This web page is intended for students who are following GCE Advanced level (AS and A2) syllabuses in English Language. This resource may also be of general interest to language students on university degree courses, trainee teachers and anyone with a general interest in language science.

Language varieties

This is a potentially vast and challenging subject. Any and every text might be studied in many ways. To start with, you should look at some models of the subject, and try to make sense of these. Remember that no one model is absolutely authoritative. Use them as a way in to the subject. Ask about things that you don't understand.

The first model is a simple linear one, taken from George Keith and John Shuttleworth in Living Language (Hodder; ISBN 0-340-67343-5) under the chapter heading Language Diversity.

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Language diversity

• Varieties of discourse: explanation and multiple short examples
• Black English: examples
  • Conversations in "Black English" compared (spoken text)
  • Literary examples of "Black English" (written text)
  • Pidgins (note spelling) and creoles: short examples
• Women's language: brief explanation and examples
  • Communicative competence
• Youth and age: short explanation
  • Investigation 1: Adult-baby talk
  • Investigation 2: Slang
  • Investigation 3: Narrative
  • Investigation 4: Classroom language

The next model is also linear, but much more comprehensive. This comes from David Crystal's Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the English Language. In the introductory part of the Encyclopaedia Crystal considers variety over time (temporal variation) but this is largely omitted from his presentation of varieties as it has already been covered in Part I of the work, The History of English. The part that presents language variety explicitly is Part V, Using English.

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The first model (Keith and Shuttleworth) is reductive but approachable, while the second (Crystal) is inclusive but may be intimidating for the student. You may also have noted that it includes the whole study area of language and society.

In preparing this subject you might wish to produce your own model for theoretical understanding of language varieties. This can be a linear (one-dimensional) model, like those above, a 2D model (like a mental map or spider diagram) or even a 3D model (using extra pages to amplify a basic 2D map. You may wish to use hierarchies of information. In an exam, you will be forced to use a linear method more or less (you may draw a simple 2D diagram), so in your revision, you should allow for this. Do this, for example, by making audiotapes, a hierarchy of lists or simply by writing things on a block of Post-It notes.

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For a final model, we can look at the questions set by NEAB examiners for the Advanced level English Languagesyllabus (4111). This model may need updating, as examiners may change their approach in future. Candidates (you) answer one of four possible questions. Two questions each refer to a single text; two questions require comparison of two texts. The instructions for the task vary quite widely, but the following advice (on areas of language theory appropriate for comment) is very similar. The task instructions are:

• Information on text, followed by: "Identify some of the purposes of the text, and explain how language is used here to achieve these purposes".
• Information on texts, followed by: "Comment on the difference between the two texts".
• Information on text, followed by: "How is language used in the passage to influence the reader's response to the characters?"
• Information on texts, followed by: "Compare the use of language in the two texts".

These instructions usually contain (or imply) consideration of these things:

• What is (are) the purpose(s) of the author(s)? (How can you tell?)
• What is the intended audience? (How can you tell?)
• What is the context in which the reader/listener (audience) meets the text? This may be the immediate literal context or the metaphorical context of a situation in which the audience reads the text.
• How (structurally, stylistically, and so on) does the author seek to achieve these purposes? (How can you tell?)
• How far and in what ways are the purposes achieved? (How can you tell?)

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A word of caution: the questions listed above are not an invitation to unqualified opinion. Every claim you make must be supported by evidence. You may (and probably should) discuss things of which the author is aware, and things of which he or she is (or seems to be) unaware.

The advice that follows takes the same general form on every occasion. Some instructions appear in all cases, others (shown in parenthesis) are not found in all. You should note that other areas for comment might (and probably will) appear in texts on which you comment.

• In your answer you might comment on vocabulary, (figurative language), grammar, (dialogue), overall structure and any other linguistic matters you think are relevant to the meaning (tone/purposes/intended audiences) of the (passage/texts).

You are not required to give a comprehensive account of the general subject area, but a detailed interpretation of the text(s) presented in the exam, under the relevant headings. This requires you to be able to deconstruct any text in relation to the linguistic categories listed above. This is best done by practice, and you should discover which kinds of text allow you most scope for successful comment (for example, literary or informative; spoken, written or mixed medium texts). The language features listed in the advice are not the only ones for comment: note the "any other linguistic matters". A strong candidate will usually find some.

Later, we may produce our own model of the subject area. We will want a model that gives wide coverage of passages of the kind we might meet in exams, and which can be mapped onto the structure required by the examiners for our answers to the questions.

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© Andrew Moore, 2000; Contact me

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