Unit 3: Language variation and social purpose

10 dot points across 10 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

What makes a text hang together, and how do coherence and cohesion work across spoken and written discourse?

the features of discourse that create coherence and cohesion, including reference, conjunction, lexical chains and conversational conventions

How texts achieve coherence and cohesion through reference, ellipsis, substitution, conjunction, lexical chains and conversational conventions like turn-taking and adjacency pairs.

7 min answer →

What are face needs, and how do speakers use politeness strategies to protect and threaten face in informal and formal language?

the concepts of positive and negative face, face-threatening acts and politeness strategies in informal and formal contexts

How positive and negative face, face-threatening acts and politeness strategies explain why speakers soften, hedge and mitigate, and how this links informal and formal register.

6 min answer →

Which features mark formal language, and how does Standard English relate to formality and prestige?

features of formal language across the subsystems, and the role of Standard English as a prestige variety

A subsystem map of formal-language features plus the role of Standard English as the prestige variety, including overt prestige and prescriptivist attitudes.

8 min answer →

Which linguistic features signal informality, and how do you describe them precisely across the subsystems?

features of informal language at the phonological, morphological, lexical, syntactic and discourse levels

A subsystem-by-subsystem map of the linguistic features that signal informal register, with precise metalanguage for phonology, morphology, lexis, syntax and discourse.

8 min answer →

What are the prosodic features of spoken language, and how do they signal meaning, attitude and register?

prosodic features including stress, intonation, pitch, tempo, volume and pause, and their role in spoken texts

How prosodic features (stress, intonation, pitch, tempo, volume and pause) carry meaning, attitude and register in spoken texts, with metalanguage and original transcribed examples.

6 min answer →

How does formal public language clarify, but also manipulate, obscure and mislead?

how formal language can clarify, manipulate, obfuscate and persuade, including through jargon, euphemism, nominalisation and doublespeak

How formal public language clarifies but can also manipulate and obfuscate, covering jargon, euphemism, nominalisation, doublespeak, weasel words and plain-language responses.

6 min answer →

What is register, and how do situational and social context move a text along the formality continuum?

the concept of register and how situational and social context shape the formality of a text along a continuum

How register works as a continuum rather than a binary, and how the situational and social context, including field, mode, tenor and function, shapes where a text sits.

6 min answer →

Why do speakers and writers select formal language, and what social purposes does it serve?

the social purposes and contexts of formal language, including reinforcing authority, expertise, social distance and politeness

A focused answer to the Unit 3 key knowledge point on the purposes of formal language, covering authority, expertise, social distance, politeness and the contexts that demand it.

7 min answer →

What social and personal functions does informal language perform, and how do speakers use it to build closeness?

the social purposes and contexts of informal language, including the functions of encouraging intimacy, solidarity and equality

A focused answer to the Unit 3 Area of Study 1 key knowledge point on why speakers reach for informal language, covering intimacy, solidarity, equality and the contexts that invite it.

7 min answer →

What are the subsystems of language, and how do they give you a precise metalanguage for analysing any text?

the metalanguage needed to discuss language across the subsystems of phonetics, phonology, morphology, lexicology, syntax, discourse and semantics

An overview of the seven language subsystems (phonetics, phonology, morphology, lexicology, syntax, discourse and semantics) and the metalanguage each one supplies for analysing texts.

6 min answer →