Paper 1 Question 2 (Page 14)

Analysis

    This text shows its message and purpose through the form, structure and language that it had used throughout the entire text. The form of this text is shown through the way that it is written. As this text is written as a letter by starting off with “Dear Stranger,” which also shows the audience that this letter is written to. We also learn from this text being a letter that the author, Richard Branson, is trying to spread his message of happiness to other people. We learn that this letter is addressed to anyone that may be going through a hard time and is meant to make them feel better. The text is also written in multiple different small paragraphs which show each different topic and how it is divided up in order to be the most effective in spreading the author's message of happiness. We see that the author had used the first small paragraph in order to talk to the audience and state what the purpose of the letter is and in the second small paragraph Richard Branson discusses what has happened in his life that makes him have ethos as he is a credible source as he states that “I’ve confronted my biggest fears time and time again.” This shows how the author is showing that he is a reliable source and knows exactly what he is talking about. The letter also has a somewhat informal voice throughout the text as throughout the text Richard Branson had multiple small sentences such as “Be healthy” in order to help out the reader and give them advice in an informal and relatable tone.

The structure of this text also shows the purpose and direction that this letter is going. We see this through the use of the first and second tenses in order to spread the advice to the readers by showing personal information that makes Richard Branson reliable. We see this as in the second paragraph Branson says “I certainly have been throughout my 66 years.” While talking about being stressed. The use of the first tense allows us to see this personal experience of Richard Branson. By using the second tense we see how he is trying to reach the audience of anyone that may be stressed and try to help them live happier lives. We see the direction of the advice that Richard Branson is giving as he uses very suggestive language to try and convince the audience to live their lives and not follow what everyone else believes is happy. We see this as Branson stated “Be loving, be grateful, be helpful, and be a spectator to your own thoughts.” This quote shows the advice that Branson is giving to the audience and the way that he had written this entire letter. The audience of this letter is directed towards the stressed people in life who are finding trouble finding happiness. We see this as Richard Branson did not direct this letter towards a single person by starting the letter off with “Dear Stranger,” which shows this letter could be towards anyone. 

The language used in this text also shows the direction and purpose of the text. The language had set a tone throughout the text by using statements like “Be around your friends and family.” Statements like this give off a very grateful and appreciative tone that is spread throughout the entire text and deeply impact the purpose of the text. The lexis used also helps develop the text as Richard Branson had used words like “consciously” which shows how Richard Branson is focused on the mental health and happiness of the audience as he also has the entirety of the letter directed towards the audience with small pieces relating to himself and his happiness. This vocabulary that he had used also states what makes him feel happiness as he states “It’s the smile on a stranger’s face, the smell of rain, the ripple of a wave, the wind across the sand.” This uses imagery in order for the audience to picture and imagine what makes Richard Branson happy. This also sets up the audience with examples of things that can make themselves happy as many people can experience happiness from experiencing these same things. The imagery is also used throughout the text when he is explaining how the audience can find and experience happiness.

Paper 1 Question 1 (Page 13)

 4/20/2022

Dear Mr. President

I regret to inform you but another huge fire is drastically hurting your country as well as the world as a whole. This tragedy has been going on for weeks on end and is barely being covered by any news outlets anywhere. I am talking about the Amazon rainforest which holds around 390 billion trees and produces 20 percent of the oxygen around the entire world. The Amazon is on fire with an estimated one and a half soccer fields being destroyed every minute. 

The Amazon is a crucial part of preventing global warming and is not getting nearly enough attention as it should. If the amazon were to get as much donations to prevent the fires as the fire in London had this issue could help preserve the ecosystem that is housing 500 indigneious tribes. This issue needs to get a lot more attention as this issue can hurt the entire world yet has barely been spoken about in the past three weeks. The issue in London had however spread worldwide in the span of three minutes. We need to help the Amazon as it is the future for everyone.

Sincerely, Colby Chute

Analysis

The form, structure and language in both the news article and my letter both have multiple similarities and differences. The form of both texts had been informative texts with the purpose to inform people about what is going on in the Amazon rainforest. This form is seen through both texts stating the importance of the rainforest through statements like “it is the future for everyone,” and “There’s no point in preserving history if we’re just gonna watch the future of our planet slip away.” Both these statements have had the attempt to inform everyone of the issue and state its importance and the global effect that it will have on everyone. The news article however had taken a more formal approach on informing people of this topic by using facts to back up their points such as “While it was not possible to measure the size of the area affected by fires, thick smoke in recent days has blanketed several cities.” The letter however had tried to take a formal approach on the topic but it had come across as somewhat informal as I had used more emotive language to show the importance.

The structure of these two texts are very different as the news report is structured in small and short paragraphs while the letter is structured with a greeting and a closing statement. The letter had started off the text with “Dear, Mr. President” which shows my attempt at speaking to the targeted audience as well as starting off the letter in the proper format. The news report had very short paragraphs divided into each topic and statement that it was making. The news report also had multiple statements quoted from people showing how other people feel about this topic and what they want to happen.

The language used in both these texts display how these two texts are conveyed and inform people about the topic. The vocabulary used in both these texts is very different as the letter had used more emotive language to try and bring people together such as “We need to help the Amazon” while the news report states facts as well as other people's opinions instead to try and inform people about this huge problem. The letter also uses the second tense to try and speak to the president of France through statements like “I regret to inform you but another huge fire is drastically hurting your country.” This tense allows the letter to seem more personalized and aimed towards the president of France. The news report however uses the third tense in most of the text in order to state the facts without being directed towards anyone. The news report also uses the first tense in the quotes because the statements had used words like ‘I’ and ‘we’re.’

