Publications

Language and its functions Chapter 1
What is language?
If you were asked to define 'language', how would you begin? Language is a
means by which we communicate with each other, but that leads to the question,
'What is communication?' To communicate, do we need to use language or can
we achieve it through other means?
In How language works (2006), linguist David Crystal considers how to define
language. He asks us to consider body language, spoken and written language,
sign language, computer language, bad language, and the languages of animals,
cinema, music and love. Are these all forms of language? The word 'language'
seems straightforward, but in your journey through VCE English Language you
will come to appreciate the complexity of this communication system that we
use every day.
Language as a meaning-making system

Fundamentally, language is a meaning-making system that allows us to convey
our thoughts, values, associations, cultural background and aspirations. Swiss
linguist Ferdinand de Saussure considered language to consist of signifiers (e.g.
the material form of words written on a page) and the signified (the concept
associated with the words).
Consider the word 'cat'. The letters 'c', 'a' and't' placed in a row make a word
that we associate with a small, furry domesticated animal. The word 'cat' is what
de Saussure calls a signifier - the physical letters used to produce the word. The
mental image that the word 'cat' conjures up (a small, furry domesticated animal)
is referred to as the signified. Together, the signifier and the signified comprise
the sign. The relationship between the signifier and the signified, according to
de Saussure, is arbitrary. We could just as easily have associated the sounds't',
'a' and 'p' with our concept of a cat, and used the signifier 'tap' to describe that
same animal.
© Insight Publications insight - ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 3

Chapter 1 Language and its functions
Spoken and written language consists of words, and these words are assigned
meanings by society and culture. Communication occurs because of the
conceptual relationship between the signifierand the signified, and therefore
could not exist without human cognition and understanding.
Develop your understanding 1.1

Think of some of the recent words you have used with your friends, such as slang
from social media. How do you think the signifier (word) came to relate to the
signified (concept)?
Here are some terms from the late 2010s and early 2020s to start you off. One
has been completed for you.
slay iykyk rizz drip
slay: This term signifies ‘to do something very we//’ (‘she slayed that’) or to be cool
or great (‘that is slay’). This signifier likely arose because the word ‘slay’ also
means ‘to kill’, and ‘to kill (something)’ can mean to do something particularly
well.
The uniqueness of human language

The human ability to communicate is not unique in the animal kingdom. Other
creatures can communicate a substantial amount of information for various
purposes, such as to warn of danger, defend territory, find a mate, indicate
emotions and share food sources. For example, a honey bee performs a dance
to show the rest of the hive where to find a tasty resource. What differentiates
humans is the ability to use a language to communicate - to compose thoughts
into structured phrases, sentences and paragraphs to express concepts and
ideas, particularly abstract ones.

Scan the code or click here to watch Michele Bishop's TED Talk,
'Do animals have language?'

1 Research Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee used in a Columbia University study in the
1970s to see if animals could learn a human language. What were the findings?
Do they affirm or refute the statement that 'no other animal has language'?
HSSH
Scan the c°de or dick here to access a written piece about Nim.
stR;
2 The ability to use a language is a distinctive feature of humankind; however,
artificial intelligence (Al) systems can create fluent and coherent ad hoc responses
to prompts and questions. Consider the increasing sophistication of Al systems
such as ChatGPT.
a Have you ever communicated with an Al system? Consider online chat help
tools and virtual assistants such as Siri and Alexa. How does communicating
with these Al systems differ from communicating with a human?
b If Al can surpass general human intelligence and communicative ability in the
future, do you think it is a threat to humanity?
Major functions of language

When considering language and communication, we examine words, phrases,
clauses and sentences, but these individual components alone cannot always
convey meaning. We also need to consider the purpose of a message: its function.
Russian-American linguist Roman Jakobson determined six factors to

be considered when exploring the functions of human language: context,
message, addresser, addressee, contact and code (Jakobson 1960). While
Jakobson focused on verbal communication, in VCE English Language, Jakobson's
functions can be used to describe both written and spoken functions of texts.
Context the setting (time and place) or circumstances in which the message is
communicated
Message the message being communicated
Addresser the person delivering the message
Addressee the audience receiving the message

Contact the means (or 'channel') through which the addresser and addressee
communicate and stay in communication, e.g. face-to-face, phone, text
message
Code a system of signs (a language) common to the addresser and addressee
CONTEXT
ADDRESSER MESSAGE ADDRESSEE
CONTACT
CODE
Messages are shaped by context, contact and code as they travel between
addresser and addressee.
Using these factors, Jakobson identified six core functions of language:

referential, emotive, conative, poetic, phatic and metalinguistic.
Referential function
One of the main functions of language, the referential function is the sharing of
information with an intended audience. This information may or may not be true,
but the language user presents the message as factual and objective, commonly
using declarative sentences (sentences that function as a statement rather than
as a question or command).
Examples
The sky is not blue.
Summer is when the weather is very hot.
His heart is broken.
The referential function describes a situation, whether it be literal or abstract. For

example, in the sentence 'His heart is broken', the notion of a heart being broken
is abstract but it is delivered as though it is a statement of fact.
See page 57 to find out more about declarative sentences.
Emotive function
The emotive function allows users to express emotions and desires. It’s
sometimes referred to as the expressive function. This function usually relates to
the addresser and their presentation of emotion - real or not.
Examples
Argh, you stepped on my toe!
That was a fantastic movie.
I’m not looking forward to my trip to the dentist.

The purest demonstration of the emotive function is shown in the first example,
which begins with the highly emotive 'Argh' - an interjection.
See page 47 to find out about interjections.
Conative function
The conative function typically involves directions, questions and commands.
Messages with a conative function aim to cause the addressee (the audience) to
react in some way.
Examples
Could you please pass the salt?
Get out!
What are your thoughts about potatoes?
Texts have a conative function if they are intended to persuade the audience,
even if they don’t contain a directive (instruction) clearly asking the addressee
to do something. For example, the statement 'It's a bit chilly in here’ could serve
a referential function, but it could also be conative if the addresser is suggesting
that the addressee do something about the cold, such as closing a window or
door. A text that appeals to its audience to think, feel or act in a certain way has a
conative function.
Poetic function
The poetic function focuses on the formation of the message itself, rather than
on the addresser or addressee. It is sometimes referred to as the aesthetic
function because it concerns the beauty or wit of the text’s composition.
Examples
Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive.
- Sir Walter Scott
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? - ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen
Writing tip
In your studies, you may come across various linguistic terms, some of which are
synonymous with the terms you learn in this subject. It can be helpful to know what
these are; however, remember to always use the language from the Study Design
in your assessment tasks (e.g. use 'emotive' and 'poetic' rather than 'expressive' and
'aesthetic' when discussing functions).

Texts with a poetic function are commonly found

in poetry, song, drama and literature, but they
can also exist in other contexts. For example,
humorous texts that are designed to persuade
(i.e. be conative) can also contain messages that
are poetic, achieving humour through playful use
of language. Advertising campaigns also often
contain messages that have a poetic function.
Phatic function
Texts that have a phatic function are designed to create and maintain social
connections between the addresser and the addressee. These messages tend
to be somewhat meaningless outside a social context and the focus is
on the contact - the way the message is delivered and received. For example,
when an acquaintance asks how your day has been, or if you've had a nice
weekend, an honest answer is rarely expected; usually a polite, general, positive
response is required.
Examples
Nice day, isn’t it?
Hi, nice to meet you.
How are you?
Get well soon!
Phatic messages are often used to start or end conversations, as greetings or

farewells. They are used in written texts as well, such as beginning a letter with
'Dear' or signing off an email with 'Kind regards'. Phatic messages also arise within
a conversation if the addresser and addressee can’t see each other; for instance, if
the phone connection is bad, one participant might ask, 'Are you still there?’
Metalinguistic function
A text that has a metalinguistic function describes language itself, such as using
the metalanguage 'nouns’ and 'vowels'.
The metalinguistic function allows speakers to check whether they have been
understood or are using the right code (type of language) for the conversation.
Typically, the code would be a standard language such as Australian English, but it
could also be a variation that is used within a specific context, such as slang used
among close friends or jargon (specialised language) in a workplace.
Examples
A potato cake? Is that the same as a potato scallop?
Do you understand what I’m saying?
This sentence is short.
Always capitalise proper nouns.

Overlap of functions
When considering the functions of language, it's important to understand
that a text, or a message within a text, does not exist in a vacuum. More often
than not, a text will achieve multiple functions - not just one. Conative texts
can often be poetic (e.g. in advertising) and emotive texts often complement
phatic exchanges, such as when a relationship between people is created and
maintained through gossip or by sharing opinions about a topic. When exploring
a text, consider each of the functions that you can identify in it.
Worked example
Consider the discussion of the possible functions within this text conversation.
Hey dear wanna catch up someday? Mei is talking about Bea and misses her.
Yes please! Are you back at work now?

Maybe we can catch up Sunday?
Sorry got so busy on the first day.
Yea please Sunday is ok.
Yes. Please. Hahaha
Hahahaha
I_____
Clearly states which
The text has some informal language features: the words ‘wanna’ and functions the text serves,
using metalanguage.
‘Hahaha’; the waving hand emoji; and the smiley face emoticon. This
Explains the emotive
indicates an emotive and phatic function to the text. The emotive function
function further by
can be seen in the indication of positive feelings and emotions, such as
describing the type
the smiley face used by the receiver of the message and Min’s spelling of of emotions being
laughter, ‘Hahahaha’. The phatic function can be seen in the introductory communicated.
greeting ‘Hey ... dear’, the use of‘please’ by both participants, and the Uses short quotes from
recipient responding with ‘Great’. The text also has a conative function, as the text to justify and
both participants negotiate to meet. While the requests are indirect and support the discussion.
polite, there are implied directives within the conversation including Min’s
‘wanna catch up ...?’ and the recipient’s suggestion, ‘play centre?’


1 Categorise the following texts according to their function/s. Use examples from
the texts to justify your categorisation. The first has been done for you.
a When we have a conversation, we usually aim to talk about the same topic as
everyone else. This is called being 'on topic' and it lets others know that we are
paying attention to what they are saying.
Source: adapted from Social language skills: Conversation pack by The Language Lady | TPT,
teacherspayteachers.com
This text has a metalinguistic function as it provides a discussion and explanation

of what being ‘on topic means in the context of a conversation. This provides a
definition and explanation of the language we use to talk about language.
b The emu is iconically Australian, appearing on cans, coins, cricket bats and
our national coat of arms, as well as that of the Tasmanian capital, Hobart.
However, most people don’t realise emus once also roamed Tasmania but are
now extinct there.
Source: Tristan Derham, Christopher Johnson, Matthew Fielding, https://theconversation.com/theyre-
on-our-coat-of-arms-but-extinct-in-tasmania-rewilding-with-emus-will-be-good-for-the-island-
states-ecosystems-197029
How goes it Allie? All OK with you guys? V
30/11/2022,14:34
all good! watered the garden at your place on the weekend,

Mo was there mowing the lawn and I told him to help himself
to the loquats
^ôin^^^loodîoUN^weeken^Tem^^râturda^"
Coolio, thanks Allie. Pretty warm and humid here. 31 - 32 or so

today.
Say hello to Bea from us in case she forgets who we are.
2 Seek out five texts, written or spoken, and categorise them according to their
functions. Use examples from the text to justify your categorisation.
io insight • ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 © Insight Publications

Constructing texts
In Chapter 2 we look at the different elements that work together to make a
text. When we construct a text - whether it is written or spoken, spontaneous
or planned - we make language choices to suit the occasion. For our
communications to be successful, we might need to select the appropriate level
of formality and adapt our language according to the relationship we have with
our audience or to the place or time in which something occurs.
There are many types of influences that help to shape the way we construct
texts. The influences to consider when describing the construction of texts are
register; tenor; audience; cultural context - attitudes, values and beliefs;
situational context - field, mode, setting and text type; and authorial
intent.
Building on Chapter 1, this chapter helps you to develop skills in using

metalanguage to discuss texts. You'll consider elements that contribute to a
text’s construction, and how speakers or writers achieve their intentions with
their texts.

♦ the influence of register, tenor and audience
♦ the influence of situational and cultural contexts - including field, language

mode, setting and text type - and authorial intent on language choice and
preparedness

Register Stylistic variation of language, defined by its use. It can involve all
features of language and levels of formality.
Tenor The relationships between participants in a communicative

exchange.
Audience The intended listener/s or reader/s of a text.

Chapter 2 Constructing texts
Cultural context Aspects of the context that relate to the culture in which the
author/speaker and/or audience exists. These include attitudes,
values and beliefs of the author/speaker and/or audience.
Situational context Everything outside of a text that shapes the language used
within the text. This includes the field, tenor, language mode,
setting and text type.
Field The subject matter under discussion. The field of a text helps to
determine how specific the language will be.
Language mode The medium of the text - whether it is written or spoken.
Setting Where a text is placed in relation to space and time, i.e. its
physical surroundings and when it occurs.
Text type The type or nature of a text (e.g. report, article, social media post,
lecture, conversation, opinion piece or performance).
Authorial intent What an author intends to do or achieve with a text. This

influences the language used as well as the text's level of
preparedness.
Preparedness The amount of preparation involved in a text's construction.

Some texts, particularly spoken texts, are spontaneous - they
are constructed and delivered immediately. Others are carefully
prepared, edited and refined before delivery. The level of
preparedness of a text can vary depending on the intent of the
author and on the text's functions.
Register
Register describes the way in which an addresser intentionally alters their
language to better suit the situation (this is also known as use-related
variation). It can involve all features of language and levels of formality. When
we communicate, there are many different registers we can use. Some are easily
defined, such as the registers used by doctors or lawyers, which often involve
formal language alongside jargonistic termsand phrases. For example, lawyers
are using a legal register when they discuss jurisprudence (a legal system) or file
a writ (formal legal document); doctors use a medical register when ordering an
echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) for a patient experiencing tachycardia
(fast heart rate). However, registers are not always as straightforward as this.
There are degrees of formality, from very informal to very formal, and multiple
registers and aspects of registers can be merged to achieve a particular
communicative purpose. Consider the example above about the medical register.
While a doctor might use this register with a patient, they may use informal
explanations instead or as well to make sure the patient understands the
treatment and why it is necessary. This could result in a doctor using a medical
register that is delivered in an informal manner.

Constructing texts Chapter 2
Example
Doctor: We need to do an echocardiogram, which is a scan of your ticker, to

check out why it’s going flat chat.
Patient: Yeah, OK doc. How long d’ya reckon that’ll take?
Registers can be described using the semantic domain (group of words with
related meanings) from which a text's vocabulary is drawn. They can also be
described in relation to the manner of delivery, in terms of the level of formality.
-» See page 63 to find out more about semantic domain.
Worked example
Consider the following description of the register of the text below.
1 Thank you for that welcome. I'm Stan Grant. Here to give you some answers tonight: best-
2 selling author Grace Tame; independent MP for Wentworth, Allegra Spender; New South
3 Wales Treasurer, Matt Kean; republican, Olympian and former Labor Senator Nova Peris; and
4 ABC broadcaster Josh Szeps. Please make them all feel welcome.
5 If you're like me, a few of you may be tired from that stunning Socceroos win, but keep
6 watching - we're going to get to that a little bit later. And we've got a really special
7 performance as well from poet and performer Steven Oliver. That's coming up later in the
8 program.
9 Remember, you can livestream us around the country on iview and all the socials. #QandA is
10 the hashtag, so please get involved.
Stan Grant, Q+A, 1 December 2022

https://www.abc.net.au/qanda/2022-01-12/101689452
The register of this text could be described in terms of its vocabulary and its
formality, as well as its syntax. It uses standard language that is grammatical,
such as, ‘Thank you for that welcome’ (line 1), which is consistent for------------ Shows an understanding
, 1.11 i .... of the situational and
a spoken text that is broadcast, as there are expectations in society that
r J cultural context.
people are clear and coherent when being televised. The vocabulary
used, such as ‘livestream’, ‘iview’, ‘socials’ and ‘hashtag’ (lines 9 and 10)^
Further describes the
suggests a technical register as it includes internet terms, and words such technical register by
as ‘performance’, ‘poet’ and ‘performer’ (line 7) also suggest a technical specifying where the
register, as these are terms relating to the performing arts. Grant’s use of vocabulary comes
contractions such as ‘I’m’ (line 1), ‘you’re’ (line 5), and ‘we’ve’ (line 6) is from ('internet' and 'the
slightly informal but the register as a whole is delivered in a mostly formal performing arts').
manner. This is demonstrated particularly when Grant introduces the guests,

as full names and descriptions of their roles or professions are given; ‘best
selling author Grace Tame’ (lines 1-2), and ‘New South Wales Treasurer,
Matt Kean’ (lines 2-3) are two examples of this.


1 How would you describe the registers of the following texts? Use examples from
the text to justify your description. The first has been done for you.
a Reading is one way we seek to understand our worlds. Evolutionary

psychologists propose the brain is 'designed for reading', just as it is for
language, facial recognition or other drives. The act of reading engages both
cognitive and - especially where there's a narrative - emotional processes.
Source: Jane Turner Goldsmith, https://theconversation.com/can-reading-help-heal-us-and-process-
our-emotions-or-is-that-just-a-story-we-tell-ourselves-197789
The register of this text is technical and somewhat formal, l/dords and phrases
such as ‘evolutionary psychologists’, ‘brain’, ‘facial recognition, ‘cognitive’
and ‘emotional processes’ suggest a scientific, technical field. The formality is
slightly reduced by the use of a contraction, ‘there’s’, and direct addresses to an
audience, ‘we’ and ‘our.
c While it is true that electronic devices such as laptops, tablets and mobile
phones are becoming ubiquitous in many classrooms, there is still an
undeniable need for students to have neat, legible handwriting.
Source: Melanie Flower, https://www.insightpublications.com.au/improving-your-handwriting-4/
d Scan the code or click here to access the Lamb Australia ad for 2023
and describe its register.
e Scan the code or click here to access the 'Aussies Try Each Other's
Hungry Jack's Breakfast Order' on Buzzfeed and describe the register
of the first minute of the video. (Please note that this video includes
swearing.)

Tenor
In a text, tenor refers to the relationship between the individuals communicating
with each other. This relationship, or the role each participant is playing in the
exchange, shapes the language they use, often subconsciously. The relationships
can be positive, negative or neutral, and may vary depending on:
> the professional roles of the participants
> the status between speakers (whether they are equal or not)
> the relationship between the participants (e.g. whether they are strangers or
close friends).
The topic of conversation can also influence language choices. The language you
use when speaking with a teacher about a classroom subject, for example, is
likely to be more informal and positive than the language you would use with that
same teacher if you were late to class and trying to explain yourself.
Many terms can be used to discuss tenor, such as referring to the level of
consideration one person gives another (respectful, appreciative, polite, hostile
etc.) or the amount of social distance between them. Social distance is the
level of intimacy or remoteness between speakers, described on a scale from
'socially close' to 'socially distant'. Status, however, relates to power or prestige:
a person's social standing or rank on a vertical scale (from high/higher to low/
lower).
Writing tip
To describe social distance, use terms such as 'very close', 'little social distance',
'quite close', 'close', 'some social distance', 'socially distant', 'great social distance’
and 'very socially distant'. Don't describe social distance in terms of height, such as
'high social distance' or 'low social distance', as the concept is more of a horizontal
measurement than a vertical one.
Worked example
Read the excerpt from Stan Grant’s monologue from Q+A below and consider the
following description of its tenor.
1 Thank you for that welcome. I'm Stan Grant. Here to give you some answers tonight: best-
2 selling author Grace Tame; independent MP for Wentworth, Allegra Spender; New South
3 Wales Treasurer, Matt Kean; republican, Olympian and former Labor Senator Nova Peris; and
4 ABC broadcaster Josh Szeps. Please make them all feel welcome.
Stan Grant, Q+A, 1 December 2022

https://www.abc.net.au/qanda/2022-01-12/101689452

In the role of opening the December 2022 Q+A episode, part of Stan Grant’s Describes the tenor, and
—supports the description
responsibility is to introduce the guests. His tenor is respectful towards all of
with examples from the
the guests, as can be seen by his references to their professions, ‘Olympian text.
and former Labor Senator’ (line 3) and ‘ABC broadcaster’ (line 4). This
suggests a positive feeling towards the guests and shows a high level of
Describes how the
politeness. As Grant is introducing the guests, there is a suggestion that the '
language reflects the
status of the host and guests is slightly unequal; his role as host gives him
relationships and social
higher status and indicates he has a higher level of responsibility over the statuses of the host and
other attendees. This can be seen when he directs the audience to ‘please guests.
make them all feel welcome’.
l/driting tip
When writing about tenor, highlight not just the relationships between participants
but also the attitudes and feelings their language expresses.

For each of the following texts, describe a probable tenor between the participants,
using examples to justify your description.
1 Scan the code or click here to access an excerpt from the ABC panel
show Question Euerything and fill in the gaps to complete the discussion
of the tenor of the participants below. For the purposes of this task, the
participants are the panel members participating in the conversation,
not the audience.
The participants show a tenor, with

and exchanges with each other. Blake Freeman
speaks for most of the time, but the laughter of the other participants shows
that they are paying attention to him. lAhen he asks another participant to
‘\ they all respond with options.
Responding with smiles, and , all

participants show a tenor with each other.
2 Scan the code or click here to access an article about improving your
handwriting by Melanie Flower. Use the discussion in Question 1 as a
model to write a paragraph on the professional tenor between Melanie
Flower and her readers.

Audience
The audience of a text is the intended set of listeners or readers. When we
construct a text, whether it be written or spoken, we have our audience in mind,
and this shapes the language that we use.
Consideration of the audience is critical in achieving a text's communicative

goal. For example, an advertisement targeting a particular demographic would
likely use language suited to speakers from that demographic, in order to appeal
to them. Using technical legal language to appeal to a target demographic of
young children would be ineffective as they wouldn't understand it. Similarly, in a
job interview with a corporate CEO, you'd be unlikely to use slang terms.

For each of the following situations, identify the audience and then discuss the
tenor, register and types of language that could be used in that situation. The first
one has been done for you.
1 a person is in a job interview and the interviewer is a stranger
The audience in this context would be the interviewer. The tenor between
interviewer and interviewee would be professional and socially distant. There is a
power difference between the participants in this context so, as well as having a
distant tenor, the register would be technical and formal. Jargon from the relevant
field of employment would be used, and questions and answers would focus on the
responsibilities of the job as well as the professional competence of the interviewee.
2 a person is in a job interview and the interviewer is their best friend
3 a young person bumps into an older person and knocks them to the ground
4 an elderly person bumps into a younger person and knocks them to the ground
5 a letter to the editor is published in the local newspaper
6 a big headline is printed on the front page of a statewide newspaper

Cultural and situational context

The context of a text can be thought of in two distinct ways: the cultural
context and the situational context. When discussing a text's features, it is
important to consider the situational and cultural contexts in which it exists.
The cultural context of a text relates to the attitudes, values and beliefs of the
author as well as their audience. These cultural factors shape the way a text is
delivered. For example, someone who is passionate about conservation and the
environment will construct texts on that topic in ways that highlight this passion.
Similarly, a political party will make election promises that align with the party’s
ideologies and goals.
The situational context of a text refers to everything outside of the text that
works to shape the language that is being used. This includes the field, tenor,
language mode, setting and text type. Tenor has been discussed, and field,
language mode, setting and text type are discussed below and on the following
pages.
Field
The field of a text describes the subject matter under discussion. It is often
closely linked to semantic domain, which is how words are grouped by meaning.
It can be useful to consider field when discussing register.
See page 63 to learn more about semantic domain.
The field of a text helps to determine the level of specificity in the language
being used. For instance, the field of biology might include terms such as 'alleles',
'organelles’ and 'mitosis’, whereas the field of gaming, depending on the game,
might include 'buff', 'ace' or 'crit'.

For each of the following texts, identify at least one field. Justify your answer with
examples from the text. The first has been done for you.
1 Iceland is a little country far north in the cold sea. Men found it and went there to
live more than a thousand years ago. During the warm season they used to fish
and make fish-oil and hunt sea-birds and gather feathers and tend their sheep and
make hay. But the winters were long and dark and cold.
Source: Viking tales by Jennie Hall (1902), https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/
24811/pg24811-images.html
Two fields that appear in this text are the natural environment and animals. Examples
include ‘warm season, ‘winters', ‘cold sea' and ‘country for the field of natural
environment; and ‘fish', ‘sea-birds', ‘feathers' and ‘sheep' for the field of animals.

2 Now it just so happened that one of the effects of quantum mechanics was that
large amounts of matter and energy could spontaneously appear, even though this
rarely happened in a given volume of space.
Source: A briefer history of time by Eric Schulman (2004)
3 Music can help with the development of maths skills. By listening to musical beats
your child can learn basic fractions, pattern-recognition and problem solving.
Children who study music also have improved spatial intelligence and ability to
form mental pictures of objects - skills that are important for more advanced
mathematics.
Source: https://www.learningpotential.gov.au/articles/musical-benefits
4 In 1988 there were about sixty thousand computers connected to the Internet.
Few of them were PCs. Instead, the Net was the province of mainframes,
minicomputers, and professional workstations found at government offices,
universities, and computer science research centers. These computers were
designed to allow different people to run software on them at the same time from
multiple terminals, sharing valuable processor cycles the way adjoining neighbors
might share a driveway.
Source: The future of the internet by Jonathan L Zittrain (2008)
HOWEVER, WE SEE CLEAR EVIDENCE THAT

the treatment is more effective than
THE PLACEBO FOR SONE SUBGROUPS.
THANK YOU.
HOWEVER, WE CAN NOW REVEAL THAT

THE LONDON TEAM WA5 5TUDYING
THE REAL TREATMENT BOTH GROUPS
IN YOUR STUDY GOT A PLACEBO.
RESEARCHERS HATE IT WHEN YOU DO PLACEBO

CONTROLLED TRIAL5 OF THElR METHODOLOGY
Source: XKCD comic, https://xkcd.com/2726/

Language mode
The language mode (form) of a text has a direct effect on its structure and
register. For the purposes of VCE English Language, we only consider the written
and spoken modes of language. Traditionally, written texts have been viewed
as being more formal, often using a standard form of language with features
such as conventional spelling, punctuation and grammar. Spoken texts were
viewed as having more casual language than written texts, containing long and
loosely connected ideas that don’t necessarily fit the grammatical definition of
a 'sentence'. With the growing dominance of internet-based communication,
however, these traditional boundaries between written and spoken texts are now
considered simplistic.
It is therefore not always easy to distinguish modes of language without

information about the situational or cultural context. A written text can be
unplanned, unstructured and use informal language (e.g. a text message between
friends), and a spoken text can be planned, well-structured and use standard
language (e.g. a political speech). However, we can still make some assumptions
about a text, based on its structure and contents.
Worked example
Consider the sentence, 'Hey what's up?', and the following discussion of whether it
is more likely to be spoken or written.
Includes justification
This sentence is likely to be spoken. The use of‘hey’ as a greeting is —
with answer.
informal, and the question ‘what’s up?’ is also an informal greeting in
Australian English. Greetings such as this may appear in written texts, but
this is much rarer than their occurrence in spoken language.

Decide whether each of the following sentences is more likely to be in a written or
spoken language mode. Justify your choice.
1 Oil You lot! Get out of here!
2 Netflix is a streaming service that allows subscribers to watch movies and shows.
3 No trespassers allowed.
4 All day long we seemed to dawdle through a country which was full of beauty of
every kind.
5 You have a lot of explaining to do.

Setting
When describing language and the content of a text, it's important to take
into account its setting: that is, the surroundings in which the text occurs. This
includes both location and time. The language used by speakers in Australia
twenty or fifty years ago, for example, differs from the language we use today.
The setting of a text can directly affect register, tenor, field and language
mode. It also has a strong relationship with the situational and cultural context
of a text. Consider how the language you use with your friends in a classroom
discussion differs from the language you use together outside of the classroom
when no adult is present.

Discuss how the following settings could influence the register, tenor, field and/or
language used. The first has been done for you.
1 the MCG during the Grand Final
The registers used in this setting are likely to he technical and colloquial, with
terms from the field of sport - Australian Rules Football, in particular. Language is
likely to he informal, often highly so, with vulgarity being commonplace. The tenor
of texts in this context is likely to demonstrate casual or close relationships, as a
shared love of football is implied by being present at a Grand Final.
2 the principal's office at your school
3 the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India
4 a bus travelling to a local shopping centre
5 a British royal court in the 1700s
Text type
The language used within a text is often shaped by its text type. Is it a textbook?
A news report? A social media post? An instructional video? A public speech?
Each of these text types helps to shape the language choices used. A message
is delivered most effectively when it suits the text type, and authors will often
change their language style and register to conform to a particular text type.
When exploring a text it's important to consider the text type, to judge its
contents and functions. Argumentative texts such as opinion pieces and debates,
for example, typically have an emotive function as well as a conative function, as
audiences are often persuaded through feelings and emotions. Instructive texts,
on the other hand, such as recipes and 'how-to' videos, often have referential and
conative (directive) functions, to convey instructions to their audience.

When you are describing a text type, there is no limited set of text types that
you must refer to or remember. Simple descriptions are best; complex detail is
not necessary.
Some examples of text types include:
advertisements > letters > poems
cartoons > liturgies > political

commentary
debates > novels
> radio broadcasts
emails > plays
> reports
lectures > podcasts
Authorial intent
A popular idiom or saying is 'say what you mean and mean what you say'. While
people don't always follow this advice, we definitely construct texts, both written
and spoken, with an intention.
Authorial intent is what the author aims to do or achieve with a text. Very
closely linked to the functions of a text, authorial intent influences the language
that is used in a text as well as its level of preparedness. For example, if an
author intends to persuade readers by making them feel guilty if they disagree
with the contention, they might intentionally use language that is emotive and
conative. This would require a greater level of preparedness than if that same
author were having a verbal argument with a housemate about doing the dishes.
Consciously or not, authors of texts manipulate their language to achieve

many functions and purposes. You should always consider this when exploring
written and spoken texts.


Consider the following scenarios. Describe the text likely to be used in each scenario
using terms from this chapter: register, tenor, audience, situational and cultural
context, field, mode, setting, text type and authorial intent. The first has been done
for you.
1 an adolescent wishes to convince their parents to let them go out with friends
The register of this text would he casual and colloquial hut may he more formal
than other typical exchanges between the adolescent and the parents. The tenor
would he somewhat more distant than implied hy the participants’ actual close
relationship, as the adolescent is putting themselves in a position of deference in
order to achieve their purpose of going out. In this situational and cultural context,
parents have the higher status (power over their children), which will affect the
language the adolescent uses, perhaps showing a level of politeness that is not
usual in other exchanges. The mode in this situation is more likely to he spoken
than written; hut if written, a text message is more likely than any other form of
written text.
2 a teacher instructs a class on how to cook potatoes
3 an influencer makes a post on a social media platform
4 a religious leader speaks in front of a crowd at their place of worship

CHAPTER
Subsystems and
03 metalanguage
In Chapter 3, you will be introduced to some of the core metalanguage that
you will use throughout Units 1-4. Language can be broken up into subsystems,
and this chapter outlines what is contained within the subsystems you will
study: morphology; lexicology; syntax; semantics; phonetics and phonology;
and discourse and pragmatics.
As you progress through this chapter, you will find that there are many
connections between subsystems, and understanding some metalanguage
may require knowledge of a subsystem you haven’t learned yet. This
interconnectedness, while potentially confusing initially, helps to make sense of
language as a whole.
This chapter is not a definitive guide to the subsystems of language and

it cannot cover the depth and intricacies of English as a whole. It is intended
to help guide you through VCE English Language and provide a basis for your
progression from Unit 1 to Unit 4. You are encouraged to 'go down the rabbit
hole' and further research anything in this chapter that interests you.

♦ the subsystems of language: morphology, lexicology, syntax and semantics
♦ introduction to the subsystems of language: phonetics and phonology, and

discourse and pragmatics
♦ features that distinguish speech from writing, such as paralinguistics and

prosodies
♦ metalanguage to discuss aspects of the nature and functions of human

language

Subsystems and metalanguage Chapter 3

Morphology The study of words and their parts. Each word consists of one or more
morphemes, which are the smallest units of meaning within a word.
Root A single morpheme that contains the primary meaning of the word.
Stem A word consisting of one or more morphemes that can have an affix
attached to it.
Lexicology The study of words - their form, their meaning and how they behave
within language.
Word class A group of words that behave the same as each other grammatically;
also known as a part of speech.
Noun Identifies places, people and things; or names qualities, ideas or
concepts.
Pronoun Replaces a noun phrase within a sentence.
Verb Conveys what the subject (what the sentence is about) is doing, and
can be used to indicate tense.
Auxiliary verb Supports the main verb of a sentence.
Modal verb Used to express the possibility, ability, intent, obligation or necessity of
an action occurring.
Adjective Provides extra information about a noun or pronoun.
Adverb Helps to describe, modify or qualify a verb, adjective, other adverb
or whole phrase or clause. Expresses elements such as time, place,
manner, circumstance, cause and degree.
Preposition Expresses a relationship between a noun phrase and another element
in a sentence.
Conjunction Links words, phrases, clauses and sentences together, enabling the
(including formation of compound and complex sentence structures, and the
coordinator and demonstration of relationships between words or phrases from the
subordinator) same class.
Determiner Is placed in front of a noun and helps to describe the noun. It can
specify definiteness, quantity and possession.
Interjection Expresses feelings and emotion.
Function word A word that expresses a grammatical or structural relationship with
other words in a sentence.
Content word A word that possesses semantic content and contributes to the
meaning of the sentence in which it occurs.
Syntax The study of how words are combined into structures that
communicate meaning - phrases, clauses and sentences.
Phrase A group of one or more words that, together, form a single structural
unit that conveys meaning. It does not contain both a subject and a
verb. The type of phrase (noun phrase, verb phrase etc.) is named after
the word class category of the word that is most important within the
phrase.

Chapter 3 ; Subsystems and metalanguage
Clause A set of words that must contain both a main noun phrase (the
subject) and a main verb (part of the predicate). The predicate
describes the action of the subject.
Sentence A set of words that contains at least one subject (implicit or explicit)
and at least one predicate. It can contain one or more clauses.
Sentence type The categorisation of a sentence based on its function or purpose
in communication. There are four types of sentences in English:
declarative, imperative, interrogative and exclamative.
Sentence The way clauses are structured or joined together in a sentence. There
structure are five sentence structures: simple, compound, complex, compound
complex and fragment.
Word order Refers to the way words are positioned to construct phrases, clauses
and sentences.
Semantics The study of meaning - both logical meaning and lexical (dictionary)
meaning; the study of understanding and meaning-making when we
consider words, phrases, sentences and texts as a whole.
Semantic domain Contains a group or range of words that have related meanings.
Inference The process of making meaning from a text by determining information
that is not explicitly present in that text. Meaning often relies on
cultural or social understanding of a particular context.
Phonetics The study of how we make speech sounds and how we classify them.
Focuses on the physical properties of sounds and speech production.
Phonology The study of the patterns that speech sounds form within a language,
including how sounds are organised, and the variations that occur both
within languages and between them.
Prosodic features Elements of speech that exist outside single sounds such as vowels
or consonants. The study of prosodic features involves considering
the acoustic elements of our voices that affect whole sequences of
syllables. In English Language, we consider five prosodic features:
pitch, intonation, stress, tempo and volume.
The International A set of universally agreed-upon symbols that represent every sound
Phonetic in every language.
Alphabet (IPA)
Discourse Written or spoken texts that are longer than a sentence. Discourse
analysis is the study of how speakers use language to structure and
communicate meaning.
Pragmatics The study of how language is used within a given context, and how
context contributes to meaning.
Paralinguistic Features of speech such as prosodic features, vocal effects and non
features verbal communication.

Subsystems of language
Language as a system can be broken down into parts, called subsystems. Each
subsystem considers a particular aspect, or set of related aspects, of language.
In VCE English Language, you will study the following subsystems: morphology;
lexicology; syntax; semantics; phonetics and phonology; and discourse
and pragmatics. As you progress through Units 1 to 4 you will study language,
particularly English, through the lens of these subsystems.
Morphology
Morphology is the study of words and their parts. Each word consists of one or
more morphemes, which are the smallest units of meaning within a word. For
example, the word 'cat', meaning 'furry feline', can't have any letters removed and
still retain its meaning. This means that 'cat' consists of a single morpheme. The
word 'cats', on the other hand, can be broken down into two morphemes: 'cat'
and '-s', as '-s' is used in English at the end of words to indicate the plural form.
Studying morphology can tell us a lot about a word’s origin and also about its
meaning. This is particularly informative when we encounter unfamiliar words.
Morphology comes from the Greek morphe meaning 'form' - so it is the study of the
form, or shape, words take.
Root and stem morphemes

The root of a word is a single morpheme that contains the primary meaning of
the word. For example, in the word 'cats', the root would be 'cat' because, of the
two morphemes, it contains the most relevant information regarding the word's
primary meaning. Roots can have other morphemes attached to them, to allow
the word to carry extra information. Often this is grammatical information, such
as whether a word is past tense or plural.
© Insight Publications insight * ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 27

When analysing the morphology of a word, we often remove morphemes one at

a time until we're left with one morpheme - the root - that can’t be broken down
further. Each time a morpheme is taken away from a word, a stem remains. This is
a part of the word that has meaning, but can consist of more than one morpheme.
Consider the word 'unbreaking'. Morphologically breaking that word down, we

could remove the morpheme 'un-' resulting in the two parts - 'un-' and 'breaking'.
The 'un-' can be referred to as a morpheme, but 'breaking' is not a morpheme
because it hasn't been broken down into the smallest unit of meaning. It is a stem.
The stem can then be broken down into a root and another morpheme - 'break'
and '-ing', where 'break' is the root, and '-ing' is the morpheme attached to the
root. 'Unbreaking' therefore contains three morphemes: 'un-', 'break' and '-ing'.
Stems don’t always have more than one morpheme - a stem can also be a root.
un- break -ing
Free and bound morphemes

Morphemes can be categorised into two types: free and bound. Free morphemes
are indivisible and can stand alone as a word. Bound morphemes rely on a root
or stem to be used in a word. Using the previous examples, 'cat' and 'break' are
both free morphemes because they can stand alone, whereas '-s', 'un-' and '-ing'
are all bound morphemes. You will notice that the examples of bound morphemes
are shown with hyphens. This indicates not only that they are bound morphemes,
but also how they attach to the root. For example, 'un-' attaches at the front of
the word, and '-s’ at the end.
Affixes
Bound morphemes are referred to as affixes and are categorised based on how
they attach to a root or stem. A prefix attaches to the front of a root or stem,
whereas a suffix attaches to the end. In some languages there is also a type of
affix called an infix, which is placed inside a root or stem. This is not a typical
affix in English, but it can occur in informal Australian English, such as in profane
terms like 'abso-bloody-lutely'. This is a marker of the playfulness of Australian
English, which you will study in further depth in Year 12.

As children, we play with words and create our own morphemes and
affixes to create secret languages, such as Pig Latin, Double Dutch and
A‘gy Pa’gy- Research some of these languages and try to master one.
Scan the code or click here to learn the rules of Double Dutch.
Inflectional and derivational affixes

Depending on the way in which an affix changes a root or stem, it is categorised
as inflectional or derivational.
An inflectional affix is a bound morpheme that attaches grammatical

properties to a word, such as tense (in verbs), number (in nouns) or possession
(in nouns and pronouns). Inflectional affixes don’t affect the fundamental
meaning or form of the root word.
A derivational affix creates or derives a new word from the root or stem
that it is attached to. Rather than just being a grammatical 'helper', it adds to or
changes the meaning or form of the existing word so that it no longer performs
the same role. This usually means that the derived word has its own entry in a
dictionary. For example, the prefix 'un-' is a derivational morpheme that changes
the meaning of'breaking' to its opposite, 'unbreaking', and the suffix '-ing' is an
inflectional affix because it alters the grammatical properties of the word but
does not fundamentally affect its meaning.
un- break -ing

bound free bound
prefix root suffix
derivational inflectional
Understanding word classes will help you to determine whether a morpheme is

inflectional or derivational, because a derivational morpheme usually changes
the word class of the stem. For example, the morpheme '-ion' can modify the
verb 'situate' to become the noun, 'situation'. (Note that we remove the final 'e'
from the spelling of situate. Letters can sometimes be removed when combining
morphemes.) Likewise, a knowledge of morphemes is beneficial when you study
word classes, as particular types of morphemes will attach to particular word
classes.
To learn more about word classes, see pages 31-48.
The following example shows how to break up the word 'fashionistas’ into its
morphemes and classify each morpheme.
First, we identify the root morpheme. Remember that this is the smallest unit
of meaning within the word. In this case, it's 'fashion'.

fashion -istas
Now we need to decide whether ‘-istas’ is a single morpheme. It seems to have a

plural marking on the end (e.g. one fashionista, two fashionistas), so that can be
removed, as a separate morpheme.
fashion -ista -s
Next, we categorise each of the morphemes. Only the first morpheme, 'fashion',
can stand alone as a word. This makes it a free morpheme as well as the root of
the word. The other two morphemes can't stand alone, so they must be affixes.
They both come after the root, making them suffixes.
-ista
We now need to determine whether the suffixes are derivational or inflectional.

The word 'fashion' refers to something that is a current trend, whereas
'fashionista' refers to someone who promotes fashion, such as those working
in the fashion industry. As 'fashion' and 'fashionista' have related but different
meanings, they are thus two different words and ‘-ista’ must be a derivational
morpheme with a meaning of'one who creates or promotes something'.
fashion -ista -s
free bound bound
root suffix suffix
derivational
This leaves the final suffix, '-s'. This changes the meaning of 'fashionista' to mean
'more than one fashionista’. As the plural attaches the grammatical property of
'number' to the word, it does not create a new word and the suffix '-s' must be
inflectional.
fashion -ista -s
free bound bound
root suffix suffix
derivational inflectional


Using a table similar to the one in the example on page 30, divide the following
words into free and bound morphemes. Categorise each morpheme as root or affix,
and classify each affix as prefix or suffix, and derivational or inflectional.
1 baking 5 hare
2 apples 6 impossible
3 excommunicate 7 nonsensical
4 watches establishment
Lexicology
Lexicology is the study of words - their
form, their meaning and how they behave
within a language. In linguistics, it's the
study of a language's lexicon: its complete
set of meaningful units (one unit of
meaning, usually a word, is called a lexeme).
This means we look at how a word is used,
how it interacts with other words, and what
all of those words mean. You can think of it
as the study of vocabulary.
One of the core elements when studying the lexicon is to understand how to
identify which class a word belongs to (a categorisation based on how the word
behaves grammatically). In English Language, we consider the word classes in the
table below. Each word class is considered in detail over the following pages.
Word class Abbreviation

Noun n
Pronoun pn
Verb V
Auxiliary verb aux
Modal verb mod
Adjective adj
Adverb adv
Preposition prep
Conjunction conj
Determiner det
Interjection interj

Nouns (n)
Nouns refer to names of places, people, things, qualities, ideas or concepts.
Noun type Examples

Place beach, home, Melbourne, yard, Australia
People mum, cousin, queen, Saleh, acrobat
Thing apple, skateboard, cat, potato, train
Quality courage, wisdom, awkwardness
Idea opinion, dream, loyalty, belief
Concept information, redemption, truth, education
Common nouns and proper nouns

Common nouns refer to things generically (e.g. 'beach', 'wisdom', 'apple'). They
are written using lower-case letters, unless they appear at the start of a sentence.
Common nouns can be modified by other words, such as adjectives and determiners.
To learn about adjectives and determiners, see pages 40 and 46-7 respectively.
Proper nouns, on the other hand, are specific rather than generic, and are
always capitalised (e.g. 'Saleh', 'Australia'). Unlike common nouns, proper nouns
are not usually modified by adjectives or determiners.
Examples
Common noun: I live in a house.

Proper noun: I live in Melbourne.
Pronouns (pn)
Pronouns replace nouns and noun phrases (a group of words consisting of a
noun and words that modify the noun) within a sentence. Pronouns aren’t nouns
themselves; they always refer to some other element, either stated or not, in a
sentence. Using pronouns enables us to avoid repeating nouns, which helps us
to vary our language while staying on topic. Reducing repetition can also make a
text more cohesive.

