Section A- Language variation and change
Text A is an album review published in the newspaper New Musical Express in 1965. Its purpose is to convey the writer’s ideas and opinions of the two albums to the readers. So it was written by a professional writer and critic. The audience would be people interested in music and the singers mentioned who want to get an idea or feel what the albums are like and if they are worth buying, or they could just be readers of the newspaper and have stumbled across the review and decided to read it. Text B is an album review published on the website NME.com in 2009. Its purpose is to convey the writer’s ideas and opinions of the album to the readers. So like text A it was written by a professional writer and critic. However the audience would have purposefully sought out the review as it’s on a music website because they are interested in the music and want to know what the album is about and if it’s any good.
The writer of text A is very direct and clear about their opinions of the two albums, for example they begin the first review with the third person plural pronoun “Nobody” and the main dynamic verb “match” to give the impression that the singer Doris Day is in a way unrivalled in her musical abilities making the writers personal positive opinion of the album very clear to the reader. The writers thoughts and ideas of the album is then reinforced when they describe the album by the evaluative adjectives “terrific” and “swingy” this gives the impression that Doris Day’s music is easy flowing and really enjoyable to listen to therefore perhaps persuading the reader to buy the album. With the writers second review of Jewel Akens they take a different yet still positive approach, describing the album by using the evaluative adjectives “strong” and “versatile” which gives the impression that his music is a lot more about his voice which conveys to the reader that he is a talented singer and that the album will guarantee variety and be enjoyable to listen to. Contrarily the writer of text B conveys their ideas and opinions of the album they are reviewing more cryptically but this may be because their audience has purposefully sought out the review and understand the genre of the music and what the writer is referring to. For example they describe the album in some parts by comparing them to several other artists such as “Brody Dalle’s”, “Courtney, Juliette, PJ et al” “Ron Asheton” and “Chas’nDave” only people who are in to this niche genre of music will understand these references and this is a powerful thing for the writer to do as it makes the audience feel like they are in on some kind of secret or feel good at their expansive knowledge of the genre. The writer also describes the album using words such as the evaluative adjective “rewarding” this conveys to the reader that they will feel some kind of satisfaction or gratification when listening to the album. The use of the phrase “raw charm” suggests that the album is fascinating and enjoyable to listen to yet is frank and realistic and this may appeal to the readers.
Both texts share the same semantic field of music yet because of the difference In time with text A being published in 1965 and text B being from 2009, text A’s language is more early modern English and text B’s ;language is more late modern English, so this therefore has shaped the language that they use. For instance in text A the writer uses the evaluative adjective “gay” which in early modern English meant happy and carefree however in late modern English it is a descriptive adjective referring to a homosexual. This supports the random fluctuation and cultural transmission theory that changes in language are responses to the ever changing context of language uses and its