AQA A-level English Language (7702) · Language Discourses: Attitudes to Language
Mini-Lesson
Language Discourses: Attitudes to Language
This topic is about texts that talk about language — newspaper columns, blogs and letters that praise or complain about how English is used. Your job is to analyse the attitudes they express and the methods they use.
You will apply the levels to language-about-language, and evaluate prescriptivist and descriptivist stances. Press Start.
Discourses · what they are
What is a language discourse?
A discourse here means a way of talking about a topic — the shared attitudes, assumptions and vocabulary a group uses. A language discourse is a text about language itself: how it should be used, who uses it wrongly, whether it is declining.
You analyse them using the same language levels plus concepts of representation, audience and purpose.
Key move: identify the stance (prescriptive or descriptive) and the rhetorical strategies used to persuade.
Discourses · the two stances
Prescriptivism and descriptivism
Most language discourses sit somewhere between two poles:
Prescriptivism — insists on correct usage and standard forms; treats change and non-standard English as error or decline.
Descriptivism — describes how language is actually used by real speakers, without moral judgement.
Prescriptivist texts often use emotive lexis, hyperbole, and metaphors of decay or battle. Descriptivist texts tend to use evidence, hedging and neutral terminology.
Nuance: a text can mix stances, or perform outrage for entertainment. Analyse tone and purpose, not just position.
Quick check
Spot the stance
?A columnist writes: Standards are collapsing and sloppy texting is destroying our beautiful language. This is a clear example of a:
Discourses · rhetoric
How language discourses persuade
Texts about language use recognisable rhetorical strategies:
Metaphor — decay, disease, war, and standards falling (compare Aitchison's crumbling castle, damp spoon and infectious disease).
Nostalgia — appeals to a golden age of correct English.
Us and them — constructing a group of careful users against careless ones.
Anecdote and hyperbole — vivid examples exaggerated for effect.
Synthetic personalisation and direct address to recruit the reader.
Moral panic: new technology (texting, social media) often triggers exaggerated fears about language, a recurring pattern in these discourses.
Sort it
Sort each feature to the stance it suggests
Tap a feature, then tap the stance it most suggests.
🛑 Prescriptive
🔬 Descriptive
🧰 Persuasive method
Quick check
Name the pattern
?A newspaper claims that emojis and texting are the beginning of the end for literacy, echoing past fears about the telephone and television. This exaggerated, fear-driven reaction is best labelled a:
Discourses · Aitchison
Aitchison and evaluating attitudes
Jean Aitchison argued that fears about language decline are unfounded and identified three metaphors prescriptivists use:
Damp spoon — change comes from laziness (she notes this is not how change actually works).
Crumbling castle — English was once perfect and is falling apart (but there was no perfect past state).
Infectious disease — bad usage is caught from others (yet people adopt features by choice).
Use Aitchison to evaluate: when a text uses decay or disease imagery, you can name the metaphor and explain why linguists reject it.
Match it
Match term to its meaning
Tap a term on the left, then its meaning on the right.
Term
Meaning
Quick check
Analyse the method
?A blog divides readers into those who care about grammar and the careless masses who do not. This strategy of building group identity against others is best described as:
Recap
The big ideas to take away
Discourse: a shared way of talking about language; texts about language
Two stances: prescriptivism vs descriptivism
Rhetoric: metaphor, nostalgia, us-and-them, hyperbole, direct address
Moral panic: exaggerated fear, often triggered by new technology