In English Language, we consider the following categories of pronouns: subject,

object, reflexive, possessive, interrogative, relative and demonstrative.
Pronoun type Description Examples

Subject Replaces a noun or noun phrase that is I submitted the
in the subject position in a sentence. assignment.
They couldn’t believe their
ears.
Object Replaces a noun or noun phrase that is The teacher asked you a
in the object position in a sentence. question.
Maeve liked it.
Reflexive Contains the suffix '-self' or '-selves'; Cecily blamed herself for
used to refer to another noun or pronoun burning the cake.
in the same sentence. Can demonstrate He tied his shoelaces
that someone is doing something alone, himself.
without any assistance from others, and
The CEO herself hosted
can also be used as an intensive pronoun
the interview.
(a pronoun that emphasises the subject
of a sentence).
Possessive Indicates possession or ownership. That cat is mine.
Unlike a possessive determiner (e.g. 'his I found a jacket on the
dogj 'my pencil'), it stands on its own floor. I believe it’s his.
within a sentence and does not modify
another word.
Interrogative Used to introduce a question. Who are you?
Interrogative pronouns include 'what', Which would you like?
'which', 'who', 'whom' and 'whose'.
Relative Helps to introduce a relative clause The man who stole the
within a larger sentence by relating bicycle was arrested.
that clause to the noun that it modifies. She’ll wait for the train
Relative pronouns include the terms that stops at her station.
'which', 'what', 'who', 'whom', 'whose' and
'that'.
■ See page 52 to learn about clauses.
Demonstrative Refers to a particular place, person or Do you see the potato cake
thing. Replaces the entire noun or noun he’s holding? I gave him
phrase it represents. that.
I need to do this.

Chapter 3 Subsystems and metalanguage
Use of pronouns can help achieve a function of a text, particularly in conative and
emotive texts. The use of 'we' when it refers to both an author and an audience,
for example, can create a sense of inclusivity and change the tenor between
participants. Audience members are more likely to listen to the author because they
feel they are being included in the discussion. Compare this to the use of 'we' when
it refers only to the author - this can come across as authoritative, as it excludes the
audience.

Identify the pronouns in each of the following sentences. State the pronoun type:
subject, object, reflexive, possessive, interrogative, relative or demonstrative. The
first has been completed for you.
1 I wish you would buy me some cake.
/ subject
you subject
me object
2 You are what you eat, so treat yourself to something sweet!
3 These are much nicer than those.

4 She will give the pie to them.
5 The bicycle is not his, it’s ours.
Verbs(v)
Critical in conveying information, verbs express actions, states or occurrences.
Verbs are sometimes referred to as 'doing words', as they communicate what a
subject is 'doing', but this does not really describe their full role. In English, verbs
are a complex word class.
At the highest level, you can consider verbs as representing actions in relation
to time - that is, past, present and future (marked by a modal auxiliary).
Someone can have done something yesterday, be doing it right now, or be
planning on doing it tomorrow. Verbal marking of time plays a critical role in
almost every sentence we create.

For the purposes of VCE English Language, it's important to understand the tense of
a sentence (past, present or future). You are not required to go into the finer details,
particularly in Year 11, such as if the tense is progressive or perfect, or if the verb is a
past or present participle or an infinitive.
Consider the following marking of time when the verb is matched with first-,
second- and third-person pronouns.
Point of view Past Present Future

First person I was I am I will be
Second person you were you are you will be
Third person she was he is they will be
they were they are
The verb in the table above is 'to be' which, as can be seen from these different
forms (particularly in the present tense), is one of the most complex verbs in the
English language. The following are all of the forms of the verb 'to be’: is, am, are,
was, were, be, being, been.
All of the forms of'to be' in the table above are provided in what's called
their simple form. Verbs can take four forms: simple, progressive, perfect
progressive and perfect, known as aspects. The following table shows these
forms for the verb 'write'.
Tense and aspect Example Meaning

Simple present I write books. a general action or truth
She writes books.
Present progressive I am writing a book. an action that is continuing now
Present perfect I have been writing a book. past action that is ongoing and has not yet
progressive She has been writing a book. been completed
Present perfect I have written a book. past action that has been completed but is
She has written a book. being commented upon in the present
Simple past I wrote a book. an action that was completed in the past
Past progressive I was writing a book. an action in the past that was a continuing
action at the time being described
Past perfect I had been writing a book. an action that was continuing up until a time in
progressive the past and is not being continued right now
Past perfect I had written the book before past action that had occurred / been
I saw the cover. completed before another past action
Simple future I will write a book. a prediction or promise that the action is likely
to occur in the future

Tense and aspect Example Meaning

Future progressive I will be writing a book. an action that is likely to be continuing at a
future time
Future perfect Next week, I will have been an action that is ongoing and is likely to be
progressive writing this book for six completed before a future point in time or
months. another action occurs
Future perfect I will have written five books a future action or occurrence that is likely to
by the end of next year. happen before another future occurrence or
point in time
Participles
A participle is a form of a verb that has many functions. Participles are used
to construct certain tense and aspect forms, such as the present perfect 'have
written’ or the past progressive 'was writing’. They can also be used as adjectives
to modify a noun, as in 'the swimming fish'.
Example
The inspiring choir is singing a new song.
In this sentence, the participle 'inspiring' is an adjective indicating that the choir
makes people feel animated or excited.
Understanding participles will help you to detect passive voice, which you will study
in Year 12.
Infinitives
The infinitive form of a verb allows the verb to be used as a noun, an adjective
or an adverb. Infinitives are generally formed by adding the word 'to' before the
base form of the verb. We often use the infinitive to discuss actions that haven’t
actually occurred yet.
Examples
I want to go and eat potato cakes.
To boldly go where no man has gone before.
Every verb can take the infinitive form - it has no restrictions. When it appears in
a sentence, the infinitive is never the main verb.
Infinitives can act to show purpose or intention ('I want to go'), to modify
nouns ('I want something to eat’), as the subject of a sentence ('to go now would
be silly') and after adjectives ('I'm happy to help’).


Identify the verbs in the following sentences as main, participle or infinitive, and
indicate the tense of the main verb.
1 I came. I saw. I conquered.
2 The cat chased the fly.
3 Mia wants to eat seven potato cakes.
4 He likes blowing bubbles.
Auxiliary verbs (aux, mod)

An auxiliary verb is a 'helping' verb - one that supports the main verb of a
sentence. You’ve already seen some of these auxiliary verbs in the table on
pages 35-6, such as 'be' and 'have'. There are two types of auxiliary verbs in
English: primary auxiliary and modal auxiliary.
Primary auxiliary verbs (aux)

Primary auxiliary verbs are usually used to construct grammatical tenses that
could not otherwise be conveyed by inflectional morphemes on the main verb
alone. There are three primary auxiliary verbs in English: 'be', 'have' and 'do'. These
words can also act as main verbs, but when they're coupled with a main verb
they act as auxiliary verbs to help the main verb show aspects of tense, time or
voice. You will study voice in relation to verbs in Year 12.
The table below outlines the different forms primary auxiliaries can take, using
the verb 'go' as the main verb.
To be To have To do
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
First I am going we are I have gone we have I do go we do go
person going gone
Second you are you (all) are you have you (all) you do go you (all) do
person going going gone have gone go
Third she/he/it is they are she/he/it they have she/he/it they do go
person going going has gone gone does go

Primary auxiliary verbs also indicate time, as shown below. They can be paired
with modal auxiliaries (often 'will') to indicate future time.
To be To have To do
Past was/were had did
Present am/are/is have/has do/does
Future will be will have will do
Examples
I am going out.
He will have eaten his dinner by now.
She did see it.
Both 'be' and 'have' function as auxiliaries of verbs, to help indicate tense and
time. The primary auxiliary 'do' does this too, but also helps indicate emphasis,
imperatives (demands), interrogatives (questions) and the negative form of verbs
in the simple past and present tense. In the examples above, the 'did' in 'She did
see it’ emphasises the act of seeing.
Examples
I do agree with you. (emphatic)
Do come to my party, (imperative, emphatic)
How did you get there? (interrogative)
I don’t agree with you. (negative)
Modal auxiliary verbs (mod)

Often called 'modals' for short, modal auxiliary verbs express the possibility,
ability, intent, obligation or necessity of an action occurring. They modify verbs
to change their mode - the state in which they exist. There is a fixed number of
modals in English; these are shown in the following table. Each one modifies a
verb to express a slightly different meaning. Those that are no longer often used
in our society are marked as 'rare'.
Modal Negative form Expresses

Can cannot ability, permission or probability
can't
Could could not past ability or permission, probability or request
couldn't
Will will not prediction or instant decision or habit; often
won't used to represent future time
Would would not past routine, preference or conditional future

wouldn't

Shall shall not promise or expectation

shan't (rare)
Should should not advice or obligation
shouldn't
May may not possibility, permission or desire
mayn't (rare)
Might might not potential permission or low possibility
mightn't
Must must not mandate or necessity
mustn't (rare)
Ought (rare) ought not (rare) strong advice, duty or obligation
oughtn't (rare)
Modals play a significant part in the formation of a text because they

fundamentally change the role of the verb to which they attach. For this reason,
it is valuable to discuss the modal auxiliaries in a text when a number of them
appear.
Worked example
Consider the discussion of modal auxiliaries in the following text.
This document can be used under the conditions outlined below.

■ You may copy this work for personal use.
■ If you publish a modified version of this work, you must reference the author.
■ Any new work that is derived from this work will be released under the same
conditions as this document.
Describes how the
The text is presented as a document in the legal domain, serving a referential / choice of words
supports the function
function to inform the reader of the conditions being imposed by the author/
of the text, using
for use of the document. The use of modal auxiliaries helps to contribute to
metalanguage.
this function by outlining for the reader what can and cannot be done with
the document. One example of this is the use of the modal ‘may’, which gives Provides specific
permission for the reader to copy the work ‘for personal use’. The higher explanation of how the
level of obligation with ‘must’ in ‘you must reference’ is used to convey modals are used within
this text.
necessity, as it mandates that the reader acknowledge the original author if
they make modifications to the work. The use of the modal ‘will’ in ‘will be
released’ is somewhat forcefully predictive, as it notifies the reader of the
conditions under which any future derived works can be released.


Read the following text then answer the questions.
I know I shouldn't have gone into the forest. Mum said that it would be a
bad idea because I didn't really know the area very well and I couldn't find
my way out of a paper bag even if I tried. 'If you can get lost, you will get
lost’ is the other thing she always used to say. I figured she can't be right all
the time ... right? But here I am, well and truly lost. I hope I find my way out
before dark - it might make a good story, at least.
1 Identify all primary auxiliaries.
2 Identify all modal auxiliaries.
3 Discuss one modal auxiliary in the text. How does this modal auxiliary change the
nature of the sentence in which it appears?
Adjectives (adj)
Adjectives help to describe nouns by providing extra information about them.
Examples
The pink coat hung on the chair.
The cat is fluffy.
The cat was bigger than the dog.
It was the smallest house on the block.

In English there are conventions about the order in which adjectives are placed when
more than one is used to describe a noun. For example, an opinion (e.g. 'beautiful')
must come before a size (e.g. 'big'), a shape (e.g. 'round') or a type (e.g. 'chocolate').
Consider these two sentences:
There was a beautiful, big, round, chocolate cake on the table.
There was a round, beautiful, chocolate, big cake on the table.

Which one seems more fluent?
Conduct internet research to explore the order of adjectives in English

and other languages. Scan the code or click here for a place to start.

Adverbs (adv)
Adverbs help to describe, modify or qualify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs and
whole phrases or sentences. They answer questions such as 'When?', 'Where?',
'How?', 'How often?’, 'How long?’ and 'How much?'
Most commonly, adverbs are formed by adding an '-ly' suffix morpheme to
an adjective, such as in 'quickly', 'happily' or 'frequently'. There are many adverbs
that don’t end with '-ly', but looking for that suffix is a quick way to recognise
one. Some common adverbs that don’t have a detectable suffix are 'soon', 'often',
'never', 'today', 'too' and 'very'.
Examples
I only left to get some ice-cream.
I would never refuse a potato cake.
He was looking lonely too.
I am very much excited about going swimming.
Adverbs can behave in various ways, expressing elements such as time,

place and manner; cause and effect; degree; certainty; frequency; and
comment.
Elements Description Examples
Time, place and Involving when, where and how an She ate dessert after finishing
manner action occurs. her dinner, (time)
The teacher was waiting
outside, (place)
Myko quickly opened his books,
(manner)
Cause and Providing a reason for the verb's Ted took the last apple;
effect action occurring. Usually employs consequently, 1 took a cake.
conjunctive adverbs, which behave 1 think, therefore 1 am.
in the same way as conjunctions.
See pages 45-6 to learn about ||||
KU-* conjunctive adverbs. KB
Degree Providing information about the He felt slightly ill.

amount, strength or intensity of 1 totally agree with you.
something. Can increase or decrease
It was quite interesting.
emphasis.
Certainty Expressing levels of doubt or 1 was likely going to get in
confidence about something. trouble.
Maybe it will rain today.
She was clearly angry with us.

Elements Description Examples
Frequency Describing how often (frequently) We have weekly meetings,

something occurs, in either absolute (absolute)
or vague terms. I occasionally eat potato cakes,
(vague)
Never eat soggy Weet-Bix.
(absolute)
Comment Providing an opinion or a statement Apparently, they aren't together
about something. anymore.
It was simply the best movie
I've ever seen.
The following two types of adverbs are also useful to know.
Type Description Examples
Interrogative Used to begin a question: 'when! Why aren't you doing your
'where! 'how' and 'why! directly homework?
followed by the verb. Where do you think you're
going?
How will you get there?
When do you need to arrive?
Relative 'When! 'where! 'why' and sometimes We will go out when I am ready.
'how' are used to help introduce a This is the hill where I fell over.
subordinate clause (a clause that
I'm not going to ask you why
isn't a sentence on its own).
you did that.
See page 52 to learn more about ■HI
L_- clauses || I didn't think to ask how he got
that open.

Identify the adverbs in the following sentences. Describe how they are behaving,
using appropriate metalanguage. The first one has been done for you.
1 Liam slowly walked to the shops.

‘slowly’: this adverb provides information about the manner in which Liam is
walking.
2 I only left after the work was done.
3 The cake was almost a failure.

4 The mouse scurried towards Reyhan; he was pretty unimpressed.
5 She worked hard; consequently, she achieved good results.

Prepositions (prep)
Think of the word 'preposition' by splitting it into two morphemes: 'pre' and
'position'. A preposition expresses a relationship between a noun and another
word, phrase or element in a sentence. In a way, it 'sets up’ (pre) a 'position'
between two elements, in relation to time, space (both conceptual and spatial)
and location.
A preposition is followed by a noun phrase. The most straightforward types

of prepositions are combined with noun phrases to indicate a relationship with
space or time. For example, 'I will go in the morning’ includes a preposition
relating to time; 'The book is on my left’ includes a preposition relating to space.
Examples
The book was written on time, (time)
The book was on the table, (location)
I leaned the book against the tree, (space - spatial)
I took the book against my mother’s wishes, (space - conceptual)
There are many prepositions in English. Here's a list of some common ones.
of with at from into for during on

by between after towards under out before in
Multi-word prepositions include 'apart from', 'back to’, 'because of', 'next to', 'by
way of’, 'in relation to' and 'on top of'.
Be careful when identifying a word as a preposition, as many prepositions
can also be used for other purposes (act in other word classes), such as adverbs,
adjectives and conjunctions.

Identify the prepositions in the following paragraph.
Both of us had come close to being seen as we ran down the pathway,
giggling away like little kids at a party. I ran to the left, Bonnie ran to the
right: splitting up to increase our odds of getting away with it all. Luckily it
worked and we were both on our way back to my house soon after.
Conjunctions (conj)
Conjunctions link words, phrases, clauses and sentences together. They allow
us to form complex ideas and sentences and also to demonstrate relationships
between words or phrases from the same class. For example, in the sentence
'Lydia and Amber ate dinner', the nouns 'Lydia' and 'Amber' are joined together
with the conjunction 'and', which shows that both are participating in the act of
eating and that they are doing so on an equal footing.

Conjunctions are very useful when constructing longer texts, as they allow
us to vary the structure of our sentences. This helps to avoid tedious short
sentences as well as unnecessary repetition.
Example
Lishika and Emilia ate potato cakes.
Lishika ate potato cakes. Emilia ate potato cakes.
Without the use of the conjunction 'and', we have unnecessary repetition of the
verb 'ate' and the noun phrase 'potato cakes'.
Coordinators
The conjunction 'and' is an example of a coordinator. Coordinators help to
place two or more elements side by side in a way that demonstrates equality and
equivalence.
English has seven coordinators: 'for', 'and', 'nor', 'but', 'or', 'yet' and 'so'. Many
people use the acronym FANBOYS to remember these.
Coordinator Purpose
for indicates that a cause or reason is being provided
and joins two ideas
nor supplements something already negated; comes after a word,
phrase or clause preceded by 'neither'
but contradicts or provides some other negative contrast
or indicates an alternative is being offered
yet provides contradictory information or reasoning, similar to 'but'
so indicates that a result is being provided; similar to 'for'
Note that 'so' is not always a coordinator. It is often used as an adverb ('so good')
and can be used as an adjective ('not so') as well as a pronoun ('do so'). It is also
frequently used in spoken conversation in a non-conjunctive sense - in these
cases, it is referred to as a discourse particle (a word or phrase that assists
flow in a communication) rather than a conjunction. 'So' can also be used as a
subordinator.
FANBOYS is a useful acronym for memory, but theres some argument

as to whether all of these are coordinators or not. Scan the code or click
to find out why. For the purposes of VCE English Language, using
FANBOYS to classify coordinators is acceptable.

Subsystems and metalanguage ' Chapter 3
Subordinators
A subordinator links clauses and sentences to each other in a way that
demonstrates a parent-child relationship. The 'parent' sentence is referred to
as the independent clause, and the 'child' sentence as the dependent clause.
Subordinators tie sentences together to construct more complex thoughts and
ideas. They can increase cohesion and fluency in a text by helping to condense
information, reduce repetition and vary sentence structure.
Independent clauses and dependent clauses are sometimes referred to as main

clauses and subordinate clauses, respectively.
The clause that comes with the subordinator will provide more information about
the parent sentence. Often this is information that's required for understanding,
signalling a cause-and-effect type of relationship, or some shift in the place or
time of the two sentences.
The most common subordinator in English is 'because', which signals a cause-
and-effect relationship between the independent clause and the dependent
clause.
Examples
I went out because I was bored.
I took an umbrella because it was raining.
Because it was Sunday, I slept in.
Other subordinators that act in the same way include 'since', 'as', 'though', 'due to'
and 'unless'. Unlike coordinators, there are numerous subordinators in English,
including the following.
after although as as if because

before even though if now that supposing
than until when while whether or not
whereas though
Conjunctive adverbs
Like coordinators, conjunctive adverbs (also referred to as conjuncts) join two
clauses or sentences in a way that demonstrates equality. These are often joined
using a semicolon before the conjunctive adverb and a comma directly after the
adverb.

Common conjunctive adverbs are listed in the table below, with their purposes
and an example.
Conjunctive adverb Purpose Example

also, furthermore, addition The work is due on Thursday;
moreover, besides furthermore, it must be your own.
similarly, likewise comparison I really like pies; likewise, cakes are
tasty, too.
instead, however, contrast I don't normally eat ice-cream; however,
conversely I make an exception on hot days.
namely, certainly, indeed emphasis Cats are quite cunning; indeed, they are
watching your every move.
accordingly, consequently, cause and effect Someone broke the rules; consequently,
hence, thus there will be an investigation.
finally, next, subsequently, time We have just finished conjunctions;
then next, we will consider determiners.
Source: adapted from Writing for success (University of Minnesota, 2015)

Identify the conjunctions in the following sentences. Classify the conjunctions as
coordinators or subordinators.
1 When we went out, we took our umbrellas.
2 I hope you learned your lesson because I certainly did.
3 Aditya and Keshri came camping but forgot to bring sleeping bags.
4 Did Jill or Dylan go out last night?
5 It’s not over until it’s over.
Determiners (det)
A determiner is a word that's placed in front of a noun and helps to clarify the
noun, specify quantity or indicate possession.
Determiners can be defined as belonging to one of four categories: articles,
quantifiers, demonstratives and possessives.

Determiner Description Examples

Article Occurs before a noun and provides the, a, an
information about the specificity or
definiteness of the noun.
Quantifier Helps to specify the quantity of a noun all, a lot, many, most, much,
within a phrase. Quantifiers tend to some, several, few, a couple,
help answer questions such as 'How one, none
many?' or 'How much?' using a scale
of reference (none, few, all).
Demonstrative Indicates specific nouns in a sentence. this, that, these, those
Helps provide information about the
proximity of a noun in relation to the
speaker and the listener. Typically
used to indicate whether a noun is
near or far in distance or time.
Posssessive Used before a noun to express my, your, her, his, its, our, their
ownership or possession.
Interjections (interj)
The last word class that we explore is the interjection. Oh my! The two words
you just read are an example of an interjection: a word or phrase that expresses
feelings, and sometimes requests or demands. They tend to be highly expressive
and emotive, adding colour to our language. Interjections also include greetings
and farewells as part of conversational exchanges.
This particular word class doesn’t necessarily attach to other word classes in
the same way that, for example, an adjective attaches to a noun, or an adverb
attaches to a verb. Interjections can be integrated into a sentence or stand alone.
Examples
Oh no, I’ve dropped my potato cake!
Wow, I really messed that one up.
Oh really? I never knew that.
Hi, how are you?
It was good to see you; bye!
How words function

Words behave in different ways within a sentence, and they all have a different
job to do, based on their word class. There are two core types of words - those
that provide content to the sentence, particularly in terms of semantic meaning,
and those that function to help the grammar or structure of a sentence by tying
all of the words together.

We can create new content words in English when we need to; the word
classes that freely allow this are referred to as open classes. Function words,
on the other hand, are restrictive and very rarely allow new words to be added to
their word classes; these are referred to as closed classes.
Open classes Closed classes

nouns pronouns
verbs prepositions
adjectives conjunctions
adverbs determiners
interjections auxiliary verbs
modal verbs
You’ll notice that most closed class words don't take inflectional morphemes -
only the auxiliaries (auxiliary verbs and modal verbs) do.

Conduct internet research on each of the closed word classes to see if new terms
have been added to them. Why do you think some closed word classes have gained
new terms and not others? Discuss in groups or as a whole class.
Scan the code or click here to explore changes within the pronoun
word class.
Syntax
The study of how words are ordered into phrases, clauses and sentences
is known as syntax. It looks at the patterns we use to organise words into
structures that allow us to communicate meaning effectively.
Phrases
A phrase is a single word or group of words that are related to each other and,
together, form a single structural unit that conveys meaning. Phrases do not
contain both a subject (a noun that controls a verb) and a verb, so they require
other phrases or words to make a complete sentence. Phrases can also be
contained within other phrases. In English, there are five main types of phrases
(discussed on the following pages), whose names relate to the word class of the
primary word (the head) within the phrase.

Noun phrases
A noun phrase is a group of one or more words, and contains a noun as the head
of the phrase as well as modifiers to that noun. Modifiers of a noun phrase can
occur before the noun, or after the noun.
Modifiers occurring before the noun are usually determiners (including

quantifiers and numbers) and adjectives that help to describe or specify the
noun. Modifiers occuring after the noun can be adverb phrases, prepositional
phrases or whole clauses. They also give extra meaning to help describe or specify
the noun. Both types of modification are optional in a noun phrase, as they act
only to provide extra information about the noun in order to help identify it.
Examples
The happy mouse ate the cheese, (modified with determiner and adjective)
The mouse in my pocket ate the cheese, (modified with determiner and
prepositional phrase)
The mouse nearby jumped into my pocket, (modified with determiner and
adverb)
The mouse who was very happy ate the cheese, (modified with determiner
and relative clause)
Verb phrases
A verb phrase consists of a main verb and any modifiers. These modifiers
include primary and modal auxiliaries, infinitives, adverbs and adverb phrases,
noun phrases acting as objects, and complements.
See pages 54-5 to learn about complements.
Examples
I ate a potato cake.
I am eating a potato cake.
I might have eaten a potato cake.
Prepositional phrases
A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition and a noun phrase that is
considered to be its object. The preposition must come before the noun phrase in
a prepositional phrase.
See page 53 to learn about objects.

Prepositional phrases modify nouns, verbs or adjectives within a larger phrase,

clause or sentence. When they modify a noun, they describe the noun; in these
instances, they usually follow the noun. When they modify a verb or adjective
they provide extra information as to where, how or when the verb or adjective is
acting.
Examples
The cat in the hat sat on the mat. (‘in the hat’ modifies the noun ‘cat’;‘on the
mat’ modifies the verb ‘sat’)
I put the potato cake in my pocket, (‘in my pocket’ modifies the verb ‘put’)
The Tardis is bigger on the inside, (‘on the inside’ modifies the adjective
‘bigger’)
Prepositional phrases are very productive in English - technically, you can layer
them as much as you want!
Example
I placed the cake with the topper on the table in the dining room near the
plate with the flowers on the side.
The more prepositional phrases there are in a sentence, the more complex the
sentence is, and this can result in confusion and ambiguity.
Adjective phrases
An adjective phrase consists of an adjective as its head and may include
modifiers to that adjective. Usually the modifiers are other adjectives or adverbs.
This type of phrase describes a noun in a sentence.
Examples
The very happy cat drank the warm milk.
I wore a bright pink fluffy jumper.
The fluffy jumper was bright pink.
Adjective phrases help to provide extra descriptions within a sentence and enable
more profound and complex descriptions of nouns.
Some phrase types, such as prepositional phrases, can act in the same way as
adjective phrases. In these instances, they are referred to as adjectival phrases
rather than adjective phrases. Adjectival phrases are not required knowledge in
English Language.

Adverb phrases
An adverb phrase consists of an adverb as its head and may include modifiers
to that adverb. This phrase can modify a verb, adjective or another adverb.
Adverb phrases help to describe elements such as time, place, manner,
frequency and degree in the same way adverbs do.
Examples
I ate the potato cake very quickly.
I frequently eat potato cakes.
Make sure you understand the difference between an adverb phrase and an
adverbial, which may not necessarily contain an adverb.
See pages 55-6 to learn more about adverbials.

1 Identify the phrase type of each set of underlined words.
a A strawberry is not a berry.
b It was only a millisecond but it made the difference between second and third
place.
c Mem waIked to the river and swam in its waters.
d A hot crispy potato cake, ready right now, just for me.
e Stelios gave gifts to all of the original attendees.
f Isaam, for the umpteenth time today, had a cup of coffee.
2 Discuss how the use of phrases contributes to the function of the following poem.
The happy cat
The spotted frog
The silly chook

The big brown dog
The cuddly pig
The squawking bird
Are these my pets?

Oh, how absurd!

Clauses
A clause is a set of phrases that must, as a minimum, contain both a subject
and a predicate. This means that there needs to be a main verb (predicator)
and a noun phrase (subject) that acts upon that verb. Clauses can also contain
objects, complements and adverbials. They may form a complete sentence
(independent clause) or part of a sentence (dependent clause). These two types
of clauses were mentioned when we discussed subordinators on page 45.
Subjects
The subject of a clause is the main actor that plays a role with the verb of the
clause. Subjects are typically noun phrases.
Examples
She gave the dog a treat.
The happy vendor gave me a hot potato cake.
While a clause always needs a subject and a verb (predicator), there are some
types of sentences where the subject is implicitly understood and does not need
to be said. For example, 'Get the cat off the bench’ does not have an explicit
subject, but it is implied that the command is directed at someone (e.g. 'you').
Predicates
A predicate consists of the main verb of a clause and all of its modifiers. It
contains the whole of the clause that comes after the subject (rather than just
the verb and modifiers of the verb). So a predicate might, for example, include
other clauses.
Examples
The potato cakes were fried last Tuesday.
I gave a potato cake to the first person I saw on my way to school.
As you can see from the examples, predicates can be quite lengthy when there
are embedded clauses, such as the dependent clause 'I saw on my way to school’
in the second example.
When we analyse predicates, we generally split the predicate into two parts,
the predicator and the rest of the predicate. The predicator is the verb and
its modifiers. The rest of the predicate contains any objects, complements or
adverbials that attach to the predicator.
See pages 54-6 to learn about complements and adverbials.

Examples
The potato cakes were fried last Tuesday, (‘were fried’ is the predicator, and
‘last Tuesday’ is the rest of the predicate)
I gave a potato cake to the first person I saw on my way to school, (‘gave’ is the
predicator; ‘a potato cake to the first person I saw on my way to school’ is the
rest of the predicate)
Objects
The object of a clause provides further information about the subject and the
verb - it gives extra information about the action. While clauses will always have
a subject and a verb, they will not always have an object. There are different
categories of verbs; some require one or more objects while others can have no
object at all.
Examples
I slept soundly.
I ate the potato cake.
I gave Mary the book.
I gave the book to Mary.
In the last two examples, you’ll notice that there are two objects. This is because
the verb 'give' requires that something be given to someone. When this occurs,
we categorise the object as being direct or indirect. The direct object is the
noun phrase that is directly affected by the verb. In the example above, this is
'the book', because it’s the book that is moving from one person to the other. The
indirect object is the noun phrase that is indirectly affected by the verb. In the
example above, it's the recipient 'Mary'. Normally, when an indirect object comes
after a direct object, it is introduced using 'for' or 'to', such as in the sentences
'The teacher wrote a test for her class' and 'I gave a gift to my mum'.
Direct and indirect objects are trickier to detect when a sentence is in the
passive form. You don't learn about passive structures until Year 12, but
if you're interested, scan the code or click here to find out how objects
behave in passive sentences.


1 Describe the relationship between a subject and a predicate.
2 For each of the following sentences, identify the complete subject and the
predicate.
a I walked down the street.
b They are going to eat the apple pies on Tuesday.
c Each and every one of you is going to complete this work,
d Aamir, Li and Joseph are building a fully functioning robot.
3 Identify the predicator in each of the following sentences.
a Tania and Maya watched cricket last night.
b I went up the stairs.
c This homework is due next Monday.
d Animals are very interesting to watch.
4 Do all verbs have objects? Why / why not?
5 Describe the difference between a direct object and an indirect object.
6 Identify the direct and indirect objects in the following sentences:
a Aliya sold her laptop to Donna.
b Hassan cooked dinner for his sons.
c Paul read his daughter a story.
d Theresa explained the theorem to her class.
Complements
A complement is a word or set of words that is necessary to complete the
meaning of a subject or a predicate. They are essential to understanding; if the
complement is removed, the sentence will no longer make sense.
Complements come directly after a copula verb and any phrase that
effectively describes or is equivalent to the subject or object. Copula verbs are
special types of verbs that only appear in sentences that require complements.
In English, the most common copula verb is 'be' (which can be a verb or a primary
auxiliary). However, there are other verbs that can act as a copula verb, including
'seem', 'appear', 'feel', 'become', 'find' and 'grow'.
There are two main types of complement: subject complement and object
complement. Subject complements complete a subject, whereas object
complements complete the object.
Subject complements are typically noun phrases, adjective phrases,
prepositional phrases or adverb phrases.

Examples
The potato'âkTfelTliot.
My cat’s naîeTTFearless.
The mcmse was~on the table.
In the above examples, ‘hot’ is an adjective phrase describing the subject 'the
potato cake'; 'Fearless' is a noun phrase containing a proper noun equivalent
to the subject; and 'on the table' describes the location of the subject using a
prepositional phrase.
Object complements are any main phrases that come after an object. As with
subject complements, object complements will contain a description of the
object, or be equivalent to the object, and will also typically be noun phrases,
adjective phrases, prepositional phrases or adverb phrases.
Examples
The comment made everyone feel awkward.
We voted Josie school captain.
She put the appleover there.
In the above examples of object complements, 'feel awkward' is an adjectival

description of the object 'everyone'; 'school captain’ is a noun phrase equivalent
to the object 'Josie'; and 'over there' is a prepositional phrase describing the
location of the object 'the apple'.
The key element of the complement is that it is required - it can never be
deleted to reduce repetition or make a sentence more concise.
Examples
*The potato cake felt.
*My cat’s name is.
*The mouse was.
*The comment made everyone.
*We voted Josie.
*She put the apple.
Without their complements, none of these examples are complete sentences on

their own.
Adverbials
Adverbials provide extra information about a verb. They often say where, when,
how, or how often something occurs. Adverbials can be adverb phrases, but they
can also be other phrase types, such as prepositional phrases, noun phrases or
whole clauses. Unlike complements, adverbials provide optional information;
they can be deleted without affecting the overall comprehensibility of the clause,
and are not critical to the sentence structure.

Below is a table containing some of the most common types of adverbials.
Type of adverbial Example

Place The cat was purring on my lap.
Time The train will arrive in the morning.
Manner She performed poorly.
Degree He studied just enough to pass the exam.
Probability Obviously a writer of this book likes potato cakes.
Comparative We are working harder.
Superlative Stress levels increase most often before a big life event.
Notice that, in all of the examples above, the adverbial can be deleted without
making the sentence ungrammatical or harder to understand.
Combining clauses
When considering sentences as a whole, we often combine clauses in order
to vary sentence structure, provide appropriate amounts of information, and
reduce repetition. There are two main methods for combining clauses: by
subordinating a clause when attaching it to an independent clause, and by
coordinating a clause by attaching it to an independent clause.
See pages 44-5 to read about subordinators and coordinators.

1 How does a complement differ from an indirect object?
2 Identify the complements in the following sentences. State whether they are
subject complements or object complements.
a She was the only person who cared.
b Peta found the work difficult.
c They were very understanding of the situation.
d We became angry when we found out they had sold out of potato cakes.
3 Identify any complements and adverbials in the following sentences. There may be
more than one complement and/or more than one adverbial in each sentence. Not
all sentences will contain both complements and adverbials.
a Thinking is difficult when you haven't slept enough.
b The dog pulled all the clothes off the line very quickly.
c Ali felt confident because the tutor explained the work in a clear manner,
d The package arrived so quickly it felt like it was shipped before I'd ordered it.

Sentences
Sentences can convey thoughts, ideas and statements of fact. They can be
questions, commands and exclamations, but ultimately a sentence must contain
at least one subject (implicit or explicit) and at least one predicate.
Sentence types
Sentences can be categorised by how they are framed to convey meaning. This
meaning is referred to as a sentence type that helps define its primary purpose.
There are four types of sentences in English: declarative, interrogative,
imperative and exclamative.
Declarative
A declarative sentence is framed as a statement of fact; it declares something.
While the statement may not be true, the framing of the sentence implies that
it is. To be identified as declarative, a sentence need not be profound or even
necessarily sensible, it just needs to be framed in a way that communicates
information. Declaratives are the most common type of sentence in English.
Examples
It is raining outside.
I like potato cakes.
The sky is the colour of rainbows.
Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.
'Colourless green ideas sleep furiously' is a sentence made up by linguist Noam

Chomsky to demonstrate that grammar in English is not related to coherence. It
shows that a sentence can be grammatically correct while being complete nonsense
(Chomsky 1957).
Interrogative
Interrogative sentences are framed in the form of questions, ending with a
question mark. Whether it is rhetorical or not, if it has a question mark it's
considered to be an interrogative sentence. These sentences typically begin with
interrogative pronouns or auxiliary verbs.
Examples
Do you think it will rain tonight?
Are you sure?
Why are you going out tonight?
What are you thinking?
|P|-» See page 33 to read about interrogative pronouns.
© Insight Publications insight ■ ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 57

Chapter 3
Notice that You re going out tonight, aren t you? is an interrogative that doesn t
begin with an interrogative pronoun or auxiliary. This type of interrogative is called a
tag question or an interrogative tag.
Imperative
Imperative sentences act as commands, instructions or requests. Most of the
time, the way an imperative is framed means that the subject of the sentence is
not stated; because it is likely to be the addressee, it’s implied or it's understood
within the context.
Examples
Go outside.
Eat this cake.
Cut the pie into quarters.
Minh-Quan, do your homework.
Exclamative
Exclamative sentences express emotions such as fear, excitement or surprise. The
purpose of these sentences is to add emphasis in some way.
Standard exclamative sentences are constructed using 'what' and 'how' to

make an expressive statement that often ends with an exclamation point.
Examples
What big eyes you have!
How rude you are!
For the purposes of VCE English Language studies, exclamatives are also any
other sentence that ends with an exclamation point when that sentence has the
purpose of expressing an emotion of some kind.
Examples
Wow, look at him go!
I forgot to do my homework!
Ouch, you stepped on my foot!
Make sure you don't confuse the exclamative sentence type with an interjection.
The interjection 'Ouch!' used on its own, for example, would not be considered an
exclamative sentence as it does not contain a subject and a predicate.

Analysing sentence types

Often you will be asked to discuss the use of sentence types within a text, or how
they contribute to a function of a text. It's important to consider the role of the
sentence type in relation to the text type.
For example, a recipe is an instructional text, so it will be directive in nature as
its function is conative. This means that we expect to see imperative sentences
within a recipe, telling readers the steps they need to complete, in the order
they need to complete them. Imperative sentences such as 'dice onions finely',
'combine all ingredients' and 'bake for 45 minutes' are common in this text type.
A referential text such as a reference book, designed to share information in a
factual and objective manner, is likely to contain mostly declarative sentences.
Emotive texts such as you might hear in sports commentaries could contain any
number of sentence types, but exclamative or interrogative sentences might be
expected to appear in them.
While it’s difficult to categorise all texts by their likely sentence types, when
you first approach a text it is useful to consider the sentence types you might
expect to encounter.

1 Categorise each of the following sentences according to sentence type.
a What nerve he had!
b All students must comply with the school rules.
c Ouch, that must have been painful.
d I'm feeling just fine, what about you?
e Yes, you may take a break.
2 Which sentence types might you expect to see in the following types of texts?
Justify your choices.
a a letter of complaint
b an email to your boss requesting time off for a holiday
c an interview between two people
d a speaker delivering one side of a debate
3 How does the following text use sentence types to help achieve its function?
Gosh, it’s hot! I knew that it was going to be warm when I booked the flight
to come here on holiday, but I didn't expect it to be so humid. What was
I thinking? I love a nice warm day, but this kind of heat seems to suck the
breath out of you. Sometimes it feels like I'm walking through soup. I need to
be more careful with my holiday choices in the future.

Sentence structures
Just as sentences can be classified by their type, they can also be categorised by
structure. There are five structures to consider: simple, compound, complex,
compound-complex and fragment. The structure is determined by whether
the sentence comprises a complete clause, how many clauses are within the
sentence, and the conjunctions that join those clauses together.
Simple sentences
Simple sentences contain a single clause that consists of a subject and a
predicate. The clause contains all of the information required to convey meaning.
Examples
I ate the pie.
He cried.
The entire crowd of very angry people marched down the road.
Simple sentences aren't always short. Notice that the last example above is quite
long - make sure you're looking for subjects and predicates, not length.
Compound sentences
Compound sentences consist of two or more independent clauses that are joined
together using a coordinator.
See page 44 to read about coordinators.
Examples
I ate the pie and she ate the cake.
He cried but she laughed.
We will use umbrellas and raincoats or we will all get wet.
Notice that all of the examples above contain two clauses - two sets of subjects
and predicates. In the first sentence, for example, 'I' is the subject of the first
clause and 'she' is the subject of the second clause. The predicates are 'ate the
pie’ and 'ate the cake’, respectively.
Complex sentences
A complex sentence consists of one independent clause and at least one
dependent clause. The dependent clause is created by joining it to the
independent clause using a subordinator.

Examples
I ate the pie after she ate the cake.
He cried because she laughed.
Umbrellas and raincoats will be used unless we want to get wet.
Notice how the second clause in each

of the above examples is providing
extra information within the context
of the first clause, such as cause and
effect with 'because' or changes in
time with 'after'. Complex sentences
don't need to be ordered in this way,
but this is how they are usually formed.
The clauses can be reversed, but often
a comma is needed to indicate this:
'After she ate the cake, I ate the pie.’
Compound-complex sentence
Compound-complex sentences are a combination of compound sentences and
complex sentences. These sentences contain at least two independent clauses
that have been joined by a coordinator and at least one dependent clause that's
been joined by a subordinator.
Examples
Romy ate the croissant and I ate the pie after she ate the cake.
He cried because she laughed and I did too.
Umbrellas will be used or raincoats will be worn unless we want to get wet.
Sentence fragment
Sentence fragments are incomplete sentences - missing either the subject or the
predicate. However, the fragment still makes sense within the text as a whole.
Examples
I can’t even.
Eat. Sleep. Rinse. Repeat.
We often use fragments in spoken conversation.
Example
Speaker A: How did you sleep last night?
Speaker B: Not well.
A quick summary of the sentence structures in English is provided on the

following page.

Sentence structure Description

Simple one independent clause
Compound two or more independent clauses joined by coordinators
Complex one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses
joined by subordinators
Compound-complex at least three clauses, where there are at least two
independent clauses and at least one dependent clause
Fragment no complete clauses
When determining the structure of a sentence, ensure you consider only conjunctions
that join clauses together. Ignore conjunctions that join words or phrases, as these
don't contribute to the overall sentence structure. For example, in the sentence
'Alannah and Tran ate some cakej we can ignore the conjunction 'and' as it's joining
two proper nouns, not two clauses.
Scan the code or click here to view a video about determining sentence
a stuctures, on our webpage of further resources.

Determine the sentence structure of each of the following sentences.
1 Hadi and I went outside because it was too hot inside.

2 There are sixty minutes in an hour and there are twenty-four hours in a day.
3 Every weekend we head to the beach.
4 Not even close.
5 I remember thinking that skinny jeans would always stay in fashion.
6 Fridays are much better than Mondays when you think about it.
7 Swimming is an enjoyable hobby of mine.
8 If the cat gets to go out, the dog does too.
9 Ramsey would have attended the party but his flight was cancelled.
10 Do the gardening now or do it tomorrow; eventually, it's going to get done.

Semantics
Semantics is a branch of linguistics that involves the study of meaning - both
logical meaning and lexical (dictionary) meaning. It looks at the processes of
understanding and meaning-making involved when we consider words, phrases,
sentences and texts as a whole.
In this area of study, we consider two elements of semantics: semantic
domain and inference. You will learn about a third element of semantics,
semantic over-generalisation, when you study first-language acquisition in
Chapter 5.
Semantic domains
A semantic domain contains a group or range of words that have related
meanings. We organise words into particular domains when they have lexical
relationships with each other. This tends to produce words that occur together
frequently. In the semantic domain of 'snow', for example, we have words such
as 'flurry', 'blizzard' and 'snowstorm'; all of these words can be used to discuss
snow. This semantic domain can also include lexically related words, such as 'ski',
'downhill' and 'avalanche'.
We often use words from the same semantic domain to aid comprehension;
when words are lexically related, they are more easily and quickly understood.

For each of the following lexically related words, identify a valid semantic domain.
1 root, leaf, deciduous, annual, perennial

2 teacher, tradesperson, politician, farmer, guard
3 compose, duet, beat, harmony, finale

4 when, then, after, before, since
5 associate, relate, collaborate, partnership, participation
Inference
When a text - its words, phrases and sentences - contains information that is
not overt, we can derive meaning by inferring what it intends to convey, which
often relies on our cultural or social understanding of a particular context.
Example
Speaker A: Did you finish your homework last night?
Speaker B: I fell asleep as soon as I got home.

While Speaker B doesn’t seem to be answering Speaker A's question, by using

inference, Speaker A can deduce that Speaker B did not finish their homework,
because they fell asleep as soon as they got home. They can infer this because
the attitude of Speaker B is not hostile, so their response can be presumed to be
relevant to the question being asked.
Inferences can be made based on contextual clues such as the state of the
world at the time something is being heard or read, our attitudes, how we feel,
or our prior knowledge of a situation. Inference can allow us to detect sarcasm
and understand jokes, as well as make meaning out of idiomatic expressions. As
we gain competence in communication skills, we can quickly and accurately make
inferences to create meaning from our everyday exchanges.

