A Level English Language: Paper 3 Language Analysis — Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, in the style and at the standard of the examination. They are not reproduced past-paper questions — examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board.

Related: Paper 3 Language Analysis study guide

---

Section A

1. Define the following processes of language change and give an example of each: broadening, narrowing, amelioration, pejoration. [4]

2. Explain the difference between prescriptivism and descriptivism. [3]

Section B

3. Explain four causes of lexical change in English, giving an example of each. [8]

4. Explain the stages of child language acquisition from birth to around four years, naming each stage and its main features. [8]

5. Explain three theories of child language acquisition and give one criticism of each. [9]

6. Explain what is meant by a grammatical over-generalisation in child speech, give an example, and explain what it reveals about how children learn. [5]

---

Answers

1. Broadening — a word’s meaning becomes more general, e.g. “holiday” from “holy day” to any period of leave [1]. Narrowing — a word’s meaning becomes more specific, e.g. “meat” from any food to animal flesh [1]. Amelioration — a word acquires more positive connotations, e.g. “nice”, once meaning ignorant [1]. Pejoration — a word acquires more negative connotations, e.g. “silly”, once meaning blessed or innocent [1].

2. Prescriptivism holds that there is a correct form of the language which should be taught and enforced, and that deviation is error [1]. Descriptivism holds that the linguist’s task is to record and analyse how the language is actually used, without judging it [1]. The descriptivist regards change as natural and inevitable, where the prescriptivist regards it as decay [1].

3. Any four, 2 marks each: Borrowing (loanwords) — contact with other languages introduces new words, e.g. “bungalow” from Hindi or “algebra” from Arabic [1] [1]. Compounding and blending — existing words are combined, e.g. “laptop”, or blended, e.g. “brunch” [1] [1]. Affixation — prefixes and suffixes create new forms, e.g. “unfriend”, “googleable” [1] [1]. Conversion (functional shift) — a word changes word class without changing form, e.g. “to text”, “to medal” [1] [1]. Technology and social change — new inventions and practices require new words, e.g. “podcast”, “streaming” [1] [1]. Initialism and acronym — e.g. “NASA”, “ASAP” [1] [1].

4. Pre-verbal / cooing (0–6 months) — vowel-like sounds, crying used communicatively [1]. Babbling (6–12 months) — repeated consonant-vowel strings such as “ba-ba”, moving from reduplicated to variegated babbling with the intonation of the surrounding language [1] [1]. Holophrastic / one-word (12–18 months) — single words carry whole-sentence meaning, e.g. “milk” for “I want milk”; frequent over-extension [1] [1]. Two-word (18–24 months) — two words combined in a consistent word order, showing early grammar, e.g. “daddy gone” [1] [1]. Telegraphic (24–36 months) — three or more words with the content words present but function words and inflections omitted, e.g. “want more juice” [1]. Post-telegraphic (36 months onwards) — function words, inflections and complex sentences appear, though over-generalisation continues [1].

5. Any three, 3 marks each: Behaviourist (Skinner) — language is learned through imitation, reinforcement and correction by carers [1] [1]; criticism: it cannot explain the novel utterances and over-generalisations children produce, which they have never heard, and carers correct meaning far more than grammar [1]. Nativist (Chomsky) — children have an innate Language Acquisition Device, so they acquire grammar from limited and imperfect input — the “poverty of the stimulus” argument [1] [1]; criticism: the LAD has no identified physical basis and the theory undervalues the role of interaction, and evidence from children like Genie shows input matters more than the theory allows [1]. Social interactionist (Bruner) — language develops through interaction with carers within a Language Acquisition Support System, including child-directed speech, turn-taking and shared routines [1] [1]; criticism: not all cultures use child-directed speech, yet children in those cultures still acquire language normally [1]. Cognitive (Piaget) — language reflects prior cognitive development; a child cannot use a concept linguistically before understanding it [1] [1]; criticism: it cannot explain cases where language develops normally despite severe cognitive impairment [1].

6. An over-generalisation occurs when a child applies a regular grammatical rule to an irregular form [1]. For example, saying “goed” for “went” or “sheeps” for “sheep” [1]. It reveals that the child is not simply imitating adults, since no adult produces these forms [1]; the child has worked out an underlying rule from the input and is applying it productively [1]. This is evidence for rule-based, creative acquisition rather than pure imitation, and it explains the U-shaped development in which a correct irregular form is temporarily replaced by an incorrect regular one before being relearned [1].

---

Building a personal evidence bank for the exam

Because both sections reward specific, illustrated examples over general statements, it is worth preparing a small revision bank in advance rather than relying on recall under time pressure. For Section A (Language Change), have five or six examples ready, one for each named process: borrowing (“bungalow”, “algebra”), compounding (“laptop”), blending (“brunch”, “podcast”), affixation (“unfriend”, “googleable”), conversion (“to text”), and semantic shift (“nice” for amelioration, “silly” for pejoration). For Section B (Child Language Acquisition), have the six acquisition stages ready with approximate ages and one defining feature each, plus all four theories paired with their standard criticism, so that whichever specific question appears, the raw material is already organised and ready to apply rather than reconstructed from scratch.

Where marks are usually lost

• Confusing broadening with amelioration.
• Giving stages of acquisition without approximate ages or features.
• Describing a theory without a criticism when one is asked for.
• Treating over-generalisation as a simple error rather than evidence of rule learning.