Text F and text G are both written reports of court cases; text F a lot older than text G. When reading text F, the first difference I noticed from the way in which texts are constructed today, was the lack of paragraphs. The whole text was written in one large paragraph, whereas today, this wouldn't be the case as texts are split into separate paragraphs to make them easier to read. There is also a lack of full stops throughout text F, with the use of very long sentences. This could suggest that the writer wasn't very educated and possibly from a lower social class.
However, text G consists of three separate paragraphs, which could indicate that standardisation took place in between the two texts being written. It could also suggest that the writer of text G was more educated than than the writer of text F as they have used paragraphs correctly, by today's standards. Despite this, text G features an example of non-standard capitalisation 'IRONSIDE', which would have been influenced by the introduction of Caxton's printing press in 1476. Nevertheless, this may have been used because the writer wanted to place emphasis on this particular noun.
Text F features many examples of different spellings. For example, it has spelt the verb 'show' as 'shew' and also a 'long s' has been used, which signifies the age of the text. In addition, it consists of a lot of contractions. 'Cheapn'd', which would be spelt 'cheapened' nowadays and 'carry'd', which nowadays would be spelt with the inflection 'ed' on the end, with the dropping of the 'y' and addition of 'i'. Furthermore, 'whereupon' would now be two separate words and 'no Body else', a compound. The use of the capital letter 'B' in the middle of the word could be evidence for standardisation not yet having taken place.
There are many other examples of capital letters used in the middle of sentences, rather than after full stops or for nouns, as they are today, which is another example of non-standard capitalisation. For example, 'the Door to shew a Woman'. However, there aren't any examples of this in text G, which again, may suggest that standardisation took place between the two texts being written.
Another aspect of text F, suggesting a lack of standardistaion, is the use of italics in the middle of paragraphs. However, the writer may have used this in order to place emphasis on these particular lexical choices, making them stand out from the rest of the text. Some of the nouns written in italics, for example, 'Nathanael Sirmas', may have been used when referring to an important person, whom the writer wants to stand out, suggesting they have power. The writer has emboldened the noun 'William Marvel' at the beginning of the text, which highlights the importance of this person. The writer may have done this because he is the person being convicted of the crime, that the text is reporting and so needs more attention to paid to it.
During text G, there is an example of an article being omitted from a clause. 'It was stated that prisoner, who was exceedingly well connected. Here, the writer has omitted the article 'a'. This could possibly reflect the writer's lack of intelligence, suggesting they are from a lower social class. Nevertheless, the writer may have done this merley to make the text more concise. Text G also consists of archaic language 'hitherto'. This is a word that is no longer used in English, indicating the old age of the text. Another term featuring in text G that is no longer used is 'money's. Nowadays, we would just use the noun 'money'.
Text F and G both have a formal register and feature many examples of field specific lexis. For example, 'prosecutor' and 'jury' in text F and 'prisoner' and 'defrauded' in text G, signifying that they are both reports of court cases.
In conclusion, it is evident that language has changed dramactically since these texts were written. It is also clear that text F consists of many more linguistic differences than text G, which shows that text G is a newer text. For example, there are more examples of variations in spelling, non-standard capitalisation, a lack of paragraphs and long sentences. Therefore, it could be argued that all of these aspects suggest that standardistaion took place between the writing of the two texts.
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