For each of the scenarios below, identify what can be inferred about the various
elements of context. The first has been done for you.
1 a teacher reprimands a student for being out of uniform
We can infer that being in uniform is a school rule that has been made clear to
the student in the past. The teacher is in a position of authority, so we can also
infer that the student will show a degree of contrition. A school setting can also be
inferred, as it is unlikely a teacher would reprimand a student for being out of their
uniform elsewhere. We can thus also infer that the uniform is a school uniform, and
not any other type of uniform. Another element we can infer is that this is likely
to be a primary or secondary school setting, as tertiary institutions are culturally
unlikely to require students to wear uniforms.
2 a notification is sent to all staff members about the use of mobile phones in the
workplace
3 a boss sends a message to a worker asking them to come in for an extra shift
Phonetics and phonology

Phonetics is the study of how we make speech sounds and how we classify
them. A person’s language background is not relevant when studying phonetics,
as the focus is on the physical properties of sounds and speech production.
Phonology, on the other hand, does consider a person’s language background.
It's the study of the patterns that speech sounds form within a language, how
sounds are organised and the variations that occur both within languages and
between them.
This section provides a brief overview of phonetics and phonology, focusing
on the prosodic features of speech and providing an introduction to the
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), a notation system that helps to
represent meaningful sounds.

rosodic features
Prosody looks at the elements of speech that exist outside single sounds such as
vowels or consonants; it is the study of the acoustic elements of our voices that
affect whole sequences of syllables.
Five prosodic features are considered in VCE English Language: pitch,
intonation, stress, tempo and volume. These features are properties of
syllables, words and phrases, rather than individual sounds. The following
explanations of prosodic features include typical transcript conventions relevant
to each feature. When there are two spaced symbols, they would appear on
either side of the words with the particular prosodic feature (e.g. the arrows in
't Hello f indicate that the word 'hello' is spoken with a high pitch). When the
symbol appears by itself, it occurs at the end of the utterance with the particular
prosodic feature (e.g. 'Hello?' would be spoken with a questioning intonation).
Pitch
Pitch is the relative height, ranging between high and low, of auditory sound.
It is natural for the pitch of our voice to rise and become high when we are
excited or scared, and be lower when we wish to sound serious or authoritative.
Physiologically, pitch is determined by the speed at which our vocal folds vibrate.
-> See pages 77-83 to read about anatomy and sound production.
In a spoken text transcript, pitch is indicated using symbols as shown in the table.
Type of pitch Transcript term Transcript convention

High high pitch 'h 1s
Low low pitch 4/ 4/
Rising rising pitch /
Falling falling pitch \

The pitch of a person's voice can influence how they are perceived. Those
who speak with a higher pitch are often judged as being less authoritative,
intelligent and confident. Scan the code or click here to read the article Els™
'What’s behind the obsession over whether Elizabeth Holmes intentionally
lowered her voice?’
Do you judge a person based on their pitch? Would you modify the pitch of your
voice in order to be viewed differently by others? Discuss in pairs and then share
with the class.

Intonation
The prosodic feature of intonation relates to the patterns of pitch variation
across phrases, clauses and sentences. In fact, when we speak, we don't actually
produce 'sentences' in the written sense of the word, but 'intonation units', which
are units of speech that have a single intonation contour.
Intonation can affect the syntax as well as the semantics of what we say.
Falling intonation can indicate surety, absoluteness and finality. Consider a
caregiver saying 'that's enough’ to a child with falling intonation; the child would
hopefully understand that the caregiver is being serious when asking them
to stop doing something and that there may be consequences if they don't.
Contrastingly, if someone says 'that's enough’ with rising intonation while you
are pouring a drink for them, they are likely to be indicating Iightheartedly that
you should stop pouring. These are semantic differences that have occurred due
to intonation.
Syntactically, the sentence type of an utterance can differ based on
intonation. Adding a rising intonation in an intonation unit, for example, can turn
almost any declarative into an interrogative.
Examples
You left directions.
You left directions?
Try saying these two sentences out loud. The first would be interpreted as
a declarative statement of fact - that the person has left directions. The
second would be delivered with rising intonation, also known as questioning
intonation in this case, and a listener could infer that the speaker is questioning
whether directions were left at all.
Many speakers in Australia and New Zealand use a particular type of intonation
called High Rising Terminal (HRT). This type of intonation occurs when rising
intonation is used on declaratives when no question is implied. HRT is considered
to be a method of engaging listeners and being inclusive.
In a spoken text transcript, intonation is typically indicated using punctuation
as shown in the table.
Type of intonation Transcript term Transcript convention

Continuing continuing intonation /
Final final intonation
Rising questioning intonation ?
Falling falling intonation or falling \

pitch

Stress
Stress is the intensity that is placed upon a syllable within a word. The speaker
may increase the length, volume or pitch of the syllable compared to its
surrounding syllables, to create emphasis.
Stress can be used to alter the semantic meaning of a sentence. For example,
the sentence 'I think that's my bag’ can mean different things depending on
which word is stressed. In the following example, each sentence includes
additional information to indicate the differences in meaning.
Examples
I think that’s my bag. (but you may disagree)
I think that’s my bag. (but I’m not entirely sure)
I think that’s my bag. (not this one)
I think that’s my bag. (not someone else’s)
I think that’s my bag, (not something else)
In a spoken text transcript, stress is typically indicated by underlining the

stressed syllable or word.
Type of stress Transcript term Transcript convention

Stress stress/emphasis word
Tempo
Tempo relates to the pace (speed) with which an intonation unit is delivered. It is
often linked to the communication of emotion or intent within a conversational
exchange. For example, someone who speaks very quickly might be in a hurry,
or excited; whereas someone speaking slowly could be taking particular care to
ensure that listeners can hear or absorb what they're saying.
There is no standard list of the effects changes in tempo might have, as it

entirely relies on the context. If you're analysing a spoken transcript and notice
changes in tempo, this is often something worth discussing in relation to the
surrounding intonation units and the situational context.
In a spoken text transcript, tempo is typically indicated using musical terms.
Type of tempo Transcript term Transcript convention

Fast allegro, fast <A A>
Slow lento, slow <L L>
Volume
Volume is the relative increase or decrease in decibels across an intonation unit.
Increasing volume on a single syllable can create stress. When it occurs across a
longer stretch of an intonation unit, it must be considered within the situational
context.

For example, an increase in volume as it progresses across an intonation unit

can create a crescendo effect, which generates excitement by helping to create
suspense. A decrease in volume over an entire intonation unit, however, could
indicate secrecy or the need to be circumspect.
In a spoken text transcript, volume is indicated using musical terms.
Type of volume Transcript term Transcript convention

Loud forte, loud <F F>
Especially loud fortissimo, very loud <FF FF>
Soft piano, soft 
Especially soft pianissimo, very soft <PP PP>
Increasingly louder crescendo <CRE CRE>
Increasingly softer diminuendo <DIM DIM>

1 How does prosody change the meaning of a sentence? In pairs or small groups,
create some sentences and take turns modifying your prosodic features to change
their meaning.
2 In a conversation, what would be some reasons that someone would speak faster
than normal?
3 In what contexts would it be appropriate to make your volume softer or louder?
Why?
4 Think about some of your recent interactions with others. Have there been
situations where you’ve modified your prosody in order to achieve a purpose?
Share this with the class.
Introduction to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

When linguists began to record different languages and accents around the
world, they found it difficult to represent every sound in every language using
a single alphabet. Many would use their own methodology of transcribing
particular sounds, such as the difference between an 'n' and an 'ng', but this
created bigger issues when sharing data and information with each other. First
published in 1888, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was created to solve
these problems. Written and revised by the International Phonetic Association
(an organisation that promotes the study of phonetics), the alphabet has
developed overtime.

THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET (revised to 2015)

CONSONANTS (PULMONIC) © 2015 IPA
Bilabial 1 abiodental Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
Plosive P b t d t 4 C J k g q G ?
Nasal in nj n a JI g N
Trill B r R
Tap or Flap V f t
Fricative p f V e d s z J 3 § < 9 j x y X * h V h fi
Lateral
fricative i b
Approximant u J I j iq
Lateral
approximant 1 I X L
Symbols to the right in a cell arc voiced, to the left arc voiceless. Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible.
CONSONANTS (NON-PULMONIC) VOWELS
Clicks Voiced implosives Ejectives Central
6 Bilabial >
Bilabial Examples:
| Dental cf Dental/alveolar p’ Bilabial
J (Postjalveolar J* Palatal t Dental/alveolar
k. Velar
Palatoalveolar Velar
|| Alveolar lateral
(j Uvular S Alveolar fricative
OTHER SYMBOLS
A\ Voiceless labial-velar fricative Q Alveolo-palatal fricatives Where symbols appear in pairs, the one
to the right represents a rounded vowel.
W Voiced labial-velar approximate J Voiced alveolar lateral flap
fj Simultaneous j* and X SUPRASEGMENTALS
Voiced labial-palatal approximate
I Primary stress ,
H Voiceless epiglotial fricative
Affricates and double articulations ,founo tijon
5 Voiced epiglotial fricative can be represented by two symbols ts Secondary stress
? Epiglotial plosive joined by a tie bar if necessary.
Long e:
’ Half-long e’
DIACRITICS Some diacritics may be placed above a symbol with a descender, e.g.
Extra-short C
o
Voiceless no do Breathy voiced b a Dental t d | Minor (foot) group
V
Voiced s t Creaky voiced b a Apical t d || Major (intonation) group
h Aspirated
th dh Linguolabial t d Laminal t d . Syllable break ji.aekt
>
More rounded 0 W Labialized tw dw Nasalized e Linking (absence of a break)
c
Less rounded 0< J Palatalized tj dj n Nasal release dn TONES AND WORD ACCENTS
Advanced u♦ Velarized tY d' 1 Lateral release
d1 LEVEL CON TOUR
c T "I Extra
Retracted e Pharyngealized tT d? No audible release d1 e or 1 high § or 4 Rising
1 High e N Falling
Centralized e ~ Velarized or pharyngealized t e
4 Mid p 4 High
x
Mid-centralized e Raised e <4 = voiced alveolar fricative) e 1 rising
-| Low X J Low
e v A rising
Syllabic n Lowered
9 voiced bilabial approximant)
■
1 Extra X zxj Rising

1
e J low C 1 falling
Non-syllabic e Advanced Tongue Root e A Downstep f Global rise
* Rhoticity a Retracted Tongue Root e f L'pstep X Global fall
Source: IPA Chart, http://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/ipa-chart, available under a Creative

Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License. Copyright © 2015 International Phonetic Association.

At first glance, the IPA seems daunting as it looks like a complex set of secret
symbols, but these will make sense as you learn more about it. Many of the
letters have Latin and Greek origins, but some exist only within the IPA.
Each letter represents a single unit of sound, a phoneme, which is the
smallest distinct speech sound that can be used to create meaning within a word.
For example, if you change the phoneme 'a' in 'cat' to an 'o’, you create a new
word, 'cot'.
The IPA also contains diacritics, which are special symbols that are placed
above, below or next to a phoneme to indicate different variations on that
phoneme. For example, a tilde (~) drawn below a phoneme indicates that a creaky
voice is used when producing that sound.
In VCE English Language, our focus is on Australian English, so many of the
letters and symbols in the full IPA are not needed. IPA transcription conventions
for Australian vowel sounds include those published in The pronunciation of
English in Australia (Mitchell and Delbridge 1965) and in the article 'An acoustic
study of broad, general and cultivated Australian English vowels' in the Australian
Journal of Linguistics by Harrington, Cox and Evans (1997). In VCE English
Language, the Harrington, Cox and Evans transcription method is used.
In Chapter 4, you will study phonetics and phonology and the IPA in further
detail.
Discourse and pragmatics

When we look at words in terms of semantics, we study them according to
meaning. When we look at words in terms of how they construct a discourse,
we study them according to how speakers use meaning as part of a conversation.
What we mean is not always what we say, and when we consider how language
is used within a given context and how context contributes to meaning, we are
studying pragmatics: how we use language naturally in order to communicate
with each other. As part of this subject, you will analyse conversational
transcripts and describe how people create meaning in relation to who they are,
where they are, what they’re doing, and what they intend to achieve.
This section provides a brief overview of discourse and pragmatics and will
focus only on paralinguistic features. You will study pragmatics and analyse
discourse in much greater depth in Units 3 and 4.
Paralinguistic features
Paralinguistic features are features of speech that help to distinguish it from
writing. These are the elements of the spoken word that are hard to transcribe,
even using the IPA. As such, we need special symbols in order to transcribe them
into a written form.

Some types of paralinguistic features include vocal effects and non-verbal

communication.
Vocal effects such as coughs, laughter and whispering can add meaning to a
conversation. Some speakers, for example, use coughing while speaking in order
to convey sarcasm. Laughter within speech can indicate humour being intended
by the speaker and can also act to reduce social distance and create intimacy.
Whispering can be used to indicate secrecy or to demonstrate respect for others
in a quiet environment such as a library.
Non-verbal communication, such as body language, gaze and gesture, can also
add to a conversation. For instance, shrugging the shoulders can indicate not
knowing the answer to something, and rolling the eyes can indicate annoyance or
disbelief.
When not a part of a person’s natural voice, creakiness and breathiness are
also features that can add meaning to a conversation. For example, breathiness
can add elements of sensuality when communicating. Creakiness is sometimes
referred to as 'vocal fry’ and can be used to make a statement sound more
authoritative, in particular when it is coupled with a lowered pitch.
When exploring a discourse, it’s important to consider the paralinguistic

features of the text. These elements will add a layer of pragmatic understanding
beyond semantic meaning.

Describe some of the possible meanings of the following uses of paralinguistics.
1 winking
2 shaking your head back and forth
3 tapping your index finger to the side of your forehead

4 holding the palm of your hand horizontal in front of you and tilting it side to side
5 looking away from someone who is talking to you
6 staring at someone intently while remaining silent

Practical strategies
Understanding the metalanguage

In each chapter of this book, you are introduced to metalanguage for identifying
and describing language use. It is crucial that you regularly revise the
metalanguage and practise identifying language in a range of texts. One way to
do this is to create a dictionary containing each new metalanguage term, using
accurate definitions and annotated examples from real-life language excerpts to
demonstrate your understanding of how language functions.
An example entry in a metalanguage dictionary is provided below. In this entry,
the student has included a recipe as an example, and described the function of its
verbs.
METALANGUAGE DICTIONARY
Verbs
Verbs convey what the subject (the main noun phrase in a sentence) is
doing, and can be used to indicate past, present and future tense.
In this recipe, the
verbs function as
Example: Fruit smoothie recipe specific command
words to convey the
actions (presented as
Ingredients
chronological steps)
2 bananas, peeled to be followed by the
1 mango, peeled, pit removed person making the

smoothie.
3 peaches, peeled, cut, seed removed
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup whole milk
Conveys the action to

Method be completed. All verbs
1 Put the peeled and cut fruit in a blender. Cover the fruit with milk. in the 'method' section
Add the sugar. indicate the present

tense.
2 Blend until perfectly smooth and no chunks are left. Serve
immediately.
insight • ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 © Insight Publications

Practising annotating texts
Knowing how to annotate texts is a crucial skill for your VCE English Language
studies. In Year 11, annotating texts will help you to accurately identify language
features, as well as describe their purpose. By following a methodical process
that you can repeat across a range of different texts, you will develop confidence
in dealing with language in a systematic and objective way. The following steps
provide an example of how you might go about annotating a text.
Step 1: Read the text without making any notes. Take your time and, if necessary,
read the text a second time to ensure you fully grasp the meaning.
Step 2: Identify the following factors that influence language, making notes on
the text.
> function > context > text type
> register > field > authorial intent
> tenor > mode
> audience > setting
Step 3: Identify examples of language features for each of the subsystems.
As a general rule, aim to identify features that you think you can explain. For
example, you could identify a range of nouns in a text that come from a particular
semantic domain, or perhaps recognise that the writer uses pronouns in a way
that allows them to develop a close tenor with the target audience. A table of
common features to consider from each subsystem is provided below.
Morphology roots and stems, free and bound morphemes, inflectional and
derivational morphemes
Lexicology the different word classes, function and content words
Syntax phrases, clauses, sentences (including structure and function)
Semantics semantic domain, inference
Phonetics and phonology prosodic features (for spoken texts)
Discourse and pragmatics paralinguistic features (for spoken texts)
Initially, annotating texts can seem overwhelming, but remember that you don’t
need to identify every language feature. Instead, aim to identify language features
that you can connect to the register, tenor, audience, context or function/s of the
text. For example, you may see that declarative sentences are used to uphold the
text's referential function.
Scan the code or click here to view an example of an annotated text.

UNIT
LANGUAGE AND
COMMUNICATION
Area of Study 2: Language acquisition
Chapters 4-7 focus on the knowledge and skills required for Unit 1, Area of Study 2:
Language acquisition. The English Language Study Design outlines the following key
knowledge points:*
♦ the characteristics and developmental stages for first- and additional-language
learners
♦ the universal grammar and usage-based theories of language acquisition
♦ commonalities and differences between learning a language as a young

child and as an adult, including first- and additional-language learning, and
multilingualism
♦ code switching in language learning
-» the subsystem of language, phonetics and phonology and the International

Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
♦ the phonological, morphological, lexical, syntactic and semantic development

of language in children, including speech sound production
♦ understanding of linguistic field work, including acquiring consent
♦ metalanguage to discuss how language is acquired.

Each chapter introduces the concepts and metalanguage relevant to the acquisition
of language. Chapter 4 covers the production of speech and the International
Phonetic Alphabet, and Chapter 5 provides an introduction to language acquisition,
including theories of language acquisition and the developmental stages for first
and additional-language learners. Chapter 6 examines language learning further,
discussing code switching and multilingualism and the differences between
learning a language as a child and as an adult. Finally, Chapter 7 guides you through
the collection and analysis of linguistic data as you draw upon your knowledge of
language acquisition to undertake field work.
These chapters include comprehensive coverage of the metalanguage,
accompanied by worked examples, activities and bonus content to help you extend
your knowledge and develop your understanding of how we acquire language.

CHAPTER
Speech and the
04 International
Phonetic Alphabet
I
In Chapter 4, we examine phonetics and phonology in more detail
and explain how speech sounds are classified. This chapter explores
how the speech sound system is modified to create different sounds,
paying particular attention to vowels and consonants, and examines the
connected speech processes that make speech more effortless. We use the
International Phonetic Alphabet along with the Harrington, Cox and Evans
method of phonemic transcription of Australian English.
The knowledge and understanding of metalanguage you will acquire as

you work through Chapter 4 will lay down important foundations for your
study of language acquisition in later chapters.

♦ the subsystem of language, phonetics and phonology and the International
Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

Speech sound The process of the production of a speech sound: an airstream
production starting in the lungs is pushed up through the trachea (windpipe)
and passes through the oral and nasal cavities (mouth and
nose). Speech sounds are modified by various speech organs.
Consonants Sounds that are produced when airflow is obstructed or

restricted in the vocal tract (the air passages in which speech is
produced).
Voicing Includes consonant sounds that are either voiced (made when
the vocal folds - or vocal cords - vibrate) or voiceless (made
when there is no vibration in the vocal folds).
© Insight Publications insight ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 75

Chapter 4 Speech and the International Phonetic Alphabet
Place of articulation Physical location where a consonant sound is produced.

Locations include the bilabial, dental, labiodental, alveolar,
palato-alveolar, palatal, velar, glottal and labial-velar.
Manner of articulation The way a consonant sound is made. Includes plosive, nasal,
fricative, affricate, lateral and approximant.
Vowels Sounds that are produced when airflow remains relatively

unrestricted compared to consonant sounds.
Height How high or low the tongue is in relation to the roof of the mouth
when a vowel sound is produced.
Backness The position of the tongue in relation to the back of the mouth
when a vowel sound is produced.
Roundedness Refers to the lips being rounded or unrounded when a vowel

sound is produced.
Connected speech Changes in pronunciation, for ease of articulation.

processes
Assimilation The process that occurs when a speaker makes one sound
segment sound similar to an adjacent or neighbouring sound
segment.
Vowel reduction The process that occurs when a speaker reduces the quality of a
vowel sound.
Elision The process that occurs when a speaker drops a sound segment.
Insertion The process that occurs when a speaker adds a sound where
there wouldn't normally be one.
Using the International Phonetic Alphabet

In Year 11, you will learn how to read and transcribe the International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA) in relation to examples of children's language and Australian
English. You will be expected to be able to use the IPA chart for these
transcriptions, but you are not expected to memorise the chart. For the purposes
of transcription of Australian English, the Harrington, Cox and Evans (1997)
method is used in this textbook.
Transcribing sounds
There are two methods for transcribing sounds into IPA: the phonemic method
and the phonetic method.
Transcribing phonemically is referred to as broad transcription and it involves
using a single symbol to represent each unique sound within a language. This is
the method commonly used in dictionaries, as it represents the abstract sounds
within that language rather than any particular individual's pronunciation.

Speech and the International Phonetic Alphabet L Chapter 4
Phonemic transcriptions are represented by bracketing the transcription

using slashes. For example, using the Harrington, Cox and Evans method of
transcription, the word 'church' would be phonemically written as /tf3itj/and
'spit' would be /spit/.
Phonetic transcriptions (narrow transcription), on the other hand, involve
transcribing a speech sound exactly as it is uttered, including all individual
variations, based on the context. For example, some phonemes (single units of
sound) may be breathy or not, depending on the surrounding sounds. If you hold
your hand in front of your mouth and say 'spit' and then 'pit': you should feel a puff
of air when you say 'pit' that you don't feel when you say 'spit'. This is because the
/p/ phoneme is phonetically [p] in 'spit' but [ph] in 'pit'. The 'h' diacritic represents
the puff of air you feel and is referred to as aspiration. Phonetic transcriptions are
transcribed using square brackets, as you will see later in this section.
See pages 64-70 to learn about phonetics and phonology.
We only transcribe what we hear, which will often not match the spelling of a word.
Double letters, for example, are transcribed as single phonemes unless the letter is
explicitly pronounced twice. We would transcribe 'settle' as [setal], for example, and
not [settal]. In comparison, in the word 'bookkeeper' sometimes both [k] sounds are
articulated, depending on the speaker - [bukkiipa].
Speech sound production

To produce speech sounds in English, air is expelled from the lungs, passes
through the vocal folds and goes out through the mouth and/or nose. Different
sounds are made when the airflow is modified.
Single speech sounds are referred to as phonemes, and there are two main
categories of phonemes: consonants and vowels.
Consonant sounds
Consider what happens to airflow when you articulate (utter or pronounce) the
vowel 'a' compared with when you articulate the consonant 'p'. Try saying the
vowel 'o' compared with the consonant't'. As you articulate the vowel phonemes,
there will be minimal obstruction to airflow, whereas articulating the consonant
phonemes requires some sort of obstruction.
Consonants are produced when airflow is obstructed or restricted through

the vocal tract. They are described according to the place and manner of
articulation, and whether the phonemes are voiced or voiceless.

Place of articulation
Several articulators are involved in the production of consonants: lips, teeth,
alveolar ridge (the bony ridge behind the upper front teeth), tongue, hard
palate (the bony roof of the mouth), velum (soft palate - the fleshy part of the
roof of the back of the mouth), uvula (the small, cone-shaped projection at the
back of the soft palate), pharynx (the area behind the tongue and soft palate),
vocal folds (or vocal cords, located in the larynx or voice box) and glottis (the
opening between the vocal folds).
A place of articulation is the point at which an obstruction occurs and the
consonant phoneme is produced. Usually this point is one of the fixed structures
of the oral cavity (e.g. hard palate) and the constriction takes place when the
articulator (usually the tongue) moves to that location to obstruct the airflow.
The nine places of articulation for consonants in English are listed below.
> bilabial: both lips are used to articulate sounds, e.g. /m/, /b/
> dental: the tip of the tongue and both upper and lower teeth are used,
e.g. /0/ as in 'thin', /d/ as in 'this'
> labiodental: the upper teeth and lower lip are used, e.g. /v/, /f/
> alveolar: the tip or blade of the tongue comes into contact with the alveolar
ridge, the area between the upper teeth and the hard palate, e.g. /n/, /s/, /z/
> palato-alveolar: the tongue comes into contact with the back of the alveolar
ridge, e.g. /j7 as in 'ship', 1^1 as in 'leisure'
> palatal: the tongue comes into contact with the hard palate, e.g. /j/ as in 'you'
> velar: the back of the tongue comes into contact with the soft palate,
e.g. /k/, /g/
> glottal: airflow is obstructed in the glottis, e.g. /h/

> labial-velar: a sound is made by simultaneous articulation at the lips
(labial-) and the velum (soft part of the roof of the mouth, -velar), e.g. /w/
a bilabial
b dental
c labiodental
d alveolar
e palato-alveolar
f palatal
g velar
h glottal
i labial-velar

Speech and the International Phonetic Alphabet Chapter 4
Manner of articulation
Manner of articulation describes the way a consonant is made. This involves
either a complete, partial, narrow or intermittent constriction of the articulators.
> plosive: a complete stop or closure and then an explosion of air, e.g. /b/, /p/
> nasal: a complete closure at some point in the mouth and lower soft palate
so air escapes through the naval cavity, e.g. /m/, /n/
> fricative: a narrowing between articulators creates friction as air passes,

e.g. /f/, /z/
> affricate: begins like a plosive but transitions into a fricative upon release,
e-g- /tj/, /dj/
> lateral: air passes round the side of the tongue, e.g. /I/
> approximant: very little obstruction, sometimes referred to as semivowels,
e.g. /w/, /j/
■ To identify the manner and placement of articulation of various sounds, try placing one
hand at the base of your neck and the other in front of your mouth. When you articulate
phonemes, can you feel your vocal folds vibrating through your hand near your neck? Which
articulators are engaged? Notice what happens to your tongue as you say a phoneme
sound. Using your hands will help you tune in to how and where a sound is produced.

Label the following vocal tract features on the diagram below:
1 the places of articulation (bilabial, dental, labiodental, alveolar, palato-alveolar,
palatal, velar, glottal and labial-velar)
2 the articulators (lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, tongue, hard palate, velum (soft palate),
uvula, pharynx, vocal folds and glottis)

Voice
Consonants in English will fit into one of two categories: voiced or voiceless.
These phonemes are described according to how the vocal folds respond when a
speech sound is made.
> Voiced phonemes are made when the vocal folds vibrate, e.g. /v/, /d/ and /b/
> Voiceless phonemes are made when there is no vibration in the vocal
folds, e.g. /t/, /s/ and /f/
The table below lists the consonants used in Australian English. Where there is
more than one entry in a table cell, the phonemes on the right are voiced and the
phonemes on the left are voiceless. Phonemes alone in a cell are voiced, except
/h/, which is voiceless.
Bilabial Labial Labio Dental Alveolar Pa la to- Palatal Velar Glottal
velar dental alveolar
Plosive
P b t d k g
Nasal m n
Fricative f V 0 d S Z J 3 h
Affricate
f
Lateral
1
Approximant W J j
The table below shows how to pronounce each of the consonants in Australian
English.
Plosives Nasals Fricatives Affricates Laterals Approximates
/p/ Pit /m/ mit /f/ fat /tf/ chill /I/ lip /w/ whip
/b/ bit /n/ nit /v/ vat Jill /j/ rip
/t/ tip /n/ sing /e/ thick /j/ yip
/d/ dip /d/ this
/k/ could /s/ sip
/g/ good /z/ zip
/// shimmer
/3/ vision
/h/ hit

Naming consonants
When we name consonants, the voicing is described first, the place of
articulation second and the manner of articulation third. For example, 'a voiceless
alveolar fricative' describes the /s/ phoneme; 'a voiced bilabial plosive' describes
the /b/ phoneme. When a sound appears across multiple places of articulation,
you should choose the place that most accurately reflects the speaker's
pronunciation. The phonemes /t/ and /d/, for example, can be produced with the
tongue touching the teeth (dental), the tongue touching the alveolar ridge just
behind the teeth (alveolar) or the tongue touching just behind the alveolar ridge
(palato-alveolar).
Vowel sounds
Vowels are produced when airflow remains relatively unrestricted compared to
consonants. They are voiced phonemes, produced with vibration of the vocal
folds. Vowels are classified according to the positioning of the tongue and the
degree of lip rounding.
Tongue position
Vertical tongue position refers to how high or low the tongue is when a vowel
is produced.
Position Description
close the tongue is close to the roof of the mouth
close-mid the tongue s between the middle of the mouth and the roof of the mouth
mid the tongue s in the middle of the mouth
open-mid the tongue s lower than the middle of the mouth
open the tongue s low
Horizontal tongue position refers to where the tongue is positioned when a

vowel is produced. As it refers to the tongue's position in relation to the back of
the mouth, this aspect is also referred to as backness.
Position Description
front the tongue is at the front of the mouth
central the tongue is in the middle of the mouth
back the tongue is at the back of the mouth
Some vowels don't fit neatly into these tongue positions; these are described
using the term near along with the name of the position closest to where the
vowel is produced. For example, the vowel /ae/ in 'cat' (/kaet/) has a near open-
mid front position, and the vowel /□/ in 'put' (/pot/) has a close near back
position.

Lip rounding
Whether the lips are rounded or unrounded varies in the production of a vowel.
Consider what happens to your lips when you say the word 'choose' compared
with when you say the word 'breeze.' Your lips become rounded as you articulate
the /«/ vowel phoneme in 'choose' (/tfuz/) whereas your lips are unrounded when
you articulate the /i:/ vowel phoneme in 'breeze' (/bji z/).
The vowel chart below is included on the International Phonetic Alphabet
Chart. It illustrates the height, backness and rounding of vowels. Using it will help
you gain a better understanding of how vowel sounds are classified.
VOWELS
to the right represents a rounded vowel.
Source: I PA Chart, http://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/ipa-chart,

available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright © 2015 International Phonetic Association.
Types of vowels
Vowel type Explanation Example

Monophthong Occurs when a single vowel Say the words ‘ten’ and ‘fool’ and
phoneme is produced in a listen to the articulation of the
syllable. Often described as single vowel phonemes.
a 'pure vowel' sound. There
is no gliding like there is in a
diphthong.
Diphthong Occurs when articulators glide Say the words ‘coin’ and ‘scout’
from one position to another and listen to the gliding vowels.
in the production of the vowel When gliding, your mouth will
sound. move to reposition itself to
articulate the second vowel sound.
Schwa A vowel that is very short or Say the first sound /a/ in ‘above’
reduced when articulated; and the first vowel in ‘balloon’.
always unstressed; represented
by /a/.

Speech and the International Phonetic Alphabet
The vowel sounds in Australian English can be viewed in the table below.
Monophthongs Diphthongs
/i:/ peat /aei/ hay
/i/ Pit /ae/ high
/e:/ pair /oi/ hoy
/e/ pet /aeo/ how
/ae/ pat /ott/ no
/e:/ part /iq/ here
/e/ putt /uo/ tour (sometimes)
/□/ pot
/o:/ port
/u/ put
/«:/ boot
/a:/ pert
/a/ (called a schwa) apart
Scan the code or click here to access audio of the Australian

vowel phonemes.
Sounds change across time, particularly vowels. The table above shows 'tour' as
being pronounced [toe] (to-uh). This is not always the case in Australian English -
you will also hear it pronounced [to:] (rhyming with 'four'). Similarly, 'hair' used to be
pronounced more like [he:a] (he-uh) than the current [he:]. You'll learn more about
vowel changes in English across time in Unit 2.
Naming vowels
When we name vowels, the vertical tongue
position is described first, the horizontal
tongue position second and the lip
roundedness third. The /e/ phoneme,
for example, is described as a close-mid
front unrounded vowel, and the
/e/ phoneme is described as
a near open central
unrounded vowel.


1 Classify each of the following consonant sounds according to whether they are
voiced or voiceless, and the place and manner of articulation. The first one has
been completed for you as an example.
Consonant /b/ as /m/ as /d/ as /t/ as in /z/ as in /s/ as in /n/ as

sound in 'boat' in 'mint' in 'day' 'talk' 'zone' 'song' in 'nose'
Voiced/ voiced
voiceless
Place of bilabial
articulation
Manner of plosive
articulation
2 Classify each of the vowel sounds according to tongue position and lip rounding.
The first one has been completed for you as an example.
Vowel sound 111 as in /ae/ as /a/ as in /u/ as in /e/ as in /□/ as in

'hid' in 'bat' 'about' 'put' 'bet' 'cloth'
Vertical tongue close
position (close,
close-mid,
mid, open-mid,
open)
Horizontal front
tongue
position (front,
central, back)
Rounded/ unrounded
unrounded
3 Using your full name, create a diagram or table that illustrates the consonant
and vowel sounds that are articulated when your name is spoken. Present your
diagram or table to your class. Include the following information: voice, place and
manner of articulation, tongue position and lip rounding. An example has been
provided on the next page. Note that the double't' in Pitt is represented as a
single phoneme - this is because we don't pronounce two /t/ sounds when we
say it.

B R A D P 1 TT
IPA [b] [j] [ae] [d] [p] [i] [t]
Voice voiced voiced n/a voiced voiceless n/a voiceless
Place bilabial palato- n/a alveolar bilabial n/a alveolar
alveolar
Manner plosive approxi- n/a plosive plosive n/a plosive
mant
Vertical n/a n/a near n/a n/a Near n/a

tongue open close
position or near or near
open- close-
mid mid
Horizontal n/a n/a front n/a n/a front n/a
tongue
position
Rounded/ n/a n/a un n/a n/a un n/a
unrounded rounded rounded
Connected speech processes

Imagine what you would sound like if you articulated every sound in a word,
across an entire sentence. Speaking like this would not only be hard work, it
would also sound unnatural. When we speak naturally, we tend to connect
sounds together, making them easier to say. There are four connected speech
processes: assimilation, vowel reduction, elision and insertion.
Assimilation
Assimilation is a connected speech process that occurs when speakers make one
sound segment sound similar to a neighbouring one. Consider how you would say
the following sentence, as naturally as possible: 'I like a Vegemite sandwich’. Let's
focus on what happens when you say the word 'sandwich'. Firstly, you probably
drop the /d/ consonant sound, [sasnwitf] ('sanwich'). If you pronounce the word
'sandwich' the way many people do, it probably sounds more like [saemwitf]
('samwich'). This is because the alveolar nasal /n/ sound assimilates to the
labial-velar /w/ sound by changing the alveolar to a bilabial /m/ sound. In this
way, [sasndwitf] ('sandwich') becomes [saemwitf] ('samwich'), or even [sasmitf]
('sammich').

Vowel reduction
Vowel reduction is a connected speech process in which vowel sounds change
and the quality is consequently reduced. Vowel reduction tends to make the
vowel sounds short, making some speech sound unclear or relaxed. Consider how
you say the word 'banana'. If you pronounce the word naturally, it might sound
more like [baneina] ('benaneh') than [benerne] ('banana'). The initial and final
/e/ vowel sounds are reduced to a schwa: a short, unstressed sound represented
by the I PA symbol /a/.
Elision
When a speaker drops a sound segment, this is known as elision. It usually involves
the omission of an unstressed vowel, consonant or syllable. Consider how you say
the word 'library'. Through the process of elision, the word is most likely pronounced
[laibj i] ('lie-bri') rather than the fully articulated [laibjeu i], as a whole
syllable is elided. As another example, many people pronounce the word 'chocolate'
as [tfoklat] ('choklet') rather than [tjokalat]. In this case, the schwa vowel in the
middle of the word is elided, making it easier to say in connected speech.
Insertion
When a speaker adds a sound where there wouldn’t normally be one, this is
called insertion. It usually occurs when a word ending with a vowel is immediately
followed by a word that begins with a vowel, or when two consonants in a row
are difficult to articulate.
Consider how a speaker would naturally say 'Anna ate a pancake’: 'ate' is likely
to be articulated as [jaeit] ('rate') as the speaker transitions between the words
'Anna' and 'ate'. This is an example of r-insertion, which is common in Australian
English.
Similarly, a speaker might insert a schwa between two consonants. Take, for
instance, the word 'athlete': for some speakers, producing the combination of/0/
(th) and /I/ feels unnatural, so they include a schwa /a/ and say [aeOali :t] ('ath-e-
leet’) instead, while others do not insert a schwa, producing [ae9H:t] ('ath-leet').
Scan the code or click here to access a video about connected speech
processes, on our webpage of further resources.


S^S Scan t^,e c°de or c'lck here t0 watch a Channel 9 Today Show interview with
Daniel McConnell, a member of the public who recounts his experience
HtwK chasing down an offender whose vehicle crashed into a shopfront.
Identify the connected speech processes McConnell employs during the interview.
Fill in the table with examples from his speech. Compare your answers with the class.
Connected speech Example

process
Assimilation
Vowel reduction
Elision
Insertion

_ _ Understanding
CHAPTER
(jh language acquisition

In Chapter 5 you will gain fascinating insights into the developmental stages
of language acquisition. We examine how children acquire the phonological,
syntactic, morphological, lexical and semantic features of grammar in their
first five years, and look at some similarities and differences in the ways people
acquire first and additional languages.
You will find that the key knowledge you have learned throughout the previous
chapters is essential in developing your use of metalanguage and linguistic terms
when discussing language acquisition.

♦ the characteristics and developmental stages for first- and additional-
language learners
♦ the universal grammar and usage-based theories of language acquisition
the phonological, morphological, lexical, syntactic and semantic
development of language in children, including speech sound production
♦ metalanguage to discuss how language is acquired

Morphological Applying a grammatical pattern when it is not appropriate in
overgeneralisation adult language. When acquiring language, children tend to
overgeneralise the morphological patterns for plurality (e.g.
'tooths' for 'teeth') and verb tense (e.g. 'runned' for 'ran').
Critical period of The hypothesis that learning a new language to a level of native
language acquisition proficiency is biologically constrained to a critical period of life,
(the critical age beginning in early childhood and ending around puberty. During
hypothesis) this period the brain has a higher level of neuroplasticity (ability
to change). After this time, learning grammar is more difficult.

Understanding language acquisition Chapter 5
First-language The developmental processes by which children acquire a first

acquisition (native or home) language.
Universal grammar The theory that children are born with innate knowledge about
the structure of language, which allows them to adopt any
language. This innate grammar involves a set of language rules
that are assumed to be universal, shared by all languages of the
world.
Usage-based theory Proposes that children acquire language through social
interaction, in combination with their general cognitive skills; that
they gain knowledge and skills by using language throughout
their life; and that an important role is played by caregivers using
infant- or child-directed speech.
Additional-language The developmental processes by which a speaker acquires a
learning second or additional language.
The characteristics and developmental stages

of first-language learners
The ability to acquire language from birth through to early childhood is an
incredible feat of human intellect. Before children start kindergarten, they will
have come close to mastering the phonological, syntactic, morphological and
semantic features of grammar.
The acquisition of language in children occurs in developmental stages,
and the rate of development varies from child to child. However, across many
languages, children tend to reach milestones at similar ages and progress
through those milestones chronologically. From birth, their interactions with
primary caregivers and the stimulating world around them become crucial in
learning complex systems of language.
Do babies learn in the womb? Some studies suggest they do.

Scan the code or click here to find out more.
The pre-linguistic stage occurs from around birth to six months of age. During
this time babies begin to communicate in a basic form. They cry to signal needs
such as hunger, discomfort and pain. As babies develop more control of airflow to
make sounds, they begin to cough, gurgle and coo. They can recognise a primary
caregiver's voice and distinguish differences in tones of voice.
The babbling stage occurs at around six to twelve months of age, when
babies experiment with making repetitive vocal sounds. Consonant-vowel sounds
(the blend of consonant and vowel sounds) such as 'dadda' and 'mamma' are
frequent. Babies can be observed making all manner of noises, often entertaining
themselves and primary caregivers with vocal effects involving the vibration of

Chapter 5 Understanding language acquisition
their lips and poking out their tongues, colloquially known as the 'raspberry'. They
experiment with prosodic features such as intonation and volume, while physical
gestures begin to develop. As babies reach around twelve months of age, the
sounds they make when babbling become specific to the particular language they
are learning.
See pages 65-8 to learn about prosodic features.
At around twelve months of

age, a young child begins to
utter their first words and
starts to understand that
these are associated with
meaning. Between twelve
and eighteen months, they
enter the holophrastic
stage of language acquisition,
whereby they use one word to
communicate several meanings,
or the meaning of a whole
sentence. For example, 'ball' can
signal that the child recognises
the physical object, or it can
mean they want someone to
pass them a ball. To express the
intended meaning, the child
will vary the sound of the word
and use gestures, such as by
pointing to an object they want.
The two-word stage typically occurs around eighteen to twenty-four months
of age. During this time children develop a greater understanding of syntactic and
semantic relations as they begin to combine words. These two-word constructions
mainly consist of noun and verb combinations; for example, 'dadda come'.
Children enter the telegraphic stage of language development at
approximately twenty-four to thirty months of age. At this stage they
communicate meaning by combining content words (words that possess
meaning) while omitting grammatical function words; for example, 'I want pat
doggy’ and 'I go shops’.
The multi-word stage occurs at around thirty months of age, when children
begin to use grammatical function words along with content words. Their
sentences become more complex, demonstrating that their syntactic knowledge
has increased.


1 Identify the developmental stage for the following examples of children's speech.
Describe the key linguistic features that helped you determine the stage. The first
has been done for you.
Example Developmental stage Key features

puppies? Holophrastic Understands puppies.
Seeking confirmation
that they are looking at
puppies.
Ma ma ma ma ma
Doggy bye-bye
But Gracie is my dolly ... She

no go to bed, it's daytime!
Goo goo goo
Why do 1 have belly button?
1 putted my chocolate in my
bowl in my tummy
Pat kitty
Puppy big cuddle Bridie
2 Find videos of young children talking and identify their developmental stage.
Share your findings with your class.
3 Scan the code or click here to watch a YouTube video of twins Ej-S-H
ife
communicating with each other.
Why do the twins appear to be talking even though they are babbling?
Discuss with a friend, considering the phonological knowledge the twins are
demonstrating.

Subsystem development of language in

children
When children begin to acquire language, they experience developments in
each of the language subsystems. The subsystems are interconnected and
develop concurrently.
E $can tîe coc*e or c’’c*< here t0 see a chart that summarises the
development of subsystems in first-language acquisition.
you will find it helpful to refer to this chart as you read this section.
Phonological development
In children, phonological development generally has a sequential pattern and
coincides with the development stages of first-language acquisition. Children
learn the speech sounds and patterns in language, in particular the consonant
and vowel sounds. As their language develops, consonant and vowel sounds
blend together to make words. Children start to use intonation in speech and, by
the time they are four or five years old, almost all of their connected speech will
be intelligible.
Morphological development
Morphological development occurs when children start to understand the
patterns in the structure of words. Some of the earliest grammatical morphemes
(the smallest unit of meaning within a word) young children develop are
inflectional morphemes, such as those that show possession (e.g. 'Mummy's
flower').
Morphological overgeneralisation commonly occurs at this stage:
children apply patterns of inflection to irregular nouns (e.g. 'tooths' for 'teeth')
and irregular verbs (e.g. 'runned' for 'ran'). As their receptive and expressive
vocabulary increases, young children begin to use derivational morphemes
(affixes used to create new words) to modify root words and change meaning
(e.g. by adding the prefix 'un-' to the root 'happy' to form 'unhappy').
Lexical development
When children begin to utter their first words, between twelve and eighteen
months of age, they develop an expressive vocabulary of approximately fifty to
100 words. Notably, half of these words will be nouns. A 'vocabulary explosion'
occurs at around eighteen months of age, when their average expressive
vocabulary increases as they begin to use some verbs and adjectives.

