AQA ENGLISH LANGUAGE PAPER
JUNE 2014
Q04:
Although both texts share their primary purpose of informing the reader about how to look after their hair, Text G appears to have a secondary purpose of advising the reader as the text is written by presumably a known professional ‘William Moore’, a ‘ladies’ hairdresser and perfumer’ one might assume that he has thorough knowledge on the topic area and can assume that his advice is in fact legitimate. This is portrayed by the title ‘The Art of Hairdressing’ the word ‘Art’ has connotations that imply only selected individuals have the ability to carry it out, it makes the job sound important, thusraising the influential power of the author. In contrast to text H which appears to bewritten by someone who is presumably not a professional hairdresser but in fact researched the ‘tips’ from ‘stylists’ which are not actually referred to by name. This text appears to portray a secondary purpose of instructing the reader as, through the use of imperatives such as “Give” and “don’t”. The text is also set out as a set of instructions (H).
The lexis used in text G is what would today be regarded as low frequency for example words such as; ‘perverseness’ and ‘ vermin’ this increases the formality of the text which was perhaps typical of printed texts in that era. The text (G) was produced post dictionary era (1755- dictionary introduced) which can be a reason why some of the words are spelt the same today for example ‘to’ and ‘leave’. Some words use contractions which are not in use with contractions today for example “attack’d”, “weaken’d” and “stop’d”,the common feature between these contractions is the elision of the vowel ‘e’ which is in use today. The long ‘ ʃ ‘ is utilised in the text- this fell out of use in the late/mid 1800s. Although both texts contain field specific lexis such as; “curling”, “comb’d” and “Rollers” from text G and “lather”, “clamp” and “shampoo” in text H, text G uses these to describe what should be done and almost to paint a picture the reader for example “putting in papers over night or rollers” whereas text H uses the lexis to instruct the reader on what they should be doing “wrap- don’t clamp” , here (in text H) it is almost as if the reader/audience knows that the author is telling them what is best for them and not to question it. Text H contains numerous compounded words such as “sex-kitten”, “sulphate-free” and “cool-down” this portrays the fast pace of society today where everything is compact, direct and to the point. There is also evidence of conversion as the term “spray bottles”; here “spray” is used as an adjective when in any case its usual use is a verb. Text H utilises the term “bombshell blow out” which is alliteration of the plosive phoneme “b” which gives the hairstyle exciting connotations of adventure and possibility. The term “sudsy” appears to be a new word-coinage as only the intended audience of style conscious women would fully understand the concept. Text G uses the symbol ‘ &tc ‘ in place of etcetera which can be deemed archaic as today, people often use the term ‘etc’ when referring to ‘etcetera’.
Text G appears to have a formal register as, it utilises low frequency lexis such as “perverseness” and “inattention”, this increases the tenor between the author and the audience as, low frequency lexis often signals power and authority or even importance of the author and the matter at hand. Text G does not actually address the reader as text H does, it simply refers to them in the third person by the oretically speaking of “parents”, “nurses” or “tutors”. Whereas text H directly addresses the reader with the second person pronoun “you”, this decreases the formality and creates synthetic personalisation (Fairclough) between the writer and the reader, and it is almost as if the writer is on the same level in terms of wanting /needing the advice of the reader. However, text G does make use of an anecdote whereby they carried out an experiment on hair colour, this could be the professional hairdresser attempting to really connect with the reader and enable them to feel the passion he feels about hair.
In terms of grammar, the syntax of text G differs slightly to that of today for example “is too frequently the fault of parents” here, the verb is mentioned before the subject which is not typical in modern day society, where it is more often subject and then verb. Text G utilises more complex sentences, such as “First, it is a general…to cotton” whereas text H uses more simple sentences such as “prop the towel” this could be due to the technological advances of society, where today people are reading many different blogs or tips from stylist and everything is fast paced, whereas when text G was produced, people used to take care and draft articles before printing them, computers allow immediate access whereas printing takes time.
Text G capitalises nouns such as “Paper” and “Rollers”; this not typical in modern day language. However, in Germany this is still common perhaps portraying the ever-changing society of today and the influences of globalisation and the effect it has on our language.
*“opt” is used in text H which is an abbreviated term for option again emphasising the fast paced society.
