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Delta Module One, Paper 1, Task 5 : features of a text (2)

1.5

You will be given an authentic text (such as an article from a magazine, website or brochure etc.) and asked to identify typical features of the genre.  You are also asked to explain the form, meaning, use and phonological features of three different language items.
Areas of the text will be highlighted for identification purposes.
This question carries 50% of the possible marks so spend 45 minutes on it.

Here's the text for this practice task.

invasions English is a West Germanic language that originated from Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain in the mid 5th to 7th centuries AD by Germanic invaders and settlers from what is now northwest Germany, west Denmark and the Netherlands.
The Old English of the Anglo-Saxon era developed into Middle English, the language as spoken between the Norman Conquest and the late 15th century. A significant influence on the shaping of Middle English came from contact with the North Germanic languages spoken by the Scandinavians who conquered and colonised parts of Britain during the 8th and 9th centuries; this contact led to much lexical borrowing and grammatical simplification. Another important influence came from the conquering Normans, who spoke a form of French called Old Norman, which in Britain developed into Anglo-Norman. Many Norman and French loanwords entered the language in this period, especially in vocabulary related to the church, the court system and the government.
Early Modern English – the language used by Shakespeare – is dated from around 1500. It incorporated many Renaissance-era loans from Latin and Ancient Greek, as well as borrowings from other European languages, including French, German and Dutch. Significant pronunciation changes in this period included the ongoing Great Vowel Shift, which affected the qualities of most long vowels. Modern English proper, similar in most respects to that spoken today, was in place by the late 17th century. The English language came to be exported to other parts of the world through British colonisation, and is now the dominant language in Britain and Ireland, the United States and Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many smaller former colonies, as well as being widely spoken in India, parts of Africa, and elsewhere.
Source Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_English [abbreviated slightly])

Now try to figure out your responses to the following and then click on eye open when you have an answer.
In the examination, you will be asked for a lot less than what follows but here we are concerned to make the most of the text.

What genre is this?
What are its salient features?
eye open
This is an INFORMATION REPORT.  Its function is to inform and it states the topic in the first word followed by a brief identification and then information organised into bundles of connected data: origins, later development, pronunciation, exportation.
What is the role of: the language as spoken between the Norman Conquest and the late 15th century
eye open
This phrase serves to define the previous one (Middle English) and stands in apposition to it.  It is similar to saying something like, My brother, the carpenter in which my brother and the carpenter refer to the same person.
In formal texts, apposition is frequently used as a way to define terms as they are introduced.
How would you analyse The Old English of the Anglo-Saxon era and A significant influence on the shaping of Middle English?
eye open
These are complex noun phrases.  The Head of the first is English and of the second, it is influence.
The first is:
Pre-modified by the determiner The (selected perforce because of the Anglo-Saxon era follows, making it unique and demanding the definite article) and the adjective Old (capitalised because it forms a single lexeme with English).
Post-modified by a descriptive genitive with of adding information about when it was spoken.
The second is:
Pre-modified by the determiner A (selected because it is one influence of many so demands the indefinite article) and the adjective significant.
Post-modified by a prepositional phrase which itself contains an embedded genitive expression on the shaping of middle English adding information to the noun influence.
Complex pre- and post-modification is a characteristic of this kind of formal, informative text.
Explain the structure of who conquered and colonised parts of Britain during the 8th and 9th centuries
eye open
This is a defining pronoun relative clause (not separated off with commas) which identifies rather than adding information to the noun phrase, the Scandinavians, the subject of the verb spoken in the passive sentence.  The use of a defining relative clause implies that there were other Scandinavian people who were not involved.
The relative who is preferred to that in formal English although both are possible.  Here the text is formal so who is selected.
Explain the function of this is this contact and in this period
eye open
This refers anaphorically in both cases to the contact made between people when the Scandinavians invaded and the Normans did likewise later.
It could be replaced by that in informal language but here the use is formal.  (The word this can be used both anaphorically, as here, and cataphorically but that is only available for anaphoric use.)
The function is to take the rheme of the previous clause and promote it to the next theme.  Precise theme-rheme linkage is a characteristic of formal texts.
Explain the verb use in is dated from around 1500.
eye open
The verb is used in the passive voice (a structure typical of an information report, especially one in formal language).
It is selected because the writer is more concerned to impart the information concerning the date than the names or identities of the many scholars who determined the date.  In fact, the subject of the verb date may no longer be known.
Comment on the highlighting of proper
eye open
In this case we have an unusual adjectival positioning.  Most adjectives in English precede the noun they modify (in attributive use) or are connected to it by a copular verb (in predicative use).  Few adjectives follow the noun in English.
The use of post-positioned adjectives is typical of a formal text (compare, e.g., the police officer concerned, the President elect, the money available etc.)
(All adjectives follow the -one, -thing and -body series of pronouns.)
Comment on the highlighting of came to be exported
eye open
This is a passive voice clause including an unusual and quite formal use of the verb come.
A less formal text would probably have preferred the simpler was exported with little change in meaning.
Again, the passive is selected because the important information is the fact that the language was exported, not who exported it.  The subject in the latter case would be very complex.
Explain the writer's use of and three times in Britain and Ireland, the United States and Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many smaller former colonies
eye open
In the first two cases, the writer uses and twice to coordinate the nouns because there is a perceived affinity between each pair:
Britain and Ireland are close neighbours sharing many common features of English dialect, as are The United States and Canada.
The final use of and is the conventional one of preceding the last item in a list.
Three words are highlighted in this colour.  What aspects of phonology are inherent in these examples?
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All three words are nouns ending in -ation derived from verbs (simplify, pronounce, colonise, respectively).
There is a stress shift involved when the noun is made with this affix, the stress falling regularly on the penultimate syllable in the noun:
/ˈkɒl.ə.naiz/ → /ˌkɒ.lə.naɪ.ˈzeɪʃ.n̩/ (stress moves from 1st to 4th syllable)
/ˈsɪm.plɪ.faɪ/ → /ˌsɪm.plɪ.fɪˈk.eɪʃ.n̩/ (stress moves from 1st to 4th syllable)
/prə.ˈnaʊns/ → /prə.ˌnʌn.sɪ.ˈeɪʃ.n̩/ (stress moves from 2nd to 4th syllable)
This is the preferred, regular word stress on nouns ending in the suffix -ion (e.g., suspicion, derision, conversion, conversation etc.)
A secondary stress remains in place of the main stress in all three cases but in all cases, the main stress falls on the penultimate syllable.  This is a learnable and teachable rule in a sometimes unpredictable area.
In all three cases, the suffix -tion is pronounced in normal-speed speech as /ʃ.n̩/ with a syllabic /n̩/ rather than as /ən/ which would be the probable citation form.

Paper 1 revision test index