Between two and three years old,

children begin to use pronouns and
contractions, and start to use adverbs
of location (e.g. 'here' and 'there').
Between the ages of three and four,
they consistently use contractions
and pronouns, and start to use
reflexive pronouns. More sophisticated
conjunctions are used by children
between the ages of four and five (e.g.
'when', 'so' and 'if'). Coinciding with their
curiosity about new concepts in the world
around them, children also ask questions
using 'why', 'when' and 'how'.
By the time they are seven, children can draw on a well-developed lexicon that
allows them to use language at a higher level. They make jokes, argue, explain and
can talk about past events in detail.
Syntactic development
Before children begin to form sentences, they must acquire words, particularly
nouns and verbs, that they will eventually combine. Between twelve and eighteen
months of age, they usually know up to 100 words. Once they have mastered an
expressive vocabulary of this size, sometime between eighteen months and two
years, they begin to combine two words, demonstrating some understanding of
semantic relations (e.g. noun + verb as in 'nanny go').
Somewhere between the ages of two and three, they can combine three or four
words in subject + verb + object format (e.g. 'Franky build blocks'). Coinciding with
their expanding vocabulary, by the time they are four they can combine four or five
words into sentences. They use compound sentences containing conjunctions,
frequently use complex sentences, and demonstrate an understanding of sentence
functions. At five, children combine four to eight words and begin to refine their
syntax. By the time they begin school, they have enough syntactic knowledge for
their speech to be understood by everyone they converse with.
Although age is often used to determine common developmental benchmarks, other

systems are also used to test a child's language development. Researchers refer to
the number of words children combine in a sentence as a Mean Length of Utterance
(MLU). Proposed by Roger Brown, MLU is a quantitative measure for determining
morphological and syntactic complexity. It is considered to be better than age as an
index for language development in children (Brown 1973). Higher MLU values result
in a child producing more complex sentences.

Semantic development
Children's semantic development begins before they utter their first words. By
the time they are twelve months old, young children begin to construct meaning
associated with objects around them; for example, that object containing food
is a bowl. They can understand and follow simple commands regarding body
actions (e.g. clap). They also use paralinguistic features to indicate their wants
and needs.
By eighteen months, they comprehend approximately 200 words; by the age

of two, they show understanding of a variety of word classes (nouns, verbs,
pronouns, prepositions etc.). By three or four years old, children can sort objects
into categories as they develop knowledge of semantic domains (e.g. colour:
blue, red, green, yellow). Soon after, children begin to understand temporal
markers and use prepositional phrases such as 'under the bed' and 'up on the
shelf'. By four, they understand and can describe the differences and similarities
between objects and can describe these using three or more adjectives.
Much like morphological overgeneralisation, young children apply semantic
overgeneralisation when they extend the meaning of a word beyond its
intended use. For instance, a young child learns that the word 'cat' means the
family pet but then applies the word to all four-legged furry animals.
By the time children begin primary school, they can comprehend

approximately 13000 words. Between six and seven years old, a child's
comprehension of words expands to around 20000 to 26000 words.


Scan coc*e or c*'c*< here t0 see a chart that summarises the
development of subsystems in first-language acquisition (also accessible
on page 92). Use the chart to answer the following questions.
1 As you read the chart, consider how each of the developing subsystems coincides
with one another. What conclusions can you reach about the overall development
of the subsystems of language?
2 Read the transcript of a child speaking with their parent on pages 96-7. Write an
analysis of the child's speech that includes the following:
a classification of the child’s stage of language development
b the role the parent plays in helping the child to develop language
c the stage of language subsystem development - refer to the chart linked above to
assist you.
Support your discussion with examples from the transcript, including line
numbers.
See pages 128-9 to view an example analysis of a transcript of a child's

ILJ speech (though note that it is longer than is required for this task).
As you complete your analysis of the child's subsystem development, it may be helpful
to ask yourself the following questions about each of the different subsystems.
Phonological development
What consonant sounds have been mastered?
Does the child use intonation?
Does the child substitute one consonant sound for another?
Is there evidence of connected speech being intelligible?
Morphological development
Does the child use any regular verb tenses?
Does the child use any irregular verb tenses?
Lexical development
What word classes feature in the child’s speech?
Does the child use pronouns?
Syntactic development
How many words are in the sentences the child constructs?
What are the types and functions of the sentences used by the child?
Are there any syntactic irregularities?
Semantic development
What does the child’s utterances show about their understanding of objects, people
and basic events?
Does the child’s use of word classes show their understanding of complex thoughts?

Transcription key
• final intonation
/ rising intonation
£> questioning intonation
 soft
<pp pp> very soft
<F F> loud
<L L> slow speech
<A A> fast-paced speech
<H> intake of breath
(.) short pause
(-) longer pause

stress
= lengthening of sound
@@@ laughter
XXX unintelligible speech
1 Parent: What?
2 Child: 

3 Parent: Tell me again.
4 Child: Let's watch XXX
5 Parent: What are they?
6 What was on there?

7 <PP Tell me again/ PP>
8 Child: It's (.) <A it's what (XXX) A> movie.
9 Parent: A lot of girls?
10 Child: Yeah a movie.

11 Parent: Like how many girls?
12 Child: Like this seven.
13 Parent: And what are they?
14 Child: <A Seven eight A> gee=rls.

15 Parent: Gi=rls?
16 Child: Yes <H> se <H> seven girls.

17 Parent: Not boys?
18 Child: No (..) gee=rls.
19 Parent: Ohh/
20 Child: Seven gee=rls.
21 Parent: Seven girls.
22 Child: Yeah.
23 Parent: On that movie?
24 Child: <PP yeah PP>
25 Parent: Whoa/
26 Are you a boy or a girl?
27 Child: (..) A bo=y.
28 Parent: What about daddy?
29 Child: 
30 Parent: What about mummy?
31 Child: <F Mummy is a gee=rl F>
32 Parent: What about the dogs?
33 Child: Dogs (..) uh doggy.
34 Parent: They're girls.
35 Child: Geerls.
36 Parent: @@@
37 Are you a good boy?
38 Child: <L Yeah L>
39 Parent: Love you. Bye bye.

40 Child: XXX

Theories of first-language acquisition

Decades of research have been dedicated to discovering how children acquire their
first language. In Year 11, you will examine two theories: the universal grammar
and usage-based theories. At the crux of both theories are longstanding
questions. Is it in our nature to learn language, regardless of the stimulus we
receive? Or are we primarily taught language through the nurturing we receive
from caregivers? Or does first-language acquisition perhaps involve both?
Theory of universal grammar

Accredited to linguist Noam Chomsky, the theory of universal grammar proposes
that children are born with innate knowledge about the structure of language,
which allows them to adopt any language. This innate grammar centres around a
set of rules for language that are assumed to be universal, meaning that they are
shared by all languages of the world.
Chomsky believes that:
We are designed to walk... That we are taught to walk is impossible. And

pretty much the same is true of language. Nobody is taught language. In fact,
you can't prevent the child from learning it. (Chomsky 1994)
Chomsky theorises that children are born with a Language Acquisition Device
(LAD) - a cognitive structure in the brain that allows children to organise the
language that they hear in various grammatical ways (Chomsky 1965). Therefore,
a child is hardwired to learn language, much like a SIM card is pre-programmed
to work in various ways the moment the phone is switched on for the first time.
Chomsky argues that a child’s linguistic experience alone is insufficient to explain
how they end up with detailed knowledge about language - knowledge that they
could not have learned from caregivers or their own experiences of language in
their immediate environment. This argument is called the poverty of stimulus.
In the first few years of life children
hear thousands of verbal utterances,
both complete and incomplete:
various sentence types and syntactic
structures, sentence fragments,
multiple words, errors in speech and
corrections. In other words, they are
exposed to innumerable incomplete
grammatical sentences. Yet, as
they enter the multi-word stage of
language acquisition, they are able
to form complex sentences that "VJhats thc $oRp«\se ? All w la-twt
L|MOU\ST(C5 SA7 WE. RE. WITH
demonstrate a knowledge of syntactic
structure.

Scan the code orclick BipSH $can coc*e or click here t0

here to watch a YouTube watch a YouTube video featuring
video that briefly explains EfcM steven Pinker discussing Noam
Noam Chomsky’s Language Chomsky’s theory of universal
Acquisition Device. grammar and answer the
following questions.
1 What are Pinker’s criticisms of Chomsky’s theory of universal grammar?
2 How does Pinker’s explanation of universal grammar differ from Chomsky's?
Usage-based theory
Introduced by Michael Tomasello, the usage-based theory of language acquisition
proposes that children acquire language through social interaction in
combination with their general cognitive skills (Tomasello 2003). According to
this theory, language learning results from the accumulation of knowledge and
skills gained through language use across a child’s life.
Cognitive skills assisting language development

Accumulated skills help children to intention read as they interact with
caregivers and other adults in their lives. Intention reading occurs when a child
determines the communicative goals or intentions of the adult speaker. For
example, when the child hears 'Can you close the car door for me?’, they must
ascertain that this is a request for help to shut a car door, rather than a question
about their ability to close a car door.
Intrinsically linked to intention reading is pattern finding. Pattern finding
involves a child recognising patterns in language, which allows them to create
linguistic schemas or constructions. Young children regularly hear basic sentence
structures containing a noun + verb + noun. According to usage-based theory,
children follow this pattern as they enter the telegraphic stage of speech. They
create a linguistic schema around syntactic word order, which becomes evident
as they create noun + verb + noun sentences to communicate their thoughts,
such as 'Doggy splash water', 'Baby eat fruit’ or 'Amy makes mess'.
Another important behaviour studied in usage-based accounts is children's
use of analogy to construct language knowledge. Analogy is a cognitive process
that involves recognising and comparing similar characteristics in two different
components of language. When children make associations through the process
of analogy, they make a generalisation. Fill in the blank in the following example
of a word-association game:
Warm is to summer, as cold is to

If you answered with 'winter' you made an analogy associating the antonyms
'warm' and 'cold' to contrasting seasons and then you generalised (inferred)
the correct answer. While analogy is a useful learning strategy, it can result in
grammatical errors. Children often incorrectly apply a language pattern through
using analogy, such as adding the plural '-s' morpheme to irregular nouns, as in
'foots' instead of'feet' or'mans’ instead of'men'. These errors are examples of
morphological overgeneralisation.
Social interaction
Usage-based theory emphasises the importance of primary caregivers in a child's
development of language. Adults' interactions with a child can assist language
development in several ways including imitation, corrective feedback and
infant-directed speech.
In the earlier developmental stages of language acquisition, children imitate

others. When a caregiver points at objects, a baby mimics this action to indicate
that they want something. This occurs long before they have the ability to name
the object. They parrot sounds back to adults, copy paralinguistic features and,
as their language develops, imitate speech, especially as they acquire new words.
Imitation is not simply a child's ability to repeat what they hear. Research
shows that children try to replicate language based on its contextual use - for
example, a child who observes a caregiver talking on the telephone might later
imitate the adult’s conversation and behaviour while they are playing with a toy
phone. Drawing on what they remember a caregiver saying in a similar context, the
child might say 'hello' with a rising intonation, or use cues appropriate to a phone
conversation, such as 'mmm' and 'uhuh' to show the speaker they're listening.
Primary caregivers also play a crucial role in providing corrective feedback

when a young child makes language errors. Caregivers are unlikely to correct the
child's grammar by directly pointing out errors; rather, they are more likely to
recast what the child said, using correct grammar.
Example
Child: ‘I goed there?’
Parent: ‘Yes, you went there.’
The way a caregiver speaks to them also helps a child's development of language.
During infant-directed speech, or child-directed speech, caregivers usually use a
higher pitch and, along with exaggerating intonation, speak more slowly, using
shorter and simpler sentences. They might also exaggerate the articulation of
vowel sounds and place stress on content words at the end of a sentence.
Example
Caregiver: ‘Look! There’s a doggy.’
1OO insight • ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 © Insight Publications


Scan the code or click here to watch a YouTube video of a two-year-old
imitating an adult talking on the phone.
Describe how usage-based accounts would interpret this child's speech.
The characteristics and developmental stages

of additional-language learners
When a person begins learning a new language in addition to their native or
home language/s, this is known as additional-language learning (ALL). Unlike
acquiring our first language, learning an additional language, especially as an
adult, can require a great deal of effort.
If you learn an additional language in school, your teacher might begin with
basic greetings and salutations, then present you with vocabulary to memorise
and practise pronouncing. You might have class conversations, learn songs or
poems and engage in various activities designed to teach you grammar, syntax
and phonetics.
Of course, individuals can also acquire additional languages in other ways,

such as spending time in another country where they interact daily with native
speakers of that language. Regardless of the teaching method, additional-
language learners follow a consistent developmental pattern.
Intermediate
Pre- Early Emergence Advanced
speech
production production of speech fluency
fluency
The pre-production or receptive stage shares some similarities with the

pre-linguistic stage of first-language acquisition, in that the learner absorbs the
sounds and words of the additional language by listening while remaining silent.
At this stage, the learner might not comprehend much, but might attempt to
respond with hand gestures such as pointing.

The early production stage occurs when the learner begins to develop a
vocabulary in the target language. They begin to speak one or two words that
are mainly familiar content words. Some learners might even attempt simple
phrases. At this stage, basic comprehension of the target language is beginning.
The emergence of speech occurs when the learner develops a good level
of comprehension of the target language. They are able to answer questions in
the form of simple sentences. Like a child acquiring a first language, additional-
language learners are likely to make grammatical and pronunciation errors.
Learners reach intermediate speech fluency when they have excellent
comprehension of the target language. They can use complex sentences and
participate in conversational speech acts. While they make some grammatical
errors, these are minimal. The learner might also begin to think in the additional
language.
At the advanced or continued fluency stage, the learner has reached near
proficiency in the additional language. They continue to develop more complex
understanding of the language and can communicate in a range of contexts, for
various purposes. They also think in the additional language.
Factors that influence additional-language learning

Although learning an additional language can be challenging, researchers have
found that success can be influenced by a number of factors, categorised as
internal and external.
Internal factors
The age at which a person begins learning will influence the success of
additional-language acquisition (see pages 106-7 to read about the critical
age hypothesis). Compared to adult learners, young children can reach greater
proficiency in phonological sounds and grammar. Some research has shown
that the rate of proficiency begins to decline as early as between four and six
years old, and reaches a plateau in adult learners (Johnson and Newport 1989).
However, there are differences in the ways in which children and adults learn, and
adults do have some advantages.
See Chapter 6 to learn about the differences between learning a language as a child and as an adult.
The motivation of the learner plays an important role in additional-language

acquisition. A student who enjoys learning a language and is determined to
succeed is likely to have greater success than a student who is required to learn
an additional language because it is a mandatory part of the school curriculum.
A learner may also be motivated and more determined if they need to become
proficient for work or to socialise.

A learner's attitude affects their motivation. Some research shows that learners
who have a positive attitude towards the target language’s speakers and culture
are likely to learn more effectively than those who have less positive attitudes.
Cognitive abilities also influence additional-language acquisition. Having a
good memory, in addition to well-developed verbal and auditory skills, can help
learners acquire new languages more easily.
Aptitude for learning languages generally refers to a person's potential for
learning. This potential can be measured by tests such as the Modern Language
Aptitude Test (MLAT), which is published by the Language Learning and Testing
Foundation.
Learners' preferences for the ways in which they learn are known as
preferred learning styles. One person might like to listen to audio and practise
speaking, while another prefers to do grammar exercises and write down lists
of words. While the type of learning style does not predict success in language
acquisition, using their preferred style can improve an individual's motivation and
attitude.
Personality refers to the unique traits and patterns that distinguish one
person from another. The following personality traits are known to impact
additional-language learning:
> Introversion/extroversion: An introvert will prefer focusing on inner
thoughts and feel more comfortable working independently, whereas
an extrovert will thrive in social situations such as working in groups.
Consequently, extroverts can seem better at learning a language, especially
when learning conversational speech. However, research has shown that
introverts can perform better in independent and routine study of the new
language.

> Self-esteem: Learners may perform better if they see themselves as

capable of learning the language.
> Inhibition and risk-taking: The learner's willingness to take risks and
make errors will impact their performance when learning a language.
Inhibition or self-consciousness can stifle learning additional languages.
> Anxiety: feelings of worry, self-doubt, uneasiness and frustration can have
a negative impact on learning languages.
> Empathy: When communicating in an additional language, willingness to
relate to others can improve learning.
The native language/s of a learner can also influence additional-language

acquisition. Learners tend to transfer the grammatical patterns and phonological
conventions of their home language/s to the language they are learning.
Consequently, if the target language is similar to their native language/s, learners
require fewer explanations and are likely to learn the grammatical constructions
of the target language more quickly than if it has few similarities. For example,
a common word order in English is subject + verb + object (SVO). SVO is also
common in languages related to English such as Greek, French and Norwegian; a
native English speaker is likely to find these easier to learn than languages that
follow different patterns.
External factors
Additional-language learning can also be influenced by the language
curriculum and its design. Decades of research indicate the need for a quality
curriculum that is carefully planned around the needs of the learner. Teachers
designing language courses consider the context in which the learning takes
place, the content to be taught and the most effective and engaging ways to
teach the skills of speaking and listening, and reading and writing.

Instruction provided through quality teaching has an influence on additional-

language learning. Teachers should provide appropriate learning experiences that
directly respond to the individual needs of the learner.
Feedback and encouragement from teachers and native language speakers

provides external motivation for the language learner to continue and helps to
create positive attitudes to learning the language.
Learners who have access to native (or proficient) speakers of the target
language have a significant advantage over those who do not. A recent study
carried out at Griffith University in Queensland matched native speakers of
Japanese with students enrolled as low-level to intermediate learners of Japanese
as an additional language. In their regular meetings outside the classroom over
a three-year period, both parties were required to use Japanese only. The study
found that most learners believed their speaking and listening skills, along with
their cultural understanding of Japanese, significantly improved (Imura 2004).
Develop some questions about the factors that influence additional-language

learning and interview a classmate or friend who has studied another language.
Write a brief report on the results of the interview and present your findings to your
class or share in small groups.
If you do not have access to anyone who has learned an
additional language, scan the code on the left or click here to
read an interview, and scan the code on the right or click here to
watch an interview with students learning additional languages.
Write a brief report that explains some of the common issues experienced by the
students.

The critical age hypothesis

Eric Lenneberg in Biological foundations of language (1967) hypothesises that
the ability to learn a language to a level of native proficiency is biologically
constrained to a critical period, beginning at early childhood and ending at
puberty. Lenneberg proposes that during this time (sometimes referred to as a
sensitive period) the brain has a higher level of neuroplasticity (being malleable
or able to change), thereby allowing new synaptic connections (between
brain cells) to form. When a child enters puberty, there is an abrupt decline in
neuroplasticity. Lenneberg concludes that after this a person can learn a first or
additional language, but with considerably more difficulty.
Much research supports the idea that learning an additional language is easier
for children than for adult learners. A study carried out by Jacqueline Johnson and
Elissa Newport (1989) examined the differences in acquisition of morphology and
syntax in children and adults whose first language was not English; they had moved
to the United States of America between the ages of three and thirty-nine and had
lived there for several years. In the study, when tested on morphology and syntax
knowledge, children aged three to eight performed equally as well as children
born and raised in the US. However, there was a steady decline in test scores
that correlated with the participant’s age when they arrived in the country. The
tests demonstrated a clear advantage for those who were younger on arrival. For
example, a child who was eight when they arrived in the US scored better than a
child who arrived at the age of nine, and so on. For those who arrived after puberty,
performance was lower and variability within that group did not relate to age.
Does this mean an adult learning an additional language will never reach full
proficiency? While the above research is compelling, other studies show that
adults are just as adept at learning additional languages as children (see Chapter
6). However, research does suggest that, for most additional-language learners,
the ability to achieve native-like pronunciation is limited to a critical time period.

Case study: Genie

Researchers turn to case studies of so-called 'feral' children for evidence of
a critical time period for language acquisition. One of the most famous of
these case studies is Genie, a victim of abuse, neglect and social isolation.
When Genie was discovered by authorities at the age of thirteen, she
presented with extreme language deficits. This was considered to be a result
of her being deprived of social interaction as well as being traumatised by the
long-term abuse she suffered throughout her childhood.
After Genie was discovered, researchers followed her closely as they
attempted to teach her language. She was able to acquire some basic
English, but had a phonological disorder, resulting in the production of
abnormal sounds. Her control of syntax and morphology was also limited to
basic aspects of language.
This case study offers evidence in support of Lenneberg's critical age

hypothesis, as Genie was unable to fully learn and use grammar. During
the critical period, she was deprived of early language exposure and the
stimulation required for normal childhood language development. As she
was unable to develop aspects of language once she was beyond the critical
age, her language impairment was permanent.

Conduct research online about the case study of Genie, then discuss and answer the
following questions.
1 Describe Genie’s stage of language when authorities first found her.
2 What did researchers set out to do with Genie? How did they achieve this?
3 How does the case study of Genie support the critical age hypothesis?
4 What criticisms did the researchers face? Do you believe these criticisms were
justified?
5 Conduct some basic research online to discover what happened to Genie after the
study. Share your findings with the class.

CHAPTER
Language learning
06 and multilingualism
In Chapter 6, we examine the commonalities and differences between children
and adults when learning languages, and consider the distinct advantages that
exist for each group. You will learn about the benefits of learning additional
languages, multilingualism, and the role of code switching in language learning.

♦ commonalities and differences between learning a language as a young
child and as an adult, including first- and additional-language learning, and
multilingualism
♦ code switching in language learning
♦ metalanguage to discuss how language is acquired

Multilingualism The ability of a speaker to communicate in more than one
language.
Code switching Alternating between two or more languages when speaking or
writing.
First- and additional-language learning

There are several similarities between children acquiring their native language/s
and adults learning an additional language. Both children and adults progress
through identifiable developmental stages during their learning, and benefit
from making errors and interacting with native speakers.
Developmental stages
There are some similarities between the developmental stages experienced by
children acquiring a first language and adults learning an additional language. For

Language learning and multilingualism Chapter 6
example, the pre-linguistic stage in early childhood resembles the pre-productive

stage for additional-language learning in that both adults and children absorb
the new sounds and words of the target language, without producing them.
Children receive constant language input from caregivers, and adult learners
receive input from teachers, learning materials and native speakers. Similarly,
the holophrastic stage in children has some parallels with the early production
stage in adults. Learners at both these stages begin to associate meaning with
words and begin to speak basic words as they develop their vocabulary. It is also
common for both young children and adults to understand basic speech before
they can speak the language themselves. In this way, for both children and adults
learning languages, speaking can be more challenging than comprehension.
PW See pages 89-90 to learn about the developmental stages of language acquisition for first-
-> language learners, and see pages 101-2 to learn about the developmental stages of language
learning for additional-language learners.
Making errors
Making mistakes is crucial to learning, as it gives caregivers and language
teachers the opportunity to provide feedback or correction. As we learned
in Chapter 5, caregivers are more likely to recast the child’s utterance using
correct grammar rather than to directly point out the grammatical error. Adults
learning additional languages in a more structured environment benefit from the
teacher both recasting their expression and giving explicit feedback, explaining
the error. This improves the adult's understanding of the linguistic knowledge
underpinning grammatical constructions.
Interactions with native speakers

Adults and children both benefit from interactions with native (or proficient)
speakers of the target language. Through interactions with such speakers,
adult learners can practise their language skills and improve their cultural
understanding of the target language.
—mi

Chapter 6 Language learning and multilingualism
Young children rapidly acquire language through interactions, as they learn the
sound patterns of their native language/s by listening to their caregivers. When
a caregiver responds to the sounds that a young child makes, the child begins to
respond back. During these interactions, young children imitate caregivers and
employ analogy (see pages 99-100). These early interactions underpin what will
become conversational speech. Interactions also stimulate a child’s curiosity and
desire to develop knowledge and understanding of the world around them.
Multilingualism
Multilingualism refers to the ability to speak in more than one language. The
benefits of multilingualism are numerous and provide compelling reasons for
learning a new language, regardless of age. Perhaps one of the greatest benefits
is the impact on the brain. Research shows that multilingual people have more
developed executive control systems. This is the part of the brain that controls
cognitive processes such as the ability to shift attention and exercise working
memory. Studies also reveal that multilingual children and adults have a larger
working memory compared to their monolingual counterparts.
There is compelling research that also shows that being multilingual can delay
degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s, with more research underway
investigating whether this extends to other neurodegenerative disorders, such as
multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease (Voits et al. 2020). Multilingual people,
regardless of age, develop greater cognitive flexibility because their brains are
able to express thoughts in different ways through languages. Consequently,
they may be able to solve complex problems in more creative ways than people
who only speak one language.
Some of the benefits of

learning languages:
improves working
memory
increases ability to
multitask
improves concentration
enhances creativity in
problem-solving
can delay degenerative

brain disease

Language learning in multilingual children

When children learn more than one native language at the same time, they are
said to be simultaneous multilinguals. A simultaneous multilingual child
acquires the vocabulary and grammar of each target language in the same way
that monolingual children acquire their native language. In contrast, a sequential
multilingual child learns a new language after acquiring their first language.
A multilingual child may develop more proficiency in one of their languages
than the others, a phenomenon known as language dominance. Which
language is dominant can change depending on their environment. For example,
if a child predominantly speaks Italian with their caregiver then attends early
education in Australia where they are exposed to and immersed in English, their
dominant language might change from Italian to English.
Code switching
When speakers alternate between languages, they are said to code switch.
Code switching mostly occurs in interactions between multilingual speakers who
have two or more languages in common. This is considered to be an effective
communicative strategy that helps multilingual speakers to convey their ideas
and ensure they are fully understood.
Nearly all multilingual children demonstrate code switching at some point in

their development of languages. This means they mix elements of more than one
language. Once viewed as a sign of language confusion, code switching is now
seen as evidence of multilingual proficiency and resourcefulness: the child draws
on the most appropriate language available to them, to express their thoughts
and emotions in a given context. While a monolingual child might overgeneralise
the meaning of a word (e.g. by referring to all four-legged animals as 'cat'), a
multilingual child might borrow a word from another language to make up for
their limitations in the main language they are speaking.
When examining code switching, researchers look to syntax, specifically where
in a sentence the code switching occurs. There are three types of code switching:
inter-sentential, intra-sentential and extra-sentential or tag switching.
The word 'sentential' simply means 'relating to sentences'.
> Inter-sentential code switching occurs at either the beginning or end of a
sentence or clause.
Example
Please pick up your clothes - I can’t stand anggulo\ (‘the mess’ in Tagalog)
> Intra-sentential code switching occurs when a speaker changes to a

different language in the middle of a sentence, then back again.
Example
‘I don’t understand; por que no podemos comer ambos soft-shell and hard-shell
tacos?’ (‘why can’t we eat both’ in Spanish)

> Extra-sentential code switching or tag switching occurs when an

exclamation, tag question (a question added to the end of a statement to
seek confirmation or express doubt) or parenthesis (phrase containing non-
essential information) from one language is inserted into an utterance in
another language.
Example
‘I can borrow your dress for the formal - es-tu sure? (‘are you certain’ - a tag
question in French)
The reasons for code switching are determined by context and communicative
function. Here are a few of those reasons, drawing on research by Lalita Malik
(1994):
> to emphasise a point
> to express attitudes, intentions or emotions

> to convey meaning when the speaker doesn't have the vocabulary to express
themselves in one of the languages
> to convey solidarity with a group
> to address different audiences with varied linguistic backgrounds

> to use a popular expression or phrase from the speaker's native language
> to call attention to particular contextual elements in an utterance.

In the classroom context, code switching plays an important role in facilitating
learning. It has positive effects on both learners and teachers. When students
code switch, it provides opportunities to enhance their understanding. When
teachers code switch, it enables them to simplify complex explanations of
grammatical patterns and make learning more meaningful for students.
Meaningful learning of the additional language results in a greater retention
rate and the ability to retrieve information more quickly. Supporting code
switching behaviour in language classrooms increases students' participation and
confidence.


Scan the code or click here to watch a video of a group of multilingual
students reminiscing about their high school experiences, then respond to
the following questions.
1 Which types of code switching do they employ? (inter-sentential, intra-sentential,
extra-sentential/tag switching)
2 Identify some of the factors that cause the students to code switch between
English and Japanese.
3 What can you conclude about why these students code switch?
Scan the code or click here to read a case study published by

researchers that examines code switching in a formal workplace
setting. Focus on the information provided in the 'Abstract', '9.4
Summary of Observations' and '10 Conclusion'. What does the research
find? Does it answer the research questions?
Interlanguage in additional-language learners

As learners go through the developmental stages of learning an additional
language, they create an interlanguage. Interlanguage theory, generally
credited to Larry Seiinker (1972), proposes that additional-language learners
create their own linguistic system that is somewhere between the system of
their first language and that of the additional language. Therefore, a learner’s
interlanguage is different from their first language as well as the target language.
Interlanguage can be viewed as a bridge a language learner constructs that
allows them to travel from their first language to the additional language. As the
learner constructs language patterns to communicate, they receive feedback
from language teachers or native speakers. Consequently, errors are corrected,
and the learner will adjust their interlanguage usage as their understanding of the
new language develops. In this way, interlanguages are dynamic as they reflect
developmental stages of the learner. However, an important characteristic of
interlanguage proposed by Seiinker is fossilisation. This term is used to describe
the situation when a learner's interlanguage stops short of acquiring some aspect
of the additional-language system, such as the correct way to form past tenses.
Seiinker proposes five processes that can be observed in the interlanguage
behaviour of a learner acquiring an additional language.
1 Language transfer occurs when a learner transfers linguistic patterns from their
first language to the additional language. For example, a Spanish speaker learning
English might transfer features of Spanish into their interlanguage, using the verb
'to be' in place of the verb 'to have' to express possession, as in 'I am a car' instead
of'I have a car’.

2 Strategies of additional-language communication consist of a set of skills

that additional-language learners draw on, mainly when speaking, when they do
not have enough knowledge and understanding of the target language. Examples
include code-switching, employing pause fillers (words used to fill in pauses,
such as 'urn' and 'ah'), inventing new words (known as neologisms) and using
approximate words.
See page 177 to learn about neologisms.
3 Transfer of training occurs when the learner of an additional language learns

and applies incorrect patterns in the target language. This can happen if the
teacher of the additional language is not a native speaker of the target language
and gives the learner incorrect instructions.
4 Strategies of additional-language learning are applied by learners as an

interlanguage develops. These include hypothesising patterns and inferring
meaning as the learner communicates with native speakers. These strategies are a
way for the learner to make complex language simpler.
5 Overgeneralisation, including both morphological and semantic
overgeneralisation, occurs when the learner generalises a language pattern and
extends this to a situation where it does not apply. For example, a learner of
English might apply the plural '-s' morpheme to words such as sheep ('sheeps’)
and tooth ('tooths').
First Additional

Additional-language learning in children and adults

While adults and children go through developmental stages in language learning,
there is an important distinction to be made: a young child acquires language,
whereas adults learn additional languages. This implies that a young child is
fully immersed in the target language/s, as is the case for children raised as
simultaneous multilinguals from infancy. In comparison, adults begin to learn an
additional language after they have fully mastered their native language.
Unless adults move to a foreign country and immerse themselves fully in

its language and culture, most learn additional languages in more structured
environments; in most cases, this will be in dedicated classes scheduled over a
specific period. When young children are immersed in languages, they become
more proficient in the phonological sounds of the languages, especially if they
are acquired during the critical period. Adults, however, are often unable to attain
a native level of proficiency of phonological sounds when learning an additional
language.
Another point of difference in the ways that children and adults acquire
additional languages is in implicit versus explicit learning. For children,
additional-language acquisition tends to occur more implicitly, automatically and
effortlessly, through immersion in natural settings. This may explain why young
children seem more adept at spontaneous speech in their additional language,
because they do not need to think consciously about the grammar. In contrast,
adults rely more on explicit knowledge learned in a formal setting, which requires
conscious effort.
It is important to note, however, that proficiency standards are different for a
child versus an adult. Children, given their age and limited experience, have much
smaller vocabularies. As adults' intellects are far more developed, they need a
larger vocabulary and sophisticated grammar to communicate more complex
thoughts. This may be one reason why it seems to take longer for adults to
acquire additional languages.

Research shows that, in more structured and explicit learning environments,

adults tend to outperform children. Mainly due to cognitive maturation, adults are
primed for completing learning tasks that involve complex thinking. In an explicit
learning setting, adults can comprehend and apply the grammar patterns of the
additional language faster and more accurately than children. Interestingly, however,
adults immersed in implicit learning environments do not do as well as children.
Adults learning additional languages do have a distinct advantage over children.

Because of their higher proficiency in their first language, they have more linguistic
knowledge to draw on as they learn an additional language. As mentioned in
Chapter 5, when their first language/s and target additional language are closely
related, adults learn the grammatical patterns faster. This is because they have
a point of comparison and can apply their existing knowledge; for example, they
understand syntax in English and can relate this to learning Spanish.
Adults can also draw on their lived experience. They have acquired
pragmatic (practical) knowledge and understanding of the use of language
in a range of social contexts and for a range of purposes, and they are able to
interpret another speaker's intentions through the skills of implicature (logical
assumption). Children, on the other hand, are still trying to master the pragmatic
conventions of their first language while learning these aspects of the additional
language.
Another noticeable difference between the way young children and adults
learn languages is the impact of internal factors, specifically personality. Young
children, immersed in natural language settings, are less inhibited and therefore
more inclined to take risks and make errors when acquiring languages. Adults
learning additional languages can be constrained by apprehension due to
performance anxiety about communicating, fear of negative feedback and (in
formal language courses) test anxiety.
See pages 102-4 to read about the impact of internal factors on learning languages.



1 Conduct some online research to investigate the benefits of learning additional
languages. Create an infographic that illustrates the benefits of raising a
multilingual child and the benefits of learning additional languages as an adult.
You may find the following websites and videos helpful.
Scan the code or click here to read an article about the benefits of
learning new languages.
Scan the code or click here to watch the TED-Ed lesson video 'The
Benefits of the Bilingual Brain' by Mia Nacamulli.
Scan the code or click here to read an article about the benefits of
multilingualism for children.
2 The table below lists some common interlanguage behaviours involving

language transfer and overgeneralisation. Explain the error/s using appropriate
metalanguage.
Interlanguage error/s Explanation

The teacher book Morphological error.
Omitting the '-s' morpheme to show singular
possession.
I movie go
Amil goed shopping
Anna should avoid from food

contained nuts
You not eat hunger now
Just in cases
Billy old uncle kicking bucket
3 Polyglots are people who can speak many languages.

Scan the code or click here to watch a video produced by THNKR that
showcases Tim Doner. He is a hyper-polyglot who can speak almost twenty
different languages.
After viewing the video, discuss the benefits that Tim Doner experiences from
speaking multiple languages. You might consider his experiences of cultural
diversity, diverse social interaction with native speakers and his ability to
empathise with others.

Linguistic
CHAPTER
Qy field work
In Chapter 7, we look at linguistic field work, putting into practice some of the
key knowledge and skills about language acquisition that you have developed
in previous chapters. You will learn about the different types of linguistic field
work, the role that research questions play, and important considerations and
preparations for conducting field work, especially acquiring informed consent.
The chapter provides an analysis of sample data (a transcript of speech) and
advice on how to present your field work findings in a research report.

♦ understanding of linguistic field work, including acquiring consent

%
Linguistic field work The collection of language data in its natural environment.
An introduction to linguistic field work

Linguistic field work provides an exciting opportunity to expand your knowledge
of how language works. For the purposes of your studies in Year 11, you will
conduct linguistic field work for Area of Study 2, Language acquisition. This is a
way to confirm some of the theories you have learned and to answer questions
you have about the developmental stages and features of language acquisition.
The type of linguistic field work you will do as a Year 11 student is adapted to
provide a taste of some of the kinds of field work done by tertiary students and
professional researchers, so it is an opportunity to get a sense of whether this
research path is for you.
Linguistic field work involves collecting language data in its natural
environment, then analysing parts of language to answer research questions.
This is a valuable way for researchers to interact with language communities
(groups of people who speak the same language).

Chapter 7 Linguistic field work
Below are some of the research methods used in linguistic field work.
> Qualitative methods look at naturalistic language use and concentrate

on a small number of speakers. The main focus is on the behaviour of
individuals, specifically their subjective behaviour: how their language
behaviour is influenced by context, purpose, internal and external factors,
and so on. For example, a researcher might look at how the situational
context influences the conversational speech of a caregiver and a child.
> Quantitative methods focus on studying one or several variables in a

range of speakers. This method can also involve treating or manipulating
groups of participants differently, then testing them to compare their
results with each other and/or with a control group. For example, an
experiment might investigate the effects of feedback on children's language
development, by randomly dividing participants into two groups, with one
group receiving feedback and the other not. Both groups are then tested and
compared to determine whether feedback has an effect.
> Mixed methods are combinations of both qualitative and quantitative

methods.
> Cross-sectional studies involve carrying out any of the above research
methods to collect data at a particular moment in time.
> Longitudinal studies involve carrying out any of the above research
methods over a long period of time, usually at regular intervals. Researchers
return to the same speakers to collect and compare data from different
points in time.
Due to time constraints, for the purposes of Year 11 studies, qualitative research
methods are the most suitable type of linguistic field work.
Collecting and analysing data

This section describes the steps from conceptualising research to collecting and
analysing linguistic data.
Developing research questions

An essential part of your linguistic field work is to develop an appropriate
research question or questions you want answered. Previous chapters can
provide you with topics to investigate. For example, you might have questions
about the characteristics and developmental stages for first-language learners,
the universal grammar and usage-based accounts of language acquisition or the
subsystem development of language in children.
A research question should be specific to the aspect of language you wish

to study, and should be verifiable through the research you undertake (i.e. the
data you collect in your research should enable you to answer the question).
The question should focus on the evidence. A question such as 'how do children

Linguistic field work Chapter 7
acquire speech?’, for example, is quite broad and so would be difficult to answer
with a single case study.
Here are some examples of the types of research questions you could develop
from Chapter 5:
> Can I see evidence of the role of infant- or child-directed speech? Is there
evidence of impact on the child when a caregiver speaks this way?
> Can I find evidence of a child reaching a specific developmental stage? What
evidence can be observed in their language?
> Can I see evidence of a child's language acquisition through their
development of the English language subsystems?
> Can I observe evidence of a child's language use that supports one or both of
the theories of language acquisition?
Alternatively, you might prefer to develop
research questions that allow you to investigate
the ways in which adults acquire additional
languages. Here are some examples of research
questions you might develop from Chapter 5
and Chapter 6:
> Can I find evidence of the effectiveness of

an explicit learning strategy, when adults
are learning additional languages?
> Can I observe code switching among adult speakers or in a classroom

of students learning additional languages? Can I see the causes of code
switching?
> Can I find evidence of adults going through developmental stages when
learning additional languages?
Selecting appropriate participants

When you have formulated your research question/s, turn your attention
to selecting appropriate participants for your study. If you're studying child
language acquisition, you might be in the fortunate position of being able to
study a young child in your own family. Maybe your caregivers have kept videos
of you talking at a young age. Possibly a member of your school community will
be willing to share videos of their young children speaking. Your teacher might
give you permission to work in small teams so you can share your data. If you
cannot access someone to study nearby, you can find numerous online videos
of young children talking. If you are studying additional-language learning, you
might find adults you know, or fellow students, who are learning a new language.
If you study an additional language yourself, you might be able to carry out
your linguistic field work in your language class. Once you have selected your
participants, consider whether you will be an active participant during the field
work (e.g. as an interviewer) or simply be present to observe and record.

Considering ethics
At university, linguistic field work requires researchers to gain ethics approval
from a committee. This means careful consideration is given to the impact that
the research may have on the language community involved in the study. For
your field work, it is important to consider the potential impact of your research,
particularly the collection of data, on the participants.
Protection of privacy of the participants is important; consequently, it
is imperative that the data you collect is carefully and securely managed and
stored. Saving your data in a safe location is a priority, so you need to work out
where this will be. It could be best to protect the names and identities of your
participants by using pseudonyms or removing names altogether. In consultation
with your teacher, decide how you will archive the data once your field work is
complete. Remember to fully inform your participants about these matters in the
consent document you create (see page 124).
Make sure your participants, or their parents I legal guardians, fully
understand the aims of your research. Explain your research question and why
you are conducting this field work. It is also important to offer participants a
copy of your research report.
Ensure you avoid embarrassing your participants, and treat them with
respect and dignity. Be considerate; for example, limit the time you spend
collecting data depending on the age and stamina of the participants.
It is essential that you remain impartial when analysing the research
data. Avoid value-based judgements or any preconceived biases when analysing
the findings.

1 The Australian Linguistic Society, a national organisation for linguists and
linguistics in Australia, adopted and published a statement of ethics to be
applied when conducting linguistic research.
Scan the code or click here to read this statement of ethics.
a Why do the rights of individuals and communities require special consideration

during the research?
b What are the consequences for researchers who choose not to follow the
statement of ethics?
2 As a class, discuss some of the ethical considerations that could impact your
participants. Devise ways to address any issues or concerns that may arise.

Collecting data
One of the most useful ways to collect data is through video or sound
recording. You can use a mobile phone or other digital technology to record your
participants. Don't assume that exactly the type of interaction you're looking for
will happen the moment you start recording. You need to be patient, particularly
when working with young children. During data collection, taking observational
notes will assist you later when transcribing the recording and analysing the
data. You can choose either to partake in the field work, such as by recording
yourself interviewing a participant, or to observe only. If your school allows
you to use an online video, one advantage is not having to spend time recording
participants.
You could also develop a questionnaire as an additional means of collecting

data. If you are interested in finding out more about a caregiver's interactions
with their child that may not be evident when recording, questions are an
effective way to elicit this information from participants.
There are some important factors to consider when putting together
questionnaires. Long questionnaires can be tedious and result in participants
losing interest or rushing through their answers just so they can finish. Aim to
construct shorter questions with an appealing layout that is user-friendly. As
you devise your questions, keep in mind the exact data you want to collect: the
information that is essential to answering your research question. It can be useful
to give your questionnaire a trial run in a pilot study. This can highlight questions
that produce answers that are confusing or off-topic, and gives you a chance to fix
these. Here are some examples of questions that might feature on a questionnaire:
> How do you encourage your child to speak?
> What behaviours do you notice in your child when you use new words?
> Do you see your child attempting to say words that you use?
> Do you ever correct your child’s language? If so, how do you do this?
> Does your child ever imitate your
speech? What does this look like?
> Does your child show a particular
interest in certain activities that
they like to talk about?
> How old was your child when they

said their first word? How has their
language developed since then?


1 As a class, develop a list of potential questions for a questionnaire that could be
used to elicit data to support study of a research question.
2 Discuss the suitability of either interviewing a participant or giving them a written
questionnaire.
Acquiring consent
It is crucial that you get written and signed consent from the participants taking
part in your field work. If participants are under the legal age for this kind of
consent, a parent or guardian will have to provide permission for you to record
and use any data you collect.
Participants should be fully informed of the purposes of your field work.

You must tell them how you intend to store and use the data that you collect,
including archiving data after you have finished your research. As a courtesy, you
should be prepared to share the findings of your research with the participants.
As a class, you can develop a formal document of informed consent for the
participants in your research. An informed consent form should include the
following key information:
> your name, school name and title of the research

> purposes of the research
> procedures
> risks or potential discomfort for the participants
> benefits of taking part in the research
> confidentiality
> voluntary participation
> questions and contacts
> consent to receive a copy of research report
> participant’s agreement that they have read, understand and accept this
information
> signatures.
Scan the code or click here to view a sample informed consent form for
the parent or guardian of an under-aged participant.

Making a transcription
Once you have collected your speech recording, you will need to transcribe it
for your analysis. It can take a considerable amount of time and concentration
to transcribe recordings of conversational speech. Select the most appropriate
data to enable you to answer your research question/s. This might mean that you
decide to transcribe only a section of what you record. You might find it useful to
transcribe speech using the International Phonetic Alphabet (see Chapter 4). The
following is an example of a transcript of an interaction between a mother and
her two-year-old daughter that can be analysed to answer one or more research
questions. The mother’s (MOT) and child's (R) names have been removed.
Transcription key
/ rising intonation
\ falling intonation
? questioning intonation
/ continuing intonation
- truncated word
(.) short pause
(..) longer pause
— stress
= lengthening of sound
@@@ laughter
XXX unintelligible speech
1 MOT: Hey R.
2 Can you say hi/ Mummy?
3 R: Hiii\
4 Hi (..) Mumma/
5 MOT: @ Good/ gi=rl\
6 Can you say, hi/ Daddy?
7 R: Hi Da=dda.
8 MOT: Can you say, hi/ Sissy?
9 R: Hi, Sis-thy.
10 MOT: @@@
11 What else can we say?
12 Can we say, go?
13 R: Gooo!
14 MOT: Can we say, go home?

