Lecture notes
A-level English Language Discourse Notes
- Module
- Discourses
- Institution
- AQA
Some notes I made from an online lecture about the different discourses in English Language A-level.
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Language DiscoursesDiscourse can be defined as a way of thinking about, arguing about and describing how we
feel about something.
Critical Discourse Analysis:
● Frame the way we think
● Norman Fairclough: first pioneer to what is known as ‘Critical Discourse Analysis’
(CDA). He argues that ‘language is certainly involved in power and the struggles for
power’.
● ‘Using language is the commonest form of social behaviour where we rely most on
‘common sense’ ‘assumptions’.
Prescriptivism and Descriptivism
Prescriptivists = dictates how people should speak and write
Descriptivists = avoids passing judgements and provides explanation and analysis
● ‘The Language Wars’ - Henry Hitchings
Discourses:
1. Discourse of decay - ‘The English Language is a crumbling castle: a once great
building now on the verge of collapse’. Another of Jean Aitchison’s analogies.
Strongly prescriptive. Nostalgic notion that sometime in the past was a golden age of
language. Metaphor suggests that the complete collapse of language is imminent.
2. Discourse of purity - ‘English has become polluted by ugly Americanisms’.
Prescriptive idea that English in the past was ‘pure’ and that American English is
aesthetically bad for the language. Subjective pre-modifying adjective ‘ugly’. Passive
voice used again to portray language as the victim of outside corrosive influence.
3. Discourse of conflict - ‘Standard English is now in a state of war against the invaders:
American English, online slang and Jafaican’. Hyperbolic slogan. Ironic that language
- a tool for communication between people is represented as a weapon of conflict.
Blame placed on ‘unusual suspects’ - technology and other cultures. Note the non-
linguistic, pejorative label ‘Jafaican’ (MLE) suggests that some people’s language is
inauthentic. Note the use of the dogmatic copula verb ‘is’ conveying a sense of
certainty/
4. Discourse of disease - ‘English language has been weakened by text messages and
abbreviations’. Presents English as victim (passive voice). Relates to Jean
Aitchison’s ‘infectious disease’ analogy. Technological developments are blamed -
heavily prescriptive.
5. Discourse of evolution - ‘language can cross breed in a way species cannot’. Shows
the flexibility of language in aspects such as lexical borrowing and grammatical
change. Descriptive - power of ability to change.
Common discourse metaphors about language
★ Correctness - right or wrong
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