Englang SAC!!!

[choc001]

I was given questions for my sac to practice, but was not sure on how to answer some of them....

For instance if a question asks 'how do the informal lexical items indicate the relative informality of the text'
How do I explain that the lexemes used are informal? Do I compare it with how you would write it in a formal style and thus
conclude that they are informal???

Also if a question asks 'define how the choice of lexis employed impacts the formality of the text' how would you go about answering this question? isn't it asking the same thing as the question above?

 
Thanks!!

[Starlight]

Lexical choice relates very closely to social distance and politeness strategies.

For example, a lack of social distance between two close friends may mean things like dysphemisms, diminutives, and reductions are highly used. However these specific lexical choices to say a letter to your employer for example would not fit the audience of the piece. Formality generally means a certain degree of social distance, and you'd like this social distance to be maintained by using certain speech strategies e.g. lexical choices that can upheld this level of formality. Providing specific examples on lexical choice in the passage they give you and explaining why they are used in this formal context as opposed to an informal context will probably get you marks.

So this should kind of be your formula:

Informal lexical choice-- > provide examples in text--> relate to social distance between two + participants --> effect of this lexical choice e.g. make friendship bond closer through using e.g. expletives, or intensifiers to express emotion, suggests friends are fairly close--> why a formal situation this informal lexis would be distance because of social distance

I hope this semi helps, you're on the right track.

[choc001]

Thank you!!! And also when analysing a spoken text, what does an emphatic stress indicate?
for example 'i think he's ^pretty good looking'

[Starlight]

Thank you!!! And also when analysing a spoken text, what does an emphatic stress indicate?
for example 'i think he's ^pretty good looking'

Emphatic stress is for emphasis

It's a prosodic feature that allows you to give more meaning to an utterance.

Search up stress in the englang vcaa exams or prosodic features to find the specific functions of stress, because i don't quite remember them off the top of my head.