Analysing the data

Your analysis of the data will depend on your research question/s. If you present
your research as a report, your analysis will go in the discussion section.
[g. See page 130 for an example outline of a research report.
There are many ways to approach writing an analysis. You can use the following
steps as a starting point as you begin practising analysing transcripts, or find
a method that works for you. In the following steps, we focus on the question
'Can I see evidence of a child's language acquisition through their development
of the English language subsystems?’, but the same method can be used for any
research question.
Step 1: Annotate your transcript
Read through your transcript and highlight relevant language features as you go.
As we're focusing on the subsystems, the chart summarising the development of
subsystems in first-language acquisition from Chapter 5 is a useful reference here.
• Scan the code or click here to access the chart.
Seeking patterns or repetition of certain language features can help you to

identify the most salient features. Once you've identified those, include a
brief annotation that explains each one’s relevance. You will refer to these
explanations in your analysis.
See page 73 for guidelines on annotating a transcript.

Linguistic field work r Chapter 7
For our example, we have identified features and explanations relating to

subsystem development in the table below. For your own annotations, you can
write directly on the transcript.
See pages 81 and 83 to read about naming consonants and vowels.
Examples Explanation
'Hi (..) Mumma' (line 4) Child displays phonological skills advanced
for her age - has mastered voiced bilabial
nasal [m] and the voiceless glottal fricative [h]
(child is 2, but development chart indicates
mastery occurs at 2-3 years).
'Go' (line 15) Mastery of the voiced velar plosive [g] also
demonstrates advanced phonological skills
(development chart indicates mastery occurs
at approximately 3-4 years).
'Sis-thy' (line 9) Inclusion of voiceless dental fricative [0] in
'sis-thy' (line 9) is a mispronunciation of 'sissy.'
'Hi (..) Mumma' (line 4), 'Hi Da=dda' Child mostly uses content words and shows
(line 7), 'Hi, Sis-thy' (line 9) understanding of greeting words ('hi').
'Bye KXXye' (line 21) Child does not appear to understand the
word and is simply repeating it from her
mother.
Writing tip
Remember to identify features that are relevant to your topic - for example, if we
were looking for examples of child-directed speech and its impact, we would look at
language features evident in the caregiver's speech, and in the child's responses to it.
Step 2: Determine your findings

Now that you've identified some language features and explained their relevance
to the research question, you should draw your conclusion - that is, the answer
to the research question. From the examples and annotations gathered, we
can determine that evidence of a child’s language acquisition through their
development of the English language subsystems has been found in the
phonological and semantic subsystems.

Step 3: Putting it together

Once you have established your ideas, write a cohesive analysis. This should
include a mix of examples from the transcript and your own conclusions. Make
sure your ideas connect - they should be organised in a way that is easy to
follow. Using linking words, such as 'however' and 'in this way’, can help you
connect your ideas in a logical manner.
An example of an analysis of the transcript on pages 125-6, responding
to some of the research questions on page 121, is provided below and on the
following page. You may use this example and the annotations to inform your
own analytical writing.
Writing tip
It is important to use accurate metalanguage to discuss examples of language for
this outcome of study. When providing an example of speech, use a metalinguistic
term before quoting the example and line number. For example, 'The mother uses
questioning intonation when she asks her daughter "what colour is that?" (line 7).'
In this instance, the metalanguage is 'intonation' - one of the prosodic features.
Worked example
Child R demonstrates evidence of having reached the two-word stage Addresses evidence of a
of childhood language acquisition. At approximately two years of age, R developmental stage
demonstrates her ability to connect two words together at a given time. This
is observed as she responds with 'Hi (..) Mumma’ (line 4) by connecting Demonstrates
the formulaic greeting ‘Hi’ with the recipient, her mother. In terms of - sophisticated
phonological ability, R displays more advanced phonological skills, which knowledge of the
subsystems, and uses
are evident in her mastery of the voiced bilabial nasal [m] and the voiceless
metalanguage with
glottal fricative [h] in this utterance. Her mastery of the voiced velar plosive
confidence
[g] as she exclaims ‘Gooo!’ (line 13) also suggests that she might be placed
at a stage of approximately 36-48 months in terms of language acquisition. More evidence of
However, R does incorrectly apply some sound segments within her speech. developmental stage
Her pronunciation of the lexeme ‘Sissy’ (line 8), containing the voiceless
dental fricative [0] ‘Sis-thy’ (line 9), is a mispronunciation as she attempts to
mimic her mother’s speech. Throughout the transcript there are also various
examples of indiscernible speech, indicated by ‘X’, in which R experiments
with different sounds to imitate the sounds made by her mother.
R’s mother employs child-directed speech as she interacts with her Discusses use of
daughter. This is evident in the questioning intonation she uses on target child-directed speech,
with evidence from the
words such as ‘Mummy’ (line 2), ‘Daddy’ (line 6), ‘Sissy’ (line 8) and ‘big
transcript.
girl’ (line 24). R’s mother is attempting to help facilitate her daughter’s

acquisition of these target words. Her adoption of child-directed speech

also works to ensure that R understands that her mother is talking to her
and asking her to respond to various questions. In this way, R’s mother is
encouraging her daughter to be focused on the conversation at hand.
R’s utterances mainly contain content words (words containing lexical
meaning). This is evident as she responds to her mother’s child-directed
speech with ‘Hi Da=dda’ (line 7). Within this statement there are only Follows up assertions
content words: ‘Hi’ serves as a formulaic greeting, and ‘Da=dda’ refers to with examples from the
transcript, including line
the noun at which the speech is directed, her father. R does not appear to
numbers.
display overly developed semantic ability within her speech. This is likely
since she is imitating the sounds her mother is making, and therefore does
not associate meaning with these lexemes as she is still learning them. For
example, when R responds with ‘Bye KXXye’ (line 21), it does not seem clear
that she can associate the meaning of her speech with a cat being removed
from the environment.
R’s development of language and the correlation this has with her
mother’s interaction aligns with usage-based accounts of childhood
Discusses evidence
language acquisition. As noted, R’s mother employs child-directed that supports language
speech when conversing, an important aspect of usage-based accounts. acquisition theories.
Modelling accurate syntax to R in the form of interrogatives with a repeated
introductory phrase, ‘Can you say hi/ Mummy?’ (line 2) and ‘Can you say,
bye?’ (line 18), encourages R to recognise a pattern. This supports her
following a pattern of response when she copies the end of her mother’s
questions with ‘Hi (..) Mumma’ (line 4) and ‘By=e’ (line 19). Another aspect
of the mother’s behaviour that aligns with usage-based accounts is observed
in the feedback she gives her daughter. As R appropriately responds to her
mother’s requests to say words and phrases, the mother praises R by saying,
‘Good girl’ (lines 5, 16, 22). Such positive praise reinforces R’s developing
language skills and is likely to build her confidence.
From the analysis of the transcript, it is evident that the data collected answers
the research questions.
Presenting your research

In this area of study, you are required to present the findings of your field work.
The following outline provides a possible structure for your research report;
however, if your teacher has a specific plan for how your research should be
presented, you should follow those instructions.
The outline on the next page shows the usual main sections of a research
paper or report, in the order in which they should appear.

Cover page
> Gives the title of the report: a concise statement of the topic that was
studied (e.g. 'Language acquisition in a five-year-old child’).
> Also includes your name and contact details, the name of the subject, the
name of your teacher, and the date the report is submitted.
Abstract
> A descriptive and concise one-paragraph summary of your research report,
including your research question/s.
> A description of the linguistic theory and/or key knowledge relating to this
area of study that you wanted to examine through your research.
Introduction
> Addresses the main topic your research focused on (e.g. language
acquisition, additional-language learning, developmental stages).
> Describes the purposes of the research - what was studied and why.
Research methods
> Outlines your approach to conducting your research. Explains how you
formulated your research question/s, selected participants and obtained
consent.
> Provides key information about the participants (e.g. age, linguistic
background). Be mindful of protecting their identities.
> Addresses any ethical considerations relevant to the research.

> Describes how you collected your data, including the resources used
(e.g. a mobile phone to record video). Focus on the procedures followed
during data collection.
Results
> Describes what was expected during the observation/recording of
participants, and what was actually observed.
> Includes the data collected during your research (e.g. transcripts, results of
questionnaires and interviews).
Discussion
> Gives your analysis of the data (see 'Analysing the data’ on pages 126-9),
explaining how and why the data provides answers to your research question/s.
Conclusion
> Restates your research question/s and summarises the answers provided by
your research.
References
> A list of articles, research papers or expert commentary you have read to
support your linguistic field work and research presentation.

Describing language functions

Regardless of the type of assessment you face, one of the major skills you must
demonstrate in Year 11 is the ability to describe how language functions in texts.
You can refine this skill by sourcing language excerpts, then practising identifying
the language features and describing their function.
Worked example
The following worked example describes the function of word classes in a job
advertisement for the position of store manager for a high-end fashion retailer.
1 Seeking store manager at Jasper Ave

2 We are seeking an experienced and enthusiastic store manager to lead a close-knit team in a
3 luxury retail environment. Applicants should have a cheerful, optimistic personality, and must
4 have at least three years' experience in retail management, as well as strong leadership and
5 communication skills.
6 Working at Jasper Ave
7 Jasper Ave is a leading luxury fashion retailer. Our staff are highly valued and receive a
8 competitive salary as well as generous discounts through our Employee Purchase Program.
The key to accurately describing how language functions is to provide contextual

details.
The text relies on a range of adjectives that work to describe the store and the
appropriate candidate for the advertised role. For example, the business seeks
an ‘experienced and enthusiastic’ (line 2) store manager who is ‘optimistic’ Accurate metalanguage
(line 3). These adjectives provide crucial descriptive details relating to the for the word classes
has been used.
potential candidate. Nouns also have an important referential function in
the advertisement, such as the proper nouns ‘Jasper Ave’ (lines 1, 6, 7) and Evidence, including line
references, is included.
‘Employee Purchase Program’ (line 8). These provide key information
These are embedded
regarding the business and benefits to attract a suitable applicant. Also playing
within the sentence
an important role are verbs, which serve to support the description of the rather than left 'floating'.
requirements for the role. The candidate ‘must have’ (lines 3-4) ‘three years’
experience’ and ‘strong leadership and communication skills’ (lines 4-5). The The descriptions of the
modal verb ‘must’ states that a certain amount of experience is required for an evidence from the text
relate the examples to
application to be considered, and the verb ‘have’ indicates that the successful
the text's purpose.
candidate is expected to already possess certain skills.
Scan the code or click here to view another example of describing

language functions.

LANGUAGE
CHANGE
Area of Study 1: English across time
Chapters 8 and 9 provide comprehensive coverage of Unit 2, Area of Study 1:
English across time. The English Language Study Design outlines the following key
knowledge points:*
♦ the historical development of English through key events and resulting
language change
♦ the relationship of English to the Indo-European languages
♦ the codification and the evolution of Standard English, focusing on the origins
of the English spelling and grammar systems
-» changes across the subsystems of language, including:
• phonetics and phonology - the Great Vowel Shift
• morphology - abbreviations, acronyms, shortenings, compounding,
blends, backformation, affixation
• lexicology - borrowings, commonisation, archaisms, neologisms,
obsolescence
• syntax - word order
• semantics - broadenings, narrowings, elevation, deterioration, shift
♦ attitudes to changes in language, including prescriptivism and descriptivism
♦ metalanguage to discuss language change.

These chapters offer a detailed examination of the evolution of the English language
over time. Chapter 8 describes the historical periods of English - Old English,
Middle English, Early Modern English and Modern English - discussing the major
historical events that influenced language change and describing each period's
distinct language features, with accompanying text examples. This chapter also
introduces the Indo-European family tree and explores links between English and
other languages. Chapter 9 examines the processes of language change across the
subsystems of language, and discusses attitudes towards language change.
Both chapters include the relevant metalanguage throughout, and feature bonus
content and activities to help you further your knowledge. This section concludes
with a page of practical strategies, providing advice on how to respond to short
answer questions - a common form of assessment in VCE English Language. /

CHAPTER
The history of the
08 English language
In Chapter 8, we explore the history of English through the eyes of its speakers,
and place English within its linguistic family. You will draw on your knowledge of
the subsystems of language and the role that context plays in shaping language
use.
This chapter lays the foundations for Chapter 9, which will look in more detail
at the processes of language change and how attitudes can influence the speed
and success of change.

♦ the historical development of English through key events and resulting
language change
♦ the relationship of English to the Indo-European languages
Codification The process of developing and writing down a norm for a language,
covering elements of spelling, pronunciation, grammar and
vocabulary.
Etymology The study of word origins within a language.

Indo-European The name given to the language that was the ancestor of many of the
languages spoken today in Europe and Asia, such as Polish, Punjabi
and English, as well as dead languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek
and Sanskrit.
Standardisation The process of a language becoming more consistent in the way it is
spoken and written across all of its speech communities.

Chapter 8 The history of the English language
The nature of language change

Across time, English has taken many forms. From its early origins in the British
Isles to its global role in the modern world, English has demonstrated itself
to be an adaptive language, changing to meet the needs of its speakers. Every
subsystem of English has been shaped by the influences that have affected its
speakers; the link between language users and language use is clear. Adapting to
meet the needs of users is an important trait for living languages, to ensure that
they continue to be relevant and usable.
The history of a word is called its etymology. You can look up etymologies
in a dictionary or on websites such as etymonline.com, to see how and when
semantic denotations of words have changed.
Sags
i-WVjri Scan the code or click here to access etymonline.com
0K
You will have already personally witnessed changes in the way English is used,
and no doubt the English language will continue to change throughout your
lifetime.

1 All of the following lexical items (words and phrases) are used to denote
something as fashionable or popular. When do you think these terms came into
English? Suggest a decade. (Hint: the oldest on the list is from the 1570s.)
a appealing c (on) fleek e (the) rage g stylish i trendy

b cool d modish f snappy h swanky j (en) vogue
2 Check your answers by consulting an etymological dictionary. Did some of these

dates surprise you?
Historical periods of English

The history of a language is intrinsically linked to its speakers: changes to one
affect the other. Since language is a tool used by speech communities to express
their perceptions of the world, impacts on those communities are reflected in
changes to the language. English has changed significantly over time, with some
older versions looking very different to modern English. Due to the magnitude of
the changes and the fact that they were often paired with major events affecting
English speakers, the study of English across time is broken down into the
following periods and forms:

The history of the English language Chapter 8
> Old English: 450 CE ~ 1150 CE
> Middle English: 1150 CE ~ 1500 CE
> Early Modern English: 1500 CE ~ 1750 CE
> Modern English: 1750 CE ~ present.
These language changes occurred gradually: Old English speakers did not
wake up one day and start speaking Middle English; rather, the language
changed constantly, with some innovations taking hold and others fading out.
Language differences within a generation or two would not have been mutually
incomprehensible, but over time they resulted in older texts looking very different
from the English we know today. Prior to the Early Modern English period, English
was also more of a collection of dialects than a single consistent language, since
it did not yet have a standard form and its patterns and conventions had not been
written down through the process called codification.
Old English (450 - 1150 CE)

Around 450 CE, the British Isles were largely inhabited by groups of people known
as the Celtic Britons, who spoke Brythonic languages, a group of Celtic languages.
Old English formed as a blend of languages spoken by the Angles, Saxons,

Jutes and Frisians, who are thought to have settled in the British Isles in
approximately 450-500. These Germanic tribes migrated from mainland Europe
and moved into Great Britain, taking over the area of modern England. The
linguistic similarities between the Germanic languages of Anglisc, Saxon,
Jutish and Frisian allowed for easy communication between the groups and the
establishment of combined communities. During this period, as they interacted
with the local populations, the new immigrants' dialects mixed with local Celtic
languages.
Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European family of languages.

'Germanic' refers to a group of related languages that derive from a shared 'parent'
language, Proto-Germanic, and today include languages such as English, German
and Norwegian.
[|- ] -» See pages 153-4 to read about the Indo-European family of languages.
During this early medieval period, smaller kingdoms warred against each other,
forming alliances, conquering neighbours or dividing kingdoms. The prevalence
of Angles and Saxons, in particular, saw the label 'Anglo-Saxon' applied to early
dialects of Old English and important elements of their culture, and the name
'England' evolved from the region being described as the land of the Angles -
'Angles' Land’.

In the sixth century, Ecclesiastical Latin became powerful as Pope Gregory

the Great sent Catholic missionaries from Rome to convert Anglo-Saxon kings
to Christianity; this was known as the Gregorian Mission. Becoming a language
of the ruling class, Latin again influenced the languages spoken in Britain, which
borrowed aspects of its grammar and lexicon.
The eighth to eleventh centuries saw multiple Viking invasions, with

settlements along the east coast of Britain operating under Danish laws. Old
Norse and Old English, which were both Germanic languages, blended elements
such as morphology, syntax and lexicology to create a more simplified Anglo-
Saxon dialect. For example, marking simple past tense in Old Norse was done
with '-in' or '-d', while Old English marked it by changing the internal vowel or by
adding -de’ or '-don'. While archaic forms of these exist in some verb inflections,
the regular marker for simple past tense became '-ed'. Many irregular morphemes
(morphemes that do not follow a standard pattern) were dropped at this time
in areas where Old Norse and Old English speakers were intermarrying, and
lexemes that were heavily used by the Vikings were adopted into this early form
of English.
Writing tip
Irregular forms of words will often indicate an interesting etymology - when you
come across these, make a note of them, to discuss in class, research, and add to
your example bank for essays.
Much of modern England was unified by Alfred the Great in the ninth century,
breaking the Isles into three parts - the Danelaw (under laws brought by Danish
occupiers), Anglo-Saxon states, and lands of the Britons (the Celtic Britons). The
Danelaw region developed a variety of Old English more heavily influenced by
Norse, seen in place names such as Egilsay (a Scottish island) and Snaefell (on the
Isle of Man), while cities in Anglo-Saxon states had names such as Stafford and
Buckingham. Brythonic place names still exist in the names of natural features,
such as Blencathra (a hill in the Lake District) and the Cornish town of Crewkerne.
The rule of Anglo-Saxon kings came to an end with the Norman conquest of
1066. The Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor died in January 1066 and his
brother-in-law, Harold Godwinson - Harold II - succeeded him to the throne.
This gave rise to a struggle for power as other leaders attempted to take the
throne. Harold II gathered his forces to repel a Danish invasion. Meanwhile,
the Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror, had gathered French forces and
departed from Saint-Valery-sur-Somme in the north of France to land on the
Sussex coast. Harold II rushed south to fight these forces; he was defeated and
died in the Battle of Hastings. William the Conqueror built an abbey to honour
the place of his death. This battle marked the beginning of French rule over much
of Britain, bringing the influence of their language.

Languages blend Ecclesiastical Latin Old Norse blends Norman French

and mix with becomes a powerful with Old English, becomes the language
Brythonic/Celtic language as kings with both being of the ruling classes
languages already on are converted to Germanic languages. and heavily influences
the British Isles. Christianity. Old English.
Features of Old English

Phonetics/ Additional phonemes included voiceless alveolar nasal /n/, voiceless
Phonology lateral approximant /I/, voiceless palatal fricative /$/, voiceless labial-velar
fricative /m/, voiceless velar fricative /x/ and voiced velar fricative /y/.
■ See the table on page 167 for an overview of English phonemes across time. VH
Morphology Cases (a system of inflectional morphemes) were used to denote the

grammatical role of nouns, including nominative (subject), accusative
(direct object), genitive (possession) and dative (indirect object). These
varied for singular and plural form, with adjectives needing to match the
inflections of the nouns they modified.
Verbs were conjugated using more inflectional morphemes to mark
grammatical person (first, second or third), number (singular or plural),
tense (past, present or future), mood (indicative, imperative or subjunctive),
and whether it was a strong (forming past tense by changing a vowel
sound) or weak (forming past tense by adding a suffix) verb.
Lexicology Dialects of Kentish, Mercian, Northumbrian and West Saxon carried
around 50000 words each and were largely mutually intelligible.
Syntax Old English was a synthetic language - it relied more on inflectional

morphemes to convey the grammatical roles of lexemes, rather than word
order (like Modern English does). For example, the Old English adjective
'beautiful' would be 'cyme' in the phrase 'the beautiful man': 'se cyme
mann' but 'cymu' in the phrase 'the beautiful woman': 'se cymu frowe.' This
meant a freer word order overall, with some conventions around placement
of the verb or other elements for emphasis.
Alphabet Runes were used initially, but were replaced with letters of the Roman
alphabet.
The graphemes (symbols or characters such as letters and punctuation
marks) known as thorn 'pj wynn 'p', eth'd' and ash 'as' were used to
represent the phonemes /0/ (as in 'thing'), /w/ (as in 'way'), /d/ (as in
'this') and /ae/ (as in 'act') respectively.
Synthetic languages have more inflections than analytic languages such as Modern
English, which are more reliant on word order to convey syntactic relationships.

Scan the code or click here to learn about the features of Old English in
greater depth.
Beowulf
Although Old English shares foundational elements with contemporary
English, it looked quite different and would sound foreign to modern ears.
While important English stories from the time have survived, the language
has changed so much that we have to rely on translations.
One such story is the epic poem, Beou/ulf, thought to be written around
700 CE and considered to be one of the earliest forms of European heroic
literature and thus of particular significance in the history of English.
Beowulf tells the story of a hero who travels the land and slays monsters,
notably Grendel and Crendel's mother, which makes him famous and wins
him accolades. A young and brave warrior, he becomes king and dies an old
man after killing yet another dragon.
Here are some opening lines from Beowulf:
Hwset. We Gardena in geardagum, [oeodcyninga, |orym gefrunon,

hu da asjoelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceafoena (oreatum, monegum maegfoum,

meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas.
Syddan a?rest weard feasceaft funden, he [oaes frofre gebad, weox

under wolcnum, weordmyndum foah, odfoaet him seghwylc |oara
ymbsittendra ofer hronrade hyran scolde, gomban gyldan.
Paet waes god cyning.
Scan the code or click here to access a video of Professor Justin A
a Jackson from Hillside College perform the opening lines of Beowulf

in Old English.

1 With the help of an etymological dictionary, group the words below according to
whether they have come from Celtic, Latin or Norse origins.
a aeg (egg) d glen (narrow valley) g sacerd (priest)

b clan (intimate group) e hoch (pig) h sweostor (sister)
c frigedaeg (Friday) f Prim (first) i tacan (to take)

2 What are the extra letters that were used in Old English? Which phonemes did
they represent?
3 Syntax was used to create emphasis or tone, or to indicate the importance of key
information in a clause or sentence in Old English. What do we use now to create
these effects in written and spoken language?
4 Imagine travelling back in time and meeting an Old English speaker. What
might be some of the key elements you would need to consider when trying to
communicate with them?
Middle English (1150 ~ 1500 CE)

The Middle English period saw French rulers on the throne and the use of English
outlawed in written works and public domains from 1100 until 1362. During this
time, English was still the vernacular (the language widely spoken by ordinary
people), but it underwent many unrecorded changes that are now impossible to
trace.
Old Norman, the language of the ruling class, influenced the existing Anglo-
Saxon language, forming more of an Anglo-Norman tongue. To describe roles
and activities introduced by the new arrivals, English borrowed lexemes from
French, such as 'joust', 'lute' and 'bounty' pertaining to court life. Since Latin
had prestige in the French Norman court, much of the vocabulary relating to the
law, governance and religion was Latinate in origin. For instance, 'tort', 'edict'
and 'tabernacle' entered English at this time and are still used today. Important
documents of governance, such as the Magna Carta (1215), were written in Latin.
This period laid the foundations for French and Latin terms being perceived as
more formal than their Anglo-Saxon or Germanic counterparts.
Old Norse, the language of the people living in the Danelaw (the eastern
region of Britain, which was under the laws of Danish tradition) continued to
heavily influence the shape of English. As these settlers connected, traded and
intermarried with their Anglo-Saxon neighbours, their language influenced the
inflectional morphology of Middle English among the lower classes. This was
especially notable in the dialects of Northern and East Midlands regions of Britain
at the time, since they were closest to where Old Norse was being spoken.
A sudden change in the climate in Europe resulted in the Great Famine, from
1315 to 1317. Crops failed and many people starved, so crime and death rates
quickly increased. The extent of the famine was such that, in August 1315, even
the King of England, Edward II, is said to have been unable to get any bread while
travelling with his entourage. With smaller agricultural communities failing, many
people headed for larger cities, bringing with them regional linguistic variation.

Unfortunately, following this explosion of city populations, bubonic plague,

referred to as the Black Death, swept through Britain from around 1348 until
1353. It is thought that forty-five or fifty per cent of the population of Europe
was killed by the disease (or even more, according to some scholars). The loss
of life resulted in further mixing of varieties of Middle English, assisting the
standardisation of the language but also eliminating some regional varieties.
p3-» See pages 159-60 to read about standardisation.
The Hundred Years War, a series of conflicts between England and France,
raged from 1337 to 1453 and resulted in English people perceiving French as
the language of the enemy. The English language was reinstated as the official
language of England from 1362. While this separated England and France
politically and linguistically and created a strong sense of national pride for the
English people, the existing borrowings from French had taken hold, so English
has retained words from that source, such as 'dress', 'scent' and 'beef'.
Towards the end of the Middle English period, the English language still
had distinct regional variations with no standard form; however, technological
advancements were beginning to give wider access to texts, particularly through
Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in 1440. This transformed
the long, technical, and arduous job of copying books out by hand to a much
faster process that enabled mass production of texts at a fraction of the price.
This technology was introduced to England by William Caxton, who brought his
printing press from Belgium to London around 1476 and produced the first print
edition of Chaucer's The Canterbury tales.
Norman rule Hundred Caxton's

1066-1362 Years War printing
1337-1453 press 1476
For 300 years, Failed crops and War with France Caxton establishes
English is no migration from means England an English printing
longer the official smaller towns reinstates English press based on
language of causes a mixing of as its official Gutenberg's
Britain. regional dialects language. design, making
of English. English texts much
more accessible.
Scan the coc*e or

jKsfe click here to view a
video about the way
incursions influenced
the English language, on our
webpage of further resources.

Features of Middle English
Phonetics/ Additional phonemes included voiceless palatal fricative /$/ and voiceless
Phonology velar fricative /x/.
Phonemes added and still in use: voiced palato-alveolar fricative /$/ as we
use in modern words like rouge /ju^/
See the table on page 167 for an overview of English phonemes across time.
Morphology Cases still existed to mark grammatical roles but they became more
similar to each other as the syntax became more important. Nominative,
accusative, genitive and dative cases still existed in this period.
Inflectional morphemes were reduced. For example, by the end of the
Middle English period, plurals took on a standard form of '-sj with irregular
plurals remaining for commonly used nouns and those borrowed from other
languages.
Lexicology Dialects were grouped as Northern, Southern, East Midlands, West
Midlands and Kentish, but all varieties took on French and Norse words,
taking the lexicon to around 100000 words.
Syntax Freer word order could be used to stylistic effect, but otherwise a more
standard word order of subject, verb, object was established, to bring it in
line with French syntax. This more fixed word order allowed for inflectional
morphemes to be dropped over time.
Alphabet The graphemes known as ash 'ae', eth'd', and wynn 'p' were replaced with 'a',
'th' and 'w' respectively.
Letters 'j', 'kJ 'q' and 'z' were added to the writing system.
Note that the following pairs of letters were used interchangeably at this
time: 'j'/T and 'u'/'v!
Scan the code or click here to learn about the features of Middle
English in greater depth.
The Canterbury Tales

Middle English was much closer to the English we are familiar with, so some
texts from the time can still be read in modern schools, notably Geoffrey
Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (1387-1400). The variation between
dialects was at times mutually incomprehensible, as noted by Chaucer
himself in one of his stories in which some northern merchants seek to buy
eggs from a woman from the south. She cannot understand their request,
not knowing what they meant by 'egges', as this lexeme came from the Old
Norse word. Luckily, a local is able to understand the strangers’ dialect and
translates it to 'eyren', a word from Anglo-Saxon origins which the woman
understands.

Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is a collection of short stories presented

as tales told by a group of pilgrims to pass the time as they travel to
Canterbury. The opening to 'The Miller's Tale’ informs readers that the
Knight has just told an engaging story and the host invites other members
of the group to tell their tale. The Miller volunteers, but is quite drunk by
this point in the night so his companions are not sure if he should!
Below is an excerpt from the prologue of Chaucer's 'The Miller's Tale’.
Heere folwen the wordes betwene the Hoost and the Millere:
Whan that the Knyght had thus his tale ytoold,
In al the route nas theryong ne oold
That he ne seyde it was a noble storie
And worthy for to drawen to memorie,
And namely the gentils everichon.
Oure Hooste lough and swoor, 'So moot I gon,
This gooth aright; unbokeled is the male.
Lat se now who shal telle another tale...'

1 The Hundred Years War, the Great Famine and the Black Death severely reduced
the number of English speakers in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. What
impact do you think this would have had on English at the time?
2 Give the plural forms of the following words and compare with your classmates.
Do you notice any differences or variations?
a calf c ellipsis e kangaroo g sheep

b criterion d hero f platypus h tooth
3 For each of the examples above, is the plural irregular because the word is a
borrowing from another language, or because it is historically an irregular noun?
Checkyour answers with an etymological dictionary.
4 Imagine travelling back in time and meeting a Middle English speaker. What might
be some key elements you would need to consider when trying to communicate
with them?

Early Modern English (1500 CE ~ 1750 CE)

The Early Modern English period began with English again being the official
language of England. However, it was still more a collection of dialects than a
singular form. The capacity to mass-produce books in the dialect of a single
region allowed for the spread and eventual adoption of the Mercian dialect,
since this was spoken in southern England when Caxton set up his printing
press in London. Elements of the work printed by Caxton prior to 1500 showed
progression towards Early Modern English, but the spread and standardisation of
the language took time.
The Early Modern English period began during the Tudor period of English
history, a time largely marked by economic stability and a sense of optimism. The
English Reformation led to the Church of England separating from the Catholic
Church in 1534, removing previous restrictions on the translation of sacred texts
into English. The production of the first authorised English Bible in 1539, called
The great Bible, and the publication of The book of common prayer in 1549 further
spread a singular form of English and progressed the standardisation process.
In the Elizabethan era, playwrights

such as Christopher Marlowe and William
Shakespeare extended the English lexicon,
playing with the semantics of the language
through metaphor, puns and idioms that
are still in regular use today. Shakespeare’s
works form the first recorded instances of
over 640 words. Lexemes such as 'dwindle',
'misquote', 'laughable' and 'puppy-dog'
all first appeared in Shakespeare’s works,
as he used a range of word formation
processes to bend the English language to
William Shakespeare
meet his needs.
The impact of the plague meant that mass gatherings (including theatres)
were shut down at times, notably during the London plague of 1592-93. During
this time, Shakespeare published poems. The plague resurfaced again in 1625
and 1665, then the Great Fire of London in 1666 caused King Charles II to urge
Londoners to disperse from the city. This movement of the population would
have further spread the Mercian dialect beyond this area.
Academics sought to rediscover the knowledge of antiquity, bringing a

resurgence of philosophy, science and mathematics, along with an influx of
borrowings from Greek and Latin. These academic circles discussed the English
language's lack of uniformity. Author and satirist Jonathan Swift penned an essay,
'A proposal for correcting, improving and ascertaining the English tongue’, in
1712. In this public letter to the leader of the government, he argued that experts
should be appointed to protect the integrity of the English language and prevent
it from declining through poor usage.

Seeking to protect English from further changes, two important works were
written to lay down its use. The first was William Bullokar’s 1586 Pamphlet for
grammar, which aimed to give English grammatical patterns and structures some
regularity. The second was A dictionary of the English language, penned by English
writer Dr Samuel Johnson and published in 1755. Johnson worked for about nine
years on the creation of his comprehensive dictionary, which was more than
just a glossary of jargon like most dictionaries of the time. His work was the
precursor to the modern type of English dictionary now used around the world.
Both Bullokar’s Pamphlet for grammar and Johnson's A dictionary of the English
language are discussed in more detail in Chapter 9.
English versions of Plays in English by The Great Fire of Dictionary and

important texts are playwrights such as London and the grammar guides are
made available, such Shakespeare and plague spread produced by scholars
as the Bible and Marlowe spread a regional variations of such as Samuel
prayers. common English English to new areas. Johnson and William
variety. Bullokar.
Features of Early Modern English
Phonetics/ By the Early Modern English period, the phonology mirrored modern
Phonology English's set of phonemes, with differences in some vowels.
See the table on page 167 for an overview of English phonemes across time.
Morphology Inflectional morphemes continued to decline in usage, with accusative

and dative inflectional morphemes merging in the pronoun system.
Second-person singular present-tense verbs in the indicative mood
(i.e. used to express statements or questions) both required '-(e)st' to be
added, meaning that the phrases 'you take' would be 'thou takest'.
The '-en' inflectional morpheme to mark present-tense verbs in the
second-person plural was retained only in formal discourse, so 'ye eaten'
became 'ye eatl
By the end of the period, present-tense third-person singular verbs
all took '-s' rather than '-(e)st'. Both forms are seen in works of the time,
sometimes within the same sentence.
Lexicology During the period, there was an influx of Greek and Latin words to denote
abstract ideas and concepts, influencing the spelling of existing words to
try to match these foreign conventions.

Syntax Auxiliary verbs underwent changes, with 'to be' used for progressive
constructions (denoting ongoing actions), and the verb could still take
the prefix 'a-', making phrases such as '1 am atalking'. The auxiliary 'to do'
also negated the need for inflection, so all three of the following would
be acceptable: '1 am atalking', '1 am talking', or '1 do talk'. The verb 'to
have' could be used for perfect constructions (denoting actions that were
completed in the past) in addition to the existing 'to be', so both of the
following were acceptable: '1 am spoken' and '1 have spoken'.
Alphabet The grapheme 'f' could be used for the letter 's' when not at the end of
a word; 'ss' could be written as 'B', a grapheme that still exists in modern
German. Thorn 'p' was relegated to handwritten texts only.
Note that the following pairs of letters were used interchangeably at this
time: 'j'/'i' and 'u'/'v'. Additionally, 'y' was sometimes used in place of 'i'.
Scan the code or click here to learn about the features of Early Modern
The Tempest
With so much of their lexicon and grammar being consistent with the
forms of English used today, Early Modern English texts are still taught in
schools and are highly accessible. Some arguments for slowing down the
pace of change of the English language cite the ability to teach Shakespeare
in classrooms, which is only possible because changes to the language so
far have not yet rendered it unintelligible. Individual lexemes, literary or
historical references, and semantic changes still require some decoding,
but dialogues such as in the following excerpt from William Shakespeare's
The Tempest are still largely coherent to modern readers.
The Tempest is thought to be Shakespeare's final completed solo work

and tells the tale of a sorcerer, Prospero, who is banished to an island and
attempts to regain his dukedom through magic and guile. He summons a
storm that shipwrecks his brother, Antonio, along with the King of Naples,
Alonso, and the King's son, Gonzalo. They land on Prospero's island, where
he plans to take back his title with the help of his magical servants and
teenage daughter.
The following excerpt is the opening to Shakespeare's The Tempest (1611).
ACT I, SCENE I
On a ship at sea: a tempestuous noise
[Enter a MASTER and a BOATSWAIN]
MASTER Boatswain!
BOATSWAIN Here, master: what cheer?

MASTER Good, speak to the mariners: fall to't, yarely,
or we run ourselves aground: bestir, bestir.
[Exit]
[Enter MARINERS]
BOATSWAIN Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts!
yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to the
master’s whistle. Blow, till thou burst thy wind,
if room enough!
[Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND, (JONZALO, and

others ]
ALONSO Good boatswain, have care. Where's the master?
Play the men.
BOATSWAIN I pray now, keep below.
ANTONIO Where is the master, boatswain?
BOATSWAIN Do you not hear him? You mar our labour: keep your
cabins: you do assist the storm.

1 How would the shift of the language of religion from Ecclesiastical Latin to English
have changed Latin's influence on English?
2 Why has it been possible for more and more inflectional morphemes to exit the
English language over time? Do you think this is a positive or negative thing?
3 Many idioms and metaphors appeared for the first time in Shakespeare's works.
Define the following expressions.
a break the ice c green-eyed monster e strange bedfellows

b catch a cold d naked truth
4 Early Modern English is close enough to contemporary English for modern

speakers to code switch into this variety. Why might someone choose to do this?
5 Imagine travelling back in time and meeting an Early Modern English speaker.
What might be some of the key elements you would need to consider when trying
to communicate with them?

Modern English (1750 CE - present)

Dr Johnson's revolutionary dictionary established a
sense of correct spellings and denotations for English,
although Johnson himself acknowledged that it was
impossible to stop a language changing. Various
dictionaries followed Johnson's lead. American Noah
Webster tried to make changes to the language
through the writing of his dictionary. He simplified
spellings to make them more in line with pronunciation
and removed double or silent letters that he
considered unnecessary: for instance, 'familiarise'
became 'familiarize', 'cancelled' became 'canceled' and
'jewellery' became 'jewelry'. Webster’s An American Dr Samuel Johnson
Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1828,

and was bought by the established printing family of Merriam upon his death.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary traces its origins back to this important early
dictionary and functions to represent and uphold American English as distinct in
its own right.
In the mid-eighteenth century, the British Empire

spread English throughout the world. Using important
technological advancements, Britain extended its
influence across the globe, with mixed impacts
on the language. International varieties of English
emerged through mixing with local languages, while
in some regions historical forms of English persisted.
British people migrating to other countries tended
to preserve the form of the language that they took
with them, so traits that were later lost back in Britain
were sometimes maintained in the colonies. Rhotic
Noah Webster
pronunciations, for example, were now typical in
American English (see the tip below). The international varieties also took on
features of the local languages with which they interacted, creating distinct
varieties of English over time.
Rhotic varieties of English are those where the phoneme that represents the 'r' sound
is pronounced in all positions and contexts. This contrasts with Australian English,
a non-rhotic language, in which the phoneme representing the 'r' sound /j/ is not
pronounced at the end of syllables or immediately prior to a consonant. For instance,
the /j/ would not be pronounced in words such as 'car park' /kei pe:k/ in Australian
English, but it would be in rhotic varieties such as Irish and American English.

The American War of Independence (1775-83) reduced Britain's political reach

in that region. Through the Treaty of Paris in 1783, however, Britain retained
Canada, Senegal and India, while ceding Cuba, Manila and what is now the United
States of America. The Empire expanded its reach in other areas, claiming lands
in New Zealand (1769), Australia (1770) and Singapore (1819), and occupying
Hong Kong (1842), to name a few. The United Kingdom joined the 'Scramble
for Africa’ between 1881 and 1914, in which seven European powers invaded,
annexed and dissected the lands of Africa to expand their empires in the period
of New Imperialism. English thus spread to many territories, including areas in
the contemporary nations of Botswana, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius,
Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Technological advancements allowed Britain to maintain some control over

how English was being employed as a language in its colonies. In 1902 the All
Red Line connected all the British territories via an electrical telegraph network,
linking members of the Empire back to what was perceived as the correct form
of English. Despite this attempt to maintain a singular form of the language,
variations specific to these speech communities arose, which will be explored in
greater detail in Chapter 11.
The invention of typewriters allowed letters to be printed onto paper in a

simple and uniform way, enabling individuals to produce printed text without
the need for a large printing press. Pressing a typewriter key activates a metal
hammer with a character on the end, which strikes an inked ribbon, transferring
the character to a sheet of paper. Although a patent for a machine similar to
a typewriter was lodged in 1714 by Henry Mill, it took over a century for the
typewriter to be developed to the point of being commercially produced.
The QWERTY keyboard layout was created for the Sholes and Glidden
typewriter (patented in 1868) over a period of around five years of trial and error.
This key configuration remains the basis for modern keyboards that use a Latin
script. Overtime, diacritics, punctuation marks, and the '1' and '0' numerals have
been added.
While many people believe that the QWERTY order of keys was created
t0 s*ow down typists, to prevent the hammers jamming, this is not
actuallY the case. Scan the code or click here to see a short video about
how QWERTY became the most prominent keyboard layout.
Alternative keyboard configurations have been released overtime, with some

swapping a few keys around to suit languages other than English or adding
language-specific graphemes. Other configurations were also developed to
support typing with one hand, playing online games and other specific tasks
or occupations, aiming to make typing faster and more efficient. However, the
advantages are limited because traditional keyboards still use the QWERTY
layout, meaning users would need to relearn typing skills if changing from one
keyboard to another.

A well-known alternative to the QWERTY keyboard, the Dvorak keyboard

configuration was developed in the 1930s by Dr August Dvorak. It places the
letters most commonly used in English, 'E' and T, closest to the middle typing
fingers. The most frequently used letters, vowels and 'D', 'IT, T, 'N' and 'S', are
placed in the middle row.
! @ # $ % & * ( ) { } 4-----
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 [ 1 Backspace
N
< > P Y F G C R L ? + 1
Tab^ 1
/ \
Caps Lock A 0 E U 1 D H T N S Enter
Shift Q J K X B M W V z Shift
o o
The Dvorak keyboard
The development of computers eliminated the mechanical problem of typewriter

hammers jamming together if they swung at the paper at the same time, so
faster typing was enabled and encouraged. But with this increase in speed came
more propensity for errors. To mitigate this, in 1993 Microsoft launched the
autocorrect feature for word processing. This feature, now adopted by other
applications, makes suggestions about the intended word or grammar, based on
the orthography (the conventions for the writing of a language) of the author.
While it can be effective for more formal writing, autocorrect lacks nuance when
the author is writing in an informal register, utilising code switching or using
words that are not in the program's lexicon.
The availability of the internet to academia and for military applications from
the 1980s, and spreading to the broader public in the 1990s, changed the way
many English speakers communicated. Engaging with others via chatrooms and
messaging services resulted in the development of new forms of shorthand. To
indicate prosodic and paralinguistic features, context-specific graphemes were
codified into the online style: emoticons, emojis, gifs and memes were used to
convey tone clearly; actions could be indicated through initialisms and acronyms;
and context for shorter texts could be indicated through hashtags, hyperlinks or
images.
Now that technology is ubiquitous, more technological jargon is entering

our language. Due to the nature of language online being both global and
non-transient, language change and generational differences are highly visible
and locational variation is reducing, without disappearing entirely. The near-
instantaneous global spread of language features can require modern English
speakers to be well-versed in a range of dialects and language varieties.

Colonisation Typewriters Commercial Internet

mass produced computers available to the
produced public
The British Empire Typewriters Speedier typing is Internet communication

spreads English enable easy possible; coding allows instantaneous
around the globe and production of texts languages are distribution of language
colonies adapt local in a standardised developed. features and erodes the
varieties. alphabet. barriers that limit the
ability of physical speech
communities to shape
language use and form.
Scan the code or click here to view a video about the influences
of inventions on the English Language, on our webpage of further
resources.
Features of Modern English
Phonetics/ By the Modern English period, the phonology mirrored present-day English's
Phonology set of phonemes; however, between 1750 and now, there have been shifts in
how some vowels are pronounced.
■ ’ -» See the table on page 167 for an overview of English phonemes across time,
Morphology Inflectional morphemes were reduced to seven regular suffixes to mark

simple past tense, simple present tense for third-person singular, past
participles, present participles, comparatives, superlatives and plurals.
Lexicology Borrowings were extensive during the expansion of the British Empire.
Anglicised pronunciations and spellings of proper names are being
corrected in contemporary English, e.g. 'Peking' moving to the more
accurate 'Beijing' and 'Turkey' moving to 'Turkiye'.
Technological jargon became more visible due to the ubiquity of its
presence and impacts on our lives.
Syntax Grammar books codified many syntactic patterns and made them more
regular, including requiring interrogatives to contain auxiliaries, to facilitate
the inversion of the subject and first word of the verb phrase, making the
Early Modern English construction 'Want you the book?' into 'Do you want
the book?'
The 'who'/'whom' distinction became less pronounced, with language
users more likely to use 'who' in most contexts.
Singular 'they' as a non-gender-specific personal pronoun fell out of
usage at the start of the Modern English period but has seen a resurgence
in the twenty-first century.
Alphabet The graphemes T and 'B' and thorn 'p' were removed from the language.
The following pairs of letters ceased being used interchangeably at this
time: 'j'/'i', 'u'/'v' and 'y'/'i'.