Paper 3 Section B (Page 12)

Language Analysis

    The language used in this conversation gives us a deep insight on Raina’s language acquisition. We get to see how her age and maturity is shown through her use of different words and tenses. We can see that Raina is in her telegraphic stage as she has a very wide vocabulary but does not have the ability to make complex sentences yet. We see this through her use of “mum i'm /gǝnǝ/ skip over to there (1) can we go in this field ↘.” We see that she had made a statement on what she was going to do then had contradicted herself after a pause and asked her mother if they could go into the field. This shows that she is at the end of her telegraphic stage as she was able to express both her wants and questions but we can also see that she did not know how to transfer between the two. We can also tell that she is in her telegraphic stage by the words that she uses to describe her mother and the events taking place around her. Raina refers to her mother as mum multiple times throughout the conversation which is usually seen by children who do not know how to pronounce the ‘o’ vowel sound correctly.

We can also see her lack of maturity from the multiple times where she had either paused or micropaused in the middle of a thought or idea. For example when she said “look (.) this way (.) i’m going to (.) going to (.) go over here” we can see that she had not fully known what she was saying when she had started talking by the multiple micropauses throughout the entire statement. These micropauses yet again prove that Raina is in her telegraphic stage as many children start off speaking with multiple pauses but eventually learn the language and learn to speak without any pauses. Children at this stage have multiple pauses in their speech because they have a limited vocabulary and don’t know how to describe what they are seeing, so they use the language that they already know to the best of their ability. Raina uses one simple adjective of ‘long’ and does not use any others to describe her surroundings which shows that she has not learned all the new adjectives to describe everything she is seeing.

In this text we also see the many different directive language that was used throughout the text to point out all of the different things that they had both experienced. Throughout the text we see multiple different directions signaled at the end of sentences by the use of ‘↘’ and ‘↗.’ These are used to indicate that the speaker is giving either an upward or downward intonation. These arrows followed verbal signals from the speakers such as ‘look,’ ‘where’ and ‘this.’ The use of this sense of direction also helps indicate the lack of maturity of Raina as we get to see that the mother is showing Raina all of these things for the first time so that she is able to learn and describe what all of these things are. This shows the mothers caretaker role of Raina that she is taking in order to teach her and help her. We also get to see her mother use very childish language in order for Raina to understand and comprehend what she is saying. For example Raina's mother says “look at that birdie (.) up in that tree (1) hear ↗ (1).” This shows her use of ‘birdie’ to try and communicate what is happening to Raina. We also see her mother pause after every statement in order to try and teach Raina the language in a slow paced way so that her immature mind can grasp the concepts that she is talking about.

 

Paper 3 Question 1 (Page 11)

Analysis 

    Over time language has changed drastically and in this excerpt from an uncle to his nephew by Edward Berens we see the language used in 1832. We get to see the language used among an adult to a child which has changed very much in recent years. The purpose of this text is the uncle who is the author giving advice and guidance on life to their nephew. We can see this through the lexis as it is also in the second tense by using words like ‘you.’ This makes the text seem more personalized and set during the 1800s as letters were the only way to communicate over long distances so we can see what one of those letters looked like. In modern days we do not see these long written letters as families can communicate in seconds over their phones so it is very unlikely that they would write all of this to their nephew. 

The language used throughout the text is how we see this as well as the text from 1832 uses language such as “apt to be,” which according to the ngram chart from text c had peaked in the 1800s and since decreased and been replaced by other wordings such as “tend to be” and “are likely to be.” The text also uses words like shun in the text which is very infrequent in today's day and age and other words like ‘push away’ or ‘hide.’ The text uses this form in order to describe the text and would have appeared to have normal text in the 1800s as it  is a basic letter of advice in the 1800s. 

The changes in language over time also shows different theories that prove the changes throughout time. The first theory I will be discussing is the crumbling castle theory which states that people had once treated language as a complete building but over time they start to believe that the building is crumbling. This is used in this text as the complete building that was once their language may be viewed as falling apart because of the changes that have occurred and the lack of use of the language that was used in the 1800s. An example of this is yet again “apt to be” which the author had used but has grown out of use and been replaced throughout recent years.

Another theory that relates to this topic is the infectious disease assumption which states that the language used spreads onto the people around you and can spread throughout time this way. This relates to the text as the words that have been used to describe ‘judgment’ have stayed and spread throughout time through the usage of the word and the adjective to describe them. The most used words to describe judgment include clinical, professional, dissenting, better and final. These words have been picked up throughout time and changed into the language we know today.

The last theory is the damp spoon syndrome which states that language has changed over time through the laziness of people where the language they have used sticks to them as they are too lazy to not use it. An example of this is the language that is used to describe taste as the adjectives used include bad, good,bitter, first, and personal, which are all picked up through the laziness of the people. The language used to describe taste is used frequently in today's day and age and will continue to be used based upon this theory.

There is also a social change that has occurred that affects the language used in this text drastically. As the rise of technology has caused this and the digital language has shaped all writing in the modern era. Many other social changes have also impacted the language that we know today as the clashing of multiple languages and cultures has given some into the English that we know today and shaped it the way it is.