Scan the code or click here to learn about the features of Modern
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 15 of Philip K Dick's 1968 science
fiction detective drama, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? This book
was the inspiration for the film Blade Runner. Set in what is now the past
(2021), it paints a 1960s image of the future with details that are now
familiar to us, such as video calls, as well as fantastical elements such as
androids and interplanetary travel. The language is modern, employing
pronouns and sentence fragments in ways familiar to modern readers and
using internal and interpersonal dialogue to drive the narrative.
In the excerpt below, Decker, a bounty hunter of rogue androids he calls

'andys', has just returned from the rooftop where he and his wife, Iran, have
been admiring their new goat, which he bought to keep her happy. He receives
a call from his Captain, Harry Bryant, with an update on some androids he has
been hunting, but would rather enjoy some time with his wife.
The vidphone rang.
'If we hadn't come back down here,’ Rick said, 'if we'd stayed up on
the roof, with the goat, we wouldn't have gotten this call.’
Going to the vidphone, Iran said, 'Why are you afraid? They're not
repossessing the goat, not yet.' She started to lift the receiver.
'It's the department,' he said. 'Say I'm not here.’ He headed for the
bedroom.
'Hello,' Iran said, into the receiver.
Three more andys, Rick thought to himself, that I should have

followed up on today, instead of coming home.

1 Early dictionaries sought to codify a standard of English for their respective
nations. Would a dictionary alone be able to achieve this? What else do you
think would be needed?
2 What are some of the advantages of the QWERTY and Dvorak keyboards,
compared to each other?

3 Social media often uses hashtags to provide context for short messages and to
allow for ease in grouping and finding posts around a core concept. What contexts
do the following encode?
a #auspol c #ootd e #travel

b #blm d #tbt f #vcaa
4 Create a timeline marking the events outlined in this chapter so far. Ensure you
include the following elements:
a Old, Middle, Early Modern and Modern English periods

b important incursions into the British Isles, including the Vikings, Normans,
religion and plagues
c important inventions and when they first influenced the English-speaking
world, including the printing press, typewriters, computers and the internet
d literary texts cited in this chapter, and any others you have looked at in class
For your Unit 2 studies, you will undertake an in-depth analysis of how the
English language has changed, based on the topics of 'Incursions' or 'Inventions'.
As your research progresses, you will explore how social and cultural changes
have impacted language and led to change across a range of subsystems. While
you are required to be familiar with all the topics in the relevant list below, you
need to look at one of these options in more depth. Complete the following
activities, based on the option you are exploring, to support you in collating and
summarising this information before moving on to Chapter 9. The two options
from the VCE English Language Study Design are listed below.
Option 1: Incursions Option 2: Inventions
> the Vikings > Gutenberg and the printing press
> Norman conquest in 1066 > dictionaries
> religion > typewriters/keyboards
> plagues > the internet

Option 1: Incursions
1 Draw a map of Europe and add arrows to highlight the origins and destinations
of the different groups of invaders or incursions into the British Isles, taking
particular note of the following events.
a the Vikings c religion

b Norman conquest in 1066 d plagues

2 Create a list of key changes to the English language that have clear links to the
incursions into the British Isles listed in Question 1.
3 Which of the English language periods do you think transitioned as a result of
incursions? Why do you think these incursions had such a big impact on the
English language?
Option 2: Inventions
1 What do you think were the impacts of the following inventions on the process of
standardising and codifying the language?
a Gutenberg and the printing press c typewriters/keyboards

b dictionaries d the internet
2 Draw a map of Britain and show the major dialects that existed in Old, Middle and
Early Modern English. Label places where the following inventions were developed,
a Caxton's printing press b Dr Johnson's dictionary
3 Which of the English language periods do you think transitioned as a result of

inventions? Why do you think these inventions had such an impact on the English
language?
The Indo-European family of languages

Languages change across time, but where does English come from originally?
A primary way in which linguists have tracked down the origins of English is by
identifying trends across different languages and looking for how words, phrases
and sounds are related to English equivalents. Lexemes that are markedly similar
to each other and indicate a relationship across languages are called cognates.
These cognates will vary in predictable ways in terms of spelling and phonology,
but will have consistent elements of their denotations (literal meanings).
English Norwegian Icelandic Russian Croatian Latin

brother bror brodir 6paT brat frater
mother mor modur MOTb majka mater
The more cognates linguists find between languages, the closer their family link.
In tracing language family trees, all relatives are referred to in the feminine, so
Latin is the mother language of Italian, Italian is the sister language of Spanish.
The vast majority of languages that span the European continent are said
to have a singular 'mother' language - Proto-Indo-European (PIE). PIE is
a hypothetical reconstructed ancient language (the word 'proto' in the name
indicates that it is a hypothetical language). It is thought to date from anywhere
between 3500 and 8000 years ago (estimates vary), and is the mother language

to different 'branches' of the PIE language tree such as the Italic, Germanic and
Indo-lranian branches. As there are no written records of the language, some key
phonemes, morphemes, lexemes and syntactic patterns have been hypothesised
based on its descendent languages. The Indo-European language family is very
diverse. An illustration of some of the branches is provided below.
Proto-Indo-European
o o
< <
<
cc
o O
LU q
Latin Manx X
<
Irish Gaelic
Catalan Scots Gaelic
French Cornish Ancient Greek
Galician Breton
Italian Welsh Modern Greek
Portugese
Provencal
Romansch Sanskrit
Romanian
Assamese Avestan
Spanish
West Germanic North Germanic Bengali Sogdian
Gujarati Baluchi
I Hindi
Marathi
Kurdish
Pashto
Low Saxon / High German Old Norse
Nepali
Low Franconian
Punjabi Old Persian
Yiddish Icelandic
Romany
Flemish Faroese
Sindhi Persian
Low German Old English Norwegian
Singhalese
Dutch Danish
Urdu
East Frisian English Swedish
Afrikaans Scots

1 What is a cognate?
2 What types of words would you expect to function as cognates and why? (Hint:
think about words that stay consistent over time due to their frequent usage.)
3 What are some of the key factors that historical linguists have to consider when
identifying cognates across languages?

Links between English and other languages

Historical linguists use cognates to find relationships between languages, and
they also use them to identify linguistic trends across time when languages have
diverged. A key historical linguist was Jacob Grimm, the elder of the Brothers
Grimm of fairytale fame who, around the same time as Danish linguist Rasmus
Rask, recognised a systematic relationship between the phonetics of Germanic
and Latinate languages, which he wrote about in his 1822 book Deutsche
grammatik. Subsequently, the patterns governing this sound change were
referred to as Grimm’s Law (also known as the First Germanic Sound Shift, or
Rask's-Grimm's Rule). This law states that when Indo-European split up into the
Italic and Germanic branches, some sounds went in different directions: in Italic
languages the voiceless bilabial plosive /p/ appeared, while in Germanic languages
the voiceless labiodental fricative /f/ occurred. (See Chapter 4 to review manner
and place of articulation.) This predictability helped to identify cognates more
effectively, as well as telling us something about the Indo-European language.
While Grimm's Law cannot be applied to all words in these languages, it

provides a solid indicator for when words entered the lexicon: in this case, the
words that complied with these patterns tended to be older words. As further
patterns of phonological changes were identified, other rules could be applied to
further pinpoint lexical entry into languages.
Below are some examples of Grimm's Law, which affected English, as well
as Verner's Law, which affected other Germanic languages. Verner’s Law saw a
number of Germanic languages move the dental fricatives (e.g. /0/ as in 'thing'
and /d/ as in 'this') to alveolar plosives (e.g. /t/ as in 'ties' and /d/ as in 'diss’). In
the table, these are marked with 'A'.
Latin Italian Old English Dutch German English

/p/ to /f/ pisces pesce fisc vis Fisch fish
/t/ to /©/ triplex triplice forifeald drievoudigA dreifachA threefold
/k/ to /h/ cor cuore heorte hart Herz heart
/kw/ to /w/ quando quando hwonne wanneer wann when
/d/ to /t/ decern dieci ten tin zehn ten
/g/ to /k/ granum gabbia cyrnel kooi Kafig kernel
In many cases, borrowings have made it challenging to accurately trace cognates,

with false cognates, also called false friends by linguists, seeming to indicate
connections that are not present. For instance, the Old English word 'docga',
meaning a powerful hound, looks deceptively similar to the Australian Aboriginal
word 'dug', coming from the Mbabaram language of Northern Queensland.
Although seeming similar phonetically and in meaning, they are not cognates as
there are no historical connections between the origins of the two languages.

The exact number of words in the English language today is challenging to

calculate, but scholars place it between approximately 130000 and 170000
words. Of these, at least 30000 are of French origin and 50000 are of Latin
origin, thanks largely to the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066 and the power
and influence of the Church. Viking invaders affected grammar and shared more
in common with Old English, meaning that their impact on the language is more
challenging to trace, but over 200 of our commonly used words in English can
be traced directly back to Old Norse and approximately 4500 words to Anglo-
Saxon. Understanding the historical context of how and why these words came
to English helps historical linguists discern true cognates from false cognates -
those that have a common ancestor and those that do not.

Create a poster of your own version of the Indo-European family tree. Take special
note of where English is on the tree relative to some of the other languages talked
about in this chapter.

CHAPTER
Changes to the English
09 language
In Chapter 9 we explore processes, drivers and causes of changes to the English
language, and the role played by attitudes. You will learn names for these
processes and consider examples of the changes that have shaped the way
we speak today. You will also draw on your knowledge of the subsystems of
language and the history of English across the Old, Middle, Early Modern, and
Modern English periods.
This chapter lays the foundations for Chapter 10, which will explore in more
detail the processes of change and how attitudes can influence the speed and
success of change.

♦ the codification and evolution of Standard English, focusing on the origins
of the English spelling and grammar systems
♦ changes across the subsystems of language, including:
» phonetics and phonology - the Great Vowel Shift
» morphology - abbreviations, acronyms, shortenings, compounding,
blends, backformation, affixation
» lexicology - borrowings, commonisation, archaisms, neologisms,
obsolescence
» syntax - word order
» semantics - broadenings, narrowings, elevation, deterioration, shift
♦ attitudes to changes in language, including prescriptivism and descriptivism
♦ metalanguage to discuss language change

Chapter 9 Changes to the English language

The Great Vowel A change in the pronunciation of English that took place at the end
Shift of the Middle Ages: most long vowels were raised and those vowels
already at the top of the mouth became diphthongs.
Morphological Processes of constructing words through the use of morphemes.
word formation
processes
Abbreviation A shortened version of a word created through its initials or other
symbols, or by removing components of a longer word or string of
words (e.g. VCAA, St).
Acronym A word formed from the initial letters of a series of words that refer
to an entity or concept and are pronounced as a word (e.g. scuba,
ANZAC).
Initialism A word formed from the initial letters of a series of words that refer
to an entity or concept and are pronounced as a string of letters (e.g.
VCE, RSVP).
Shortening Forming a new word by removing part of a longer word.
Contraction A word formed by removing some letters and marking the missing
letter with an apostrophe.
Compound A word formed by joining two full words together into a single word (a
process called compounding).
Blend A word formed by joining parts of two or more words together into a
single word.
Backformation The process of forming a word by removing a part of a word that is
mistakenly thought to be an affix from a longer word. The resultant
word is also known as a backformation.
Conversion of Changing the part of speech to which a word belongs without adding
word class affixes (e.g. 'to email').
Affixation The process of forming a new word by the addition of affixes
Lexical word Processes of bringing new words into the language.
formation
processes
Borrowing A word taken from another language and adapted into English.
Commonisation Forming a common noun from a proper noun.
Nominalisation Forming a noun from an existing verb or adjective.
Neologism A new word in the lexicon, having been introduced to the language or
being a repurposed existing lexeme or lexemes.
Archaism A term or phrase that exists within specific contexts (e.g. idioms) but
has otherwise dropped out of the language.
Obsolescence A term or phrase becoming obsolete: no longer used as part of the
language.

Changes to the English language Chapter 9
Semantic The process of a word denoting additional referents (the thing that
broadening a word or phrase refers to or stands for) - i.e. gaining additional
meaning/s.
Semantic The process of a word denoting fewer referents (a reduction in the
narrowing breadth of its meaning).
Semantic shift The process of a word changing what it denotes to something
different.
Elevation The process of a word's connotation becoming more positive.
Deterioration The process of a word's connotation becoming more negative.
Semantic Changes to the meanings of words that affect their connotations.
denotation, Over time, such changes can also shift the denotation.
changing
connotation
Taboo language Terms or language use socially prescribed as improper or
unacceptable, including the use of dysphemism (substituting a harsh
or offensive expression for a more acceptable one - opposite of
euphemism).
Prescriptivism Focuses on correctness of language and its use and aims to preserve
perceived standards or impose ideals about how the language
'should' be.
Descriptivism Gives an objective account of actual observed patterns and use of a
language.
The process of language change

At some points in history, changes to English have been slow and systematic,
complying with the norms of how other languages change. At other times,
the English language has changed quickly or mysteriously, leaving historical
linguists only hints of why and how those changes took place. Because of this, it
is important to understand not just the nature of language change but also the
processes by which changes occur. We will look at processes that have affected
changes to English at its various stages, drawing on knowledge of historical
events provided in Chapter 8.
Are there patterns to changes in the English language that can help us predict
future changes? Who decides what changes occur? How do attitudes to language
shape what changes, what stays the same and what types of changes occur?
Standardisation and codification

By the beginning of the Early Modern English period, English had developed to a
point where it began to undergo a process of standardisation. Standardisation
is a continuous process that brings uniformity to the writing and speaking of a
language, so that it becomes more regular and consistent among users, rather than
functioning as a collection of dialects that are not always mutually intelligible.

Language users play a large role in the process of standardisation. As they

communicate with one another, they naturally develop, promote and spread a
variation of the language that holds meaning for their community. In doing this,
they popularise practical language norms, reducing variability across dialects, and
introduce a 'standard'.
Standardisation can also occur as eminent language users set down rules for
language use and determine a 'correct' language form. For example, in the Old
and Middle English periods, members of royalty and the upper classes would
have promoted and enforced language use that they deemed 'acceptable'. In
the modern age, this type of standardisation occurs through the media and
institutions such as governments, schools and universities.
When language norms enter popular usage, they are written down. This is
known as codification. Codification is a component of standardisation and can
involve developing and documenting a writing system and official rules around
orthography, pronunciation, syntax and vocabulary. As languages continually
evolve to meet the needs of their users, the processes of standardisation and
codification are ongoing and will never be 'complete'.
Codification and standardisation are connected but distinct. Codification is the

writing down of formal rules, while standardisation refers to these rules themselves
becoming more consistent across dialects, progressing towards a single form of the
language.
Codification can cause problems when there isn't a widely accepted form of
the language. In Middle and Early Modern English, technological advancements
allowed individuals to codify and spread their own understanding of English,
regardless of the variations that existed in society.
Important examples of this can be seen in texts produced by Caxton's
printing press, in Dr Johnson's A dictionary of the English language and in William
Bullokar's Pamphlet for grammar. Each of these resulted in different problems
in terms of consistency for a standard form of English. Caxton's press had
numerous spelling inconsistencies. Johnson’s dictionary was riddled with his own
guesswork and preferences, and he injected his personal values and attitudes
into definitions. Bullokar's pamphlet imposed the patterns of Latin onto English,
despite some elements not fitting well due to English being a Germanic language.
The following paragraphs outline some more specific problems these works
created for the standardisation of English.

Writing tip
Remember that when you refer to a person in your assessments, you should use
their full name in the first instance, then just their surname thereafter, unless you are
referring to more than one person with the same surname.
Caxton's printing press

Caxton's printing press spread the Mercian dialect of English around Britain
from 1476, long before the establishment of agreed rules for English grammar
and spelling. The priority for compositors (who assembled the metal type for
printing) was to ensure that each of the lines filled the width of the page, to
create a consistent appearance and make buyers feel that they were getting
their money's worth. Handwritten books included small diagrams, pictures or
elongated letters to fill the pages but this was not an option for the printing
process, as compositors were limited to using letters. It was not uncommon for
compositors to add or remove letters to make the text fit better on the page,
meaning that a particular word might have multiple different spellings in the
same book.
With no standard record of English spellings to refer to, other factors also
played a part in determining spellings in Caxton's publications. Terms pertaining
to the law and the Church often had Latin origins, so sometimes printers
decided on spelling based on where they thought letters should appear to
mark this etymology, rather than accurately reflecting the word's orthography.
For instance, a 'b' was added to 'debt' to connect better with the Latin lexeme
debitum, despite the 'b' having been dropped in Middle English, when it was
commonly spelt 'dette'.
William Caxton showing the printing press to King Edward IV.


1 Below is an example of a sentence from Caxton's introduction to Aesop's fables,
published in 1484 CE. How would you modify the orthography to fill the lines,
creating three lines of exactly fifty characters each?
Here begynneth the book of the subtyl historyes and Fables of Esope whiche
were translated out of Frensshe in to Englysshe by Wylliam Caxton.
2 What difficulties could be caused by authors making up their own spelling?
3 Silent letters and when to use double letters are common problems for those
learning English. How can some of these spellings be attributed to Caxton's
printing press?
Bullokar's pamphlet
William Bullokar’s Pamphlet for grammar was published in 1586 and drew heavily
on the tradition of Latin grammar books, seeking to impose onto English the
grammatical patterns and structures of the now-dead language. Bullokar felt
that this would make English more regular in its form and add greater legitimacy
to the language by likening it to a language of such high prestige. Likening
English to Latin would also make it easier for foreigners to learn, as Latin was
common to most of Europe in the sixteenth century. This was a sound theory in
terms of his aim of making English more accessible and easily taught, for English
and non-English speakers alike.
Latin terms that Bullokar used to describe the elements of English grammar
are still used today, such as 'verb' from the Latin word uerbum. Bullokar also
applied to English the Latin grammar system of classifying verb tenses (past,
present and future) into different aspects (how an action or state extends over
time), which gave English the forms of simple, progressive, perfect progressive
and perfect.
f^]-» See pages 34-6 to learn more about verb tenses and aspects.
Latin Translation English term Example (present tense)

simplex having few parts simple they go
continuus following one after progressive they are going
another
perfectum completed one after perfect progressive they have been going
continua another
perfectus completed perfect they have gone

Rather than simply noting how to mark possession, he also advised how the
language should be changed. For example, Bullokar stated that a singular
possessive noun should be marked with -is’ so that it would not be confused
with the plural marker for nominative case nouns, ‘-es’. In this way, the Middle
English phrase 'Jacobes bookes’ (Jacob's books) would be written as 'Jacobis
bookes' to indicate to whom the books belong. This application of Latin grammar
patterns to English was typical of the time and was done to invent etymological
links between Latin and English, despite English being a Germanic language.

1 Bullokar sought to affect change in the language through his works. If you could
change one aspect of English grammar, what would it be and why?
2 Where do these three important events - the appearance of Caxton's printing
press, Johnson’s dictionary and Bullokar’s pamphlet - fit on the timeline you
created for Develop your understanding 8.5, Question 4?
See page 152 to view Develop your understanding 8.5, Question 4.
Dr Johnson's dictionary
Dr Samuel Johnson's work in the mid-1700s established the style used by
dictionaries for centuries to come. Although his A dictionary of the English
language was not the first dictionary, nor the most comprehensive, it clearly
articulated definitions, classifications, etymologies, pronunciations and usage,
recording the shape of English at the time. Major criticisms of his dictionary
come from his attempts to guess at etymologies, his personal biases influencing
his definitions, and the limitations of his own lexical knowledge (he wrote
his dictionary with only the aid of six transcribers). There were errors such as
'pastern' being defined as the incorrect part of a horse's leg, which, according
to Boswell's biography, Johnson explained to a lady as 'ignorance, madam, pure
ignorance’.
Johnson is also thought to have included words that were not real, to protect
his copyright. This practice continues today, the idea being that these quirks will
identify plagiarists who illegitimately reproduce the work. In 1943, Webster's
new twentieth century dictionary of the English language contained the lexeme
'jungftak', and the 2001 edition of The new Oxford American dictionary included
'esquivalience' specifically to trap such copyright infringers. Unfortunately,
Johnson did not record which words in his dictionary he invented for this
purpose, meaning that these made-up lexical entries were permanently codified
into English and became accepted.


1 Johnson’s dictionary can be accessed through the National Library
of Australia, or in various places online. Scan the code or click here
to access an online version of the dictionary. Look up the following
definitions in Johnson's dictionary and note what this tells you about his
biases and some of the problems his dictionary presents.
a finesse c lunch e trolmydames

b lexicographer d patron f writative
2 Try to define the following words on your own and then compare your definitions
with a partner.
a happiness c yellow
b perfection d intelligence
What does this tell you about the pitfalls of one individual writing a whole
dictionary?
3 Johnson included some made-up words in his dictionary. Invent a couple of words
of your own, with definitions.
Problems of spelling
English spelling is incredibly inconsistent, demonstrated by words that rhyme
with each other, despite different letter combinations representing the same set
of phonemes.
Examples
dough /dau/ know /nau/
true /tjju:/ few /fju-/
choose /tjuzz/ lose /lu:z/
heard /h3:d/ bird /b3:d/
nose /nauz/ flows /flauz/
Alternatively, words may have the same form or same ending orthographically,
but have different phonological realisations.
Examples
(to) lead /li:d/ lead /led/
thorough /Obj a/ through /Oju:/ cough /kof/
wound / wasand/ wound /wu:nd/
(to) row /jau/ (to) bow /baea/
tear /te/ rear /jia/

As English has become more standardised, some prescriptivists (individuals

concerned with preserving the 'correct rules’ of language) thought that spelling
should be made more consistent by basing it on etymologies; however, this
conflicted with the way most people used the letters of the language. This led to
suggestions to reform the alphabet and overhaul the English spelling system. In
his first text, Book at Large, for the Amendment of Orthographie for English Speech
in 1580, Bullokar suggested a forty-letter alphabet. His suggested additions to
the alphabet included a differentiated soft and hard 'c' and 'g', with soft forms
taking on a distinguishing marker. This meant that the word 'conceal' would be
written as 'conceal' to indicate which 'c' was a velar plosive /k/ and which was
an alveolar fricative /s/. The word 'gauge' would be written as 'gaug’e' to show
readers which 'g' used a velar plosive /g/ and which the palato-alveolar affricate
/d$/. Heavily reduced or unpronounced vowels would be represented with a
mark above the following consonant. For example, the word 'bacon' would be
written as 'bacri' to represent the reduction of the vowel to a schwa. While these
ideas would have helped clarify English spelling and met his intended purpose
of making English an easier language to learn, his work did not carry sufficient
influence to effect these changes.
a. b. c. c. d). o. c. c. f. g. g. tj. i. I. r. m. ni. n.n. o. m. p. q. r. f. 0. t. dj.

dj. to. to.u.lD. j.
Letters from Bullokar's alphabet

1 Find one or more of the following poems online and transcribe some of the
homophones, rhymes and homonyms that are the source of confusion in English
spelling.
a 'Our Strange Lingo’ by Lord Cromer (1902)
b 'The Chaos' by Gerard Nolst Trenite (1920)
c 'Phoney Phonetics’ by Vivian Buchan (1966)
2 Write an additional stanza for one of the poems you have read, drawing on some
of your own examples.
Scan the code or click here to learn about gloss and free translations.

Changes across the subsystems of language

The evolution of English has affected all levels of the language, including major
changes to each of its subsystems. The connections across subsystems allow the
language as a whole to function - for example, a lexical change could result in the
introduction of a new phoneme.
Changes to morphology can affect the way the syntax of a language works.
For instance, when the Middle English morphemes to mark direct objects
and indirect objects became too similar, English speakers started using the
preposition 'to' as a marker. This provides clarity; for example, in the clause 'Kiera
kicked the ball to Mohan', it is clear that it was the ball experiencing the kick and
Mohan receiving the ball.
Semantic changes can mean that words are either no longer used or are used
more frequently. For instance, the word 'handle' became more frequently used
when it broadened to include an additional meaning, referring to an internet
username.
honological changes
Since the Old English period, the phonemes used in English have continued to
evolve and change. Phonemes have been added, merged or lost. Since we have no
audio recordings of Old, Middle and Early Modern English varieties, much of the
work of historical linguists in the area of phonology is based on current trends,
commentaries about pronunciations and works that used rhythm (such as songs
and poems), which enable researchers to discern the length of syllables and
where rhyming couplets exist.
In Old English, there were some additional voiceless phonemes - /n/, /J/, /m/,
/g/, /x/ - and one extra voiced phoneme, /y/. A number of voiced phonemes are
thought to only have occurred between vowel sounds, giving us the modern
trend of substituting/v/ for /f/ in words such as 'calves' and 'hooves’, substituting
/d/ ('this') for/0/ ('thin') to create words such as 'bathing' and 'clothing', and
using/z/ in place of/s/ to give 'rise' and 'hypothesised'.
See pages 85-6 to read about connected speech processes.
Scan the code or click here to hear pronunciation of phonemes from

the IPA chart. Note that this chart shows more technical or narrowly
transcribed sounds, which are not required for VCE English Language.

By the Middle English period, a number of the voiceless phonemes had been lost
while other phonemes became more prominent due to borrowings from other
languages, such as Latin and French. The distinctive velar and palatal fricatives
that were common to Germanic languages remained at this time, meaning that
'night' would still have been pronounced /nigt/ and 'thought' would have been
pronounced as /9oxt/. These are both similar to modern pronunciations but with
the 'gh' denoting a guttural sound found in modern Scottish pronunciation of
'loch' as in the placename Loch Ness. (To make these kinds of guttural phonemes,
act as if trying to clear the back of your throat of phlegm.) Since these phonemes
existed into the Middle English period in these words, the orthography retained
them.
The Early Modern English period saw the addition of the voiceless palato-
alveolar fricative 1^1 ('rouge') around the mid-seventeenth century and the
velar nasal phoneme /rj/ ('hang') was finally pronounced independently of the
voiced velar plosive /g/. When a sufficient number of speakers were eliding
the final voiced velar plosive /g/ phoneme in lexemes such as 'sing' and 'thing',
the previous articulation of/sir]g/ and /0ir]g/ became more like our modern
pronunciation /sir]/ and /0iq/.
The practice of h-dropping (pronouncing words without their 'h') was
common, with the letter and phoneme falling in and out of vogue during this
period. The result of this was inconsistency in how it was applied: either a
semivowel (a letter that sounds like a vowel but functions like a consonant) or
a consonant, giving us 'an honest mistake' but also 'a house on a hili’. See the
table below for an overview of the phonemes thought to have entered and exited
English through Old, Middle, Early Modern and Modern English periods.
Bilabial Labial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Palato- Palatal Velar Glottal

velar alveolar
Nasal m nn 0
Plosive Pb td kg
Affricate
Fricative fv 0d sz 9 XY h
Approximant MW J j
Lateral 11
Trill rr
KEY
Red: Lost between Old English and Middle English
Purple: Lost between Middle English and Early Modern English
Green: Added between Middle English and Early Modern English

Writing tip
When discussing phonological changes, try to highlight what has changed in
terms of place and manner of articulation as well as voicing.
Overall, the change process of phonology in English results in the addition, loss
or alteration of phonemes. See the following table for more details and examples
of how these processes have affected pronunciation in the past and still affect
pronunciation today.
Process Likely Typically why it Old Contemporary

environments occurs example example
Loss unstressed Phonemes aren't 'knit' 'every'
syllables being articulated, /knit/ ('knit') /eve j 1/ ('every')
so eventually -> /nit/ ('nit') /evj 1/ ('evry')
ends of lexemes stop being
pronounced. The velar plosive Since schwa is
phonologically /k/ was elided so a short central
complex lexemes much over time vowel, it can be
that it was lost absorbed into
when phonemes
from the word's /j/, due to it also
fall out of the
phonology. being a central
language
phoneme.
Addition consonant Breaks up 'thunder' 'film'
clusters complex /dunoj/ ('thunor') /film/ ('film')
pronunciation /0ende/ -> /filem/ ('filum')
phonologically tasks by inserting ('thunder')
complex lexemes a vowel or Some speakers
consonant The addition of the insert a schwa
as a break or alveolar plosive to break up
link between /d/ comes from phonemes that
phonemes. the release of the would not usually
sound stream from occur next to each
the nasal cavity other.
into the oral cavity,
in preparation
for the vowel
phoneme.

Changes to the English language
Alteration phonologically One phoneme 'treasure' 'did you'

complex lexemes assimilates /tjczjuj/ /didju/ ('did you')
into another ('trezyiur') -> /drd3a/ ('didja')
unstressed (assimilation -> /tue39/
syllables refers to a ('tresha') The plosive and
phoneme fricative assimilate
becoming more The alveolar to become an
like the one fricative /z/ affricate. The
next to it) or the and palatal sound stream is
two coalesce approximant stopped by the
(both change /j/ merge, with tongue at the
to be more like the place of alveolar ridge and
each other) in articulation then released
anticipation moving closer to along the palate.
of the next the palate and
manner or place retaining the
of articulation. fricative element to
Vowels in become a palato-
unstressed alveolar fricative
syllables are most /y.
at risk of change.
This also covers
the movement of
phonemes within
words.
Metathesis is an example of an alteration process (described in the table above),

in which two phonemes swap places. Historically, this is where words such as 'ask'
came from, with the original form being aks from the verb to ax (pronounced like
'arks').
The Great Vowel Shift

The Great Vowel Shift (GVS) was a major upheaval of the pronunciation of long
vowels (vowels that are held proportionately longer than other vowels, such as
the 'oo' sound in 'moon') in English, taking place between 1400 and 1700 CE. The
seven long vowels of English each moved up one position in the mouth, with the
highest vowels then moving into diphthongs (when one vowel phoneme glides
onto another in the production of a syllable; e.g. the 'oi' sound in 'coin').
See the following table for an outline of how the vowels started and how they
changed during the GVS. Modern English words have been used to give you a
sense of the sound of the vowels.
© Insight Publications insight - ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11

Lexeme Vowel sound Example of pre-GVS New vowel sound Example of post-GVS
before the CVS pronunciation at end of the GVS pronunciation
mice 'ee' m-ee-s 'eye' m-eye-s
as in 'cheese' as in 'price'
meat 'eh' m-eh-t 'ee' m-ee-t

as in 'bear' as in 'cheese'
meet 'er' m-er-t 'ee' m-ee-t
as in 'bird' as in 'cheese'
mate 'ah' m-ah-t 'eh' m-eh-t
as in 'bard' as in 'bear'
m-ay-t
and then 'ay'
as in 'hay'
mouse 'oo' m-oo-s 'ow' m-ow-s
as in 'boot' as in 'house'
moot 'awe' m-awe-t 'oo' m-oo-t
as in 'yawn' as in 'boot'
moat 'or' m-or-t 'awe' m-awe-t

as in 'board' as in 'yawn'
m-oh-t
and then 'oh'
as in 'joke'
Scan the code or click here to listen to audio recordings demonstrating

these vowel changes (under the section 'Changes’).
While there is no singular reason for these changes, historical linguists have
highlighted three possible main causes:
> As mentioned in Chapter 8, the Black Death ravaged the population of
Europe and caused mass migration to bigger cities such as London. The
mixing of dialects from across the British Isles may have created the shift.
> During the Hundred Years War against France, in Britain there was a desire
to move away from French-sounding vowels and borrowings; adopting
different vowels helped to demonstrate this anti-French sentiment.
> Outside of this time of war, the wealthier middle class may have hyper
corrected their speech to sound more similar to French.
While there were distinct movements, they did not happen in an orderly manner;
300 years would be considered quite a fast overhaul of the long vowels of a
language. Within a person’s lifetime, they may have witnessed change or actively
shifted the way in which they articulated particular vowels as part of this larger
vowel shift. It would not have been uncommon for grandparents to pronounce
some words differently from their grandchildren.

Since English was also in the process of standardisation and codification,

lexemes that were written down for the first time prior to the Great Vowel Shift
differ from those written during and after the shift. Therefore, the GVS is one
of the reasons why some modern English spellings don’t seem to match their
pronunciations (see pages 164-5, 'Problems of spelling’, for examples).

1 What are thought to be some of the causes of the Great Vowel Shift?
2 Why was the timing of the Great Vowel Shift so detrimental to English spelling?
3 During the shifts, some homophones (different lexemes that share a common
pronunciation) would have appeared. Look up a list of homophones online.
a Select a few of the English homophones that you agree sound the same,
b Find some listed homophones that you think aren’t homophones given the way
that you speak.
c Compare your list with others in the class.
d Why do you think that there is some variation in people's lists?
Morphological changes
While they have been retained in many of the Indo-European languages, English
has been steadily losing inflectional morphemes (morphemes that attach
grammatical properties to a word) since the Middle English period, when English
went from being a synthetic to an analytic language. Consequently, the function
words and the role of word order became more prominent in defining the
grammatical roles of lexemes. Derivational morphemes (morphemes that change
the meaning of a word) were important during this shift as they provided an
opportunity for the creation of neologisms (new words) through morphological
processes.
[g. See pages 29-30 to read about inflectional and derivational morphemes.
New words can enter into English through a range of morphological processes
including abbreviation, acronym, initialism, shortening, contraction,
compounding, blending, conversion, affixation and backformation.
Abbreviation
Abbreviations are formed by writing or pronouncing shorter forms of a word or
string of words. They can be constructed from standard graphemes from the
alphabet, numbers and context-specific graphemes.

These can cross over with acronyms, initialisms, blends or shortenings, as well
as covering things that fall in between.
Examples
VCAA (where ‘V’ is said as a letter and CAA is pronounced like ‘car’)
St (either denoting street or Saint, depending on context)
GR8 (meaning great, with the ‘gr’ followed by the pronunciation of‘eight’)
Acronym
Acronyms are formed by taking the first letter of each word in a string of words
and pronouncing them as a new word.
Examples
scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus)
ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps)
lol (laugh out loud)
Initialism
Initialisms are formed by taking the first letters of words in a string of words
and pronouncing them as letters or a combination of letters and other symbols.
While sometimes confused with acronyms in common vernacular, in the field of
linguistics, these are separate labels to be applied.
Examples
VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education)
Q&A (question and answer)
NPC (non-playable character)
Shortening
Shortenings are constructed by cutting words down to smaller forms. Over time,
the original phrase or word from which the word was cut may cease to exist and
orthography may be adjusted in order to maintain the pronunciation of the term.
Examples
pram (from ‘perambulator’)
noob (from ‘newbie’, a person new to an activity or game)
all caps (‘caps’ is a shortening of‘capitals’)
Contraction
Contractions are formed by removing some letters from words and marking
the missing letter/s with an apostrophe. Since this often mimics the spoken
mode, contractions are usually viewed as more informal, with some contractions
considered more informal than others.

Examples
She’s (from ‘she’ and ‘has’)
It’s (from ‘it’ and ‘is’)
Couldn’t’ve (from ‘could’, ‘not’ and ‘have’)
Compounding
The process of compounding refers to the addition of two or more words in
their entirety, creating a word that carries meaning from both elements. For
compounds, there will be a stem word that is the main element of the meaning,
with the added free morpheme functioning as a derivational affix.
Examples
bookcase (book tells us what the case is designed for)
swimsuit (swim tells us what kind of suit)
keyboard (key tells us what we will find on the board)
Blending
Blending is the process of adding together parts from two different words or
adding part of one word to another full word. Puns are often created through
the use of blends, with modern language play constructing animal puns such as
'koalafications' and ‘hawkward'.
Examples
glitterati (glitter + literati)
modem (modulator + demodulator)
kidult (kid + adult)
When you observe new words in public usage, make a note of them to use in your
Year 11 work. In Year 12, you will also be expected to discuss contemporary examples
in Australian society, so noting such examples will also help you to be more aware of
public discourse.

Conversion
Conversion is the process of using a word in the role of a different part of speech,
but without adding any affixes to mark it as such.
Example
email (originally a noun, but now also used as a verb. It does not take on ‘-ise’
or ‘-ate’ to indicate its shift from a noun to a verb.)
Affixation
Affixation is the process of adding affixes to words to create new words. The
affixes can be prefixes or suffixes.
Examples
quasiluxury (with the prefix ‘quasi-4)
government (with the suffix ‘-ment’)
Affixation can sometimes create homonyms unintentionally. For example,

depending on the context, the term 'unionised' can function as an adjective to
refer to atoms that are not ions or to a group of workers who belong to a trade
union.
In modern technology, neologisms such as 'YouTuber' and 'podcaster' have
become commonplace, describing those who perform in these media.
Backformation
Backformation refers to the process of removing what are mistakenly thought to
be affixes. This process is similar to shortening but the basis for removing parts
of the word is to convert it to a different part of speech, or alter meaning by
targeting clusters of letters that look like derivational morphemes.
Examples
televise (backformed from ‘television’ in 1927, twenty years after ‘television’
came into English)
typewrite (a backformation from ‘typewriter’)
Backformations are challenging to spot, as you need to know when each form of
the word entered the language.

Define the meaning of the underlined examples and classify them as an

abbreviation, initialism, acronym, shortening or combination thereof.
a ACDC play this weekend, d Happy IDAHOBIT Day!

b Break is over, B2B! e HMS Victory sailed today,
c Drink 200 ml each evening. f See you on 14 Feb :)
2 Read the following short interaction that relies on online chat abbreviations,
acronyms, initialisms and shortenings. Identity what they mean, classify them
with appropriate metalanguage and create a similar discourse using the terms you
are familiar with.
Player 1: hey wyd?
Player 2: not much tbh, u?
Player 1: nm but i miss youuuu. its been forevs.
Player 2: ikr, its whack lol
3 A good way to figure out the stem of a compound word is to think about which
element would take on inflectional morphemes for plurality or tense (e.g. '-s’, -ed’
'-ing'). Apply this to figure out which is the stem of the following compounds.
a deadlift c motherboard e pancake

b firefighter d mother-in-law f skateboard
4 Do you see any patterns from the previous question? What might this indicate
about English morphology and any exceptions to this?
5 Blends can be a playful way of engaging with ideas, often drawing on powers of
inference and context to understand what is being said. Explain the following
blends and what knowledge you need to have to enable you to understand them,
a chairdrobe c malware e shampagne

b hangry d sitcom f smog
6 How would you add affixes to the following words to indicate who performs the
action related to the item or event?
a beekeep c piano e skateboard

b Olympics d removal f TikTok
7 Compare your responses with a classmate and discuss the following questions,
a Can you see any patterns in how you have approached the previous activity?
b What might this indicate about affixation as a process?

Lexical changes
The lexicon of English continually evolves to remain relevant and useful to
its speakers. Words are lost, added or repurposed according to the needs of
speakers. Linguists map how and why these changes occur to the lexicon by
looking at the processes involved in forming new words, the drivers for change
and the reasons why words fall out of use.
word formation
processes
drivers for
change
-> reasons for
word loss
borrowing movement between obsolescence

domains
commonisation brevity
innovation requiring
nominalisation taboo
new lexemes
neologism unknown reasons
societal changes
Word formation processes

New lexemes may enter the language through the lexical processes of borrowing,
commonisation, nominalisation and neologism.
Borrowing
Borrowings are anglicised forms of words brought in from other languages. They
differ from code switches in that they have been naturalised (become part of the
English language). In this process, English spelling conventions are applied to the
existing orthography to establish pronunciation norms.
Examples
pen (from Latin ‘penna’ meaning feather, as the first pens were made from
birds’ quills)
smorgasbord (from Swedish)
sushi (from Japanese)
Commonisation
Commonisation is the process whereby a proper noun becomes a common noun.
This typically occurs when a popular brand name is applied to all similar items,
such as 'vaseline' and 'polaroid'. Some commonisations come from names of
people. For example the verb 'boycott' (from Irish land agent Captain Boycott
who was ostracised by tenants protesting unfair rents and evictions) and the
noun 'cardigan' (supposedly invented by the 7th Earl of Cardigan).
Different countries may use different commonisations. For instance,
Americans might call a tissue a 'kleenex' and many British will 'hoover' the
carpets, instead of vacuuming.

Nominalisation
Nominalisation is the process of making nouns from verbs or adjectives. They can
require derivational affixes, such as 'scarcity' and 'completion', or occur without
the need of affixes, such as 'change' or 'walk'. A single verb can produce multiple
nominalisations. For example, the verb 'run' can be used as a noun without an
affix ('I had a good run’) or as a noun with an affix ('the running of the race’).
Technological advancements have also led to nominalisations such as 'typing',
'streaming' and 'likes', as in 'Einar got lots of likes for the pic'.
Neologism
Neologisms are words that are new to the language (from the ancient Greek
terms: neo - 'new' and logos -'word'). These are classified as words that
have risen in popularity and usage, and have been recently accepted as part
of the language. They can be formed through the borrowing of words from
other languages, creation of new word forms, adaption of existing words or
repurposing of existing words in the lexicon. All words in a language have gone
through this process at some stage to become a part of the language.
Drivers for change

Lexemes may be invented, repurposed or lost due to movement between
domains, innovation requiring new lexemes, and/or societal changes.
Movement between domains

When advances in specific domains create the need for new words, terms may be
borrowed from other domains to be used in a more specialised or more generic
way. This is particularly noticeable with technical jargon, where a lexeme can start
as a highly specific term, then evolve to refer to something entirely different,
through common usage or transference between domains.
Example
wireless (historically this referred to the transmission of radio signals, without
the use of wires; however, in the modern world we use this lexeme to denote
accessing the internet without a wired connection)
Technological terminology is used ubiquitously in other domains, such as in

business, 'taking something offline’, or in wellness, 'switching off'.
Innovation requiring new lexemes

New inventions can also lead to the creation of new terms. These can be adapted
from older and less commonly used lexemes. For example, the term 'goon', used
in Australia to denote cask wine, is thought to have come from the word 'flagon',
which was once a measurement for a volume or vessel of wine.

Societal changes
Social values evolve over time, meaning that elements of language that no longer
comply with social norms are amended or removed. While terms like 'mankind',
'policeman' or 'chairman' were once ubiquitously used to refer to people of all
genders, these terms are now being phased out and replaced with gender-neutral
terms such as 'humankind', 'police officer' and 'chairperson'.
Social trends also require new terms to be created, but when the trend ceases
then the associated lexemes also disappear, such as 'beatniks' (members of an
anti-consumerist movement in the mid-twentieth century), 'greasers' (members
of a youth subculture in North America in the mid-twentieth century) and
'roundheads' (supporters of the Parliamentary party during the seventeenth
century English civil war), which are now only used when discussing those
movements historically.
Reasons for word loss

Lexemes in English have been lost over time due to:
> obsolescence
> brevity
> taboo
> unknown reasons.
If a lexeme has mostly been lost but is still used as a part of a figure of speech,
it may stick around as an archaism (a term or phrase that only exists within
specific contexts and has otherwise dropped out of the language).
Example
kith (in the expression ‘kith and kin’, meaning ‘friends and relatives’)
Obsolescence
When the referent (the thing that a word or phrase refers to or stands for) of a
content word ceases to exist, the lexeme no longer serves its purpose, so may be
removed from the language.
Examples
baselard (a small sword or dagger with an T-shaped hilt)
brigadine (a type of armour that protected the torso)
Brevity
Sometimes words become too short, so are cut from the language or exist only
as morphemes attached to other words. The word 'ig' from Old English meant an
island; however, over time it was absorbed into the word as 'igland' and eventually
changed to 'island'. The word 'a' once functioned as a preposition similar to 'on',
but was converted to a prefix to form some verbs that function as nouns, giving
expressions such as 'a-hunting we will go’, meaning 'we will go on the hunt’.

Taboo
Taboos refer to things that are avoided or banned in a society. Homonyms,
or near-homonyms, of taboo terms are lost from English to avoid potentially
offending others. The traditional English word for 'rabbit' was 'coney', rhyming
with 'honey', but its similarity to a vulgar English slang term saw its exit from the
language.
To avoid taboo language, we often use euphemisms - words or phrases used

in place of taboo terms and that appear more harmless, such as 'passed' instead
of 'died'. The pronunciation of 'coney' gave us the euphemistic mispronunciation
'bunny' which was able to survive in English as it was far enough removed from
the vulgar word that was being avoided.
Sexist terms such as 'wench' have disappeared from the language except
in archaic insults or old texts, and racially charged language is actively being
removed from some older texts; for instance, a revised edition of Mark Twain's
The Aduentures of Huckleberry Finn has been published, which removes a racial
slur used to describe the character Jim.
Modern editions of Enid Blyton’s children's books rename the characters
Dick and Fanny as 'Rick' and 'Frannie', as the previous names are now slang for
genitalia.
More recently, in 2023 Puffin Books hired 'sensitivity readers’ to

rewrite elements of Roald Dahl's children’s books to remove language
considered offensive to modern readers. Scan the code or click here to
read an article about the move.
Unknown reasons
Sometimes the reason for a word disappearing is not clear, or becomes lost over
time. A number of seemingly useful words have been lost from English for no
obvious reason. Terms such as 'velleity' - the wish to do something but it is not
strong enough to make you act on it - is a concept that many people could relate
to, and yet the term fell out of popularity in the 1920s and is not commonly used
today. You might like to sit at the table 'overmorrow' (the day after tomorrow)
and 'brabble' (argue loudly) with your family or friends, while your pet sits and
'groaks' (watches someone eating food in the hope that they will share it).
Despite these lexemes having strong applications for the modern world, they
have died out of popular usage.
Scan the code or click here to learn how the word 'people' became the
plural form of'person'.

1 Classify the following examples as either a borrowing, commonisation or

nominalisation.
a google c synergisation e xerox
b sushi d gelateria f depolarisation
2 For each of the following domains, provide some examples of lexemes and cite
what kinds of lexical processes are likely to have provided these lexemes.
a social media c academia e literature
b cooking d bureaucracy
3 Look at the following list of words and explain possible reasons why some of these
lexemes have fallen out of use or been lost.
a cimicine c dactylodeiktous e tabard
b crinoline d jentacular f yesterneve
Syntactic changes
English syntax has evolved overtime. Initially, it was similar to German, using
word forms to convey meaning. However, during the Middle English period, it
began to resemble French, relying more on word order to express grammatical
relationships. There were changes to the present participle, more standardised
auxiliaries and a heavier reliance on prepositions to indicate the relationships
between nouns and other elements of the sentence. The jump to Early Modern
English saw further reductions in inflectional morphemes affecting both verbs
and nouns.
Semantic changes
In addition to words changing in form, their meaning can also undergo changes
in connotation and denotation. Connotations are the culturally dependent
positive and negative associations we make about a word and the feelings it
evokes in us. The denotation is the literal, standardised meaning of a word,
the definition found in a dictionary. For example, the word 'home' can have
connotations of cosiness, while a denotation of'home' is simply 'place to
live'. Overtime, connotative changes can lead to denotative shifts. Similarly,
denotative shifts will attract new connotations or remove existing ones, based on
the social values and ideas attached to the concept or item.
Deterioration
Semantic deterioration refers to the process in which a word’s connotations
become more negative over time. The longer a word has existed in the
language, the more likely it is to have attracted negative ideas or concepts in its

connotations, so you can sometimes tell the relative age of a word compared to
its near-synonyms, based on how much semantic deterioration has occurred.
Words such as 'stench' and 'smell', both dating back to Old English, are older
than the more positively connoted 'odour' and 'scent'. Once 'stench' took on
negative connotations, 'smell' entered the language in the thirteenth century,
followed by 'odour' in the fourteenth century, and then finally replaced with
'scent' in the fifteenth century.
Words that are associated with disempowered groups are more likely to
also undergo semantic deterioration, as seen with words like 'hussy' (formerly
denoting a housewife) and 'gossip' (previously denoting a neighbour or friend).
Elevation
When the connotations of a word become more positive, the word has
undergone semantic elevation. Elevation is rarer than deterioration, but can
happen over time when originally negative associations are lost or changed
through slang usage. The term 'gothic' was applied to a style of architecture that
was seen as barbaric and ugly at the time. When later generations saw the beauty
of the gothic style, the originally negative term was elevated.
In slang, negative terms have come to denote something as good; for instance
'sick' used colloquially can now mean 'excellent' rather than its original meaning
of being unwell, although the lexeme still retains the latter denotation. The word
'mad' can similarly denote something good when used as a slang term, rather
than its original meaning of insanity or wildness.
Broadening
Over time, lexemes can take on additional referents, meaning that they gain
additional meanings without losing any of the original meanings. When this is an
extension of the original referent, we say that the denotation has broadened.
Commonisation is a type of broadening.
Examples
viral (now can refer to content that spreads quickly through the internet)
dog (now slang denoting performing acts perceived as subhuman, such as
betraying trust or going against a group’s norms)
Narrowing
The number of referents a lexeme denotes can also reduce, meaning that the
scope of the denotation has narrowed. Narrowing is rarer than broadening.
Examples
apple (once referring to any fruit)
meat (once referring to any food humans consumed)

Shift
Sometimes denotations can move away completely from their original meaning,
perhaps broadening first or otherwise taking gradual steps.
Examples
awful (once meaning ‘inspiring wonder’, now ‘very bad’)
pretty (once meaning ‘crafty’ or ‘clever’, now ‘attractive’)
naughty (once meaning ‘having nothing’, then ‘evil’, now ‘misbehaving’)

1 Read the following short story and note any terms that seem out of place.
Alfred the cheater
Alfred was a kind cheater, as honest and trustworthy as any man you could
find. On his way home, he would buy vegetables, such as pears and plums,
for his family to eat. Alfred worked hard until he was senile, staying clever
and never mistaken for nice. His egregious daughter, Agnes, was respected
for being a spinster, which she continued through her long married life.
Agnes loved to eat apples, she and her husband growing them on large
orange trees in their garden tended by a merry groom Agnes' mother had
found for her. Alfred's other wench, Editha the Chaste, stayed an unmarried
wife. As the Sun would rise each morning, she would eat dinner made from
the furniture that Alfred had purchased the day before.
2 The previous story uses a mix of old and new meanings of words. Look at the list
of words with their previous denotations below and re-read the story to see if it
makes more sense.
apple: any fruit merry: short

cheater: collector of lands for the King nice: stupid
dinner: breakfast senile: old

egregious: extremely good spinster: yarn spinner
furniture: any equipment, supplies or vegetable: non-animal food

provisions
wench: female child
groom: young male
wife: woman
3 Create a couple of lines of your own to add to the story, using some of the old
meanings above or others you find through your own research.

Attitudes towards language change

It is clear that it is in the nature of language to change. However, not everyone
approves of this tendency. Throughout history, authors and social commentators
have lamented the changes to language, viewing them as the degradation rather
than the evolution of language.
This negative view of language change aligns with the attitude of
prescriptivists, those who define how others should use language. In contrast,
descriptivists attempt to describe language use as it is occurring and see such
changes as part of the natural evolution of languages.
Prescriptivists
Prescriptivists tell others how to use language, prescribing the grammar,
orthography, pronunciation and semantics. They are the driving forces behind
codification and standardisation. Their role is important when learning a
language, since we turn to the works of prescriptivists when we need clarification
of how to use and apply language.
IE -> See pages 159-60 to read about standardisation and codification.
Famous prescriptivists throughout history have included Sir John Cheke, an English
classical scholar and statesman (1514-1557), Anglo-Irish writer and satirist
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), and English writers Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
and George Orwell (1903-1950), all of whom lamented the changes to English.
Some quotes from these writers are included below. To justify their concern about
language changing, prescriptivists often argue that language changing over time:
> causes confusion
> removes access to older texts for younger generations
> encourages greater variety between dialects, so reduces mutual intelligibility
> allows language to evolve to become less regular and 'lazier'
> causes rifts between speakers of different generations.
Our own tongue should be written clean An English tongue, if refined to a certain
and pure, unmixed and unmangled with standard, might perhaps be fixed forever.
[the] borrowing of other tongues.
Jonathan Swift, 1712
Sir John Cheke, 1557
Thus have I laboured to settle the [The English language] becomes ugly and
orthography, display the analogy, inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish,
regulate the structures, and ascertain the but the slovenliness of our language makes
signification of English words ... it easier for us to have foolish thoughts ... if
thought corrupts language, language can
Dr Samuel Johnson, 1755
also corrupt thought.
George Orwell, 1946

There is logic to prescriptivists' view that language change can make

communication more difficult, and this is particularly understandable coming
from lexicographers, authors and scholars, since language change directly
and negatively affects their work. Texts that continue to be readable and
accessible over time can reach the widest possible audience without the need
for translation or other support to aid comprehension. Reflect on your first
encounter with a Shakespearean text: did you need a side-by-side translation or
other support to help you understand it?
Descriptivists
Descriptivists do not dictate how the language should be used, but rather report
on how it is being used by others. They are open to changes in language and
observe them as a part of its evolution, rather than trying to stop or prescribe
them.
This view of language is encouraged in the field of linguistics, so that elements
of language that evolve with changing concepts of identity and the natural
progression of language are neither slowed nor ceased.
Descriptivists often cite the following reasons for valuing such language
change:
> it is a natural part of living languages
> it can enrich the language for its users by giving more options for expression
> it reflects aspects of the lives, technology and values of modern users
> it allows for language to evolve to better meet the needs of its speakers
> it can alleviate discriminatory or otherwise problematically embedded
elements of language.
Some prominent descriptivists include English chemist, philosopher and
grammarian Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), Australian linguist Michael Clyne
(1939-2010), and contemporary linguists David Crystal (British) and Kate
Burridge (Australian).
In modern and living languages, it is absurd Language use in the home may be affected
to pretend to set up the composition of by a number of events, including entry into
any person or persons whatsoever as the the workforce, marriage, birth of a new
standard of writing, or their conversation child, the child(ren)'s entry into different
as the invariable rule of speaking ... The stages of schooling, child(ren)'s departure
general prevailing custom, where ever it from the parental home and the death of the
happen to be, can be the only standard for spouse.
the time that it prevails.
Michael Clyne, 2003
Joseph Priestley, 1762

They are just that: changes. Not changes A non-standard dialect is as valid a
for the better; nor changes for the worse; communication system as the standard.
just changes, sometimes going one way,
Kate Burridge, 2004
sometimes another.
David Crystal, 1999
The only languages that don't change are
dead ones.
David Crystal, 2010

1 Think about the prescriptivists you interact with regularly. Who are they? Why do
they correct language?
2 What impact would changes to language have on the following professions?
a scholars who study old texts d teachers

b authors e politicians or other public figures
c lexicographers
3 List some of the reasons for prescriptivism and cite evidence to support these
points.
4 List some of the reasons for descriptivism and cite evidence to support these
points.
5 What are some of the advantages of linguists taking a more descriptivist approach
to language change and use?
6 Look at the following list of words and rank them, from your favourite to your least
favourite.
doily gotten irregardless moist

fester gullet literally phlegm
7 Compare your rankings in Question 6 to those of others in your class. Do you

notice any similarities or differences?

Responding to short-answer questions
Short-answer questions are a common form of assessment in English Language.
When approaching a short-answer question, the first thing to do is to deconstruct
the question. You can do this by following the three steps below.
Step 1: Identify the command word/s.

Step 2: Identify the key knowledge you need to demonstrate.
Step 3: Note any other important instructions.
Follow the steps above to deconstruct the questions below. The first has been
d o n e fo r y o u. ______________—_____
' command word
1 Identify one function of the text. (1 mark)
important instruction
2 Describe the tenor between the speaker and the audience. (2 marks)
key knowledge
3 Explain how the context influences the register. (3 marks)

4 Identify and describe two different prosodic features. (4 marks)
You should also pay close attention to the marks available for each question, as
these will indicate how much detail you should provide in your response.
A transcript of a speech from a school principal to their students is provided
below. Read the transcript, then answer the questions above.
p"i -> See pages 67-8 and 125 to view keys for the transcript symbols.
1 Good after=noon students. Today I would like to address expectations for behaviour on camp.
2 The opportunity to participate should be viewed as a privilege and it is our goal for you to
3 make the most of all the learning opportunities that come your way.
4 While we want you to have fun <L let me make this crystal-clear. L>
5 Any inappropriate behaviour <L will not be tolerated. L>
6 And if there are any signs of the recalcitrant/ and atrocious behaviour we have seen in the past/
7 you will be sent home immediately.
8 Students begin talking.
9 I'm waiting!
10 Students continue talking.
11 There will be zero tolerance (.) of any bad behaviour.
12 Now <F get out! Go to lunch. F>
Scan the code or click here to view the deconstructed questions, with
sample answers and mark allocations.

UNIT
LANGUAGE
CHANGE
2
Area of Study 2: Englishes in contact
The final chapters of this textbook examine Unit 2, Area of Study 2: Englishes in
contact. The English Language Study Design outlines the following key knowledge
points:*
♦ factors in the development of English as a world language
♦ the distinctive features of English-based varieties

♦ the distinctive features of English-based pidgins and creoles
-» the role of English as a lingua franca

♦ the role of language as an expression of cultures and worldviews, including
representations of worldviews
♦ the processes of language maintenance, shift and reclamation
♦ cultural and social effects of language change and loss, with particular
reference to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages
-» metalanguage to discuss the global spread of English.
Each chapter builds your knowledge of the global impact of English. Chapter 10
explores how English came to be considered a world language - a language that
has a role recognised in most countries - and introduces Braj Kachru's 'three circles
of English' model, as well as the relationship between language and worldviews.
Chapter 11 introduces pidgins, creoles and world Englishes, and examines these
through case studies of some of the languages spoken in Nigeria, Jamaica and
Singapore. Chapter 12 draws upon the knowledge from Chapters 10 and 11 to
examine different languages in Australia, focusing on Standard Australian English,
Aboriginal Australian Englishes and English-based creoles spoken by First Nations
people. It also discusses processes of language shift and loss, as well as efforts to
reclaim and maintain traditional First Nations languages.
This section of the book uses case studies and examples to explore the
impact of the spread of English across the globe. You are encouraged to engage
thoughtfully with the knowledge and case studies provided, and to develop a
critical understanding of the influence of English in the modern word. The practical
strategies at the end of this section provide guidelines and a checklist for writing
English Language essays - a valuable skill to help you explore ideas in your English
Language studies.

CHAPTER
The global spread
10 of English
In Chapter 10, we follow the trajectory of English from the language spoken in
England to one that is spoken all around the world, examining the impact of
I
different world events on the export and movement of English. We also explore
the concept of there being multiple Englishes rather than just one, and the
impact of culture and worldview on the way people speak.
In this chapter, you will be asked to critically consider your own interactions
in English and how these reflect your identity, and to evaluate the positive and
negative factors of the current status of English in the world.

♦ factors in the development of English as a world language
♦ the role of English as a lingua franca
♦ the role of language as an expression of cultures and worldviews, including

representations of worldviews
♦ metalanguage to discuss the global spread of English

Lingua franca A language that is adopted as a common language between
speakers who have different first languages.
World language A language that has developed an international role in
communication.
English as a world language

When people from different language backgrounds interact, there needs to be
some common form of communication for the exchange to be successful. In
some communities that utilise two or three different languages, people often
learn both or all of these languages and there is no language barrier to their
exchanges. This is true in Montreal, Canada, for example, where many people are
bilingual, speaking both French and English.

The global spread of English
Complications arise when speakers of different languages come into contact,

and they have no common language. This problem has traditionally been solved
by a lingua franca. A lingua franca is a language that is widely used by speakers
of differing language backgrounds as a common medium for communication.
Often, the lingua franca is a dominant language.
Dominant languages are those used by institutions and media to the exclusion of
other viable languages. They are often spoken by language communities with high
levels of social influence, political power and industrial or technological might.
Minoritised languages are languages that are marginalised or suppressed by a
dominant power in society. They are not automatically used by institutions or media,
and are often spoken by language communities with lower levels of social, political
and economic power.
Over several centuries, the footprint of the English language increased around
the world, including being spoken as a dominant and majority language in some
settler colonial societies or as a lingua franca by speakers of other languages.
English currently could be termed a world language. A world language or global
language is a language that has developed an international role in communication
that is recognised in most countries.
Factors contributing to English as a world language

There is a very close link between language dominance and other forms of
industrial, commercial and cultural power. When we explore the factors that
contributed to English becoming a global language, it may help to classify them
into six broad categories:
> colonial expansion > international institutions
> the Industrial Revolution > cultural dominance
> economic imperialism > digital revolution.
Colonial expansion
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there was a rush of European
colonial expansion in an effort to capture valuable resources and accumulate
wealth. Britain came to be one of the dominant colonial powers, primarily due
to its strong navy, and expanded and maintained much of its empire into the
twentieth century. English spread across the world during this expansion. Most
countries who were colonised by the British at this time still retain English as
their primary language or as one of their official languages today, even those
who have since separated from the British Empire such as the United States of
America.

Chapter 10 The global spread of English
The Industrial Revolution

British economic historian Arnold Toynbee (1852-1883) coined the term
'Industrial Revolution' to refer to the period between 1760 and 1840 in Britain;
however, since then, the term has been used more broadly to describe a period of
industrial change in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. During this period,
England was transformed by the introduction of mechanical manufacturing
methods and came to rely less on agriculture and more on industry for wealth
generation, fuelled by coal, water and steam. The invention of the steam
engine was arguably the most important driver of innovation in areas such as
textiles, food, transport and mining. Productivity was centralised in factories,
creating a labour demand that was filled by people moving from rural areas to
cities. Factories could employ children and there was no minimum wage for
adults, which enabled business owners to maximise productivity for little cost.
Furthermore, goods and resources could be transported around Britain via its
complex network of rivers, canals and railways. With its large empire around the
world, Britain had access to a wide range of resources for production, as well
as an exclusive market for its goods. This booming economy contributed to the
increased status of Britain and its empire and of the English language around the
world as such innovations spread beyond Britain's shores.
The electric telegraph, allowing
messages to be passed from
place to place using only code,
was one of the innovations
of the Industrial Revolution.
Telegraphs changed the way
people communicated around the
world, as previously, people had
relied on physically transporting
documents to communicate
with each other. Samuel Morse
set up an American telegraph
exchange system and then, in
1838, invented Morse code,
which became a universally recognised system, representing letters, numbers
and punctuation with dots, dashes and spaces. This new communication
system allowed long-distance messages to be transmitted significantly faster
than had previously been possible. For example, following the construction of
the Australian Overland Telegraph Line (a telegraphy system using cables and
electrical signals to communicate messages) and its connection to the Java to
Port Darwin underwater telegraph cable in 1872, it took only hours to transmit a
message between England and Australia, rather than months to carry it via ship.
Because the electric telegraph and Morse code were first developed in English-
dominant countries, they helped to maintain and strengthen the position of
English.

The global spread of English Chapter 10
Economic imperialism
By the late nineteenth century, both the USA and Britain were very wealthy.
The USA controlled much of the world's oil production, and had strong
manufacturing, transport, news and banking sectors. The USA's entry into World
War I was seen as pivotal to the Allies’ victory, and these two English-speaking
countries financed the Allies in World War I. The status of the USA in particular
increased after World War I, as it had entered the world stage for the first time
as an economic and industrial powerhouse. Consequently, the status and use of
English was further enhanced, as doing business with the USA required English.
International institutions
English continued to increase in status and use during the twentieth century.
People associated English with telecommunications (including radio), technical
innovation, financial wealth and cultural power. It became one of the official
languages used by international organisations such as the United Nations (UN),
formed in 1945; the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the Council
of Europe, formed in 1949; the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),
established in 1967; and the European Union (EU), founded on the Maastricht
Treaty in 1993. The UK left the EU in 2020, but English is still an official language
of the EU.
Today, English remains arguably the most common lingua franca in
international exchange. On account of this, English can serve as a useful 'halfway
point' if there is no translator/interpreter between two other languages. One
translator/interpreter will translate from the first language into English, and
a second translator/interpreter will translate from English into the second
language.
Esperanto is an artificial international language designed in 1887 by Ludwik L

Zamenhof (1859-1917). It was intended to be an additional language for people
from any language background, to be used at international gatherings, and was
designed to be very easy to learn. Even though Esperanto never became a popular
international lingua franca, it has a certain following of language enthusiasts and is
one of the most successful artificially constructed languages.
Cultural dominance
The US film industry surpassed its competitors in Europe after the end of World
War I. In 1927, Warner Bros. Pictures released The Jazz Singer, the first feature
length movie with music and speech, beginning Hollywood’s success in cinema.
The Golden Age of Hollywood endured into the 1960s, and movies in English and
much-loved film stars travelled around the world, taking the English language
with them.

Modern music was another

cultural phenomenon that raised
the prestige of the English language
in non-English-speaking countries,
particularly among young people.
Elvis Presley (1935-1977) is one
example from the age of rock-and-
roll who could be considered a
large cultural export from the USA.
Records of his songs were played all
around the world, exposing a wide
audience of young fans to English.
The Beatles, from England, were another youth music sensation, creating a
huge international response in the 1960s. In 1966, they were the first English-
speaking group to be broadcast on television in Japan after causing unrest and
controversy by performing at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, a large hall that
had previously only been used for the sacred rituals of martial arts. The Beatles
reinforced English as the lingua franca of rock-and-roll music: non-English-
speaking bands, such as Swedish band ABBA and the Dutch band Shocking Blue,
released all their albums in English; and clubs in districts such as Hamburg's
Reeperbahn featured English rock music. This English phenomenon caused a lot
of controversy at the Eurovision international singing competition and from 1966
to 1972 and 1977 to 1998, competing countries were only allowed to enter songs
in their own national language.
Television first appeared in the USA in 1928, and gradually spread around the
world. (It was twenty-eight years before television reached Australia in 1956.)
In 1969, the US broadcast the Apollo 11 moon landing, and astronaut Neil
Armstrong’s words, 'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind',
were heard in English by approximately one fifth of the total population of the
world. Television content in English from the USA, and to a lesser extent, Britain,
was shown in many countries with translated subtitles, or translated audio
dubbing in some European countries.
By the 1980s Disney had become a global empire, expanding the English
language and American cultural ideation into the world market. Since then,
English-speaking broadcasts have been so dominant on the world stage that it
was only in 2022 that a non-English-speaking television program (South Korean
television show 'Squid Game’) first won an Emmy Award for best actor and best
director. It must be said, however, that the winners, Lee Jung-jae and Hwang
Dong-hyuk respectively, gave their acceptance speeches in English.


Investigate a popular song and artist that was streamed on services such as Spotify
in the past twelve months and answer the following questions.
1 In which countries did this song or artist achieve 'top 10' ranking?
2 Does this artist perform in English or languages other than English?
3 Based on your investigation, is there any noticeable presence of English language

songs in non-English-speaking countries? What might be some implications of
this?
Digital revolution
ARPANET (the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) was the first
decentralised computer-based communication system, which linked the
computers of four American research institutions in 1969. Protocols for file
sharing, remote login and email were all established around this time. By 1977,
the network increased from four computers to 111 across the USA and Europe.
Various universities and the American military all had access. By the time British
computer scientist SirTim Berners-Lee brought the internet to the world in 1993,
English-language conventions had been established. As the web was written
for English speakers, who use the Roman alphabet, people whose languages
used different scripts had no access except through the use of English or by
rendering their language in the Roman alphabet. Newspaper columnist Michael
Specter wrote an article in the New York Times in 1996 highlighting this limitation
of the World Wide Web. As quoted in Crystal's 2003 book, Specter suggested
that 'the Internet and World Wide Web really only work as great unifiers if you
speak English’ (Crystal 2003, p.117). Since then, other languages have become
increasingly influential online, such as Chinese, Russian and Spanish, but the
technical infrastructure to support many of the world's languages online is still in
development.
Before the telephone was first used in 1876, the appropriate greeting when
people met each other would be something like 'Good morning, Sir' or 'Good
afternoon, Miss Walker’. But this form of address was not appropriate on the
telephone, because when we pick up the phone, we don't know who is on the
other end of the line. As a result, 'Hello' (previously a shout to attract attention)
became the accepted linguistic convention. By the 1940s, 'Hello' had made its
way from the telephone into everyday speech. At the time, people lamented
the deterioration of social standards, but now we don't think twice about using
'Hello' as a greeting. In fact, we often use the even shorter and less formal words
'Hi'or'Hey'.
Just as the new technology of the telephone influenced language use, today
we can see language conventions initially cultivated on the internet infiltrating
our offline interactions.

Positives and negatives of a world language

There are both positive and negative aspects of having a world language, some of
which are set out below.
Positive factors of a world language: English Negative factors of a world language:

is seen as being shared around the world English is seen as invading the world
Eases communication between people from Hastens the disappearance of minoritised
different language backgrounds. languages, thereby threatening linguistic
diversity.
Promotes greater cooperation between Contributes to inequality by creating an elite
nations in a push for unity and harmony. of those who speak this world language.
Removes the need to learn many different Reduces the opportunity to learn other
languages. languages due to the dominance of English.
Crystal (2003) separates language into communicative and identity functions.

On the one hand, we need language to communicate with each other and, on the
other, language is used as a marker of our identity. The positive factors in the
table above relate to the communicative function of language. In international
interactions, poor communication can have life-threatening consequences.
Consider the scenario of a German pilot trying to land a plane in Sri Lanka. A safe
landing would be less likely if the German-speaking pilot and the Singhalese
speaking traffic controller did not have a mutually understood language. English
is the lingua franca for communication in global aviation.
The negative factors in the table relate to communication barriers and to the
expression of identity, relationships with others, and the individual’s place in a
broader social context. There can also be significant negative implications when
a world language doesn't share the underlying values of all the cultures that use
it. For example, English does not have grammatical distinctions between formal
and informal ways of saying 'you', like many European languages, or markers of
deference, respect and social status like the Japanese and Korean languages.

The global spread of English
First Nations languages have more complex terminology for kinship which
do not map straightforwardly onto the simpler English set of terms. The
different social values conventionalised in languages have the potential to cause
miscommunication or even offence, if those communicating are not culturally
responsive.
Investigate how the internet has contributed to the growth of English. How has this
impacted the development of English around the world?
Braj Kachru: ‘three circles of English’ model (1985)

Braj Kachru (1932-2016) was an Indian-American linguist who pioneered the
study of world Englishes. He recognised the growing trend of English across the
world and proposed the 'three circles of English' model to explain the status of
English in different countries. The model has three concentric circles, labelled the
inner, outer and expanding circle. Each of these represents ways English is used in
each country.
Licenced by Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0

https://creativecommons.0rg/licenses/by-sa/4.O

Inner circle
The inner circle represents the traditional bases of English, including countries
that were colonised by the British, such as North America, Australia and New
Zealand. All these countries have English as the primary language used in
government, institutions and media. It is the predominant language of the
population, spoken both privately and publicly. The most populous and culturally
dominant of these countries provide the standardised varieties that are
traditionally seen as models of the English language.
Outer circle
The outer circle represents those countries that the British historically exploited
for human labour (including slaves) and material resources, or used for trade,
but without a major influx of English-speaking British people. They have mostly
remained members of the British Commonwealth. In these countries, the
English language was used between the British (often the trading companies
representing Britain) and a local elite or ruling class. These countries include
Singapore, India and Nigeria. They often have English as a co-official language,
where English plays an important role in official and formal settings such as in
higher education or the judiciary system; however, local languages are often used
within families and acquired as first languages by children, and used in day-to-
day activities. These countries have tended to develop their own varieties of
English that are influenced by local cultures and languages.
Expanding circle
The expanding circle includes countries that are not linked to the history
of British colonisation, but rather where English has entered in the role of
a lingua franca to interact with the rest of the world. These countries often
promote English as a second language in their education system and speak it in
international environments but it does not carry an official or unofficial capacity
within their own country. These countries use English models as presented by
those in the inner circle, so their use of English is not characterised by forming
their own variety. Countries in the expanding circle include Germany, Brazil and
China.
Challenges the model presents

While Kachru’s model offers a snapshot of the historical uptake of English in
different countries, it does not capture any changes currently underway, nor any
local effects within countries. For example, the apparent dominance of English
in inner circle nations does not represent their linguistically diverse populations.
In Australia, some traditional First Nations languages are still 'strong' - they are
spoken by their language community in everyday interactions and acquired as a
first language by children. In these language communities, English is a foreign
language. Therefore, there can be a lot of diversity between countries within one
circle, and some ambiguity in the distinctions between the circles.


1 Create a table with three columns. Label the columns 'Inner circle', 'Outer circle’
and 'Expanding circle'. Consider your knowledge of the development of English as
a world language. Research the following list of countries. Add each one to the
column that best represents their position, based on Kachru's categorisation.
India, Kenya, Thailand, Canada, New Caledonia, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Indonesia,
Singapore, Ireland, Taiwan, New Zealand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Australia,
Malaysia, Malawi, Brussels, Argentina
2 Due to the predominant use of English in Australia, and its colonial history,
Australia has been categorised within the inner circle. Can you think of ways that
the 'inner circle’ doesn't capture how English is used here? Discuss this with your
peers.
Language and worldviews

The concept of identity in language is linked to the embedded cultures and
worldviews that a language conveys. Culture refers to the attitudes, values and
beliefs of a group of people, and this influences the assumptions we make and
the ways we use language when we communicate.
A way that linguists represent this relationship between language and

worldview is through an iceberg model. The one below is adapted from an iceberg
model by researchers Patricia Konigsberg and Clenys Collard (2000).
stress/
Intonation
(prosodies)
sounds
(phonology)
words
(morphology and lexicology)
sentences
(syntax)
whole text I structure

(discourse)

The iceberg analogy draws attention to the underlying factors that influence our
language choices and how we interpret the language used by others. The more
obvious and tangible aspects of language - the words, sounds and sentences,
written or spoken - are represented by the section above the waterline.
The section just below the waterline suggests that there are additional, perhaps
more subtle, elements that contribute to the meanings of those sentences, words
and sounds, including the ways they should be used appropriately in interactions.
Deep below the surface are our values, beliefs and attitudes that represent our
personal worldviews. The language iceberg metaphor shows how our underlying
values, attitudes and beliefs are inextricably linked to the language we use. They
have been shaped by our families and communities and contribute to how we see
ourselves. Thus, our identity, worldview and language are interlinked, and when a
person's language is threatened, it can have a significant impact on their sense of
self.

Read the following two quotes (from the Reconciliation Australia website) from
Australian First Nations spokespeople about their interpretation of 'Country' and
their connection to the land.
When we say Country we might mean homeland, or tribal or clan area and in
saying so we may mean something more than just a place; somewhere on
the map. We are not necessarily referring to place in a geographical sense.
But we are talking about the whole of the landscape, not just the places on it.
Professor Mick Dodson AM
I have been brought up to believe that we have a special connection to the

land. We belong to the land. The land does not belong to us.
Cassandra Lawton (Gunggari woman, South West Queensland)
Then, read the excerpt below, from the Mabo land rights agreement.
Native title is a pre-existing right, inherent to Indigenous peoples by virtue

of their distinct identity as first owners and occupiers of the land and their
continuing systems of law. Native title is not a grant or right that is created
by the Australian government nor is it dependent upon the government for
its existence, although it is dependent on recognition by the common law in
order to be enforceable in the Australian legal system ... Native title in each
instance is recognised as having its source in, and deriving its content from,
the laws of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
(AIATSIS, Native Title Information Handbook, Victoria, 2016)
Write a brief explanation of the different understandings of the terms 'Country' and
'land ownership' reflected in the extracts above.

Englishes around
the world
In Chapter 11, we look at how English changed and affected other languages
as it travelled beyond Britain. We look at various Englishes around the world,
including Nigerian English and Jamaican English. We also look at examples of
and attitudes towards English-based creoles, specifically Jamaican Patwa and
Singlish.
Specifically, this chapter explores the relationship between the English

language and power, and the hierarchical nature of world Englishes, and
considers how this impacts the direction of world languages today.
To understand the nuances of relationships between world Englishes may

require you to reflect on your own attitudes and the biases that may have
coloured your education and limited your exposure to the 'other'.

♦ the distinctive features of English-based varieties
♦ the distinctive features of English-based pidgins and creoles
♦ metalanguage to discuss the global spread of English
Pidgin A type of language that emerges between groups of people of two or more
different language backgrounds when there is no existing lingua franca. It
will have a fusion of language influences and is not anyone's first language.
Creole A type of language that often develops from a pidgin, when the pidgin is so
useful to its language community that children learn it as a mother tongue.
A creole language will display influences from a variety of source languages.
The fundamental difference between a creole and a pidgin is that people
speak a creole as their first language.
World Varieties of English that have developed in different communities across the
Englishes world, developing English to suit their needs.
Dialect A variety of a language that can identify a person's geographical or social
background. It may have distinguishing vocabulary or distinctive features
of accent. It is largely comprehensible to speakers of other dialects of the
same language. Some dialects might not have an official written form.

Chapter 11 Englishes around the world
World Englishes
English is breaking new ground by playing a significant role as a world language.
Most countries now have English as either a first language, an additional
language or a privileged foreign language. This is the first time in history that
there has been a single language playing such a dominant role throughout
the world. This is despite the fact that native speakers of this language are a
minority: more people in the world speak English as an additional language than
as a first language. When a community takes on English, it adapts the language
to its own language practices to suit local needs, creating different varieties
of English around the world. Consequently, when we talk about English in this
chapter, we use the plural, 'Englishes’. As each English variety has its own origins
and uses, this chapter will examine world Englishes through individual case
studies.
English, power and prestige

The spread of English occurred concurrently with an increase in the power and
spread of the British Empire. In fact, these two stories are so closely interwoven
that it is difficult to explore world Englishes without recognising the relationship
between the English language and the status, wealth and power of the English-
speaking West.
The countries that speak English as a native language, such as the United
States, the UK, Canada and Australia, hold a significant amount of global wealth,
despite being a minority in terms of global population. Of course, there are other
factors that contribute to this increased wealth and subsequent power, but
the seeming correlation between the English language and a country’s wealth
indicates the significant role that English plays in our world today.
Because the English language is linked with wealth and power, it carries a
certain level of prestige. People who can speak English have more opportunities
than those who speak only their local language. Consequently, governments
might encourage their citizens to learn English so that they can engage in more
economic and educational opportunities. English speakers might be better able
to represent their country at a global level, giving the nation a higher status
and a louder voice as well as economic and social benefits. As more countries
encourage the speaking and learning of English, this reinforces the promotion
of English, and thus English dominates the world stage, often at the expense of
other languages.
The triangular trade

The impact of English as a language of prestige can be seen in countries that
were part of what is referred to as 'the triangular trade' between Britain, Africa
and the Americas.

Englishes around the world Chapter 11
Licensed by Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 [arrow labels added].
During the height of its colonial activity, the British took tradeable goods to
Africa, such as textiles, weapons, ammunition and wine, and traded these for
human slaves. Those slaves who survived the middle passage - the journey
from Africa to the Americas and the Caribbean - were then exchanged for sugar,
tobacco, cotton and other produce, and forced to work on plantations growing
these crops. This produce was then taken back to Britain to be manufactured into
more tradeable goods.
British colonial trade routes and, in some cases, imposition of colonisation,

influenced language use in places along this triangular trade route, so that many
now belong in the outer circle of Kachru’s model. While the historical influence of
British colonisation introduced English to these countries, contemporary factors
also now influence attitudes and practices associated with English in the outer
circle countries.
See pages 195-6 to read about Kachru's model.
A study of Nigerian English

During British colonial expansion, Africa was not divided into all the nation-states
that we recognise on the world map today. Historically the continent was home
to various groupings with negotiated boundaries. Often each grouping spoke
a different language. In the area that is now Nigeria, the three main languages
were Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, although many other languages were spoken, too.

In the 1800s, the British set up a trading port in Lagos and continued to
expand their territory until the boundaries around what is now recognised as
the country of Nigeria were established in the twentieth century. Britain used
its position of colonial power to claim natural resources in Africa, such as gold
and oil, and granted monopolies to British companies and favours to British
entrepreneurs. In this way, an English-speaking British elite commandeered the
wealth of non-English-speaking peoples in Nigeria. They established trade and
governance using the English language.
English-speaking missionaries also influenced the use of English in Nigeria.

They were particularly active in the south of the country, among the Igbo and
Yoruba speaking groups, and provided education, which included the teaching of
English and Western values and ideologies. Owing to the association of English
with literacy and education as well as trade and economic success, English was a
desirable linguistic commodity that gave local people wider opportunities.
Nigeria remained under British rule until its independence in 1960. Although
this ended Britain's colonial authority over Nigeria, the English language had
become well established in the country. Most Nigerians spoke different mother
tongue languages but used English as a lingua franca. English has become so
ingrained in some domains, such as government, higher education and business
and literature, that it undeniably continues to play a significant role in Nigerian
society.
Today, English is the most widely spoken lingua franca in Nigeria, which is
regarded as one of the West African English-speaking countries. Even so, perhaps
only half the Nigerian population speaks English. All secondary and tertiary
education is conducted in English and students are required to pass an additional
compulsory English subject to obtain the school-leavers' certificate.
Nigeria has developed its own type of English, from Nigerians learning and
using English in ways suited to their cultural and linguistic environments.
Nigerian English has specific linguistic features and is considered a variety of
English in its own right: one of the world Englishes that has emerged from the
spread of English around the globe. Nigeria is considered to belong in the outer
circle in Kachru’s 'three circles of English’ model.
See pages 195-6 to read about Kachru's model.
Features of Nigerian English

The table on the next page categorises just some of the unique properties of
Nigerian English. The table describes how the listed features of Nigerian English
differ compared to the standard English varieties spoken in countries in the inner
circle.

Subsystem Nigerian English Examples

Phonology Pronounces all vowels, even long 'away' is pronounced
vowels, as short vowels 'aweh'
Pronounces final voiced consonants as 'was' is pronounced
unvoiced 'wass' (has an 's' sound
like 'moss' rather than a 'z'
sound)
Pronounces dental fricatives as 'that' is pronounced
alveolar plosives 'dat'
Morphology Pluralises nouns that don't usually 'informations'
take a plural (information)
Lexicology Includes many neologisms that express 'Jambito' (a first-year
unique experiences and situations university student)
'NEPA has taken the light!'

(exclaimed during an
electricity black out; NEPA
is the National Electric
Power Authority)
Syntax Uses irregular tag question formation 'They look happy, isn't it?'
Discourse and Incorporates titles and expressions that 'chief'
pragmatics reference the importance of age and 'honourable'
superiority in everyday conversation
'sir'
and not only on restricted formal
occasions
Semantics Includes idioms that express unique 'not on seat' (away from
experiences and situations office)
'go slow' (traffic jam)
'take in' (pregnant)

1 Select a country represented by the inner circle or outer circle of Kachru's 'three
circles of English' model (see Chapter 10). Do some research on your selected
country and answer the following questions.
a How and when did English enter this country?

b How does the country’s geographical landscape compare to that of Britain?
c Describe a cultural practice of this country that differs from British culture,
d What languages were spoken in this country before English arrived?

2 Can you find an example of a word or phrase used in the English of this country
that is different from the usage or vocabulary of any other English-speaking
countries?
a How did it come about? A sample answer is provided below.
Zn South Africa, the word for ‘traffic light’ is ‘robot’. The original term was
‘robotic traffic controller, as the lights replaced police officers who controlled
traffic with hand signals. This term was shortened to ‘robot’ and is now used in
everyday South African English.
b What does your English term show about how English comes to represent a
country's own history, culture or language environment?
3 Share your findings with other people in your class. From this information, can you
reach some general conclusions about influences that change English in different
countries?
4 Write a paragraph discussing why linguists consider there to be multiple Englishes,

rather than just one.
Pidgins and creoles

When people who speak different languages come into contact, they need a
way to communicate with each other. Pidgins and creoles are both systems of
communication that develop from interactions between people who do not have
a common language.
Pidgins
A pidgin is a type of contact language that might emerge when people of two
or more different language backgrounds, with no pre-existing shared language,
need to communicate with each other. A pidgin is not anyone’s first language.
Those who speak a pidgin use their own first language outside of this specific
purpose-driven interaction.
A pidgin will have a fusion of language influences drawn from the various
language backgrounds of the speakers. Often, much of the lexicon of a pidgin has
been sourced from one language more than others. In many instances this main
source was a colonial language such as English, French or Dutch, because of their
profound social, economic and political impact in colonised countries.
A pidgin might be a fairly short-term language solution and not persist over
an extended period. Some pidgins, however, expand to meet their speakers’
communicative needs and may develop into creole languages.

Englishes around the world
Creole languages
A creole language is a type of contact language that can develop from a pidgin. If
the main language a child hears is a pidgin, they learn this as their mother tongue
and speak it as their first language. A creole develops when there has been a
shift away from the use of original languages spoken in a community, because
the pidgin was required for more and more of the community's communication
needs.
Because it is spoken as a first language, a creole language evolves a

sophisticated structure to fulfil all the language functions for its language
community.
Creole languages have a variety of linguistic influences. As with pidgins,

one language might be a major source of the lexicon, and this is often, but not
necessarily, a colonial language. If English is the historical source of much of
the lexicon, the creole is called an English-based creole. Although the term
'English-based' is used, the creole as a whole is not actually 'based' on English.
The rest of the language system can have other influences. For example, other
languages might influence the creole language’s phonological system, intonation,
semantics, pragmatics and its speech community's cultural values. The way
words are built and arranged in sentences might be quite original, or might be
influenced by one or more of the contributor languages.
In an English-based creole, it is important to know that, even if words

originally come from English, they might sound different, have different
meanings, take different endings, be used in different sentence patterns or
be used differently, socially and culturally. A speaker of English would not
automatically understand a speaker of an English-based creole, and vice versa.
There is a creole language spoken in Nigeria called Nigerian Pidgin. (Don't let the
word 'pidgin' in the name confuse you - many pidgins are named before they develop
into creoles.) Both Nigerian Pidgin and Nigerian English co-exist in Nigeria; however,
they have different histories.
World Englishes and creoles

Although English-based creoles and world Englishes both involve a connection
with English, it is important to remember that they are entirely different types of
languages. World Englishes are all varieties of English, while creoles are types of
contact language that are distinct independent languages.
In some countries, an English in Kachru's outer circle will co-exist with an

English-based creole. In these situations, there can be judgements and attitudes
about creoles, including some that are quite dismissive.

Speakers of English-based creoles may be evaluated negatively by English

speakers as using a 'broken' English. Such attitudes can arise from a lack of
awareness that creoles are entirely different language systems from English.
English speakers might compare the language to their own and determine
difference to be error. However, in recent years there has been growing
recognition of creoles as complex, individual languages, each with their own
language community, history and significant cultural value.
We will examine two different case studies, from Jamaica and Singapore -
Jamaican Patwa and Singlish.
A study of Jamaican English and Jamaican Patwa

In Jamaica, a variety of English known as Jamaican English is spoken by some
of the population. It is a variety of English and closely resembles its British
English heritage. Jamaica is in Kachru's outer circle, so Jamaican English is one of
the world Englishes. The majority of Jamaicans speak the English-based creole
commonly known as Jamaican Patwa, sometimes 'Patwa' for short. Jamaican
Patwa is not a variety of English, because historically it has drawn on many
language influences.
Jamaican history and its present-day language situation are closely tied to
European colonisation and the slave trade. The Spanish were the first European
power to colonise Jamaica and the Indigenous people, the Taino. The British
took over Jamaica in 1655. They initially brought slaves from other parts of the
Caribbean for plantation work, who would already have acquired a pidgin. Later,
Jamaica was part of the triangular trade route that included the slave trade. A
common practice among British slave traders was mixing people from different
language backgrounds, to prevent them collaborating in a rebellion or escape. On
the plantations, too, slaves often would not have a common language background.
This created the conditions for a pidgin to establish and spread. It is believed that
Jamaican Patwa had developed by about the mid-eighteenth century.
In modern Jamaica, both Jamaican Patwa and Jamaican English are widely
spoken and many people are bilingual. In recent times, some evidence of
influence from American English has been seen in both Jamaican English and
Jamaican Patwa, perhaps due to the global cultural influence of the US, and
American tourism, given Jamaica's proximity to the US.
Despite some negative perceptions about creole languages, Jamaican

Patwa has been gaining some ground over the last century. The publication of
a poetry collection, Songs ofJamaica, in Jamaican Patwa by Claude McKay in
1912 is considered a turning point by many: evidence of its expressiveness as a
literary language. Over time, Jamaican Patwa has gradually increased in status
with political events such as independence from Britain in 1962 and the rise in
popularity of Jamaican reggae music in the 1960s. Jamaican Patwa is now generally
celebrated as a proud marker of identity, and so has an element of prestige.

Jamaican Patwa and Jamaican English are in contact to some extent, due to
the bilingual population, despite some geographical and social distinctions; and,
because of this, there is the potential for mutual influence. Now that Jamaican
Patwa has greater prestige, it seems that Jamaican English speakers are more
commonly incorporating some elements of Jamaican Patwa into their speech.
Jamaican English is no longer the exclusive language of upward social mobility
that it once was, but political and economic power is still largely wielded by
people who speak English varieties, so its influence remains significant.
Scan the code or click here to watch the first in a series of video
lessons on speaking Jamaican Patwa.
Features of Jamaican Patwa
Subsystem Jamaican Patwa Examples

Phonology Five short vowels, three long vowels Short vowels:
and four diphthongs (English has 'di' (the)
around 20 vowels sounds)
'we' (away)
'nyam' (eat)
'tod' (third)
'kuk' (cook)
long vowels:
'laas' (last)
'fuud' (food)
'chiiz' (cheese)
diphthongs:
'chai' (try)
'plies' (place)
'mout' (mouth)
'kuol' (cold)
Morphology Marks plurals with free morpheme 'dem' 'di buk dem' (the books)
Lexicology Includes some African origin vocabulary 'nyam' (to eat - from Akan)
Gives words of English origin different 'belly' (pregnant)
meanings
Syntax Uses lexeme 'no' to negate the verb 'Mi no think so.'
Maintains declarative word order with 'What you're doing for summer?'
'wh' questions
Discourse and Creates stress using copula 'is' 'Is now mi understand' (emphatic)
pragmatics
Semantics Figurative language and idiomatic 'Walk good' (used idiomatically as

expressions may not align with English a farewell, similar to 'take care' or
'goodbye')

A study of Singlish
Modern Singapore is a multiethnic society that has four official languages -

English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil - but the language spoken on the street
is the English-based creole Singlish, which incorporates influences from
English as well as Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, Hokkien and other regional dialects.
Like all creoles, Singlish has an established set of grammatical rules. It displays
influences from its multilingual origins in all its make-up, but English is the major
source of words in the Singlish lexicon.
In 1819 a clerk with the British East India Company, Stamford Raffles, signed a
treaty allowing England to establish a trading post on the small island. Once the
trading post had been established, people of European, Chinese, Malay, Indian
and Arab language backgrounds arrived to live and work there. A pidgin lingua
franca grew out of prolonged contact between these groups. This situation
provided the conditions for the emergence of a creole, as eventually children
acquired Singlish as their mother tongue.
The variety of English in Singapore is known as Standard Singapore English,

which is grammatically similar to Standard British English. In 2000, the Singapore
government launched a campaign called the 'Speak Good English Movement' to
encourage its citizens to speak Standard Singapore English, rather than Singlish.
The title of this campaign suggests that the Singapore government consider
Singlish to be a 'bad' form of English rather than a separate language with its
own grammatical construct.
However, this movement was met with criticism by those who viewed Singlish
as an important and valuable expression of Singaporean identity. Advocates for
Singlish launched their own movements in response, including the 'Save our
Singlish Campaign', and the 'Speak Good Singlish Movement’, which emphasised
pride in Singlish as a feature of Singaporean heritage and identity.

Scan the code or click here to watch a video featuring examples of

Singlish.
Features of Singlish
The following table provides a summary of some features of Singlish.
Subsystem Singlish Examples

Phonology In words of English origin, the final of 'fas' instead of 'fast'
two consonants (cluster) was deleted
during pidginisation/creolisation
Morphology Uses bare verbs in present tense, 'She see this'
regardless of subject (whereas English
conjugates verb to match a singular
he/she/it subject)
Lexicology Includes words from other languages, 'angpow' (from a Hokkien term
as well as words specific to local/ meaning 'red packet! referring
Asian culture (i.e. not British/ to a red envelope containing
European, despite mostly English money that is popularly given as
origin lexicon) a gift in many Asian countries)
'kena' (a Malaysian term

meaning something unpleasant
has happened to someone)
Syntax Deletion of some function words, such 'This house very nice'
as forms of 'to be'
Allows subject dropping (reference 'How come never show up?'

can be obtained from the context) (could refer to you, she, we etc.,
depending on the context)
Discourse Uses discourse particles (of non 'Better do properly, lah.'
and English origin) such as 'lah' for
pragmatics emphasis
Semantics Colloquial expressions not part of 'sabo' (describes someone
Standard English intentionally causing trouble or
inconvenience for others, from
'sabotage')
Unique idiomatic expressions 'catch no ball' (to not be
understood)
F Writing tip
When referring to creole languages generally as a type of language, use a lower
case 'c.' When referring to the name of a particular creole language such as Hawaiian
Creole, use a capital 'C'.


1 Conduct some research on a creole, including the following information,
a a description of the creole - for example, is it English-based?

b how it came to be formed and its early history
c who speaks the creole
d language examples of the creole
2 Organise your research in the form of an infographic and then present it to your
class.
Critical thinking
In this course, you are expected to engage with the knowledge and concepts you
learn, and to form your own views on attitudes and debates related to language
use. You will develop your critical thinking skills and the ability to articulate your
ideas and use evidence to back them up.
To help develop these skills, it is important to practise writing and reflecting

on the ideas you are learning about. Your teacher might give you questions to
debate or topics to write about. This section suggests ways to approach such
exploration of ideas and hone your critical thinking ability.
For example, consider the question: Can a language develop without first
being a creole?
First, think about any other questions that this topic inspires, and identify any
assumptions within the question. Ask yourself questions such as these:
> What specific features define a creole?
> Do creoles need to exist for a certain length of time to count as creoles? If
so, how do we define this?
> Do creoles ever develop into another language?
> Did English develop out of a creole? Is English a creole itself?
> What assumptions does the topic question make, which may or may not be
correct?
> If all languages were creoles, would they have an equal level of prestige?
Think about what you have learned in this course, to find examples or evidence
that might justify your ideas and help to determine your views.
Once you have thought about your position on the topic, try to write down
your opinion, supported with examples. This process will help to consolidate your
ideas. The following annotated example of a student reflection is provided to
demonstrate how you might explore your ideas through writing.

Sample student reflection

Establishes an
I find this question a little confusing because it was my understanding understanding of the
nuance of language;
that creoles are languages. By framing the question in this way, we are
shows that the way we
assuming that creoles are not actually complete languages, and that the word things reveals
length of time a creole is in existence determines its establishment as or betrays some
a ‘proper language’. Perhaps speakers of a language of power, such as underlying beliefs.
English, would feel threatened if a creole is considered a ‘real’ language.
Because it shares features with its parent language, validating a creole as a
real language weakens the hierarchical relationship between the languages Reveals some relevant
and, by association, changes their relative cultural power. Nigerian Pidgin historical chronological
and Jamaican Creole came into existence in the seventeenth century and awareness.
Australian Indigenous creoles no earlier than the late eighteenth century. By
This not only reveals
this stage, English was already established as a language of power.
retained knowledge
Old English, established in around 450 CE, is a blend of different from Unit 2, Area
Germanic languages from the Angles, Saxons, Frisians and Jutes. However, of Study 1, but also
unlike the creoles in Singapore, Nigeria and Jamaica, which developed from engages with it
critically in the light of
a combination of different languages under an overarching English Crown
new information.
holding power, these Germanic tribes’ languages all shared Germanic roots.
I don’t think that Old English is a creole, therefore, because the similarity Articulates a discrete
between the languages of the Angles, Saxons, Frisians and Jutes meant that understanding of a
creole.
they could use their own already established languages to communicate.
Therefore, I believe that languages do not start as creoles. I think that 1 In the concluding
sentences the student
creoles are mostly a result of people of different languages being forced
shows confidence in
together so that they need to find a way to communicate with each other. their position.
As you will have already seen, there are many different attitudes towards
languages and some of them are misconceptions, particularly when they are
about languages that don't conform to the 'standard'. You should be able to
unpack assumptions and critically evaluate them, using the concepts you are
taught throughout your English Language studies.

CHAPTER
Languages in Australia
12 In Chapter 12, we take what we have learned about world Englishes and creoles and
apply them to the languages of Australia, looking at Standard Australian English,
Aboriginal Australian Englishes, Australian Indigenous creoles and Australian
Indigenous traditional languages.
I
We consider the impact of English on the survival of minoritised languages,
particularly on the traditional Indigenous languages of Australia. We investigate
why the imposition of English threatens traditional Indigenous languages, how
language loss impacts a community, and the different programs that are in place
to bring those languages back.
To develop an understanding of the work being done in this field, you will need
to reflect on your own use of language and the language resources that are around
you, and consider how your voice is heard in the community, and the role language
plays.

♦ the processes of language maintenance, shift and reclamation
♦ cultural and social effects of language change and loss, with particular
reference to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages

Standard Australian The variety of spoken and written English language in Australia
English (SAE) that represents a common language standard agreed to by the
general population and codified in dictionaries, style guides and
grammar manuals. Standard Australian English represents a
prestige variety in the Australian context.*
*This definition is reproduced from the VCE English Language Study Design
2024-2028.
Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australian Englishes is an umbrella term used to refer

Englishes (AAEs) to the many different varieties of English that many First Nations
people speak.

Languages in Australia Chapter 12
Australian creoles English-based creoles formed in Australia after 1788. They have
a fusion of influences, particularly from English-based varieties
and traditional languages. The two most widely spoken creoles
in Australia are Kriol and Yumplatok, although there are others.
Speakers of SAE cannot automatically understand these creoles.
Traditional languages Also known as pre-contact languages. Were spoken by
Indigenous communities before colonisation. While only around
twelve are considered strong today, many more continue to be
spoken to some extent.
Language shift Occurs when members of a community start speaking a different

language from the one spoken by their ancestors. This most
commonly occurs across generations.
Language loss Refers to the situation where a language is no longer actively
used or known. It implies that another language is replacing it.
Language Refers to the processes by which a language community
reclamation rebuilds, learns and teaches its language. Through this process,
the community asserts its right to speak its language and
express its culture.
Language Processes that assist with keeping a language strong and
maintenance transmitting it fully from generation to generation. A minoritised
language (a language that is marginalised or suppressed by a
dominant power in society) needs targeted efforts because it is
not automatically supported in wider society.
A note on terminology
It is important to note that, among Indigenous language activists and linguists,
there are many views about the appropriate terminology to describe a language
that is no longer actively used. Some people refer to this situation as 'language
loss', to reinforce that many languages were destroyed by the colonial violence
against First Nations people, cultures and languages. However, there are others
who describe these languages as 'sleeping languages', to highlight that these
languages could be 'reawakened' or 'revived' by rebuilding, learning and teaching
them. For the purposes of the VCE English Language Study Design, we will be
using the term 'language loss'.

Chapter 12 Languages in Australia
Standard Australian English and Australian

Indigenous languages
The concept of'Australia' did not exist before British colonisation. Instead, the
land consisted of many different language groups which are now sometimes
called First Nations. There were well over 250 different languages spoken
across the continent. British colonisation was accompanied by violence and
displacement of First Nations people and their languages. The imposition of
English-speaking settler colonial societies led to Australia becoming a nation
with a variety of English known as Standard Australian English (SAE) as the
default language of government, education and media. This institutional use of
English places Australia in Kachru's inner circle. SAE is one of the world Englishes
and reflects this history.
See pages 195-6 to read about Kachru's 'three circles of English' model.
Australia is home to hundreds of Indigenous languages, including traditional

languages, English-based creoles, and varieties of English known as
Aboriginal Australian Englishes (AAEs). The Indigenous creoles and AAEs are
new ways of speaking that belong to First Nations people but have only existed
since British colonisation. AAEs are Indigenised Englishes, and the creoles are
each separate languages, distinct from English varieties.
AAEs are significant varieties of English in Australia, markers of local
Indigenous identity and cultural continuity. AAEs have developed within
Indigenous communities, alongside SAE but on a separate path. AAEs and SAE
represent different speech communities with different ethnic and cultural
backgrounds. Because SAE has a more dominant role in Australian society, there
is often an expectation that speakers of an AAE will also learn SAE and become
bidialectal (competent at speaking two dialects). In some cases this language
learning is still not explicitly acknowledged and supported - for example, in
education - and so activists advocate for a wider appreciation that there may
be significant differences between these Englishes. In fact, as researcher Ian
Malcolm says, it speaks to the 'remarkable demonstration of the human capacity'
(Malcolm 2018, p. 161) that First Nations people have been able to maintain and
incorporate traditional norms and values into their own English.
While SAE is spoken across the continent, AAE varieties are widespread,
too. First Nations speakers of one AAE variety are expert at recognising that
somebody is speaking another AAE variety, and can often place where they come
from.
Traditional Indigenous languages are tightly connected to particular Hjr-jfH

tracts of Country. Scan the code or click here to explore a map of Australia’s
first languages. Ec-riz

Standard Australian English

Standard Australian English refers to the English associated with Australia and its
institutions, government, education and health, law and finance, and media.
Some of the features of Standard Australian English began to develop the
moment the British interacted with the First Nations Peoples of Australia. The
arrival of convicts to Australia in 1788 to the first settlement in Port Jackson on
Dharug land (Sydney) signalled the beginning of the British colonial period of
Australia. The borrowing of Indigenous words is one noticeable difference in the
English spoken in Australia today, compared to English in other countries.
Scan the code or click here for a list of Indigenous words that are now
part of Standard Australian English.
Aboriginal Australian Englishes

First Nations people experienced the destructive effects of violent conflict and
removal from Country under the advancing frontiers of colonial occupation,
and long-term marginalisation from settler-colonial society. The impact of
colonisation, along with purposeful and damaging policies, created new language
communities where English could be used as the common language between
First Nations people, as well as for communication with non-lndigenous
outsiders. This use of English by First Nations people for their own purposes
ensured the continuity of cultural meanings and practices.
Even though AAEs represent cultural resilience and continuity, they are 'new'
because they developed following colonisation. There is not one single Aboriginal
Australian English, but rather, local varieties of AAE, just as there is not one
traditional Indigenous language, but at least 250 different language groups.
Some of these language groups share some similarities, just as AAEs share some
features.
Every AAE variety has local and unique features. Thus, when we talk or write
about AAEs we recognise that there is more than one variety. Furthermore,
when we study the development of these new Indigenous ways of speaking,
we recognise that there is not one story that summarises their development.
Instead, we can see that large-scale events and local histories converged to force
a language shift.
AAEs are mostly spoken in the southern part of the continent. These are
generally the areas that were occupied and colonised early, and where there were
high numbers of colonists. English was widely used in such settings, ensuring
First Nations people's exposure. Government policies during the twentieth
century aimed to assimilate First Nations people into white Australian society,
and this involved attempts to disconnect people from their culture and language.

Importantly, AAEs often maintain features of traditional languages. This is

one of the ways that AAEs express First Nations people's identities. To this day,
First Nations speakers of English can use AAEs as a means of showing their
membership of a First Nations community or mob. They can add socially acquired
language features to their AAE, innovating and augmenting their AAE to reflect
their layered identities.
Diverse contextual factors have contributed to the present-day mosaic
of AAEs. AAEs are now well recognised as a vibrant linguistic expression of
contemporary identity for many First Nations people.
Expressing meaning
Some varieties of AAE exhibit linguistic differences compared to SAE, and some
of these differences can be traced back to traditional Indigenous languages.
Because of the presence of so many shared English words, it is easy for speakers
of SAE and AAEs to believe that they understand each other perfectly. However,
language is an expression of values, beliefs and attitudes so, if these are not
shared by speakers (e.g. if they are from different cultural backgrounds),
misunderstandings can arise.
Likewise, different speech communities have different practices. For some AAE
speech communities, silence might be interpreted as positive and productive,
perhaps indicating an appropriate level of respect. However, if AAE-speaking
children from such a community use silence in this way in an SAE-speaking
classroom, it might not be interpreted as respectful. Classroom practices with
SAE are not necessarily the same as an AAE's social and cultural practices.
Writing tip
When writing about Aboriginal Australian Englishes, be sure to do so as a plural.
There is not one Aboriginal Australian English.
Scan the code or click here

to view the documentary
hW* In My Blood It Runs, which
looks at challenges faced
by a First Nations child in
Australia.

Creole languages in Australia

The violent upheavals caused by invasion, occupation and colonisation had
profound impacts on First Nations people and the Indigenous language
landscape and resulted in the development of contact languages (pidgins and
creoles).
Prior to colonisation, First Nations people were often multilingual, putting

high cultural value on the learning of languages. However, colonisation disrupted
intergenerational language transmission by dislocating language groups. New
language communities developed new ways for community members to talk
together, by drawing on all the language resources that people brought with
them, developing new contact languages. In some places, such as the Roper
River Mission (present-day Ngukurr) and in the Torres Strait, the contact
languages known as pidgin languages developed into creole languages: Kriol and
Yumplatok (also called Torres Strait Creole).
In the map below, dotted areas indicate where a traditional language is spoken
as the main Indigenous community language, cross-hatching indicates where a
contact language is spoken as the main language, and diagonal lines show where
an English is spoken (AAEs or SAE).
Areas where a traditional language is

the dominant language, learned from
birth, with English learned as an
additional language.
Areas where a new language is the

dominant language, learned from
birth, with traditional language(s)
and English learned as additional
languages.
Areas where the dominant language

is an English variety, with traditional
language(s) (and maybe another
English variety) learned as additional
languages.
This map is an estimation of where

traditional' and 'new' Indigenous
languages are acquired by many
children as first or second langjages,
extrapolating from data sources
including the 2016 ABS Census. It is a
broad-brush picture of language
ecologies in Indigenous Australia, e.g.
the complexity of language use in
specific towns is not represented, and
the data represents the ecologies
at a point in time. The category
Traditional languages acquired as L2
includes areas for which there is little
information, and covers several
different language learning contexts.
This map should not be used for any
legal purposes.
Source: 'Language ecologies' in National Indigenous Languages Report (DITRC 2020), p.18.

Kriol
The Anglican Church Missionary Society set up the Roper River Mission on the
banks of the Roper River at Mirlinbarrwarr, Arnhem Land, in 1908 (moved to the
present-day site of Ngukurr community, Northern Territory, in the 1940s), to
accommodate First Nations people seeking refuge from the violent frontier of
the pastoral industry in that area. Around 200 First Nations people lived there
in the early years, representing a number of different local language groups. The
missionaries themselves spoke English. A pidgin contact language which had
entered the area with the pastoral industry was available as a lingua franca.
The Roper River Mission ran a dormitory system for local children. This is
thought to have hastened the development of a creole language, as the children
were from different language groups, and were not constantly exposed to the
traditional languages of their family. Within a decade of establishing the mission,
children were noted to be speaking in ways similar to the Kriol of today. Kriol is
a sophisticated language, a separate language from SAE, different at all levels:
sound, word, endings, phrases, sentences and cultural. Until the 2021 Census,
of the Indigenous languages spoken only in Australia, Kriol was spoken by the
largest number of people, now just surpassed by another Indigenous contact
language, Yumplatok.
Kriol is an English-based creole. This means that most Kriol words were
historically drawn from English, though the way these words are used differs
in phonology, semantics and syntax. For example, 'drand' in Kriol means being
submersed or underwater. This sounds similar but carries a different (although
related) meaning from the historically related word 'drowned' in English. So even
though English provided the basis for some Kriol words, these inherited word
forms have changed, to greater or lesser extents. Many words in Kriol hail from
traditional languages, some local, some from the pastoral industry pidgin which
had its origin in the first settlement in Sydney and brought Dharug language
words with it.
Creoles differ fundamentally and profoundly from their major source language
base - for Australian Indigenous creoles, this is English - particularly through
phonology, morphology and syntax. In Kriol there are pronouns to mean 'both of
us’, 'both of you' and 'both of them' that do not exist in English. Kriol also doesn't
have a verb that functions like the English auxiliary 'to be'; however, 'bin', which
sounds very similar to the English 'been', is used to indicate past tense. Kriol has
just four prepositions - 'la(nga)' indicating place or goal of movement; 'burrum'
indicating origin or starting point; 'bla(nga)' indicating possession; and 'garram'
indicating the use of an instrument - which is very different from the preposition
system used in English.
Kriol speakers' intonation most closely resembles that of speakers' local

traditional Indigenous languages, and its phonology shows influences of
traditional language sound systems applied to the English words. For example,
the difference between voicing and not voicing a sound, which is important to

English ('big' versus 'pig'), is not a factor in most traditional languages. In this
way, the English word 'properly' entered Kriol as /bjabli/, with the voiceless
bilabial plosive /p/ replaced with its voiced equivalent /b/.'Brabli’ is also used
differently from the English word, behaving as an adverb to modify an adjective,
such as in the phrase 'brabli bigwan' meaning 'really big'.
Like all languages, Kriol is reflective of speakers' identity, culture, values and
worldviews.
See pages 197-8 to read about the relationship between language and worldview.

Kriol is in everyday use in Australia. Look at the following resources, then answer the
questions.
Children's literature in Kriol is on the rise. Scan the code or click here to
hear the story Main Abija ('My Grandad').
The Binjari Buk project produced bilingual books in Kriol and English. Scan
BjSB the code or click here to find the story of why the First Nations women
wanted to make stories in their language, Kriol, and in English for children
in the Binjari community to read.
The hit children's book Too Many Cheeky Dogs has recently been translated
into Kriol too. To look at an animated book reading of this and other books
in Kriol, scan the code or click here.
bê The popular children's program Little J and Big Cuz now has two
episodes in Kriol: 'Bigiswan Trip La Riba' (River Adventure) and
'Sineik Ai' (Serpent’s Eye). Scan the code on the left or click here Bw™
to view 'Bigiswan Trip La Riba', and scan the code on the right or
click here to view 'Sineik Ai’.
The Northern Territory government released a music video for children to

promote safety around the waterways. The song is called 'Be Crocwise'.
Eb^
Scan the code or click here to hear it in Kriol.
Ej£E The Australian Human Rights Commission released a video in Kriol in

March 2022, as part of its women’s rights campaign: From dreams, let's
make it a reality. Scan the code or click here to view the video.

1 What do you notice about Kriol, compared to SAE and to traditional languages?
2 What are some linguistic traits of Kriol that you can identify?
3 Provide an example of how Kriol expresses aspects of culture.
Yumplatok (Torres Strait Creole)
Yumplatok is the name of the

English-based creole language which,
according to the 2021 national Census
(Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021),
is now the most commonly spoken
Indigenous language. This creole is
spoken across the Torres Strait, where
it is also called Torres Strait Creole
and Brokan/Broken, and by Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people
living in communities in northern
Cape York, where it has been called
Cape York Creole, or been given a
community name (Lockhart River
Creole, Napranum Creole etc.). There are also communities who speak this creole
in northern Queensland towns such as Cairns and Townsville. Due to the diverse
histories, languages and cultures in this area, there are particular ways of speaking
this creole that identify where speakers come from.
A major historical influence on Yumplatok and Cape York Creole varieties was
the pidgin that developed primarily through the trade of labour from Melanesian
and South Pacific islands to Queensland in the second half of the nineteenth
century. South Sea Islander missionaries were also influential in spreading this
pidgin. This pidgin is sometimes called Melanesian Pidgin or Beach-la-mar, which
is a rendition of beche-de-mer - sea cucumber or trepang - a marine creature
that was harvested and traded for culinary use. The pidgin was the lingua
franca among workers in this potentially lucrative but labour-intensive trade.
Melanesian Pidgin entered the Torres Strait via this and other maritime industries
with a multilingual workforce, such as trochus shell and, later, pearl diving.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and South Sea Islanders were often
exploited in this work, indentured, with low pay and poor conditions.
In Australia, Melanesian Pidgin developed into the north-eastern creole

varieties of Yumplatok and Cape York Creole. Due to different social and linguistic
factors, in other countries Melanesian Pidgin developed differently. In Vanuatu it
became Bislama (from Beach-la-mar), which is one of their national languages. In
the Solomon Islands it developed into Solomon Islands Pidgin. It also had some
influence on Tok Pisin, a national language spoken in Papua New Guinea.

Yumplatok plays an important role in the Torres Strait as it provides a

common language between all the islands. It was the language which Torres
Strait Islanders used to organise their massive Maritime Strike of 1936 to protest
against appalling working conditions and rates of pay, and for other, broader,
social rights. Today, with certified interpreters in Yumplatok, and TSIMA (Torres
Strait Islanders Media Association) radio broadcasts across the Torres Strait often
using Yumplatok, there are signs of increasing recognition of this creole.

The name Yumplatok was coined relatively recently, as an own-language term
meaning 'our language'. If you are looking for information on this creole, be aware
that some materials use alternative names for Yumplatok, including Torres Strait
Creole, Broken, Cape York Creole and Lockhart River Creole.
Below are links to some videos showing Yumplatok in action.
Cairns West State School serves a linguistically diverse area, including a

large P°Pulat'on of Yumplatok speakers. The school released several videos
for ’ts community in 2021, teaching short phrases in Yumplatok. Scan the
code or click here to view one of the videos.
The Department of Social Services released a video in Yumplatok to

communicate the services available to people with a disability. Scan the
code or click here to view the video.
1 What do you notice about Yumplatok?
2 What are some of Yumplatok's linguistic traits?
Traditional languages
Australian traditional Indigenous languages provide many benefits to individuals,
to communities and to Australia as a whole nation.
Traditional languages:
> link people to Country
> hold the key to kinship systems, tribal law and Indigenous spirituality
> strengthen understanding of sacred objects and rites
> link to wellbeing and health
> contribute to a shared understanding of history and knowledge of the land
> increase community engagement

@ > provide different perspectives and knowledge of various fields, contributing

to conditions that foster innovation
> provide insights that may contribute significantly to future health and
sustainability
> provide an income avenue for their speakers.
Many of these benefits of traditional languages contribute to overall better

life outcomes for the speakers. Additionally, society as a whole benefits from
appreciating and respecting traditional languages, by acquiring a better
understanding of speakers of different languages and increased empathy for
social and cultural issues they experience. Society also benefits from being
exposed to different cultural beliefs that broaden our experience of the world,
and acknowledging and appreciating differences. This can help to reduce
prejudice and decrease xenophobia and 'othering' of Indigenous-language
speakers.

1 Consider the benefits of traditional languages listed above and on page 221. Write
an T next to those that might help the individual, a 'C' next to those that might
help the community, and an 'A' next to those that help Australia as a nation.
2 As a class, or in small groups, think about some other benefits of having
Indigenous traditional languages in Australia. Write them down. Label each to
indicate who you think would benefit.
Language shift and loss

The emergence of English as a world language threatens the existence of
other languages. Globalisation drives a need for people all around the world
to communicate with each other; and English, as one of the dominant world
languages, is a common choice enabling efficient communication. Due to its
cultural and economic status, English can marginalise speakers of minoritised
languages with less communicative reach and economic status. It can displace
these languages by disrupting their transmission and places an extra burden
on their speakers, who must spend time learning the dominant language. As a
result, there are languages all around the world that are under threat from larger,
higher-status and economically more powerful languages. Unless these smaller
and more marginalised languages are given special attention, they risk drowning
in the ubiquitous presence of English or other dominant languages.

In Australia, traditional Indigenous languages are under threat. Even the

twelve or so 'strong' traditional Indigenous languages, which are still being
learned as main languages by children, are not immune. To consider the status of
traditional Indigenous languages in Australia, we need to reflect on how language
is used. The table below lists four different ways that we use language, with
examples.
Uses Examples
To express our We use language to express who we are and what we believe in.
identity/spirituality We debate, discuss and explore ideas in our language.
For everyday We use language to talk to our friends, our family, our sports
interactions coaches or our teachers.
To make a living We use language at our place of work.
To access services We use language when we go the doctor, the dentist or the library.
For languages to remain in common use, not only do speakers need regular
interaction with a community of family and friends, they also need to use
their languages in wider circles - for instance, when talking to teachers, work
colleagues and service providers, and when discussing interests external to
their community. In many places, including Australia, Indigenous language
speakers have not been supported to use their languages in every area of
their lives, and nor have English speakers been required to learn Indigenous
languages. Consequently, few doctors, teachers, sports coaches and other
service providers speak a traditional Indigenous language. This reduces the
opportunity for speakers to use their traditional language across a wide range of
settings, diminishing the role of the language in people's lives and consequently
endangering traditional languages.

1 Work in pairs. Consider one of the scenarios presented in the table above, where
you would need your own language to communicate with each other. Then imagine
that you are no longer allowed to use your language.
a What happens?
b How do you achieve your goal?
c How do you feel during the interaction?
2 Write down your reflections.

Language shift occurs when a speech community adopts a different language

from that of their forebears. In the Indigenous language context, generations
ago many families experienced a shift in their language use, from a traditional
language to a variety of English. Another kind of shift, more common in northern
Australia, is from a traditional language to a contact language such as Kriol or
Yumplatok. Language loss occurs when a speech community is no longer able
to interact in that language. Language shift often results in language loss. Some
Indigenous language activists prefer the term 'sleeping' rather than 'lost', to
emphasise that languages can be revived, and many First Nations people are
working hard to reawaken/revive their traditional language. Given the strength
of English on the Australian and world stage, proactive measures are needed to
protect against future language loss.
Linguists Zulfadli A Aziz and Rob Amery (2016) suggest that the following
social features are signs that a traditional language is less strong and a shift in
language use might be underway.
> The language is only spoken by the older generations. Children speak the
more dominant language, particularly with each other in informal contexts.
> There is a decrease in the number of fields in which the language can be
used (e.g. fields such as media, advertising, religion, law, education, business
and written communication).
> There are negative attitudes towards the language.
> There are high levels of intermarriage between partners of different

language backgrounds.
> People use a language other than a traditional language, due to necessity.
In Australia, the threat of language shift and loss is very real for speakers of
Indigenous languages. The violence and disruption of colonisation separated
existing language communities and forced them to work in foreign language
environments. Government policies removed First Nations people from their
lands and children from their parents, preventing traditional Indigenous
languages being passed down through generations. First Nations people who
spoke their traditional language were often threatened, making them feel
unsafe using their language or teaching it to their children. Speaking traditional
languages was discouraged, and was not supported in the education system or
other areas of life. Such policies and practices continued in Australia into the
1980s, significantly undermining the use of traditional Indigenous languages.
Many are now lost, and others are highly endangered.
Today, there is continued marginalisation of Indigenous languages. First
Nations people are often placed in a position where they need to use English,
the default language of Australian institutions. The English language offers
access and opportunities; many services - such as employment, banking and
education - can only be accessed in English, so Indigenous speakers of traditional

languages and creoles are placed at a disadvantage if they are less proficient in
English. This drives the use of English, at the cost of traditional languages, and
the cycle is perpetuated. If more First Nations people learn English to access
services in English, there is less need for service providers to extend their support
of other languages.
Language reclamation
There is such a strong tie between culture and language that it is practically
impossible to separate the two. The act of reclaiming a language raises
awareness of the related peoples and culture, and goes some way towards giving
the marginalised language a greater voice in society. Bringing a language back
into the daily lives of First Nations people is an intentional and political decision
which recognises the Indigenous language community.
Because of widespread historical language shift, many First Nations people
are actively engaged in increasing the number of native speakers of traditional
languages and reviving languages where no native speakers remain. There are
many reclamation projects around Victoria and the rest of Australia. These
provide funding and expertise to Indigenous languages and focus on rebuilding
and reintroducing the local traditional language back into the lives of their
community.
One of the best documented and most successful reclamation projects is
that of the Kaurna language (pronounced 'gahnuh') spoken around Adelaide in
South Australia, supported by individuals including Kaurna teacher Jack Kanya
Kudnuitya Buckskin and linguist Rob Amery.
Kaurna
Approximate extent of Kaurna territory,

based on the description by Amery
in Warrabarna Kaurna!: reclaiming an
Australian language
Source: Yeti Hunter at English Wikipedia,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File: Kaurnaland.png, available under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike
3.0 Unported License.
© Insight Publications insight • ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 225

The coastal area was very fertile, so it was well populated by British colonists,
who were initially encouraged to learn the Kaurna language. During this
time, two Lutheran missionaries, Christian Gottlob Teichelmann and Clamor
Schurmann, documented words and sentences in the Kaurna language.
Furthermore, a school was established for Kaurna children, where they learned
to read and write their own language. Thanks to these efforts, Kaurna People
have access to detailed material in Kaurna and have worked with linguists to
reconstruct the Kaurna language.
The process of returning the Kaurna language to the community began in
1989 and 1990, with a small number of people singing some songs written in
Kaurna. Nursery rhymes and other children's songs were added to this collection,
which was released on cassette. As technology improved, the songs were
released on CD and then as an internet resource.
Kaurna has been taught at Kaurna Plains School since 1992, and has now
extended to other schools at all levels, including in the Department of Education
and Childhood Development’s School of Languages and the University of
Adelaide.
Naming things became the next important step to revitalising Kaurna. There
are bilingual signs for towns, buildings, organisations and other places of interest
around the area and, in 2007, these names were added to a website with sound.
Dictionaries have been produced, as well as the learner’s guide, Kulurdu Marni
Ngathaitya (Sounds Qood to Me): A Kaurna Learner's Cjuide (Amery and Simpson
2013).
In 2010, in an effort for people to have better access to the spoken

language, two two-hour radio programs that incorporate Kaurna teaching and
entertainment were created. The aim was to increase access in the region to the
language in its natural spoken form.
The current process of reclamation and revitalisation of Kaurna has been
underway for over thirty years. Its reclamation has been considered a success,
because Kaurna has become a functional part of people’s daily lives. Early
documentation and resources made this possible, and Kaurna People, linguists
and other members of the community still work very hard to continue to make
the language as accessible as possible.
However, if we consider how we use our language every day and the signs of
a language under threat (see page 224), Kaurna is still not safe. Active work is
needed to maintain Kaurna in the community.


1 Create a short dialogue in Kaurna using the YouTube clip below and other Kaurna
language resources that you can find.
Scan the code or click here to view the YouTube clip.
2 What do you notice when you create your dialogue?

3 Write a short paragraph reflecting on your feelings about using the Kaurna
material.
4 Describe a specific language feature of Kaurna that you needed to understand in

order to create a more linguistically accurate sentence. Reflect on why accuracy is
important when using a language.
Language maintenance
Of the 167 Indigenous languages represented in the 2021 Census, only around
twelve are considered 'strong', because they are learned as a first and main
language by children. There are profound challenges to keeping these languages
strong for future years. The process of keeping a language strong is called
language maintenance and means ensuring speakers of any age can continue
to use their language as often as possible and in as many ways as possible, to
ensure its survival. Positive attitudes and adequate services clearly contribute to
its continued use.
Several organisations work towards or support language revitalisation and

maintenance in Australia, including the following.
> The Prescribed Body Corporate (PBC) website provides resources to
Indigenous groups who wish to undertake their own project in language
revitalisation and maintenance. Enabling Indigenous groups to control their
own language projects means that important language-culture connections
can be identified.
to view the PBC website.

► AIATSIS (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies)

works to recognise and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
knowledge and cultures. Part of this work is to support revitalisation
programs as well as to research and advise government policy on First
Nations languages. AIATSIS supports a number of projects, such as the
development of dictionaries for First Nations languages.
Sfiiwx Scan the code or click here to view the AIATSIS website.
> The Australian Government has now included a target about strengthening
Indigenous languages and is working with a national body, First Languages
Australia, in this endeavour.
Scan the code or click here to view the First Languages Australia
website.
> VACL (Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages) is a state-based

program that supports language projects, such as the 'Creative revival of
Indigenous languages' project, which organises festivals and other arts
collaborations celebrating Indigenous languages of Victoria.
Scan the code or click here to view the VACL website.
> Various schools, TAFE colleges and universities around Australia teach
Indigenous languages as part of their language program.

From the 2020 National Indigenous Languages Report, the following traditional
Indigenous languages are considered strong, because they are still acquired by
children as their first and main language: Western Desert languages, Yolqu Matha,
Warlpiri, Arrernte, Alyawarr, Anmatyerr, Murrinh-Patha, Bininj Kunwok, Anindilyakwa,
Burarra, Wik Mungkan and Mawng (DITRC 2020, pp. 51-2).
Choose one of these languages and research the following information.
1 Where is the language spoken?
2 How many current speakers are there?
3 What language programs are underway to maintain this language?

Writing English Language essays
English Language essays are exploratory essays that discuss key ideas in
linguistics. They should be formal and objective, and use relevant linguistic
evidence and examples to support each idea explored. When developing your
essay, you should refer to published research from linguists. The ability to use
metalanguage is essential.
In terms of structure, English Language essays are similar to regular English
essays. They should contain an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion.
However, there are also some specific rules that you should follow.
> Don't include any examples or evidence in the introduction.
> Don't provide definitions for the metalanguage.
> Ensure you include contextual information with your evidence and examples.
One major difference between an English Language essay and an English essay is
the way in which the essay topic is presented. In English Language, you are often
provided with an essay question alongside pieces of stimulus material related to
the topic. In your essay, you should aim to address all parts of the question and
to incorporate references to the stimulus material. The essay topic and stimulus
material allow you to draw on the knowledge you have developed about language
throughout the course as well as your wider reading.
Taking the time to deconstruct the key words in the essay topic and break
down the stimulus material will ensure you understand the nature of the topic,
and will stimulate your mind to generate content for your body paragraphs. The
best essays are ones that contain relevant evidence and examples that allow you
to demonstrate your understanding of the essay topic.
A checklist has been provided on the following page to assist you when
planning, drafting and writing your essays.
Scan the code or click here to view an example of an essay topic with
accompanying stimulus material on the evolution of the English
language, along with an essay plan and a sample essay.
Scan the code or click here to watch a video about essay writing in VCE
English Language, on our webpage of further resources.

Checklist for essay writing

Planning Assessing the essay topic and stimulus material
□ Break down the essay topic and identify what is being asked of you.
□ Identify the ideas presented in the essay prompt.
□ Construct a contention or take a clear stance.
□ Synthesise the main ideas, and connect them to the key knowledge from
the relevant area of study.
Planning your essay
□ Decide which language subsystems are most appropriate for you to
discuss in your essay.
□ Select relevant language examples to discuss.
□ Use bullet points to plan the content you will include in each of your main
body paragraphs.
□ Ensure your plan will enable you to demonstrate key knowledge from the
relevant area of study.
□ Use accurate metalanguage in your plan.
Introduction □ Include a unique and thoughtful opening sentence to capture your

audience's attention.
□ Assert your contention or stance in response to the essay topic.
□ Summarise your contention and main arguments.
□ Include a clear outline of the ideas you will discuss in the essay.
Main body □ Use clear topic sentences at the beginning of each body paragraph, to
paragraphs assert each paragraph's key idea.
□ Substantiate the discussion with examples, with clear connections to the
relevant subsystems.
□ Refer to the ideas presented in the stimulus material.
□ Make sure your essay remains cohesive throughout the body paragraph -
avoid going off-topic.
Conclusion □ Draw a conclusion based on the ideas examined in the body paragraphs:
if we accept this premise, what are the implications?
Use of □ Make sure you consistently use the metalanguage relevant to the topic.
language □ Use Standard English conventions such as correct spelling and grammar.
□ Use a variety of different sentence structures, for fluency and cohesion.

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VCE® Units 1 & 2
English Language Year 11: VCE Units 7 & 2 is a comprehensive textbook for the VCE English Language
Study Design: 2024-2028. It provides detailed coverage of each area of study, and includes student
friendly definitions of metalanguage, explanations of the key knowledge, and activities throughout.
Written and reviewed by highly experienced teachers and assessors, this title provides Year 11 English
Language students with a strong foundation for success in Year 12.
THE BOOK FEATURES:
• Clear definitions and explanations of metalanguage and linguistic terms
• Accessible and engaging explorations of linguistic theories
• Sample texts to demonstrate the various functions and features of language use
• Detailed advice on tackling linguistic field work
• Activities accompanying each chapter
• Bonus digital resources, accessible via QR codes and web links.
ABOUT THE WRITERS
Selina Dennis, BA/BSc, DipEd, has worked with Luke Francis, BA, DipEd, MEd, is an English
the VCAA in numerous roles, including as chief Language teacher and a regular assessor with
assessor and a study design consultant. She the VCAA. As well as writing and marking
regularly presents at professional development trial examinations, he runs professional
sessions, and writes and reviews subject- development sessions for the English
related resources and practice exams. Language community.
Natalie Gleeson, MEd, has over 20 years’ Anna Stewart, BCom/BMus, DipEd,
experience teaching VCE English and English CradDipModLang, MAppLing, is an active
Language. She has worked as an assessor as member of the English Language community,
well as a curriculum and exam writer, and contributing to curriculum development,
provides professional advice to teachers on writing and assessing exams, and working as
implementing the VCE English Language a presenter. She is currently completing a PhD
curriculum. on linguistics in education.
www.insightpublications.com.au
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VCE is a registered trademark of the VCAA.

Insight English Language Year 11 VCE Units 1&2

Uploaded by

Insight English Language Year 11 VCE Units 1&2

Uploaded by

insight

VCE® Units 1 & 2

Selina Dennis, Natalie Gleeson

STUDY DESIGN 2024

Selina Dennis, Natalie Gleeson,

First published in 2023

Insight Publications Pty Ltd

Tel: +61 3 8571 4950

Reproduction and communication for educational purposes:

Reproduction and communication for other purposes:

9781922771551 (bundle: print + digital)

Edited by Janice Bird

Insight Publications acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the Country on

UNIT 1: LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION 1

Chapter Language and its functions.............................................................2

Chapter Subsystems and metalanguage................................................... 24

Practical strategies: Understanding the metalanguage ............................. 72

Area of Study 2: Language acquisition 74

Chapter Understanding language acquisition........................................... 88

05 Subsystem development of language in children.................................................................. 92

© Insight Publications insight ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 iii

Chapter Linguistic field work 119

Practical strategies: Describing language functions 131

UNIT 2: LANGUAGE CHANGE 132

Area of Study 1: English across time 132

Chapter The history of the English language........................................... 133

08 Historical periods of English..................................................................................................... 134

Chapter Changes to the English Language.............................................. 157

09 Changes across the subsystems of language...................................................................... 166

Practical strategies: Responding to short-answer questions................... 186

Area of Study 2: Englishes in contact 187

The global spread of English...................................................... 188

Englishes aroundthe world......................................................... 199

Languages in Australia............................................................... 212

Practical strategies: Writing English Language essays.............................. 229

insight • ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 © Insight Publications

> Activities throughout each chapter enable you to develop your

> Chapters 1, 2 and 3 explain the specific linguistic metalanguage, including

Selina Dennis, Natalie Qleeson, Luke Francis and Anna Steu/art

© Insight Publications insight • ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 V

Insight Publications is grateful to the following individuals and organisations for

All other images from Alamy, Shutterstock or Wikimedia Commons.

vi insight * ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 © Insight Publications

-» language as a meaning-making system that can be both arbitrary and

♦ major functions that language serves when used in a given context

♦ the properties that distinguish human communication as unique

♦ the influence of register, tenor and audience

♦ the influence of situational and cultural contexts - including field,

♦ the subsystems of language: morphology, lexicology, syntax and

♦ introduction to the subsystems of language: phonetics and phonology,

♦ features that distinguish speech from writing, such as paralinguistics

♦ metalanguage to discuss aspects of the nature and functions of

Key knowledge points are © VCAA, reproduced by permission.

Key knowledge covered:

♦ the properties that distinguish human communication as unique

♦ major functions that language serves when used in a given context

Metalanguage and linguistic terms

Language A meaning-making system that allows humans to convey

Language functions The purpose of a message. Language has six functions:

2 insight • ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 © Insight Publications

Language as a meaning-making system

© Insight Publications insight - ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 3

Develop your understanding 1.1

slay iykyk rizz drip

The uniqueness of human language

4 insight • ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 © Insight Publications

Develop your understanding 1.2

Major functions of language

Russian-American linguist Roman Jakobson determined six factors to

Addresser the person delivering the message

Addressee the audience receiving the message

© Insight Publications insight - ENGLISH LANGUAGE YEAR 11 5

ADDRESSER MESSAGE ADDRESSEE

Using these factors, Jakobson identified six core functions of language:

The referential function describes a situation, whether it be literal or abstract. For

See page 57 to find out more about declarative sentences.